Suhrawardy[54]
(1153-1191 AD)
Very few remains in writing, except their Persian poems, have come down
to us from the older Pantheistic mystics. In the Kingdom of the Caliphs
heretical books were suppressed by stronger measures than being placed
on the Index. To express views openly at variance with the established
religion was to imperil one's life. The Persian Sufis, therefore, who in
their mystical works generally used Arabic, veiled their views in a sort
of technical language, which was quite unintelligible to the
uninitiated. Still some works are preserved which give us an insight
into their tendencies.
The Sheikh Suhrawardy, who was a martyr to his convictions, must be
regarded as the chief representative of this free-thinking tendency in
Sufism. His works have been more appreciated by the Persians and Turks
than by the Arabs, among whom copies of them are no longer to be found,
while they may be met with in Turkish libraries.
Suhrawardy belonged to the orthodox school of the Shafiites, and gained
a great reputation for his learning. He studied jurisprudence in
Maraghah, then went to Ispahan, and later to Bagdad and Aleppo, where he
occupied himself chiefly with philosophical studies. He gave himself
the title "Disciple of the Spirit-world." In the Arabic biographies of
him, his teaching is said to have aimed at overthrowing Islam; this,
however, is always said of anyone who ventures to oppose the dominant
orthodox party. As a matter of fact, he founded a sect who bore the name
Ishrakiyya--"The Illumined." For them he composed a work, "Hikmat al
Ishrak," _i.e._, "The philosophy of illumination," containing mystical
and fantastic teaching. In Aleppo, where he finally took up his abode,
he seems to have exercised a powerful influence on Prince Malik Zahir,
the son of the famous Saladin. The orthodox party persuaded the latter
to pass sentence of death on him as a heretic, which sentence Malik
Zahir caused to be carried out (1191 A.D.), but not till he had received
a threatening letter from his father for his dilatoriness. Suhrawardy is
said when he heard the sentence, to have quoted a Persian verse:
"It is not worth while to draw the sword."
By his own consent, he was then shut up in a separate chamber and
deprived of meat and drink till he passed into the world for which he
longed. His tomb is still preserved in Aleppo, where the memory of him
as "the murdered Suhrawardy" has by no means faded. The inhabitants say
that no tree or shrub will grow in the tomb-enclosure. His real
character has, for the most part, been forgotten, and he is represented
as a magician and sorcerer who possessed the philosopher's stone, and
knew how to make gold. Many even believe that he was never killed at
all, but disappeared, while a phantom was put to death in his place.
They say that at night weird sounds are heard from his grave.
These popular legends give us reason to suppose that Suhrawardy's life
and death in Aleppo really made an extraordinary impression on the
people, and that his teaching penetrated more deeply than Muhammedan
writers find convenient to admit. Suhrawardy's writings were preserved
from entire destruction by the Persians and Turks. The most important of
them are the above-mentioned Hikmat al Ishrak, Haikal-un-nur (The Temple
of Light) and others. From the two first a few passages may be quoted,
which suffice to show that the theosophy of this Persian Sufi took a
much bolder flight than that of the Arabian Sufis, and that for it Islam
was a mere outward form.
In the Hikmat al Ishrak we find the influences of two entirely different
schools of thought fantastically blended into an extraordinary compound
of philosophy and mysticism. In this, Neo-platonic ideas are brought
into connection with a theory of light obviously derived from
Zoroastrian doctrine, and both are variously modified by the influence
of Islamic monotheism and presented in the abstract terminology of the
Arabic Sufis. With these last, Suhrawardy found himself in harmony with
regard to their "ecstatic" stages and arrival at the knowledge of God by
way of intuition. He also betrays the influence of the Perso-Shiite
dogma of the hidden spiritual Imams, of whom only one is believed to be
on earth at any given time, and he is the highest spiritual and
religious authority among his contemporaries.
The following is an abridged translation of the preface to the "Hikmat
al Ishrak": "Long have ye, O worthy friends and companions--may God
protect you!--prayed me to write for you a book wherein I should
describe what has been revealed to me by way of inspiration in my lonely
contemplations and soul-combats. Spiritual science is no class privilege
reserved for the elect, behind whom the doors of the spirit-world are
closed, and thereby he who would learn somewhat of the supernatural is
excluded. Nay, He who graciously granted us this knowledge, He, the
Horizon of Illumination, is not miserly with the secrets of the other
world. The worst of all ages is that in which the carpet of free
spiritual investigation is rolled up, the wings of thought are cramped,
the gates of intuition closed and the road of contemplation barricaded.
"The world was never wholly without philosophy, and without someone who
cultivated it and was declared a philosopher by manifest proofs and
facts. This man is the real Caliph or representative of God on earth,
and his successors will be so, as long as heaven and earth shall endure.
The difference between the old and new philosophers only consists in the
variations of their phraseology and of their methods of exposition and
proof. All in common acknowledge the three worlds (the earthly world,
the spirit world, and the world of Deity); all alike are agreed in
Monotheism and in their fundamental principles.
"As regards the first teacher, Aristotle, it is clear that he is of
incomparable value, that his wisdom is great and his faculty of
penetration profound; yet we should not so exaggerate our reverence for
him as to undervalue his masters, among whom especially are to be
counted the travelling and law-giving philosophers, such as Agathodæmon,
Hermes, Æsculapius and others. The line of their succession is long;
the chief classes into which they may be divided are as follows: (1) The
Theosophist without philosophy; (2) the speculative philosopher without
theosophy; (3) the philosopher who is equally strong in both; (4) the
Theosophist who is strong in theosophy but mediocre or weak in
philosophy; (5) the philosopher who is strong in philosophy but mediocre
or weak in theosophy, etc. Now if the complete mastery of both
philosophic and theosophic science is found in one man, _this_ man is
the representative of God on earth. Failing such a person, the title
devolves on him who is complete in theosophy, though he may be mediocre
in philosophy. Failing him, the representative of God is he who is
complete in theosophy without possessing any philosophy at all. There
never fails to be in the world _one_ great theosophist.
"But the speculative philosopher, fully equipped in philosophy, has no
claim to the rule in this earth. For there is always a theosophist on
earth and he is better fitted for the post than the philosopher, as the
place of God's Vicar on earth cannot remain unoccupied. By this 'rule,'
however, I do not mean the possession of political power; only the Imam
who is also a theosophist _may_ take over the political power and
exercise it publicly, or he may rule in secret. In the latter case he is
termed the mystical pole ("qutb"); to him the rule belongs, even though
he live in the deepest poverty. If the political power should really
come into his hand, the age becomes illuminated; but if it lacks such
divine guidance, it is overwhelmed by darkness.
"It is nobler to aim at a high attainment at theosophy and philosophy
alike than to confine one's effort to one or the other. This book is
intended for those who devote themselves to both, and not to the latter
only; in it we address ourselves only to the untrammelled thinker in the
reign of theosophy; the lowest step which the reader of it should have
attained, if he would derive any benefit therefrom, is at any rate to
have felt a flash of the divine light reach him, and in some measure to
have made it his own. Whoever merely wishes to study philosophy, let him
attend the school of the Peripatetics; for that purpose it is good and
sufficient. Just as we form certain sense-perceptions and recognise
their conditions with certainty, and base further scientific
investigations upon them, so in the spiritual realm we form certain
perceptions and build upon them; but he who does not adopt this method,
understands nothing of philosophy."
Continuing, he assumes a peculiar theory of light, which betrays a
really Persian origin. One special light he designates by the old
Persian word "Isfahbad." The Godhead Itself he calls the "light of
lights." In other places he borrows from Neo-Platonism. He assumes a
region in the heavenly spheres where the ideal prototypes of existing
things are found. The saints and devout ascetics, according to him, have
the power to call those ideal prototypes into real existence, and these
can produce at their wish, food, figures or melodies, etc.
Suhrawardy's optimistic way of conceiving the world is peculiar for a
Moslem. While Islam regards the world as a vale of tears, and earthly
life as a time of temptation, he finds the evil in this world much less
than the good. The following sentences of his work are noteworthy:
"Know that souls in whom the heavenly illuminations are lasting, reduce
the material world to obedience. Their supplication is heard in the
Upper World, and fate has already decreed that the supplication of such
a person for such an object should be heard. The light which streams
from the highest world is the Elixir of power and knowledge and the
world obeys it. In the purified souls is reproduced a reflex of God's
light, and a creative ray is focussed in them. The 'evil eye' is only a
light-power, which influences objects and injures them." Soon after
Suhrawardy had been put to death, nearly the whole of his books were
committed to the flames by order to the Caliph Nasir.
[54] From Von Kremer.