MULLAH SHAH
(D 1661)
Mullah Shah was born A.D. 1584, in the village of Erkesa in Badakshan, a
mountainous and inaccessible country to the north of the Indian
Caucasus. His family, which was of Mongol origin, held a certain
position, and his grandfather had been judge of the village. At the age
of twenty-one the young man quitted his relatives and his country, and
went back to Balkh, then a centre of learning in Central Asia. He made
great progress there, especially in the knowledge of Arabic. After some
time he left Balkh, and turning his steps southward, arrived at Kashmir,
where he continued his studies, but an irresistible thirst after truth
made him feel the necessity of seeking a spiritual guide, and he
resolved to go to Lahore, where there lived a celebrated saint, Sheikh
Mian Mir.
The reception he met with was not favourable. Mian Mir at first repulsed
him, but allowed himself at last to be overcome by the perseverance of
the young man, and taught him Sufi exercises according to the rule of
the Qadiri order of dervishes.[61] The stifling heat of Lahore did not
suit the health of Mullah Shah, who accordingly resolved to spend the
summers in Kashmir, returning to Lahore for the winter. He led this
life for several years, till he had passed through all the stages of
asceticism, but his spiritual guide would not lead him to the supreme
goal of mystical science, which is termed "Union with God," or
"knowledge of oneself."[62]
Mian Mir only spoke to him of it in an enigmatic way and said, "Do not
cease to study thyself and thine own heart, for thy goal is in thyself."
In the year 1636 A.D. he returned again, as usual, from Lahore to
Kashmir, and practised his austerities without relaxation, when one day,
by the special favour of the Divinity, and without the assistance of any
spiritual preceptor, "the desired image" revealed itself to him. By this
expression is understood, in mystic phraseology, union with God, and the
conception of Absolute Being, which is equivalent to the knowledge of
one's self. When Mullah Shah thus attained the goal of his mystical
aspirations he was in his forty-seventh year, and had been engaged
twenty-seven years in the spiritual exercises of the Sufis. When he
returned to Lahore, he informed his spiritual guide that he had attained
union with God. The latter advised him not to divulge the fact, and not
to give up his ascetic practices. In Kashmir Mullah Shah had collected
round him a little circle of devoted disciples. The strong emotional
condition into which Mullah Shah's new spiritual experience had brought
him did not prevent him from doing his best not to offend against the
religious law, and he was in the habit of saying to his friends, "Whoso
does not respect the precepts of the religious law is not one of us."
Mullah Shah had always been of a retiring disposition, but in his
present mood he carried his self-isolation so far that he closed the
door of his house and only received his intimates at fixed times, when
he dropped his habitual reserve. The spiritual power of Mullah Shah had
become so great that every novice whom he caused to sit in front of him
and to concentrate his mental faculties on his own heart, became
clairvoyant to such a degree that his internal senses were unfolded, and
the unseen world appeared to him.
Mullah Shah expressed himself in very bold terms regarding the manner
with which he conceived God and His relation to humanity. Thus he said,
"Since I have arrived at understanding the absolute Reality and that I
know most positively that nothing exists besides God, existence and
non-existence are in my eyes the same thing." In one of his poems he
says, "The sage who knows himself has become God, be sure of that, my
friend." In another poem, which caused a temporary estrangement between
himself and the Sheikh Mian Mir, he said:
"My heart by a thousand tongues cries to me 'I am God.' What reproach of
heresy can they bring against me that this utterance comes to my lips?
"Those who had attained union with God used to say, 'I am Absolute
Being.'
"But I only say what I have heard from the mouth of Sheikh Mian Mir."
In the meantime the number of his adherents daily increased; persons of
all classes in society became his adherents; even women became capable
of mystical intuitions by the effect of his prayers and without having
seen him. However, the increasing number of those who wished to approach
him commenced to be inconvenient, and he said, "I am not a sheikh of
dervishes who receives novices and builds convents."
"Neither the mosque nor the dervish-convent attract me,
But the purity of the desert and the freedom of the open country."
In the year 1634 A.D., a certain Mir Baki, a descendant of the prophet,
attached himself to Mullah Shah, and experienced in a short time
ecstatic states; he then preached the doctrine of union with God without
any reserve. At the same time he claimed to be free from the precepts of
the religious law. The following lines were composed by him:--
"Why should my hand let go this sparkling cup of my soul,
I already realise the aspirations of to-morrow."
Which lines, rendered into prose, seem to mean, "Why should I pass my
life sadly on in self-maceration and austerity? I prefer to anticipate
now the delights which they speak of as belonging to the future life."
This is epicureanism, pure and simple, such as we find it in the odes of
Hafiz and the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam. When Mullah Shah heard of these
extravagant utterances, he caused Mir Baki to be expelled from the town.
At the same time the doctrines of Mullah Shah regarding union with God
began to make a great deal of sensation, and a large number of
influential men who belonged to the Conservative party raised against
him the accusation of heresy without really understanding his teaching.
They quoted some of his verses against him, and said, "Mullah Shah is
beginning to imitate Mansur Hellaj.[63] He should be brought to trial
and sentenced to death." They unanimously drew up an indictment against
him and affixed their seals; a large number of religious functionaries
joined them, and they submitted their petition to the Emperor
Shah-jehan, requesting him to pronounce sentence of death against Mullah
Shah. The Emperor consented, and despatched a firman to that effect to
Zafer-Khan, governor of Kashmir. Shah-jehan's son, the prince
Dara-Shikoh, had been absent, and only learned what had happened when he
returned. He immediately went to his father and represented to him that
Mullah Shah was a pupil of Sheikh Mian Mir, a man renowned for piety,
and that the Emperor ought, before pronouncing final judgment, to ask
the latter regarding the conduct of his former disciple. The prince
concluded by saying that in such a matter haste was ill-omened, because
to deprive a man of life is to pull down a building of which God is the
Architect. The Emperor accepted this appeal graciously, and ordered the
execution to be deferred. Meanwhile the news of the condemnation of
Mullah Shah had spread and reached Kashmir, but the respite obtained by
the Prince was still unknown there. The friends of Mullah Shah were in
despair, and used their utmost endeavours to persuade him to fly. But he
answered, "I am not an impostor that I should seek safety in flight; I
am an utterer of truth; death and life are to me alike. Let my blood in
another life also redden the impaling stake. I am living and eternal;
death recoils from me, for my knowledge has vanquished death. The
sphere where all colours are effaced has become my abode."
"Once," he added, "I used to bar the door of my house with a bolt in
order not to be disturbed by anyone, but now I will leave it wide open,
in order that whoever wishes to make me a martyr may enter at his
pleasure."
Mullah Shah thus awaited death in an attitude of imperturbable calm, but
fate had decided otherwise. Not long afterwards the Emperor Shah-jehan
went to Lahore, and in the company of Prince Dara-Shikoh paid a visit to
the Sheikh Mian Mir, and questioned him concerning Mullah Shah. Mian Mir
told him that Mullah Shah was apt to be carried out of himself when in
an ecstatic state, and that then he sometimes spoke without observing
the reserve necessary on the doctrine of union with God; but he adjured
the Emperor at the same time to take no steps against his old pupil,
"For," he said, "this holy man is a consuming fire, and woe to you if he
be irritated, for he could destroy the world. In any case prevent the
orthodox party from persecuting him, otherwise some dreadful disaster
may happen."
This advice made a deep impression on the Emperor, who thanked Prince
Dara-Shikoh for having prevented his carrying out the sentence of death.
He said, "These theologians have tried to persuade me to kill a
visionary dervish; I thank thee, my son, for having prevented my
committing an act of injustice." Some time afterwards the Emperor went
to Kashmir, but he did not see Mullah Shah, who had become so fond of
solitude that he rarely showed himself in the city.
In 1635 A.D., the Sheikh Mian Mir died at Lahore, and in the
same year one of the chief nobles of the court named Najat Khan became a
disciple of Mullah Shah. About the same time, Mozaffer Beg, one of the
Emperor's suite, devoted himself to his service, and his example was
followed by several of his friends. But no sooner had they been
initiated into the mystical doctrines than they believed themselves
privileged to dispense with the prescribed fast of Ramazan and the
obligatory prayers, considering that the religious law no longer applied
to them. Being informed of these irregularities, Mullah Shah prayed the
governor to have them removed from the town.
About this time he made a collection of his verses, among which are the
following:--
"If alchemy can change dust into gold, thou marvellest;
But asceticism is an alchemy which changes dust into God.
If a man dives into the ocean of Deity what does he become?
As a drop which falls from the clouds into the sea."
Regarding pedantic theologians, he says:--
"Well I know these preachers who do not practise,
Their memory stored with a hundred thousand traditions,
While their mind is empty of ideas."
In 1639 the Emperor Shah-jehan came a second time to Kashmir, and took
up his dwelling in the park called Zafer-abad, in a pavilion which
commanded a delightful view of the lake. No sooner had he arrived than
he sent for Mullah Shah, who came without delay. The Emperor received
him with marked kindness and conversed long with him on subjects
relating to the Sufi sciences.
This same year is remarkable for an event which had important results
for Mullah Shah and his followers. The Prince Dara-Shikoh, who had saved
Mullah Shah's life by his intervention, had always been marked by keen
religious feeling, and often spent whole nights in prayer and
meditation. He had often heard of the extraordinary powers of Mullah
Shah, but had never had the opportunity of seeing him, as the sheikh
still maintained his habits of retirement. Little by little, a feeling
of irresistible curiosity took possession of the Prince; he determined
to see the holy man who was so highly spoken of, and one night,
accompanied by a single servant named Mujahid, he left his palace and
directed his steps towards the dwelling of Mullah Shah. The latter had
in his courtyard an ancient plane-tree, and was in the habit of sitting
at the foot of it during the night, lost in meditation. Having arrived
at the house, the prince ordered his servant to wait near the door, and
entered the courtyard alone. Seeing the Sheikh seated at the foot of the
tree, he stopped and remained standing till the master should speak to
him. The latter knew very well who the new-comer was, and that little
persuasion was needed to make him one of his disciples; but he made as
though he did not see him. A long time passed thus, till the Sheikh
broke the silence by asking the Prince "Who art thou?" The Prince did
not speak. Mullah Shah then said again, "Why dost thou not answer?
Speak, and tell thy name."
The Prince, filled with embarrassment, replied, "My name is
Dara-Shikoh." "Who is thy father?" "The Emperor Shah-jehan," "Why hast
thou come to see me?" "Because I feel drawn towards God, and seek for a
spiritual guide." On this Mullah Shah exclaimed sharply, "What are
emperors and princes to me? Know that I am a man devoted to asceticism.
Is this hour of the night the time to come and trouble me? Go, and do
not show thyself here a second time."
Deeply wounded by this reception, the Prince withdrew and re-entered his
palace, where he spent the whole night weeping. But in spite of all his
disappointment, he felt himself drawn the next night by an irresistible
attraction towards the saint's dwelling, but the latter this time did
not even condescend to speak to him. Mujahid, the servant who
accompanied the Prince, became angry, and said to his master, "What
miracles has this crabbed dervish shown you that you should come here
every night and expose yourself to such indignities? Ordinary dervishes
are cheerful folk, not uncivil and morose like this old man. For my own
part, I set no great store by this asceticism, and the only thing that
makes me uneasy is your putting faith in it." The Prince answered, "If
Mullah Shah was an impostor, so far from treating me as he has done, he
would, on the contrary, have prayed God to bring me to him. It is
precisely his independent spirit and irritated manner which proves him
to be an extraordinary man." That same night when Mujahid returned home,
he was seized by fever and carried off in a few hours. Dara-Shikoh, when
informed of this terrible event, was profoundly moved. He reproached
himself bitterly for not having at once punished his servant's
insolence, and considered the death of Mujahid as a divine punishment
which menaced him also. He immediately sent for the Qazi Afzal, one of
his most devoted friends, and told him of his anxiety. The latter was a
friend of Akhund Mullah Muhammad Synd, a disciple of Mullah Shah, and at
his instance the Sheikh consented to see the prince.
Dara-Shikoh could not pay his visit during the day, from fear of
arousing public curiosity, but as soon as night fell, he presented
himself before the Sheikh, whom this time he found seated in his cell.
Before crossing the threshold, the Prince saluted the holy man with
profound respect, and the latter bade him enter and be seated. The cell
was lighted by a single lamp, whose wick was smoking; in his eager
desire to discern the venerable features of the Sheikh, the Prince
dressed the wick with his own fingers. This simple action gained him the
Sheikh's affection. At the end of some days he bade him to blindfold
himself, then he concentrated his attention upon him in such a way that
the invisible world was revealed to the view of the Prince, who felt his
heart filled with joy.
Dara-Shikoh had a sister, the Princess Fatimah, to whom he was deeply
attached. As soon as he had become a disciple of Mullah Shah and his
heart had been opened to the intuition of the spiritual world, he
hastened to inform his sister. This news made such an impression on the
mind of the Princess that she wrote to the Sheikh several letters full
of humility and devotion. He read them all, but made no reply for more
than a month, till he was convinced that Fatimah was animated by an
invincible resolution. At last he accorded his sympathy to her also, and
admitted her to the circle of the initiates. The Princess persevered
ardently in these mystical studies, and received the instructions of her
spiritual guide by correspondence. She attained to such perfection that
she arrived at intuitive knowledge of God and union with Him. Although
the Sheikh was full of affection for all his disciples, he had a
particular regard for her, and was in the habit of saying that "she had
attained to such an extraordinary degree of knowledge that she was fit
to be his successor."
Mullah Shah was now old and infirm; he had passed several winters at
Lahore, surrounded by the care and attention of his friends and pupils.
In the year 1655 A.D., the Emperor wrote to him to invite him
to pass the winter with him at Shahjahanabad, his ordinary residence,
but the Sheikh was beginning to suffer from weakness of the eyes, and
did not feel strong enough to undertake the journey. For some years he
remained in Kashmir, and would often say, "The theosophist ought to
profit by length of life. My life is approaching its end; let us then
enjoy our stay in Kashmir, and not leave it."
In A.D. 1658 Aurangzeb, Dara-Shikoh's younger brother, seized on the
person of his father the Emperor Shah-jehan, whom he kept in confinement
for the rest of his life, and had Dara assassinated in prison. Aurangzeb
was a bigoted Muhammadan, and his accession to the throne threatened to
have serious consequences for Mullah Shah. As soon as he had assumed the
reins of government, the clerical party began to represent to him that
Mullah Shah taught doctrines contrary to revealed religion. There were
not wanting witnesses on the other side, but the Emperor, on hearing
the complaints against Mullah Shah, sent an order to the governor of
Kashmir to send him to the capital. The governor pleaded for a delay on
account of Mullah Shah's advanced age and weakness till he was strong
enough to make the journey. A year thus passed by; some verses which
Mullah Shah composed in honour of Aurangzeb made a favourable impression
on the Emperor, and the Princess Fatimah having interceded on behalf of
her old teacher, Aurangzeb revoked his first order, and merely enjoined
him to take up his residence at Lahore as soon as possible.
It was not till 1660 A.D. that Mullah Shah could obey this order; he
left Kashmir at the beginning of winter and came to Lahore, where he
continued to live a retired life, only granting interviews to a few
chosen disciples. But when from time to time he had an access of
mystical emotion he would speak of union with God without any reserve,
in a loud voice, and without noticing who was present. One of his
friends said to him one day, "We live in a strange time, and people are
disquieted by your discourses on this matter; it would be more prudent
to expound your doctrines with a little more reserve." The Sheikh
answered him, "Up to the present I have never been afraid for my life;
books containing such doctrine are known to all, and everyone has read
them. What precautions, then, at my time of life, ought I to observe? I
cannot abandon or change my habits of thinking and speaking now."
Some of his other sayings reported at this time show that he had already
a presentiment of his approaching death. Kabil Khan, one of his friends,
said to him one day, "Formerly our sovereign Aurangzeb loved to listen
to discourses on the subject of mysticism, and I have often had the
honour of reading before him passages from the Masnavi of Jalaluddin
Rumi.[64] The Emperor was often so touched by them that he shed tears;
certainly when he comes to Lahore he will wish to see you." "No,"
replied Mullah Shah; "we shall never see him:
'The night is great with child, see what it will bring forth.'"
In 1661 he had an attack of fever which lasted about fifteen days. That
year fever became epidemic at Lahore, and on the 11th of the month of
Safar Mullah Shah had another attack, which carried him off on the night
of the 15th of the same month. He was buried in a plot of ground which
he had already acquired for the purpose. The Princess Fatimah bought the
surrounding land, and erected a shrine of red stone over his tomb. The
foregoing sketch of Mullah Shah gives a general view of oriental
spiritualism as it prevailed two and a half centuries ago over a great
part of Asia. The first point worthy of notice in it is the immense
popularity of mystical ideas at that time, and the wide influence which
they exercised over all minds. Round Mullah Shah gathered persons of
every condition; poor peasants as well as princes were seized with the
same enthusiasm for his doctrines; the same ascetic training produced
the same results in the most varying temperaments. The Master seems to
have exercised a kind of magnetic influence over his neophytes. He fixes
his gaze upon them for a longer or shorter time, till their inward
senses open and render them capable of seeing the wonders of the
spiritual world. All the accounts are unanimous in this respect, and
they carry such a stamp of sincerity that their veracity is
indisputable. We are then obliged to admit that at this period many
minds shared a predisposition to religious ecstacy and enthusiasm.
Under the apparent stagnation of the East, there is continually going on
a collision between two opposing forces--the official hierarchy of the
Ulema, conservative to the core, and mysticism in its early phases,
pietistic and enthusiastic, but gradually tending to scepticism, and
finally to pantheism and the negation of all positive religion. The
Mussalman hierarchy, which in its own interests desired to maintain the
prestige of dogma and of the revealed law, combatted this tendency to
mysticism, but, as we have seen, without success. The orthodox mullahs
made fruitless efforts to obtain the condemnation of Mullah Shah, who
had on his side the members of the imperial family of Delhi and the
Emperor himself, all more or less imbued with mystical ideas.
The biography of Mullah Shah also throws a great deal of light on the
fundamental ideas of oriental mysticism. They spring from a pantheistic
philosophy in many respects, startlingly resembling those of modern
times. Mullah Shah often insists that individual existence counts for
nothing, and that nothing in reality exists outside of God, the Absolute
Being; every particular life dissolves in this universal unity, life and
death are mere changes in the form of existence. The individual is only
in some way a part of the Infinite Being who fills the universe; a
particle which has been momentarily detached therefrom, only to return
thither. To know oneself is therefore the equivalent of knowing God. But
in order to acquire this knowledge the pupil must submit to long and
painful self-discipline; he must pass through all the tests of the
severest asceticism; only after he has thus prepared himself will the
spiritual master open his heart and render him capable of perceiving the
mysteries of the spiritual world.
But this great secret must not be divulged; it is only permissable to
speak of it to the initiate, as Mullah Shah says, in the following
verses:--
We must say that only One exists,
Though such a saying excite astonishment;
The universe is He, though we must not say so openly,
Such doctrines must be kept secret.
This Eastern Pantheism does not lack a certain grandeur, but it has also
a dangerous side, and tends to atheism and materialism. Of this some
instances occur in the life of Mullah Shah. The passage from pantheism
to epicureanism is not a long one. If the human soul only possesses a
transient individuality, and after death is merged like a drop in the
ocean of divinity, why, many will argue, not have done with asceticism
for good, and enjoy the pleasures of existence as long as possible
during the little while our individuality endures? Thus Omar Khayyam
says:--
Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the dust descend,
Dust into dust, and under dust to lie,
Sans wine, sans song, sans singer, and--sans end.
It is precisely this dangerous side of oriental philosophy which has
unhappily attained a much greater development and an incomparably more
complete success than the elevated moral systems of the chief
theosophists of Persia. A mocking cynicism has been, up to modern times,
a common characteristic of the great majority of Sufis and dervishes.
The dangerous consequences of theosophical ideas and of oriental
spiritualism in general became at an early date so apparent that
Ghazzali, although a fervent partisan of Sufism, did not hesitate to
avow that if these doctrines were generally accepted society would
necessarily fall into a state of anarchy.
In face of the wild aberrations caused by Sufism, we should not grudge
all the greater credit to the few distinguished men who, although
adherents of Sufism and dominated by its doctrines, kept their
characters clear of stain. In spite of their conviction that there was
no individual life after death, these men spent their lives in
mortification of the senses and in abstinence, and often braved death
with a truly Roman stoicism.
Such shining characters are not of frequent occurrence in oriental
history; but certainly Mullah Shah is one and Prince Dara-Shikoh
another. In a path strewn with pitfalls he kept a name without stain and
without reproach, thanks to the austere moral principles instilled into
him by his master. He faced death with calm resignation, and knew how to
die as a prince and as a philosopher.
NOTE.--Prince Dara-Shikoh has left a curious fragment of
spiritual autobiography in his preface to a Persian translation
of the Upanishads or chapters from the Vedas which he had caused
to be translated from Sanskrit. It is indeed strange to see this
son of a Muhammadan Emperor ranking these selections from the
Vedas above the Koran, the Pentateuch, Psalms and Gospels, all of
which he says he had read. The Preface runs as follows:--
"When Dara-Shikoh, the resigned worshipper of God, visited
Kashmir in the year of the Hegira 1050 (A.D. 1640), by the
blessing of the Most High he met with Mullah Shah, the chief of
the learned, the teacher of teachers, versed in the subtleties of
"Tauhid" (Unity); may he be joined with God!
"As that prince already relished the pleasure of seeing the
learning of each sect, had perused various treaties of the Sufi
philosophers, and even composed some himself, the thirst of
exploring the doctrine of the Unity (which is a boundless ocean)
daily increased, and his mind attained a degree of acuteness and
subtlety which would have been impossible without the immediate
assistance and favour of the Divine will. Now the sacred Koran,
being frequently obscure, and few at this day being found capable
of explaining it, he determined to read all inspired works; that
the word of God might furnish a commentary on itself, and what is
concisely expressed in one book might be elucidated by a
reference to others; the abridged being the more diffuse. With
this view he perused the Pentateuch, the Gospels and the Psalms,
but the unity of God was obscurely and enigmatically expressed in
these works; nor did he derive more instruction from the simple
translations of hired linguists.
"He next desired to ascertain how it happened that in Hindustan
the Unity of God is the frequent theme of discourse, and that the
ancient philosophers of India neither denied nor objected to the
doctrine of the Divine Unity, but on the contrary held it as an
axiom. Unlike the ignorant race of the present day who set up for
philosophers, though they have fallen into the track of bloodshed
and infidelity, denying the attributes and unity of God, and
contradicting the proofs of that doctrine derived from the Koran
and authentic traditions; these may be considered as banditti on
the path of God.
"In the cause of this inquiry it was discovered that amongst the
Hindus, four inspired books were held peculiarly sacred, viz.:
the Rig Veda, the Jajur Veda, the Sam Veda and Atharva Veda,
which had descended from the skies to the prophets of those
times, of whom Adam (purified by God; may blessings attend him!)
was the chief, containing rules and precepts; and this doctrine
(viz.: the Unity of God) is clearly expressed in those books. As
the object of this explorer of truth (Dara-Shikoh) was not the
acquisition of languages, whether Arabic, Syriac or Sanskrit, but
the proofs of the Unity of the Supreme Being, he determined that
the Upanishads (which might be considered as a treasure of
Unitarianism) should be translated into Persian without adding or
expunging, and without bias or partiality, but correctly and
literally that it might appear what mysteries are contained in
those books which the Hindus so carefully conceal from Moslems.
"As the city of Benares, which is the seat of Hindu science, was
a dependency of this explorer of truth (Dara-Shikoh), having
assembled the Pundits and Sanyasis who are the expounders of the
Vedas and Upanishads, he caused a translation to be made of the
latter into Persian. This was completed in the year of the
Hegira, 1067, A.D., 1656. Every difficulty was elucidated
by this ancient compilation, which, without doubt, is the first of
inspired works, the fountain of truth, the Sea of the Unity; not
only consentaneous with the Koran, but a commentary on it."
[61] Founded by Abdul Qadir Gilani.
[62] According to the reported saying of Muhammad, "He who knows
himself, knows God."
[63] Chapter 5.
[64] The great mystic poet of Persia (A.D. 1207-1272).
APPENDIX I
MOHAMMEDAN CONVERSIONS
By Mohammedan Conversion is not here meant conversion from Christianity
to Mohammedanism, or _vice versa_, but those spiritual crises which take
place _within_ Mohammedanism, as within Christianity, by which the soul
is stung as with a regenerating shudder to use George Eliot's phrase, to
rise from a notional to a real belief in God. Mohammedan theologians are
as aware of this distinction as Christian ones. Thus Al Ghazzali, in his
_Revival of the Religious Sciences_, is very sarcastic on the indulgence
in the common expletive, "We take refuge in God," by Mohammedans without
attaching any real meaning to it. He says: "If you see a lion coming
towards you, and there is a fort close by, you do not stand exclaiming,
'I take refuge in this fort!' but you get into it. Similarly, when you
hear of the wrath to come, do not merely _say_, 'I take refuge in God,'
but take refuge in Him."
This transformation of a notional into a real belief has proved the
crisis in the lives of many of the saints and mystics of Islam, without,
as far as it appears, any contact on their part with Christianity. Thus,
Ibn Khalliqan, in his great Biographical Dictionary, tells of Al-Fudail,
a celebrated highwayman, who, one night, while he was on his way to an
immoral assignation, was arrested by the voice of a Koran-reader
chanting the verse, "Is not the time yet come unto those who believe,
that their hearts should humbly submit to the admonition of God?" On
this he exclaimed, "O Lord! that time is come." He then went away from
that place, and the approach of night induced him to repair for shelter
to a ruined edifice. He there found a band of travellers, one of whom
said to the others, "Let us set out"; but another answered, "Let us
rather wait till daylight, for Al-Fudail is on the road, and will stop
us." Al-Fudail then turned his heart to God, and assured them that they
had nothing to fear. For the rest of his life he lived as an ascetic,
and ranked among the greatest saints. One of his recorded sayings is,
"If the world with all it contains were offered to me, even on the
condition of my not being taken to account for it, I would shun it as
you would shun a carrion, lest it should defile your clothes."
Another striking "conversion" is that of Ibrahim Ben Adham, Prince of
Khorassan. He was passionately addicted to the chase, and one day when
so employed heard a voice behind him exclaiming, "O Ibrahim, thou wast
not born for this." At first he took it for a delusion of Satan, but on
hearing the same words pronounced more loudly exclaimed, "It is the Lord
who speaks; His servant will obey." Immediately he desisted from his
amusement, and, changing clothes with an attendant, bade adieu to
Khorassan, took the road towards Syria, and from thenceforth devoted
himself entirely to a life of piety and labour.
A third example is that of Ghazzali himself, who, in his work _The
Deliverance from Error_, has left one of the very few specimens of
Eastern religious autobiography, and one bearing a certain resemblance
to Newman's _Apologia_. He was professor of theology at the University
of Bagdad in the eleventh century. In his autobiography he says:
"Reflecting upon my situation, I found myself bound to this world by a
thousand ties; temptations assailed me on all sides. I then examined my
actions. The best were those relating to instruction and education; and
even there I saw myself given up to unimportant sciences, all useless in
another world. Reflecting on the aim of my teaching, I found it was not
pure in the sight of the Lord. I saw that all my efforts were directed
towards the acquisition of glory to myself." After this, as he was one
day about to lecture, his tongue refused utterance; he was dumb. He
looked upon this as a visitation from God, and was deeply afflicted at
it. He became seriously ill, and the physicians said his recovery was
hopeless unless he could shake off his depression. "Then," he continues,
"feeling my helplessness, I had recourse to God, as one who has no other
recourse in his distress. He compassionated me as He compassionates the
unhappy who invoke Him. My heart no longer made any resistance, but
willingly renounced the glories and the pleasures of this world."
We may close this short list with the name of the Sufi poet,
Ferid-eddin-Attar. He was a druggist by trade, and one day was startled
by one of the half-mad fakirs, who swarm in Oriental cities, pensively
gazing at him while his eyes slowly filled with tears. Ferid-eddin
angrily ordered him to go about his business. "Sir," replied the fakir,
"that is easily done; for my baggage is light. But would it not be wise
for you to commence preparations for your journey?" The words struck
home, Ferid-eddin abandoned his business, and devoted the rest of his
life to meditation and collecting the sayings of the wise.
These four cases, the highwayman, the prince, the theologian, the poet,
are sufficient to show that the Recognition (anagnorisis) and Revolution
(peripeteia), to use Aristotle's phrase, which turns life from a chaotic
dream into a well-ordered drama, of which God is the Protagonist, may
receive as signal though not as frequent illustration in the territory
of Islam as in that of Christianity. They also serve to illustrate
Professor W. James' thesis in his Gifford Lectures, that "conversion,"
whether Christian or extra-Christian, is a psychological fact, and not a
mere emotional illusion.
APPENDIX II
A MOHAMMEDAN EXPOSITION OF SUFISM
BY IBN KHALDOUN
Sufism consists essentially in giving up oneself constantly to
devotional exercises, in living solely for God, in abandoning all the
frivolous attractions of the world, in disregarding the ordinary aims of
men--pleasures, riches and honours--and finally in separating oneself
from society for the sake of practising devotion to God. This way of
life was extremely common among the companions of the Prophet and the
early Moslems. But when in the second century of Islam and the
succeeding centuries the desire for worldly wealth had spread, and
ordinary men allowed themselves to be drawn into the current of a
dissipated and worldly life, the persons who gave themselves up to piety
were distinguished by the name of "Sufis," or aspirants to Sufism.
The most probable derivation is from "suf" (wool), for, as a rule, Sufis
wear woollen garments to distinguish themselves from the crowd, who love
gaudy attire.
For an intelligent being possessed of a body, thought is the joint
product of the perception of events which happen from without, and of
the emotions to which they give rise within, and is that quality which
distinguishes man from animals. These emotions proceed one from another;
just as knowledge is born of arguments, joy and sadness spring from the
perception of that which causes grief or pleasure. Similarly with the
disciple of the spiritual life in the warfare which he wages with
himself, and in his devotional exercises. Every struggle which he has
with his passions produces in him a state resulting from this struggle.
This state is either a disposition to piety which, strengthening by
repetition, becomes for him a "station" (_maqam_), or merely an emotion
which he undergoes, such as joy, merriment, &c.
The disciple of the spiritual life continues to rise from one station to
another, till he arrives at the knowledge of the Divine Unity and of
God, the necessary condition for obtaining felicity, conformably to the
saying of the Prophet: "Whosoever dies while confessing that there is no
god but God, shall enter Paradise."
Progress through these different stages is gradual. They have as their
common foundation obedience and sincerity of intention; faith precedes
and accompanies them, and from them proceed the emotions and qualities,
the transient and permanent modifications of the soul; these emotions
and qualities go on producing others in a perpetual progression which
finally arrives at the station of the knowledge of the Unity of God. The
disciple of the spiritual life needs to demand an account of his soul in
all its actions, and to keep an attentive eye on the most hidden
recesses of his heart; for actions must necessarily produce results, and
whatever evil is in results betokens a corresponding evil in actions.
There are but a few persons who imitate the Sufis in this practice of
self-examination, for negligence and indifference in this respect are
almost universal. Pious men who have not risen to this class (the
mystics) only aim at fulfilling the works commanded by the law in all
the completeness laid down by the science of jurisprudence. But the
mystics examine scrupulously the results of these works, the effects and
impressions which they produce upon the soul. For this purpose they use
whatever rays of divine illumination may have reached them while in a
state of ecstacy, with the object of assuring themselves whether their
actions are exempt or not from some defect. The essence of their system
is this practice of obliging the soul often to render an account of its
actions and of what it has left undone. It also consists in the
development of those gifts of discrimination and ecstacy which are born
out of struggles with natural inclinations, and which then become for
the disciple stations of progress.
The Sufis possess some rules of conduct peculiar to themselves, and make
use of certain technical expressions. Of these Ghazzali has treated in
_Ihya-ul-ulum_ ("Revival of the Religious Sciences"). He speaks of the
laws regulating devotion, he explains the rules and customs of the Sufis
and the technical terms which they use. Thus the system of the Sufis,
which was at first only a special way of carrying on worship, and the
laws of which were only handed on by example and tradition, was
methodised and reduced to writing, like the exegesis of the Koran, the
Traditions, Jurisprudence, and so forth.
This spiritual combat and this habit of meditation are usually followed
by a lifting of the veils of sense, and by the perception of certain
worlds which form part of the "things of God" (knowledge of which He has
reserved for Himself). The sensual man can have no perception of such
things.
Disentanglement from the things of sense and consequent perception of
invisible things takes place when the spirit, giving up the uses of
exterior senses, only uses interior ones; in this state the emotions
proceeding from the former grow feebler, while those which proceed from
the spirit grow stronger; the spirit dominates, and its vigour is
renewed.
Now, the practice of meditation contributes materially to this result.
It is the nourishment by which the spirit grows. Such growth continues
till what was the knowledge of One absent becomes the consciousness of
One present, and the veils of sense being lifted, the soul enjoys the
fullness of the faculties which belong to it in virtue of its essence,
_i.e._, perception. On this plane it becomes capable of receiving divine
grace and knowledge granted by the Deity. Finally its nature as regards
the real knowledge of things as they are, approaches the loftiest heaven
of angelic beings.
This disentanglement from things of sense takes place oftenest in men
who practise the spiritual combat, and thus they arrive at a perception
of the real nature of things such as is impossible to any beside
themselves. Similarly, they often know of events before they arrive; and
by the power of their prayers and their spiritual force, they hold sway
over inferior beings who are obliged to obey them.
The greatest of the mystics do not boast of this disentanglement from
things of sense and this rule over inferior creatures; unless they have
received an order to do so, they reveal nothing of what they have learnt
of the real nature of things. These supernatural workings are painful,
and when they experience them they ask God for deliverance.
The companions of the Prophet also practised this spiritual warfare;
like the mystics, they were overwhelmed with these tokens of divine
favour such as the power to walk on the water, to pass through fire
without being burnt, to receive their food in miraculous ways, but they
did not attach great importance to them. Abu-bekr, Omar, and Ali were
distinguished by a great number of these supernatural gifts, and their
manner of viewing them was followed by the mystics who succeeded them.
But among the moderns there are men who have set great store by
obtaining this disentanglement from things of sense, and by speaking of
the mysteries discovered when this veil is removed. To reach this goal
they have had recourse to different methods of asceticism, in which the
intellectual soul is nourished by meditation to the utmost of its
capacity, and enjoys in its fullness the faculty of perception which
constitutes its essence. According to them, when a man has arrived at
this point, his perception comprehends all existence and the real nature
of things without a veil, from the throne of God to the smallest drops
of rain. Ghazzali describes the ascetic practices which are necessary to
arrive at this state.
This condition of disentanglement from the things of sense is only held
to be perfect when it springs from right dispositions. For there are, as
a matter of fact, persons who profess to live in retirement and to fast
without possessing right dispositions; such are sorcerers, Christians,
and others who practise ascetic exercises. We may illustrate this by the
image of a well-polished mirror. According as its surface is convex or
concave, the object reflected in it is distorted from its real shape;
if, on the contrary, the mirror has a plane surface, the object is
reflected exactly as it is. Now, what a plane surface is for the mirror,
a right disposition is for the soul, as regards the impressions it
receives from without.
APPENDIX III
CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN MOHAMMEDAN
LITERATURE
The almost miraculous renaissance in Islam which is now proceeding in
Turkey and other Mohammedan countries reminds one forcibly of Dante's
lines:
For I have seen
The thorn frown rudely all the winter long,
And after bear the rose upon its top.
_Paradiso_, xiii. 133.
It is not perhaps fanciful to conjecture that one of the hidden causes
of this renaissance is the large quantity of Christian truth which Islam
literature holds, so to speak, in solution. It is a well-known fact that
the Koran has borrowed largely from the Old Testament and the Apocryphal
Gospels, but it is not so generally known that Mohammedan philosophers,
theologians, and poets betray an acquaintance with facts and incidents
of the Gospels of which the Koran contains no mention.
Leaving the Koran on one side, in the "Traditions," _i.e._, sayings of
Mohammed handed down by tradition, we find God represented as saying at
the Judgment, "O ye sons of men, I was hungry and ye gave Me no food,"
the whole of the passage in Matt. xxv. being quoted. This is remarkable,
as it strikes directly at the orthodox Mohammedan conception of God as
an impassible despot. Other sayings attributed to God which have a
Christian ring are, "I was a hidden Treasure and desired to be known,
therefore I created the world"; "If it were not for Thee, I would not
have made the world" (addressed to Mohammed), evidently an echo of Col.
I. 17, "All things have been created through Him and unto Him" (R.V.).
The writer has often heard this last saying quoted by Indian Mohammedans
in controversy.
Another traditional saying attributed to Mohammed is not unlike the
doctrine of the Holy Spirit: "Verily from your Lord come breathings. Be
ye prepared for them." The Second Advent is also referred to in others:
"How will it be with you when God sends Jesus to judge you?" "There is
no Mahdi but Jesus." It is a well-known fact that a certain gate in
Jerusalem is kept walled up because the Mohammedans believe that Jesus
will pass through it when He returns.
Some traditions have twisted Gospel parables, &c., in favour of
Mohammedanism. Thus in the mention of the parable of the hired
labourers, the first two sets of labourers are said to mean Jews and
Christians, and the last comers, who receive an equal wage, though
grumbled at by the others, are believed to indicate the Mohammedans.
Other traditions give one of Christ's sayings a grotesquely literal
dress. Thus our Lord is said to have met a fox, and to have said, "Fox!
where art thou going?" The fox replied, to his home. Upon which our Lord
uttered the verse, "Foxes have holes," &c. Once when entering an Afghan
village the writer was met by a Pathan, who asked if the New Testament
contained that verse. This shows how even garbled traditions may
predispose the Mohammedan mind for the study of the Gospels.
Tabari, the historian (d. 923 A.D.), gives an account of the Last Supper
and of Christ washing the disciples' hands (_sic_)--topics entirely
ignored by the Koran--and quotes the saying of our Lord regarding the
smiting of the Shepherd and the scattering of the sheep.
Sufi literature, representing as it does the mystical side of Islam,
abounds with allusions to Scripture. Al Ghazzali, the great opponent of
Averroes (1058-1111 A.D.), in his _Ihya-ul-ulum_ ("Revival of the
Religious Sciences") quotes the saying of Christ regarding the children
playing in the market-place. In his _Kimiya-i-Saadat_ ("Alchemy of
Happiness") he writes, "It is said that Jesus Christ in a vision saw
this world in the form of an old woman, and asked how many husbands she
had lived with. She said they were innumerable. He asked her if they had
died, or had divorced her. She replied that it was neither, the fact
being that she had killed all." Here we seem to have a confused echo of
the episode of the woman of Samaria. Again in the same work he says, "It
is a saying of Jesus Christ that the seeker of the world is like a man
suffering from dropsy; the more he drinks water the more he feels
thirsty." In the _Ihya-ul-ulum_, the verse "Eye hath not seen," &c., is
quoted as if from the Koran, where it nowhere occurs. Ghazzali was an
ardent student of the Neo-Platonists, and through him the phrases
Aql-i-Kull (--Logos) and Nafs-i-Kull (--Pneuma) passed into Sufi
writings (v. Whinfield, Preface to the _Masnavi_).
Saadi (b. 1184 A.D.), the famous author of the _Gulistan_ and
_Bostan_, was for some time kept in captivity by the Crusaders. This may
account for echoes of the Gospels which we find in his writings. In the
_Gulistan_ he quotes the verse, "We are members of one another," and in
the _Bostan_ the parable of the Pharisee and Publican is told in great
detail.
Nizami (b. 1140) gives a story which, though grotesque, seems to show
that he had apprehended something of the Christian spirit. Some
passers-by were commenting on the body of a dead dog, saying how
abominably it smelt, &c. Christ passed, and said, "Behold, how white its
teeth are!"
But of all the Mohammedan writers, none bears such distinct traces of
Christian influence as Jalaluddin Rumi, the greatest of the Sufi poets,
who is to this day much studied in Persia, Turkey and India. In the
first book of his _Masnavi_ he has a strange story of a vizier who
persuaded his king, a Jewish persecutor of the Christians, to mutilate
him. He then went to the Christians and said, "See what I have suffered
for your religion." After gaining their confidence and being chosen
their guide, he wrote epistles in different directions to the chief
Christians, contradicting each other, maintaining in one that man is
saved by grace, and in another that salvation rests upon works, &c. Thus
he brought their religion into inextricable confusion. This is evidently
aimed at St. Paul, and it is a curious fact that Jalaluddin Rumi spent
most of his life at Iconium, where some traditions of the apostle's
teaching must have lingered. Other allusions to the Gospel narrative in
the _Masnavi_ are found in the mention of John the Baptist leaping in
his mother's womb, of Christ walking on the water, &c., none of which
occur in the Koran. Isolated verses of Jalaluddin's clearly show a
Christian origin:
I am the sweet-smiling Jesus,
And the world is alive by Me.
I am the sunlight falling from above,
Yet never severed from the Sun I love.
It will be seen that Jalaluddin gives our Lord a much higher rank than
is accorded to Him in the Koran, which says, "And who could hinder God
if He chose to destroy Mary and her son together?"
A strange echo of the Gospel narrative is found in the story of the
celebrated Sufi, Mansur-al-Hallaj, who was put to death at Bagdad, 919
A.D., for exclaiming while in a state of mystic ecstacy, "I am
the Truth." Shortly before he died he cried out, "My Friend (God) is not
guilty of injuring me; He gives me to drink what as Master of the feast
He drinks Himself" (Whinfield, preface to the _Masnavi_).
Notwithstanding the apparent blasphemy of Mansur's exclamation, he has
always been the object of eulogy by Mohammedan poets. Even the orthodox
Afghan poet, Abdurrahman, says of him:
Every man who is crucified like Mansur,
After death his cross becomes a fruit-bearing tree.
Many of the favourite Sufi phrases, "The Perfect Man," "The new
creation," "The return to God," have a Christian sound, and the modern
Babi movement which has so profoundly influenced Persian life and
thought owes its very name to the saying of Christ, "I am the Door"
("Ana ul Bab"), adopted by Mirza Ali, the founder of the sect.
When Henry Martyn reached Shiraz in 1811, he found his most attentive
listeners among the Sufis. "These Sufis," he writes in his diary, "are
quite the Methodists of the East. They delight in everything Christian
except in being exclusive. They consider they all will finally return to
God, from whom they emanated."
It is certainly noteworthy that some of the highly educated Indian
converts from Islam to Christianity have been men who have passed
through a stage of Sufism, _e.g._, Moulvie Imaduddin of Amritsar, on
whom Archbishop Benson conferred a D.D. degree, and Safdar Ali, late
Inspector of Schools at Jabalpur. In one of the semi-domes of the Mosque
of St. Sophia at Constantinople is a gigantic figure of Christ in
mosaic, which the Mohammedans have not destroyed, but overlaid with
gilding, yet so that the outlines of the figure are still visible. Is it
not a parable?
APPENDIX IV
CHRIST IN MODAMMEDAN TRADITION.
The following brief article is an attempt to bring together some of the
passages in Mohammedan writers in which Christ is accorded a higher
place than in the Koran, and in which deeds and words of His are
mentioned regarding which the Koran is quite silent. For though the
Koran calls Him 'the Spirit of God' and 'a Word proceeding from Him,' at
the same time it says 'What could hinder God if He chose to destroy the
Messiah and His mother both together?'
In the traditional sayings of Mohammed collected by Al Bokhari, accepted
by all Sunni Mohammedans, we have the following:--
1st. The sinlessness of Christ. The Prophet said, 'Satan touches every
child at its birth and it cries out from the touch of Satan. This is the
case with all, except Mary and her son.'
2nd. A famous utterance of Christ is attributed to God. The Prophet
said, 'At the resurrection God shall say, "O ye sons of men, I was sick
and ye visited Me not." They shall say, "Thou art the Lord of the worlds
how should we visit Thee?" He will say, "A certain servant of Mine was
sick; if you had visited him you would have found Me with him."' This
tradition is noteworthy as it brings out the affinity between God and
man which the Koran for the most part ignores.
3rd. Christ returning to judgment. The Prophet said, 'How will it be
with you when God sends back the Son of Mary to rule and to judge
(hakiman, muqsitan)?'
In the 'Awarifu-l-Mawarif of Shahabu-d-Din Suhrawardi the doctrine of
the New Birth is definitely attributed to Christ: 'The death of nature
and of will which they call "the second birth" even as Christ has
written.'
Ghazzali in the Ihya-ul-ulum thus refers to St. Matt. xi. 17: 'Some one
said, "I saw written in the Gospel, We have sung to you but ye have not
been moved with emotion; we have piped unto you but ye have not
danced."' He also quotes St. Matt. vi. 25, 'Jesus said, Consider the
fowls, etc.'
The historian Tabari mentions the institution of the Last Supper,
Christ's washing His disciple's hands, requesting them to watch with
Him, predicting Peter's denial, and quotes the text, 'The shepherd shall
be smitten, and the sheep shall be scattered.'
In the Bostan of Sa'di the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee
takes the following curious shape:--
In Jesus' time there lived a youth so black and dissolute,
That Satan from him shrank appalled in every attribute;
He in a sea of pleasures foul uninterrupted swam
And gluttonized on dainty vices, sipping many a dram.
Whoever met him on the highway turned as from a pest,
Or, pointing lifted finger at him, cracked some horrid jest.
I have been told that Jesus once was passing by the cave
Where dwelt a monk who asked Him in,--
When suddenly that slave of sin appeared across the way,
Far off he paused, fell down and sobbingly began to pray;
And like a storm or rain the tears pour gushing from his eyes.
'Alas, and woe is me for thirty squandered years,' he cries;
The pride-puffed monk self-righteous lifts his eyebrows with a sneer,
And haughtily exclaims, 'Vile wretch! in vain hast thou come here.
Art thou not plunged in sin, and tossed in lust's devouring sea?
What will thy filthy rags avail with Jesus and with me?
O God! the granting of a single wish is all I pray,
Grant me to stand far distant from this man at Judgement Day.'
From heaven's throne a revelation instantaneous broke,
And God's own thunder-words through the mouth of Jesus spoke:
'The two whom praying there I see, shall equally be heard;
They pray diverse,--I give to each according to his word.
That poor one thirty years has rolled in sin's most slimy steeps,
But now with stricken heart and streaming eyes for pardon weeps.
Upon the threshold of My grace he throws him in despair,
And faintly hoping pity pours his supplications there.
Therefore forgiven and freed from all the guilt in which he lies
My mercy chooses him a citizen of paradise;
This monk desires that he may not that sinner stand beside,
Therefore he goes to hell and so his wish is gratified.'
(_Alger: Poetry of the Orient_)
It is refreshing to find one of the classical Moslem writers so strongly
denouncing self-righteousness. The poet Nizami in the following apologue
seems to have caught no little of the spirit of the Gospel:--
One evening Jesus lingered in the market-place
Teaching the people parables of truth and grace,
When in the square remote a crowd was seen to rise
And stop with loathing gestures and abhorring cries.
The Master and His meek Disciples went to see
What cause for this commotion and disgust could be,
And found a poor dead dog beside the gutter laid;
Revolting sight! at which each face its hate betrayed.
One held his nose, one shut his eyes, one turned away,
And all amongst themselves began loud to say,
'Detested creature! he pollutes the earth and air!'
'His eyes are blear!' 'His ears are foul!' 'His ribs are bare!'
'In his torn hide there's not a decent shoe-string left!'
'No doubt the execrable cur was hung for theft!'
Then Jesus spake and dropped on him this saving wreath:
'Even pearls are dark before the whiteness of his teeth!'
(_Alger: Poetry of the Orient._)
The entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem is referred to in the following
passage from the Masnavi of Jalaluddin Rumi:--
Having left Jesus, thou cherishest an ass,
And art perforce excluded like an ass;
The portion of Jesus is knowledge and wisdom,
Not so the portion of an ass, O assinine one!
Thou pitiest thine ass when it complains;
So art thou ignorant, thine ass makes thee assinine,
Keep thy pity for Jesus, not for the ass,
Make not thy lust to vanquish thy reason.
(_Whinfield's Translation_).
Elsewhere in the Masnavi Jalaluddin Rumi says:--
Jesus, thy Spirit, is present with thee;
Ask help of Him, for He is a good Helper.
In the Diwan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz, by the same author, we have the lines:--
I am that sweet-smiling Jesus,
And the world is alive through Me.
Elsewhere he says, 'The pure one is regenerated by the breath of Jesus.'
It is a significant fact that Jalaluddin Rumi spent most of his life at
Iconium, where very likely some apostolic traditions lingered.
One aspect of our Lord which has strongly impressed itself on the
Mohammedan imagination is His homelessness.[65] Once on entering a
Pathan village the writer was met by a youth, who asked, 'Is this verse
in the Injil: "The Son of Mary had nowhere to lay His head"?'
In the
Qissas-al-ambiya (Stories of the Prophets) this takes the following
grotesque shape:--
One day Jesus saw a fox running through the wilderness. He said
to him, 'O fox! whither art thou going?' The fox answered, 'I
have come out for exercise; now I am returning to my own home.'
Jesus said, 'Every one has built himself a house; but for Me
there is no resting-place.' Some people who heard it, said, 'We
are sorry for Thee and will build Thee a house.' He replied, 'I
have no money.' They answered, 'We will pay all the expenses.'
Then he said, 'Very well, I will choose the site.' He led them
down to the edge of the sea and, pointing where the waves were
dashing highest, said, 'Build Me a house there.' The people said,
'That is the sea, O Prophet! how can we build there?' 'Yea, and
is not the world a sea,' He answered, 'on which no one can raise
a building that abides?'
A similar echo of Christ's words is found in the famous inscription over
a bridge at Fatehpur Sikri: 'Jesus (upon Whom be peace) said, "The world
is a bridge; pass over it, but do not build upon it."'
This keen sense of the transitoriness of everything earthly is a
strongly-marked feature of the Oriental mind, and characterized all
their saints and mystics. There is no wonder that this side of the
gospel should make a special appeal to Orientals, and that the
Fakir-missionary should seem to them to approximate most closely to his
Master.[66]
The following account of the trial of our Lord before the Sanhedrin and
Pilate which occurs in the Dabistan of Mohsin Fani (A.D. 1647)
approximates more nearly to the Gospel narrative than that which is
ordinarily current among Mohammedan writers:--
When Jesus appeared, the high-priest said, 'We charge Thee upon
Thy oath by the living God, say art Thou the Son of God?' The
blessed and holy Lord Jesus replied to him, 'I am what thou hast
said. Verily We say unto you, you shall see the Son of man seated
at the right hand of God, and He shall descend in the clouds of
heaven.' They said, 'Thou utterest a blasphemy, because,
according to the creed of the Jews, God never descends in the
clouds of heaven.'
Isaiah the prophet has announced the birth of Jesus in words the
translation of which is as follows:--'A branch from the root of
I'shai shall spring up, and from this branch shall come forth a
flower in which the Spirit of God shall dwell, verily a virgin
shall be pregnant and bring forth a Son.' I'shai is the name of
the father of David.
"When they had apprehended Jesus, they spat upon His blessed face
and smote Him. Isaiah had predicted it. 'I shall give up My body
to the smiters, and My cheek to the diggers of wounds. I shall
not turn My face from those who will use bad words and throw
spittle upon Me.' When Pilatus, a judge of the Jews, scourged the
Lord Jesus in such a manner that His body from head to foot
became but one wound, so was it as Isaiah had predicted, 'He was
wounded for our transgressions; I struck Him for His people.'
When Pilatus saw that the Jews insisted upon the death and
crucifixion of Jesus, he said, 'I take no part in the blood of
this Man; I wash my hands clean of His blood.' The Jews answered,
'His blood be on us and on our children.' On that account the
Jews are oppressed and curbed down in retribution of their
iniquities. When they had placed the cross upon the shoulders of
Jesus and led Him to die, a woman wiped with the border of her
garment the face, full of blood, of the Lord Jesus. Verily she
obtained three images of it and carried them home; the one of
these images exists still in Spain, the other is in the town of
Milan in Italy, and the third in the city of Rome."
The same author, Mohsin Fani, says:--
The Gospel has been translated from the tongue of Jesus into
different languages, namely, into Arabic, Greek, Latin, which
last is the language of the learned among the Firangis; and into
Syriac, and this all learned men know.
Fragments of our Lord's teaching are found not only in religious but
also in secular Mohammedan books; thus in the Kitab Jawidan of Ibn
Muskawih we have the following:--
The hatefullest of learned men in the eyes of God is he who loves
reputation and that room should be made for him in the assemblies
of the great, and to be invited to feasts. Verily I say they have
their reward in the world.
In the Kitab-al-Aghani, a history of Arabic poetry, it is related:--
Satan came to Jesus and said, 'Dost Thou not speak the truth?'
'Certainly,' answered Jesus. 'Well then,' said Satan, 'climb this
mountain and cast Thyself down.' Jesus said, 'Woe to thee, for
hath not God said, O Son of Man, tempt Me not by casting thyself
into destruction, for I do that which I will.'
From the above instances taken from well-known Mohammedan writers it
will be seen that the Christ of post-Koranic tradition is far more
life-like than the Christ of the Koran. The latter is a mere lay-figure,
bedecked with honorific titles indeed, such as the 'Spirit of God and a
word proceeding from Him,' and working miracles, but displaying no
character. In the post-Koranic writers, on the other hand, we have His
sinlessness, His return to judgment, His humility, His unworldliness,
His sufferings, His doctrine of the New Birth, topics upon which the
Koran is entirely silent. An open-minded Moslem perusing the above
passages in the original Persian and Arabic (and many might be added)
would certainly gain a far higher conception of our Lord than from
anything he would find in the Koran.
[65] In one tradition He is called 'Imam al ashin,' 'Leader of
the wanderers.'
[66] Although Mohammed said, 'There is no monkery in Islam,' and
rebuked one of his followers who showed a tendency to it,
celibacy and homelessness have often marked the saints of Islam.
One of them, Bishr Hafi, being asked why he did not marry,
answered, 'I am afraid of that verse in the Koran, "The rights of
women over men are the same as the rights of men over women."'
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| There are a number of words, mostly Arabic, spelled in |
| different ways in the present book. As many of these are |
| variants often used in the transliteration of Arabic |
| names, these differences have been retained. Below is |
| the list of the words which have been spelled differently |
| at different places in the book: |
| |
| Adham, Adhem. |
| Alghazzali, Algazzali. |
| Bayazid, Bayezid. |
| Hassan, Hasan. |
| Hejaj, Hejjaj. |
| Judgment, Judgement. |
| Kaf, Kàf. |
| Khorassan, Khorasan. |
| Muhammad, Mohammed, Muhammed, Mohammad. |
| Mohammedan, Muhammadan, Muhammedan, Mahommadan, |
| Mohammadan. |
| Mohammedanism, Muhammedanism. |
| Saadi, Sa'di. |
| Sofiân, Sofyan. |
| Suhrawardy, Suhrawardi. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
End of Project Gutenberg's Mystics and Saints of Islam, by Claud Field