Mystics and Saints of Islam Part 14

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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. 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 pa.s.sions produces in him a state resulting from this struggle.

This state is either a disposition to piety which, strengthening by repet.i.tion, 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 G.o.d, the necessary condition for obtaining felicity, conformably to the saying of the Prophet: "Whosoever dies while confessing that there is no G.o.d but G.o.d, 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 G.o.d. 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 cla.s.s (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 a.s.suring 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 G.o.d" (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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.s 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 const.i.tutes 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 G.o.d 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 ill.u.s.trate 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 quant.i.ty 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 G.o.d represented as saying at the Judgment, "O ye sons of men, I was hungry and ye gave Me no food,"

the whole of the pa.s.sage in Matt. xxv. being quoted. This is remarkable, as it strikes directly at the orthodox Mohammedan conception of G.o.d as an impa.s.sible despot. Other sayings attributed to G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.s 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) pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sers-by were commenting on the body of a dead dog, saying how abominably it smelt, &c. Christ pa.s.sed, 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 G.o.d 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 (G.o.d) 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 G.o.d," 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 G.o.d, 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 pa.s.sed 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.