The Faith of Islam Part 6

In the doctrine of the Imamat, common to all the offshoots of the Shia'h sect, is to be found the chief point of difference between the Sunni and the Shia'h, a difference so great that there is no danger of even a political union between these two great branches of Islam. I have already described, too, how the Shia'hs reject the Sunnat, though they do not reject Tradition. A good deal of ill-blood is still kept up by the recollection--a recollection kept alive by the annual recurrence of the Muharram fast--of the sad {85} fate of 'Ali and his sons. The Sunnis are blamed for the work of their ancestors in the faith, whilst the Khalifs Abu Bakr, Omar, and Osman are looked upon as usurpers. Not to them was committed the wonderful ray of light. In the possession of that alone can any one make good a claim to be the Imam, the Guide of the Believers. The terrible disorders of the early days of Islam can only be understood when we realise to some extent the pa.s.sionate longing which men felt for a spiritual head--an Imam. It was thought to be impossible that Muhammad, the last--the seal--of the prophets should leave the Faithful without a guide, who would be the interpreter of the will of Allah.

We here make a slight digression to show that this feeling extends beyond the Shia'h sect, and is of some importance in its bearing upon the Eastern Question. Apart from the superhuman claims for the Imam, what he is as a ruler to the Shia'h, the Khalif is to the Sunni--the supreme head in Church and State, the successor of the Prophet, the Conservator of Islam as made known in the Quran, the Sunnat and the Ijma' of the early Mujtahidin. To administer the laws, the administrator must have a divine sanction. Thus when the Ottoman ruler, Selim the First, conquered Egypt, (A.D. 1516) he sought and obtained, from an old descendant of the Baghdad Khalifs, the transfer of the t.i.tle to himself, and in this way the Sultans of Turkey became the Khalifs of Islam. Whether Mutawakal Billal, the last t.i.tular Khalif of the house of 'Abbas, was right or wrong in thus transferring the t.i.tle is not my purpose now to discuss. I only adduce the fact to show how it ill.u.s.trates the feeling of the need of a Pontiff--a divinely appointed Ruler. Strictly speaking, according to Muhammadan law, the Sultans are not Khalifs, for it is clearly laid down in the Traditions that the Khalif (or the Imam) must be of the tribe of the Quraish, to which the Prophet himself belonged.

Ibn-i-Umr relates that the Prophet said:--"The Khalifs shall be in the Quraish tribe as long as there are two {86} persons in it, one to rule and another to serve."[77] "It is a necessary condition that the Khalif should be of the Quraish tribe."[78] Such quotations might be multiplied, and they tend to show that it is not at all inc.u.mbent on orthodox Sunnis, other than the Turks, to rush to the rescue of the Sultan, whilst to the Shia'hs he is little better than a heretic. Certainly they would never look upon him as an Imam, which personage is to them in the place of a Khalif. In countries not under Turkish rule, the Khutbah, or prayer for the ruler, said on Fridays in the mosques, is said for the "ruler of the age," or for the Amir, or whatever happens to be the t.i.tle of the head of the State. Of late years it has become more common in India to say it for the Sultan. This is not, strictly speaking, according to Muhammadan law, which declares that the Khutbah can only be said with the permission of the ruler, and as in India that ruler is the British Government, the prayers should be said for the Queen. Evidently the law never contemplated large bodies of Musalmans residing anywhere but where the influence of the Khalif extended.

In thus casting doubt on the legality of the claim made by Turkish Sultans to the Khalifate of Islam, I do not deny that the Law of Islam requires that there should be a Khalif. Unfortunately for Islam, there is nothing in its history parallel to the conflict of Pope and Emperor, of Church and State. "The action and re-action of these powerful and partially independent forces, their resistance to each other, and their ministry to each other, have been of incalculable value to the higher activity and life of Christendom." In Islam the Khalif is both Pope and Emperor. Ibn Khaldoun states that the difference between the Khalif and any other ruler is that the former rules according to divine, the latter according to human law.

The Prophet in transmitting his sacred authority to the Khalifs, his successors, conveyed to {87} them absolute powers. Khalifs can be a.s.sa.s.sinated, murdered, banished, but so long as they reign anything like const.i.tutional liberty is impossible. It is a fatal mistake in European politics and an evil for Turkey to recognize the Sultan as the Khalif of Islam, for, if he be such, Turkey can never take any step forward to newness of political life.[79]

This, however, is a digression from the subject of this chapter.

There has been from the earliest ages of Islam a movement which exists to this day. It is a kind of mysticism, known as Sufiism. It has been especially prevalent among the Persians. It is a re-action from the burden of a rigid law, and a wearisome ritual. It has now existed for a thousand years, and if it has the element of progress in it, if it is the salt of Islam some fruit should now be seen. But what is Sufiism? The term Sufi is most probably derived from the Arabic word Suf, "wool," of which material the garments worn by Eastern ascetics used to be generally made. Some persons, however, derive it from the Persian, Suf, "pure," or the Greek [Greek: sophia], "wisdom." Tasawwuf, or Sufiism, is the abstract form of the word, and is, according to Sir W. Jones, and other learned orientalists, a figurative mode, borrowed mainly from the Indian philosophers of the Vedanta school, of expressing the fervour of devotion.

The chief idea is that the souls of men differ in degree, but not {88} in kind, from the Divine Spirit, of which they are emanations, and to which they will ultimately return. The Spirit of G.o.d is in all He has made, and it in Him. He alone is perfect love, beauty, etc.--hence love to him is the only _real_ thing; all else is illusion. Sa'di says: "I swear by the truth of G.o.d, that when He showed me His glory all else was illusion." This present life is one of separation from the beloved. The beauties of nature, music, and art revive in men the divine idea, and recall their affections from wandering from Him to other objects. These sublime affections men must cherish, and by abstraction concentrate their thoughts on G.o.d, and so approximate to His essence, and finally reach the highest stage of bliss--absorption into the Eternal. The true end and object of human life is to lose all consciousness of individual existence--to sink "in the ocean of Divine Life, as a breaking bubble is merged into the stream on the surface of which it has for a moment risen."[80]

Sufis, who all accept Islam as a divinely established religion, suppose that long before the creation of the world a contract was made by the Supreme Soul with the a.s.sembled world of spirits, who are parts of it. Each spirit was addressed separately, thus: "Art thou not with thy Lord?" that is, bound to him by a solemn contract. To this they all answered with one voice, "Yes."

Another account says that the seed of theosophy (m'arifat) was placed in the ground in the time of Adam; that the plant {89} came forth in the days of Noah, was in flower when Abraham was alive and produced fruit before Moses pa.s.sed away. The grapes of this n.o.ble plant were ripe in the time of Jesus, but it was not till the age of Muhammad that pure wine was made from them. Then those intoxicated with it, having attained to the highest degree of the knowledge of G.o.d, could forget their own personality and say:--"Praise to me, is there any greater than myself? I am the Truth."

The following verse of the Quran is quoted by Sufis in support of their favourite dogma--the attaining to the knowledge of G.o.d: "When G.o.d said to the angels, 'I am about to place a viceregent on the earth,' they said: 'Wilt Thou place therein one who shall commit abomination and shed blood?

Nay; we celebrate Thy praise and holiness.' G.o.d answered them, 'Verily I know that ye wot not of.'" (Sura ii. 28.) It is said that this verse proves that, though the great ma.s.s of mankind would commit abomination, some would receive the divine light and attain to a knowledge of G.o.d. A Tradition states that David said: "'Oh Lord! why hast Thou created mankind?' G.o.d replied, 'I am a hidden treasure, and I would fain become known.'" The business of the mystic is to find this treasure, to attain to the Divine light and the true knowledge of G.o.d.

The earlier Muhammadan mystics sought to impart life to a rigid and formal ritual, and though the seeds of Pantheism were planted in their system from the first, they maintained that they were orthodox. "Our system of doctrine," says Al-Junaid, "is firmly bound up with the dogmas of the faith, the Quran and the Traditions." There was a moral earnestness about many of these men which frequently restrained the arm of unrighteous power, and their sayings, often full of beauty, show that they had the power of appreciating the spiritual side of life. Some of these sentences are worthy of any age. "As neither meat nor drink," says one, "profit the diseased body, so no warning avails {90} to touch the heart full of the love of this world." "The work of a holy man doth not consist in this, that he eats grain, and clothes himself in wool, but in the knowledge of G.o.d and submission to His will." "Thou deservest not the name of a learned man till thy heart is emptied of the love of this world." "Hide thy good deeds as closely as thou wouldst hide thy sins." A famous mystic was brought into the presence of the Khalif Harun-ur-Rashid who said to him: "How great is thy abnegation?" He replied, "Thine is greater." "How so?" said the Khalif.

"Because I make abnegation of this world, and thou makest abnegation of the next." The same man also said: "The display of devotional works to please men is hypocrisy, and acts of devotion done to please men are acts of polytheism."

But towards the close of the second century of the Hijra, this earlier mysticism developed into Sufiism. Then Al-Hallaj taught in Baghdad thus: "I am the Truth. There is nought in Paradise but G.o.d. I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I; we are two souls dwelling in one body. When thou seest me, thou seest Him; and when thou seest Him thou seest me." This roused the opposition of the orthodox divines by whom Al-Hallaj was condemned to be worthy of death. He was then by order of the Khalif flogged, tortured and finally beheaded. Thus died one of the early martyrs of Sufiism, but it grew in spite of bitter persecution.

In order to understand the esoteric teaching of Sufiistic poetry, it is necessary to remember that the perceptive sense is the traveller, the knowledge of G.o.d the goal, the doctrines of this ascent, or upward progress is the Tarikat, or the road. The extinction of self is necessary before any progress can be made on that road. A Sufi poet writes:--

"Plant one foot upon the neck of self, The other in thy Friend's domain; In everything His presence see, For other vision is in vain."

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Sa'di in the Bustan says: "Art thou a friend of G.o.d? Speak not of self, for to speak of G.o.d and of self is infidelity." Shaikh Abu'l-Faiz, a great poet and a friend of the Emperor Akbar, from whom he received the honourable t.i.tle of Malik-ush-Shu'ara--Master of the Poets, says: "Those who have not closed the door on existence and non-existence reap no advantage from the calm of this world and of the world to come." Khusrau, another well-known poet says:--

"I have become Thou: Thou art become I, I am the body, Thou the soul; Let no one henceforth say That I am distinct from Thee, and Thou from me."

The fact is, that Persian poetry is almost entirely Sufiistic. It is difficult for the uninitiated to arrive at the esoteric meaning of these writings. Kitman, or the art of hiding from the profane religious beliefs, often contrary to the revealed law, has always been a special quality of the East. Pantheistic doctrines are largely inculcated.[81] Thus:--

"I was, ere a name had been named upon earth; Ere one trace yet existed of aught that has birth; When the locks of the Loved One streamed forth for a sign, And Being was none, save the Presence Divine!

Named and name were alike emanations from Me, Ere aught that was 'I' existed, or 'We.'"

The poet then describes his fruitless search for rest and peace in Christianity, Hinduism, and the religion of the Pa.r.s.ee. Even Islam gave him no satisfaction, for--

"Nor above nor beneath came the Loved One to view, I toiled to the summit, wild, pathless and lone, Of the globe-girding Kaf[82]:--but the 'Anka[83] had flown!

{92} The sev'nth heaven I traversed--the sev'nth heaven explored, But in neither discern'd I the court of the Lord!

I question'd the Pen and the Tablet of Fate, But they whisper'd not where He pavilions His state; My vision I strain'd; but my G.o.d-scanning eye No trace, that to G.o.dhead belongs, could descry.

My glance I bent inward; within my own breast, Lo, the vainly sought elsewhere, the G.o.dhead confess'd!

In the whirl of its transport my spirit was toss'd, _Till each atom of separate being I lost_."

These are the words of the greatest authority among the Sufis, the famous Maulana Jelal-ud-din Rumi, founder of the order of the Maulavi Darwishes.

He also relates the following story: "One knocked at the door of the beloved, and a voice from within said: 'Who is there?' Then he answered, '_It is I._' The voice replied, 'This house will not hold _me_ and _thee_!'

So the door remained shut. The lover retired to a wilderness, and spent some time in solitude, fasting, and prayer. One year elapsed, when he again returned, and knocked at the door. 'Who is there?' said the voice. The lover answered, '_It is thou._' Then the door was opened."

The great object of life, then, being to escape from the hindrances to pure love and to a return to the divine essence, the Talib, or seeker, attaches himself to a Murshid, or teacher. If he prosecutes his studies according to Sufiistic methods he now often enters one of the many orders of Darwishes.

After due preparation under his Murshid, he is allowed to enter on the road. He then becomes a Salik, or traveller, whose business henceforth is suluk that is, devotion to one idea--the knowledge of G.o.d. In this road there are eight stages. (1) Service. Here he must serve G.o.d and obey the Law for he is still in bondage. (2) Love. It is supposed that now the Divine influence has so attracted his soul that he really loves G.o.d. (3) Seclusion. Love having expelled all worldly desires, he arrives at this stage, and pa.s.ses his time in meditation on the deeper doctrines {93} of Sufiism regarding the Divine nature. (4) Knowledge. The meditation in the preceding stage, and the investigation of the metaphysical theories concerning G.o.d, His nature, His attributes and the like make him an 'arif--one who knows. (5) Ecstasy. The mental excitement caused by such continued meditation on abstruse subjects produces a kind of frenzy, which is looked upon as a mark of direct illumination of the heart from G.o.d. It is known as Hal--the state; or Wajd--ecstasy. Arrival at this stage is highly valued, for it is the certain entrance to the next. (6) Haqiqat--the Truth. Now to the traveller is revealed the true nature of G.o.d, now he learns the reality of that which he has been for so long seeking. This admits him to the highest stage in his journey, as far as this life is concerned. (7) That stage is Wasl--union with G.o.d.

"There was a door to which I found no key; There was a veil past which I could not see: Some little talk of Me and Thee There seemed--and then no more of Thee and Me."

He cannot, in this life, go beyond that, and very few reach that exalted stage. Thus arose a "system of Pantheism, which represents joy and sorrow, good and evil, pleasure and pain as manifestations of one changeless essence." Religion, as made known by an outward revelation, is, to the few who reach this stage, a thing of the past. Even its restraints are not needed. The soul that is united to G.o.d can do no evil. The poet Khusrau says: "Love is the object of my worship, what need have I of Islam?"

Death ensues and with it the last stage is reached. (8) It is Fana--extinction. The seeker after all his search, the traveller after all his wearisome journey pa.s.ses behind the veil and finds--nothing! As the traveller proceeds from stage to stage, the restraints of an objective revelation and of an outward system are less and less heeded. "The {94} religion of the mystic consists in his immediate communication with G.o.d, and when once this has been established, the value of ecclesiastical forms, and of the historical part of religion, becomes doubtful." What law can bind the soul in union with G.o.d, what outward system impose any trammels on one who, in the "Ecstasy," has received from Him, who is the Truth, the direct revelation of His own glorious nature? Moral laws and ceremonial observances have only an allegorical signification. Creeds are but fetters cunningly devised to limit the flight of the soul; all that is objective in religion is a restraint to the reason of the initiated.[84]

Pantheistic in creed, and too often Antinomian in practice, Sufiism possesses no regenerative power in Islam. "It is not a substantive religion such as shapes the life of races or of nations, it is a state of opinion."

No Muslim State makes a national profession of Sufiism.

In spite of all its dogmatic utterances, in spite of much that is sublime in its idea of the search after light and truth, Sufiism ends in utter negation of all separate existence. The pantheism of the Sufis, this esoteric doctrine of Islam, as a moral doctrine leads to the same conclusions as materialism, "the negation of human liberty, the indifference to actions and the legitimacy of all temporal enjoyments."

The result of Sufiism has been the establishment of a large number of religious orders known as Darwishes.[85] These men are looked upon with disfavour by the {95} orthodox; but they flourish nevertheless, and in Turkey at the present day have great influence. There are in Constantinople two hundred Takiahs, or monasteries. The Darwishes are not organized with such regularity, nor subject to discipline so severe as that of the Christian Monastic orders; but they surpa.s.s them in number. Each order has its own special mysteries and practices by which its members think they can obtain a knowledge of the secrets of the invisible world. They are also called Faqirs--poor men, not, however, always in the sense of being in temporal want, but as being poor in the sight of G.o.d. As a matter of fact the Darwishes of many of the orders do not beg, and many of the Takiahs are richly endowed. They are divided into two great cla.s.ses, the Ba Shara'

(with the Law) Darwishes; and the Be Shara' (without the Law). The former prefer to rule their conduct according to the law of Islam and are called the Salik--travellers on the path (tariqat) to heaven; the latter though they call themselves Muslims do not conform to the law, and are called Azad (free), or Majzub (abstracted), a term which signifies their renunciation of all worldly cares and pursuits.

The Salik Darwishes are those who perform the Zikrs.[86] What little hope there is of these professedly religious men working any reform in Islam will be seen from the following account of their doctrines.[87]

1. G.o.d only exists,--He is in all things, and all things are in Him.

"Verily we are _from_ G.o.d, and _to_ Him shall we return." (Sura ii. 151.)

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2. All visible and invisible beings are an emanation from Him, and are not really distinct from Him. Creation is only a pastime with G.o.d.

3. Paradise and h.e.l.l, and all the dogmas of positive religions, are only so many allegories, the spirit of which is only known to the Sufi.

4. Religions are matters of indifference; they, however, serve as a means of reaching to realities. Some, for this purpose, are more advantageous than others. Among which is the Musalman religion, of which the doctrine of the Sufis is the philosophy.

5. There is not any real difference between good and evil, for all is reduced to unity, and G.o.d is the real author of the acts of mankind.

6. It is G.o.d who fixes the will of man. Man, therefore, is not free in his actions.

7. The soul existed before the body, and is now confined within it as in a cage. At death the soul returns to the Divinity from which it emanated.

8. The princ.i.p.al occupation of the Sufi is to meditate on the unity, and so to attain to spiritual perfection--unification with G.o.d.

9. Without the grace of G.o.d no one can attain to this unity; but G.o.d does not refuse His aid to those who are in the right path.

The power of a Sheikh, a spiritual leader, is very great. The following account of the admission of a Novice, called Tawakkul Beg, into an Order, and of the severe tests applied, will be of some interest.[88] Tawakkul Beg says:--"Having been introduced by Akhund Moolla Muhammad to Sheikh Moolla Shah, my heart, through frequent intercourse with him, was filled with such a burning desire to arrive at a true knowledge of the mystical science that I found no sleep by night, nor rest by day. When the initiation commenced, {97} I pa.s.sed the whole night without sleep, and repeated innumerable times the Surat-ul-Ikhlas:--

"Say: He is G.o.d alone: G.o.d the eternal: He begetteth not, and He is not begotten; And there is none like unto Him." (Sura cxii.)

Whosoever repeats this Sura one hundred times can accomplish all his vows.

I desired that the Sheikh should bestow on me his love. No sooner had I finished my task than the heart of the Sheikh became full of sympathy for me. On the following night I was conducted to his presence. During the whole of that night he concentrated his thoughts on me, whilst I gave myself up to inward meditation. Three nights pa.s.sed in this way. On the fourth night the Sheikh said:--'Let Moolla Senghim and Salih Beg, who are very susceptible to ecstatic emotions, apply their spiritual energies to Tawakkul Beg.'