Mystics and Saints of Islam

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mystics and Saints of Islam, by Claud Field This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Mystics and Saints of Islam Author: Claud Field Release Date: January 15, 2008 [EBook #24314] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF ISLAM *** Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of public domain works from the University of Michigan Digital Libraries.) MYSTICS AND SAINTS OF ISLAM BY CLAUD FIELD london: FRANCIS GRIFFITHS, 34 Maiden lane, strand, W.C. 1910. v-vi CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. PANTHEISTIC SUFISM 1 II. HASAN BASRI 18 III. RABIA, THE WOMAN SUFI 28 IV. IBRAHIM BEN ADHAM 36 V. FUDHAYL BEN AYAZ 46 VI. BAYAZID BASTAMI 52 VII. ZU'N NUN OF EGYPT 60 VIII. MANSUR HALLAJ 68 IX. HABIB AJAMI 79 X. AVICENNA (IBN SINA) 86 XI. AL GHAZZALI 106 XII. FARIDUDDIN ATTAR 123 XIII. SUHRAWARDY 141 XIV. JALALUDDIN RUMI 148 XV. SHARANI, THE EGYPTIAN 164 XV. MULLAH SHAH 174 APPENDIX I. MOHAMMEDAN CONVERSIONS 192 " II. EXPOSITION OF SUFISM 196 " III. CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN MOHAMMEDAN LITERATURE 202 " IV.

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CHAP. I.PANTHEISTIC SUFISMII.HASAN BASRIIII.RABIA, THE WOMAN SUFIIV.IBRAHIM BEN ADHAMV.FUDHAYL BEN AYAZVI.BAYAZID BASTAMIVII.ZU'N NUN OF EGYPTVIII.MANSUR HALLAJIX.HABIB AJAMIX.AVICENNA (IBN SINA)XI.AL GHAZZALIXII.FARIDUDDIN ATTARXIII.SUHRAWARDYXIV.JALALUDDIN RUMIXV.SHARANI, THE EGYPTIANXV.MULLAH SHAHAPPENDIXI.MOHAMMEDAN CONVERSIONS" II.EXPOSITION OF SUFISM " III.CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN MOHAMMEDAN LITERATURE " IV.CHRIST IN MOHAMMEDAN TRADITIONPAGE1182836465260687986106123141148164174192196202208viiPREFACEIt is a custom in some quarters to represent Mohammadan mysticism as merelya late importation into Islam, and an altogether alien element in it. But howevermuch later Islamic mysticism may have derived from Christian, Neo-platonic,and Buddhist sources, there is little doubt that the roots of mysticism are to befound in the Koran itself. The following verse is an instance: "God is the Light ofthe heavens and the earth. His light is like a niche in which is a lamp, the lampencased in glass—the glass as it were a glistening star. From a blessed tree isit lighted, the olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would wellnigh shine out even though fire touched it not! It is light upon light!" (Koran Sura24).Indeed it seems strange to accord the title of "a practical mystic" to Cromwelland to deny it to Mohammad, whose proclivity for religious meditation was sostrong that the Arabs used to say "Muhammad is in love with his Maker,"1 andwhose sense of the "terror of the Lord" was so intense that it turned his hairprematurely white. Many of the reported sayings of the Early Companions ofMuhammad show that they shared this terror. "Verily, you shall see hell, youshall see it with the eye of certainty" says the Koran, and they thought it veryprobable. Thus Ali exclaimed "Alas for the shortness of the provision and theviiiterrors of the way!" Abu'l Darda said "If ye knew what ye shall see after death,ye would not eat nor drink, and I wish that I were a tree that is lopped and thendevoured."2

This "fear of the Lord" led naturally to an almost fierce asceticism. Abu Bekrand Ali both founded communities of ascetics,3 and during the first and secondcenturies of Islam there were many orthodox mystics. Professor Nicholson inthe work just quoted, rightly says "I do not think that we need look beyond Islamfor the origin of the Sufi doctrines.... The early Sufis are still on orthodox ground,their relation to Islam is not unlike that of the mediæval Spanish mystics to theRoman Catholic Church."The following sketches are for the most part translations of papers bycontinental scholars such as Alfred Von Kremer, Pavet de Courteille, and A.F.Mehren. The essays on Ghazzali and Jalaluddin Rumi are, however, foundedon original study of those writers. The translator hopes a wholesome tonic maybe found in some of these Moslem mystics at a time when many "Christian"pulpits and presses seem anxious to dilute Christianity "into a presumptuousand effeminate love which never knew fear."4He desires to thank the Editors of the Expository Times, Church MissionaryReview, Irish Church Quarterly, and London Quarterly Review for permission toinclude papers which have appeared in those journals.C.F.1Ghazzali, Munqidh.2Nicholson. Literary History of the Arabs (p. 225)..3Tholuck. Sufismus4Sir John Seeley.CHAPTER IPANTHEISTIC SUFISM51I.—THE IMPORT OF ISLAMIC MYSTICISMThe moral law proclaimed by Moses three thousand years ago agrees with thatwhich governs men to-day, irrespective of their various stages of culture; themoral precepts of a Buddha and Confucius agree with those of the Gospel, andthe sins for which, according to the Book of the Dead of the ancient Egyptians,men will answer to the judges of the other world are sins still after four thousandyears. If the nature of the unknown First Cause is ever to be grasped at all, itcan only be in the light of those unchanging moral principles which every mancarries in his own breast. The idea of God is therefore not an affair of theunderstanding, but of the feeling and conscience. Mysticism has always sotaken it, and has therefore always had a strong attraction for the excitable andemotional portion of mankind whom it has comforted in trial and affliction. Everyreligion is accordingly rather intended for the emotions than for theunderstanding, and therefore they all contain mystical tendencies. Themysticism of Islam and Christendom have many points of contact, and bymysticism perhaps will be first bridged the wide gulf which separates Islam fromChristendom, and thereby from modern civilisation. Just in proportion as the2

various religions express the ideals of goodness and truth they approximate toone another as manifestations of the unchanging moral principle. Inasmuch asthey surmised this, the Motazilites (or free-thinkers in Islam), at a time whenEurope lay in the profoundest intellectual and moral bewilderment, fought forone of those ideas which, although they are quickly submerged again in thestormy current of the times, continue to work in silence and finally emergevictorious. On that day when the Moslem no longer beholds in God simplyomnipotence, but also righteousness, he will simultaneously re-enter the circleof the great civilised nations among whom he once before, though only for ashort time, had won the first place.It is not perhaps too fanciful to hail, as an omen of the triumph of moralmysticism over the dogmatic rigidity of Islam, the fact that the present SultanMuhammad V. was girded with the sword of Osman by the head of the Mevlevidervishes, a sect founded by the great mystic teacher Jalaluddin Rumi ofIconium. Forty-three years ago a Persian Orientalist Mirza Kasim Beg wrote inthe Journal Asiatique:—"L'unique voie qui dans l'Islam puisse conduire à la reforme c'est la doctrine dumysticisme."II.—EARLIER PHASESThe period during which the asceticism practised by the earlier Sufis passedinto the dreamy pantheism which characterises the later Sufism is the end ofthe third century after Muhammad. This introduced a new element into Islamwhich for centuries exercised a powerful influence on national culture, and isstill partially operative at present. The conception of God and of the relation ofthe finite and human with the infinite and divine from this time onward formedthe chief subject of inquiry and meditation.The man who was destined to be the first to give those ideas, which hadhitherto been foreign to Arabian Sufism, definite expression was a poorworkman, a cotton-carder, bearing the name of Hellaj. He was an ArabisedPersian, born in Persia, but educated in Irak, where he enjoyed the privilege ofbeing instructed by Junaid. The story of his life as handed down by Shiah orSunni writers has been much exaggerated. It is clear, however, that he had agreat number of disciples who revered him as their spiritual guide and ascribedto him almost supernatural powers. His ever-growing popularity muchscandalised the orthodox mullahs, who moved the authorities to proceedagainst him, and were successful in procuring his execution 922 a.d. Before hisdeath he was subjected to terrible tortures, which he bore with wonderfulcomposure.The reason of his condemnation was declared to be that he regarded himselfas an incarnation of the Godhead. His disciples honoured him as a saint afterhis death. They ascribed to him the famous saying, "I am the Truth" (i.e. God),which they took in a pantheistic sense. He is said to have taught the doctrine ofthe incarnation of the Godhead in a man and to have uttered the exclamation:Praise to the Most High Who has revealed His humanity and concealed theoverpowering splendour of His Deity. Whoso purifies himself by abstinence and purgeshimself from every trace of fleshiness, unto him the Spirit of God enters, as it enteredinto Jesus. When he has attained to this degree of perfection, whatever he wills,happens, and whatever he does is done by God.His letters to his disciples are said to have commenced with the formula, "Fromthe Lord of Lords to His slaves." His disciples wrote to him:34

O Spirit of the Spirit! O highest Aim of the holy: We bear witness that Thou hastincarnated Thyself in the form of Hosain the cotton-carder (Hellaj). We flee for protectionto Thee and hope in Thy mercy, O Knower of secrets.The genuineness of these fragments has much to support it, but is not entirelybeyond doubt. This much, however, is clear, that the disciples of Hellaj after hisdeath regarded him as a divine being. Ibn Hazm, a trustworthy author whowrote only 150 years after the execution of Hellaj, says so expressly. Ghazzali,who wrote about fifty years later still, does not mention this, but shelters Hellajfrom the charge of blasphemy by construing his exclamation "I am the Truth" ina pantheistic sense, and excuses it by ascribing it to an excess of love to Godand to mystic ecstacy. In another place he says:The first veil between God and His servant is His servant's soul. But the hidden depth ofthe human heart is divine and illuminated by light from above; for in it is mirrored theeternal Truth completely, so that it encloses the universe in itself. Now when a man turnshis gaze on his own divinely illumined heart he is dazzled by the blaze of its beauty, andthe expression "I am God!" easily escapes him. If from falls into error and is ruined. It isas though he had allowed himself to be misled by a little spark from the light-ocean ofGodhead instead of pressing forward to get more light. The ground of this self-deceptionis that he in whom the Super-*natural is mirrored confuses himself with it. So the colourof a picture seen in a mirror is sometimes confounded with the mirror itself.Hellaj was no more than the representative of an old idea, Indian in origin,which he combined with Sufism, thereby giving an entirely new direction toIslamic thought, which was important, as leading to an entirely newdevelopment of the conception of God. Even previous to Hellaj, the doctrine ofincarnation had emerged in Islam. The Caliph Ali was reported to have beensuch, and was accordingly venerated by the Shiahs. The sect of theKhattabiyah worshipped the Imam Jafar Sadik as God. Another sect believedthat the Divine Spirit had descended upon Abdallah Ibn Amr.In Khorassan the opinion was widely spread that Abu Muslim, the great generalwho overturned the dynasty of the Ommeyads and set up that of the Abbasides,was an incarnation of the spirit of God. In the same province under Al Mansur,the second Abbaside Caliph, a religious leader named Ostasys professes to bean emanation of the Godhead. He collected thousands of followers, and themovement was not suppressed without much fighting. Under the Caliph Mahdia self-styled Avatar named Ata arose, who on account of a golden mask whichhe continually wore was called Mokanna, or "the veiled prophet." He also had anumerous following, and held the Caliph's armies in check for several years, tillin 779 a.d., being closely invested in his castle, he, with his whole harem andservants, put an end to themselves.Towards the end of the second century after Muhammad, Babek in Persiataught the transmigration of souls and communism. His followers, namedKhoramiyyah, long successfully resisted the Caliph's troops. He claimed thatthe soul of an ancient law-giver named "Bod" had passed into him, whichmeant perhaps that he wished to pass for a "Buddha."It is well known that Shiite teachers were especially active in Persia. In theapotheosis of Ali, as well as in the cases of Abu Muslim, we find an assertion ofthe ideas peculiar to the Persians in pre-Islamic times. The infusion orindwelling of the Godhead in man as with the Hindu Avatars was also popular,and widely spread in Persia. In Bagdad, from the time of the early Abbasides,the Persians had exercised great influence. Shiahs were able to profess theirviews freely under the tolerant or rather religiously indifferent Caliph Mamoun.Bagdad early harboured within its walls a number of communities imbued withShiah doctrine, and the Persian conception of God silently, but widelyprevailed.56

Hellaj, educated in the orthodox Sunni school of Junaid, which, through itslaying stress on the idea of love to God, possessed rather a mystic thandogmatic character, allowed himself to be carried away by his passionatetemperament into not only preaching, but practically applying to himself theabove-mentioned doctrines, which though known to many, had been discreetlyveiled in reserve. When once the populace have been prepared for a new idea,the mere expression of it is sufficient to act as a spark on tinder. The fatal wordwas spoken by Hellaj; the authorities did their duty, seized the daring innovatorand put him to death in the cruel fashion of the time. But the word once spokenhad been borne on the winds in all directions, and the execution of Hellaj gavea powerful impulse to the spread of his doctrine. There are periods in the livesof some nations when the longing for a martyr's crown becomes epidemic. Afew years after the execution of Hellaj, a man of the people, Ibn Aby Azkyr, fromthe same village, Shalmaghan, where Hellaj had spent his youth, gave himselfout as an incarnation of the Godhead. He was put to death with several of hisfollowers under the reign of the Caliph Radhi, 933 a.d. A century after Hellaj anEgyptian, Ismail Darazy, from whom the Druses derive their name, proclaimedthe Fatimite Caliph Hakim to be an incarnation.How great was the influence exercised in general by those ideas for whichHellaj died a martyr's death we learn most clearly from the pages of Ghazzali,who wrote not quite two hundred years later. He says:The speculations of the Sufis may be divided into two classes: to the first categorybelong all the phrases about love to God and union with Him, which according to themcompensate for all outward works. Many of them allege that they have attained tocomplete oneness with God; that for them the veil has been lifted; that they have notonly seen the Most High with their eyes, but have spoken with Him, and go so far as tosay "The Most High spoke thus and thus." They wish to imitate Hellaj, who was crucifiedfor using such expressions, and justify themselves by quoting his saying, "I am theTruth." They also refer to Abu Yazid Bistamy, who is reported to have exclaimed, "Praisebe to me!," instead of "Praise be to God!" This kind of speculation is extremelydangerous for the common people, and it is notorious that a number of craftsmen haveleft their occupation to make similar assertions. Such speeches are highly popular, asthey hold out to men the prospect of laying aside active work with the idea of purging thesoul through mystical ecstasies and transports. The common people are not slow toclaim similar rights for themselves and to catch up wild and whirling expressions. Asregards the second class of Sufi speculation, it consists in the use of unintelligiblephrases which by their outward apparent meaning and boldness attract attention, butwhich on closer inspection prove to be devoid of any real sense.These words of the greatest thinker among the Muhammadans at that timeafford us a deep insight into the remarkable character of the period. From themwe gather with certainty that the division of Sufism into two classes, oneorthodox and outwardly conforming to Islam, and the other free-thinking andpantheistic, was already an accomplished fact before Ghazzali's time. Werecognise also that the latter kind of Sufism was very popular among the lowestclasses of the people and even among the agricultural population. Thefundamental characteristic of mysticism, the striving after the knowledge of Godby way of ecstatic intuition, had already come into open conflict with thefundamental principles of Islam. "Mystical love to God" was the catchwordwhich brought people to plunge into ecstatic reverie, and by completeimmersion in contemplation to lose their personality, and by this self-annihilation to be absorbed in God. The simple ascetic character of the ancientArabian Sufism was continually counteracted by the element of passivecontemplation which was entirely foreign to the Arab mind. The terms "ascetic"and "Sufi, which were formerly almost synonymous, henceforward cease to be"so, and often conceal a fundamental variance with each other. We shall not govery far wrong if we connect the crisis of this intellectual development with the789

appearance of Hellaj, so that the close of the third and commencement of thefourth century after Muhammad marks the point of time when this philosophico-religious schism was completed. In Persia the theosophy of Hellaj and hissupporters found a receptive soil and flourished vigorously; on that soil werereared the finest flowers of Persian poetry. From the Persians this tendencypassed over to the Turks, and the poetry of both nations contains strongly-marked theosophical elements.III.—THE LOVE OF GOD AND ECSTASYAlready in the second century of Islam great stress was laid upon the cultivationof love to God, an outstanding example of which is the female Sufi Rabia. Withit was connected a gradually elaborated doctrine of ecstatic states and visionswhich were believed to lead by the way of intuition and divine illumination tothe spiritual contemplation of God. We have already endeavoured to describethe religious enthusiasm which took possession of the Moslems in the first andsecond century after Muhammad and have partly traced the causes which ledto this phenomenon.Ecstasy is an invariable concomitant of religious enthusiasm. In the endeavourto break through the narrow bounds which confine the human spirit pious andcredulous natures are only too easily led astray. The instruments which manhas at his command when he wishes to investigate the supernatural do notsuffice to procure him an even approximately correct image of the object whichhe would fain observe. While the optician with the aid of mathematics canreduce errors arising from the convexity of his magnifying lens to aninfinitesimally small amount, the theologian has never found a device, andnever will find one, to obviate the errors which arise from the fact that hisintellectual insight has to be exercised through the medium of material senses,which obscure the clearness of his observation. And yet it is precisely thisceaseless striving, this irresistible impulse after something higher, thisunquenchable thirst for the fountain-head of knowledge, which constitutes thehighest and noblest side of humanity, and is the most indubitable pledge of itsspiritual future. The net result of these strivings has been an endless series ofself-delusions, and yet humanity takes on a grander aspect in them than in allits other manifold efforts and successes. The history of this spiritual wrestling,this hopeless and yet never relaxed struggle against the impossible, forms thenoblest aspect of the history of mankind.The phenomena produced by Islam in this respect do not fundamentally differfrom those produced by Christianity and Buddhism. Sufism exhibits a moreremarkable development of these phenomena, simply because it grew up in anenvironment which favoured their more luxuriant growth.The Koran, which Muhammad came, as he said to preach, was regarded as thevery word of God, and must therefore have produced an overpoweringimpression on the minds of the faithful. Of this numerous instances arereported. Abd al Wahid ibn Zaid heard one day a Koran-reader recite thefollowing verse (Sura 45: 28):—"This is Our book, which announces to you thetruth; for We have caused to be recorded all that ye have done. Those whobelieve and do good works shall their Lord admit to His favour; verily this is themost manifest recompense." On hearing this Abd al Wahid broke into loudweeping and fainted. Miswar ibn Machramah was not even able to hear anyverse of the Koran read, being so powerfully affected thereby as to becomesenseless. Of Jobair ibn Motim it is reported that he said: "I heard the Prophetrecite the following verses of the Koran:—1011

1. I swear by Tur.2. By a book which stands written on outspread parchment.3. By the house to which pilgrimage is made.4. By the lofty dome of heaven.5. And by the swelling ocean.6. That the judgment of thy Lord is at hand.Then it appeared to me," said Jobair, "as if my heart would burst in twain." Thepious Cadi Ijad adduces as a special proof of the inspiration of the Koran thedeep impression of fear and terror which its recital produced on the minds of thehearers.Muhammad ibn Mansur relates that once passing a house at midnight he heardthe voice of a man praying to God loudly and fervently, lamenting his sins withdeep contrition. Muhammad ibn Mansur could not resist the temptation; he puthis mouth to the keyhole and uttered the verse which threatens the unbelieverswith hell-fire. He heard a heavy fall within the house, and all was still. As hewent down the same street the next morning he saw a corpse being carried outof the same house, followed by an old woman. He inquired of her whose body itwas, and she answered: "Last night my son heard a verse of the Koran recited,and it broke his heart." We are far from believing all these stories, but they showwhat a view was held in the earliest times regarding the effect produced by theKoran on the minds of those who heard it.The ecstatic bent of mind of the ascetics of Islam and the later Sufis arose fromthese beginnings. Then, as now, self-originated phases of feeling wereattributed to outer causes; from the remotest times men have sought withoutthem the Divinity which they carried within.The wider spread and greater permanence of ecstatic phenomena among theMoslems than elsewhere was due to the concurrence of various conditions,chief among which was the peculiar temperament of the Arab. Capable of thefiercest momentary excitement, he quickly subsided into a state of completeapathy which is pain-proof. I6 have a lively recollection of the cases mentionedby my late friend Dr. Bilharz, who spoke of the astonishing anæsthesia whichthe patients in the medical school of Kasr al 'ain in Cairo, where he wasprofessor, exhibited under the most painful operations. They uttered hardly asound when operated upon in the most sensitive nerve-centres. The negro,notoriously excitable as he is, and therefore still more exposed to completeprostration of the organs of feeling, exhibits this apathy in a yet more markeddegree than the Arab and Egyptian. Many examples of this are found in oldArabic authors—e.g., in the narratives of the martyrdoms of Hatyt, of Hellaj andof a young Mameluke crucified in 1247 a.d. Of the last Suyuti has preserved apsychologically detailed description.Although Christian martyrology is rich in such instances of unshakable fortitudeunder the most painful tortures, yet in Islam the ecstatic temper has attained ahigher significance and been more constantly exhibited. A chief reason of thiswas the religious fanaticism, which was incomparably stronger and morewidely diffused in Islam than in mediæval Christendom. The minds of theMoslems were kept in perpetual tension by severe religious exercises, theeffect of which was intensified by fasts and pilgrimages. The peculiar manner oflife in the desert, the birthplace of Islam, also contributed to this; the scanty diet,the loneliness of the desert, and in the towns the want of civic life, the poverty ofideas among the Arabs, all helped to produce the same result. Finally,deception, hypocrisy, and superstition, as, alas, so often is the case in religiousmatters, played a great part. Whoever did not feel ecstatically moved at therecitation of the Koran pretended to be so, and often thereby, perhapsunconsciously, exercised a great effect on others. Men began by pretending to1213

unconsciously, exercised a great effect on others. Men began by pretending tofeel religious enthusiasm and ended by believing that they really felt it.Ghazzali mentions in the Ihya ul-ulum that the prophet commanded thatwhoever did not feel moved to tears at the recitation of the Koran shouldpretend to weep and to be deeply moved; for, adds Ghazzali sagely, in thesematters one begins by forcing oneself to do what afterwards comesspontaneously. Moreover, the fact that religious excitement was looked upon asthe mark of a fervent mind and devout intensity, vastly increased the number ofthose who claimed mystic illumination.When verses of the Koran through frequent repetition lost their power toawaken ecstasy, single lines of fragments of poems sufficed to produce it. Oncethe mystic Taury found himself in the midst of a company who were discussingsome scientific question. All took part in it with the exception of Taury, whosuddenly rose and recited:—Many cooing doves mourn in the mid-day heat,Sadly under the roof of foliage overhead,Remembering old companions and days gone by;Their lament awakens my sorrow also,My mourning rouses them, and often theirs disturbs my sleep;I do not understand their cooing, and they do not understand my weeping:But through, my sorrow of heart I know them, and through their heart-sorrowthey know me.Hardly had those present heard these verses than they all fell into a state ofecstatic contemplation.Ibrahim ben Adham, the celebrated Sufi, once heard the following verses:—Everything is forgiven thee, except estrangement from Us:We pardon thee all the past, and only that remains which has escaped Oureyes (i.e., nothing).They immediately caused him to fall into a trance which lasted twenty-fourhours. Ghazzali, who himself borrowed much from the Sufis, and was a diligentstudent of their doctrine, seeks to explain these strange phenomena onpsychological grounds. He divides the ecstatic conditions which the hearing ofpoetical recitations produces into four classes. The first, which is the lowest, isthat of the simple sensuous delight in melody. The second class is that ofpleasure in the melody and of understanding the words in their apparent sense.The third class consists of those who apply the meaning of the words to therelations between man and God. To this class belongs the would-be initiateinto Sufism; he has necessarily a goal marked out for him to aim at, and thisgoal is the knowledge of God, meeting Him and union with Him by the way ofsecret contemplation, and the removal of the veil which conceals Him. In orderto compass this aim the Sufi has a special path to follow; he must performvarious ascetic practices and overcome certain spiritual obstacles in doing so.Now when, during the recitation of poetry, the Sufi hears mention made ofblame or praise, of acceptance or refusal, of union with the Beloved orseparation from Him, of lament over a departed joy or longing for a look, asoften occurs in Arabic poetry, one or the other of these accords with his spiritualstate and acts upon him, like a spark ,on tinder, to set his heart aflame. Longingand love overpower him and unfold to him manifold vistas of spiritualexperience.The fourth and highest class is that of the fully initiated who have passedthrough the stages above-mentioned, and whose minds are closed toeverything except God. Such an one is wholly denuded of self, so that he nolonger knows his own experiences and practices, and, as though with sensessealed, sinks into the ocean of the contemplation of God. This condition the141516

Sufis characterise as self-annihilation (Fana).But he who is bereft of self-consciousness is none the less aware of what iswithout him; it is as if his consciousness were withdrawn from everything butthe one object of contemplation, i.e., God. While he who is completelyabsorbed in the contemplation of the object seen is as little capable oftheorising regarding the act of contemplation as regarding the eye, theinstrument of sight, or the heart, the seat of joyful emotion. Just in the same waya drunken man is not conscious of his intoxication, so he who is drowned in joyknows nothing of joy itself, but only knows what causes it. Such a condition ofmind may occur with regard to created things as well as with regard to theCreator Himself, only in the latter case it is like a flash of lightning, withoutpermanence. Could such a condition of the soul last longer, it would be beyondthe power of human nature to endure and would end in overwhelming it. So it isrelated of Taury that once in a meeting he heard this verse recited:—In my love to Thee I attained to a height where to tread causes the senses to reel.He immediately fell into an ecstatic condition and ran into a field where thenewly-cut stubble cut his feet like knives. Here he ran about all night till themorning, and a few days afterwards died.In this highest condition of ecstasy the soul is to be compared to a clear mirror,which, itself colourless, reflects the colours of the object seen in it. Or to acrystal, whose colour is that of the object on which it stands or of the fluid whichit contains. Itself colourless, it has the property of transmitting colours. Thisexposition of Sufistic ecstasy by Ghazzali shows that in his time, far from beingon the wane, such phenomena were on the increase. For when a man of suchcomprehensive mind, such a deep thinker, so well versed in the knowledge ofmen and especially of his fellow-Moslems, speaks so plainly and without doubtupon the matter and seeks to explain it psychologically, this idea must havealready taken deep root and spread widely. Ghazzali is consequently to beregarded as a decided adherent of Sufism and as approving of the enthusiastictendencies accompanying it. He narrates in his autobiography7 how he left hisfamily in Bagdad and went to Damascus, where for two whole years he studiedSufism. Afterwards he made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. In his lonelymusings things were revealed to him, which, he said, could not be described,and he arrived at last at the firm conviction that the Sufis were on the way ofGod and that their teaching was the best. It must be admitted that by SufismGhazzali meant that kind of it which held fast to the general principles of Islamand was in accord, even though only externally, with the orthodox party. TheseSufis adhered to the Koran and the traditions, but interpreted them allegorically.Mysticism must always be propped up by a positive religion, as it has nosupport in itself.5From Von Kremer.6Von Kremer.7"The Confessions of Al Ghazzali" (Wisdom of the East series).CHAPTER IIHASAN BASRI8(d 728 ad) 1718

Hasan Basri was born in Arabia at Medina, where his mother had been broughtas a captive and sold to Omm Salma, one of the wives of the Prophet. Arrivedat man's estate, and having received his liberty, he retired to Basra on thePersian gulf, a stronghold of the ascetic sect. Here he lived undisturbed, thoughhis open disavowal of the reigning family of Ommeyah exposed him to somedanger. The following incident, illustrating his independence of character isnarrated by Ibn Khalliqan. When Omar ibn Hubaira was appointed to thegovernment of Irak in the reign of the Caliph Abd-al Malik (a.d. 721) he calledfor Hasan Basri, Muhammad Ibn Sirin and as Shabi to whom he said, "Abd alMalik has received my promise that I will hear and obey him; and he has nowappointed me to what you see, and I receive from him written orders. Must Iobey him in whatever orders he takes upon himself to give?" To this Ibn Sirinand as Shabi gave a cautious reply, but Hasan Basri, being asked his opinion,made this answer: "O Ibn Hubaira! God outweighs Abd al Malik, and Abd alMalik cannot outweigh God; God can defend thee from Abd al Malik, and Abdal Malik cannot defend thee from God. He will soon send an angel to take theefrom thy throne, and send thee from the width of thy palace into the narrownessof the tomb. Then thy deeds alone can save thee." Ibn Hubaira then rewardedthem, but bestowed a double reward on Hasan Basri, upon which as Shabisaid to Ibn Sirin, "We gave him a poor answer, and he gave us a poor reward."Hasan Basri's adoption of the ascetic life was brought about in the followingway. When a young man he was a lapidary, and had gone to Roum (AsiaMinor) to practise his craft. He there lived on friendly terms with the vizier of thatcountry. One day the vizier said to him, "We are going out of the city to a certainplace; will you come with us?" Hasan Basri assented, and went. "We came," hesaid afterwards, "to a plain where there was a vast tent the ropes of which wereof silk and its stakes of gold. I saw a large number of soldiers marching round it;they repeated some words which I could not hear, and then retired. Then cameabout four hundred mullahs and learned men, who did the same. These werefollowed by a similar number of old men. Then about four or five hundredbeautiful maidens, each holding in her hand a dish containing rubies, pearls,turquoises, and other precious stones. They went in procession round the tentin the same way. Finally the sultan and the vizier went into the tent and cameout again."As for me, I remained transfixed with astonishment. 'What does all this mean?'I asked the vizier. 'The King,' he said, 'had an extremely beautiful child of ahappy disposition, who fell ill and died. His tomb is within this tent, and theyvisit it once a year. First come the soldiers, who circle round the tent and say, 'Oson of the sultan, if we could have ransomed thy life by the strokes of ourswords, we would have done it, even had it cost us our own; but God willedotherwise, and we cannot change his decree.' Having so said, they go away.Then the mullahs and learned men, coming in their turn, say, 'O son of thesultan, if we could have ransomed thee by knowledge or by eloquence, wewould have done so; but all the knowledge and eloquence in the world cannotarrest the decrees of Allah.' Then they depart. After them come the old men,who cry, 'If we could have saved thee by groanings and prayers, we wouldhave done so; but our intercession is useless.' Finally come the youngmaidens, who say, 'O son of the sultan, if we could have ransomed thee at theprice of beauty and wealth, we would have done it; but the steps of fate turnaside for neither.' After them the sultan and the vizier enter the tent. The sultansays, 'O my son, I have done all that I could do. I have brought all thesesoldiers, these mullahs, these learned men, these old men, these beautifulmaidens bearing treasures, and yet I cannot bring thee back. It depends not onme, but on Him before Whom all power is powerless. May the mercy of the Lordbe multiplied upon thee for another year.' Having thus spoken, they return by1920