220
Of the Religion of the Sufiahs,[162]
contained in
three Sections.
Section I.—Some of their tenets.
Section II.—The open interpretation of their open confessions.
Section III.—Some individuals among them.
Section I.—Of some of their tenets.
These sectaries, like other philosophers, always
were, and are, scattered among all nations of the
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world, and are called in Persian vèzhahderún, “internally
pure,” or róuchen-dil, “enlightened minds,”
or Yékána-bín, “seers of unity;” in the Hindu language,
Rakhísher (Rakshasas) and Tapísher (Tapasis),
Gyanisher and Gyáni (Jnánis), or Atma-jnánis. The
lord Maulavi Jámi, in his work entitled Resálah-i-vajudíah,
“treatise upon existence,”[163]
states, that
the universal Being is distinct from any intellectual
and exterior existence, inasmuch as every individual
from among the intellectual and exterior beings
belongs to some class of beings; but the universal
Being is not subordinate to the condition of any
thing; he is absolute and sovereign, and not general,
not partial, not special, not common, and not one
by (the number of) unity; for, it is neither a substance
nor an accident, but by itself one, and not a
multiple. These things however are necessary in
222
the sovereign being, according to their degrees and
stations,[164]
but the real Being, under the condition of
no substance whatever, is distinguished by the name
martibah-ahadiyat,[165]
“degree of unity,” and all
names and attributes are (as it were) consumed by
this degree, which the Yogis express by the title
hakiket al hakáyek,[166]
“reality of realities.” But the
real Being, under the condition of all things which
are necessarily himself, according to generalities and
specialities, is called by names and attributes of the
divine degree, and this degree is entitled Vahedet-i-mokam,[167]
“solitariness of station,” and jamah,[168]
“union.”
The real Being, under no condition of “a
thing” (shí),[169]
and under no condition of “nothing”
(láshi),[170]
is called húvíyat,[171]
“essence, absolute being,
objectivity,” and it is manifesting itself[172]
in all existences,
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and under the condition of “a thing and nothing,”
is the form of the universe.[173]
Some of the sagacious have stated that, in the
same manner as the sun is radiant, so the real Being
manifests himself at once for in opposition to it is
âdem, “non-entity,” and from the superabundance
of manifestation the tongue and language (in the
effort) to express and to describe, to define and to
explain, become dumb. The final explanation of
the two words, vojud, “existence,” and âdem, “non-entity”
may be, that existence is the negation of
non-entity, and non-entity the negation of existence;
and the Lord of unity is the grand origin of the multiplicity
of names and attributes. The first attribute,
which emerged into manifestation by this Lord
from within, was intelligence; and in this degree all
aâyán sabitah, “fixed realities,”[174]
were under intellectual
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forms, and in this degree the Súfís give to the
true highest and absolute Being the name of “All-Wise.”
The impulsion of divine wisdom to procure
to his fixed ideals the superiority over non-entity
is by them entitled irádet,[175]
“providence,” and
the name of murid, “he who wills,” attached to
God. As often as the divine knowledge becomes
joined to accomplishment and victory, as having
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given to the existence of knowledge the superiority
over contingencies, in this degree they call this victory
kadaret, “might;” and in this degree originated
the name of Kadir, “Almighty.” With respect
to the seeing of God, as the meaning of knowledge
is his presence in face of the existing external
figures of contingencies, in this degree, the name
of Básír, “the All-Seeing,” offered itself. Likewise,
the meditation upon God, by those who, praying,
recite his emblematic attributes, is the time of
propitiating; and the granting of these prayers is
called samíâ, “hearing:” whence proceeded the
name samíâ, “hearer.” Further, the will of God,
the Highest, becoming concentrated in this state,
having joined the letter kaf (k) to the letter nún (n),
so as to manifest by action kun faíkun,[176]
“Be, and it
is:” this state they called kalám, “the word,”
and the name of mutkalem, “speaker,” was produced
on this account.
The lord Shaikh Muhammed Shosterí,[177]
in his
treatise Hak al yakín,[178]
“the truth of conviction,” has
226
stated, that the action of choice prevails with the
self-existent Being over necessity, because choice is
presupposed in the nature of might, and provident
choice, as well as vicissitudes and excitement, are
parts suitable to a purpose, and providence came to
succour every one of the necessitous crowd, by procreating
remedies against the evils without number
which are determined by necessity, in opposition to
that necessity whence pure procreation proceeds.
When the free agent is straightened in his choice,
then choice assumes the nature of necessity. Thus Ibn
Mâyín eddin Maibedí[179] relates, in his Favátah, “Prolegomena,”
that the Súfis say: The wished for, but never-found
Being proceeds from the field of pure non-entity,
and the bare negation puts no foot into the
station of evidence and habitation of bodily existence,
in the same manner as the wished-for but never-found
Being never assumes the color of bodily existence;
certainly, the real Being also does not take the color
of non-entity. The substance of any thing cannot
be caused to vanish into non-existence; thus, if thou
consumest a stick in the fire, its substance is not
annihilated although its form changes, and becomes
manifest in the form of ashes. The self-existent
Being is an essence which is stable in all conditions,
and in the accidents of existence, in the forms and
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states which undergo changes, the divine procreation
of the world is the manifested light of his absolute
reality, under the shape of divers combinations
which thou beholdest.
“Certainly God made the heaven and earth to shine.”
In the book of the sagacious is found that the
beautiful of this world enjoys the advantage of his
beauty, when he beholds and considers its reflexion
in a looking-glass; on that account, the absolute
Being, having been revealed in the mirror of existences
and appropriate places, and having seen his
beauty in various mirrors, and in every one of them
being exhibited under a shape worthy of himself,
become manifest in a series of multitudinous appearances.
The Súfis further say: God is pure, conformable
to his essence, above all purity and comparison, and
in the gradations of names and attributes praised
in both ways. Whoever dispenses with the comparison
of something which has no equal, does not
know that, declaring God to be without an equal, is
comparing him with pure beings. The friends of
God say that his name is of three kinds, viz.: he is
itlák, “absolute,” by his essence, or considered as an
unsubstantial (abstract) thing;[180]
and they give him
228
the name of zát, “essence,” like that of kadus,
“pure, holy;” that is, considered as a substance,
he is the Being the meaning of which is not dependent
upon the meaning of another; they call him
sifet, “excelling in attributes,” and háí, “living;”
that is, considered as a substance, he is a Being
whose meaning is dependent upon that of another.
They name him fâl, “action,” like khálik, “Creator,”
which is the general name of God, as well as
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rahmen, “mercy;” but the great name is at last
khafá, “the concealed (mysterious).” A person
asked the lord Shaikh Bayezíd Bastámí:[181]
“Which is
the great name of God?” The Shaikh answered:
“Communicate thou to me his least name, that I
may give thee in return his greatest:” that is to
say, the names of God are all great.
The sagacious say: Every era is the epoch of the
fame and dominion of a name, and when this epoch
expires, it becomes concealed under the name which
it had at the epoch of its flourishing state.[182]
230
They say, the names of the Deity contain the distinct
forms in the divine science, and these are called
aâyan sábitah, “fixed substances,”[183]
whether general
or partial, and these intellectual forms received existence
in eternity without beginning,[183]
by fayz,[184]
“emanation,”
from the essence of God endowed with
most holy emanation. Further, the intellectual forms
rise into evidence with all dependencies and necessary
consequences of the most holy emanation.
The fixed substances have a relation to the names
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of bodies, and to the external substances[185]
of spirits,
and between all beings there arises an interposition
dependent on the degree of excellence
which it has with respect to God. All the reality
of accidental beings lies in the external existence;
the reality of individuals is dependent upon fixed
times, and every one emerges into existence at his
time.[186]
The Súfis maintain that all attributes of perfection
are necessarily inherent in the supreme holy essence;
that is, are fixed by the purity of his essence. What
in the accidental substance is fixed by properties,
for instance, thy substance, is not sufficient for
the revelation of thyself; as long as the attribute of
God’s essence, which is the principle of that revelation,
has not taken firm hold of thee, this revelation
232
cannot be obtained. On the contrary, God, the
most High, stands not in need of that revelation of
things, on account of the purity which is inherent
in him; but his essence is the principle of that revelation;
that is, his essence and attributes are one.
On this account, the Amir of the believers, Alí,
said:
“The perfection of the belief in the unity of God consists in the
negation of attributes.”
The lord Shaikh Dáud Kaiśerí says in the Sherah-fes
us, “Commentary upon the bezels:”[187]
the knowledge
of God the most High, in his essence, is the
identity of the essence, and the knowledge of this
world is that of the forms of things in it, whether
generally or partially; and if one essence is said to
be the receptacle of manifold things, this acceptation
is not to be feared, as the things are identic with God
according to the acceptation of “existence,” and in
truth are different only according to the acceptation
of being either involved or manifested. Further, in
reality, there is neither state nor place, but there is
one object exhibited under forms of decoration and
portraiture by external appearances. Kasá, “God’s
233
universal judgment or decree (predestination)” is
the summary decision of the conditions of existence,
as the decision for the death of all mankind; and
Kadr[188] is “the interpretation of that decision by
determined means, and in consequence of results
conformable to the faculties;” for instance, the
decision of the death of Záid, on such a day, by
such a malady. Kas a, “predestination,” is the
eternal knowledge concerning existences, and this
knowledge is dependent on the âyán sábitah, “fixed
substances.” Each thing demands, by disposition,[189]
a peculiar emanation of God.
The Súfis say, according to the sacred text:
“God created man according to his image.”
We have the power of acting on account of our
being the mirror of the supreme essence; if we say:
“The action is ours,” it may be right; and if we say:
“It is of God,” it is equally true. The master of
the rose-bower says:
“Masnavi. Recognise the mark of God in every place,
Never place the foot without its own limit.
Whoever has a faith other than that of Jabr
[190]
234
Is, according to the word of the prophet, to be accounted a Guéber.
In like manner as that Guéber said: ‘Yezdán, Aherman,’
So was it as if that ignorant blockhead had said: ‘He and me;’
The actions have but a metaphorical connection with us,
A connection with him in reality is a ludicrous play.
How came it, O man without intelligence, that, from eternity,
This man should be Muhammed, and the other Abú Jehel?”
It is written in the glorious Koran:
“If any thing good happens to them, they say: ‘It comes from God;’
and if any thing bad, they say: ‘It comes from me,’ say: ‘Every
thing comes from God.’”
The Súfis say that the whole heaven is a body, the
first intelligence its soul, the breath of the whole his
heart, and the spirits of the seven planets, of the
fixed stars and the rest, are his power.
“Your creation and your resurrection are as those of one man.”
The Shaikh Mohí eddin[191]
says in his Faś hawdí,
235
“chapter of repentance:” The world is the image of
God, and he the soul and governor of the universe,
further he is the great mankind. The lord Maulavi
Jámí, in the Nakd-al faśus, “the ready money of
bezels,” states, that there are two divisions of the
beings of the universe: the first consists of those who
on no account have any sort of connection with the
bodily world, in conformity to office and direction;
these, called Cherubim, are divided into two classes:
the one take not the least notice of the world and
its inhabitants, and are named “the great Angels;”
the other, although not connected with the bodily
world, are yet entranced in astonishment as witnesses
and valuers of God’s power, standing at the
curtain of the divine court, and being the ministers
of the supreme bounty; before them is an angel entitled
236
“the great spirit,” greater than whom no angel
exists. According to another interpretation he is
said to be “the highest secretary and first intelligence.”
This great spirit (the blessing of God
be upon him!) holds the first rank of this class.
The spirit, who is called Jabríil, follows after him in
this legion.
“The rank which he possesses is a place known.”
Another division is composed of those who have
connection with the bodily world according to order
and office; these are named “spirits,” also divided
into two classes: the one are spirits who perform
their office in the heavens, and these are entitled
“the high angels;” the other class are those who
perform their office upon earth, and these bear the
name of “lower angels.” Many thousands of them
are appointed to the human race, and many thousands
to minerals, to plants, and the animal kingdom.
The people of the revelation (prophets) say:
“There, where seven angels are not assembled, not
a leaf can germinate from a branch;” the seven
angels are meant to be seven divine powers. Thus,
the spirits of fire, who are called Jin and Siátín,
“genii and demons,” belong to the kind of lower
angels, and Iblis is their chief and ruler. The lord
Shaikh Mahmúd Shósterí says, that Iblis is the power
of imagination, which the learned call “the material.”
The Súfis give it the name of “the foundation
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of material substance,” or Enka.[192]
According
to the Súfis, matter is mâdum, “not eternally existent.”
They call the absolute body “the universal body.”
The Súfis say, as is found in the
Favátah, that the spirit of mankind is the absolute
spirit of the divinity; thus the spirit of mankind, for
the sake of elocution—that is, excellence—expresses
itself by sound; and sound, for the sake of elocution,
by various distinct modulations, which in utterance
are made sensible, becomes a word, and by the
combination of words a language acquires reality.
The Shaikh Muhammed Láhaji[193] says, in his Commentary
on Gulshen raz,[194]
“the Mystery of the Rosebower,”
that the meaning of the expression “the
divine spirit,” is “the revelation of truth in the
circus of multiplicity,” and in the Sharh mahtaśer,
“abridged Commentary (epitome)” on Gulshen, is
found that, in like manner as the spirit of mankind
becomes sound, and sound a word, so also the divine
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spirit becomes jawher, “substance,” and substances
become spirits and forms; thus human nature is
determined in a manner that its hidden conditions
proceed from the interior to manifestation.
The presence of the universal deity, which is
expansive in the divine spirit and soul), is fivefold.
The first is hazeret ghaib mut´lak, “the presence of
the absolute mystery,” and this is one with the
aâyían sábatah, “the invariable prototypes (realities
of things).” The second is the hazeret ghaib muśáf,[195]
“the presence of the relative mystery,” which
is nearest the absolute mystery, and this belongs to
pure intellects and spirits. The third is the hazeret
musáf ghaib,[196]
“the presence of the mysterious relation,”
which is nearest the absolute evidence; this
is the world of similitude, or dream. The fourth is
the hazeret shahádet mut´lak,[197]
“the presence of the
absolute evidence,” which reaches from the centre
of the earth to the middle of the ninth empyrean
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heaven. The fifth is the hazerát jámâh,[198]
“the presence
of the vest,” and this is the universe in an
extensive, and mankind in a restricted, acceptation.[199]
The Súfis besides say: The world is life and intellect,
as far as the mineral kingdom; but the manifestation
of intellect in every body is determined by
the temperature of the human constitution. Sometimes
bounty attains an excellence which is uttered
with ecstacy, and becomes a modulation more powerful
than that which strikes the ear: and this is the
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mode of the prophet (blessing upon him!). Thus
is it commonly related that Jabrííl brought to the
blessed prophet the happy news, that his poor followers
will enter heaven five hundred years sooner
than the rich. The prophet, full of joy, said: “Can
none of you recite a verse?” A person proffered
these distichs:
“The serpent of desire bit my heart:
There is, to cure me, neither doctor nor magician,
If not the friend whom I adore:
He alone possesses the theriac and the amulet suitable to my cure.”
Upon this the lord prophet, with his companions,
moved about in ecstacy, with such a violence that
the cloak fell from his shoulder.[200]
Further, the sagacious say that the forms of the
sensible world are shades of seeming forms. The
Súfis also maintain that a spirit cannot exist without
a body;[201]
when it breaks forth from a body, it obtains,
according to its deeds and actions, an apparent
body, which they call acquired.
وجود اندر كالش حويش ساريست
تعينها امور اعتباريست
امور اعتبارى نيست موجود
عدو بسيار و يكجيزست معدود
جهانرا نيست هستى جز مجازي
سراسر حال او لهوست و بازي
241
Section II.—Of the prophetic Office; and Explanation
of the public Declarations conformable to
the Revelation of inspired Persons.
The Súfis say: The prophet is a person who is sent
to the people as their guide to the perfection which
is fixed for them in the scientific presence (of God)
according to the exigency of the dispositions determined
by the fixed substances, whether it be the
perfection of faith, or another. The Shaikh Hamíd
eddin Nagóri[202]
states, in his Sharh-i-ashk, “Commentary
upon Love,” that Abúdíyet, “devotion,”[203]
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and rubúbíyet, “divinity,”[204]
both attributes of
God; as often as the manifestation of divinity came
to seize the lord of the prophetic asylum (Muhammed),
and the quality of devotion became effaced in
him, in this transitory state,[205]
whatever he proffered
was the word of God. The Máulaví Mânavi says:
“As the Koran came from the lips of the prophet,
Whoever asserts, he said not the truth is a Kafr (infidel).”
And when he arrived at the quality of divinity,
what he then uttered, this is called by them hadís,
“sacred saying;” further, what he said with the
243
tongue of divinity, was a hadís. The meaning of the
words “from Jabríil” is this, that between these
two qualities (devotion and divinity), is a mind which
in the manifestation of divinity is giving information
from divinity, but in the quality of divinity there
is nothing intervening between itself:[206]
hence it is
said:
“In love there is no message intervening:
It was itself which acted as its own messenger.”
The sagacious Súfís say, that what causes the
revelation of the original Being in the gradations of
divinity and in the wisdom of a book, and his
appearance in whatever form, is the manifestation
of his perfection, and this is of two kinds and in a
twofold degree. The first degree is manifestation
and exhibition in such a manner that whatever
exists may prove complete, and this can take place
only in the completeness of form; it is man who,
according to the terminology of this sect, is indicated
by it, that is, essentiality, which is the union of universalities
and particularities: it is said accordingly:
“There is nothing moist—there is nothing dry, that be not in the
manifest book (the Koran).” That is: Every thing is contained in the
Koran.
Without him (God) there is no strength; it is by
244
him that every thing enters into the area of form
and evidence.
“Without thee is nothing in the world;
Ask from thyself, if thou desirest to know what thou art.”
(ARABIC SENTENCE.)
“Every thing has an advantage, which, at the junction of its parts,
has been placed in it.”
The second degree is in the perfection of the
existence of forth-bringing and exhibiting; so that
every thing which exists, as it exists, is made to
appear complete.
The seal, or “the last prophet,” in the terminology
of this sect, is a person, to whom this office can
be appropriated, and from whom the great business
may proceed; but, in forthcoming it is not allowed
to him to be, in form,[207]
all-sufficient in dignity, and
in showing this form in the world; this is not confined
to a single person; but if this excellence is
manifested around, it is acknowledged as the seal of
dignity in this age. When this condition is established,
then, by the before-said interpretation, the
moon is said to be the symbol realised in this form,
because, in the style of eloquence, it is generally
usual to interpret the form of perfection by that of
the moon, and “to divide the moon,” means in
figurative language to elicit thoroughly the sense
245
from this form, without taking into consideration
the instruments of imitation and the arrangement
of artful contrivances. Thus was it with regard to
the promised lord of the prophetic asylum. The
lord Imâm Muhammed núrbakhsh,[208]
“the light-bestower,”
in his treatise upon the ascent to heaven,
stated: “Know that the lord Muhammed, the
Selected (peace be with him!) ascended to heaven
with a body, but this body was light, like that
assumed in a dream, with which he went into a
state of trance, which is an intermediate state[209]
between
sleeping and waking, and on that account it
is said in the first tradition of the ascent:
“I was between sleeping and waking.”
And further:
“God directed thee in the explanation of things revealed to the prophets
and saints, upon whom be peace!”
That his being carried from the mosque of Mecca to
the mosque of Jerusalem, is an image of the migration
246
of the terrestrial angels from one place to another.
To keep the Imámate (or presidence) during
worship is to the prophet an image, that in his
religion there are many heirs of the prophet, who
are the saints and learned men of the age.
Borák, the vehicle of devotion, is like an image of
prayer; the saddle and bridle represent the ready
mind and the perfect union of religion. The members
of Borák, of precious jewels, typify purity,
candor, affection, submission, humility, and perfect
love of God, rejecting all other desire except that
tending towards the supreme Being in prayer. The
restiveness of Borak, and the aid given by Jabríil in
mounting Borák present a similitude of the reluctance
of the human mind to the wisdom of its
knowledge of God, and Jabríil figures the science of
divinity.
The travelling by steps up to heaven, means the gradual
elevation by steps, which are remembrance,
rosary-beads, praising and magnifying by exclamation,
God and the like, by which the heart arrives
from this nether world of sensuality to the upper
world.
By the first heaven, which is that of the moon, is
understood the arrival at the station of cordiality.
The opening of the heavenly door by an angel, and
the appearance of Jabríil, is figuratively the victory
of the heart over remembrance, as will be explained
247
in the sequel. The arriving at the heaven of Aĺ áred,
“Mercury,” is the image of elevation on the
regions of cordiality on account of meditation on the
knowledge of God, as—
“One hour’s meditation is preferable to seventy years of exterior
worship.”
The arrival at the heaven of Zaherah, “Venus,”
signifies elevation of the upper angels, on account of
the delight and beatitude which are produced in the
interior by the love of God. The arrival at the
heaven of the sun is to be interpreted as the elevation
in the inner sense, on account of accomplishing the
precepts of the faith, and the promulgated orders,
which are derived from it. The arrival at the heaven
of Meríkh, “Mars,” denotes the elevation which
may have taken place in consequence of the war
made upon the spirit of fraud. The arrival at the
heaven of Mishterí, “Jupiter,” offers an image of
the elevation on account of purity, piety, and abstinence
from any thing doubtful, which are manifested
by these steps. The arrival at the heaven of Zehel,
“Saturn,” is to be understood as the elevation from
the state of spirituality to that of mystery by the
blessing of exertion and sanctity, by choice or by
force, which means overcoming a difficulty.
The arrival at Falek sábetab, “the heaven of the
fixed stars,” is an image of the elevation by the
blessing of firmness in the faith, and evident proof
248
of diligent permanency in good practices, and fidelity
in the love of God and of the people of God. The
arrival at Falek atlas, “the crystalline sphere,” is to
be interpreted as the elevation to the utmost boundary
of the angels by the blessing of interior purity,
and a heart free from all desire except that after
God.
The remaining behind of Borák, the arch, and Jabríil,
in each station indicate the meaning, that in
the worlds of the upper spirits, and the empyreal
heaven, there are certain extents of spiritual faculties,
and limits of imagination, so that no body can
deviate from the station of comprehension, and
“The place of his acquisition is a place known.”
The explanation of this is, that, as the elemental
body cannot deviate from the elemental world, and
the soul, however composed it may be, cannot make
a step out of the nether dominion, as well as the
heart cannot leave the outer skirts of the upper
angelic courts, so that the mystery never comes
forth from the middle of the upper dominion, and
the spirit cannot make a step out of the extreme ends
of the upper regions into the âalem-i-jabrút, “the
highest empyreal heaven,” and the hidden cannot
transgress the empyreal world. Hence proceeds
the sense of ghaib al ghaiyûb, “evanescence of evanescences,”
the mysterious hidden.
249
The Enka, upon the mount Kâf,[210]
is divinity, and
there is annihilation into God. He does not allow
250
plurality nor partnership of eternal beauty and
strength, and from that exalted station there is no
descent. When a bird or man is annihilated, a
name is always without a designate object. Vás el,
“the perfect master of union,”[211]
finds in this station
251
by annihilation into God emancipation from
the confinement of visible existence, and acquires
with an eternal mansion the intimate connection
with God, and an exit from the garment of servitude,
and becomes endowed with divine qualities.
In the station of transition into God, Jabríil is the
image of wisdom and of manifest knowledge, on
which account it has been declared—
“There are moments when I am with God in such a manner that neither
angel nor archangel, prophet nor apostle, can attain to it.”
When at the time of transition, science, comprehension,
knowledge, and all qualities are cancelled
and vanish, then transitory knowledge unites with
the perfect science, the dangers of mankind are carried
off and disappear, before the rays of light of
the supreme Being. And this is the kind of knowledge
which Jabríil revealed. Above this station
resides the absolute Being. Again, ascent and descent,
and letter and sound denote the meaning that
mankind comprises all qualities—the high and the
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low; by the exigency of its united properties, at
times drowned in the ocean of unity, man is bewildered;
and, at times, yielding to this prevailing
nature, he associates with women. Know what
Shaikh Aziz Nasfy says: Men, devoted to God’s
unity declared, regarding the expression táí asmavat,
“the folding up heaven,” that “heaven” signifies
something that is high and of a bountiful expansion[212]
with respect to those who are below it, and
this, causing a bountiful communication, may take
place either in the spiritual or in the material world;
the bestower of the bountiful communication may be
from the latter, he may be from the former, world.
Further, any thing may be either terrestrial or heavenly.
If thou hast well conceived the sense of the
heavenly and terrestrial, know that mankind has
four nishá, “stages,”[213]
in like manner as the blasts
of the trumpet are four times repeated: because
death and life have four periods. In the first stage,
man is living under the form of a thing; but, with
respect to qualities and reason, he is a dead thing.
In the second stage, under the form of mind, he is
a living thing, but, with respect to qualities and reason,
a dead thing. In the third stage, under the
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form of mind, qualities he is a living thing, but,
with respect to reason, a dead thing. In the fourth
stage, under the form of mind, qualities, and reason,
he is a living thing. In the first stage, he is
entirely in the sleep of ignorance, darkness, and
stupidity, as
“Darkness upon darkness——”
In this stage he awakes from the first sleep; in the
second stage, from the second; in the third, from
the third sleep; in the fourth stage, from the last
sleep; and in this awaking of the heart he becomes
thoroughly and entirely awake, and acquires
perfect possession of himself, and knows
positively that all he had known in the three preceeding
stages was not so: because truth, having
been but imaginary, was falsehood; and that heaven
and earth, as they had been understood before,
were not so. Further, in this stage, earth will not
be that earth, and heaven not that heaven, which
men knew before. This is the meaning of the
words:
“On the day when the earth shall be changed into something else
than the earth, as well as the heaven, and when all that shall be manifested
by the power of God, the only one, the Almighty.”[214]
And when they arrived at that station and possessed
positively the form of mind, qualities, and
reason of an individual, certainly they knew by
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means of revelation and inspiration, that except one
there is no being, and this being is God, the glorious
and sublime; they were informed of the real state
of things from the beginning to the utmost extremity.
In the account concerning the obscuration
of the moon, and sun, and stars, they said: that
stars have their meaning from the beginning of the
light, which is produced in the hearts of the intelligent
and select; that the sun denotes the utmost
fulness and universality of light; and that the moon,
a mediator between the sun and the star,[215]
from all
sides, spreads their tidings. Then the sun is the
universal bestower of abundant blessings; the moon
is in one respect “a benefactor,” in another respect,
“benefitted.” As often as the sun’s light, which
is the universal light, manifests and spreads itself,
unity of light comes forth; the light of the moon
and that of the stars is effaced by the light of the
sun. From the beginning, the prophet says,
that—
“When the stars shall fall,
And in the midst,
“When the moon shall be obscured,”
And when the select associate with the bestower of
abundant blessings, that
“When the sun and moon shall unite,”
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there remains no trace of istifáset, “diffusion,” nor
of afáset,[216]
“profusion.”
“When the sun shall be folded up.”
It was said that the earth of the last judgment
signifies that earth on which the creatures of the
world will be assembled, and that earth is the existing
mankind, because the permanence of all beings
is not possible upon any other earth. Further,
there will be the day of the last judgment, and the
presence of the inhabitants of the world is not intended,
nor possible, upon any other earth but the
actual earth of mankind. Moreover there will be
Friday,[217]
and truth will be separated from falsehood
upon no other earth but upon the earth of the actual
mankind. Then, there will be the day of the last
judgment, and no mystery among mysteries will be
manifested upon any other earth but that of actual
mankind. Afterwards, there will be the day of ripping
open the secrets, and upon no earth will a retribution
be given to any body but upon the earth of
the actual mankind. Finally, there will be the day
of faith.
The lord durvish Sabjány gave the information,
saying: With the Súfí’s heaven is beauty; certainly
the other world of objects of beauty is to be referred
to the beauty of God; and in hell there is majesty;[218]
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necessarily the other world of objects of majesty
is referrible to that of God; and the Jelálían, or
“those to whom majesty applies,” will be satisfied in
like manner as the Jemálian, “those to whom beauty
appertains.”[219]
Further, it is said, hell is the place
of punishment; this means that if an object of beauty
be joined to majesty, it becomes disturbed; in like
manner majesty is made uneasy by beauty. From
the lord Sabjáni comes also the information that the
257
sagacious declare: Phârâoh was worthy of the name
of God, and in him the establishment of divinity
gained predominance, as well as in Moses the establishment
of divine mission. On that account the
lord Imám of the professors of divine unity, the
Shaikh Mahí-eddin gave in several of his compositions
the proof of Pharáoh’s faith, and declared him to
be a worthy object of veneration, as well as Moses.
It is said also, that the land of Arafat[220]
signifies
the land, which is sought by those who made a vow,
and conceived the desire, of pilgrimage, and with
their face turned towards this land, with the utmost
effort and endeavor proceed upon their way and
journey; if in this country they meet with the day
of Arirfah, that is, “the ninth day of the moon,”
and accomplish the pilgrimage, they are then considered
as having become pilgrims, and to have
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found the fruit of their journey, and fulfilled their
desire, as is said:
“He who reaches the mount Arafah has accomplished the pilgrimage.”
If they have not arrived in this land on the said
day, they have not accomplished the pilgrimage,
they have not become pilgrims nor fulfilled their
desire. If this matter be well understood, it necessarily
follows that the land of Arifát signifies the
actual earth of mankind, because all beings, heavenly
and earthly, are upon the way of travelling,
until they arrive at the dignity of mankind, and when
they arrive at it, their journey and voyage is accomplished.
If on this earth, which is that of the actual
mankind, they arrive on the day of Aráfat, which
means the knowledge of God, they have attained
their wish at the Kâbah, they have accomplished
their pilgrimage, and become pilgrims.
Haj, in the Dictionary, is interpreted kaśed, “aspiring to,”
and kaśed, in the law, means the
house which Ibrahim the prophet (the blessing of
God be upon him!) built in Mecca, and, in truth, this
means the house of God, according to these words:
“Neither the earth nor the heavens can contain me, but only the heart
of the believing servant.”
Besides, the Mobed says:
“At the time of prayer the dignity of man is shown;
Profit by this time, as perhaps fate may seize it.”
The sagacious Súfís said: Every action of the
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actions commanded by law denotes a mystery of the
mysteries. Ghasel, “bathing,” means coming forth
by resignation from foreign dependence. Waśu,
“ablution,” indicates abandonment of great occupations.
Mazmaza, “rinsing the mouth,” refers to
the rapture caused by the sweetness of remembrance.
Istinsak,[221]
“washing the nostrils three
times, by inhaling water out of the palm of the
hand,” denotes inhaling the perfumes of divine
bounty. Istinsar, “drawing up water through the
nostrils and discharging it again,” signifies throwing
off blameable qualities. Washing the face, has
the meaning of turning our face to God. Washing
the hand is withholding the hand from prohibited
things. Washing the feet has reference to giving
precedence to diligence upon the carpet of devotion.
Standing upright signifies experience in the
earthly station. To be turned towards the Kiblah is a
sign of offering supplications to the divine majesty.
Joining both hands denotes the bond of an obligatory
engagement. Keeping the hands open during prayers
means holding back the hand from all except what
relates to God. The Takbír,[222]
“pious exclamation,”
260
signifies respect to divine commands. Kerát, chanting
(the Koran or prayers), is perusing the divine
signets upon the tables of fate, preserved in the
heart by means of the interpretation of the tongue,
and the renewal of information upon the boundaries
of commanded and prohibited things. Rukuâ,
“bowing the head with the hands upon the knees,”
represents the state of resignation and submission.
Sajúd, “prostration,”[223]
indicates investigation of the
divine Being, and dismissal of all pretension. Tashahhud,
“ritual profession of religion,” refers to the
state of resignation and humility. To sit down and
to stand up before God five times means understanding
and appreciating the five majesties, which are:
divinity, grandeur, dominion, power, and love of
humanity. Two rikâts,[224]
“attitudes of devotion in
261
“the morning,” are indicative of God’s absolute
being and of reality. Four rikâts relate to four effulgencies,
which are impressiveness, agency, inherence
of attributes, and substantiality. Three rikâts,
imply separation, union, and union of unions, viz.:
separation, in viewing the creatures without God;
union, in viewing God without the creatures; and
union of unions, in viewing God in the creatures, and
the creatures in God; so that the view of the one
may not to the heart be a veil to the view of the
other. Keeping the fast refers to the purity of the
interior. The sight of halál, “the new moon,”[225]
is
seeing the eye-brows of the perfect spiritual guide.
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Aíd, “a feast,” is the knowledge of God. Kurban,
“sacrificing”[226]
(killing victims), denotes annihilating
the brutal spirit. Rozah, “fasting,”[227]
has three
degrees. The first degree is guarding the belly and
the sexual organs from what is improper; the second
degree is guarding one’s self from unbecoming
words and deeds; the third degree is guarding the
heart from whatever is contrary to God. Jahad,
“holy war upon unbelievers,” signifies combating
the spirit of deceit. Múmen, “right faith,” implies
adherence to whatever is essential to the true worship
of God, and tendency to it by any way which
God wills, for—
“The road towards the idols is formed of the great number of sighs of
the creatures.”
The lord Aín ul-Kazat said, he has learned upon
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his way, that the essence of all creeds is God, and
that of all creeds of the sophists is this:
“All shall perish except his countenance (that is God’s); all that is
upon the earth is perishable.”
And the meaning of the verse of the merciful is,
that at a certain time he will be nothing, because on
that very day all is nothing and this very opinion
is the principal part of the creed of sharp-sighted
men. In the takwiyat mâni, “the strengthening of
sense,” the lord Aín ul Kazat, saheb-i zúkí, “possessor
of delight,” said that the mood of the verbal
noun is in progressive efficiency at all times, whilst
perdition of all things at all times is also constant,
but has no determined future time: consequently
this perdition, which is an indetermined tense,
does not imply that the contingent efficiency is perdition
in a future time.
The Imám Muhammed Núr bakhsh stated, that all
those who are reckoned to have seen God as particular
servants near to him, have said the truth;
because the rational spirit, which means that of
mankind, is pure and uncompounded; on that account
it is not prevented from seeing God, and those
who speak against the sight are also right, because
the eye cannot see the mysterious blessed Being on
account of his solitude. An investigator of truth
has said: Those who assert the solitude of God
are right: because the blessed Being is solitary.
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And those who speak of his corporeity, and consider
God as one of the bodies, such as fire, air, water, or
earth, say right, because he is in every sort of
beings. Likewise, those who hold him to be good
or bad, are not wrong; because nothing exists without
him, so that what happens can happen but by
his order. And those who ascribe the bad to themselves
are right, because in practice they are the
movers of their works. So it is with other opinions,
such as those who consider God as a Father
with regard to all existing beings, and this opinion
is true.
The Sonnites recognise Abu Bekr (may God reward
him), as a khalif on the strength of his perfection:
this is sufficiently founded. But the Shíâhs
oppose that on the supposition of his deficiencies.
Besides, every body may, conformably to
his own conceptions, have some objection to Abu
Bekr. In the same manner, concerning the future
state, there are contradictory creeds of nations, and
histories of their princes in the world adopted as
certain. All these contradictions of the inhabitants
of this world are to be considered in this point of
view—that they are more or less belonging to truth.
The Súfís maintain that vilayet, “holiness,”[228]
in
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the Dictionary signifies vicinity (to God), and in the
public circle to be chosen by the people of God, is
evident prophetic mission, and interior faith is incitement
to prophecy; the prophet is its faith, and the
incitement of the faith of a saint is the mission of a
prophet, and the faith of an apostle is the completion
of the apostleship. Inspiration takes place
without the intervention of an angel, and revelation
with the intervention of an angel is the revelation
appropriate to the prophet. Inspiration is also
appropriate to him.
The pious Sajan Sajání says, the perfection of
sanctity is the period of a Mahdí’s time; hence all
those among the saints who claimed the dignity of
a Mahdi, were divine. In the same manner as every
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malady of the body has a curative medicine, so every
malady of the spirit has also its means of cure.
Thus, as the pulse and the urine are indicative of
the state of bodies, so dream and vision indicate the
state of the spirit. On that account, the devotees
relate the visions to their Shaíkh, who is the doctor
of the soul.
The Súfís say, that upon the way of pilgrimage
there are seven mertebah, “degrees.” The first degree
consists of penitence, obedience, and meditation,
and in this degree the light is, as it were, green.
The second degree is the purity of the spirit from satanic
qualities, violence, and brutality; because, as
long as the spirit is the slave of satanic qualities, it
is subject to concupiscence, and this is the quality
of fire. In this state Iblis evinces his strength, and
when the spirit is liberated from this, it is distressed
with the quality of fierceness, which may be said
flashing, and this is conformable to the property of
wind. Then it becomes insatiable,[229]
and this is
similar to water. After this it obtains quietness,
and this quality resembles earth.[230]
In the degree of
repose, the light is as it were blue, and the utmost
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reach of one’s progress is the earthly dominion. The
third degree is the manifestation of the heart, by laudable
qualities, which is similar to red light, and the
utmost reach of its progress is the middle of the
upper dominion; and in this station the heart praises
God, and sees the light of worship and spiritual
qualities. With the pure Súfís, “the heart” signifies
the form of moderation which keeps the mind
in such dispositions that it may not at all be inclined
to any side towards excess and redundancy, and the
possessor of his mind whose fortunate lot is such a
station, is praised as “the master of the heart,” or
“the lord of the mind.” The fourth degree is the
applying of the constitution to nothing else but to God, and
this is similar to yellow light, and the utmost reach
of its progress is the midst of the heavenly malkut,
“dominion.” The fifth degree of the soul is that
which resembles white light, and the utmost aim of its
progress is the extreme heavenly dominion. The
sixth degree is the hidden, which is like a black light,[231]
and the utmost reach of its progress is the âálemi jabrút,
“the world of power.” The seventh degree is
ghaiyúb al ghaiyúb, “the evanescence of evanescence,”[232]
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which is faná, “annihilation,” and baka,
“eternal life,” and is colorless; this is absorption
in God, non-existence, and effacement of the imaginary
in the true being, like the loss of a drop of
water in the ocean; and “eternal life” is the union
of the drop with the sea, and abstraction from all
except the proper view of the heart, or separation
from the idle images which prevented the salik, “traveller,”
in the midst of existence from distinguishing
the drop from the ocean. Faná, “annihilation,”
is of two kinds: partial, and universal.
The partial consists in this: that a traveller is effaced
at once, or that, by gradation, several of his members
are effaced, and then the rest of his members.
The senses and faculties pass first through the
exigency of sukr, “intoxication,” and, secondly,
through that of sahu, “recovery from ebriety.”
The universal annihilation consists in this: that all
existences belonging to the worlds of malik, malkut,
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and jabrút, “of the angels, of dominion, and
power,” are effaced at once, or by gradation:
first, the three kingdoms of nature are effaced; then
the elements; further the heavens; afterwards, malkut,
“dominion;” finally, jabrut, “power.” Proceeding,
the traveller experiences first the exigency
of a sudden manifestation[233]
of majesty, and, secondly,
that of beauty.
The author of this book heard from the durvish
Sabjání, that what the prophet has revealed, viz.:
“that earth and heaven will go to perdition,” signifies
“annihilation,” not as people take it in the common
acceptation, but in a higher sense, “annihilation in
God;” so that God with all his attributes manifests
itself to the pious person, who becomes entirely
annihilated. Eternal life, which is the opposite of
270
annihilation, has also four divisions. The first degree
is eternal existence with God, when the pious
person from the absorption in God returns, and
sees himself âyin vajud, “a real being,” endowed
with all qualities—
“Who has seen himself, saw God.”
If in absorption he keeps consciousness, there
remains duality behind.
In the abridged commentary upon Gulshen raz, it
is stated, that there are four kinds of manifestations.
The first is ásárí, “impression,” by which the absolute
being appears under the form of some corporeal
beings, among which the human form is the most
perfect. The second kind is Afâalí, “belonging to
action,” when the contemplative person sees the
absolute being endowed with several attributes of
action, such as creator, or nourisher, and the like,
or sees himself a being endowed with one of the
attributes. The manifestations are frequently colored
with lights, and exhibit all sorts of tints. The
third kind is sifátí, “belonging to attributes,” when
the contemplative person sees the absolute being
endowed with the attributes of his own essence, such
as science and life, or sees himself a real being, endowed
with these attributes. The fourth kind is
zatí, “essence,” in which, on account of manifestation,
annihilation takes place, so that the possessor
of this manifestation participates in a condition in
271
which no trace of himself remains, and no consciousness
whatever is preserved. It is not necessary that
the manifestation be colored in a vest of light, or
that every light be a light of manifestation. It may
happen that a light proceeds from a prophet, a
saint, or a creature. The symptom of manifestation
is annihilation, or the science (that is intimate
knowledge) of the object manifested at the time of
manifestation. The evidence for the truth of manifestations
is derived from the Koran, or from traditions.
“I am God, the Lord of creatures.”
Moses heard the voice from a bush,[234]
and the
chosen prophet said:
“I saw my Lord under the most excellent form.”
272
The writer of these pages heard from the durvish
Sabjáni that the Hindus and other nations, having
formed and adored as Gods various different images,
this is founded upon the fact, that eminent persons
among them were impressed with manifestations;
and in such a manner the ten ávatárs became the
counterfeits of these manifestations; some of the
ávatárs held themselves to be divinities; because
they have been the masters of these manifestations;
that the Jews and other nations acknowledge God
under bodily forms proceeds from the like manifestations.
Besides, that Pharâoh declared himself to
be a God, comes from a like manifestation:[235]
because
Pharáoh, under his own form had seen God; on
that account the lord Imám Múheddín Shaikh Mahí-eddín,
in some of his compositions, exhibited proofs
of Pharâoh’s religion, and rendered this personage
273
illustrious. Moses saw God under a bodily form,
and did not find himself like that (exalted) being;
but it was under his own form that Pharâoh saw
God, and found himself like that being. Jesus
declared himself the son of God; because he found
himself the son of God Almighty, in a like manifestation.
Hajab, “the veil,[236]
is of two kinds: the one, of
darkness, is that of a servant, like morality and exterior
occupations and the other is the veil of light
which comes from God; because traditions are veils
of actions; actions, veils of attributes; and attributes,
veils of the essence of revelation, which relates
to mystery, dependent either upon exterior
274
form or inner sense. The first kind of truth is called
Kashef surí, the “exterior revelation;” the second
kind is the Kashef mâní, “inner revelation.” The
exterior revelation takes place by means of sight,
hearing, touch, smell, or rapture, and is dependent
upon temporal traditions; this is called rahbániyet,
“way-guarding,” because the finding of truth
according to investigation is contemplation, and
some reckon this investigation among the sorts of
istidráj,[237]
“miracles permitted by God for hardening
the hearts of sinners,” and of makr Ilahí, “divine
fascination.”
Some derived the commands relative to the other
world from the revelation, and confined their desires
to faná, “annihilation, and baká, “eternal
life.” The author of this book heard from Sabjana
that the exterior revelation concerning temporal
actions is called “monastic institution,”[238]
because
275
monks belong to the exterior people; and its worship
is, according to rules, relative to every thing
exterior; and its purpose, on account of service,
directed to the retribution of deeds, reward of heaven,
adherence to a particular prophet, and the
like. Further obedience is an indication which
bears towards temporal actions; on that account its
revelation is connected with temporal concerns.
The devout Muselman follows also the rule of monastic
life, and the Christian is not without participation
in absorption and eternal life.
It is to be known that in the service of a king
there are two confidential Amirs, who are not friends,
but entertain enmity against each other. They
may bring their own friends before the king. So
are the prophets appointed at the court of God; if
not so, how would the absolute Being have divided
the extent of his empire by religion, if this were to
be confined to one person? Another opinion is that
of a pious philosopher, who contemplates the light
of God in all objects of this and the other world,
and turns not his regard from the least atom; he
276
raised this belief to a high estimation; and to him
remained no rancor of creed or religion; whoever,
in the service of faith and morality is not freed from
duality, and whoever says, the state of Muselmans
is in dignity higher than that of Christians, knows
nothing of the real Being. Whoever said of himself:
“I attained a height of knowledge equal to
that of Mâruf Kerkhi,[239]
said nothing else than this:
the variety and multitude of the rules of prophets
proceed only from the abundance of names, and,
as in names there is no mutual opposition or contradiction,
the superiority in rank among them
is only the predominance of a name.”
The Súfis say: The spirits of the perfect men[240]
277
after separation from their bodies, go to the world of
angels. The saints are directed by the interpretation
of the Korán, and the vulgar people by the
commentary upon both. Some maintain that the
Saints do not subject themselves to it, but are tenacious
only of this verse:
“Adore God, thy Lord, until attaining certitude (himself).”
The Shaikh Nájem eddin Kabra[241]
said: When distinguished
persons abandon the ceremonies of the
worship, this means that these ceremonies which
are performed by prescription, are contrary to them,
because in worship no difficulty or inconvenience is
to take place, but only joy and pleasure to be derived
from it.
The lord Saíd Muhammed Nurbakhsh says, in the
account of apparitions: The difference between
baroz, “apparition,” and tanásokh, “transmigration,”
is this: that the latter is the arrival of the
soul, when it has separated from one body to take
possession of another, in the embryo which is fit
278
for receiving a soul in the fourth month, to be reckoned
from the moment when the sperma fell and
settled in the womb; and this separation from one
body and junction with another is called maâd,
“resurrection.” An “apparition” is when a soul
accumulates excellence upon excellence and an
overflow takes place; so that by beatific vision it
becomes visible; that is, it may happen, that a perfect
soul, after its separation from the body, resides
years in the upper world, and afterwards, for the
sake of perfecting mankind, joins with a body, and
the time of this junction is also the fourth month to
be reckoned from the moment of the formation of
the body, as was said upon transmigration.
It is stated, in the abridged commentary upon Gulshen-raz,
that the soul cannot be without a body.
When it is separated from the elemental body, it
becomes a shadowy figure in the barzakh, that is, in
the interval of time between the death and the resurrection
of a man;[242]
this is called “the acquired
body.” The barzakh, to which the soul is transported
after its separation from this world, is another
place than that which is between the spirits and the
bodies. The first is called ghaib imkaní, “the possible
disappearance,” and the second ghaib maháli,
“the illusive disappearance.” All those who experience
the possible disappearance, become informed
279
of future events. There are many contradictory
opinions about the illusive disappearance, which is
the annunciation of the tidings of an extraordinary
death. The lord Shaikh Muhammed Láhejí stated,
in his commentary upon Gulshen-raz, that in the
histories and accounts before-said is to be found,
that Jábilká is a town of immense magnitude in the
East, and Jábilsá a town of the utmost extent in the
West, opposite to the former.[243]
Commentators have
said a great deal upon both. According to the impressions
which I, an humble person, have received
upon my mind relative to this subject, without copying
others, and conformably with the indications,
there are two places; the one, Jábilká is âalemi-misal,
the “world of images,” because on the east side
the spirits emerge into existence. Barzakh (another
name for it) is between the invisible and the visible,
and contains every image of the world; certainly
there may be a town of immense greatness, and
Jábilsá is “the world of similitude.” Barzakh is
there the world in which the souls reside after their
separation from the worldly station, all suitably to
their deeds, manners, and words, good or bad, which
280
they had made their own in the worldly station, as
is to be found in the sacred verses and traditions.
This Barzakh is on the west side of the material
world, and is certainly a town of immense greatness,
and opposite to it is Jábilká. The inhabitants
of this town are gentle and just, whilst the
people of Jábilsá, on account of the wicked deeds
and manners which they had made their own in the
worldly station, well deserve to be distinguished by
the title of oppressors. Many entertain the opinion
that both Barzakhs are but one; it should however
be stated, that Barzakh in which the souls will
abide after their separation from the worldly station
is to the right of that Barzakh which is placed, between
the pure spirits and the bodies: because the
gradations of the descent and ascent of beings form
a circle, in which the junction of the last with the
first point cannot be imagined but in the movement
of the circle, and that Barzakh which is prior to the
worldly station, with regard to the graduated descent,
has a connection with the anterior worldly
station; and that Barzakh, which is posterior to the
worldly station, with regard to the graduated ascent,
has a connection with the posterior worldly station.
Further, whatever be the form of manners of the
souls in the posterior Barzakh, this will also be the
form of deeds, consequences of manners, actions,
and qualities which had been owned in the worldly
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station, in opposition to the former Barzakh. Then
the one is a stranger to the other; however, as both
worlds, inasmuch as spiritual essences of light, being
different from matter, are comprised in the visionary
forms of the universe, they may be taken for synonimous.
The Shaikh Dáúd Káíśerí relates that
Shaikh Mahi-eddin of Arabia (may his tomb be purified!)
has stated in the Fatúhál, “revelations,” that
Barzakh is different from the first; and the reason
that the first is distinguished by the name of “possible
absence,” and the latter by “illusive absence,”
is, that every form in the first Barzakh
is contingent, and depends upon exterior evidence,
and every form in the last Barzakh, is inaccessible
to the senses, and admits of no evidence but on the
last day of the world. There are many expounders
to whom the form of the first Barzakh appears evident,
and who know what takes place in the world
of accidents; however, few of these expounders are
informed of the news of death.
The author of this book heard from Sabjáni, the
learned in the knowledge of God; that the belief of
the pure Súfis is the same as that of the Ashrákían,
“the Platonists;” but the Súfis have now mixed
their creed with so many glosses, that nobody finds
therein the door to the rules of the prophet, and the
ancient Saints. Sabjáni gave the information that
the essence of God Almighty is absolute light, absolute
282
brightness, and mysterious life; that he is pure,
and free from all colors, figures, shapes, and without
a prototype; that the interpretation of the eloquent
and the indications of the learned are deficient in
the account of that light which is without color and
mark; that the understanding of the learned and the
wisdom of the sage is too weak for entirely comprehending
the pure essence of that light, and as, conformably
to these words:
“I was a hidden treasure; but I wished to be known, and I created
the world for being known.”
The essence of God the most High and Almighty
showed his existence, so that, except him, there is
no real being. In this employment of manifestation,
he entered into contemplation, whence the sage
calls him the first intelligence; because this lord of
expansive creation considered every being according
to the scope of propriety; and when the Almighty
Being of expansive creation had examined every
form inasmuch as by his power it was possible that
such a form might appear, he fixed his contemplation
in this employment of manifestation, so that
what is called “the perfect spirit” is nothing else
but himself. From Sabjana the information has
been received and found in books that Abul Hassen
Surí said: God Almighty rendered his spirit beauteous,
then called it “truth,” and made revelations,
and brought forth names to the creatures;
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the absolute being has two heads: the first is itlák
sarf,[244]
“absolute excellence,” and vahedet mahs,[245]
“unmixed unity;” the second is mukayed va kasret
va badáyet,[246]
“compass, abundance, and primitiveness.”
This, according to the greatest number,
relates to unity. Further is âkl-kulli,[247]
“the
universal spirit,” which incloses all realities
which are (as it were) concrete in him, and this is
called ârsh-i-majíd,[248]
“the throne of glory” (the
ninth or empyrean heaven); he is the truth of
mankind, and between him and the majesty of
divinity there is no mediator according to the wise,
although some admit a difference. Sabjání said,
this indicates that they wish no separation from the
Lord of grace may ever take place. Moreover, the
universal spirit, which embraces all realities in the
way of expansion, they call ârsh-i-Kerim,[249]
“the
throne of mercy,” and lawh-i-mahfúz,[250]
“the tables
of destiny.” Besides, there is the universal
284
nature, penetrating all material and spiritual beings,
and this is called âikáb,[251]
“vicissitude.” With the
philosophers nature is the noble part of bodies, and
Sajani stated, the penetrating nature in spirits indicates
and signifies that there is one divine Being,
and the rest nothing else but shadows. Finally,
there is an essence of life, which the philosophers
call hayúli, “the first principle of every thing material,”
and the Súfis call it enka.
Section III. Of some of the Saints among the
Moderns, and of the Sufis, whom the Author of
this Work has known.
The God-devoted lord Mawláná shah Badakhshí,
when he had come from his accustomed abode to
India, by the assistance of God was received among
the disciples of Shah Mír of the Kádarí lineage, who
had chosen his residence in the royal capital of Lahore,
and acquired great knowledge by his studies.
285
From the original compositions of this sect of holiness,
we have the following quatrain:
“The being who descended from his high sphere of sanctity,
From the absolute world, inclined towards the nether bondage,
He will, as long as the Lord forms mankind,
Remain fitted to the four elements.”
Besides, the lord Mahi eddin Muhammed, the
master of rank and dignity, the lord of the universe
Dáráshukó,[252]
having, according to his desire, hastened
286
to wait on his person, obtained the object of his
wish, so that, whatever was established as certainty
among the theological propositions which he found
for the benefit of the travellers in the vast desert, he
sent it to Kachmír, where the lord Múláná sháh
keeps his residence.
“Upon the whole, God spoke by the tongue of Omar.”
Any questions of every one who interrogates are
asked from him, although they may fall from the
tongue of the asker, and the hearing of every thing
solicited comes from the asker, although he himself
may not know it.
“All beings are one.”
Some of this sect of Alides (may God sanctify their
tombs!) also believe that the progress of perfection
has no limits, because revelation is without limit,
as it takes place every moment; hence it follows that
the increase cannot be limited. So they say, if the
Súfi live one thousand years, he still is in progress.
Some of the ancient Shaikhs proffer, as a confirmation
287
of this statement, that the Shaikh al islam,
“the shaikh of the right faith,” said: There exists
no more evident sign of bad fortune than the day of
a fixed fortune; whoever does not proceed, retrogrades.
It is reported as the saying of the prophet
(may the benediction of the most High be
upon him):
“He whose two days are alike is deceived.”
It was also said: “A traveller, who during two
days goes on in the same manner, is in the way of
detriment; he must be intent upon acquiring and
preserving.”[253]
The greatest part of this sect maintain the same
doctrine, but, by the benediction of my Shaikh,
the crier for help in the quarters of heaven, the
teacher of the people of God, the godly, the lord
Mulána Shah (the peace and mercy of God be
his!), upon me, an humble person, fell, as if it
were the splendor of the sun, and made it clear to
me that the Súfi has degrees and a limit of perfection,
that, after having attained it, he remains at
that height; because with me, an humble broken
288
individual, to remain at a height attained, is proficiency,
inasmuch as every state has its perfection,
and the perfection of a progressing state annihilates
the progress. This is also the meaning of the before-quoted
saying of the prophet; because there is
bondage with those who tend towards God, and absolute
freedom with those only who are united with
him, and the words “two days” refer to time. In
the same manner my master (the mercy of God be
upon him!) interpreted those words. The truth is,
that they have not understood the saying, and have
not penetrated into the interior sense of the figurative
expression: because the latter refers in truth to
the insufficiency of a contemplative man: And this
sense agrees with that of the following authentic
tradition of the prophet (the peace and blessing of
the Highest be upon him):
“There are moments in which I am with God in such a manner that
neither angel nor arch-angel, nor prophet, nor apostle, can attain
to it.”
These words confirm his having once been in a
lower station. It is said that the prophet (the peace
and blessing of the most High be upon him!) was not
always of the same disposition, the same state, and
the same sort of constitution; but this is not so, but
from the same approved tradition it is evident that
the prophet (peace and blessing upon him!) was
always in the same state, and no ascent nor descent
289
was possible therein because he says: “Yon place
was at once so contiguous to me, that no cherub
or no divine missioned prophet ever found
himself in such a situation.” The time of a
prophet is a universal one, and is free from temporariness:
this time has neither priority nor
posteriority—
“With thy Lord there is neither morning nor evening.”
Except this, the noble tradition has no meaning,
which is also evident from the obvious interpretation,
and moreover included in the state of perfection
and constitution of Muhammed (peace and blessing
upon him!). But, in the sense which they
attribute to the words, a deficiency is necessarily
implied. The state of the lord of the world (Muhammed)
is always in the perfection of unity; this
is the best to adopt, at times in a particular, and at
times in a general qualification. There is also another
interpretation which the Shaikhs (the mercy
of the most High be upon them) gave to these words:
inasmuch as the gradations of these Saints are infinite.
Thus in the work nefhát ul ins, “the fragrant
gales of mankind,”[254]
the opinion of the Shaikhs is
stated to be, that some of the saints are without a
mark and without an attribute, and the perfection
of a state, and the utmost degree to which Saints
290
may attain, is to be without an attribute and without
a mark. It was said:
“He who has no mark, his mark are we.”
Besides, those who acknowledge an ascent without
a limit, if in the pure being and true essence of
the glorious and most high God, who is exempt and
free from ascent and descent, color, odor, outwardness
and inwardness, increase and decrease, they
admit a progression, it must also be admissible in
the existence of a Súfi professing the unity of God.
And if they do not admit a gradation of progress
in God, then they ought not to admit it in the professor
of the divine unity, who in the exalted state
of purity and holiness became united with him.
When a devotee among men, having left the connexion
with works of supererogation, arrives at that
of divine precepts, he realises the words:
“When thou didst cast thy arrows against them, thou didst not cast
them, but God slew them.”[255]
It may be said: Certainly, he who became one
with God, and of whose being not an atom remained,
291
he, from whose sight both worlds vanished, who in
the steps of right faith arrived at the rank of perfect
purity, and from truth to truth became God, what
then higher than God can there ever be, to which
the pious professor of unity may further tend to
ascend? It is known:
“Beyond blackness, no color can go.”[256]
Every one, as long as he is in the state of progress,
cannot have arrived at the condition
“Where there is no fear and no care.”
292
Because care and fear derive from ascent and descent.
Fear at ascending is in the expectation whether
the ascent will succeed or not, but whoever disregards
ascent and descent, and elevates himself
above care and fear, he obtains tranquillity in tranquillity,
and rectitude in rectitude. And the verse
of the merciful is:
“Keep thyself upright as thou wast directed.”
Hence is also understood, that the Súfi remains
steadfast in the dignity of perfection, for rectitude
is perseverance. O Muhammed! it is necessary;
remain fixed in the dignity of professing the unity
of God, which is free from the misfortune of inconstancy.
And the verse of the merciful is:
“The day on which I perfected religion for your sake, and rendered
complete my favor towards you.”
This indicates clearly the meaning that, by this
perfection also, the prophet (upon whom be the
peace and the blessing of the most High!) is manifested.
And those who, on account of the infinity
of revelation, hold progress to be perpetual, are not
right: because, as long as the sight is illuminated
by the light of the revelation, the revelationists and
the illuminated are still separate, and not yet become
one:[257]
in this state there is duality and infidelity
293
in the individual who has not yet been liberated
from the idea of something double in himself, and
he to whom an atom of something else but that one
remains attached is reckoned, by all professors of
unity and by all perfect saints, to be one who gives
partners to God or an infidel, and in a state of deficiency.
“It behoves thee to keep neither soul nor body,
And if they both remain, I do not remain;
As long as a hair of thee remains upon its place,
Know, by this one hair, thy foot remains fettered.
As long as thou playest not at once thy life,
I shall consider thee as polluted and impious.”
* Why dost thou not thyself produce revelation, so that thou mayest
always be illuminated? *[258]
294
As this question, solved in this manner by me,
humble individual, was very abstruse, I sent it to
my friends, that, if there were occasion for further
discussion, they might write to me, and thus the
matter be better elucidated. God alone is all-sufficient;
the rest is inordinate desire. What has been
hitherto said is taken from the prince of the world
(Dara sheko).
It should be known that, in the work Merás ed al
ânáyet, “Observations upon the blessed favor,” is
stated, that the sect, which in their (exalted) feeling[259]
conquer the state of jazbet,[260]
jamâ va vahedet,
“attraction, union, and unity,” have acquired, by
means of the superiority of the manifest name (the
quality of) exterior deity, and interior and hidden
creation. This sect is called, in the language of
the Súfis, saheban-i-kereb[261]
-i-feráis, “the masters of
295
proximity to divine “precepts,” and this proximity
is acknowledged to be that of divine precepts. This
sect, which, on account of the proper meaning of
the name of al báten, “interior,” may be brought
into relation with expansive creation and hidden
reality, this sect after jamâ, “union,” obtains ferk,
“division,”[262]
and this is called kereb-i-naváfil, “proximity
of supererogation.” The lord Shaikh Muhammed
Láheji states that jamâ, “union,” is contrary
to ferk, “division;” and division is the veil of
God before the creatures. Every one sees the creation,
but acknowledges God to be without it; every
one has the sight of God by means of the creation,
that is, every one sees God, but the creation by
itself affords no access to the sight of him.
296
Besides, the Mariyam of the world, the Fátima of
the time and ages, the purity of human kind, the
protecting intelligence, Jehán ára “the ornament of
the world,” the begum, the lady, the daughter
of Abu ’l Muzafer Shíhábu ’d dín Muhammed sáhib-Kirán
sání Amir ul muslemin sháh Jehán pádsháh ghází,
“the victorious lord, the bright star of religion,
Muhammed, a second Sáhib Kírán, the Amir of
the believers,” Shah Jehan, the conquering emperor,
having secretly followed, by the desire of her
heart, the injunctions of the blessed Mullá shah,
turned her face to the right rule, and attained her
wish, the full knowledge of God. One of the wonderful
speeches of this blessed and exalted personage,
whom the author of this book knew, is the following:
In the year of the Hejira 1057 (A. D.
1647) Mulla shah came to the house of a friend in
Hyderábád. One of the persons present, by way of
reproving allusion, began to ask questions about the
hurt which the begum of the lord received by fire.
The teacher of morality said to him: “A slight garment
imbibed with oil, when it takes fire, is
easily burnt;” in such a manner came the misfortune
upon the most pure form of her majesty. This
person laughed and continued to revile. By accident,
somebody came from the house of this person
and said: “What, art thou sitting here, whilst thy
sister is burnt, because fire fell upon her garment.”
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The master observed: “In such a manner,
I said, befell misfortune on the illustrious
princess; God has shown it to thee.”
“The lamp which God has lighted,
Whoever blows it out burns his beard.”
The Sufi Mulla Ismâíl Isfahaní, seeking enjoyment,
came from Iran to the great towns of India,
and in Lahore visited the lord Mián Mír; he chose
the condition of a Durvish, and from Lahore soon
betook himself to Kashmir, where he abandoned the
worldly affairs, and practised pious austerity. The
author of this book saw him in Kashmir, in the year
of the Hejira 1049 (A. D. 1639). The following
verse is by him:
“I knocked down every idol which was in my way,
No other idol remains to my veneration but God himself.”
From Mírzá Muhammed Makím, the jeweller,
the information was received that Mír Fakher eddin
Muhammed Tafresí was occupied in Kashmir with
reviling and reproving Mulla Ismâíl and Fakher, and
said: “These belong to the infidels, and are destined
to hell.” Mulla Ismâíl answered: “In this
state I withheld my hand from worldly affairs,
and in this world never was associated to thee;
in like manner in the future world, as, according
to thy opinion, we are infidels, and go to hell, and
not to heaven with thee; therefore it behoves thee
to be satisfied and content with us, as we have left
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to thee the present and the future world.” The
Mobed says:
“The pious and the idolaters are satisfied with us, as we
Are not ourselves their partners, neither in this nor in the other world;
Enmity arises from partnership; we, with the intention of friendship,
Gave up the future, and follow the present world.”
Mírzá Muhammed Mokim, the jeweller, further
said: A person gave bad names to Fakheraye Fál;
the latter, looking towards him, gave him no
answer. When we asked him the reason of his
silence, he replied: “A man moved his lips, and
agitated the air; what does that concern me?”
Fakher, the ornament of mankind, was not much
addicted to religious austerity, but gave himself up
to counselling, reforming, and correcting others.
He assumed the surname of Tarsa, “timid, or unbeliever;”
he called the Journal of his travels,
Dair-namah, “Journal of a tavern (also monastery).”
In this Journal are the following lines:
“I met upon my road with a bitch,
Like a dog guided by scent in the circle of a chase.
Her paw was colored with blood,
In the middle of the road she lay like a tiger;
Impelled either by wild instinct or necessity,
She had made her own whelp the aliment of life.
At the sight of so strange a scene,
I restrained my hand from striking, and opening my lips,
I said: ‘O dog, what desirest thou to do?
Upon thy own heart why inflicting all this pain?’
Scarce had the tip of my tongue perforated the pearl of the secret,
When her tail was agitated, and she said:
299
‘O thou who art not informed of thy own state,
How shall I give thee an account of my condition?’
When the words of the dog came upon my ear,
A resplendent sun fell into my mind.
In the sense of (these words indicative of the dog’s) insanity,
My own sense found the authority of a precept.
[263]
The desire of wandering in the garden left my heart,
Which assumed the quality of a tulip and a deep mark;
It saw nothing upon the path of profligacy
But the privation of remedies.
I said again to her: ‘O lion-like dog,
The morning-breeze learns from thee rapidity:
Manifest to me the state of thy heart,
Exhibit to me the form of its history.’
She gave a howl, and, emitting lamentations:
Rendered testimony of her own secret condition:
‘I devoured the blood of the offspring of my own womb
That nobody might place a weight upon my head.’”
In the year of the Hejira 1056 (A. D. 1647),
according to information received, Fakhera Tarsa
left his old habitation in Ahmed ábad of Guzerat.
The father of the Durvish, the pious Sabjáni, was
an inhabitant of Hirát, but he was born in India.
This illustrious person made a great proficiency
in the sciences of philosophy and history, and acquired
also a fortune but he at last turned his
face from it, and chose retirement and solitude; for
300
many years he followed the footsteps of a perfect
spiritual guide; he travelled to see monasteries and
hermitages, until he became the disciple of Shaikh
Mujed eddín Muhammed Balkhí Kâderí, who was
free, virtuous, and remote from the world. The
said Shaikh read the whole work of Shaikh Mohí
eddín Arabi before his master, and his master
perused it likewise with Shaikh Sader eddin. Kautíví,
who had heard the whole of it from Shaidh Mohí
eddín. Ths pious Sabjání frequently expounded
the words of the lord Rais ul Mohedín, “the chief
of the believers of divine unity,” Shaikh Mohí
eddín Arabí, and those of the best Súfis, and as
he was carried to the very limit of evidence, he
found them conformable with the doctrine of the
Platonists. The godly Sabjána studied the whole
work of the celebrated Shaikh in the service of his
perfect master. After this attendance, having resigned
every thing into the hands of the fortunate
Shaikh, he turned his face entirely to sanctity,
and lived a considerable time retired in solitude,
until his master declared to him: Now, thou hast
attained perfection. The pious Sabjáni keeps nothing
with him but the cover of his privities, he
abstains from eating the flesh of any animal; he
asks for nothing; if any sustenance be left near
him, provided it be not animal food, he takes a
little of it; he venerates the mosques and the
301
temples of idols; and he performs in butgadah,[264]
“house of idols,” according to the usage of
the Hindus, the puja and dandavet, “worship and
prostration,” that is, the religious rites, but in
the mosques he conforms in praying after the manner
of the Muselmans; he never abuses the faith
and rites of others; nor gives he one creed preference
over another; he always practises abstinence,
but at times he breaks the fast with some
fruits from the mountains, such as pine-kernels, and
the like; he takes no pleasure in demonstrations of
honor and magnificence to him, nor is he afflicted
by disdain and contempt, and in order to remain
unknown to men, he dwells in the Kohistan, “mountainous
country” of the Afgháns and Kafrís, and
the like. The Kafrís are a tribe from Kabulistan,
and are called Kafer Katóriz, who before lived upon
mountains, in deserts and forests, remote and concealed
from others.
The author of this book saw Sabjání in the year
of the Hejira 1046 (A. D. 1636) in upper Bangash.
This personage never sleeps at night, but sits awake
in deep meditation; every one who sees him would
take him for a divine being. Shaikh Sâdi says:
302
“Dost thou not know that, when I went to the friend,
As soon as I arrived before him, I said: ‘It is he.’”
[265]
Sabjání appears a (divine) revelation in his actions,
steps, attributes, and nature, and to have
attained the summit of perfection. He said that,
with respect to the other world, there are several
classes of men. The one denies the absolute being;
another interprets it in an abstract manner of reasoning,
inasmuch as they have sufficient intelligence
to be modest and conciliating. The distinguished
Súfis, without interpreting the different systems of
nations, which, in their separate creeds of various
kinds and religions, differ about the beforesaid object,
view in the bodies the agreeableness of imagery.
Khiźer, Elías, Brahma, Ganésa, and all the gods
of India, these and the like representations, which
in this world have no reality, all are distinct objects
of imagination. Essential is what was said by Abu
Nazer Farábí (may God illume his grave!) that the
common people view their creeds under the form of
their imagination. The author of this book heard
also from the lord, the pious Sábjaní: The contemplative
man sees every one whom he loves and
esteems, frequently in dreams in a beautiful shape,
and in an exalted state, although to other people he
may appear iniquitous; and the person whom he
303
knows to be depraved, will often be viewed by him
in a repulsive condition, although to the crowd he
may appear glorious and powerful. Hence follows,
that the learned among the contemplative
persons make use of a negative argument in their
creed, in order that it may become evident what the
truth really is. When any one sees a person of
high rank, such as a prophet, an Imám, or any dignified
individual, in a state of some deficiency, he
views his own defects in his understanding, spirit,
heart, or nature; and as these things are but seeming
defects in the great personage, he must endeavor
to remove them from himself. In like manner,
if one sees a person in good health (appearing
to him) in a state of illness, there is illness in his
own state, and if he thinks him bad with regard to
his own faith, he ought to be somewhat disposed to
think that person good.
A disciple demanded some employment from Sabjání.
The master asked him: “Hast thou devoted
thyself to piety?” The answer was: “I have.”
Then Sabjání said: “If thou art a Muselman, go to
the Franks, and stay with that people; if thou
art a Nazarean, join the Jews; if a Sonni, betake
thyself to Irak, and hear the speeches and reproaches
of those men; if thou professest to
be a Shíah, mix with the schismatics, and lend
thy ear to their words; in this manner, whatever
304
be thy religion, associate with men of an
opposite persuasion; if, in hearing their discourses
thou feelest but little disturbed, thy mind
keeps the tenor of piety; but if thou art not in
the least moved and mixest with them like milk
and sugar, then certainly thou hast attained the
highest degree of perfect peace, and art a master
of the divine creation.”
Yusef was a man belonging to the tribe of Durds,[266]
and in his youth a hermit; at last, by his efforts, he
found access to the intellectual world, and by the
grace of God he carried it so far, that he was ranged
among the disciples called Sanyásis, on account of
their piety and knowledge, and among the learned
followers of the celebrated master, who dwelt in
Bárahmúlah, a village in Kachmir. It so happened
that, when he devoted himself to his service, he
found what he was in search of. Shaikh At´ar
says:
“An unbeliever becomes a relation by love;
A lover acquires the high sense of a durvish.”
Having known many countries and persons, he
became impressed with the marks of revelations.
So it happened that the author of this book heard
from him what follows: “One night I saw in a
305
dream that the world was deluged by water; there
remained no trace of a living being, and I was
myself immersed in the water. In the midst of
this state I saw a kingly rider come, sitting upon
his horse upon the surface of the water. When he
came near me, he said to me: ‘Come with me
that I may save thee.’ I replied: ‘Who art
thou?’ He answered: ‘I am the self-existing
being, and creator of all things.’ Then I began
to follow him rapidly, and run along the surface
of the water, until I arrived in a garden. There
I put my foot on the ground, and, directing my
sight to the right, I beheld a delightful spot, full
of all sorts of odoriferous herbs and elevated
palaces, huris (beautiful virgins), kaśurs (bridal
chambers), and youths and boys, and all the gifts
of heaven, as well as the blessed, occupied with
enjoyments. Besides, at the left, I saw pits,
black, narrow, and tenebrious; and therein, like
bats, suspended a crowd of miserable beings
whose hands and feet were tied to the neck. The
horseman, after having invited me to a pleasure-walk
in the garden, wanted to conduct me out of
the delightful place, but I had resolved in myself
that, like Idris, I would not go out of it. Then I
stuck close to the door, and took fast hold of the
post. When I awoke from sleep, I found my
lips held fast by both my hands; and thus it was
306
revealed to me that, whatever is, exists within
mankind itself.
“Demand from thyself whatever thou wishest: for thou art every
thing.”
It is related: That there was a man called Baháder
among the Hindus, and he happened to have no male
offspring in his house; therefore he came to Baba
Yúsef, and demanded his benediction. Baba Yúsef
gave him a bit of white earth, and said to him:
“Let thy wife eat it.” When the man had done as
was enjoined him, a boy was born in his house, and
received the name of Rahu. This individual, by the
favor of the friends of God, became a learned man,
and acquired the surname of “independent,” as was
said in the chapter of the Jnanian.[267]
The Mulla, called Umer, prohibited Baba Yúsef to
listen to music, and whatever gentle entreaties Baba
Yúsef employed, he paid no attention to them; at
last the Baba, in the perturbation of his mind, threw
a small fragment of stone upon him, in such a manner
that Mulla Umer lost his senses for some time;
when he recovered, he prostrated himself before the
Baba, went out, and was no more seen.
Yúsef, the inspired, was a durvish, devoted to the
practice of restraining his breath, which he carried
so far that he kept his breath during four watches
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(twelve hours).[268]
One of his friends said to the
author of this book in Kachmir, that Yúsef during a
length of time ate nothing at all. The friend related:
“I went one night to watch with him; he said
to me: ‘Go and eat something.’ I replied: ‘I
will; but it would be well that thou also shouldst
take something to eat and to drink.’ His answer
was: ‘Thou art not able to satisfy my want
of food.’ I assured him: ‘I am able.’ He
then ordered: ‘Go, bring what thou hast.’ I
went home and brought him a great dish full of
rice, a large cup of coagulated milk, with bread
and other eatables, as much as might have been
sufficient for ten gluttons; he eat up every thing,
and said: ‘Bring something more.’ I went
home, prepared a meal for twenty persons, and
with the aid of the people of the house, brought
it to him. He eat it up, and desired more. I
returned home, and carried to him meats half
cooked and other things. He eat up all, and said:
‘Bring more.’ I fell at his feet; he called out:
‘Have I not said to thee that thou wouldst not be
able to satisfy my want of food.’”
One of his disciples related: Yúsef said, that he
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has seen God the Almighty in the shape of a man,
sitting in his house. The author of this book frequented
the society of many contemplative pious
Súfis, and learned men of this sect, elevated in rank;
if he should relate all he knows of them, he would
have to write a copious work.
To sum up precisely the creed of all these sects, it
may be said, that some do not agree upon beings
perceived and beings probable, but all acknowledge
the existence of appearances. These are called
Súfistáyah, and in Persian Samrádí. All those who
believe all ought to be comprehended in what is
perceived, and deny any reality to things probable
(or to the subjects of reason), are named Tábíâyah,
“physiologists,” in Persian, Mansí. The belief of
the latter is, that the world is composed of things
perceived, and of individuals, children of Adam, and
that animals are like plants: the one dries, the
other shoots up afresh, and this occurrence will be
repeated without end. Enjoyment is comprehended
in eating, drinking, women, vehicles, and the like,
and besides this world there is no other existence.
Some agree upon the existence of things perceived
and things probable, but differ upon the limits and
laws. These are entitled Filásafa-i-dahriah, “secular
philosophers,” in Persian Jáyákárí, “attached
to temporariness.” This sect establishes a world
of probabilities (composed) of nothing but things
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perceived, but they believe also the perfection proper
to mankind is that, after a certain knowledge of an
Almighty Creator, they attain the future spiritual
existence in an exalted station of the rational world,
and become blessed with an abundance of every
beatitude; they acknowledge a powerful intrinsic
virtue of the intellect in the acquisition of this everlasting
beatitude, which, with the essence of wisdom,
has no want of another gift of any sort whatever.
Disgrace means the opposition to the mode
of laudable reason, and law is the mode in which
the wise have settled the common affairs of the
individuals of mankind conformably with rectitude.
There is another sect which, assuming the conviction
of a material and immaterial world, and the
power of reason, believe in a prophet, and say, that
these distinguished persons have established the law
for the good of God’s creatures and the order of
cities; and to that effect they possess a knowledge
of the highest and most perfect kind; they are supported
by the self-existing Being for the establishment
of regulations and the decision of what is
legal and forbidden, and what they announce concerning
the world of spirits, angels, the ninth heaven,
the throne of God, the tables of destiny, the
written characters, and the like, are all ingenious
inventions, rendered sensible to the understanding
of the vulgar under forms which strike the imagination
310
and offer tangible bodies; in this manner, in the
account of the other world, they represent figuratively
paradise, and húrís, kasúrs, rivers, birds,
and fruits, merely with the intention of subduing
the hearts of the vulgar, as allurement often renders
their minds inclined to the proposed ends.
And what they relate of chains, bolts, and hell, is
calculated for alarming and terrifying the people.
This class of men, that is the philosophers, direct
also their hints and interpretation to this object, and
their disciples say, that their wish is to follow the
indicated footsteps of the prophet; these are the
pious sages to whom they give the title of “philosophers
of God,” and in Persian, Jánsáyi, “the polishers
of souls.”
The sect which adopts the material and immaterial
world, adopts also the precepts of reason, but
not the laws of the prophet. These are named Sábíah.[269]
Another sect agrees to the material and immaterial
311
world, and to the precepts of religious
reason, but they say that the law of the prophet is
312
to be conformable with reason, and every prophet
who appears is not to be opposed to his predecessor,
and not self-complacently to exalt his law: these are
the Yézdanían. Some adopt the law of tradition,
which others, with respect to literal meaning, reject
as contrary to reason.
It is known that there are five great religions,
viz.: that of the Hindus, Jews, Magians, Nazárean,
and Muselmans. Each of these five proffer claims
that their law is the true one, and set forth demonstrations
for the confirmation of its truth.
Finally, at the conclusion of this book let it be
said that, according to the statement of some excellent
personages, every thing relating to religion and
law has been exhibited in the work Tabśeret ul âvam,
“Rendering the Vulgar quick-sighted;” but at
313
present this is not before the eyes of the author; on
that account its contents remain unknown to him.
The author begs further to say that, after having
greatly frequented the meetings of the followers of
the five beforesaid religions, he wished and undertook
to write this book, and whatever in this work
treating of the religions of countries has been stated,
concerning the creed of different sects, had been
received from the tongue of the chiefs of those sects
or from their books, and, as to the account of the
persons belonging to any particular sect, the author
wrote down the information which had been imparted
to him by their adherents and sincere friends,
in such a manner that no trace of partiality nor aversion
might be perceived; in short, the writer of these
pages performed nothing more than the office of a
translator.
“The purport of a picture is, that it may remain after me,
As I do not see my existence lasting.”
Thus, by the aid of the generous King, was brought
to a conclusion the printing of this work, entitled
Dabistán al Mazáheb, “the school of sects,” in the
month of October of the year 1809, since the Messiah’s
being carried to heaven,[270]
the prophet, upon
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whom be the blessing (of heaven), which corresponds
to the sacred month of Zí ’l Kâdah, “the
penultimate month of the Muhammedans,” of the
year 1224 of the Hejira of Muhammed, upon whom
be the most excellent blessings and veneration, as
well as upon his family and companions. Glory to
God for his benefits! at the final conclusion.
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