1849.] Their External Observances. 239 Plotinian anois-a pure simplicity of soul, as may be seen from the following extract from the Gulschen ras of Asisius. "It becomes him to lay aside every impurity and defilement that may chance adhering to him, the depraved doubts that arise in secret spontaneously, and the instincts of our brute nature. Freed from these hindrances, thou mayest attain that which is the highest achievement of all-reject and expel wholly all thoughts whatsoever; then, believe me, thou wilt be honored with the divine approach (appulsu: i. e. diver. bio, colloquio de arcanis rebus), and all distinction between the knower and the known will cease." The same fact is illustrated in the following sentences from Dschelaleddin: "Ho! thou who goest bowed down beneath the burden of thy knowledge! How is it that thou art contented with the name merely? Hast thou ever gathered roses from the letters g. l. (of Gul., Pers. for rose)? Remember, I pray, that the moon is in the heavens, and not at the bottom of the well. What more shall I say? That thou mayest the better know thy pure essence, it is necessary that thou become a pure mirror, all individual qualities being rejected. For the Prophet hath said, 'He belongeth to the number of my people, who becometh my essence and my delight. And thus will he become when his soul shall behold me by that same light in which I see him; i. e. not through mere traditions and opinions, but in the drinking of the water of life.'" If the above render the matter none the plainer, what follows may be more intelligible. Once upon a time the Chinese, having challenged the Greeks to a trial of skill in painting, the sultan summoned them both into edifices built for the purpose, directly facing each other, and commanded them to show proof of their art. The painters of the two nations immediately applied themselves, with diligence, to their work. The Chinese sought and obtained of the king, every day, a great quantity of colors, but the Greeks not the least particle. Both worked in profound silence; until the Chinese, with a clangor of cymbals and of trumpets, announced the end of their labors. Immediately the king flew, with his courtiers, to their temple; and there stood amazed, almost beside himself with astonishment at the wonderful splendor of the Chinese painting, and the exquisite beauty of the colors. But meanwhile the Greeks, who had not sought to adorn the walls with The meaning seems to be: human knowledge is but the symbol that stands for the real truth-the reflection of the true essence-God: why so ambitious for knowledge, then? Seek the substance, which is, the immediate knowledge of God through union with Him. paints, but had labored rather to erase every color, and give to the walls the finest polish, drew aside the veil which concealed their work. Then, wonderful to tell, the manifold variety of the Chinese colors was seen still more delicately and beautifully reflected from the walls of the Grecian temple, as it stood splendidly illuminated by the rays of the mid-day sun. And to these Greeks, the Soofees may well be likened; since, without formal repetitions, theories, or management of any kind, they aim at this one thing alone-that the heart, free from depraved desires, may be bright in its purity; for, with such purity, images of infinitude enter therein. Forms without form, and immense, resplendent from the world of mysteries, are imaged in the mirror of the heart within the breast; which neither the heaven that Moses writes of, nor the ocean is able to enfold, but the soul's mirror comprehends them; inasmuch as the seas and the realms of heaven are finite and circumscribed by boundaries, but the human spirit is infinite. What more? Either the heart is God, or God is the heart, and hence silence is imposed on the reasoning intellect." 66 Elated with delight at this simplicity, Attar exclaims, " O, how well with me! in that I am seen as one in my singleness, alone, lying hid in my love!" And the same again, “God is infinite, and breathes with a divine life, because he is seen in the singleness of unity (quia simplex videtur)." Not unlike these are the views found in the Upnekhatum of the Hindus. We read there that, "In this so equable and quiet state of mind, when no change or succession of thoughts affordeth means for the measure of time, the infinite divine Power, in which abideth no notion of time, entereth the mind; nor can man, then, have any idea of time." For this reason they consider that the instant of union falls on eternity, and is exempt from all the limitations of time. 66 So in Metsnewi: 66 In my sorrow, the days (venia sit verbo) became intemporal-days and moments of activity all infinite." And in the same, again: "Once, early in the morning, the Prophet inquired of Ssaid, 'How hast thou arisen, my child? To which he replied, faithful.' Then the Prophet: But hast thou any sign that the garden of faith hath bloomed in thee?' And Ssaid answered, Day and night have passed over me as a sword glances by a shield; for in a single act of thought have I comprehended the perpetuity of time, both that which has preceded the creation of the world, and that which comes after it. In such a state it is all the same whether thou numberest 100 years or one single hour." Also in the Metsnewi, we find the following: "So soon as Moses had perceived these words of God in his heart, he fled with headlong speed from the eternity that 1849.] Their Visions of God. 241 was before the creation of the world to the eternity that will engulf its ruins." Like some of the European Quietists, these Oriental mystics permitted themselves, at times, to adopt terms and figures from the marriage relation. Dschelaleddin, in Metsnewi, calls his doctrine nuptias. Mohammed is said to have been admitted "to kiss the right hand of the bride." Yet the phrase seems to have been rather an unusual one; for in the same book, Dschelaleddin humbly prays that "they will not impute it to him as a fault, that he applies the word sponsam (betrothed) to the Deity." Whether the Soofees, like other enthusiasts of both ancient and modern times, imagined that they saw God under a certain luminous appearance, it is not easy to determine. The Hindus had a superstition of this kind, as appears from the following passage from the Upnekhatum. "Brahm comes in the fancy sometimes dimly shining like a pearl, sometimes obscure as smoke, sometimes like sunlight or the brightness of fire, or like a breathing wind, or a glow-worm in the darkness, or coruscations of lightning, or a pure whiteness like unto crystal." God himself was held to be Light. We read: "God is light-more luminous than all luminaries." And again, “A form of light am I." With regard to the opinions of the Soofees respecting the Divine appearance, we have merely the intimations contained in two anecdotes. One of these, in which the saying of Rabia is quoted, has been already given. The other is on this wise. "There once came a certain person to Dschaffar Ssadik who said to him, 'Show me the Lord!' To him Dschaffar replied, "Art thou ignorant what the divine oracle said to Moses- Never shalt thou behold me?' He replied, That indeed I know well; but now the religion of Mohammed is our religion, and people are found who cry aloud, My heart seeth the Lord,' or, I worship not a Lord whom I do not see, or other like things.' When Dschaffar heard these words, he commanded the importunate man to be thrown into the Tigris. This was done; and so long as he was borne about upon the surface of the stream, with loud outcries he implored Ssadik to save him. But when he began to sink, and the waves to gather over him and threaten his life, and he seemed just ready to drown, then he began to pour forth prayers to God. Whereupon Dschaffar bade them draw him forth from the river; and so soon as his strength and senses had returned, Tell me, now, my friend,' said he, Hast thou seen God now?' Then the man answered, While I was calling upon thee, O Ssadik, I was in a cloud; but from the moment I commenced praying to God, I beheld what I desired through a window opened in my breast.'" VOL. VI. No. 22. 21 It seems, on the whole, probable that the Soofees did not, in general, believe in any apparition of the Deity visible to sense. In the absence of reliable and decisive testimony, however, Tholuck refrains from expressing any decided opinion. In reflecting upon the examples which we have now quoted from the Soofic writers, one is struck with the variety, the contrasts even, of opinion that are found among them. While some use such language only as is natural to every devout, meditative spirit, others rise to heights of extravagance and impiety that are absolutely insane. Some appear to be seeking after mere tranquillity and purity of soul, and habits of holy living, others are bent upon attaining a certain unknown, ineffable state of introversion and absence; a sort of crazy, religious dream, in which all rational and voluntary action shall be annihilated, and all consciousness of time and of life shall be thrown into utter confusion. The sentiments of some appear to contain nothing which is inconsistent with a sincere faith in the religion of the Koran. Others are pantheists, or egotheists. cease. Again, the extravagances of the system evidently arose from a perversion of very simple truths, such as usually takes place, when any one principle becomes the subject of exclusive and continuous study. They are, almost without exception, abnormal developments of doctrines common to the whole Christian and Mohammedan world. Thus, "Man is totally depraved." Accordingly, "human nature must be eradicated," "natural instinct must be repressed," all thought and sense of things external must cease, and the soul must be held in a continuous vacant dream, in which all earthly things shall be forgotten, and all "natural" action of the intellect and susceptibilities shall So the Christian world all believe that man should be united with God; that he should live in close communion with Him who is the fountain of goodness and truth. This is our duty. It is a high privilege, proffered to us in infinite love. Let us therefore, said the Soofee, shut out the external world, and renounce all action but that of prayer and silent meditation. Here fanaticism begun; but it ends, as we have seen, in those swelling words of vanity, and acts of license, which proclaimed that the rule of reason and conscience had given place to the insane anarchy of passion and conceit. But the most extravagant of these mystics appears to have had a certain reason in his madness," a mode of explanation that sufficed for himself; and as the philosophy of religion and of life made all clear and noble in his own view, he could afford to disregard the opinion which might prevail with the majority. Bustamius, for example, appears to us to have reached a pitch of conceit, which amounted to insan 1849.] Their Doctrine of ' Union.' 243 ity. He declared himself to be identical with the Deity, and with all the angels and the patriarchs. But he has a "reason" to give. His argument, in his own words, is as follows: " quidquid ad veram essentiam pervenit, in Deum absorbetur, proinde Deus est." That is to say, "Whatever attains unto true essence, is absorbed into God—therefore is God." His philosophy of the matter, then, was probably something as follows: There is only one original, eternal, absolute essence -the "true essence" of all things. This essence is one-absolute unity. Men, who are individual and personal existences, are somehow separated from this great Unity of being; but they may return to it, be reabsorbed, and again become one with this infinite, undivided, indivisible Power. All the angels and the patriarchs have long since reached this state. And I, Bustamius, have reached it, at last; and so I am one with God, who is the Absolute Unity. Hence I am one with whatsoever else is one with him, for his Unity is perfect. I am one with Gabriel, and Abraham, and Moses, and with the creative “Word.” Furthermore, since in the view of Bustamius the Deity himself is nothing more than this primal, absolute Power, in which, as in a vast sea of latent force, all other powers which now sustain specific forms, were originally held in solution, and into which all these individual natures, intelligent, brute, vital, and elemental, will ultimately merge -it follows, that the real essence of the human spirit is deity. In man, then (Bustamius probably argued), this divine power recognizes itself, and sees itself to be divine; and so, "while men suppose that they are worshipping God, it is, in reality, the deity who is paying adoration to himself." In like manner, Manssur, regarding himself, thus, as a specific form of deity, could easily prove to his own satisfaction, that he was the Deity, temporarily clothed in a finite appearance, i. e. the Deity in specific form. What more reasonable, then, than that his disciples, being manifestly his inferiors, should address him in the language we have quoted-"O ens entium," etc. The account given by Sir John Malcolm agrees well with the preceding. "It was the theory of the Soofee," says this author, "that God is diffused over all his creation. He exists everywhere and in everything. They compare the emanations of his essence or spirit to the rays of the sun, which, they conceive, are continually darted forth and reäbsorbed. It is for this reabsorption into the divine essence, to which their immortal part belongs, that they continually sigh. They believe that the soul of man and the principle of life which exists throughout all nature, are not from God, but of God; and hence |