Reconciliation of Races and Religions — 03 – [Part I. The Jewels of the Faiths]: Inayat Khan; Sheykh Aḥmad.

EFFECT OF ṢUFISM

Ṣufism, however, which in the outset was a spiritual pantheism, combined with quietism, developed in a way that was by no means so satisfactory.

The saintly mystic poet Abu Sa'id had defined it thus: 'To lay aside what thou hast in thy head (desires and ambitions), and to give away what thou hast in thy hand, and not to flinch from whatever befalls thee.'

[Footnote: _Ibid_.

ii.

208. ] This is, of course, not intended as a complete description, but shows that the spirit of the earlier Ṣufism was profoundly ethical.

Count Gobineau, however, assures us that the Ṣufism which he knew was both enervating and immoral.

Certainly the later Ṣufi poets were inclined to overpress symbolism, and the luscious sweetness of the poetry may have been unwholesome for some--both for poets and for readers.

Still I question whether, for properly trained readers, this evil result should follow.

The doctrine of the impermanence of all that is not God and that love between two human hearts is but a type of the love between God and His human creatures, and that the supreme happiness is that of identification with God, has never been more alluringly expressed than by the Ṣufi poets.

The Ṣufis, then, are true forerunners of the Bāb and his successors.

There are also two men, Muslims but no Ṣufis, who have a claim to the same title.

But I must first of all do honour to an Indian Ṣufi.

INAYAT KHAN

The message of this noble company has been lately brought to the West.

[Footnote: _Message Soufi de la Liberté Spirituelle_ (Paris, 1913).

] The bearer, who is in the fulness of youthful strength, is Inayat Khan, a member of the Ṣufi Order, a practised speaker, and also devoted to the traditional sacred music of India.

His own teacher on his death-bed gave him this affecting charge: 'Goest thou abroad into the world, harmonize the East and the West with thy music; spread the knowledge of Ṣufism, for thou art gifted by Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.'

So, then, Vivekananda, Abdu'l Baha, and Inayat Khan, not to mention here several Buddhist monks, are all missionaries of Eastern religious culture to Western, and two of these specially represent Persia.

We cannot do otherwise than thank God for the concordant voice of Bahaite and Ṣufite.

Both announce the Evangel of the essential oneness of humanity which will one day--and sooner than non-religious politicians expect--be translated into fact, and, as the first step towards this 'desire of all nations,' they embrace every opportunity of teaching the essential unity of religions: Pagodas, just as mosques, are homes of prayer, 'Tis prayer that church-bells chime unto the air;

Yea, Church and Ka'ba, Rosary and Cross, Are all but divers tongues of world-wide prayer.

[a] [Footnote a: Whinfield's translation of the quatrains of Omar Khayyám, No. 22 (34).

] So writes a poet (Omar Khayyám) whom Inayat Khan claims as a Ṣufi, and who at any rate seems to have had Ṣufi intervals.

Unmixed spiritual prayer may indeed be uncommon, but we may hope that prayer with no spiritual elements at all is still more rare.

It is the object of prophets to awaken the consciousness of the people to its spiritual needs.

Of this class of men Inayat Khan speaks thus,-- 'The prophetic mission was to bring into the world the Divine Wisdom, to apportion it to the world according to that world's comprehension, to adapt it to its degree of mental evolution as well as to dissimilar countries and periods.

It is by this adaptability that the many religions which have emanated from the same moral principle differ the one from the other, and it is by this that they exist.

In fact, each prophet had for his mission to prepare the world for the teaching of the prophet who was to succeed him, and each of them foretold the coming of his successor down to Mahomet, the last messenger of the divine Wisdom, and as it were the look-out point in which all the prophetic cycle was centred.

For Mahomet resumed the divine Wisdom in this proclamation, "Nothing exists, God alone is,"--the final message whither the whole line of the prophets tended, and where the boundaries of religions and philosophies took their start.

With this message prophetic interventions are henceforth useless.

'The Ṣufi has no prejudice against any prophet, and, contrary to those who only love one to hate the other, the Ṣufi regards them all as the highest attribute of God, as Wisdom herself, present under the appearance of names and forms.

He loves them with all his worship, for the lover worships the Beloved in all Her garments....

It is thus that the Ṣufis contemplate their Well-beloved, Divine Wisdom, in all her robes, in her different ages, and under all the names that she bears,--Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mahomet.'

[Footnote: _Message Soufi de la Liberté_ (Paris, 1913), pp. 34, 35. ] The idea of the equality of the members of the world-wide prophethood, the whole body of prophets being the unique personality of Divine Wisdom, is, in my judgment, far superior to the corresponding theory of the exclusive Muḥammadan orthodoxy.

That theory is that each prophet represents an advance on his predecessor, whom he therefore supersedes.

Now, that Muḥammad as a prophet was well adapted to the Arabians, I should be most unwilling to deny.

I am also heartily of opinion that a Christian may well strengthen his own faith by the example of the fervour of many of the Muslims.

But to say that the Ḳur'an is superior to either the Old Testament or the New is, surely, an error, only excusable on the ground of ignorance.

It is true, neither of Judaism nor of Christianity were the representatives in Muḥammad's time such as we should have desired; ignorance on Muḥammad's part was unavoidable.

But unavoidable also was the anti-Islamic reaction, as represented especially by the Order of the Ṣufis.

One may hope that both action and reaction may one day become unnecessary.

_That_ will depend largely on the Bahais.

It is time, however, to pass on to those precursors of Bābism who were neither Ṣufites nor Zoroastrians, but who none the less continued the line of the national religious development.

The majority of Persians were Shi'ites; they regarded Ali and the 'Imāms' as virtually divine manifestations.

This at least was their point of union; otherwise they fell into two great divisions, known as the 'Sect of the Seven' and the 'Sect of the Twelve' respectively.

Mirza Ali Muḥammad belonged by birth to the latter, which now forms the State-religion of Persia, but there are several points in his doctrine which he held in common with the former (i. e. the Ishma'ilis).

These are--'the successive incarnations of the Universal Reason, the allegorical interpretation of Scripture, and the symbolism of every ritual form and every natural phenomenon.

[Footnote: _NH_, introd.

p. xiii.

] The doctrine of the impermanence of all that is not God, and that love between two human hearts is but a type of the love between God and his human creatures, and the bliss of self-annihilation, had long been inculcated in the most winning manner by the Ṣufis.

SHEYKH AḤMAD

Yet they were no Ṣufis, but precursors of Bābism in a more thorough and special sense, and both were Muslims.

The first was Sheykh Aḥmad of Aḥsa, in the province of Baḥrein.

He knew full well that he was chosen of God to prepare men's hearts for the reception of the more complete truth shortly to be revealed, and that through him the way of access to the hidden twelfth Imām Mahdi was reopened.

But he did not set this forth in clear and unmistakable terms, lest 'the unregenerate' should turn again and rend him.

According to a Shi'ite authority he paid two visits to Persia, in one of which he was in high favour with the Court, and received as a yearly subsidy from the Shah's son the sum of 700 tumans, and in the other, owing chiefly to a malicious colleague, his theological doctrines brought him into much disrepute.

Yet he lived as a pious Muslim, and died in the odour of sanctity, as a pilgrim to Mecca.

[Footnote: See _AMB_ (Nicolas), pp. 264-272; _NH_, pp. 235, 236. ] One of his opponents (Mullā 'Ali) said of him that he was 'an ignorant man with a pure heart.'

Well, ignorant we dare not call him, except with a big qualification, for his aim required great knowledge;

it was nothing less than the reconciliation of all truth, both metaphysical and scientific.

Now he had certainly taken much trouble about truth, and had written many books on philosophy and the sciences as understood in Islamic countries.

We can only qualify our eulogy by admitting that he was unaware of the limitations of human nature, and of the weakness of Persian science.

Pure in heart, however, he was;

no qualification is needed here, except it be one which Mullā 'Ali would not have regarded as requiring any excuse.

For purity he (like many others) understood in a large sense.

It was the reward of courageous 'buffeting' and enslaving of the body; he was an austere ascetic.

He had a special devotion to Ja'far-i-Ṣadiḳ, [Footnote: _TN_, p. 297. ] the sixth Imām, whose guidance he believed himself to enjoy in dreams, and whose words he delighted to quote.

Of course, 'Ali was the director of the council of the Imāms, but the councillors were not much less, and were equally faithful as mirrors of the Supreme.

This remains true, even if 'Ali be regarded as himself the Supreme God [Footnote: The Sheykh certainly tended in the direction of the sect of the 'Ali-Ilabis (_NH_, p. 142; Kremer, _Herrschende Ideen des Islams_, p. 31), who belonged to the _ghulat_ or extreme Shi'ites (Browne, _Lit.

Hist.

of Persia_, p. 310).

] identical with Allah or with the Ormazd (Ahura-Mazda) of the Zoroastrians.

For the twelve Imāms were all of the rank of divinities.

Not that they were 'partners' with God; they were simply manifestations of the Invisible God.

But they were utterly veracious Manifestations; in speaking of Allah (as the Sheykh taught) wer may venture to intend 'Ali.

[Footnote: The Sheykh held that in reciting the opening _sura_ of the Ḳur'an the worshipper should think of 'Ali, should intend 'Ali, as his God.

] This explains how the Sheykh can have taught that the Imāms took part in creation and are agents in the government of the world.

In support of this he quoted Ḳur'an, Sur.

xxiii.

14, 'God the best of Creators,' and, had he been a broader and more scientific theologian, might have mentioned how the Amshaspands (Ameshaspentas) are grouped with Ormazd in the creation-story of Zoroastrianism, and how, in that of Gen. i.

, the Director of the Heavenly Council says, 'Let _us_ make man.'

[Footnote: Genesis i. 22. ] The Sheykh also believed strongly in the existence of a subtle body which survives the dissolution of the palpable, material body, [Footnote: _TN_, p. 236. ] and will alone be visible at the Resurrection.

Nothing almost gave more offence than this; it seemed to be only a few degrees better than the absolute denial of the resurrection-body ventured upon by the Akhbaris.

[Footnote: Gobineau, pp. 39, 40. ] And yet the notion of a subtle, internal body, a notion which is Indian as well as Persian, has been felt even by many Westerns to be for them the only way to reconcile reason and faith.