The Reconciliation of Races and Religions | Page 6

ecstatic communion with Him. Several
passages are quoted by Mons. Nicolas [Footnote: Beyan arabe, pp.
3-18.] on the attitude of the Bab towards Sufism; suffice it here to
quote one of them.

'Others (i.e. those who claim, as being identified with God, to possess
absolute truth) are known by the name of Sufis, and believe themselves
to possess the internal sense of the Shari'at [Footnote: The orthodox
Law of Islam, which many Muslims seek to allegorize.] when they are
in ignorance alike of its apparent and of its inward meaning, and have
fallen far, very far from it! One may perhaps say of them that those
people who have no understanding have chosen the route which is
entirely of darkness and of doubt.'
Ignorance, then, is, according to the Bab, the great fault of the Sufis
[Footnote: Yet the title Sufi connotes knowledge. It means probably
'one who (like the Buddha on his statues) has a heavenly eye.'
Prajnaparamita (_Divine Wisdom_) has the same third eye (Havell,
Indian Sculpture and Painting, illustr. XLV.).] whom he censures, and
we may gather that that ignorance was thought to be especially shown
in a crude pantheism and a doctrine of incarnation which, according to
the Bab, amounts to sheer polytheism. [Footnote 4: The technical term
is 'association.'] God in Himself, says the Bab, cannot be known,
though a reflected image of Him is attainable by taking heed to His
manifestations or perfect portraitures.
Some variety of Sufism, however, sweetly and strongly permeates the
teaching of the Bab. It is a Sufism which consists, not in affiliation to
any Sufi order, but in the knowledge and love of the Source of the
Eternal Ideals. Through detachment from this perishable world and
earnest seeking for the Eternal, a glimpse of the unseen Reality can be
attained. The form of this only true knowledge is subject to change;
fresh 'mirrors' or 'portraits' are provided at the end of each recurring
cosmic cycle or aeon. But the substance is unchanged and
unchangeable. As Prof. Browne remarks, 'the prophet of a cycle is
naught but a reflexion of the Primal Will,--the same sun with a new
horizon.' [Footnote: NH, p. 335.]
THE BAB
Such a prophet was the Bab; we call him 'prophet' for want of a better
name; 'yea, I say unto you, a prophet and more than a prophet.' His
combination of mildness and power is so rare that we have to place him

in a line with super-normal men. But he was also a great mystic and an
eminent theosophic speculator. We learn that, at great points in his
career, after he had been in an ecstasy, such radiance of might and
majesty streamed from his countenance that none could bear to look
upon the effulgence of his glory and beauty. Nor was it an uncommon
occurrence for unbelievers involuntarily to bow down in lowly
obeisance on beholding His Holiness; while the inmates of the castle,
though for the most part Christians and Sunnis, reverently prostrated
themselves whenever they saw the visage of His Holiness. [Footnote:
NH, pp. 241, 242.] Such transfiguration is well known to the saints. It
was regarded as the affixing of the heavenly seal to the reality and
completeness of Bab's detachment. And from the Master we learn
[Footnote: Mirza Jani (NH, p. 242).] that it passed to his disciples in
proportion to the degree of their renunciation. But these experiences
were surely characteristic, not only of Babism, but of Sufism. Ecstatic
joy is the dominant note of Sufism, a joy which was of other-worldly
origin, and compatible with the deepest tranquillity, and by which we
are made like to the Ever-rejoicing One. The mystic poet Far'idu'd-din
writes thus,--
Joy! joy! I triumph now; no more I know Myself as simply me. I burn
with love. The centre is within me, and its wonder Lies as a circle
everywhere about me. [a]
[Footnote a: Hughes, _Dict. of Islam_, p. 618 b.]
And of another celebrated Sufi Sheykh (Ibnu'l Far'id) his son writes as
follows: 'When moved to ecstasy by listening [to devotional recitations
and chants] his face would increase in beauty and radiance, while the
perspiration dripped from all his body until it ran under his feet into the
ground.' [Footnote: Browne, Literary History of Persia, ii. 503.]
EFFECT OF SUFISM
Sufism, 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