Al-Ghazali — The Alchemy of Happiness

Know, 0 beloved, that man was not created in

jest or at random, but marvellously made and

for some great end. Although he is not from

everlasting, yet he lives for ever ; and though his

body is mean and earthly, yet his spirit is lofty

and divine. When in the crucible of abstinence

he is purged from carnal passions he attains to

the highest, and in place of being a slave to lust

and anger becomes endued with angelic qualities.

Attaining that state, he finds his heaven in the

contemplation of Eternal Beauty, and no longer

in fleshly delights. The spiritual alchemy which

operates this change in him, like that which trans¬

mutes base metals into gold, is not easily dis¬

covered, nor to be found in the house of every

old woman. It is to explain that alchemy and

its methods of operation that the author has

17 2

undertaken this work, which he has entitled,

The Alchemy of Happiness. Now the treasuries

of God, in which this alchemy is to be sought,

are the hearts of the prophets, and he who seeks

it elsewhere will be disappointed and bankrupt

on the day of judgment when he hears the words,

“We have lifted the veil from off thee, and thy

sight to-day is keen.”

God has sent on earth a hundred and twenty-

four thousand prophets 1 to teach men the pre¬

scription of this alchemy, and how to purify

their hearts from baser qualities in the crucible

of abstinence. This alchemy may be briefly

described as turning away from the world to God,

and its constituents are four :

1. The knowledge of self.

2. The knowledge of God.

3. The knowledge of this world as it really is.

4. The knowledge of the next world as it

really is.

We shall now proceed to expound these four

constituents in order.

1 This is the fixed number of the prophets accordi ig to

Muhammadan tradition.

Knowledge of self is the key to the knowledge

of God, according to the saying : “ He who

knows himself knows God,” 1 and, as it is written

in the Koran, “We will show them Our signs

in the world and in themselves , that the truth

may be manifest to them.” Now nothing is

nearer to thee than thyself, and if thou knowest

not thyself how canst thou know anything

else ? If thou sayest “ I know myself,” meaning

thy outward shape, body, face, limbs, and so

forth, such knowledge can never be a key to the

knowledge of God. Nor, if thy knowledge as

to that which is within only extends so far,

that when thou art hungry thou eatest, and

when thou art angry thou attaches t some one,

wilt thou progress any further in this path,

for the beasts are thy partners in this. But

real self-knowledge consists in knowing the

following things : What art thou in thyself,

and from whence hast thou come ? Whither

1 Traditional saying of Muhammad.

20 THE KNOWLEDGE OF SELF

art thou going, and for what purpose hast thou

come to tarry here awhile, and in what does

thy real happiness and misery consist ? Some

of thy attributes are those of animals, some

of devils, and some of angels, and thou hast to

find out which of these attributes are accidental

and which essential. Till thou knowest this,

thou canst not find out where thy real happiness

lies. The occupation of animals is eating, sleeping,

and fighting ; therefore, if thou art an animal,

busy thyself in these things. Devils are busy

in stirring up mischief, and in guile and deceit ;

if thou belongest to them, do their work. Angels

contemplate the beauty of God, and are entirely

free from animal qualities ; if thou art of angelic

nature, then strive towards thine origin, that

thou mayest know and contemplate the Most

High, and be delivered from the thraldom of

lust and anger. Thou shouldest also discover

whv thou hast been created with these two

«/

animal instincts : whether that they should subdue

and lead thee captive, or whether that thou

shouldest subdue them, and, in thy upward

progress, make of one thy steed and of the other

thy weapon.

The first step to self-knowledge is to know

that thou art composed of an outward shape,

called the body, and an inward entity called the

heart, or soul. By “ heart,” I do not mean the

piece of flesh situated in the left of our bodies,

THE REALITY OF THE HEART 21

but that which uses all the other faculties as its

instruments and servants. In truth it does not

belong to the visible world, but to the invisible,

and has come into this world as a traveller visits *

a foreign country for the sake of merchandise,

and will presently return to its native land. It

is the knowledge of this entity and its attributes

which is the key to the knowledge of God.

Some idea of the reality of the heart, or spirit,

may be obtained by a man closing his eyes and

forgetting everything around except his indi¬

viduality. He will thus also obtain a glimpse of

the unending nature of that individuality. Too

* close inquiry, however, into the essence of spirit

is forbidden by the Law. In the Koran it is

written : “ They will question thee concerning

the spirit. Say : 4 The Spirit comes by the

command of my Lord.’ ” Thus much is known

of it that it is an indivisible essence belonging to

the world of decrees, and that it is not from

everlasting, but created. An exact philosophical

knowledge of the spirit is not a necessary pre¬

liminary to walking in the path of religion, but

comes rather as the result of self-discipline and

perseverance in that path, as it is said in the

Koran : “ Those who strive in our way, verily

we will guide them to the right paths.”

For the carrying on of this spiritual warfare

by which the knowledge of oneself and of God

is to be obtained, the body may be figured as a

22 THE KNOWLEDGE OF SELF

kingdom, the soul as its king, and the different

senses and faculties as constituting an army.

Reason may be called the vizier, or prime minister,

passion the revenue-collector, and anger the

police-officer. Under the guise of collecting

revenue, passion is continually prone to plunder

on its own account, while resentment is always

inclined to harshness and extreme severity.

Both of these, the revenue-collector and the

police-officer, have to be kept in due subordination

to the king, but not killed or expelled, as they

have their own proper functions to fulfil. But

if passion and resentment master reason, the

ruin of the soul infallibly ensues. A soul which

allows its lower faculties to dominate the higher

is as one who should hand over an angel to the

power of a dog or a Mussalman to the tyranny

of an unbeliever. The cultivation of demonic,

animal, or angelic qualities results in the pro¬

duction of corresponding characters, which in

the Day of Judgment will be manifested in visible

shapes, the sensual appearing as swine, the

ferocious as dogs and wolves, and the pure as

^angels. The aim of moral discipline is to purify *

the heart from the rust of passion and resentment,

till, like a clear mirror, it reflects the light of God.

- Some one may here object, “ But if man has

been created with animal and demonic qualities

as well as angelic, how are we to know that the

latter constitute his real essence, while the former

MAN’S HIGHEST FACULTY

are merely accidental and transitory ? ” To this

I answer that the essence of each creature is to

be sought in that which is highest in it and

peculiar to it. Thus the horse and the ass are

both burden-bearing animals, but the superiority

of the horse to the ass consists in its being adapted

for use in battle. If it fails in this, it becomes

degraded to the rank of burden-bearing animals.

Similarly with man : the highest faculty in him

is reason, which fits him for the contemplation of

God. If this predominates in him, when he dies,

he leaves behind him all tendencies to passion

and resentment, and becomes capable of associ¬

ation with angels. As regards his mere animal

' qualities, man is inferior to many animals, but

reason makes him superior to them, as it is

written in the Koran : “ To man we have subjected

all things in the earth.” But if his lower ten¬

dencies have triumphed, after death he will ever

be looking towards the earth and longing for

earthly delights.

Now the rational soul in man abounds in

marvels, both of knowledge and power. By

means of it he masters arts and sciences, can pass

in a flash from earth to heaven and back again,

can map out the skies and measure the distances

between the stars. By it also he can draw the

fish from the sea and the birds from the air, and

can subdue to his service animals like the elephant,

the camel, and the horse. His five senses are

like five doors opening on the external world ;

but, more wonderful than this, his heart has a

window which opens on the unseen world of

spirits. In the state of sleep, when the avenues

of the senses are closed, this window is opened

and man receives impressions from the unseen

world and sometimes foreshadowings of the

future. His heart is then like a mirror which

reflects what is pictured in the Tablet of Fate.

But, even in sleep, thoughts of worldly things

dull this mirror, so that the impressions it receives

are not clear. After death, however, such

thoughts vanish and things are seen in their naked

reality, and the saying in the Koran is fulfilled :

“ We have stripped the veil from off thee and

thy sight to-day is keen.”

This opening of a window in the heart towards

the unseen also takes place in conditions ap¬

proaching those of prophetic inspiration, when

intuitions spring up in the mind unconveyed

through any sense-channel. The more a man

purifies himself from fleshly lusts and concen¬

trates his mind on God, the more conscious will

he be of such intuitions. Those who are not

conscious of them have no right to deny their

i reality.

Nor are such intuitions confined only to those

of prophetic rank. Just as iron, by sufficient

polishing, can be made into a mirror, so any mind

by due discipline can be rendered receptive of

THE POWER OE THE SOUL

such impressions. It was at this truth the

Prophet hinted when he said, “ Every child is

born with a predisposition towards Islam ; then

his parents make a Jew, or a Christian, or a star-

worshipper of him.” Every human being has in

the depths of his consciousness heard the question

“ Am I not your Lord ? ” and answered 44 Yes ”

to it. But some hearts are like mirrors so befouled

with rust and dirt that they give no clear reflec¬

tions, while those of the prophets and saints,

though they are men 44 of like passions with us,”

are extremely sensitive to all divine impressions.

Nor is it only by reason of knowledge acquired

and intuitive that the soul of man holds the

first rank among created things, but also by

reason of power. Just as angels preside over

the elements, so does the soul rule the members

of the body. Those souls which attain a special

degree of power not only rule their own body

but those of others also. If they wish a sick man

to recover he recovers, or a person in health to

fall ill he becomes ill, or if they will the presence

of a person he comes to them. According as

the effects produced by these powerful souls are

.-good or bad they are termed miracles or sorceries,

^ddiese souls differ from common folk in three

ways : (1) What others only see in dreams they

see in their waking moments. (2)~WhIIe others’

wills only affecUThelr^own bodies, these, by will-

j power, can move bodies extraneous to themselves.

(3) The knowledge which others acquire by

laborious learning comes to them by intuition.

These three, of course, are not the only marks

which differentiate them from common people,

but the only ones that come within our cognis¬

ance. Just as no one knows the real nature of

God but God Himself, so no one knows the real

nature of a prophet but a prophet. Nor is this

to be wrondered at, as in every-day matters we

see that it is impossible to explain the charm of

poetry to one whose ear is insusceptible of cadence

and rhythm, or the glories of colour to one who

is stone-blind. Besides mere incapacity, there

are other hindrances to the attainment of spiritual

truth. One of these is externally acquired know¬

ledge. To use a figure, the heart may be repre¬

sented as a well, and the five senses as five streams

which are continually conveying water to it. In

order to find out the real contents of the heart

these streams must be stopped for a time, at any

rate, and the refuse they have brought with them

must be cleared out of the well. In other words,

if we are to arrive at pure spiritual truth, we

must put away, for the time, knowledge which

has been acquired by external processes and

which too often hardens into dogmatic prejudice.

A mistake of an opposite kind is made by

shallow people who, echoing some phrases which

they have caught from Sufi teachers, go about

decrying all knowledge. This is as if a person

THE PERCEPTION OF TRUTH 27

who was not an adept in alchemy were to go

about saying, “ Alchemy is better than gold,”

and were to refuse gold when it was offered to

him. Alchemy is better than gold, but real

alchemists are very rare, and so are real Sufis.

He who has a mere smattering of Sufism is not

superior to a learned man, any more than he who

has tried a few experiments in alchemy has

ground for despising a rich man.

Any one who will look into the matter will see

that happiness is necessarily linked with the

knowledge of God. Each faculty of ours delights

in that for which it was created : lust delights in

accomplishing desire, anger in taking vengeance,

the eye in seeing beautiful objects, and the ear

in hearing harmonious sounds. The highest

function of the soul of man is the perception of *

truth ; in this accordingly it finds its special

delight. Even in trifling matters, such as learning

chess, this holds good, and the higher the subject-

matter of the knowledge obtained the greater the

delight. A man would be pleased at being ad¬

mitted into the confidence of a prime minister,

but how much more if the king makes an intimate

of him and discloses state secrets to him !

An astronomer who, by his knowledge, can map

the stars and describe their courses, derives more

pleasure from his knowledge than the chess¬

player from his. Seeing, then, that nothing is

higher than God, how great must be the delight

which springs from the true knowledge of

Him !

A person in whom the desire for this know¬

ledge has disappeared is like one who has lost his

appetite for healthy food, or who prefers feeding

on clay to eating bread. All bodily appetites

perish at death with the organs they use, but the

soul dies not, and retains whatever knowledge of

God it possesses ; nay, increases it.

An important part of our knowledge of God

arises from the study and contemplation of our

own bodies, which reveal to us the power, wisdom,

and love of the Creator. His power, in that from

a mere drop He has built up the wonderful frame

of man ; His wisdom is revealed in its intricacies

and the mutual adaptibility of its parts ; and His

love is shown by His not only supplying such

organs as are absolutely necessary for existence,

as the liver, the heart, and the brain, but those

which are not absolutely necessary, as the hand,

the foot, the tongue, and the eye. To these He

has added, as ornaments, the blackness of the

hair, the redness of lips, and the curve of the

eyebrows.

Man has been trulv termed a “ microcosm,” or

little world in himself, and the structure of his

body should be studied not only by those who

wish to become doctors, but by those who wish

to attain to a more intimate knowledge of God,

just as close study of the niceties and shades of

THE STEED AND ITS RIDER 29

language in a great poem reveals to us more and

more of the genius of its author.

But, when all is said, the knowledge of the soul

plays a more important part in leading to the

knowledge of God than the knowledge of our

body and its functions. The body may be

compared to a steed and the soul to its rider ;

the body was created for the soul, the soul for the

body. If a man knows not his own soul, which

is the nearest thing to him, what is the use of his

claiming to know others ? It is as if a beggar

who has not the wherewithal for a meal should

claim to be able to feed a town.

In this chapter we have attempted, in some

degree, to expound the greatness of man’s soul.

He who neglects it and suffers its capacities to

rust or to degenerate must necessarily be the

loser in this world and the next. The true

greatness of man lies in his capacity for eternal

progress, otherwise in this temporal sphere he is

the weakest of all things, being subject to hunger,

thirst, heat, cold, and sorrow. Those things he

takes most delight in are often the most injurious

to him, and those things which benefit him are

not to be obtained without toil and trouble. As

to his intellect, a slight disarrangement of matter

in his brain is sufficient to destroy or madden

him ; as to his power, the sting of a wasp is suffi¬

cient to rob him of ease and sleep ; as to his

temper, he is upset by the loss of a sixpence ; as

to his beauty, he is little more than nauseous

matter covered with a fair skin. Without fre¬

quent washing he becomes utterly repulsive and

disgraceful.

In truth, man in this world is extremely weak

and contemptible ; it is only in the next that he

will be of value, if by means of the 44 alchemy of

happiness 55 he rises from the rank of beasts to

that of angels. Otherwise his condition will be

worse than the brutes, which perish and turn to

dust. It is necessary for him, at the same time

that he is conscious of his superiority as the

climax of created things, to learn to know also

his helplessness, as that too is one of the keys to

the knowledge of God.

It is a well-known saying of the Prophet that

“ He who knows himself, knows God ” ; that is,

by contemplation of his own being and attributes

man arrives at some knowledge of God. But

since many who contemplate themselves do not

find God, it follows that there must be some

special way of doing so. As a matter of fact,

there are two methods of arriving at this know¬

ledge, but one is so abstruse that it is not adapted

to ordinary intelligences, and therefore is better

left unexplained. The other method is as follows :

When a man considers himself he knows that

there was a time when he was non-existent, as

it is written in the Koran : “ Does it not occur to

man that there was a time when he was nothing ? ”

Further, he knows that he was made out of a drop

of water in which there was neither intellect,

nor hearing, sight, head, hands, feet, etc. From

this it is obvious that, whatever degree of per¬

fection he may have arrived at, he did not make

himself, nor can he now make a single hair.

How much more helpless, then, was his condition

when he was a mere drop of water ! Thus, as we

have seen in the first chapter, he finds in his own

being reflected in miniature, so to speak, the

power, wisdom, and love of the Creator. If all

the sages of the vrorld were assembled, and their

lives prolonged for an indefinite time, they could

not effect any improvement in the construction

of a single part of the body.

For instance, in the adaptation of the front

and side-teeth to the mastication of food, and

in the construction of the tongue, salivating

glands, and throat for its deglutition, we find a

contrivance which cannot be improved upon.

Similarly, whoever considers his hand, with its

five fingers of unequal lengths, four of them with

three joints and the thumb with only two, and

the way in wdiich it can be used for grasping, or

for carrying, or for smiting, will frankly acknow¬

ledge that no amount of human wdsdom could

better it by altering the number and arrangement

of the fingers, or in any other way.

When a man further considers how his various

* wants of food, lodging, etc., are amply supplied

from the storehouse of creation, he becomes aware

that God’s mercy is as great as His power and

wisdom, as He has Himself said, “ My mercy is

greater than My wrath,” and according to the

Prophet’s saying, “ God is more tender to His

servants than a mother to her suckling-child.”

GOD’S ATTRIBUTES REFLECTED 33

Thus from his own creation man comes to know

God’s existence, from the wonders of his bodily

frame God’s power and wisdom, and from the

ample provision made for his various needs

God’s love. In this way the knowledge of oneself

becomes a key to the knowledge of God.

Not only are man’s attributes a reflection of

God’s attributes, but the mode of existence of

man’s soul affords some insight into God’s mode

of existence. That is to say, both God and the

soul are invisible, indivisible, unconfined by

space and time, and outside the categories of

quantity and quality ; nor can the ideas of shape,

colour, or size attach to them. People find it

hard to form a conception of such realities as are

devoid of quality and quantity, etc., but a similar

difficulty attaches to the conception of our every¬

day feelings, such as anger, pain, pleasure, or love.

They are thought-concepts, and cannot be cognised

by the senses ; whereas quality, quantity, etc., are

sense-concepts. Just as the ear cannot take

cognisance of colour, nor the eye of sound, so, in

conceiving of the ultimate realities, God and the

soul, we find ourselves in a region in which sense-

concepts can bear no part. So much, however,

we can see, that, as God is Ruler of the universe,

and, being Himself beyond space and time,

quantity and quality, governs things that are so

conditioned, so the soul rules the body and its

members, being itself invisible, indivisible, and

unlocated in any special part. For how can the

indivisible be located in that which is divisible ?

From all this we see how true is the saying of the

Prophet, “ God created man in His own likeness.”

r And, as we arrive at some knowledge of God’s

essence and attributes from the contemplation of

the soul’s essence and attributes, so we come to

understand God’s method of working and govern¬

ment and delegation of power to angelic forces,

etc., by observing how each of us governs his

own little kingdom. To take a simple instance :

suppose a man wishes to write the name of God.

First of all the wish is conceived in his heart, it

is then conveyed to the brain by the vital spirits,

>.the form of the word “ God ” takes shape in the

thought-chambers of the brain, thence it travels

by the nerve-channels, and sets in motion the

fingers, which in their turn set in motion the pen,

and thus the name “ God ” is traced on paper

exactly as it had been conceived in the writer’s

brain. Similarly, when God wills a thing it

appears in the spiritual plane, which in the Koran

is called “ The Throne ” 1 ; from the throne it

passes, by a spiritual current, to a lower plane

called “ The Chair” 2 ; then the shape of it appears

on the “ Tablet of Destiny ” 3 ; whence, by the

mediation of the forces called “ angels,” it

assumes actuality, and appears on the earth in

the form of plants, trees, and animals, repre-

1 A1 Arsh. 2 A1 Kursi. 3 A1 Lauh A1 Mahfuz.

A KING IN MINIATURE

senting the will and thought of God, as the

written letters represent the wish conceived in

the heart and the shape present in the brain of

the writer.

No one can understand a king but a king ;

therefore God has made each of us a king in

miniature, so to speak, over a kingdom which is

an infinitely reduced copy of His own. In the

kingdom of man God’s “ throne ” is represented

by the soul, the Archangel by the heart, “ the

chair ” by the brain, “ the tablet ” by the

treasure-chamber of thought. The soul, itself

unlocated and indivisible, governs the body as

God governs the universe. In short, each of us

is entrusted with a little kingdom, and charged

not to be careless in the administration of it.

As regards the recognition of God’s providence,

there are many degrees of knowledge. The mere

physicist is like an ant who, crawling on a sheet

of paper and observing black letters spreading

over it, should refer the cause to the pen alone.

The astronomer is like an ant of somewhat wider

vision who should catch sight of the fingers moving

the pen, i.e. he knows that the elements are under

the power of the stars, but he does not know that

the stars are under the power of the angels.

Thus, owing to the different degrees of perception

in people, disputes must arise in tracing effects to

causes. Those whose eyes never see beyond the

world of phenomena are like those who mistake

servants of the lowest rank for the king. The

laws of phenomena must be constant, or there

could be no such thing as science ; but it is a

great error to mistake the slaves for the master.

As long as this difference in the perceptive

faculty of observers exists, disputes must neces¬

sarily go on. It is as if some blind men, hearing

that an elephant had come to their town, should

go and examine it. The only knowledge of it

which they can obtain comes through the sense

of touch : so one handles the animal’s leg,

another his tusk, another his ear, and, according

to their several perceptions, pronounce it to be

a column, a thick pole, or a quilt, each taking

a part for the whole. So the physicist and

astronomer confound the laws they perceive with

the Lawgiver. A similar mistake is attributed

to Abraham in the Koran, where it is related that

he turned successively to stars, moon, and sun

as the objects of his worship, till, grown aware of

Him who made all these, he exclaimed, “ I love

not them that set.”

We have a common instance of this referring

to second causes what ought to be referred to the

First Cause in the case of so-called illness. For

instance, if a man ceases to take any interest in

worldly matters, conceives a distaste for common

pleasures, and appears sunk in depression, the

doctor will say, “ This is a case of melancholy,

1 Koran, chap. vi.

FROM THE WORLD TO THE CREATOR 37

and requires such and such a prescription.”

The physicist will say, “ This is a dryness of the

brain caused by hot weather and cannot be re¬

lieved till the air becomes moist.” The astrologer

will attribute it to some particular conjunction

or opposition of planets. “ Thus far their

wisdom reaches,” says the Koran. It does not

occur to them that what has really happened is

this : that the Almighty has a concern for the

welfare of that man, and has therefore com¬

manded his servants, the planets or the elements,

to produce such a condition in him that he may

turn away from the world to his Maker. The

knowledge of this fact is a lustrous pearl from

the ocean of inspirational knowledge, to which

all other forms of knowledge are as islands in

the sea.

The doctor, physicist, and astrologer are

doubtless right each in his particular branch of

knowledge, but they do not see that illness is,

so to speak, a cord of love by which God draws

to Himself the saints concerning whom He has

said, “ I was sick and ye visited Me not.” Illness

itself is one of those forms of experience by which

man arrives at the knowledge of God, as He says

by the mouth of His Prophet, ct Sicknesses them¬

selves are My servants, and are attached to My

chosen.”

The foregoing remarks may enable us to enter

a little more fully into the meaning of those

exclamations so often on the lips of the Faithful :

“ God is holy,” “ Praise be to God,” “ There is

no God but God,” “ God is great.” Concerning

the last we may say that it does not mean that

God is greater than creation, for creation is His

manifestation as light manifests the sun, and it

would not be correct to say that the sun is

greater than its own light. It rather means that

God’s greatness immeasurably transcends our

cognitive faculties, and that we can only form

a very dim and imperfect idea of it. If a child

asks us to explain to him the pleasure which

exists in wielding sovereignty, we may say it is

like the pleasure he feels in playing bat and ball,

though in reality the two have nothing in common

except that they both come under the category of

pleasure. Thus, the exclamation “ God is great ”

means that His greatness far exceeds all our

powers of comprehension. Moreover, such im¬

perfect knowledge of God as we can attain to

is not a mere speculative knowledge, but must

be accompanied by devotion and worship. When

a man dies he has to do with God alone, and if

we have to live with a person, our happiness

entirely depends on the degree of affection we

feel towards him. Love is the seed of happiness,

and love to God is fostered and developed by

worship. Such worship and constant remem¬

brance of God implies a certain degree of austerity

and curbing of bodily appetites. Not that a

SPIRITUAL GUIDES

man is intended altogether to abolish these, for

then the human race would perish. But strict

limits must be set to their indulgence, and as

a man is not the best judge in his own case as to

what these limits should be, he had better con¬

sult some spiritual guide on the subject. Such

spiritual guides are the prophets, and the laws

which they have laid down under divine inspira¬

tion prescribe the limits which must be observed

in these matters. He who transgresses these

limits “ wrongs his own soul,” as it is written in

the Koran.

Notwithstanding this clear pronouncement of

the Koran there are those who, through their

ignorance of God, do transgress these limits, and

this ignorance may be due to several different

causes : Firstly, there are some who, failing to

find God by observation, conclude that there is

no God and that this world of wonders made

itself, or existed from everlasting. They are

like a man who, seeing a beautifully-written

letter, should suppose that it had written itself

without a writer, or had always existed. People

in this state of mind are so far gone in error that

it is of little use to argue with them. Such are

some of the physicists and astronomers to whom

we referred above.

Some, through ignorance of the real nature of

the soul, repudiate the doctrine of a future life,

in which man will be called to account and be

rewarded or punished. They regard themselves

as no better than animals or vegetables, and

equally perishable. Some, on the other hand,

believe in God and a future life, but with a weak

belief. They say to themselves, “ God is great

and independent of us ; our worship or abstin¬

ence from worship is a matter of entire indiffer¬

ence to Him.” Their state of mind is like that

of a sick man who, when prescribed a certain

regime by his doctor, should say, “ Well, if I

follow it or don’t follow it, what does it matter

to the doctor ? ” It certainly does not matter to

the doctor, but the patient may destroy himself

by his disobedience. Just as surely as unchecked

sickness of body ends in bodily death, so does

uncured disease of the soul end in future misery,

according to the saying of the Koran, “ Only

those shall be saved who come to God with a

sound heart.”

A fourth kind of unbelievers are those who

say, “ The Law tells us to abstain from anger,

lust, and hypocrisy. This is plainly impossible,

for man is created with these qualities inherent

in him. You might as well tell us to make black

white.” These foolish people ignore the fact

that the law does not tell us to uproot these

passions, but to restrain them within due limits,

so that, by avoiding the greater sins, we may

obtain forgiveness of the smaller ones. Even

the Prophet of God said, “ I am a man like you,

EXCEPT YE STRIVE

and get angry like others ” ; and in the Koran it

is written, “ God loves those who swallow down

their anger,” not those who have no anger at all.

A fifth class lay stress on the beneficence of

God, and ignore His justice, saying to themselves,

“ Well, whatever we do, God is merciful.” They

do not consider that, though God is merciful,

thousands of human beings perish miserably in

hunger and disease. They know that whosoever

wishes for a livelihood, or for wealth, or learning,

must not merely say, “ God is merciful,” but

must exert himself. Although the Koran says,

“ Every living creature’s support comes from

God,” it is also written, “ Man obtains nothing

except by striving.” The fact is, such teaching

is really from the devil, and such people only

speak with their lips and not with their heart.

A sixth class claim to have reached such a

degree of sanctity that sin cannot affect them.

Yet, if you treat one of them with disrespect, he

will bear a grudge against you for years, and if

one of them be deprived of a morsel of food

which he thinks his due, the whole world will

appear dark and narrow to him. Even if any of

them do really conquer their passions, they have

no right to make such a claim, for the prophets,

the highest of human kind, constantly confessed

and bewailed their sins. Some of them had

such a dread of sin that they even abstained from

lawful things ; thus, it is related of the Prophet

that, one day, when a date had been brought to

him he would not eat it, as he was not sure that

it had been lawfully obtained. Whereas these

free-livers will swallow gallons of wine and claim

(I shudder as I write) to be superior to the Prophet

whose sanctity was endangered by a date, while

theirs is unaffected by all that wine ! Surely

they deserve that the devil should drag them

down to perdition. Real saints know that he

who does not master his appetites does not de¬

serve the name of a man, and that the true

Moslem is one who will cheerfully acknowledge

the limits imposed by the Law. He who endeav¬

ours, on whatever pretext, to ignore its obliga¬

tions is certainly under Satanic influence, and

should be talked to, not with a pen, but with a

sword. These pseudo-mystics sometimes pretend

to be drowned in a sea of wonder, but if you ask

them what they are wondering at they do not

know. They should be told to wonder as much

as they please, but at the same time to remember

that the Almighty is their Creator and that they

are His servants.

This world is a stage or market-place passed by

pilgrims on their way to the next. It is here

that they are to provide themselves with pro¬

visions for the way ; or, to put it plainly, man

acquires here, by the use of his bodily senses,

some knowledge of the works of God, and, through

them, of God Himself, the sight of whom will

constitute his future beatitude. It is for the

acquirement of this knowledge that the spirit of

man has descended into this world of water and

clay. As long as his senses remain with him he

is said to be “in this world ” ; when they depart,

and only his essential attributes remain, he is

said to have gone to “ the next world.”

While man is in this world, two things are

necessary for him : first, the protection and nurture

of his soul ; secondly, the care and nurture of his

body. The proper nourishment of the soul, as

above shown, is the knowledge and love of God,

and to be absorbed in the love of anything but

44 THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS WORLD

God is the ruin of the soul. The body, so to

speak, is simply the riding-animal of the soul, and

perishes while the soul endures. The soul should

take care of the body, just as a pilgrim on his

way to Mecca takes care of his camel ; but if

the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and

adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him

behind, and he will perish in the desert.

Man’s bodily needs are simple, being comprised

under three heads : food, clothing, and a dwelling-

place ; but the bodily desires which were im¬

planted in him with a view to procuring these

are apt to rebel against reason, which is of

later growth than they. Accordingly, as we

saw above, they require to be curbed and re¬

strained by the divine laws promulgated by the

prophets.

Considering the world with which we have for

a time to do, we find it divided into three depart¬

ments — animal, vegetable, and mineral. The

products of all three are continually needed by

man and have given rise to three principal

occupations — those of the weaver, the builder,

and the worker in metal. These, again, have

many subordinate branches, such as tailors,

masons, smiths, etc. None can be quite inde¬

pendent of others ; this gives rise to various

business-connections and relations, and these too

frequently afford occasions for hatred, envy,

jealousy, and other maladies of the soul. Hence

THE THREE NECESSITIES

come quarrels and strife, and the need of political

and civil government and knowledge of law.

Thus the occupations and businesses of the

world have become more and more complicated

and troublesome, chiefly owing to the fact that

men have forgotten that their real necessities are

only three — clothing, food, and shelter, and that

these exist only with the object of making the

body a fit vehicle for the soul in its journey to¬

wards the next world. They have fallen into

the same mistake as the pilgrim to Mecca, men¬

tioned above, who, forgetting the object of his

pilgrimage and himself, should spend his whole

time in feeding and adorning his camel. Unless

a man maintains the strictest watch he is certain

to be fascinated and entangled by the world,

which, as the Prophet said, is “ a more potent

sorcerer than Harut and Marut.” 1

The deceitful character of the world comes out

in the following ways. In the first place, it

pretends that it will always remain with you,

while, as a matter of fact, it is slipping away from

you, moment by moment, and bidding you fare¬

well, like a shadow which seems stationary, but

is actually always moving. Again, the world

presents itself under the guise of a radiant but

immoral sorceress, pretends to be in love with

you, fondles you, and then goes off to your

enemies, leaving you to die of chagrin and despair.

1 Two fallen angels.

46 THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS WORLD

Jesus (upon whom be peace !) saw the world

revealed in the form of an ugly old hag. He

asked her how many husbands she had possessed ;

she replied that they were countless. He asked

whether they had died or been divorced ; she

said that she had slain them all. “I marvel,”

he said, “ at the fools who see what you have

done to others, and still desire you.”

This sorceress decks herself out in gorgeous

and jewelled apparel and veils her face. Then

she goes forth to seduce men, too many of whom

follow her to their own destruction. The Prophet

has said that in the Judgment Day the world will

appear in the form of a hideous witch with green

eyes and projecting teeth. Men, beholding her,

will say, “ Mercy on us ! who is this ? ” The

angels will answer, “ This is the world for whose

sake you quarrelled and fought and embittered one

another’s lives.” Then she will be cast into hell,

whence she will cry out, “ 0 Lord ! where are

those, my former lovers ? ” God will then com¬

mand that they be cast after her.

Whoever will seriously contemplate the past

eternity during which the world was not in

existence, and the future eternity during which

it will not be in existence, will see that it is

essentially like a journey, in which the stages

are represented by years, the leagues by months,

the miles by days, and the steps by moments.

What words, then, can picture the folly of the

INDULGENCE AND RETRIBUTION 47

man who endeavours to make it liis permanent

abode, and forms plans ten years ahead regarding

things he may never need, seeing that very

possibly he may be under the ground in ten days !

Those who have indulged without limit in the

pleasures of the world, at the time of death will

be like a man who has gorged himself to repletion

on delicious viands and then vomits them up.

The deliciousness has gone, but the disgrace

remains. The greater the abundance of the

possessions which they have enjoyed in the shape

of gardens, male and female slaves, gold, silver,

etc., the more keenly they will feel the bitterness

of parting from them. This is a bitterness which

will outlast death, for the soul which has con¬

tracted covetousness as a fixed habit will neces¬

sarily in the next world suffer from the pangs of

unsatisfied desire.

Another dangerous property of worldly things

is that they at first appear as mere trifles, but

each of these so-called “ trifles ” branches out

into countless ramifications until they swallow up

the whole of a man’s time and energy. Jesus

(on whom be peace !) said, “ The lover of the

world is like a man drinking sea-water ; the more

he drinks, the more thirsty he gets, till at last

he perishes with thirst unquenched.” The Pro¬

phet said, “You can no more mix with the

world without being contaminated by it than

you can go into water without getting wet.”

48 THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS WORLD

The world is like a table spread for successive

relays of guests who come and go. There are

gold and silver dishes, abundance of food and

perfumes. The wise guest eats as much as is

sufficient for him, smells the perfumes, thanks

his host, and departs. The foolish guest, on the

other hand, tries to carry off some of the gold

and silver dishes, only to find them wrenched out

of his hands and himself thrust forth, disappointed

and disgraced.

We may close these illustrations of the deceit¬

fulness of the world with the following short

parable. Suppose a ship to arrive at a certain

well-wooded island. The captain of the ship

tells the passengers he will stop a few hours

there, and that they can go on shore for a short

time, but warns them not to delay too long.

Accordingly the passengers disembark and stroll

in different directions. The wisest, however,

return after a short time, and, finding the ship

empty, choose the most comfortable places in it.

A second band of the passengers spend a some¬

what longer time on the island, admiring the

foliage of the trees and listening to the song of

the birds. Coming on board, they find the best

places in the ship already occupied, and have to

content themselves with the less comfortable

ones. A third party wander still farther, and,

finding some brilliantly coloured stones, carry

them back to the ship. Their lateness in coming

KNOWLEDGE AND GOOD DEEDS 49

on board compels them to stow themselves away

in the lower parts of the ship, where they find

their loads of stones, which by this time have

lost all their brilliancy, very much in their way.

The last group go so far in their wanderings that

they get quite out of reach of the captain’s voice

calling them to come on board, and at last he has

to sail away without them. They wander about

in a hopeless condition and finally either perish

of hunger or fall a prey to wild beasts.

The first group represents the faithful who

keep aloof from the world altogether, and the

last group the infidels who care only for this

world and nothing for the next. The two inter¬

mediate classes are those who preserve their

faith, but entangle themselves more or less with

the vanities of things present.

Although we have said so much against the

W'orld, it must be remembered that there are

some things in the world which are not oj it,

such as knowledge and good deeds. A man

carries what knowledge he possesses with him

into the next world, and, though his good deeds

have passed, yet the effect of them remains in

his character. Especially is this the case with

acts of devotion, which result in the perpetual

remembrance and love of God. These are among

“ those good things ” which, as the Koran says,

“ pass not away.”

Other good things there are in the world, such

50 THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS WOELD

as marriage, food, clothing, etc., which a wise

man uses just in proportion as they help him to

attain to the next world. Other things which

engross the mind, causing it to cleave to this

world and to be careless of the next, are purely

evil and were alluded to by the Prophet when he

said, “ The world is a curse, and all which is in

it is a curse, except the remembrance of God, and

that which aids it.”

As regards the joys of heaven and the pains of

hell which will follow this life, all believers in the

Koran and the Traditions are sufficiently informed.

But it often escapes them that there is also a

spiritual heaven and hell, concerning the former

of which God said to His Prophet, “ Eye hath

not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered

into the heart of man to conceive the things

which are prepared for the righteous.” In the

heart of the enlightened man there is a window

opening on the realities of the spiritual world, so

that he knows, not by hearsay or traditional *

belief, but by actual experience, what produces

wretchedness or happiness in the soul just as

clearly and decidedly as the physician knows

what produces sickness or health in the body.

He recognises that knowledge of God and worship

are medicinal, and that ignorance and sin are

deadly poisons for the soul. Many even so-

called “ learned ” men, from blindly following

52 KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD

others’ opinions, have no real certainty in their

beliefs regarding the happiness or misery of souls

in the next world, but he who will attend to the

matter with a mind unbiassed by prejudice will

arrive at clear convictions on this matter.

The effect of death on the composite nature of

man is as follows : Man has two souls, an animal

soul and a spiritual soul, which latter is of angelic

nature. The seat of the animal soul is the

heart, from which this soul issues like a subtle

vapour and pervades all the members of the body,

giving the power of sight to the eye, the power

of hearing to the ear, and to every member the

faculty of performing its own appropriate func¬

tions. It may be compared to a lamp carried

about within a cottage, the light of which falls

upon the walls wherever it goes. The heart is

the wick of this lamp, and when the supply of oil

is cut off for any reason, the lamp dies. Such is

the death of the animal soul. With the spiritual,

or human soul, the case is different. It is in¬

divisible, and by it man knows God. It is, so to

speak, the rider of the animal soul, and when that

perishes it still remains, but is like a horseman

who has been dismounted, or like a hunter who

has lost his weapons. That steed and those

weapons were granted the human soul that by

means of them it might pursue and capture the

Phoenix of the love and knowledge of God. If it

has effected that capture, it is not a grief but

INDIVIDUALITY OF THE SOUL 53

rather a relief to be able to lay those weapons

aside, and to dismount from that weary steed.

Therefore the Prophet said, “ Death is a welcome

gift of God to the believer.” But alas for that

soul which loses its steed and hunting-weapons

before it has captured the prize ! Its misery and

regret will be indescribable.

A little further consideration will show how

| entirely distinct the human soul is from the body

i'and its members. Limb after limb may be para¬

lysed and cease working, but the individuality of

the soul is unimpaired. Further, the body which

you have now is no longer the body which you

had as a child, but entirely different, yet your

Personality now is identical with your personality

then. It is therefore easy to conceive of it as

persisting when the body is done with altogether,

along with its essential attributes which were

independent of the body, such as the knowledge

and love of God. This is the meaning of that

saying of the Koran, “ The good things abide.”

But if, instead of carrying away with you know¬

ledge, you depart in ignorance of God, this ignor¬

ance also is an essential attribute, and will abide as

darkness of soul and the seed of misery. Therefore

the Koran says, “He who is blind in this life will be

blind in the next life, and astray from the path.”

The reason of the human spirit seeking to return

to that upper world is that its origin was from

thence, and that it is of angelic nature. It was

54 KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD

sent down into this lower sphere against its will

to acquire knowledge and experience, as God said

in the Koran : “Go down from hence, all of you ;

there will come to you instruction from Me, and

they who obey the instruction need not fear,

neither shall they be grieved.” The verse, “ I

breathed into man of My spirit,” also points to

the celestial origin of the human soul. Just as

the health of the animal soul consists in the

equilibrium of its component parts, and this

equilibrium is restored, when impaired, by appro¬

priate medicine, so the health of the human soul

consists in a moral equilibrium which is main¬

tained and repaired, when needful, by ethical

instruction and moral precepts.

As regards its future existence, we have already

seen that the human soul is essentially inde¬

pendent of the body. All objections to its

existence after death based on the supposed

necessity of its recovering its former body fall,

therefore, to the ground. Some theologians have

supposed that the human soul is annihilated

after death and then restored, but this is con¬

trary both to reason and to the Koran. The

former shows us that death does not destroy the

essential individuality of a man, and the Koran

says, “ Think not that those who are slain in the

path of God are dead ; nay, they are alive,

rejoicing in the presence of their Lord, and in

the grace bestowed on them.” Not a word is

REVELATIONS OF THE UNSEEN 55

said in the Law about any of the dead, good or

bad, being annihilated. Nay, the Prophet is said

to have questioned the spirits of slain infidels as

to whether they had found the punishments,

with which he had threatened them, real or not.

When his followers asked him what was the good

of questioning them, he replied, “ They hear my

words better than you do.”

Some Sufis have had the unseen world of

heaven and hell revealed to them when in a state

of death-like trance. On their recovering con¬

sciousness their faces betray the nature of the

revelations they have had by marks of joy or

terror. But no visions are necessary to prove

what will occur to every thinking man, that when

death has stripped him of his senses and left him

nothing but his bare personality, if while on earth

he has too closely attached himself to objects

perceived by the senses, such as wives, children,

wealth, lands, slaves, male and female, etc., he

must necessarily suffer when bereft of those

objects. Whereas, on the contrary, if he has as

far as possible turned his back on all earthly

objects and fixed his supreme affection upon

God, he will welcome death as a means of escape

from worldly entanglements, and of union with

Him whom he loves. In his case the Prophet’s

sayings will be verified : “ Death is a bridge which

unites friend to friend,” and “ The world is a

paradise for infidels, but a prison for the faithful.”

KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD

On the other hand, the pains which souls suffer

after death all have their source in excessive love

of the wTorld. The Prophet said that every un¬

believer, after death, will be tormented by ninety-

nine snakes, each having nine heads. Some

simple-minded people have examined the un¬

believers’ graves and wondered at failing to see

these snakes. They do not understand that

these snakes have their abode within the unbe¬

liever’s spirit, and that they existed in him even

^before he died, for they were his own evil qualities

Isymbolised, such as jealousy, hatred, hypocrisy,

pride, deceit, etc., every one of which springs,

directly or remotely, from love of the world.

Such is the doom of those who, in the words of

the Koran, “ set their hearts on this world rather

than on the next.” If those snakes were merely

external they might hope to escape their torment,

if it were but for a moment ; but, being their own

inherent attributes, how can they escape ?

Take, for instance, the case of a man who has

sold a slave-girl without knowing how much he

was attached to her till she is quite out of his

reach. Then the love of her, hitherto dormant,

wakes up in him with such intensity as to amount

to torture, stinging him like a snake, so that he

would fain cast himself into fire or water to escape

it. Such is the effect of love of the world, which

those who have it often suspect not till the world

is taken from them, and then the torment of vain

THEIR INSTRUMENTS OF PUNISHMENT 57

longing is such that they would gladly exchange

it for any number of mere external snakes and

scorpions.

Every sinner thus carries with him into the

world beyond death the instruments of his own

punishment ; and the Koran says truly, “ Verily

you shall see hell ; you shall see it with the

eye of certainty,” and “ hell surrounds the un¬

believers.” It does not say “ will surround

them,” for it is round them even now.

Some may object, “ If such is the case, then

who can escape hell, for who is not more or less

bound to the world by various ties of affection

and interest ? ” To this we answer that there are

some, notably the faqirs, who have entirely dis¬

engaged themselves from love of the world. But

even among those who have worldly possessions

such as wife, children, houses, etc., there are

those who, though they have some affection for

these, love God yet more. Their case is like that

of a man who, though he may have a dwelling

which he is fond of in one city, when he is called

by the king to take up a post of authority in

another city, does so gladly, as the post of

authority is dearer to him than his former

dwelling. Such are many of the prophets and

saints.

Others there are, and a great number, who have

some love to God, but the love of the world so

preponderates in them that they will have to

58 KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD

suffer a good deal of pain after death before they

are thoroughly weaned from it. Many profess

to love God, but a man may easily test himself

by watching which way the balance of his affec¬

tion inclines when the commands of God come

into collision with some of his desires. The

profession of love to God which is insufficient to

restrain from disobedience to God is a lie.

We have seen above that one kind of spiritual

hell is the forcible separation from worldly things

to which the heart clave too fondly. Many carry

about within them the germs of such a hell with¬

out being aware of it ; hereafter they will feel

like some king who, after living in luxury, has

been dethroned and made a laughing-stock. The

second kind of spiritual hell is that of shame,

when a man wakes up to see the nature of the

actions he committed in their naked reality.

Thus he who slandered will see himself in the

guise of a cannibal eating his dead brother’s

flesh, and he who envied as one who cast stones

against a wall, which stones, rebounding, put

out the eyes of his own children.

This species of hell, i.e. of shame, may be

symbolised by the following short parable :

Suppose a certain king has been celebrating his

son’s marriage. In the evening the young man

goes off with some companions and presently

returns to the palace (as he thinks) intoxicated.

He enters a chamber where a light is burning and

SOME SPIRITUAL HELLS

lies down, as he supposes, by his bride. In the

morning, when soberness returns, he is aghast to

find himself in a mortuary of the fire-worshippers,

his couch a bier, and the form which he mistook

for that of his bride the corpse of an old woman

beginning to decay. On emerging from the

mortuary with his garments all soiled, what is

his shame to see his father, the king, approaching

with a retinue of soldiers ! Such is a feeble

picture of the shame those will feel in the next

world who in this have greedily abandoned them¬

selves to what they thought were delights.

The third spiritual hell is that of disappoint¬

ment and failure to reach the real objects of

existence. Man was intended to mirror forth

the light of the knowledge of God, but if he arrives *

in the next world with his soul thickly coated

with the rust of sensual indulgence he will entirely

fail of the object for which he was made. His

disappointment may be figured in the following

way : Suppose a man is passing with some com¬

panions through a dark wood. Here and there,

glimmering on the ground, lie variously coloured

stones. His companions collect and carry these

and advise him to do the same. “For,” say they,

“ we have heard that these stones will fetch a

high price in the place whither we are going.”

He, on the other hand, laughs at them and calls

them fools for loading themselves in the vain

hope of gain, while he walks free and unencum-

60 KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD

bered. Presently they emerge into the full day¬

light and find that these coloured stones are

rubies, emeralds, and other jewels of priceless

value. The man’s disappointment and chagrin

at not having gathered some when so easily

within his reach may be more easily imagined

than described. Such will be the remorse of

those hereafter, who, while passing through this

world, have been at no pains to acquire the

jewels of virtue and the treasures of religion.

This journey of man through the world may be

divided into four stages — the sensuous, the ex¬

perimental, the instinctive, the rational. In the

first he is like a moth which, though it has sight,

has no memory, and will singe itself again and

again at the same candle. In the second stage

he is like a dog which, having once been beaten,

will run away at the sight of a stick. In the

third he is like a horse or a sheep, both of which

instinctively fly at the sight of a lion or a wolf,

their natural enemies, while they will not fly

from a camel or a buffalo, though these last are

much greater in size. In the fourth stage man

altogether transcends the limits of the animals

and becomes capable, to some extent, of fore¬

seeing and providing for the future. His move¬

ments at first may be compared to ordinary

walking on land, then to traversing the sea in a

ship, then, on the fourth plane, where he is

conversant with realities, to walking on the sea,

FROM ANIMAL TO ANGEL

while beyond this plane there is a fifth, known to

the prophets and saints, whose progress may be

compared to flying through the air.

Thus man is capable of existing on several

different planes, from the animal to the angelic,

and precisely in this lies his danger, i.e. of falling

to the very lowest. In the Koran it is written,

“We proposed the burden (i.e. responsibility or

free-will) to the heavens and the earth and the

mountains, and they refused to undertake it.

But man took it upon himself : Verily he is

ignorant.” Neither animals nor angels can

change their appointed rank and place. But

man may sink to the animal or soar to the angel,

and this is the meaning of his undertaking that

“ burden ” of which the Koran speaks. The

majority of men choose to remain in the two

lower stages mentioned above, and the stationary

are always hostile to the travellers or pilgrims,

whom they far outnumber.

Many of the former class, having no fixed

convictions about the future world, when mastered

by their sensual appetites, deny it altogether.

They say that hell is merely an invention of

theologians to frighten people, and they regard

theologians themselves with thinly veiled con¬

tempt. To argue with fools of this kind is of

very little use. This much, however, may be

said to such a man, with the possible result of

making him pause and reflect : “ Do you really

62 KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEXT WORLD

think that the hundred and twenty-four thousand 1

prophets and saints who believed in the future

life were all wrong, and you are right in deny¬

ing it ? 75 If he replies, “ Yes ! I am as sure

as I am that two are more than one, that there

is no soul and no future life of joy and penalty,77

then the case of such a man is hopeless ; all one

can do is to leave him alone, remembering the

words of the Koran, “ Though thou call them

to instruction, they will not be instructed.”

But, should he say that a future life is possible

but that the doctrine is so involved in doubt and

mystery that it is impossible to decide whether it

be true or not, then one may say to him : “ Then

you had better give it the benefit of the doubt !

Suppose you are about to eat food and some one

tells you a serpent has spat venom on it, you

would probably refrain and rather endure the

pangs of hunger than eat it, though your in¬

formant may be in jest or lying. Or suppose

you are ill and a charm- writer says, ‘ Give me

a rupee and I will write a charm which you can

tie round your neck and which will cure you,’

you would probably give the rupee on the chance

of deriving benefit from the charm. Or if an

astrologer say, ‘ When the moon has entered a

certain constellation, drink such and such a

medicine, and you will recover,’ though you

1 The number of prophets according to Muhammadan

tradition.

LORD ALI AND THE UNBELIEVER 63

may have very little faith in astrology, yon very

likely would try the experiment on the chance

that he might be right. And do you not think

that reliance is as well placed on the words of all

the prophets, saints, and holy men, convinced as

they were of a future life, as on the promise of

a charm-writer or an astrologer ? People take

perilous voyages in ships for the sake of merely

probable profit, and will you not suffer a little

pain of abstinence now for the sake of eternal

joy hereafter ? ”

The Lord Ah once, in arguing with an unbeliever ,

said, “ If you are right, then neither of us will be

any the worse in the future ; but if we are right,

then we shall escape, and you will suffer.” This

he said not because he himself was in any doubt,

but merely to make an impression on the unbe¬

liever. From all that we have said it follows

that man’s chief business in this world is to

prepare for the next. Even if he is doubtful

about a future existence, reason suggests that he

should act as if there were one, considering the

tremendous issues at stake. Peace be on those

who follow the instruction !

The heart of man has been so constituted by the

Almighty that, like a flint, it contains a hidden

fire which is evoked by music and harmony, and

renders man beside himself with ecstasy. These

harmonies are echoes of that higher world of

beauty which we call the world of spirits ; they

remind man of his relationship to that world, and

produce in him an emotion so deep and strange

that he himself is powerless to explain it. The

effect of music and dancing is deeper in proportion

as the natures on which they act are simple and

prone to emotion ; they fan into a flame what¬

ever love is already dormant in the heart, whether

it be earthly and sensual, or divine and spiritual.

Accordingly there has been much dispute

among theologians as to the lawfulness of music

and dancing regarded as religious exercises. One

sect, the Zahirites,1 holding that God is altogether

1 Literally, “ Outsiders.”

MUSIC AND THE EMOTIONS

incommensurable with man, deny the possibility

of man’s really feeling love to God, and say that

he can only love those of his own species. If he

does feel what he thinks is love to his Creator they

say it is a mere projection, or shadow cast by his

own fantasy, or a reflection of love to the creature ;

music and dancing, according to them, have only

to do with creature love, and are therefore un¬

lawful as religious exercises. If we ask them

what is the meaning of that “ love to God ”

which is enjoined by the religious law, they reply

that it means obedience and worship. This is

an error which we hope to confute in a later

chapter dealing with the love of God. At present

we content ourselves with saying that music and

dancing do not put into the heart what is not

there already, but only fan into a flame dormant

emotions. Therefore if a man has in his heart

that love to God which the Law enjoins it is

perfectly lawful, nay, laudable in him to take

part in exercises which promote it. On the

other hand, if his heart is full of sensual desires,

music and dancing will only increase them, and

are therefore unlawful for him. While, if he

listens to them merely as a matter of amusement,

they are neither lawful nor unlawful, but in¬

different. For the mere fact that they are

pleasant does not make them unlawful, any more

than the pleasure of listening to the singing of

birds or looking at green grass and running water

66 CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING

is unlawful. The innocent character of music

and dancing, regarded merely as a pastime, is also

corroborated by an authentic tradition which we

have from the Lady Ayesha,1 who narrates : “ One

festival-day some negroes were performing in a

mosque. The Prophet said to me, 4 Do you wish

to see them ? ’ I replied, 6 Yes.’ Accordingly

he lifted me up with his own blessed hand, and

I looked on so long that he said more than once,

6 Haven’t you had enough ? ’ ” Another tradi¬

tion from the Lady Ayesha is as follows : 44 One

festival-day two girls came to my house and

began to play and sing. The Prophet came in

and lay down on the couch, turning his face

away. Presently Abu Bakr 1 entered, and, seeing

the girls playing, exclaimed, 4 What ! the pipe

of Satan in the Prophet’s house ! ’ Whereupon

the Prophet turned and said, 4 Let them alone,

Abu Bakr, for this is a festival-day.’ ”

Passing over the cases where music and dancing

rouse into a flame evil desires already dormant in

the heart, we come to those cases where they are

quite lawful. Such are those of the pilgrims who

celebrate the glories of the House of God at

Mecca in song, and thus incite others to go on

pilgrimage, and of minstrels whose music and

songs stir up martial ardour in the breasts of

their auditors and incite them to fight against

1 Muhammad’s favourite wife.

2 Subsequently the first caliph.

MUSIC AND RELIGION

the infidels. Similarly, mournful music which

excites sorrow for sin and failure in the religious

life is lawful ; of this nature was the music of

David. But dirges which increase sorrow for

the dead are not lawful, for it is written in the

Koran, “ Despair not over what you have lost.”

On the other hand, joyful music at weddings and

feasts and on such occasions as a circumcision or

the return from a journey is lawful.

We come now to the purely religious use of

music and dancing : such is that of the Sufis,

who by this means stir up in themselves greater

love towards God, and, by means of music, often

obtain spiritual visions and ecstasies, their heart

becoming in this condition as clean as silver in

the flame of a furnace, and attaining a degree of

purity which could never be attained by any

amount of mere outward austerities. The Sufi

then becomes so keenly aware of his relationship

to the spiritual world that he loses all conscious¬

ness of this world, and often falls down senseless.

It is not, however, lawful for the aspirant to

Sufiism to take part in this mystical dancing

without the permission of his “ Pir,” or spiritual

director. It is related of the Sheikh Abu’l Qasim

Girgani that, when one of his disciples requested

leave to take part in such a dance, he said, 14 Keep

a strict fast for three days ; then let them cook

for you tempting dishes ; if, then, you still prefer

the ‘ dance,’ you may take part in it.” The

68 CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING

disciple, however, whose heart is not thoroughly

purged from earthly desires, though he may have

obtained some glimpse of the mystics’ path,

should be forbidden by his director to take part

in such dances, as they will do him more harm

than good.

Those who deny the reality of the ecstasies and

other spiritual experiences of the Sufis merely

betray their own narrow-mindedness and shallow

insight. Some allowance, however, must be

made for them, for it is as difficult to believe in

the reality of states of which one has no personal

experience as it is for a blind man to understand

the pleasure of looking at green grass and running

water, or for a child to comprehend the pleasure

of exercising sovereignty. A wise man, though he

himself may have no experience of those states,

will not therefore deny their reality, for what

folly can be greater than his who denies the

reality of a thing merely because he himself has

not experienced it ! Of such people it is written

in the Koran, “ Those who have not the guidance

will say, ‘ This is a manifest imposture.’ ”

As regards the erotic poetry which is recited in

Sufi gatherings, and to which people sometimes

make objection, we must remember that, when

in such poetry mention is made of separation

from or union with the beloved, the Sufi, who is

an adept in the love of God, applies such expres¬

sions to separation from or union with Him.

THE SYMBOLISM OF POETRY 69

Similarly, “dark locks” are taken to signify

the darkness of unbelief ; “ the brightness of the

face ” the light of faith, and drunkenness the

Sufi’s ecstasy. Take, for instance, the verse :

Thou may’st measure out thousands of measures of wine,

But, till thou drink it, no joy is thine.

By this the writer means that the true delights

of religion cannot be reached by way of formal

instruction, but by felt attraction and desire. A

man may converse much and write volumes

concerning love, faith, piety, and so forth, and

blacken paper to any extent, but till he himself

possesses these attributes all this will do him no

good. Thus, those who find fault with the Sufis

for being powerfully affected, even to ecstasy, by

these and similar verses, are merely shallow

and uncharitable. Even camels are sometimes

so powerfully affected by the Arab-songs of

their drivers that they will run rapidly, bearing-

heavy burdens, till they fall down in a state of

exhaustion.

The Sufi hearer, however, is in danger of

blasphemy if he applies some of the verses which

he hears to God. For instance, if he hears such

a verse as “ Thou art changed from thy former

inclination,” he must not apply it to God, who

cannot change, but to himself and his own varia¬

tions of mood. God is like the sun, which is

70 CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING

always shining, but sometimes for us His light

is eclipsed by some object which intervenes

between us and Him.

Regarding some adepts it is related that they

attain to such a degree of ecstasy that they lose

themselves in God. Such was the case with

Sheikh Abu’l Hassan Nuri, who, on hearing a

certain verse, fell into an ecstatic condition, and,

coming into a field full of stalks of newly cut

sugar-canes, ran about till his feet were wounded

and bleeding, and, not long afterwards, expired.

In such cases some have supposed that there

occurs an actual descent of Deity into humanity,

but this would be as great a mistake as that of

one who, having for the first time seen his re¬

flection in a mirror, should suppose that, some¬

how or other, he had become incorporated with

the mirror, or that the red-and-white hues which

the mirror reflects were qualities inherent in it.

The states of ecstasy into which the Sufis fall

vary according to the emotions which pre¬

dominate in them — love, fear, desire, repentance,

etc. These states, as we have mentioned above,

are often the result not only of hearing verses of

the Koran, but erotic poetry. Some have ob¬

jected to the reciting of poetry, as well as of the

Koran, on these occasions ; but it should be re¬

membered that all the verses of the Koran are

not adapted to stir the emotions — such, for in¬

stance, as that which commands that a man should

SUFI STATES OF ECSTASY

leave his mother the sixth part of his property

and his sister the hah, or that which orders that

a widow must wait four months after the death

of her husband before becoming espoused to

another man. The natures which can be thrown

into religious ecstasy by the recital of such verses

are peculiarly sensitive and very rare.

Another reason for the use of poetry as well as

of the Koran on these occasions is that people are

so familiar with the Koran, many even knowing

it by heart, that the effect of it has been dulled

by constant repetition. One cannot be always

quoting new verses of the Koran as one can of

poetry. Once, when some wild Arabs were

hearing the Koran for the first time and were

strongly moved by it, Abu-Bakr said to them,

“ We were once like you, but our hearts have

grown hard,” meaning that the Koran loses some

of its effect on those familiar with it. For the

same reason the Caliph Omar used to command

the pilgrims to Mecca to leave it quickly, “ For,”

he said, “ I fear if you grow too familiar with

the Holy City the awe of it will depart from

your hearts.”

There is, moreover, something pertaining to

the light and frivolous, at least in the eyes of the

common people, in the use of singing and musical

instruments, such as the pipe and drum, and it

is not befitting that the majesty of the Koran

should be, even temporarily, associated with

72 CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING

these things. It is related of the Prophet that

once, when he entered the house of Rabia, the

daughter of Mauz, some singing-girls who were

there began extemporising in his honour. He

abruptly bade them cease, as the praise of the

Prophet was too sacred a theme to be treated in

that way. There is also some danger, if verses

of the Koran are exclusively used, that the hearers

should attach to them some private interpretation

of their own, and this is unlawful. On the other

hand, no harm attaches to interpreting lines of

poetry in various ways, as it is not necessary to

apply to a poem the same meaning which the

author had.

Other features of these mystic dances are the

bodily contortions and tearing of clothes with

which they are sometimes accompanied. If

these are the result of genuine ecstatic conditions

there is nothing to be said against them, but if

they are self-conscious and deliberate on the part

of those who wish to appear “ adepts,” then they

are merely acts of hypocrisy. In any case the

more perfect adept is he who controls himself

till he is absolutely obliged to give vent to his

feelings. It is related of a certain youth who

was a disciple of the Sheikh Junaid that, on

hearing singing commence in an assembly of the

Sufis, he could not restrain himself, but began to

shriek in ecstasy. Junaid said to him, “ If you

do that again, don’t remain in my company.”

MYSTIC DANCES

After this the youth used to restrain himself on

such occasions, but at last one day his emotions

were so powerfully stirred that, after long and

forcible repression of them, he uttered a shriek

and died.

To conclude : in holding these assemblies,

regard must be had to time and place, and

that no spectators come from unworthy motives.

Those who participate in them should sit in

silence, not looking at one another, but keeping

their heads bent, as at prayer, and concen¬

trating their minds on God. Each should watch

for whatever may be revealed to his own heart,

and not make any movements from mere self-

conscious impulse. But if any one of them

stands up in a state of genuine ecstasy all the

rest should stand up with him, and if any one’s

turban fall off the others should also lay their

turbans down.

Although these matters are comparative novel¬

ties in Islam and have not been received from

the first followers of the Prophet, we must re¬

member that all novelties are not forbidden, but

only those which directly contravene the Law.

For instance, the “ Tarawih,” or night-prayer,

was first instituted by the Caliph Omar. The

Prophet said, “ Live with each man according to

his habits and disposition,” therefore it is right

to fall in with usages that please people, when

non-conformity would vex them. It is true that

74 CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING

the Companions were not in the habit of rising

on the entrance of the Prophet, as they disliked

this practice ; but where it has become established,

and abstaining from it would cause annoyance, it

is better to conform to it. The Arabs have their

own customs, and the Persians have theirs, and

God knoweth which is best.

Know, O brother, that in the Koran God hath

said, “ We will set up a just balance on the day

of resurrection, and no soul shall be wronged in

anything.” Whosoever has wrought a grain of

good or ill shall then behold it. In the Koran it

is also written, “ Let every soul see what it sends

on before it for the day of account.” It was a

saying of the Caliph Omar’s, “ Call yourselves to

account before ye be called to account”; and

God says, “0 ye believers, be patient and strive

against your natural desires, and maintain the

strife manfully.” The saints have always under¬

stood that they have come into this world to

carry on a spiritual traffic, the resulting gain or

loss of which is heaven or hell. They have, there¬

fore, always kept a jealous eye upon the flesh,

which, like a treacherous partner in business, may

cause them great loss. He, therefore, is a wise

man who, after his morning prayer, spends a whole

76 CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION

hour in making a spiritual reckoning, and says

to his soul, “ 0 my soul, thou hast only one life ;

no single moment that has passed can be re¬

covered, for in the counsel of God the number

of breaths allotted thee is fixed, and cannot be

increased. When life is over no further spiritual

traffic is possible for thee ; therefore what thou

doest, do now ; treat this day as if thy life had

been already spent, and this were an extra day

granted thee by the special favour of the Almighty.

What can be greater folly than to lose it ? ”

At the resurrection a man will find all the

hours of his life arranged like a long series of

treasure-chests. The door of one will be opened,

and it will be seen to be full of light : it repre¬

sents an hour which he spent in doing good.

His heart will be filled with such joy that even a

fraction of it would make the inhabitants of hell

forget the fire. The door of a second will be

opened ; it is pitch-dark within, and from it

issues such an evil odour as will cause every one

to hold his nose : it represents an hour which

he spent in ill-doing, and he will suffer such terror

that a fraction of it would embitter Paradise for

the blessed. The door of a third treasure-chest

will be opened ; it will be seen to be empty and

neither light nor dark within : this represents

the hour in which he did neither good nor evil.

Then he will feel remorse and confusion like that

of a man who has been the possessor of a great

SEVEN GATES TO HELL

treasure and wasted it or let it slip from his

grasp. Thus the whole series of the hours of his

life will be displayed, one by one, to his gaze.

Therefore a man should say to his soul every

morning, “ God has given thee twenty-four

treasures ; take heed lest thou lose any one of

them, for thou wilt not be able to endure the

regret that will follow such loss.”

The saints have said, “ Even suppose God

should forgive thee, after a wasted life, thou

wilt not attain to the ranks of the righteous and

must deplore thy loss ; therefore keep a strict

watch over thy tongue, thine eye, and each of

thy seven members, for each of these is, as it

were, a possible gate to hell. Say to thy flesh,

‘ If thou art rebellious, verily I will punish thee ’ ;

for, though the flesh is headstrong, it is capable

of receiving instruction, and can be tamed by

austerity.” Such, then, is the aim of self-examina¬

tion, and the Prophet has said, “ Happy is he

who does now that which will benefit him after

death.”

We come now to the recollection of God. This

consists in a man’s remembering that God

observes all his acts and thoughts. People only

see the outward, while God sees both the outer

and the inner man. He who really believes this

will have both his outer and inner being well

disciplined. If he disbelieve it, he is an infidel,

and if, while believing it, he acts contrary to that

78 CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION

belief, he is guilty of the grossest presumption.

One day a negro came to the Prophet and said,

“ O Prophet of God ! I have committed much

sin. Will my repentance be accepted, or not ? ”

The Prophet said “Yes.” Then the negro said,

“ O Prophet of God, all the time I was committing

sin, did God really behold it ? ” “ Yes,” was

the answer. The negro uttered a cry and fell

lifeless. Till a man is thoroughly convinced of

the fact that he is always under God’s observation

it is impossible for him to act rightly.

A certain sheikh once had a disciple whom he

favoured above his other disciples, thus exciting

their envy. One day the sheikh gave each of

them a fowl and told each to go and kill it in a

place where no one could see him. Accordingly

each killed his fowl in some retired spot and

brought it back, with the exception of the sheikh’s

favourite disciple, who brought his back alive,

saying, “ I have found no such place, for God

sees everywhere.” The sheikh said to the others,

“You see now this youth’s real rank ; he has

attained to the constant remembrance of God.”

When Zuleikha tempted Joseph she cast a

cloth over the face of the idol she used to worship.

Joseph said to her, “ 0 Zuleikha, thou art ashamed

before a block of stone, and should I not be

ashamed before Him who created the seven

heavens and the earth ? ” A man once came to

the saint Junaid and said, “ I cannot keep my

STORY OF THE CALIPH OMAR 79

eyes from casting lascivious looks. How shall I

do so ? ” “ By remembering,” Junaid answered,

“ that God sees you much more clearly than you

see any one else.” In the traditions it is written

that God has said, “ Paradise is for those who

intend to commit some sin and then remember

that My eye is upon them and forbear.” Ab¬

dullah Ibn Dinar relates, “ Once I was walking

with the Caliph Omar near Mecca when we met

a shepherd’s slave-boy driving his flock. Omar

said to him, “ Sell me a sheep.” The boy

answered, “ They are not mine, but my master’s.”

Then, to try him, Omar said, “ Well, you can

tell him that a wolf carried one off, and he will

know nothing about it.” “ No, he won’t,” said

the boy, “but God will.” Omar then wept, and,

sending for the boy’s master, purchased him and

set him free, exclaiming, “ For this saying thou

art free in this world and shalt be free in the

next.”

There are two degrees of this recollection of

God. The first degree is that of those saints

whose thoughts are altogether absorbed in the

contemplation of the majesty of God, and have

no room in their hearts for anything else at all.

This is the lower degree of recollection, for when

a man’s heart is fixed, and his limbs are so con¬

trolled by his heart that they abstain from even

lawful actions, he has no need of any device or

safeguard against sins. It was to this kind of

80 CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION

recollection that the Prophet referred when he

said, “ He who rises in the morning with only God

in his mind, God shall look after him, both in

this world and the next.”

Some of these recollectors of God are so ab¬

sorbed in the thought of Him that, if people speak

to them they do not hear, or walk in front of

them they do not see, but stumble as if they

collided with a wall. A certain saint relates as

follows : “ One day I passed by a place where

archers were having a shooting-match. Some

way off a man was sitting alone. I approached

him and attempted to engage him in talk, but

he replied, “ The remembrance of God is better

than talk.” I said, “ Are you not lonely ? ”

“ No,” he answered, “ God and two angels are

with me.” Pointing to the archers, T asked,

“ Which of these has carried off the prize ? ”

“ That one,’ was his reply, “ to whom God has

allotted it.” Then I inquired, “Where does this

road come from ? ” Upon which, lifting up his

eyes to heaven, he rose and departed, saying,

“ 0 Lord ! many of Thy creatures hold one back

from the remembrance of Thee ! ”

The saint Shibli one day went to see the Sufi

Thaury ; he found him sitting so still in con¬

templation that not a hair of his body moved.

He asked him, “ From whom didst thou learn to

practise such fixity of contemplation ? ” Thaury

answered, “ From a cat which I saw waiting at a

THE RECOLLECTION OF THE SAINTS 81

mouse-hole in an attitude of even greater fixity

than this.” Ibn Hanif relates : “I was informed

that in the city of Sur a sheikh and his disciple

were always sitting lost in the recollection of God.

I went there and found them both sitting with

their faces turned in the direction of Mecca. I

saluted them thrice, but they gave no answer.

I said, ‘ I adjure you, by God, to return my saluta¬

tion.’ 1 The youth raised his head and replied,

‘ O Ibn Hanif ! The world lasts but for a little

time, and of this little time only a little is re¬

maining. Thou art hindering us by requiring us

to return thy salutation.’ He then bent his

head again and was silent. I was hungry and

thirsty at the time, but the sight of those two

quite carried me out of myself. I remained

standing and prayed with them the afternoon

and evening prayer. I then asked them for some

spiritual advice. The younger replied, ‘ 0 Ibn

Hanif, we are afflicted ; we do not possess that

tongue which gives advice.’ I remained standing

there three days and nights ; no word passed

between us and none of us slept. Then I said

within myself, ‘ I will adjure them by God to

give me some counsel.’ The younger, divining

my thoughts, again raised his head : ‘ Go and

seek such a man, the visitation of whom will

bring God to thy remembrance and infix His

1 A Moslem is bound by the Koran to return the salutation

of a Moslem.

82 CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION

fear in thy heart, and he will give thee that

counsel which is conveyed by silence and not by

speech.’ ”

Such is the “ recollection ” of the saints which

consists in being entirely absorbed in the con¬

templation of God. The second degree of the

recollection of God is that of “ the companions

of the right hand.” 1 These are aware that God

knows all about them, and feel abashed in His

presence, yet they are not carried out of them¬

selves by the thought of His majesty, but remain

clearly conscious of themselves and of the world.

Their condition is like that of a man who should

be suddenly surprised in a state of nakedness and

should hastily cover himself, while the other

class resemble one who suddenly finds himself

in the presence of the King and is confused and

awestruck. The former subject every project

which enters their minds to a thorough scrutiny,

for at the Last Day three questions will be asked

respecting every action : the first, “ Why did

you do this ? ” the second, “ In what way did

you do this ? ” the third, “ For what purpose

did you do this ? ” The first will be asked

because a man should act from divine and not

merely Satanic or fleshly impulse. If this ques¬

tion is satisfactorily answered, the second will

test in what way the action was done, wisely, or

carelessly and negligently, and the third, whether

1 Koranic phrase for the righteous.

QUESTIONS AT THE RESURRECTION 83

it was done simply to please God, or to gain

the approval of men. If a man understands the

meaning of these questions he will be very watch¬

ful over the state of his heart, and how he enter¬

tains thoughts which are likely to end in action.

Rightly to discriminate among such thoughts is

a very difficult and delicate matter, and he who

is not capable of it should attach himself to

some spiritual director, intercourse with whom

may illuminate his heart. He should avoid with

the utmost care the merely worldly learned man

who is an agent of Satan. God said to David,

“ 0 David ! ask no questions of the learned man

who is intoxicated with love of the world, for he

will rob thee of My love,” and the Prophet said :

“ God loves that man who is keen to discern in

doubtful things, and who suffers not his reason

to be swayed by the assaults of passion.” Reason

and discrimation are closely connected, and he in

whom reason does not rule passion will not be

keen to discriminate.

Besides such cautious discrimination before

acting a man should call himself strictly to ac¬

count for his past actions. Every evening he

should examine his heart as to what he has done

to see whether he has gained or lost in his spiritual

capital. This is the more necessary as the heart

is like a treacherous business-partner, always

ready to cajole and deceive ; sometimes it pre¬

sents its own selfishness under the guise of

84 CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION

obedience to God, so that a man supposes he has

gained, whereas he has really lost.

A certain saint named Amiya, sixty years of

age, counted up the days of his life. He found

they amounted to twenty-one thousand six

hundred days. He said to himself, “ Alas ! if

I have committed one sin every day, how can I

escape from the load of twenty-one thousand six

hundred sins ? ” He uttered a cry and fell to

the ground ; when they came to raise him they

found him dead. But most people are heedless,

and never think of calling themselves to account.

If for every sin a man committed he placed a

stone in an empty house, he would soon find that

house full of stones ; if his recording angels 1

demanded wages of him for writing down his

sins, all his money would soon be gone. People

count on their rosaries 2 with self-satisfaction the

numbers of times they have recited the name of

God, but they keep no rosary for reckoning the

numberless idle words they speak. Therefore the

Caliph Omar said, “ Weigh well your words and

deeds before they be weighed at the Judgment.”

He himself, before retiring for the night, used to

strike his feet with a scourge and exclaim, “ What

hast thou done to-day ? ” Abu Talha was once

praying in a palm-grove, when the sight of a

1 Two of these are attached to every man.

9 The Muhammadan rosary consists of ninety-nine beads,

each representing a name of God.

INFLUENCE OF THE SAINTS

beautiful bird which flew out of it caused him to

make a mistake in counting the number of pro¬

strations he had made. To punish himself for

his inattention, he gave the palm-grove away.

Such saints knew that their sensual nature was

prone to go astray, therefore they kept a strict

watch over it, and punished it for each trans¬

gression.

If a man finds himself sluggish and averse

from austerity and self-discipline he should con¬

sort with one who is a proficient in such practices

so as to catch the contagion of his enthusiasm.

One saint used to say, “ When I grow lukewarm

in self-discipline, I look at Muhammad Ibn Wasi,

and the sight of him rekindles my fervour for at

least a week.” If one cannot find such a pattern

of austerity close at hand, then it is a good thing

to study the fives of the saints ; he should also

exhort his soul somewhat in the following way :

“ O my soul ! thou thinkest thyself intelligent

and art angry at being called a fool, and yet what

else art thou, after all ? Thou preparest cloth¬

ing to shield thee from the cold of winter, yet

makest no preparation for the after-life. Thy

state is like that of a man who in mid- winter

should say, ‘ I will wear no war m clothing, but

trust to God’s mercy to shield me from the cold.

He forgets that God, at the sa me time that He

created cold, showed man th e way to make

clothing to protect himself from it, and provided

86 CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION

the material for that clothing. Remember this

also, O soul, that thy punishment hereafter will

not be because God is angry with thy disobedience ;

and say not, 4 How can my sin hurt God ? ’

It is thy lusts themselves which will have kindled

the flames of hell within thee ; just as, from eating

unwholesome food, disease is caused in a man’s

body, and not because his doctor is vexed with

him for disobeying his orders.

“ Shame upon thee, 0 soul, for thy over¬

weening love of the world ! If thou dost not

believe in heaven or hell, at any rate thou be-

lievest in death, which will snatch from thee all

worldly delights and cause thee to feel the pangs

of separation from them, which will be intenser

just in proportion as thou hast attached thyself

to them. Why art thou mad after the world ?

If the whole of it, from East to West, were thine

and worshipped thee, yet it would all, in a brief

space, turn to dust along with thyself, and

oblivion would blot out thy name, as those of

ancient kings before thee. But now, seeing thou

hast only a very small fragment of the world,

and that a defiled one, wilt thou be so mad as to

barter eternal joy for it, a precious jewel for a

broken cup of earthenware, and make thyself

the laughing-stock of all around thee ? ”

Marriage plays such a large part in human

affairs that it must necessarily be taken into

account in treating of the religious life and be

regarded in both its aspects of advantage and

disadvantage.

Seeing that God, as the Koran says, “ only

created men and genii for the purpose of wor¬

shipping,” the first and obvious advantage of

marriage is, that the worshippers of God may

increase in number. Theologians have therefore

laid it down as a maxim that it is better to be

engaged in matrimonial duties than in superero¬

gatory devotions.

Another advantage of marriage is that, as the

Prophet said, the prayers of children profit their

parents when the latter are dead, and children

who die before their parents intercede for them

on the Day of Judgment. “ When a child,”

said the Prophet, “ is told to enter heaven, it

88 MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE

weeps and says, ‘ I will not enter in without my

father and mother.’ ” Again, one day the Prophet

seized hold of a man’s sleeves and drew him

violently towards himself, saying, “ Even thus

shall children draw their parents into heaven.”

He added, “ Children crowd together at the

gate of heaven and cry out for their fathers

and mothers, till those of the latter who are

outside are told to enter in and join their

children.”

It is related of a certain celibate saint that he

once dreamt that the Judgment Day had come.

The sun had approached close to the earth and

people were perishing of thirst ; a crowd of boys

were moving about giving them water out of

gold and silver vessels. But when the saint asked

for water he was repulsed, and one of the boys

said to him, “ Not one of us here is your son.”

As soon as the saint awoke he made preparations

to marry.

Another advantage of marriage is that to sit

with and be friendly to one’s wife is a relaxation

for the mind after being occupied in religious

duties, and after such relaxation one may return

to one’s devotions with renewed zest. Thus the

Prophet himself, when he found the weight of his

revelations press too heavily upon him touched

his wife Ayesha and said, “ Speak to me, O

Ayesha, speak to me ! ” This he did that, from

that familiar human touch, he might receive

ADVANTAGES OF MARRIAGE 89

strength to support fresh revelations. For a

similar reason he used to bid the Muezzin Bilal

give the call to prayer, and sometimes he used to

smell sweet perfumes. It is a well-known saying

of his, “ I have loved three things in the world :

perfumes, and women, and refreshment in prayer.”

On one occasion Omar asked the prophet what

were the things specially to be sought in the

world. He answered, “ A tongue occupied in the

remembrance of God, a grateful heart, and a

believing wife.”

A further advantage of marriage is that there

should be some one to take care of the house,

cook the food, wash the dishes, and sweep the

floor, etc. If a man is busy in such work he

cannot acquire learning, or carry on his business,

or engage in his devotions properly. For this

reason Abu Suleiman has said, “ A good wife is

not a blessing of this world merely, but of the

next, because she provides a man leisure in which

to think of the next world”; and one of the

Caliph Omar’s sayings is, “ After faith, no

blessing is equal to a good wife.”

Marriage has, moreover, this good in it, that to

be patient with feminine peculiarities, to provide

the necessaries which wives require, and to keep

them in the path of the law, is a very important

part of religion. The Prophet said, “ To give

one’s wife the money she requires is more im¬

portant than to give alms.” Once, when Ibn

90 MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE

Mubarak was engaged in a campaign against the

infidels, one of his companions asked him, “ Is

any work more meritorious than religious war ? ”

“ Yes,” he replied : “ to feed and clothe one’s

wife and children properly.” The celebrated

saint Bishr Hafi said, “It is better that a man

should work for wife and children than merely

for himself.” In the Traditions it has been

recorded that some sins can only be atoned

for by enduring trouble for the sake of one’s

family.

Concerning a certain saint it is related that

his wife died and he would not marry again,

though people urged him, saying it was easier to

concentrate his thoughts in solitude. One night

he saw in a dream the door of heaven opened

and numbers of angels descending. They came

near and looked upon him, and one said,

“ Is this that selfish wretch ? ” and his fellow

answered, “ Yes, this is he.” The saint was too

alarmed to ask whom they meant, but presently

a boy passed and he asked him. “It is you they

are speaking about,” replied the boy ; “ only up

to a week ago your good works were being re¬

corded in heaven along with those of other saints,

but now they have erased your name from the

roll.” Greatly disturbed in mind as soon as he

awoke, he hastened to be married. From all the

above considerations it will be seen that marriage

is desirable.

DRAWBACKS TO MARRIAGE 91

We come now to treat of the drawbacks to

marriage. One of these is that there is a danger,

especially in the present time, that a man should

gain a livelihood by unlawful means in order to

support his family, and no amount of good works

can compensate for this. The Prophet said that

at the resurrection a certain man with a whole

mountain load of good works will be brought

forward and stationed near the Balance.1 He

will then be asked, “ ‘ By what means did you

support your family ? ’ He will not be able to

give a satisfactory answer, and all his good works

will be cancelled, and proclamation will be made

concerning him, ‘ This is the man whose family

have devoured all his good deeds ! ’ ”

Another drawback to marriage is this, that to

treat one’s family kindly and patiently and to

bring their affairs to a satisfactory issue can only

be done by those who have a good disposition.

There is great danger lest a man should treat his

family harshly, or neglect them, and so bring sin

upon himself. The Prophet said : “ He who

deserts his wife and children is like a runaway

slave ; till he returns to them none of his fasts

or prayers will be accepted by God.” In brief,

man has a lower nature, and, till he can control

his own lower nature, he had better not assume

the responsibility of controlling another’s. Some

1 The Mizan, or Balance for weighing good and evil deeds,

which will be erected on the Judgment Day.

92 MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE

one asked the saint Bishr Hah why he did not

marry. “ I am afraid,” he replied, “ of that

verse in the Koran, ‘ The rights of women over

men are precisely the same as the rights of men

over women.’ ”

A third disadvantage of marriage is that the

cares of a family often prevent a man from con¬

centrating his thoughts on God and on a future

life, and may, unless he is careful, lead to his

destruction, for God has said, “ Let not your

wives and children turn you away from remem¬

bering God.” He who thinks he can concen¬

trate himself better on his religious duties by

not marrying had better remain single, and he

who fears falling into sin if he does not marry,

had better do so.

We now come to the qualities which should be

sought in a wife. The most important of all is

chastity. If a wife is unchaste, and her husband

keeps silent, he gets a bad name and is hindered

in his religious life ; if he speaks, his life be¬

comes embittered ; and if he divorces her, he may

feel the pang of separation. A wife who is

beautiful but of evil character is a great calamity ;

such a one had better be divorced. The Prophet

said, “ He who seeks a wife for the sake of her

beauty or wealth will lose both.”

The second desirable quality in a wife is a

good disposition. An ill-tempered or ungrateful

or loquacious or imperious wife makes existence

THE QUALITY OF WOMEN

unbearable, and is a great hindrance to leading

a devout life.

The third quality to be sought is beauty, as

this calls forth love and affection. Therefore

one should see a woman before marrying her.

The Prophet said, “ The women of such a tribe

have all a defect in their eyes ; he who wishes to

marry one should see her first.” The wise have

said that he who marries a wife without seeing

her is sure to repent it afterwards. It is true

that one should not marry solely for the sake of

beauty, but this does not mean that beauty

should be reckoned of no account at all.

The fourth desirable point is that the sum

paid by the husband as the wife’s marriage-portion

should be moderate. The Prophet said, “ She

is the best kind of wife whose marriage-portion

is small, and whose beauty is great.” He him¬

self settled the marriage-portion of some women

at ten dirhems,1 and his own daughters’ marriage-

portions were not more than four hundred

dirhems.

Fifthly, she should not be barren. “ A piece

of old matting lying in the corner of the house

is better than a barren wife.” 2

Other qualities in a desirable wife are these :

she should be of a good stock, not married pre¬

viously, and not too nearly related to her husband.

1 The dirhem = about sixpence.

2 Saying of Muhammad.

94 MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE

Regarding the Observances of Marriage

Marriage is a religious institution, and should

be treated in a religious way, otherwise the mating

of men and women is no better than the mating

of animals. The Law enjoins that there should

be a feast on the occasion of every marriage.

When Abdurrahman Ibn Auf married, the Prophet

said to him, “ Make a marriage-feast, even if you

have only a goat to make it with.” When the

Prophet himself celebrated his marriage with

Safia he made a marriage-feast of dates and

barley. It is also right that marriage should be

accompanied with the beating of drums and of

music, for man is the crown of creation.

Secondly, a man should remain on good terms

with his wife. This does not mean that he

should never cause her pain, but that he should

bear any annoyance she causes him, whether by

her unreasonableness or ingratitude, patiently.

Woman is created weak, and requiring conceal¬

ment ; she should therefore be borne with

patiently, and kept secluded. The Prophet said,

“ He who bears the ill-humour of his wife pati¬

ently will earn as much merit as Job did by the

patient endurance of his trials.” On his death¬

bed also he was heard to say, “ Continue in

prayer and treat your wives well, for they are

your prisoners.” He himself used to bear pati¬

ently the tempers of his wives. One day Omar’s

THE TREATMENT OF WIVES 95

wife was angry and scolded him. He said to

her, “ Thou evil-tongued one, dost thou answer

me back ? ” She replied, “ Yes ! the Lord of

the prophets is better than thou, and his wives

answer him back.” He replied, “ Alas for Hafsa

[Omar’s daughter and Muhammad’s wife] if she

does not humble herself ” ; and when he met her

he said, “ Take care not to answer the Prophet

back.” The Prophet also said, “ The best of

you is he who is best to his own family, as I am

the best to mine.”

Thirdly, a man should condescend to his wife’s

recreations and amusements, and not attempt to

check them. The Prophet himself actually on

one occasion ran races with his young wife

Ayesha. The first time he beat her, and the

second time she beat him. Another time he held

her up in his arms that she might look at some

performing negroes. In fact, it would be difficult

to find any one who was so kind to his wives as

the Prophet was to his. Wise men have said,

“ A man should come home smiling and eat what

he finds and not ask for anything he does not

find.” However, he should not be over-indul¬

gent, lest his wife lose her respect for him. If he

sees anything plainly wrong on her part, he

should not ignore but rebuke it, or he will become

a laughing-stock. In the Koran it is written,

“ Men should have the upper hand over women,”

and the Prophet said, “ Woe to the man who is

96 MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE

the servant of his wife,” for she should be his

servant. Wise men have said, “ Consult women,

and act the contrary to what they advise.” In

truth there is something perverse in women, and

if they are allowed even a little licence, they get

out of control altogether, and it is difficult to

reduce them to order again. In dealing with

them one should endeavour to use a mixture of

severity and tenderness, with a greater propor¬

tion of the latter. The Prophet said, “Woman

was formed of a crooked rib ; if you try to bend

her, you will break her ; if you leave her alone,

she will grow more and more crooked ; therefore

treat her tenderly.”

As regards propriety, one cannot be too careful

not to let one’s wife look at or be looked at by a

stranger, for the beginning of all mischief is in

the eye. As far as possible, she should not be

allowed out of the house, nor to go on the roof,

nor to stand at the door. Care should be taken,

however, not to be unreasonably jealous and

strict. The Prophet one day asked his daughter

Fatima, “ What is the best thing for women ? ”

She answered, “ They should not look on

strangers, nor strangers on them.” The Prophet

was pleased at this remark, and embraced her,

saying, “ Verily, thou art a piece of my liver ! ”

The Commander of the Faithful, Omar, said,

“ Don’t give women fine clothes, for as soon as

they have them they will want to go out of the

A WIFE’S MAINTENANCE

house.” In the time of the Prophet women had

permission to go to the mosques and stand in the

last row of the worshippers ; but this was sub¬

sequently forbidden.

A man should keep his wife properly supplied

with money, and not stint her. To give a wife

her proper maintenance is more meritorious than

to give alms. The Prophet said, “ Suppose a

man spends one dinar 1 in religious war, another

in ransoming a slave, a third in charity, and

gives the fourth to his wife, the giving of this

last surpasses in merit all the others put together.”

A man should not eat anything especially good

by himself, or, if he has eaten it, he should keep

silent about it and not praise it before his wife.

It is better for husband and wife to eat together,

if a guest be not present, for the Prophet said,

“ When they do so, God sends His blessing upon

them, and the angels pray for them.” The most

important point to see to is that the supplies

given to one’s wife are acquired by lawful

means.

If a man’s wife be rebellious and disobedient,

he should at first admonish her gently ; if this

is not sufficient he should sleep in a separate

chamber for three nights. Should this also fail

he may strike her, but not on the mouth, nor

with such force as to wound her. Should she be

remiss in her religious duties, he should manifest

1 About ten shillings.

98 MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE

his displeasure to her for an entire month, as the

Prophet did on one occasion to all his wives.

The greatest care should be taken to avoid

divorce, for, though divorce is permitted, yet God

disapproves of it, because the very utterance of

the word “ divorce ” causes a woman pain, and

how can it be right to pain any one ? When

divorce is absolutely necessary, the formula for

it should not be repeated thrice all at once, but

on three different occasions.1 A woman should

be divorced kindly, not through anger and con¬

tempt, and not without a reason. After divorce

a man should give his former wife a present, and

not tell others that she has been divorced for

such and such a fault. Of a certain man who

was instituting divorce-proceedings against his

wife it is related that people asked him, “ Why

are you divorcing her ? 55 He answered, “I do

not reveal my wife’s secrets.” When he had

actually divorced her, he was asked again, and

said, “ She is a stranger to me now ; I have

nothing to do with her private affairs.”

Hitherto we have treated of the rights of the

wife over her husband, but the rights of the

husband over the wife are even more binding.

The Prophet said, “If it were right to worship

any one except God, it would be right for wives

to worship their husbands.” A wife should not

1 The formula for divorce has to be repeated thrice to make

it complete.

THE RIGHTS OF HUSBANDS 99

boast of her beauty before her husband, she

should not requite his kindness with ingratitude,

she should not say to him, “ Why have you

treated me thus and thus ? ” The Prophet said,

“ I looked into hell and saw many women there ;

I asked the reason, and received this reply,

4 Because they abused their husbands and were

ungrateful to them.’ 55

The love of God is the highest of all topics, and

is the final aim to which we have been tending

hitherto. We have spoken of spiritual dangers as

they hinder the love of God in a man’s heart, and

we have spoken of various good qualities as being

the necessary preliminaries to it. Human per¬

fection resides in this, that the love of God should

conquer a man’s heart and possess it wholly, and

even if it does not possess it wholly it should

predominate in the heart over the love of all

other things. Nevertheless, rightly to under¬

stand the love of God is so difficult a matter that

one sect of theologians have altogether denied

that man can love a Being who is not of his own

species, and they have defined the love of God

as consisting merely in obedience. Those who

hold such views do not know what real religion is.

All Moslems are agreed that the love of God is

a duty. God says concerning the believers, “ He

loves them and they love Him,” 1 and the Prophet

1 Koran.

DEFINITION OF LOVE

said, “ Till a man loves God and His Prophet

more than anything else he has not the right

faith.” When the angel of death came to take

the soul of Abraham the latter said, “ Have you

ever seen a friend take his friend’s life ? ” God

answered him, “ Have you ever seen a friend

unwilling to see his friend ? ” Then Abraham

said, “ 0 Azrael ! take my soul ! ” The following

prayer was taught by the Prophet to his com¬

panions, “ 0 God, grant me to love Thee and to

love those who love Thee, and whatsoever brings

me nearer to Thy love, and make Thy love more

precious to me than cold water to the thirsty.”

Hassan Basri used to say, “ He who knows God

loves Him, and he who knows the world hates it.”

We come now to treat of love in its essential

nature. Love may be defined as an inclination

to that which is pleasant. This is apparent in

the case of the five senses, each of which may be

said to love that which gives it delight ; thus the

eye loves beautiful forms, the ear music, etc.

This is a kind of love we share with the animals.

But there is a sixth sense, or faculty of perception,

implanted in the heart, which animals do not

possess, through which we become aware of

spiritual beauty and excellence. Thus, a man

who is only acquainted with sensuous delights

cannot understand what the Prophet meant

when he said he loved prayer more than perfumes

or women, though the last two were also pleasant

THE LOVE OE GOD

to him. But he whose inner eye is opened to

behold the beauty and perfection of God will

despise all outward sights in comparison, howT-

ever fair they may be.

The former kind of man will say that beauty

resides in red-and-white complexions, well-pro¬

portioned limbs, and so forth, but he will be

blind to moral beauty, such as men refer to when

they speak of such and such a man as possessing

a “beautiful” character. But those possessed

of inner perception find it quite possible to love

the departed great, such as the Caliphs Omar and

Abu Bakr, on account of their noble qualities,

though their bodies have long been mingled wdth

the dust. Such love is directed not towards any

outward form, but towards the inner character.

Even when we wash to excite love in a child to¬

wards any one, we do not describe their outward

beauty of form, etc., but their inner excellencies.

When we apply this principle to the love of

God we shall find that He alone is really worthy of

our love, and that, if any one loves Him not, it is

because he does not know Him. Whatever we

love in any one we love because it is a reflection of

Him. It is for this reason that we love Muham¬

mad, because he is the Prophet and the Beloved

of God, and the love of learned and pious men

is really the love of God. We shall see this more

clearly if we consider what are the causes which

excite love.

THE GIFT OF GOD

The first cause is this, that man loves himself

and the perfection of his own nature. This leads

him directly to the love of God, for man’s very

existence and man’s attributes are nothing else

but the gift of God, but for whose grace and

kindness man would never have emerged from

behind the curtain of non-existence into the

visible world. Man’s preservation and eventual

attainment to perfection are also entirely de¬

pendent upon the grace of God. It would

indeed be a wonder, if one should take refuge

from the heat of the sun under the shadow of a

tree and not be grateful to the tree, without which

there would be no shadow at all. Precisely in the

same way, were it not for God, man would have

no existence nor attributes at all ; wherefore, then,

should he not love God, unless he be ignorant of

Him ? Doubtless fools cannot love Him, for the

love of Him springs directly from the knowledge of

Him, and whence should a fool have knowledge ?

The second cause of this love is that man loves

his benefactor, and in truth his only Benefactor

is God, for whatever kindness he receives from

any fellow-creature is due to the immediate in¬

stigation of God. Whatever motive may have

prompted the kindness he receives from another,

whether the desire to gain religious merit or a

good name, God is the Agent who set that motive

to work.

The third cause is the love that is aroused by

contemplation of the attributes of God, His

power and wisdom, of which human power and

wisdom are but the feeblest reflections. This

love is akin to that we feel to the great and good

men of the past, such as the Imam Malik and the

Imam Shaft,1 though we never expect to receive

any personal benefits from them, and is therefore

a more disinterested kind of love. God said to

the prophet David, “ That servant is dearest to

Me who does not seek Me from fear of punishment

or hope of reward, but to pay the debt due to

My Deity.” And in the Psalms it is written,

“ Who is a greater transgressor than he who

worships Me from fear of hell or hope of heaven ?

If I had created neither, should I not then have

deserved to be worshipped ? ”

The fourth cause of this love is the affinity

between man and God, wffiich is referred to in the

saying of the Prophet, “ Verily God created man

in His own likeness.” Furthermore, God has

said, “ My servant seeks proximity to Me, that

I may make him My friend, and when I have

made him My friend I become his ear, his eye,

his tongue.” Again, God said to Moses, “ I was

sick, and thou didst not visit Me ? ” Moses

replied, “ 0 God ! Thou art Lord of heaven and

earth : how couldest Thou be sick ? ” God

said, “ A certain servant of Mine was sick ; hadst

thou visited him, thou wouldst have visited Me.”

1 Founders of the sects which bear their names.

AFFINITY BETWEEN GOD AND MAN 105

This is a somewhat dangerous topic to dwell

upon, as it is beyond the understanding of common

people, and even intelligent men have stumbled

in treating of it, and come to believe in incarna¬

tion and union with God. Still, the affinity

which does exist between man and God disposes

of the objection of those theologians mentioned

above, who maintain that man cannot love a

Being who is not of his own species. However

great the distance between them, man can love

God because of the affinity indicated in the

saying, “ God created man in His own likeness.”

The Vision of God

All Moslems profess to believe that the Vision

of God is the summit of human felicity, because

it is so stated in the Law ; but with many this is

a mere lip-profession which arouses no emotion

in their hearts. This is quite natural, for how

can a man long for a thing of which he has no

knowledge ? We will endeavour to show briefly

why the Vision of God is the greatest happiness

to which a man can attain.

In the first place, every one of man’s faculties

has its appropriate function which it delights to

fulfil. This holds good of them all, from the

lowest bodily appetite to the highest form of

intellectual apprehension. But even a com¬

paratively low form of mental exertion affords

greater pleasure than the satisfaction of bodily

appetites. Thus, if a man happens to be absorbed

in a game of chess, he will not come to his meal,

though repeatedly summoned. And the higher

the subject-matter of our knowledge, the greater

is our delight in it ; for instance, we would take

more pleasure in knowing the secrets of a king

than the secrets of a vizier. Seeing, then, that

God is the highest possible object of knowledge,

the knowledge of Him must afford more delight

than any other. He who knows God, even in

this world, dwells, as it were, in a paradise, “ the

breadth of which is as the breadth of the heavens

and the earth,” 1 a paradise the fruits of which

no envy can prevent him plucking, and the extent

of which is not narrowed by the multitude of

those who occupy it.

But the delight of knowledge still falls short

of the delight of vision, just as our pleasure in

thinking of those we love is much less than the

pleasure afforded by the actual sight of them.

Our imprisonment in bodies of clay and water,

and entanglement in the things of sense constitute

a veil which hides the Vision of God from us,

although it does not prevent our attaining to

some knowledge of Him. For this reason God

said to Moses on Mount Sinai, “ Thou shalt not

see Me.” 2

The truth of the matter is this, that, just as the

1 Koran. 2 Ibid.

IN MANY MIRRORS

seed of man becomes a man, and a buried date-

stone becomes a palm-tree, so the knowledge of

God acquired on earth will in the next world

change into the Vision of God, and he who has

never learnt the knowledge will never have the

Vision. This Vision will not be shared alike by

all who know, but their discernment of it will

vary exactly as their knowledge. God is one,

but He will be seen in many different ways, just

as one object is reflected in different ways by

different mirrors, some showing it straight, and

some distorted, some clearly and some dimly.

A mirror may be so crooked as to make even a

beautiful form appear misshapen, and a man

may carry into the next world a heart so dark

and distorted that the sight which will be a

source of peace and joy to others will be to him

a source of misery. He, in whose heart the love

of God has prevailed over all else, will derive

more joy from this vision than he in whose heart

it has not so prevailed ; just as in the case of

two men with equally powerful eyesight, gazing

on a beautiful face, he who already loves the

possessor of that face will rejoice in beholding it

more than he who does not. For perfect happi¬

ness mere knowledge is not enough, unaccom¬

panied by love, and the love of God cannot take

possession of a man’s heart till it be purified

from love of the world, which purification can

only be effected by abstinence and austerity.

While lie is in this world a man’s condition with

regard to the Vision of God is like that of a lover

who should see his Beloved’s face in the twilight,

while his clothes are infested with hornets and

scorpions, which continually torment him. But

should the sun arise and reveal his Beloved’s

face in all its beauty, and the noxious vermin

leave off molesting him, then the lover’s joy will

be like that of God’s servant, who, released from

the twilight and the tormenting trials of this

world, beholds Him without a veil. Abu

Suleiman said, 44 He who is busy with himself

now will be busy with himself then, and he who

is occupied with God now will be occupied vrith

Him then.”

Yahya Ibn Muaz relates, “I watched Bayazid.

Bistami at prayer through one entire night.

When he had finished he stood up and said,

4 0 Lord ! some of Thy servants have asked and

obtained of Thee the power to perform miracles,

to walk on the sea, and to fly in the air, but this

I do not ask ; some have asked and obtained

treasures, but these I do not ask.’ Then he

turned, and, seeing me, said, 4 Are you there,

Yahya ? ’ I replied, 4 Yes.’ He asked, 4 Since

when ? ’ I answered, 4 For a long time.’ I then

asked him to reveal to me some of his spiritual

experiences. 4 1 will reveal,’ he answered, 4 what

is lawful to tell you. The Almighty showed me

His kingdom, from its loftiest to its lowest ; He

TREASURES SURPASSING

raised me above the throne and the seat and all

the seven heavens. Then He said, 44 Ask of me

whatsoever thing thon desirest.” I answered,

44 Lord ! I wish for nothing beside Thee.”

4 4 Verily,” He said, 44 thou art My servant.” 5 ”

On another occasion Bayazid said, 44 Were God

to offer thee the intimacy with Himself of Abra¬

ham, the power in prayer of Moses, the spirituality

of Jesus, yet keep thy face directed to Him only,

for He has treasures surpassing even these.”

One day a friend said to him, 44 For thirty years

I have fasted by day and prayed by night and

have found none of that spiritual joy of which

thou speakest.” Bayazid answered, 44 If you

fasted and prayed for three hundred years, you

would never find it.” 44 How is that ? ” asked

the other. 44 Because,” said Bayazid, 44 your

selfishness is acting as a veil between you and

God.” 44 Tell me, then, the cure.” 44 It is a cure

which you cannot carry out.” However, as his

friend pressed him to reveal it, Bayazid said,

44 Go to the nearest barber and have your beard

shaved ; strip yourself of your clothes, with the

exception of a girdle round your loins. Take a

horse’s nose-bag full of walnuts, hang it round

your neck, go into the bazaar and cry out, 4 Any

boy who gives me a slap on the nape of my neck

shall have a walnut.’ Then, in this manner, go

where the Cadi and the doctors of the law are

sitting.” 44 Bless my soul ! ” said his friend,

“ I really can’t do that ; do suggest some other

remedy.” “ This is the indispensable preliminary

to a cure,” answered Bayazid, “ but, as I told

you, you are incurable.”

The reason Bayazid indicated this method of

cure for want of relish in devotion was that his

friend was an ambitious seeker after place and

honour. Ambition and pride are diseases which

can only be cured in some such way. God said

unto Jesus, “ O Jesus ! when I see in My servants5

hearts pure love for Myself unmixed with any

selfish desire concerning this world or the next,

I act as guardian over that love.” Again, when

people asked Jesus “ What is the highest work

of all ? ” he answered, “ To love God and to be

resigned to His will.” The saint Rabia was once

asked whether she loved the Prophet : “ The

love of the Creator,” she said, “ has prevented

my loving the creature.” Ibrahim Ben Adham,

in his prayers, said, “ 0 God ! In my eyes heaven

itself is less than a gnat in comparison with the

love of Thee and the joy of Thy remembrance

which Thou hast granted me.”

He who supposes that it is possible to enjoy

happiness in the next world apart from the love

of God is far gone in error, for the very essence

of the future life is to arrive at God as at an

Object of desire long aimed at and attained

through countless obstacles. This enjoyment of

God is happiness. But if he had no delight in

STORY OF THE SCAVENGER 111

God before, he will not delight in Him then, and

if his joy in God was but slight before it will be

but slight then. In brief, our future happiness

will be in strict proportion to the degree in which

we have loved God here.

But (and may God preserve us from such a

doom !) if in a man’s heart there has been growing

up a love of what is opposed to God, the conditions

of the next life will be altogether alien to him,,

and that which will cause joy to others will to

him cause misery.

This may be illustrated by the following

anecdote : A certain scavenger went into the

perfume-sellers’ bazaar, and, smelling the sweet

scents, fell down unconscious. People came

round him and sprinkled rose-water upon him

and held musk to his nose, but he only became

worse. At last one came who had been a

scavenger himself ; he held a little filth under

the man’s nose and he revived instantly, ex¬

claiming, with a sigh of satisfaction, “ Ah ! this

is perfume indeed ! ” Thus in the next life a

worldling will no longer find the filthy lucre and

the filthy pleasures of the world ; the spiritual

joys of that world will be altogether alien to him

and but increase his wretchedness. For the next

world is a world of Spirit and of the manifestation

of the Beauty of God ; happy is that man who

has aimed at and acquired affinity with it. All-

austerities, devotions, studies have the acquire-

ment of that affinity for their aim, and that

affinity is love. This is the meaning of that

saying of the Koran, “ He who has purified his

soul is happy.” Sins and lusts directly oppose

the attainment of this affinity ; therefore the

Koran goes on to say, “ And he who has cor¬

rupted his soul is miserable.” 1 Those who are

gifted with spiritual insight have really grasped

this truth as a fact of experience, and not a merely

traditional maxim. Their clear perception of it

leads them to the conviction that he by whom it

was spoken was a prophet indeed, just as a man

who has studied medicine knows when he is

listening to a physician. This is a kind of cer¬

tainty which requires no support from miracles

such as the conversion of a rod into a snake,, the

credit of which may be shaken by apparently

equally extraordinary miracles performed by

magicians.

The Signs of the Love of God

Many claim to love God, but each should ex¬

amine himself as to the genuineness of the love

which he professes. The first test is this : he

should not dislike the thought of death, for no

friend shrinks from going to see a friend. The

Prophet said, “ Whoever wishes to see God, God

wishes to see him.” It is true a sincere lover of

1 Koran, chap. 91.

TESTS OF SINCERITY

God may shrink from the thought of death coming

before he has finished his preparation for the

next world, but if he is sincere, he will be diligent

in making such preparation.

The second test of sincerity is that a man

should be willing to sacrifice his will to God’s,

should cleave to what brings him nearer to God,

and should shun what places him at a distance

from God. The fact of a man’s sinning is no

proof that he does not love God at all, but it

proves that he does not love Him with his whole

heart. The saint Fudhail said to a certain man,

“ If any one asks you whether you love God,

keep silent ; for if you say, 4 1 do not love Him,’

you are an infidel ; and if you say, ‘ I do,’ your

deeds contradict you.”

The third test is that the remembrance of God

should always remain fresh in a man’s heart

without effort, for what a man loves he constantly

remembers, and if his love is perfect he never

forgets it. It is possible, however, that, while

the love of God does not take the first place in

a man’s heart, the love of the love of God may,

for love is one thing and the love of love

another.

The fourth test is, that he will love the Koran,

which is the Word of God, and Muhammad, who

is the Prophet of God ; if his love is really strong,

he will love all men, for all are God’s servants,

nay, his love will embrace the whole creation, for

he who loves any one loves the works he composes

and his handwriting.

The fifth test is, he will be covetous of retire¬

ment and privacy for purposes of devotion ; he

will long for the approach of night, so that he

may hold intercourse with his Friend without

let or hindrance. If he prefers conversation by

day and sleep at night to such retirement, then

his love is imperfect. God said to David, “ Be

not too intimate with men ; for two kinds of

persons are excluded from My presence : those

who are earnest in seeking reward and slack when

they obtain it, and those who prefer their own

thoughts to the remembrance of Me. The sign

of My displeasure is, that I leave such to them¬

selves.”

In truth, if the love of God really take possession

of the heart all other love is excluded. One of

the children of Israel was in the habit of praying

at night, but, observing that a bird sang in a

certain tree very sweetly, he began to pray under

that tree, in order to have the pleasure of listening

to the bird. God told David to go and say to

him, “ Thou hast mingled the love of a melodious

bird with the love of Me ; thy rank among the

saints is lowered.” On the other hand, some

have loved God with such intensity that, while

they were engaged in devotion, their houses have

caught fire and they have not noticed it.

A sixth test is that worship becomes easy. A

WHO ARE THY LOVERS ?

certain saint said, “ During one space of thirty

years I performed my night-devotions with great

difficulty, but during a second space of thirty

years they became a delight.” When love to

God is complete no joy is equal to the joy of

worship.

The seventh test is that lovers of God will love

those who obey Him and hate the infidels and

the disobedient, as the Koran says : “ They are

strenuous against the unbelievers and merciful

to each other.” The Prophet once asked God

and said, “ 0 Lord ! who are Thy lovers ? ”

and the answer came, “ Those who cleave to Me

as a child to its mother, take refuge in the re¬

membrance of Me as a bird seeks the shelter of

its nest, and are as angry at the sight of sin as an

angry lion who fears nothing.”