Essays on islam

تَقيّةً - taqiyatan for the word ُقَاةً - tuqatan in the text, and that therefore the meaning is that alliance with unbelievers is forbidden, except in time of danger, when an ostensible alliance is permitted (vol. i, p. 151).

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the Sunni is the doctrine of the Imamat. The annual ceremonies of the Muharram also keep alive the old historic feud. The Sunnis are blamed for the work of their ancestors in the faith, whilst the Khalifas Abu Bakr, 'Umar, and 'Uthman are looked upon as usurpers. They had not the ray of light, on the possession of which alone could any one make good a claim to be the Imam, the Guide of the Believers. The terrible disorders of the early days of Islam can only be understood when we realise to some extent the passionate longing which men felt for a spiritual head. It was thought to be impossible that Muhammad, the last of the prophets, should leave the Faithful without a guide appointed by God who would be the interpreter of His will.

Other distinctive differences between the Shi'ah and the Sunni are the belief that the most learned men of the Shi'ahs are Mujtahids, qualified to give analogical judgments on any point on which a legal decision is needed, and whose decision is final, which authority, however, the Sunnis decline to accord to them; that the Muharram ceremonies should be observed in commemoration of the deaths of Hasan and Husain, whilst Sunnis observe only the tenth day of Muharram, or the 'Ashura, as the day on which Adam was created. There are also minor differences in the liturgical ceremonies, and in some points of the civil law. On what may be termed questions of scholastic philosophy, Shi'ahs differ from the Sunnis, and, speaking generally, have a tendency to a somewhat freer method of looking at some abstruse questions. They also reject many of the Traditions received by the Sunnis. "They reject Traditions given by the Companions of the Prophet, and replace them by others which they have received either from Companions who were the partisans of 'Ali, or from one or other of the twelve Imams."¹

¹ Ibn Khaldun, vol. i, p. 439.

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This longing for a spiritual leader extends beyond the Shi'ah sect, and is of some importance in its bearing upon the Eastern Question. Apart from the superhuman claims for the Imam, what he is as a ruler to the Shi'ah — the Khalifa is to the Sunni — the supreme head in Church and State, the successor of the Prophet, the Conservator of Islam, as made known in the Qur'an, the Sunnat, the Ijma', and the legal decisions of the early Mujtahidun. To administer the laws, the administrator must have a divine sanction. Thus when the Ottoman ruler, Selim the First, conquered Egypt (A.D. 1517), he sought and obtained, from an old descendant of the Baghdad Khalifas, the transfer of the title to himself, and in this way the Sultans of Turkey became the Khalifas of Islam. Whether Mutawakkil Billal, the last titular Khalifa of the house of 'Abbas, was right or wrong in thus transferring the title is not my purpose now to discuss.¹ I only adduce the fact to show how it illustrates the feeling of the need of a Pontiff — a divinely appointed Ruler. Strictly speaking, according to Muhammadan law, the Sultans are not Khalifas, for it is clearly laid down in the Traditions that the Khalifa (also the Imam) must be of the tribe of the Quraish, to which the Prophet himself belonged. Ibn 'Umar relates that the Prophet said: "The Khalifas shall be in the Quraish tribe as long as there are two persons in it, one to rule and another to serve." "It is a necessary condition that the Khalifa should be of the Quraish tribe." Abu Da'ud says: "The Imams shall be of the Quraish as long as they shall rule and do
¹ "The Caliphate as a historical actuality, ceased to exist after enduring 626 years, in A.D. 1258" (Browne, Literary History of Persia, p. 210.) (Muir, "Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline and Fall, p. 594). A Turkish Patriot writes: The Sultans were Sultans long before they were Khalifas and brought their despotic absolutism with them from Asia. When they assumed the Khalifate (which was acquired irregularly) they vitiated it by fusing their absolutism into it. (Fortnightly Review, May, 1897, p. 654.)

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justice, and promise and fulfil, and pardon is implored of them and they are compassionate." At-Tirmidhi quotes from Abu Huraira thus: "The sovereignty shall rest in the Quraish." Al-Buzzar says: "The Princes shall be of the Quraish."¹ Such quotations might be multiplied, and they tend to show that it is not incumbent on orthodox Sunnis, other than the Turks, to rush to the rescue of the Sultan, whilst to the Shi'ahs he is little better than a heretic! Certainly they would never look upon him as an Imam, which personage is to them in the place of a Khalifa. In countries not under Turkish rule, the second khutba, or prayer for the ruler, said on Fridays in the mosques, is said for the "ruler of the age," or for the Amir, or whatever happens to be the title of the head of the State. Of late years it has become more common in India to say it for the Sultan. This is not, strictly speaking, according to Muhammadan law, which declares that the khutba can only be said with the permission of the ruler, and as in India that ruler is the British Government, the prayers should be said for the King. Evidently the law never contemplated large bodies of Musalmans residing anywhere but where the influence of the Khalifa extended.

In thus casting doubt on the legality of the claim made by Turkish Sultans to the Khalifate of Islam, I

¹ Jalalu'd-din as-Syuti, History of the Khalifas, p. 8.

² The usual defence of the claim of the Sultan to the office is: —

(1) The right of the sword. The Ottoman ruler Selim so won it, and his successors hold it till a rival with a better title appears.

(2) Selim brought with him from Cairo to Constantinople learned men, who, with the 'Ulama of the latter city, ratified his assumption of the title. Each new Sultan receives in the Mosque of Aiyub the sword of office from the Ulama.

(3) The guardianship of the two sacred shrines (Haramain) of Mecca and Jerusalem.

(4) The possession of the sacred relics — the cloak of the Prophet, some hair of his beard, and the sword of the Khalifa 'Umar.

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do not deny that the Law of Islam requires that there should be a Khalifa. Unfortunately for Islam, there is nothing in its history parallel to the conflict of Pope and Emperor, of Church and State. In Islam the Khalifa is both Pope and Emperor. ¹ The difference between the Khalifa and any other ruler is that the former rules according to divine, the latter according to human law. The Prophet in transmitting his sacred authority to the Khalifas, his successors, conveyed to them absolute powers. Khalifas can be assassinated, murdered, banished, but so long as they reign anything like constitutional liberty is impossible. It is a fatal mistake in European politics and an evil for Turkey to recognise the Sultan as the legal Khalifa of Islam, for, if he be such, Turkey can never take any step forward to newness of political life.^2
1 "The rule of the Caliphs, was in its ultimate basis, a theocracy; it would submit to no limitations, and the objects which it set before itself, in the conquest of the world to the Faith and the attainment of Paradise by fighting for it, gave no scope for a doctrine of the responsibility of civil rulers, and of duty to the governed." (Cunningham, Western Civilization, p. 118). Khairu'd-din Pasha's reforms were opposed by the 'Ulama who declared that "the Sultan ruled the Empire as Khalifa, that he was bound by the Shari'at or sacred law, and that he could not delegate his authority to another." (An Eastern Statesman in the Contemporary Review, October 1879, p. 335.)

² Nothing shows this more plainly than the fatva pronounced by the Council of the 'Ulama in July 1879, anent Khairu'd-din's proposed reform, which would have placed the Sultan in the position of a constitutional sovereign. This was declared to be directly contrary to the law. Thus:"The law of the Sheri does not authorise the Khalifa to place beside him a power superior to his own. The Khalifa ought to reign alone and govern as master. The Vakils (Ministers) should never possess any authority beyond that of representatives, always dependent and submissive. It would consequently be a transgression of the unalterable principles of the Sheri, which should be the guide of all the actions of the Khalifa, to transfer the supreme power of the Khalifa to one Vakil." This is one of the most important decisions of the jurists of Islam, and it is quite in accordance with all that has been said about Muhammadan Law. It proves as clearly as possible that so long as the Sultan rules as Khalifa, he must oppose any attempt to set up a constitutional Government. There is absolutely no hope of real reform.
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There has been from the earliest ages of Islam a mystical movement known as Sufiism (tasawwuf).¹ It has been especially prevalent among the Persians. It is a reaction from the burden of a rigid law and a wearisome ritual, a vague protest of the human soul in its longing for a purer creed. It took its rise about the end of the eighth century of the Christian era. One of the earliest mystics was a woman named Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya. The founder of theosophical Suffism was Dhu'l-nun al-Misri (245 A.H.) The Sufi values the Qur'an as a divine revelation, but in practice he substitutes the voice of his Pir, or spiritual director, for it. The term Sufi is most probably derived from the Arabic word suf, wool," of which material the garments worn by Eastern ascetics used to be generally made.² Some persons, however, derive it from the Persian saf, "pure," or the Greek (σοφια), "wisdom." The chief idea in Sufiism is that the souls of men differ in degree, but not in kind, from the Divine Spirit, of which they are emanations, and to which they will ultimately return. The Spirit of God is in all He has made, and it in Him. He alone is perfect love, beauty, and so love to Him is the only real thing; all else is illusion. The poet Sa'di says: "I swear by the truth of God, that when He showed me His glory all else was illusion." The present life is one of separation from the beloved. The beauties of nature, music, and art revive in men the divine idea, and recall their affections from wandering from Him to other objects.
¹ The various theories as to the origin of Sufiism are given in Browne's Literary History of Persia, vol. i, pp. 418-21. See also an article on "The origin and development of Sufiism" by R. A. Nicholson, R. A. S. Journal, April 1906: also the introduction to Whinfield's translation of the Gulshan-i-Raz (ed. London, 1880); and my Essays on Islam, pp. 1-45.

² There is a saying — Labasa's-sufa — he donned the wool, i.e. he entered a monastic or contemplative life. For further remarks on the meaning and derivation of the term Sufi see Browne, Literary History of Persia, vol. i, pp. 417-8.

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These sublime affections men must cherish, and by abstraction concentrate their thoughts on God, and so approximate to His essence, and finally reach the highest stage of bliss — absorption into the Eternal. The true end and object of human life is to lose all consciousness of individual existence, to sink "in the ocean of Divine Life, as a breaking bubble is merged into the stream on the surface of which it has for a moment risen."
"Sweep off the life of Hafiz like a dream,
whilst Thou art, none shall hear me say, 'I am.'"
The way in which Sufis gain inspiration (ilham) is thus described. They must put away all thoughts of worldly things, of home, family, and country, and so arrive at the state in which the existence or non-existence of things is all the same. Then in retirement, engaged in serving and praising God, the Sufi must cast away all thoughts save of Him. Even the reading of the Qur'an, the Traditions, and Commentaries may be set aside. "Let him in seclusion, with collectedness of heart, repeat the word Allah, Allah, so often that at last the word involuntarily passes from his lips. Then ceasing to speak, let him utter the word mentally, until even the word is forgotten and the meaning only remains in the heart; then will God enlighten his mind." The difference between an ordinary Muslim and a Sufi is said to be that the former has only a counterfeit faith, or that belief which he accepts on the authority of his forefathers and his teachers, without really knowing how essential true belief in the creed of Islam is for his salvation. The Sufi, on the other hand, is said to search for the origin of religious dogmas. Many spend years in the search and miss it after all, for only those of them who perfectly subject themselves to the Murshid, as their spiritual director, find the reality of things and finally arrive at a fully established faith.

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The habit of speaking of forbidden things as if they were lawful, such as wine, wine-shops, wine-cups, and the frequent references to sweethearts, curls of the mistress, and other descriptions of the beauty of the beloved, are thus explained. The Sufis look at the internal features of things, exchange the corporeal for the spiritual, and thus to outward forms give an imaginary signification. By wine they mean the love of God; the wine-shop is the excellent preceptor, to whom a strong spiritual attachment is formed. The ringlets of the beloved are the praises of the preceptor, which bind the heart and affections of the disciple to him. In a similar way some mystical meaning is attached to all other descriptions of a more or less amatory nature.

Sufis suppose that long before the creation of the world a contract was made by the Supreme Soul with the assembled world of spirits, who are parts of it. Each spirit was addressed separately thus: "Art thou not with thy Lord?" that is, bound to him by a solemn contract. To this they all answered with one voice, "Yes."

The principle underlying the Sufi system is that sense and reason cannot transcend phenomena, or see the real being which underlies them all; so sense and reason must be ignored in favour of the "Inner Light," the divine illumination in the heart, which is the only faculty whereby men perceive the Infinite. Thus when enlightened, they see that all the external phenomena, including man, is but an illusion, and as it is "non-existent, it is an evil because it is a departure from the one real being." The one great duty of man is now plain; it is to cast off the "not being," ¹ to die to self, to live in this "being." He must live
¹ "God, in short, is Pure Being, and what is 'other than God' (ma siwa'u'llah) only exists so far as His Being is infused into it, or mirrored in it." (Browne, Literary History of Persia, vol. i, p. 438.)

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in God, and "break through the one-ness." "In addition to reason, man has a certain faculty (taur) whereby he perceives hidden mysteries" ¹ "This faculty is the inner light, the intuition which, under certain conditions, conveys to him a knowledge of God by direct apprehension in a manner similar to the evidences of the senses." ²

In support of their favourite dogma — the attaining to the knowledge of God — Sufis quote the verse: — "When God said to the angels, 'I am about to place a vicegerent on the earth,' they said, 'Wilt Thou place therein one who shall commit abomination and shed blood? Nay; we celebrate Thy praise and holiness.' God answered them, 'Verily I know that ye wot not of'" (ii. 28). They say that this verse proves that, though the great mass of mankind would commit abomination, some would receive the divine light and attain to a knowledge of God. Sufis also claim as on their side the following verse: "Then found they one of Our servants to whom we had vouchsafed Our mercy, and whom We had instructed with Our knowledge" (xviii. 64). A Tradition states that David said, "'O Lord! why hast thou created mankind?' God replied, 'I am a hidden treasure, and I would fain become known.'" The business of the mystic is to find this treasure, to attain to the Divine. light and the true knowledge of God. The Sufis are divided into those

¹ Gulshan-i-Raz (ed. London, 1880), p. 44.

² The great divergence between the Western and Eastern modes of religious thought has been well described thus: — " Here it is the ideas of faith and righteousness (in different proportions, it is true) which are regarded as the essentials of religion; there it is knowledge and mystery. Here religion is regarded as a rule by which to live and a hope wherein to die; there as a key to unlock the spiritual and material universe. Here it is associated with work and charity; there with rest and wisdom. Here a creed is admired for its simplicity; there for its complexity." Browne, Journal, Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1898, p. 88.

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who claim to be the Ilhamiyah, or those inspired by God, and the Ittihadiyah, or those in union with God.

The earlier Muhammadan mystics sought to impart life to a rigid and formal ritual, and though the seeds of pantheism were planted in their system from the first, they maintained that they were orthodox. "Our system of doctrine," says al-Junaid, "is firmly bound up with the dogmas of the Faith, the Qur'an, and the Traditions." There was a moral earnestness about many of these men which frequently restrained the arm of unrighteous power, and their sayings, often full of beauty, show that they had the power of appreciating the spiritual side of life. Some of these sentences ¹ are worthy of any age. "As neither meat nor drink, profit the diseased body, so no warning avails to touch the heart full of the love of this world." "The work of the holy man doth not consist in this, that he eats grain and clothes himself in wool, but in the knowledge of God and submission to His will." "Thou deservest not the name of a learned man, until thy heart is emptied of the love of this world.'' "Hide thy good deeds as closely as thou wouldst hide thy sins."

A famous mystic was brought into the presence of the Khalifa Harunu'r-Rashid, who said to him, "How great is thy abnegation?" He replied, "Thine is greater." "How so?" said the Khalifa. "Because I make abnegation of this world, and thou makest abnegation of the next." The same man also said, "The display of devotional works to please men is hypocrisy, and acts of devotion done to please men are acts of polytheism."

Even in a book like the Mathnawi of Jalalu'd-din Rumi, in which Sufiism pure and simple, with all its disregard for the outward restraints of an objective

¹ For other sayings of a similar nature see Browne, Literary History of Persia, vol. i, pp. 425-6, and Nicholson, R. A. Society's Journal, April, 1906, pp. 331-48.

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revelation, is inculcated, the author now and again teaches sounder principles. Thus, in Redhouse's translation, we read:—
"To To trust in God, and yet put forth our utmost skill,

The surest method is to work His holy will:

The friend of God must work."

"Exert thyself, O man! put shoulder to the wheel,

The prophets and the saints to imitate in zeal.

Exertion's not a struggle against Providence

'Twas Providence enjoined it — made it our defence."
But towards the close of the second century of the Hijra this earlier mysticism developed into Sufiism. A little later on, al-Hallaj taught in Baghdad thus: "I am the Truth. There is nought in Paradise but God. I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I; we are two souls dwelling in one body. When thou seest me, thou seest Him; and when thou seest Him, thou seest me." This roused the opposition of the orthodox divines, by whom al-Hallaj was condemned to be worthy of death. He was then, by order of the Khalifa, flogged, tortured, and finally beheaded (922 A.D.).¹ Thus died one of the early martyrs of Sufiism; but it grew in spite of bitter persecution.

In order to understand the esoteric teaching of Sufiistic poetry, it is necessary to remember that the perceptive sense is the traveller, the knowledge of God the goal; the doctrines of this ascent or upward progress is the tariqat, or the road. The extinction of self is necessary before any progress can be made on that road. A Sufi poet writes:—

"Plant Plant one foot upon the neck of self,

The other in thy Friend's domain;

In everything His presence see,

For other vision is in vain."

Sa'di in the Bustan says: "Art thou a friend of God? Speak not of self, for to speak of God and of
¹ For an interesting account of al-Hallaj, see Browne's Literary History of Persia, vol. i, pp. 430-5.

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self is infidelity." Shaikh Abu'l-Faid, a great poet and a friend of the Emperor Akbar, from whom he received the honourable title of Maliku'sh-Shu'ara (Master of the Poets), says: "Those who have not closed the door on existence and non-existence reap no advantage from the calm of this world and of the world to come." Khusrau, another well-known poet, says:—
"I have become Thou: Thou art become I,

I am the body, Thou the soul; Let no one henceforth say

That I am distinct from Thee, and Thou from me."
The fact is, that Persian poetry is almost entirely Sufiistic. Pantheistic doctrines are largely inculcated.¹ Thus:—
"I was, ere a name had been named upon earth;

Ere one trace yet existed of aught that has birth;

When the locks of the Loved One streamed forth for a sign,

And Being was none, save the Presence Divine!

Named and name were alike emanations from Me,

Ere aught that was 'I' existed, or 'We.'"

The poet then describes his fruitless search for rest and peace in Christianity, Hinduism, and the religion of the Parsee. Even Islam gave him no satisfaction, for —
"Nor above nor beneath came the Loved One to view,

I toiled to the summit, wild, pathless, and lone,

Of the globe-girding Kaf: —but the 'Anka had flown!

The sev'nth heaven I traversed — the sev'nth heaven explored,

But in neither discern'd I the court of the Lord!

I question'd the Pen and the Tablet of Fate,

But they whisper'd not where He pavilions His state;

My vision I strain'd; but my God-scanning eye

No trace that to Godhead belongs could descry.

My glance I bent inward; within my own breast,

Lo, the vainly sought elsewhere, the Godhead confess'd!

In the whirl of its transport my spirit was toss'd,

Till each atom of separate being I lost."
¹ "The spiritualism of the Sufis, though it seems the contrary of materialism, is really identical with it; but if their doctrine is not more reasonable, it is at least more elevated and more thoughtful." (Poesie Philosophique et Religiouse chez les Persans, par M. Garcin de Tassy, p. 2.)

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These are the words of the greatest authority among the Sufis, Maulana Jalalu'd-din Rumi, founder of the order of the Maulawi Darwishes. He also relates the following story: — "One knocked at the door of the beloved, and a voice from within said, 'Who is there? Is this a threshing-floor?' Then he answered, 'It is I.' The voice replied, 'This house will not hold me and thee!' So the door remained shut. The lover retired to a wilderness, and spent some time in solitude, fasting, and prayer. One year elapsed, when he again returned and knocked at the door. 'Who is there?' said the voice. The lover answered, 'It is thou.' Then the door was opened."

Another form of the same story, given by Redhouse, is:—