The ‘A’ql’ [or ‘the body of the initiated’] will protect us with its sword.
Rejoice, people of China, in the hour of Thy arrival.
Welcome to thee, city of Arin (?), oh my Lady!” [Fatima?].
A Druse wedding-song may also be quoted here: (“Allah, billáli, billáli.”) The Chorus: “O God, with the pearls, with the pearls,” “Sway on to me, oh my Gazelle!” Song: “Thou maid who combest her (the bride’s) tresses, comb them gently, and give her no pain; for she is the daughter of nobles, accustomed to being a pet” [delláli]. Chorus: Allah, billáli, billáli; wa tanaqqalí, yá Ghazáli!
Another Song: “Sing the praises of the shore, oh daughters; sing the praises of the daughters of the shore; for we have passed by the pomegranate-tree bearing full fruit, and we have compared it with the cheeks of the daughters of the shore.”
(b) THE KELÁM-I-PÎR AND ESOTERIC MUHAMMADANISM.
It is not my wish to satisfy idle curiosity by describing the contents of a book, concealed for nine hundred years, the greater portion of which accident has placed in my hands after years of unsuccessful search in inhospitable regions. The fragmentary information regarding it and the practices of its followers which I had collected, were contributed to publications, like this Review, of specialists for specialists or for genuine Students of Oriental learning. Nothing could be more distressing to me than the formation of a band of “esoteric Muhammadans,” unacquainted with Arabic, which is the only key to the knowledge of Islám. The mastery of the original language of his holy Scripture is, still more emphatically, the sine quâ non condition of a teacher, be he Christian, Muhammadan, or other “possessor of a sacred book.” Nor should anyone discuss another’s faith without knowing its religious texts in the original as well as its present practice.