Q.—Some Ṣūfīs declare: “We are neither afraid of Hell, nor do we desire Heaven”—a saying which must be blasphemous. How is this?
A.—They do not really mean that they do not fear Hell, and that they do not wish for Heaven. If they really meant this, it would be blasphemous. Their meaning is not as they express themselves; probably they wish to say: “O Lord, Thou who createdst us, and madest us what we are, Thou hast not made us because we assist Thy workings. We are in duty bound to serve Thee all the more devotedly, wholly in obedience to Thy holy will. We have no bargaining with Thee, and we do not adore Thee with the view of gaining thereby either Heaven or Hell!” As it is written in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah ix. 112]: “Verily, God hath bought of the believers their persons and their wealth, for the Paradise they are to have,” which means that His bounty has no bounds, His mercy no end; and thus it is that He benefits His faithful servants. They would say: “Thou hast no bargaining with anyone; our devotion is from the sincerity of our hearts, and is for love of Thee only. Were there no Heaven, nor any Hell, it would still be our duty to adore Thee. To Thee belongs the perfect right to put us either in Heaven or in Hell, and may Thy commands be executed agreeably to Thy blessed will! If Thou puttest us in Heaven, it is through Thine excellence, not on account of our devotion; if Thou puttest us in Hell, it is from out of Thy great justice, and not from any arbitrary decision on Thy part; so be it for ever and for ever!” This is the true meaning of the Ṣūfīs when they say they do not desire Heaven or fear Hell.
Q.—Thou saidst that there is no conflict between the Sharīʿah, “law,” and the Ḥaqīqah, “truth,” and nothing in the latter inconsistent with the former; and yet these two are distinguished from one another by “a something” which the Ahlu ʾl-Ḥaqīqah, “believers in the truth,” conceal. Were there nothing conflicting, why should it be thus hidden?
A.—If it be concealed, it is not because there is a contrariety to the law, but only because the thing hidden is contrary to the human mind; its definition is subtle, and not understood by everyone, for which reason the Prophet said: “Speak to men according to their mental capacities, for if you speak all things to all men, some cannot understand you, and so fall into error.” The Ṣūfīs, therefore, hide some things conformably with this precept.
Q.—Should anyone not know the science which is known to the Ṣūfīs, and still do what the law plainly commands, and be satisfied therewith, would his faith and Islām be less than that of the Ṣūfīs?
A.—No. He would not be inferior to the Ṣūfīs; his faith and Islām would be equal even to that of the prophets, because Īmān and Islām are a jewel which admits of no division or separation into parts, and can neither be increased nor diminished, just as the portion of the sun enjoyed by a king and by a faqīr is the same, or as the limbs of the poor and the rich are equal in number: just as the members of the body of the king and the subject are precisely alike, so is the faith of the Muslim the same in all and common to all, neither greater nor less in any case.
Q.—Some men are prophets, saints, pure ones, and others Fāsiqs (who know God, but perform none of His commands); what difference is there among them?
A.—The difference lies in their maʿrifah, or “knowledge of spiritual things”; but in the matter of faith they are all equal; just as, in the case of the ruler and the subject, their limbs are all equal, while they differ in their dress, power, and office.
IX. Ṣūfī Poetry.
The very essence of Ṣūfīism is poetry, and the Eastern Mystics are never tired of expatiating on the ʿIshq, or “love to God,” which is the one distinguishing feature of Ṣūfī mysticism. The Mas̤nawī, which teaches in the sweetest strains that all nature abounds with love divine, that causes even the lowest plant to seek the sublime object of its desire; the works of the celebrated Jāmī, so full of ecstatic rapture; the moral lessons of the eloquent Saʿdī; and the lyric odes of Ḥāfiz̤, may be termed the Scriptures of the Ṣūfī sect; and yet each of these authors contains passages which are unfit for publication in an English dress, and advocate morals at variance with what Christianity teaches us to be the true reflection of God’s Holy Will. Whilst propriety demands the suppression of verses of the character alluded to, we give a few odes as specimens of the higher order of Ṣūfī poetry.