confirm that the pure spirit of that embodied soul, and wisdom, represented in a person, is the Creator of the world, worthy of praise. And the sentence:
“God created man according to his image,”
relates to the same, as Adam, the holy father of mankind, the Just, is nobody else but Alí Murtazi. And the saying:
“I saw the Lord in the shape of a man,”
refers to that eternal being, merging into a body, as he has manifested himself in the prophet’s visible form under the shape a powerful man; and the honor of the prophet’s presenting his shoulder by the assistance of the divine grace to the foot of that leader, relates but to this, that reverence is due to him, as that truth-speaking and truth-singing poet sung:
“The prophet, in breaking down the idols, had no other desire
But that his shoulder might be placed beneath the foot of the chosen;
And the house of the worshipped Kâbah be filled with his presence.”
[673]These sectaries also say, that in every revolution of time, the Lord God was united to the body of a prophet or saint, namely, from Adam down to Ahmed[674] and Alí, in which manner they explain the transmigration of the divine light. And some of them say, that the manifestation of God in this age took place in Aly alah, and after him in his descendants, and they acknowledge Muhammed and Alí as prophets and the mission of Alí alah. They assert, that when God saw that the business did not go on well by the prophet, he came to his assistance, as it were, by way of zeal. The author of this book saw a person from among them, called Ahmed, who said, that the Koran which is among them does not deserve confidence, as it is not the book which Alí Alah had given to Muhammed; but is the composition of Abu bekr, of Omar, and Osman. The author saw also one named Shams-eddin, who said: Certainly the Koran is the word of Alí alah, but having been collected by Osman, it ought not to be read. Some were seen among them who asserted that the verse and prose, ascribed to the Amir of the believers, Omar, were collected by Alí, and inserted in the Koran, and to these they attach a superiority over the Koran, inasmuch as they came from Alí allah to the creatures without foreign intervention, whilst the Farkan, Koran, was delivered into the hands of men by means of Muhammed.
There is besides a sect among them which is called the Ulvíahs.[675] They themselves derive their origin from Alí allah, and in their creed participate with that of the just mentioned sect: they say, that the Koran which is now among men, is not the word of Alí allah, because the shaiks (Abu bekr and Omar) employed themselves in its transposition, and at last Osman cast the whole away; as he possessed eloquence, he composed a book in his own way, and burnt the original Koran, wherefore these sectaries, wherever they find this book, consign it to the flames. Their belief is, that when Alí allah left the body, he was united with the sun; that he is now the sun; and having also been the sun before, he was for some days joined to an elemental body. They further maintain, that on this account the sun was moving by his order, inasmuch as he is the real sun; wherefore they call the sun Alí allah, and the fourth heaven Daldal.[676] They are worshippers of the sun, whom they hold to be God Almighty. They are a respectable tribe, and a division of them pretend that they can call upon the sun, who answers them, and affords them protection in their affairs.