“The year of God is that which passeth away; and thou shalt not find a change in the years of God.”
Their creed is: God is not the immediate actor; as it would not be suitable to the dignity of royalty and sovereignty to perform himself every business; but it is proper that he should appoint some one of his servants who, on account of his great knowledge and power, is qualified for business, for the execution of the royal orders and the protection of the subjects. The latter also may, by the Sultan’s order, name another as Vizir or Nawab, for the affairs; every one of these chiefs may instal functionaries or agents; so that the whole administration may be firmly established according to the desire and the order of the sovereign. On that account, God created a first intellect, called in Persian Bahman, that is, “supreme soul,” or Barósú, or Ferósu, or Serósh seróshán, and “the science of truth;” he who produced something “new;” he is also entitled “the true man: ‘God created man according to his image;’” that is to say, pure, uncompounded, like reason, betwixt necessity and possibility,[107] in the centre between both; necessity is on his right side, possibility on his left; the perfect spirit rises from the left, which is the side of possibility. With respect to truth, the image of man is âkl,[108] “spirit of wisdom, the holy spirit, and the image of Eva a perfect spirit: on that account it was said that the forthcoming of Eva took place from Adam’s left side. The Sofis also agree with this, as we find it explained by Shaikh Muhammed Láhají,[109] in his work Sharah-i-Gulshen, “the Commentary of the Rose-bower.” Jesus, the son of God, proceeds from this “holy spirit.” When wisdom manifests itself through somebody, it is called his “spirit of wisdom;” and when impressions of sciences in all creatures have penetrated through its mediation, it is named “arrow;” and as the perfection of the lord of the prophetic asylum is a ray of that jewel, it bears the name of “Muhammed’s light.”
“If not for thee, I would not have created the worlds.”[110]
These are the attributes of its nature, and besides these it has many names. By the intervention of the first intelligence came forth the second intelligence, the spirit and body of “the crystalline heaven;” and the soul of the heaven above the crystalline firmament is called “haváyi mânavi, “the true soul.” By the intervention of the second intelligence, the third, and the spirit and body of the heaven of the fixed stars were produced. In this wonderful way, intelligences and spirits were formed, until the spirits of the tenth class;[111] among these ten bringers of good news (Evangelists) are distinguished; likewise nine heavens were brought into existence, that they may correspond to nine prophets. From the tenth class of intelligences came forth the matter of the elements, and bodies, and the spirits of elemental existence. The philosophers said, that ten kinds of intelligences are enumerated, not because there may not exist any more, but because these are required; and likewise we want the number of nine heavens, without its being prohibited to add any other. The Eastern philosophers however declare themselves against numbering the kinds of intelligences, because, with them every kind of thing has its god, whom they call “the god of the species,” in Persian Dára, the angel of rains, the angel of rivers, to which the following sentence relates:
“Each thing has its angel to whom it is confided, and an angel descends with every drop.”
The Oriental philosophers hold the bodies to be shadows of the uncompounded lights.
“Seest thou not that God has spread his shadow over me?”
According to the sages, the kinds of intelligences and spirits of heaven are the heavenly angels, who have no body nor any thing corporeal, neither feathers nor wings. When an effulgence of the luminous attributes of the self-existing Being falls upon them, it is by the mediating power of this ray, that deeds of wonderful purity proceed from them; and in this production there is no need of a motion, nor of an instrument, in like manner as in the forthcoming of a work of God his will is sufficient. This meaning has been made intelligible to the understanding of the vulgar by saying, that an angel with feathered wings traversed the distance of a road which could not be travelled over in a thousand years. They say also that Isráfíl is one of the powers of the sun; the angel of death proceeds from Saturn; Míkáil from the moon; and Jebríil emanated from the tenth power of intelligence. As often as, on account of the revolution of the heavens or the motion of the stars, something suitable manifests itself in the elemental matter, compounded and uncompounded, it issues into existence by way of emanation from the superior wisdom; and the revelation of the prophet, and the instruction of the perfect to mankind, takes place by the intervention of the last-mentioned angel. On that account there is an intrinsic connexion between the souls of the prophets and this by-standing angel. According to the Eastern philosophers, Jabríil is a god of a kind similar to human nature, and called in Persian Wakhshur, “prophet,” and Serósh pajám sipár, “Serosh, the message-bringer.” In the opinion of the philosophers, the crystalline heaven is the ninth heaven, and the heaven of the fixed stars the throne of God. The exalted rational spirit is without an habitation, and, without being in the body, is connected with it, in a manner similar to that of a lover with his mistress. This doctrine is very ancient with the Orientals, as has been stated in the account about the Azar Hóshangían, but with the first master among the learned, Aristotle and his followers, it is a tradition. According to general consent, the soul is eternal.
“Believe not that those who were killed in the way of God are dead; on the contrary, they are living and nourished at the side of their Lord.”[112]
To unite the soul with the body is as much as to drive Adam from heaven; to long for the body is to bear the commands of Eva; and to perform bad actions is to eat of the forbidden tree; anger is the serpent; lust is the peacock. They hold that Iblis represents the power of imagination which guides us, and the sensual influence which denies the knowledge of words and things consentient with reason, and contends with the power of reason; that what is stated in the law, that all angels prostrated themselves before Adam, except Iblis, signifies that all bodily powers, which are the angels of the earth, are obedient to the soul of Adam, except the power of imagination, that is Iblis, which is rebellious, and sometimes gets the better of judgment. Reason says, that a corpse is to be accounted a mineral, and no wise to be feared; but imagination says: “this is true; nevertheless we “must fear;” and when one finds himself in a house alone with a dead man, it may happen that his mind experiences an agitation of terror. The Súfis too agree with this, as we find it expressed by the venerable Shaikh Mahmúd Shósterí[113] in a chapter of the Merát ul Mohakakín, “the mirror of the investigators of truth.” It is stated in the Akhván ús afá, “the companions of purity,” of Mullá Alí, that there were intelligences and spirits which were not ordered to adore Adam, as being of a higher rank, as it is written in the Koran, that God, the All-just, addressed this speech to Iblis: