Upon this the lord prophet, with his companions, moved about in ecstacy, with such a violence that the cloak fell from his shoulder.[200]
Further, the sagacious say that the forms of the sensible world are shades of seeming forms. The Súfis also maintain that a spirit cannot exist without a body;[201] when it breaks forth from a body, it obtains, according to its deeds and actions, an apparent body, which they call acquired.
[162] Several derivations are given to the word Sufí; it may be here sufficient to adduce the three most specious of them. Some derive the name from the verb صفا, Safá, “he was sincere, pure;” this derivation is claimed by these sectaries themselves, who frequently call themselves اصفيا, Asfíá, “pure,” as may be seen in Jami’s work, Tohfat ol ebrar, “a present offered to the pious:” and in Gulshenraz (work quoted). To this etymology is objected, that a substantive derived from the said verb should be صفى,, and not صوفى. Others deduce it with grammatical strictness from صوف súf, “wool,” and sufí signifies therefore “wool-dressed.” But the fact is, that not all wool-dressed persons are Súfis, and not all Súfis are wool-dressed: a Súfi may wear a Durvish’s patched coat, or satin, as it was said by a true Súfi. If, of the two etymologies quoted, the first does not answer the grammatical construction, the second does not render the meaning to be expressed. The latter appears to me so much more important, that I am disposed to pass over an anomalous construction, which in other names is not without numerous examples. Nor would I be averse to derive the word, with other etymologists, from the Greek σοφος, “wise,” or σαφες, “pure;” notwithstanding the general use of representing in words of Greek derivation the sigma, Σ, by a sin, س, and not by a sad, ص, if I did not perceive a great difference between the doctrine of a Sofos and that of a Súfi, which latter bears most especially an Asiatic character, and the origin of which remounts to the kings Mahabad and Jemshid (Dasá tir, Eng. Transl., pp. 23, 97). Our author says: “Súfism is to be found among all nations.” The first Muhammedan Súfi is said to have been Abu Hashem, a native of Kufa, who died in the year of the Hejira 150 (A. D. 767).—(See Notices et Extraits des manuscrits de la bibliothèque du Roi et d’autres bibliothèques, vol. X. p. 290.) The origin of such a character among Muselmans, if not in name, yet in fact, may be traced further back to the first century of the Hejira.—(See [note 2], p. 18.)
[163] The more correct title of this work is Resalah fil vujud.—(See Geshichte der Schönen Redekünste Persiens von Joseph von Hammer, S. 314).
[164] بحسب مراتب و مقامات.
[165] مرتبه احديت.
[166] حقيقت الحقايق.
[167] وحدت مقام.
[168] جمع.
[169] شيء.