Moses heard the voice from a bush,[234] and the chosen prophet said:
“I saw my Lord under the most excellent form.”
The writer of these pages heard from the durvish Sabjáni that the Hindus and other nations, having formed and adored as Gods various different images, this is founded upon the fact, that eminent persons among them were impressed with manifestations; and in such a manner the ten ávatárs became the counterfeits of these manifestations; some of the ávatárs held themselves to be divinities; because they have been the masters of these manifestations; that the Jews and other nations acknowledge God under bodily forms proceeds from the like manifestations. Besides, that Pharâoh declared himself to be a God, comes from a like manifestation:[235] because Pharáoh, under his own form had seen God; on that account the lord Imám Múheddín Shaikh Mahí-eddín, in some of his compositions, exhibited proofs of Pharâoh’s religion, and rendered this personage illustrious. Moses saw God under a bodily form, and did not find himself like that (exalted) being; but it was under his own form that Pharâoh saw God, and found himself like that being. Jesus declared himself the son of God; because he found himself the son of God Almighty, in a like manifestation.
Hajab, “the veil,[236] is of two kinds: the one, of darkness, is that of a servant, like morality and exterior occupations and the other is the veil of light which comes from God; because traditions are veils of actions; actions, veils of attributes; and attributes, veils of the essence of revelation, which relates to mystery, dependent either upon exterior form or inner sense. The first kind of truth is called Kashef surí, the “exterior revelation;” the second kind is the Kashef mâní, “inner revelation.” The exterior revelation takes place by means of sight, hearing, touch, smell, or rapture, and is dependent upon temporal traditions; this is called rahbániyet, “way-guarding,” because the finding of truth according to investigation is contemplation, and some reckon this investigation among the sorts of istidráj,[237] “miracles permitted by God for hardening the hearts of sinners,” and of makr Ilahí, “divine fascination.”
Some derived the commands relative to the other world from the revelation, and confined their desires to faná, “annihilation, and baká, “eternal life.” The author of this book heard from Sabjana that the exterior revelation concerning temporal actions is called “monastic institution,”[238] because monks belong to the exterior people; and its worship is, according to rules, relative to every thing exterior; and its purpose, on account of service, directed to the retribution of deeds, reward of heaven, adherence to a particular prophet, and the like. Further obedience is an indication which bears towards temporal actions; on that account its revelation is connected with temporal concerns. The devout Muselman follows also the rule of monastic life, and the Christian is not without participation in absorption and eternal life.
It is to be known that in the service of a king there are two confidential Amirs, who are not friends, but entertain enmity against each other. They may bring their own friends before the king. So are the prophets appointed at the court of God; if not so, how would the absolute Being have divided the extent of his empire by religion, if this were to be confined to one person? Another opinion is that of a pious philosopher, who contemplates the light of God in all objects of this and the other world, and turns not his regard from the least atom; he raised this belief to a high estimation; and to him remained no rancor of creed or religion; whoever, in the service of faith and morality is not freed from duality, and whoever says, the state of Muselmans is in dignity higher than that of Christians, knows nothing of the real Being. Whoever said of himself: “I attained a height of knowledge equal to that of Mâruf Kerkhi,[239] said nothing else than this: the variety and multitude of the rules of prophets proceed only from the abundance of names, and, as in names there is no mutual opposition or contradiction, the superiority in rank among them is only the predominance of a name.”
The Súfis say: The spirits of the perfect men[240] after separation from their bodies, go to the world of angels. The saints are directed by the interpretation of the Korán, and the vulgar people by the commentary upon both. Some maintain that the Saints do not subject themselves to it, but are tenacious only of this verse:
“Adore God, thy Lord, until attaining certitude (himself).”
The Shaikh Nájem eddin Kabra[241] said: When distinguished persons abandon the ceremonies of the worship, this means that these ceremonies which are performed by prescription, are contrary to them, because in worship no difficulty or inconvenience is to take place, but only joy and pleasure to be derived from it.
The lord Saíd Muhammed Nurbakhsh says, in the account of apparitions: The difference between baroz, “apparition,” and tanásokh, “transmigration,” is this: that the latter is the arrival of the soul, when it has separated from one body to take possession of another, in the embryo which is fit for receiving a soul in the fourth month, to be reckoned from the moment when the sperma fell and settled in the womb; and this separation from one body and junction with another is called maâd, “resurrection.” An “apparition” is when a soul accumulates excellence upon excellence and an overflow takes place; so that by beatific vision it becomes visible; that is, it may happen, that a perfect soul, after its separation from the body, resides years in the upper world, and afterwards, for the sake of perfecting mankind, joins with a body, and the time of this junction is also the fourth month to be reckoned from the moment of the formation of the body, as was said upon transmigration.