[235] The name of Pharâoh occurs several times in this work; but the character of this personage is viewed in a different light by the sectarians of Muhammedism. In the Koran he appears nearly as in the Bible of the Jews, with regard to Moses and the Israelites, cruel, tyrannical, presumptuous, and perishing in the Red Sea: not without having before acknowledged their God, and confessed his sins. But some Súfis see and admire in the impious daring of Pharâoh the omnipotence of his power, and adduce, in favor of their opinion, passages from some of their most celebrated philosophers. Indeed Jelaleddin represents Pharâoh equal to Moses. Sahel Ibn Abd-ullah of Shostr says, that the secret of the soul was first revealed when Pharâoh declared himself a God. Ghazáli sees in his temerity nothing else but the most noble aspiration to the divine, innate in the human mind.
[236] The Súfis call حجاب “veil,” whatever is opposed to perfect union with divinity. In the life of Joneid Abú ’l-Kasem, who was born and educated in Baghdád, and died in the year of the Hejira 297 (A. D. 909), one of the earliest and most celebrated founders of Súfism, we read what follows: “Somebody said to Joneid: ‘I found that the Shaikhs of Khorasan acknowledge three sorts of veils: the first is the nature (of man); the second is the world, and the third concupiscence.’—‘These are, said Joneid, ‘the veils which apply themselves to the heart of the common among men; but there exists another sort of veil for special men; that is, for the disciples of spiritual life, the Súfis: this is the view of works, the consideration of the recompenses due to acts, and the regard of the benefits of God. The Shaikh of Islamism said (relatively to this subject): God is veiled from the heart of man, who sees his proper actions; God is veiled even from him who seeks recompense, and from him who, occupied with considering the benefit, turns his eyes from the benefactor.’”—(See Notices et Extraits des MSS., vol. XII.; p. 435, Joneid’s Life, by Jámi, translated by Silvestre de Sacy.)
[237] استدراج is also interpreted: “prodigy of chastisement,” that is, extraordinary things may be operated by a man who renounced obedience to God, in order that such a man may be led to perdition. This appears founded upon a passage of the Koran (chap. XVIII. vv. 43, 44): “Let me alone with him who accuseth this new revelation of imposture. We will lead them gradually to destruction by ways which they know not; and I will bear with them for a long time, for my stratagem is effectual.”
[238] See vol. III. p. 18, [note 2]. Monachism was not only disapproved but positively prohibited by the Muhammedan religion, the first founders of which, chiefs of warlike tribes, were by necessity, profession, and habit, continually engaged in military expeditions. But to the Asiatic, in general, so natural is ascetism, seclusion, and contemplation, that Muhammed, in order to restrain a propensity which he felt and now and then showed himself, declared that, for monachism, the pilgrimage to Mecca was substituted by divine order. Even during the prophet’s life, the love of monastic and anachoretic professions gained ascendancy among Muselmans, and easily united with Súfism.
[239] See vol. II. p. 390, note 2.
[240] نفوس کاملہ انسانی nafus Kamilah insáni. Insan kamil, “the perfect man,” according to the doctrine of the Súfis, is, “the reunion of all the worlds, divine and natural, universal and partial; he is the book in which all books, divine and natural, are reunited. On account of his spirit and intellect, it is a reasonable book, called ‘the Mother of Books;’ on account of his heart, it is the book of the well-guarded table (al lowh); on account of his soul, it is the book of things obliterated and of things written; it is he who is then the venerable sublime and pure pages, which are not to be touched, and the mysteries which cannot be comprehended but by those who are purified from the dark veils. The relation of the first intelligence to the great world, and to its realities themselves, is as the relation of the human soul to the body and its faculties; for the universal soul is the heart of the great world, as the reasonable soul is the heart of the man, and it is on that account that the world is called ‘the great Man.’”—(Definitions de Jorjani. Not. et Ext. des MSS., vol. IX. pp. 86-87). In the passage just quoted, Silvestre de Sacy thinks the perfect man is equal to the first intelligence.—The book of “things obliterated and of things written, the world of transitory things, in which life and death succeed each other.”—The universal soul is an emanation of the divinity, subordinate to the first and universal intelligence.
[241] Najem-eddin Abu ’l-Jenab Ahmed, son of Omar, was a celebrated Súfi, who formed a great number of disciples. He was surnamed Kobra, “great,” on account of his superior knowledge. He died in the year of the Hejira 618 (A. D. 1221).
[243] Jabilka and Jabilsa signify the double celestial Jerusalem of the Súfis: the first is the world of ideals, which is the wall of separation between the real and the mystic world; the second is the world of spirits after the completion of their career upon earth.—(See Von Hammer’s Gulshen-raz, p. 25.)
[244] اطلاق صرف.