Mystics and Saints of Islam (Classic Reprint)

226 Pages·2010·12.38 MB·English

by  Claud Field

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.L VJ .1 \.,:) .1 .1 \...0 ~ 1"1. .L. "14.1J ~.n..1 .L. "14 .1 \:)
OF ISLAM
BY .
CLAUD'.F.. IELD
LONDON:
FRANCIS GRIFFITHS.
34 HAlDEN LANE. STRAND, w.e.
1910.

CONTENTS.
CRAP.
I. PATBEISTIC SUFISM ." I
II. HASAN BASRJ .•. 18
Ill. RAHIll., THE WOMAN SUFI 28
IV. IBRAHIM BEN ADHAl4 36
V. FUDHAYL BEN AYAZ 46
VI. BAYAZID BASTAllI 52
VII. ZU'N NUN OF EGYPT ... 60
VIII. MANSUR HALLA} 68
IX. HABIB AJAMI .• , 79
X; AVICEHNA (IBN SINA) 86
XI. AL CHAZZAU •• , 106
XU, FARIDUDDJN ATTAR " 3
-XIII. SUHRAWAftDY I4I
XIV. JAl.ALUDDIN RUMI I48
I64
XV.- SHARANI, THE EGYPllAN
XVl, MULLAH SHAH '74
APPENDIX 1. MOHAMMEDAN OONVE~ONS '92
..
n . EXPOSITION OF SUFISlI I¢
,.
nI. CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN )(0811.11-
MBDAN UTERATURE 202
..
1... CHRIST IN MOHAMMEDAN TRADITION 2'*

PREFACE
IT is a custom in some quarters to represent Moham
mysticism as merely a late importation into
ma~
Islam. and an altogether alien element in it. But
however much later Islamic mysticism may have de-.
rived from Christian, Neo-platonic, and Buddhist sources,
there is little doubt that the raoti of mystiCism are to
be found iii the Koran itseH. The following verse is
an instance: "God is the Light of the heavens and
the earth. His light is like a niche in which is a lamp,
the lamp encased in glass-the glass as it were a
glistening star. From a blessed tree is it lighted, the
olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil
would well nigh shine out even though fire touched
it not I -It is light upon light!" (Koran Sura :24).
Indeed it seems strange to accord the title of "a
practical mystic" to Cromwell and to deny it to Mo
hammad, whose proclivity for religious meditation was
so strong that the Arabs-used to say " Muhammad is
it) love with his Maker,"· and whose sense of the" terror
of the Lord" was so intense that it turned his hair
prematurely white. Many of the reported sayings
of the Early Companions of Muhammad show that
they shared this terror. "Verily, you shall see hell,
see:
_y ou shall it with the eye of certainty" says the
Koran, and they thought it very probable. Thus Ali
exclaimed .. Alas for the shortness of the
prOvi~OD
·Ghazzali, Munqidh.