Another reason for the use of poetry as well as of the Koran on these occasions is that people are so familiar with the Koran, many even knowing it by heart, that the effect of it has been dulled by constant repetition. One cannot be always quoting new verses of the Koran as one can of poetry. Once, when some wild Arabs were hearing the Koran for the first time and were strongly moved by it, Abu-Bakr said to them, “ We were once like you, but our hearts have grown hard,” meaning that the Koran loses some of its effect on those familiar with it. For the same reason the Caliph Omar used to command the pilgrims to Mecca to leave it quickly, “ For,” he said, “ I fear if you grow too familiar with the Holy City the awe of it will depart from your hearts.”
There is, moreover, something pertaining to the light and frivolous, at least in the eyes of the common people, in the use of singing and musical instruments, such as the pipe and drum, and it is not befitting that the majesty of the Koran should be, even temporarily, associated with 72 CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING these things. It is related of the Prophet that once, when he entered the house of Rabia, the daughter of Mauz, some singing-girls who were there began extemporising in his honour. He abruptly bade them cease, as the praise of the Prophet was too sacred a theme to be treated in that way. There is also some danger, if verses of the Koran are exclusively used, that the hearers should attach to them some private interpretation of their own, and this is unlawful. On the other hand, no harm attaches to interpreting lines of poetry in various ways, as it is not necessary to apply to a poem the same meaning which the author had.
Other features of these mystic dances are the bodily contortions and tearing of clothes with which they are sometimes accompanied. If these are the result of genuine ecstatic conditions there is nothing to be said against them, but if they are self-conscious and deliberate on the part of those who wish to appear “ adepts,” then they are merely acts of hypocrisy. In any case the more perfect adept is he who controls himself till he is absolutely obliged to give vent to his feelings. It is related of a certain youth who was a disciple of the Sheikh Junaid that, on hearing singing commence in an assembly of the Sufis, he could not restrain himself, but began to shriek in ecstasy. Junaid said to him, “ If you do that again, don’t remain in my company.”
MYSTIC DANCES 73 After this the youth used to restrain himself on such occasions, but at last one day his emotions were so powerfully stirred that, after long and forcible repression of them, he uttered a shriek and died.
To conclude: in holding these assemblies, regard must be had to time and place, and that no spectators come from unworthy motives. Those who participate in them should sit in silence, not looking at one another, but keeping their heads bent, as at prayer, and concen¬ trating their minds on God. Each should watch for whatever may be revealed to his own heart, and not make any movements from mere self- conscious impulse. But if any one of them stands up in a state of genuine ecstasy all the rest should stand up with him, and if any one’s turban fall off the others should also lay their turbans down.
Although these matters are comparative novel¬ ties in Islam and have not been received from the first followers of the Prophet, we must re¬ member that all novelties are not forbidden, but only those which directly contravene the Law. For instance, the “ Tarawih,” or night-prayer, was first instituted by the Caliph Omar. The Prophet said, “ Live with each man according to his habits and disposition,” therefore it is right to fall in with usages that please people, when non-conformity would vex them. It is true that 74 CONCERNING MUSIC AND DANCING the Companions were not in the habit of rising on the entrance of the Prophet, as they disliked this practice; but where it has become established, and abstaining from it would cause annoyance, it is better to conform to it. The Arabs have their own customs, and the Persians have theirs, and God knoweth which is best.
CHAPTER VI CONCERNING SELF-EXAMINATION AND THE RECOLLECTION OF GOD Know, O brother, that in the Koran God hath said, “ We will set up a just balance on the day of resurrection, and no soul shall be wronged in anything.” Whosoever has wrought a grain of good or ill shall then behold it. In the Koran it is also written, “ Let every soul see what it sends on before it for the day of account.” It was a saying of the Caliph Omar’s, “ Call yourselves to account before ye be called to account”; and God says, “0 ye believers, be patient and strive against your natural desires, and maintain the strife manfully.” The saints have always under¬ stood that they have come into this world to carry on a spiritual traffic, the resulting gain or loss of which is heaven or hell. They have, there¬ fore, always kept a jealous eye upon the flesh, which, like a treacherous partner in business, may cause them great loss. He, therefore, is a wise man who, after his morning prayer, spends a whole 75 hour in making a spiritual reckoning, and says to his soul, “ 0 my soul, thou hast only one life; no single moment that has passed can be re¬ covered, for in the counsel of God the number of breaths allotted thee is fixed, and cannot be increased. When life is over no further spiritual traffic is possible for thee; therefore what thou doest, do now; treat this day as if thy life had been already spent, and this were an extra day granted thee by the special favour of the Almighty. What can be greater folly than to lose it? ” At the resurrection a man will find all the hours of his life arranged like a long series of treasure-chests. The door of one will be opened, and it will be seen to be full of light: it repre¬ sents an hour which he spent in doing good. His heart will be filled with such joy that even a fraction of it would make the inhabitants of hell forget the fire. The door of a second will be opened; it is pitch-dark within, and from it issues such an evil odour as will cause every one to hold his nose: it represents an hour which he spent in ill-doing, and he will suffer such terror that a fraction of it would embitter Paradise for the blessed. The door of a third treasure-chest will be opened; it will be seen to be empty and neither light nor dark within: this represents the hour in which he did neither good nor evil. Then he will feel remorse and confusion like that of a man who has been the possessor of a great SEVEN GATES TO HELL 77 treasure and wasted it or let it slip from his grasp. Thus the whole series of the hours of his life will be displayed, one by one, to his gaze. Therefore a man should say to his soul every morning, “ God has given thee twenty-four treasures; take heed lest thou lose any one of them, for thou wilt not be able to endure the regret that will follow such loss.”
The saints have said, “ Even suppose God should forgive thee, after a wasted life, thou wilt not attain to the ranks of the righteous and must deplore thy loss; therefore keep a strict watch over thy tongue, thine eye, and each of thy seven members, for each of these is, as it were, a possible gate to hell. Say to thy flesh, ‘ If thou art rebellious, verily I will punish thee ’; for, though the flesh is headstrong, it is capable of receiving instruction, and can be tamed by austerity.” Such, then, is the aim of self-examina¬ tion, and the Prophet has said, “ Happy is he who does now that which will benefit him after death.”
We come now to the recollection of God. This consists in a man’s remembering that God observes all his acts and thoughts. People only see the outward, while God sees both the outer and the inner man. He who really believes this will have both his outer and inner being well disciplined. If he disbelieve it, he is an infidel, and if, while believing it, he acts contrary to that belief, he is guilty of the grossest presumption. One day a negro came to the Prophet and said, “ O Prophet of God! I have committed much sin. Will my repentance be accepted, or not? ” The Prophet said “Yes.” Then the negro said, “ O Prophet of God, all the time I was committing sin, did God really behold it? ” “ Yes,” was the answer. The negro uttered a cry and fell lifeless. Till a man is thoroughly convinced of the fact that he is always under God’s observation it is impossible for him to act rightly.
A certain sheikh once had a disciple whom he favoured above his other disciples, thus exciting their envy. One day the sheikh gave each of them a fowl and told each to go and kill it in a place where no one could see him. Accordingly each killed his fowl in some retired spot and brought it back, with the exception of the sheikh’s favourite disciple, who brought his back alive, saying, “ I have found no such place, for God sees everywhere.” The sheikh said to the others, “You see now this youth’s real rank; he has attained to the constant remembrance of God.”
When Zuleikha tempted Joseph she cast a cloth over the face of the idol she used to worship. Joseph said to her, “ 0 Zuleikha, thou art ashamed before a block of stone, and should I not be ashamed before Him who created the seven heavens and the earth? ” A man once came to the saint Junaid and said, “ I cannot keep my STORY OF THE CALIPH OMAR 79 eyes from casting lascivious looks. How shall I do so? ” “ By remembering,” Junaid answered, “ that God sees you much more clearly than you see any one else.” In the traditions it is written that God has said, “ Paradise is for those who intend to commit some sin and then remember that My eye is upon them and forbear.” Ab¬ dullah Ibn Dinar relates, “ Once I was walking with the Caliph Omar near Mecca when we met a shepherd’s slave-boy driving his flock. Omar said to him, “ Sell me a sheep.” The boy answered, “ They are not mine, but my master’s.” Then, to try him, Omar said, “ Well, you can tell him that a wolf carried one off, and he will know nothing about it.” “ No, he won’t,” said the boy, “but God will.” Omar then wept, and, sending for the boy’s master, purchased him and set him free, exclaiming, “ For this saying thou art free in this world and shalt be free in the next.”
There are two degrees of this recollection of God. The first degree is that of those saints whose thoughts are altogether absorbed in the contemplation of the majesty of God, and have no room in their hearts for anything else at all. This is the lower degree of recollection, for when a man’s heart is fixed, and his limbs are so con¬ trolled by his heart that they abstain from even lawful actions, he has no need of any device or safeguard against sins. It was to this kind of recollection that the Prophet referred when he said, “ He who rises in the morning with only God in his mind, God shall look after him, both in this world and the next.”
Some of these recollectors of God are so ab¬ sorbed in the thought of Him that, if people speak to them they do not hear, or walk in front of them they do not see, but stumble as if they collided with a wall. A certain saint relates as follows: “ One day I passed by a place where archers were having a shooting-match. Some way off a man was sitting alone. I approached him and attempted to engage him in talk, but he replied, “ The remembrance of God is better than talk.” I said, “ Are you not lonely? ” “ No,” he answered, “ God and two angels are with me.” Pointing to the archers, T asked, “ Which of these has carried off the prize? ” “ That one,’ was his reply, “ to whom God has allotted it.” Then I inquired, “Where does this road come from? ” Upon which, lifting up his eyes to heaven, he rose and departed, saying, “ 0 Lord! many of Thy creatures hold one back from the remembrance of Thee! ” The saint Shibli one day went to see the Sufi Thaury; he found him sitting so still in con¬ templation that not a hair of his body moved. He asked him, “ From whom didst thou learn to practise such fixity of contemplation? ” Thaury answered, “ From a cat which I saw waiting at a THE RECOLLECTION OF THE SAINTS 81 mouse-hole in an attitude of even greater fixity than this.” Ibn Hanif relates: “I was informed that in the city of Sur a sheikh and his disciple were always sitting lost in the recollection of God. I went there and found them both sitting with their faces turned in the direction of Mecca. I saluted them thrice, but they gave no answer. I said, ‘ I adjure you, by God, to return my saluta¬ tion.’ 1 The youth raised his head and replied, ‘ O Ibn Hanif! The world lasts but for a little time, and of this little time only a little is re¬ maining. Thou art hindering us by requiring us to return thy salutation.’ He then bent his head again and was silent. I was hungry and thirsty at the time, but the sight of those two quite carried me out of myself. I remained standing and prayed with them the afternoon and evening prayer. I then asked them for some spiritual advice. The younger replied, ‘ 0 Ibn Hanif, we are afflicted; we do not possess that tongue which gives advice.’ I remained standing there three days and nights; no word passed between us and none of us slept. Then I said within myself, ‘ I will adjure them by God to give me some counsel.’ The younger, divining my thoughts, again raised his head: ‘ Go and seek such a man, the visitation of whom will bring God to thy remembrance and infix His 1 A Moslem is bound by the Koran to return the salutation of a Moslem.
6 fear in thy heart, and he will give thee that counsel which is conveyed by silence and not by speech.’ ” Such is the “ recollection ” of the saints which consists in being entirely absorbed in the con¬ templation of God. The second degree of the recollection of God is that of “ the companions of the right hand.” 1 These are aware that God knows all about them, and feel abashed in His presence, yet they are not carried out of them¬ selves by the thought of His majesty, but remain clearly conscious of themselves and of the world. Their condition is like that of a man who should be suddenly surprised in a state of nakedness and should hastily cover himself, while the other class resemble one who suddenly finds himself in the presence of the King and is confused and awestruck. The former subject every project which enters their minds to a thorough scrutiny, for at the Last Day three questions will be asked respecting every action: the first, “ Why did you do this? ” the second, “ In what way did you do this? ” the third, “ For what purpose did you do this? ” The first will be asked because a man should act from divine and not merely Satanic or fleshly impulse. If this ques¬ tion is satisfactorily answered, the second will test in what way the action was done, wisely, or carelessly and negligently, and the third, whether 1 Koranic phrase for the righteous.
QUESTIONS AT THE RESURRECTION 83 it was done simply to please God, or to gain the approval of men. If a man understands the meaning of these questions he will be very watch¬ ful over the state of his heart, and how he enter¬ tains thoughts which are likely to end in action. Rightly to discriminate among such thoughts is a very difficult and delicate matter, and he who is not capable of it should attach himself to some spiritual director, intercourse with whom may illuminate his heart. He should avoid with the utmost care the merely worldly learned man who is an agent of Satan. God said to David, “ 0 David! ask no questions of the learned man who is intoxicated with love of the world, for he will rob thee of My love,” and the Prophet said: “ God loves that man who is keen to discern in doubtful things, and who suffers not his reason to be swayed by the assaults of passion.” Reason and discrimation are closely connected, and he in whom reason does not rule passion will not be keen to discriminate.
Besides such cautious discrimination before acting a man should call himself strictly to ac¬ count for his past actions. Every evening he should examine his heart as to what he has done to see whether he has gained or lost in his spiritual capital. This is the more necessary as the heart is like a treacherous business-partner, always ready to cajole and deceive; sometimes it pre¬ sents its own selfishness under the guise of obedience to God, so that a man supposes he has gained, whereas he has really lost.
A certain saint named Amiya, sixty years of age, counted up the days of his life. He found they amounted to twenty-one thousand six hundred days. He said to himself, “ Alas! if I have committed one sin every day, how can I escape from the load of twenty-one thousand six hundred sins? ” He uttered a cry and fell to the ground; when they came to raise him they found him dead. But most people are heedless, and never think of calling themselves to account. If for every sin a man committed he placed a stone in an empty house, he would soon find that house full of stones; if his recording angels 1 demanded wages of him for writing down his sins, all his money would soon be gone. People count on their rosaries 2 with self-satisfaction the numbers of times they have recited the name of God, but they keep no rosary for reckoning the numberless idle words they speak. Therefore the Caliph Omar said, “ Weigh well your words and deeds before they be weighed at the Judgment.” He himself, before retiring for the night, used to strike his feet with a scourge and exclaim, “ What hast thou done to-day? ” Abu Talha was once praying in a palm-grove, when the sight of a 1 Two of these are attached to every man.
9 The Muhammadan rosary consists of ninety-nine beads, each representing a name of God.
INFLUENCE OF THE SAINTS 85 beautiful bird which flew out of it caused him to make a mistake in counting the number of pro¬ strations he had made. To punish himself for his inattention, he gave the palm-grove away. Such saints knew that their sensual nature was prone to go astray, therefore they kept a strict watch over it, and punished it for each trans¬ gression.
If a man finds himself sluggish and averse from austerity and self-discipline he should con¬ sort with one who is a proficient in such practices so as to catch the contagion of his enthusiasm. One saint used to say, “ When I grow lukewarm in self-discipline, I look at Muhammad Ibn Wasi, and the sight of him rekindles my fervour for at least a week.” If one cannot find such a pattern of austerity close at hand, then it is a good thing to study the fives of the saints; he should also exhort his soul somewhat in the following way: “ O my soul! thou thinkest thyself intelligent and art angry at being called a fool, and yet what else art thou, after all? Thou preparest cloth¬ ing to shield thee from the cold of winter, yet makest no preparation for the after-life. Thy state is like that of a man who in mid- winter should say, ‘ I will wear no war m clothing, but trust to God’s mercy to shield me from the cold. He forgets that God, at the sa me time that He created cold, showed man th e way to make clothing to protect himself from it, and provided the material for that clothing. Remember this also, O soul, that thy punishment hereafter will not be because God is angry with thy disobedience; and say not, 4 How can my sin hurt God? ’ It is thy lusts themselves which will have kindled the flames of hell within thee; just as, from eating unwholesome food, disease is caused in a man’s body, and not because his doctor is vexed with him for disobeying his orders.
“ Shame upon thee, 0 soul, for thy over¬ weening love of the world! If thou dost not believe in heaven or hell, at any rate thou be- lievest in death, which will snatch from thee all worldly delights and cause thee to feel the pangs of separation from them, which will be intenser just in proportion as thou hast attached thyself to them. Why art thou mad after the world? If the whole of it, from East to West, were thine and worshipped thee, yet it would all, in a brief space, turn to dust along with thyself, and oblivion would blot out thy name, as those of ancient kings before thee. But now, seeing thou hast only a very small fragment of the world, and that a defiled one, wilt thou be so mad as to barter eternal joy for it, a precious jewel for a broken cup of earthenware, and make thyself the laughing-stock of all around thee? ” CHAPTER VII MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE Marriage plays such a large part in human affairs that it must necessarily be taken into account in treating of the religious life and be regarded in both its aspects of advantage and disadvantage.
Seeing that God, as the Koran says, “ only created men and genii for the purpose of wor¬ shipping,” the first and obvious advantage of marriage is, that the worshippers of God may increase in number. Theologians have therefore laid it down as a maxim that it is better to be engaged in matrimonial duties than in superero¬ gatory devotions.
Another advantage of marriage is that, as the Prophet said, the prayers of children profit their parents when the latter are dead, and children who die before their parents intercede for them on the Day of Judgment. “ When a child,” said the Prophet, “ is told to enter heaven, it 87 88 MARRIAGE AS A HELP OR HINDRANCE weeps and says, ‘ I will not enter in without my father and mother.’ ” Again, one day the Prophet seized hold of a man’s sleeves and drew him violently towards himself, saying, “ Even thus shall children draw their parents into heaven.” He added, “ Children crowd together at the gate of heaven and cry out for their fathers and mothers, till those of the latter who are outside are told to enter in and join their children.”
It is related of a certain celibate saint that he once dreamt that the Judgment Day had come. The sun had approached close to the earth and people were perishing of thirst; a crowd of boys were moving about giving them water out of gold and silver vessels. But when the saint asked for water he was repulsed, and one of the boys said to him, “ Not one of us here is your son.” As soon as the saint awoke he made preparations to marry.
Another advantage of marriage is that to sit with and be friendly to one’s wife is a relaxation for the mind after being occupied in religious duties, and after such relaxation one may return to one’s devotions with renewed zest. Thus the Prophet himself, when he found the weight of his revelations press too heavily upon him touched his wife Ayesha and said, “ Speak to me, O Ayesha, speak to me! ” This he did that, from that familiar human touch, he might receive ADVANTAGES OF MARRIAGE 89 strength to support fresh revelations. For a similar reason he used to bid the Muezzin Bilal give the call to prayer, and sometimes he used to smell sweet perfumes. It is a well-known saying of his, “ I have loved three things in the world: perfumes, and women, and refreshment in prayer.” On one occasion Omar asked the prophet what were the things specially to be sought in the world. He answered, “ A tongue occupied in the remembrance of God, a grateful heart, and a believing wife.”