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The Reconciliation of Races and Religions

T >> Thomas Kelly Cheyne >> The Reconciliation of Races and Religions




[Footnote a: Hughes, _Dict. of Islam_, p. 618 _b_.]

And of another celebrated Sufi Sheykh (Ibnu'l Far'id) his son writes
as follows: 'When moved to ecstasy by listening [to devotional
recitations and chants] his face would increase in beauty and
radiance, while the perspiration dripped from all his body until it
ran under his feet into the ground.' [Footnote: Browne, _Literary
History of Persia_, ii. 503.]


EFFECT OF SUFISM

Sufism, however, which in the outset was a spiritual pantheism,
combined with quietism, developed in a way that was by no means so
satisfactory. The saintly mystic poet Abu Sa'id had defined it thus:
'To lay aside what thou hast in thy head (desires and ambitions), and
to give away what thou hast in thy hand, and not to flinch from
whatever befalls thee.' [Footnote: _Ibid_. ii. 208.] This is,
of course, not intended as a complete description, but shows that the
spirit of the earlier Sufism was profoundly ethical. Count Gobineau,
however, assures us that the Sufism which he knew was both
enervating and immoral. Certainly the later Sufi poets were inclined
to overpress symbolism, and the luscious sweetness of the poetry may
have been unwholesome for some--both for poets and for readers. Still
I question whether, for properly trained readers, this evil result
should follow. The doctrine of the impermanence of all that is not God
and that love between two human hearts is but a type of the love
between God and His human creatures, and that the supreme happiness is
that of identification with God, has never been more alluringly
expressed than by the Sufi poets.

The Sufis, then, are true forerunners of the Bab and his
successors. There are also two men, Muslims but no Sufis, who have a
claim to the same title. But I must first of all do honour to an
Indian Sufi.


INAYAT KHAN

The message of this noble company has been lately brought to the West.
[Footnote: _Message Soufi de la Liberté Spirituelle_ (Paris,
1913).] The bearer, who is in the fulness of youthful strength, is
Inayat Khan, a member of the Sufi Order, a practised speaker, and
also devoted to the traditional sacred music of India. His own teacher
on his death-bed gave him this affecting charge: 'Goest thou abroad
into the world, harmonize the East and the West with thy music; spread
the knowledge of Sufism, for thou art gifted by Allah, the Most
Merciful and Compassionate.' So, then, Vivekananda, Abdu'l Baha, and
Inayat Khan, not to mention here several Buddhist monks, are all
missionaries of Eastern religious culture to Western, and two of these
specially represent Persia. We cannot do otherwise than thank God for
the concordant voice of Bahaite and Sufite. Both announce the
Evangel of the essential oneness of humanity which will one day--and
sooner than non-religious politicians expect--be translated into fact,
and, as the first step towards this 'desire of all nations,' they
embrace every opportunity of teaching the essential unity of
religions:

Pagodas, just as mosques, are homes of prayer,
'Tis prayer that church-bells chime unto the air;
Yea, Church and Ka'ba, Rosary and Cross,
Are all but divers tongues of world-wide prayer. [a]

[Footnote a: Whinfield's translation of the quatrains of Omar
Khayyám, No. 22 (34).]

So writes a poet (Omar Khayyám) whom Inayat Khan claims as a Sufi,
and who at any rate seems to have had Sufi intervals. Unmixed
spiritual prayer may indeed be uncommon, but we may hope that prayer
with no spiritual elements at all is still more rare. It is the object
of prophets to awaken the consciousness of the people to its spiritual
needs. Of this class of men Inayat Khan speaks thus,--

'The prophetic mission was to bring into the world the Divine Wisdom,
to apportion it to the world according to that world's comprehension,
to adapt it to its degree of mental evolution as well as to dissimilar
countries and periods. It is by this adaptability that the many
religions which have emanated from the same moral principle differ the
one from the other, and it is by this that they exist. In fact, each
prophet had for his mission to prepare the world for the teaching of
the prophet who was to succeed him, and each of them foretold the
coming of his successor down to Mahomet, the last messenger of the
divine Wisdom, and as it were the look-out point in which all the
prophetic cycle was centred. For Mahomet resumed the divine Wisdom in
this proclamation, "Nothing exists, God alone is,"--the final message
whither the whole line of the prophets tended, and where the
boundaries of religions and philosophies took their start. With this
message prophetic interventions are henceforth useless.

'The Sufi has no prejudice against any prophet, and, contrary to
those who only love one to hate the other, the Sufi regards them all
as the highest attribute of God, as Wisdom herself, present under the
appearance of names and forms. He loves them with all his worship,
for the lover worships the Beloved in all Her garments.... It is thus
that the Sufis contemplate their Well-beloved, Divine Wisdom, in all
her robes, in her different ages, and under all the names that she
bears,--Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mahomet.' [Footnote: _Message Soufi
de la Liberté_ (Paris, 1913), pp. 34, 35.]

The idea of the equality of the members of the world-wide prophethood,
the whole body of prophets being the unique personality of Divine
Wisdom, is, in my judgment, far superior to the corresponding theory
of the exclusive Muhammadan orthodoxy. That theory is that each
prophet represents an advance on his predecessor, whom he therefore
supersedes. Now, that Muhammad as a prophet was well adapted to the
Arabians, I should be most unwilling to deny. I am also heartily of
opinion that a Christian may well strengthen his own faith by the
example of the fervour of many of the Muslims. But to say that the
Kur'an is superior to either the Old Testament or the New is,
surely, an error, only excusable on the ground of ignorance. It is
true, neither of Judaism nor of Christianity were the representatives
in Muhammad's time such as we should have desired; ignorance on
Muhammad's part was unavoidable. But unavoidable also was the
anti-Islamic reaction, as represented especially by the Order of the
Sufis. One may hope that both action and reaction may one day become
unnecessary. _That_ will depend largely on the Bahais.

It is time, however, to pass on to those precursors of Babism who
were neither Sufites nor Zoroastrians, but who none the less
continued the line of the national religious development. The majority
of Persians were Shi'ites; they regarded Ali and the 'Imams' as
virtually divine manifestations. This at least was their point of
union; otherwise they fell into two great divisions, known as the
'Sect of the Seven' and the 'Sect of the Twelve' respectively. Mirza
Ali Muhammad belonged by birth to the latter, which now forms the
State-religion of Persia, but there are several points in his doctrine
which he held in common with the former (i.e. the Ishma'ilis).
These are--'the successive incarnations of the Universal Reason, the
allegorical interpretation of Scripture, and the symbolism of every
ritual form and every natural phenomenon. [Footnote: _NH_,
introd. p. xiii.] The doctrine of the impermanence of all that is
not God, and that love between two human hearts is but a type of the
love between God and his human creatures, and the bliss of
self-annihilation, had long been inculcated in the most winning manner
by the Sufis.


SHEYKH AHMAD

Yet they were no Sufis, but precursors of Babism in a more
thorough and special sense, and both were Muslims. The first was
Sheykh Ahmad of Ahsa, in the province of Bahrein. He knew full
well that he was chosen of God to prepare men's hearts for the
reception of the more complete truth shortly to be revealed, and that
through him the way of access to the hidden twelfth Imam Mahdi was
reopened. But he did not set this forth in clear and unmistakable
terms, lest 'the unregenerate' should turn again and rend him.
According to a Shi'ite authority he paid two visits to Persia, in one
of which he was in high favour with the Court, and received as a
yearly subsidy from the Shah's son the sum of 700 tumans, and in the
other, owing chiefly to a malicious colleague, his theological
doctrines brought him into much disrepute. Yet he lived as a pious
Muslim, and died in the odour of sanctity, as a pilgrim to Mecca.
[Footnote: See _AMB_ (Nicolas), pp. 264-272; _NH_, pp. 235,
236.]

One of his opponents (Mulla 'Ali) said of him that he was 'an
ignorant man with a pure heart.' Well, ignorant we dare not call him,
except with a big qualification, for his aim required great knowledge;
it was nothing less than the reconciliation of all truth, both
metaphysical and scientific. Now he had certainly taken much trouble
about truth, and had written many books on philosophy and the sciences
as understood in Islamic countries. We can only qualify our eulogy by
admitting that he was unaware of the limitations of human nature, and
of the weakness of Persian science. Pure in heart, however, he was;
no qualification is needed here, except it be one which Mulla 'Ali
would not have regarded as requiring any excuse. For purity he (like
many others) understood in a large sense. It was the reward of
courageous 'buffeting' and enslaving of the body; he was an austere
ascetic.

He had a special devotion to Ja'far-i-Sadik, [Footnote: _TN_,
p. 297.] the sixth Imam, whose guidance he believed himself to
enjoy in dreams, and whose words he delighted to quote. Of course,
'Ali was the director of the council of the Imams, but the
councillors were not much less, and were equally faithful as mirrors
of the Supreme. This remains true, even if 'Ali be regarded as himself
the Supreme God [Footnote: The Sheykh certainly tended in the
direction of the sect of the 'Ali-Ilabis (_NH_, p. 142; Kremer,
_Herrschende Ideen des Islams_, p. 31), who belonged to the _ghulat_
or extreme Shi'ites (Browne, _Lit. Hist. of Persia_, p. 310).]
identical with Allah or with the Ormazd (Ahura-Mazda) of the
Zoroastrians. For the twelve Imams were all of the rank of
divinities. Not that they were 'partners' with God; they were simply
manifestations of the Invisible God. But they were utterly veracious
Manifestations; in speaking of Allah (as the Sheykh taught) wer may
venture to intend 'Ali. [Footnote: The Sheykh held that in reciting
the opening _sura_ of the Kur'an the worshipper should think of
'Ali, should intend 'Ali, as his God.]

This explains how the Sheykh can have taught that the Imams took
part in creation and are agents in the government of the world. In
support of this he quoted Kur'an, Sur. xxiii. 14, 'God the best of
Creators,' and, had he been a broader and more scientific theologian,
might have mentioned how the Amshaspands (Ameshaspentas) are grouped
with Ormazd in the creation-story of Zoroastrianism, and how, in that
of Gen. i., the Director of the Heavenly Council says, 'Let _us_
make man.' [Footnote: Genesis i. 22.]

The Sheykh also believed strongly in the existence of a subtle body
which survives the dissolution of the palpable, material body,
[Footnote: _TN_, p. 236.] and will alone be visible at the
Resurrection. Nothing almost gave more offence than this; it seemed to
be only a few degrees better than the absolute denial of the
resurrection-body ventured upon by the Akhbaris. [Footnote: Gobineau,
pp. 39, 40.] And yet the notion of a subtle, internal body, a notion
which is Indian as well as Persian, has been felt even by many
Westerns to be for them the only way to reconcile reason and faith.


SEYYID KAZIM--ISLAM--PARSIISM--BUDDHISM

On Ahmad's death the unanimous choice of the members of the school
fell on Seyyid (Sayyid) Kazim of Resht, who had been already
nominated by the Sheykh. He pursued the same course as his
predecessor, and attracted many inquirers and disciples. Among the
latter was the lady Kurratu'l 'Ayn, born in a town where the Sheykhi
sect was strong, and of a family accustomed to religious controversy.
He was not fifty when he died, but his career was a distinguished one.
Himself a Gate, he discerned the successor by whom he was to be
overshadowed, and he was the teacher of the famous lady referred
to. To what extent 'Ali Muhammad (the subsequent Bab) was
instructed by him is uncertain. It was long enough no doubt to make
him a Sheykhite and to justify 'Ali Muhammad in his own eyes for
raising Sheykh Ahmad and the Seyyid Kazim to the dignity of Bab.
[Footnote: _AMB_, pp. 91, 95; cp. _NH_, p. 342.]

There seems to be conclusive evidence that Seyyid Kazim adverted
often near the close of life to the divine Manifestation which he
believed to be at hand. He was fond of saying, 'I see him as the
rising sun.' He was also wont to declare that the 'Proof' would be a
youth of the race of Hashim, i.e. a kinsman of Muhammad,
untaught in the learning of men. Of a dream which he heard from an
Arab (when in Turkish Arabia), he said, 'This dream signifies that my
departure from the world is near at hand'; and when his friends wept
at this, he remonstrated with them, saying, 'Why are ye troubled in
mind? Desire ye not that I should depart, and that the truth [in
person] should appear?' [Footnote: _NH_, p. 31.]

I leave it an open question whether Seyyid Kazim had actually fixed
on the person who was to be his successor, and to reflect the Supreme
Wisdom far more brilliantly than himself. But there is no reason to
doubt that he regarded his own life and labours as transitional, and
it is possible that by the rising sun of which he loved to speak he
meant that strange youth of Shiraz who had been an irregular attendant
at his lectures. Very different, it is true, is the Muhammadan
legend. It states that 'Ali Muhammad was present at Karbala from
the death of the Master, that he came to an understanding with members
of the school, and that after starting certain miracle-stories, all of
them proceeded to Mecca, to fulfil the predictions which connected the
Prophet-Messiah with that Holy City, where, with bared sabre, he would
summon the peoples to the true God.

This will, I hope, suffice to convince the reader that both the Sufi
Order and the Sheykhite Sect were true forerunners of Babism and
Bahaism. He will also readily admit that, for the Sufis especially,
the connexion with a church of so weak a historic sense was most
unfortunate. It would be the best for all parties if Muslims both
within and without the Sufi Order accepted a second home in a church
(that of Abha) whose historical credentials are unexceptionable,
retaining membership of the old home, so as to be able to reform from
within, but superadding membership of the new. Whether this is
possible on a large scale, the future must determine. It will not be
possible if those who combine the old home with a new one become
themselves thereby liable to persecution. It will not even be
desirable unless the new-comers bring with them doctrinal (I do not
say dogmatic) contributions to the common stock of Bahai
truths--contributions of those things for which alone in their hearts
the immigrant Muslim brothers infinitely care.

It will be asked, What are, to a Muslim, and especially to a Shi'ite
Muslim, infinitely precious things? I will try to answer this
question. First of all, in time of trouble, the Muslim certainly
values as a 'pearl of great price' the Mercifulness and Compassion of
God. Those who believingly read the Kur'an or recite the opening
prayer, and above all, those who pass through deep waters, cannot do
otherwise. No doubt the strict justice of God, corresponding to and
limited by His compassion, is also a true jewel. We may admit that the
judicial severity of Allah has received rather too much stress; still
there must be occasions on which, from earthly caricatures of justice
pious Muslims flee for refuge in their thoughts to the One Just
Judge. Indeed, the great final Judgment is, to a good Muslim, a much
stronger incentive to holiness than the sensuous descriptions of
Paradise, which indeed he will probably interpret symbolically.

The true Muslim will be charitable even to the lower animals.
[Footnote: Nicholson, _The Mystics of Islam_, p. 108.] Neither
poor-law nor Society for the Protection of Animals is required in
Muslim countries. How soon organizations arose for the care of the
sick, and, in war-time, of the wounded, it would be difficult to say;
for Buddhists and Hindus were of course earlier in the field than
Muslims, inheriting as they did an older moral culture. In the Muslim
world, however, the twelfth century saw the rise of the Kadirite
Order, with its philanthropic procedure. [Footnote: D. S.
Margoliouth, _Mohammedanism_, pp. 211-212.] Into the ideal of man, as
conceived by our Muslim brothers, there must therefore enter the
feature of mercifulness. We cannot help sympathizing with this, even
though we think Abdul Baha's ideal richer and nobler than any as yet
conceived by any Muslim saint.

There is also the idea--the realized idea--of brotherhood, a
brotherhood which is simply an extension of the equality of Arabian
tribesmen. There is no caste in Islam; each believer stands in the
same relation to the Divine Sovereign. There may be poor, but it is
the rich man's merit to relieve them. There may be slaves, but slaves
and masters are religiously one, and though there are exceptions to
the general kindliness of masters and mistresses, it is in East Africa
that these lamentable inconsistencies are mostly found. The Muslim
brothers who may join the Bahais will not find it hard to shake off
their moral weaknesses, and own themselves brothers of their servants.
Are we not all (they will say) sons of Adam? Lastly, there is the
character of Muhammad. Perfect he was not, but Baha'ullah was
hardly quite fair to Muhammad when (if we may trust a tradition) he
referred to the Arabian prophet as a camel-driver. It is a most
inadequate description. He had a 'rare beauty and sweetness of
nature' to which he joined a 'social and political genius' and
'towering manhood.' [Footnote: Sister Nivedita, _The Web of Indian
Life_, pp. 242, 243.]

These are the chief contributions which Muslim friends and lovers will
be able to make; these, the beliefs which we shall hold more firmly
through our brothers' faith. Will Muslims accept as well as proffer
gifts? Speaking of a Southern Morocco Christian mission, S. L.
Bensusan admits that it does not make Christians out of Moors, but
claims that it 'teaches the Moors to live finer lives within the
limits of their own faith.' [Footnote: _Morocco_ (A. & C. Black),
p. 164.]

I should like to say something here about the sweetness of
Muhammad. It appears not only in his love for his first wife and
benefactress, Khadijah, but in his affection for his daughter,
Fatima. This affection has passed over to the Muslims, who call her
very beautifully 'the Salutation of all Muslims.' The Babis affirm
that Fatima returned to life in their own great heroine.

There is yet another form of religion that I must not neglect--the
Zoroastrian or Parsi faith. Far as this faith may have travelled from
its original spirituality, it still preserved in the Bab's time some
elements of truth which were bound to become a beneficial leaven. This
high and holy faith (as represented in the Gathas) was still the
religion of the splendour or glory of God, still the champion of the
Good Principle against the Evil. As if to show his respectful
sympathy for an ancient and persecuted religion the Bab borrowed
some minor points of detail from his Parsi neighbours. Not on these,
however, would I venture to lay any great stress, but rather on the
doctrines and beliefs in which a Parsi connexion may plausibly be
held. For instance, how can we help tracing a parallel between 'Ali
and the Imams on the one hand and Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd) and his council
of Amshaspands (Amesha-spentas) on the other? The founders of both
religions conceived it to be implied in the doctrine of the Divine
Omnipresence that God should be represented in every place by His
celestial councillors, who would counteract the machinations of the
Evil Ones. For Evil Ones there are; so at least Islam holds. Their
efforts are foredoomed to failure, because their kingdom has no unity
or cohesion. But strange mystic potencies they have, as all pious
Muslims think, and we must remember that 'Ali Muhammad (the Bab)
was bred up in the faith of Islam.

Well, then, we can now proceed further and say that our Parsi friends
can offer us gifts worth the having. When they rise in the morning
they know that they have a great warfare to wage, and that they are
not alone, but have heavenly helpers. This form of representation is
not indeed the only one, but who shall say that we can dispense with
it? Even if evil be but the shadow of good, a _Maya_, an appearance,
yet must we not act as if it had a real existence, and combat it with
all our might?

May we also venture to include Buddhism among the religions which may
directly or indirectly have prepared the way for Bahaism? We may; the
evidence is as follows. Manes, or Mani, the founder of the
widely-spread sect of the Manichaeans, who lived in the third century
of our era, writes thus in the opening of one of his books,--
[Footnote: _Literary History of Persia_, i. 103.]

'Wisdom and deeds have always from time to time been brought to
mankind by the messengers of God. So in one age they have been brought
by the messenger of God called Buddha to India, in another by
Zoroaster to Persia, in another by Jesus to the West. Thereafter this
revelation has come down, this prophecy in this last age, through me,
Mani, the Messenger of the God of Truth to Babylonia' ('Irak).

This is valid evidence for at least the period before that of Mani. We
have also adequate proofs of the continued existence of Buddhism in
Persia in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; indeed, we
may even assert this for Bactria and E. Persia with reference to
nearly 1000 years before the Muhammadan conquest. [Footnote:
R. A. Nicholson, _The Mystics_, p. 18. Cp. E. G. Browne,
_Lit. Hist. of Persia_, ii. 440 _ff_.]

Buddhism, then, battled for leave to do the world good in its own way,
though the intolerance of Islam too soon effaced its footprints. There
is still some chance, however, that Sufism may be a record of its
activity; in fact, this great religious upgrowth may be of Indian
rather than of Neoplatonic origin, so that the only question is
whether Sufism developed out of the Vedanta or out of the religious
philosophy of Buddhism. That, however, is too complex a question to
be discussed here.

All honour to Buddhism for its noble effort. In some undiscoverable
way Buddhists acted as pioneers for the destined Deliverer. Let us,
then, consider what precious spiritual jewels its sons and daughters
can bring to the new Fraternity. There are many most inadequate
statements about Buddhism. Personally, I wish that such expressions as
'the cold metaphysic of Buddhism' might be abandoned; surely
metaphysicians, too, have religious needs and may have warm hearts.
At the same time I will not deny that I prefer the northern variety of
Buddhism, because I seem to myself to detect in the southern Buddhism
a touch of a highly-refined egoism. Self-culture may or may not be
combined with self-sacrifice. In the case of the Buddha it was no
doubt so combined, as the following passage, indited by him, shows--

'All the means that can be used as bases for doing right are not worth
one sixteenth part of the emancipation of the heart through love. That
takes all those up into itself, outshining them in radiance and in
glory.' [Footnote: Mrs. Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_, p. 229.]

What, then, are the jewels of the Buddhist which he would fain see in
the world's spiritual treasury?

He will tell you that he has many jewels, but that three of them stand
out conspicuously--the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Of these
the first is 'Sakya Muni, called the Buddha (the Awakened One).' His
life is full of legend and mythology, but how it takes hold of the
reader! Must we not pronounce it the finest of religious narratives,
and thank the scholars who made the _Lalita Vistara_ known to us?
The Buddha was indeed a supernormal man; morally and physically he
must have had singular gifts. To an extraordinary intellect he joined
the enthusiasm of love, and a thirst for service.

The second of the Buddhist brother's jewels is the Dharma, i.e.
the Law or Essential Rightness revealed by the Buddha. That the Master
laid a firm practical foundation for his religion cannot be denied,
and if Jews and Christians reverence the Ten Words given through
'Moses,' much more may Buddhists reverence the ten moral precepts of
Sakya Muni. Those, however, whose aim is Buddhaship (i.e. those
who propose to themselves the more richly developed ideal of northern
Buddhists) claim the right to modify those precepts just as Jesus
modified the Law of Moses. While, therefore, we recognize that good
has sometimes come even out of evil, we should also acknowledge the
superiority of Buddhist countries and of India in the treatment both
of other human beings and of the lower animals.

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