"Some persons who were setting forth on a journey begged Khurqani to teach them a prayer that would keep them safe from the perils of the road. He said, 'If any misfortune should befall you, mention my name.' This answer was not agreeable to them; they set off, however, and while travelling were attacked by brigands. One of the party mentioned the saint's name and immediately became invisible, to the great astonishment of the brigands, who could not find either his camel or his bales of merchandise; the others lost all their clothes and goods. On returning home, they asked the Sheykh to explain the mystery. 'We all invoked God,' they said, 'and without success; but the one man who invoked you vanished from before the eyes of the robbers.' 'You invoke God formally,' said the Sheykh, 'whereas I invoke Him really. Hence, if you invoke me and I then invoke God on your behalf, your prayers are granted; but it is useless for you to invoke God formally and by rote.'"
"One night, while he was praying, he heard a voice cry, 'Ha! Abu ’l-Hasan! Dost thou wish Me to tell the people what I know of thee, that they may stone thee to death?' 'O Lord God,' he replied, 'dost Thou wish me to tell the people what I know of Thy mercy and what I perceive of Thy grace, that none of them may ever again bow to Thee in prayer?' The voice answered, 'Keep thy secret, and I will keep Mine.'"
"He said, 'O God, do not send to me the Angel of Death, for I will not give up my soul to him. How should I restore it to him, from whom I did not receive it? I received my soul from Thee, and I will not give it up to any one but Thee.'"
"He said, 'After I shall have passed away, the Angel of Death will come to one of my descendants and set about taking his soul, and will deal hardly with him. Then will I raise my hands from the tomb and shed the grace of God upon his lips.'"
"He said, 'If I bade the empyrean move, it would obey, and if I told the sun to stop, it would cease from rolling on its course.'"
"He said, 'I am not a devotee nor an ascetic nor a theologian nor a Sufi. O God, Thou art One, and through Thy Oneness I am One.'"
"He said, 'The skull of my head is the empyrean, and my feet are under the earth, and my two hands are East and West.'"
"He said, 'If any one does not believe that I shall stand up at the Resurrection and that he shall not enter Paradise until I lead him forward, let him not come here to salute me.'"
"He said, 'Since God brought me forth from myself, Paradise is in quest of me and Hell is in fear of me; and if Paradise and Hell were to pass by this place where I am, both would become annihilated in me, together with all the people whom they contain.'"
"He said, 'I was lying on my back, asleep. From a corner of the Throne of God something trickled into my mouth, and I felt a sweetness in my inward being.'"
"He said, 'If a few drops of that which is under the skin of a saint should come forth between his lips, all the creatures of heaven and earth would fall into panic.'"
"He said, 'Through prayer the saints are able to stop the fish from swimming in the sea and to make the earth tremble, so that people think it is an earthquake.'"
"He said, 'If the love of God in the hearts of His friends were made manifest, it would fill the world with flood and fire.'"
"He said, 'He that lives with God hath seen all things visible, and heard all things audible, and done all that is to be done, and known all that is to be known.'"
"He said, 'All things are contained in me, but there is no room for myself in me.'"
"He said, 'Miracles are only the first of the thousand stages of the Way to God.'"
"He said, 'Do not seek until thou art sought, for when thou findest that which thou seekest, it will resemble thee.'"
"He said, 'Thou must daily die a thousand deaths and come to life again, that thou mayst win the life immortal.'"
"He said, 'When thou givest to God thy nothingness, He gives to thee His All.'"
It would be an almost endless task to enumerate and exemplify the different classes of miracles which are related in the lives of the Mohammedan saints--for instance, walking on water, flying in the air (with or without a passenger), rain-making, appearing in various places at the same time, healing by the breath, bringing the dead to life, knowledge and prediction of future events, thought-reading, telekinesis, paralysing or beheading an obnoxious person by a word or gesture, conversing with animals or plants, turning earth into gold or precious stones, producing food and drink, etc. To the Moslem, who has no sense of natural law, all these 'violations of custom,' as he calls them, seem equally credible. We, on the other hand, feel ourselves obliged to distinguish phenomena which we regard as irrational and impossible from those for which we can find some sort of 'natural' explanation. Modern theories of psychical influence, faith-healing, telepathy, veridical hallucination, hypnotic suggestion and the like, have thrown open to us a wide avenue of approach to this dark continent in the Eastern mind. I will not, however, pursue the subject far at present, full of interest as it is. In the higher Sufi teaching the miraculous powers of the saints play a more or less insignificant part, and the excessive importance which they assume in the organised mysticism of the Dervish Orders is one of the clearest marks of its degeneracy.
The following passage, which I have slightly modified, gives a fair summary of the hypnotic process through which a dervish attains to union with God:
"The disciple must, mystically, always bear his Murshid (spiritual director) in mind, and become mentally absorbed in him through a constant meditation and contemplation of him. The teacher must be his shield against all evil thoughts. The spirit of the teacher follows him in all his efforts, and accompanies him wherever he may be, quite as a guardian spirit. To such a degree is this carried that he sees the master in all men and in all things, just as a willing subject is under the influence of the magnetiser. This condition is called 'self-annihilation' in the Murshid or Sheykh. The latter finds, in his own visionary dreams, the degree which the disciple has reached, and whether or not his spirit has become bound to his own."
At this stage the Sheykh passes him over to the spiritual influence of the long-deceased Pir or original founder of the Order, and he sees the latter only by the spiritual aid of the Sheykh. This is called 'self-annihilation' in the Pir. He
now becomes so much a part of the Pir as to possess all his spiritual powers.
"The third grade leads him, also through the spiritual aid of the Sheykh, up to the Prophet himself, whom he now sees in all things. This state is called 'self-annihilation' in the Prophet.
"One night, while he was praying, he heard a voice cry, 'Ha! Abu ’l-Hasan! Dost thou wish Me to tell the people what I know of thee, that they may stone thee to death?' 'O Lord God,' he replied, 'dost Thou wish me to tell the people what I know of Thy mercy and what I perceive of Thy grace, that none of them may ever again bow to Thee in prayer?' The voice answered, 'Keep thy secret, and I will keep Mine.'"
"He said, 'O God, do not send to me the Angel of Death, for I will not give up my soul to him. How should I restore it to him, from whom I did not receive it? I received my soul from Thee, and I will not give it up to any one but Thee.'"
"He said, 'After I shall have passed away, the Angel of Death will come to one of my descendants and set about taking his soul, and will deal hardly with him. Then will I raise my hands from the tomb and shed the grace of God upon his lips.'"
"He said, 'If I bade the empyrean move, it would obey, and if I told the sun to stop, it would cease from rolling on its course.'"
"He said, 'I am not a devotee nor an ascetic nor a theologian nor a Sufi. O God, Thou art One, and through Thy Oneness I am One.'"
"He said, 'The skull of my head is the empyrean, and my feet are under the earth, and my two hands are East and West.'"
"He said, 'If any one does not believe that I shall stand up at the Resurrection and that he shall not enter Paradise until I lead him forward, let him not come here to salute me.'"
"He said, 'Since God brought me forth from myself, Paradise is in quest of me and Hell is in fear of me; and if Paradise and Hell were to pass by this place where I am, both would become annihilated in me, together with all the people whom they contain.'"
"He said, 'I was lying on my back, asleep. From a corner of the Throne of God something trickled into my mouth, and I felt a sweetness in my inward being.'"
"He said, 'If a few drops of that which is under the skin of a saint should come forth between his lips, all the creatures of heaven and earth would fall into panic.'"
"He said, 'Through prayer the saints are able to stop the fish from swimming in the sea and to make the earth tremble, so that people think it is an earthquake.'"
"He said, 'If the love of God in the hearts of His friends were made manifest, it would fill the world with flood and fire.'"
"He said, 'He that lives with God hath seen all things visible, and heard all things audible, and done all that is to be done, and known all that is to be known.'"
"He said, 'All things are contained in me, but there is no room for myself in me.'"
"He said, 'Miracles are only the first of the thousand stages of the Way to God.'"
"He said, 'Do not seek until thou art sought, for when thou findest that which thou seekest, it will resemble thee.'"
"He said, 'Thou must daily die a thousand deaths and come to life again, that thou mayst win the life immortal.'"
"He said, 'When thou givest to God thy nothingness, He gives to thee His All.'"
It would be an almost endless task to enumerate and exemplify the different classes of miracles which are related in the lives of the Mohammedan saints--for instance, walking on water, flying in the air (with or without a passenger), rain-making, appearing in various places at the same time, healing by the breath, bringing the dead to life, knowledge and prediction of future events, thought-reading, telekinesis, paralysing or beheading an obnoxious person by a word or gesture, conversing with animals or plants, turning earth into gold or precious stones, producing food and drink, etc. To the Moslem, who has no sense of natural law, all these 'violations of custom,' as he calls them, seem equally credible. We, on the other hand, feel ourselves obliged to distinguish phenomena which we regard as irrational and impossible from those for which we can find some sort of 'natural' explanation. Modern theories of psychical influence, faith-healing, telepathy, veridical hallucination, hypnotic suggestion and the like, have thrown open to us a wide avenue of approach to this dark continent in the Eastern mind. I will not, however, pursue the subject far at present, full of interest as it is. In the higher Sufi teaching the miraculous powers of the saints play a more or less insignificant part, and the excessive importance which they assume in the organised mysticism of the Dervish Orders is one of the clearest marks of its degeneracy.
The following passage, which I have slightly modified, gives a fair summary of the hypnotic process through which a dervish attains to union with God:
"The disciple must, mystically, always bear his Murshid (spiritual director) in mind, and become mentally absorbed in him through a constant meditation and contemplation of him. The teacher must be his shield against all evil thoughts. The spirit of the teacher follows him in all his efforts, and accompanies him wherever he may be, quite as a guardian spirit. To such a degree is this carried that he sees the master in all men and in all things, just as a willing subject is under the influence of the magnetiser. This condition is called 'self-annihilation' in the Murshid or Sheykh. The latter finds, in his own visionary dreams, the degree which the disciple has reached, and whether or not his spirit has become bound to his own."
At this stage the Sheykh passes him over to the spiritual influence of the long-deceased Pir or original founder of the Order, and he sees the latter only by the spiritual aid of the Sheykh. This is called 'self-annihilation' in the Pir. He
now becomes so much a part of the Pir as to possess all his spiritual powers.
"The third grade leads him, also through the spiritual aid of the Sheykh, up to the Prophet himself, whom he now sees in all things. This state is called 'self-annihilation' in the Prophet.
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