Mystics and Saints of Islam (Classic Reprint)

Mohammadan mysticism as merely a late importation into I slam, and an altogether alien element in it. But however much later Islamic mysticism may have derived from Christian, Neo-platonic, and Buddhist sources, there is little doubt that the roots of mysticism are to be found in the Koran itself. The following verse is an instance :G od is theL ight 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 theE ast nor of theW est, whose oil would well nigh shine out even though fire touched it not! It is light upon light! (K oranS ura 24). Indeed it seems strange to accord the title of a practical mystic to Cromwell and to deny it toM ohammad, whose proclivity for religious meditation was so strong that the A rabs used to say Muhammad is in love with his Maker, and whose sense of the terror of theL ord was so intense that it turned his hair prematurely white. Many of the reported sayings of theE arly Companions of Muhammad show that they shared this terror. Verily, you shall see hell, you shall see it with the eye of certainty says the Koran, and they thought it very probable. Thus A li exclaimed A las for the shortness of the provision Ghazzali, Munqidh.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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