I
shall return to this presently. Meanwhile, suffice it to say that
though I entertain the highest reverence and love for Baha'ullah's
son, Abdul Baha, whom I regard as a Mahatma--'a great-souled one'--and
look up to as one of the highest examples in the spiritual firmament,
I hold no brief for the Bahai community, and can be as impartial in
dealing with facts relating to the Bahais as with facts which happen
to concern my own beloved mother-church, the Church of England.
I shall first of all ask, how it came to pass that so many of us are
now seeking help and guidance from the East, some from India, some
from Persia, some (which is my own case) from India and from Persia.
BAHA'ULLAH'S PRECURSORS, _e.g._ THE BA?„B, S??UFISM, AND SHEYKH
AH??MAD
So far as Persia is concerned, the reason is that its religious
experience has been no less varied than ancient. Zoroaster, Manes,
Christ, Muh??ammad, Dh'u-Nun (the introducer of S??ufism), Sheykh
Ah??mad (the forerunner of Babism), the Ba?„b himself and Baha'ullah
(the two Manifestations), have all left an ineffaceable mark on the
national life. The Ba?„b, it is true, again and again expresses his
repugnance to the 'lies' of the S??ufis, and the Ba?„bi?„s are not
behind him; but there are traces enough of the influence of S??ufism
on the new Prophet and his followers. The passion for martyrdom seems
of itself to presuppose a tincture of S??ufism, for it is the most
extreme form of the passion for God, and to love God fervently but
steadily in preference to all the pleasures of the phenomenal world,
is characteristically S??ufite.
Pages:
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26