Nor was it an uncommon
occurrence for unbelievers involuntarily to bow down in lowly
obeisance on beholding His Holiness; while the inmates of the castle,
though for the most part Christians and Sunnis, reverently prostrated
themselves whenever they saw the visage of His Holiness. [Footnote:
_NH_, pp. 241, 242.] Such transfiguration is well known to the
saints. It was regarded as the affixing of the heavenly seal to the
reality and completeness of Ba?„b's detachment. And from the Master we
learn [Footnote: Mirza Jani (_NH_, p. 242).] that it passed to
his disciples in proportion to the degree of their renunciation. But
these experiences were surely characteristic, not only of Ba?„bism,
but of S??ufism. Ecstatic joy is the dominant note of S??ufism, a joy
which was of other-worldly origin, and compatible with the deepest
tranquillity, and by which we are made like to the Ever-rejoicing
One. The mystic poet Far'idu'd-din writes thus,--
Joy! joy! I triumph now; no more I know
Myself as simply me. I burn with love.
The centre is within me, and its wonder
Lies as a circle everywhere about me. [a]
[Footnote a: Hughes, _Dict. of Islam_, p. 618 _b_.]
And of another celebrated S??ufi 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.
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