' [Footnote: Browne, _Literary
History of Persia_, ii. 503.]
EFFECT OF S??UFISM
S??ufism, 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 S??ufism was profoundly ethical. Count Gobineau,
however, assures us that the S??ufism which he knew was both
enervating and immoral. Certainly the later S??ufi 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 S??ufi poets.
The S??ufis, then, are true forerunners of the Ba?„b and his
successors. There are also two men, Muslims but no S??ufis, who have a
claim to the same title.
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