But unavoidable also was the
anti-Islamic reaction, as represented especially by the Order of the
S??ufis. One may hope that both action and reaction may one day become
unnecessary. _That_ will depend largely on the Bahais.
It is time, however, to pass on to those precursors of Ba?„bism who
were neither S??ufites nor Zoroastrians, but who none the less
continued the line of the national religious development. The majority
of Persians were Shi'ites; they regarded Ali and the 'Ima?„ms' as
virtually divine manifestations. This at least was their point of
union; otherwise they fell into two great divisions, known as the
'Sect of the Seven' and the 'Sect of the Twelve' respectively. Mirza
Ali Muh??ammad belonged by birth to the latter, which now forms the
State-religion of Persia, but there are several points in his doctrine
which he held in common with the former (i.e. the Ishma'ilis).
These are--'the successive incarnations of the Universal Reason, the
allegorical interpretation of Scripture, and the symbolism of every
ritual form and every natural phenomenon. [Footnote: _NH_,
introd. p. xiii.] 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 the bliss of
self-annihilation, had long been inculcated in the most winning manner
by the S??ufis.
SHEYKH AH??MAD
Yet they were no S??ufis, but precursors of Ba?„bism in a more
thorough and special sense, and both were Muslims.
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