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: "God is the Light 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 the East nor of the West, whose oil would
well nigh shine out even though fire touched it not! It is light upon
light!" (_Koran Sura_ 24).

Indeed it seems strange to accord the title of "a practical mystic" to
Cromwell and to deny it to Mohammad, whose proclivity for religious
meditation was so strong that the Arabs used to say "Muhammad is in love
with his Maker,"[1] and whose sense of the "terror of the Lord" was so
intense that it turned his hair prematurely white. Many of the reported
sayings of the Early 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 Ali
exclaimed "Alas for the shortness of the provision and the terrors of
the way!" Abu'l Darda said "If ye knew what ye shall see after death, ye
would not eat nor drink, and I wish that I were a tree that is lopped
and then devoured."[2]

This "fear of the Lord" led naturally to an almost fierce asceticism.
Abu Bekr and Ali both founded communities of ascetics,[3] and during the
first and second centuries of Islam there were many orthodox mystics.
Professor Nicholson in the work just quoted, rightly says "I do not
think that we need look beyond Islam for the origin of the Sufi
doctrines.... The early Sufis are still on orthodox ground, their
relation to Islam is not unlike that of the mediaeval Spanish mystics to
the Roman Catholic Church."

* * * * *

The following sketches are for the most part translations of papers by
continental scholars such as Alfred Von Kremer, Pavet de Courteille, and
A.F. Mehren. The essays on Ghazzali and Jalaluddin Rumi are, however,
founded on original study of those writers. The translator hopes a
wholesome tonic may be found in some of these Moslem mystics at a time
when many "Christian" pulpits and presses seem anxious to dilute
Christianity "into a presumptuous and effeminate love which never knew
fear."[4]

He desires to thank the Ed