of the mystics do not boast of this disentanglement from
things of sense and this rule over inferior creatures; unless they have
received an order to do so, they reveal nothing of what they have learnt
of the real nature of things. These supernatural workings are painful,
and when they experience them they ask God for deliverance.

The companions of the Prophet also practised this spiritual warfare;
like the mystics, they were overwhelmed with these tokens of divine
favour such as the power to walk on the water, to pass through fire
without being burnt, to receive their food in miraculous ways, but they
did not attach great importance to them. Abu-bekr, Omar, and Ali were
distinguished by a great number of these supernatural gifts, and their
manner of viewing them was followed by the mystics who succeeded them.

But among the moderns there are men who have set great store by
obtaining this disentanglement from things of sense, and by speaking of
the mysteries discovered when this veil is removed. To reach this goal
they have had recourse to different methods of asceticism, in which the
intellectual soul is nourished by meditation to the utmost of its
capacity, and enjoys in its fullness the faculty of perception which
constitutes its essence. According to them, when a man has arrived at
this point, his perception comprehends all existence and the real nature
of things without a veil, from the throne of God to the smallest drops
of rain. Ghazzali describes the ascetic practices which are necessary to
arrive at this state.

This condition of disentanglement from the things of sense is only held
to be perfect when it springs from right dispositions. For there are, as
a matter of fact, persons who profess to live in retirement and to fast
without possessing right dispositions; such are sorcerers, Christians,
and others who practise ascetic exercises. We may illustrate this by the
image of a well-polished mirror. According as its surface is convex or
concave, the object reflected in it is distorted from its real shape;
if, on the contrary, the mirror has a plane surface, the object is
reflected exactly as it is. Now, what a plane surface is for the mirror,
a right disposition is for the soul, as regards the impressions it
receives from without.

APPENDIX III

CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN MOHAMMEDAN
LITERATURE

The almost miraculous renaissance in Islam which is now proceeding in
Turkey and other Mohammedan countries