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10. This and the Future Life, the Mystical Bird Simurgh, the Paradise and the Hell, Satan,...etc.

The next subjects of discussion are: this and the future life, the mystical bird Simurgh, the Paradise and the Hell, Satan, etc. Adam is explained as reason, Eve as the heart, and Satan as the nafs, or, as it is meant here, obviously, the lower instincts. The struggle of reason with these instincts is the jihad (p. 20). All the religious life is thus transferred into the world of moral values. The awakening from the illusions means realization that everything is but dream or deception (p. 21). When the mustajib, or Ismaili initiate, meets with one who really possesses the knowledge, only then his eyes become opened, and he begins to understand. The only way is to cultivate one's intellectual powers (nafsi natiqa), and then the Light shall shine upon the faithful soul, as the rays of the sun shine even upon a " rough surface of a stone " (p. 22).

GR. Before one whose soul is full of light,
The whole world is like the Book of God.
Its first ayat is the 'aqli kull', etc. (p.23). Similar analogies and symbols traced through
the whole system of the Universe.

The statement of the belief that man is created after the image (sural) of God. leads to the question: " Who am I ? " thus returning to the 3rd question of the 'GR. The argumentation begins with the discussion of the division between " I " and " thou ", which in reality is illusory. There is quite a lot of the usual speculations about the letters, dots, etc. (pp. 25-26). Ultimately it is urged to believe into the unity of all things in existence (p. 27). Again it is asked: Who is the wanderer (musafir, not salik) ? and who is a real man (mardi tamam) ? The reply is: He who attaches himself to the real hujjat, avoiding the futile hujjat, acting in accordance with the Coranic verse (XVIII, 107): " verily, those who believe and act aright, for them are gardens of Paradise to alight in," etc. The real " pilgrim's progress " in this sense consists of continual self-training and trying to attain the high ideals revealed in the religion.

We may add that the present text is a good example of those Ismailitic works on ethics which very closely approach the spirit of Sufism.

BOMBAY, March 1932.


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