Page:A Moslem seeker after God - showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century (IA moslemseekeraft00zwem).pdf/242



Allah. But the whole purpose of Sufism, the Way of the dervish, is to give him an escape from this prison, an apocalypse of the Seventy Thou sand Veils, a recovery of the original unity with The One, while still in this body." *

In regard to Buddhist influence, Professor Goldziher has called attention to the fact that in the eleventh century the teaching of Buddha ex erted considerable influence in eastern Persia, especially at Balkh, a city famous for the number of Sufis who dwelt in it. From the Buddhists came the use of the rosary (afterwards adopted by Christians in Europe), and perhaps also the doc trine of fana or absorption into God.

" While fana/ says Nicholson, " in its panthe istic form is radically different from Nirvana, the terms coincide so closely in other ways that we cannot regard them as being altogether uncon nected. Fana has an ethical aspect: it involves the extinction of all passions and desires. The pass ing away of evil qualities and of the evil actions which they produce is said to be brought about by the continuance of the corresponding good quali ties and actions."! The cultivation of character by the contemplation of God in a mystical sense was the real goal. To know God was to be like Him and to be like Him ended in absorption or

"The Way of a Mystic," The Moslem World, Vol. II, p. 171.

"Mystics of Islam," p. 18.