The Dabistan

241

SECTION II.—OF THE PROPHETIC OFFICE ; AND EXPLAN-
ATION OF THE PUBLIC DECLARATIONS CONFORMABLE TO

THE REVELATION OF INSPIRED PERSONS.

The Sufis say: The prophet is a person who is sent
to the people as their guide to the perfection which
is fixed for them in the scientific presence (of God)
according to the exigency of the dispositions deter-
mined by the fixed substances, whether it be the
perfection of faith, or another. The Shaikh Hamid
eddin Nagori' states, in his Sharh-i-ashk, " Commen-
tary upon Love," that Abudiyet, " devotion,"2

1 In Herbelot's Bibl. Orient, we find Hamid eddin, a celebrated doc-
tor, surnamed al Dharir, " the Blind," disciple of Kerdori, and master
of Nassafi the Younger The latter died in the year of the Hejira 710
(A. D. 1310). Baron von Hammer, in the catalogue of the literature of
the Sufis, annexed to his Gulshen raz (p. 32), mentions an Ishk-namah
" Book of Love," composed by Ferishte-oghli.

2 ojjjys- means also " servitude, submission, pious fervour;" it is

reckoned one of the most essential qualities of a saint in general. An
JL*& 9 dbid, is a person continually occupied with religious practices,
and all sorts of supererogatory pious acts, with the view of obtaining
future beatitude. It may be asked, how can devotion, as said above, be
an attribute of God? The answer is that, according to Siifism, God is
every thing which appears praise-worthy to man, who can never forsake
his own nature. Thus says Sadi in his fifth Sermon: " A hundred
*' thousand souls, alas! are the devoted slave's of the shoe-dust of that
Durvish (God)." He who prays from the inmost of his soul, grants his
prayers to himself; he no more prays, but is the God who, at the same time,
offers and accepts prayers.—(See Sufsmus, by F. A. D. Tholuck, p. 155. •
V.IH. • 16