1848.] Notice of the Ikhwan al sofa. 187 



tain effusions representing the essence, genera, species and varieties of 

 the souls, and therefore, (I read ^sUj^xSj) the soul is moved, carried 

 away,guided, and regulated by them, and through them, and out of them.* 

 Souls manifest their actions, and go through various conditions in 

 the progress of time and during the periods of the conjunctions and 

 revolutions of the heavenly bodies ; some descend at times into the 

 abyss of incarnation, others rise at times from the darkness of their 

 union with a body ; they awake from the period of thoughtlessness and 

 neglect, they rise on the day of judgment and justice, they pass over the 

 bridge, they enter into paradise, or hell, they are detained in the bar- 

 zakh or remains in the araf, as it is mentioned in the Qoran (22, 102.) 

 Behind them is the barzakh to the day of judgment, f and (7, 44), 

 " upon the araf are men, who know every body by his mark," &c. 

 These are the men, who are " in the houses which God has permitted 

 to be raised, and, that his name be commemorated therein, men cele- 

 brating praise in the same morning and evening, men whom neither 

 merchandizing nor selling diverteth from remembering God, and the 

 observance of prayers and the giving of alms," (Qoran 24, 36, 37.) 

 This is the condition of our distinguished brethren, imitate them, O bro- 

 thers, and you will find in these our memoirs every information which 

 you require respecting these sciences. 



Know, O brother, that the favors of God are innumerable, yet they 

 may be brought under two heads, with several sub-divisions ; the one is 

 physical, and the other moral ; to the former belongs wealth, and to the 

 latter knowledge Men fall under these heads into four classes, some 

 possess wealth but no knowledge, others possess both ; some possess 

 neither, and some possess the latter and not the former. He who pos- 

 sesses both, ought out of gratitude pray to God that he may send him 

 one of our brothers, who is without either, that he may .comfort him ; 

 he ought to assist him with money to support his life and to instruct 



* It is likely that "books," has here a mystical meaning; in the dictionary of 

 Sufi terms p. 42, the words ij"2£ /0 V^, " the manifest book," are considered as 

 equivalent with "universal soul," *JjAW|^j*iix/|. 



t It would lead us into too long details to explain the mystical meaning of these 

 allusions to Muhammadan mythology and the Qoran. Those who take an interest 

 in the subject I must refer to the Kashf-al-mabjub or the Ma'arif al-'awarif or the 

 Fotuhat. 



