A-ND, ITS FOUNDER. f7^ 



time, says this author, it is a certain fact, that he neglected to perform 

 the neccessary wazu, or ablution ; which proves that his JVamdz was 

 without divine efficacy, and only a popular deception. When by such 

 means, he had rendered his followers ripe for renouncing the Sheriat, he 

 proposed to them, such apologues as the following, 



" A SLAVE who takes up a load of wood, and knows not the master to 

 whom he is to- bear his burden, must forever carry his load on his head, and 

 suffer lasting distress and misery ; buthe who knows his master, knows 

 v^here to deposit his load, and quickly, relieves himself from his burden. 

 Therefore come now, O disciple l and learn to know the creator of the 

 world, and having already perfected thyself in the law, throw down the 

 authority of the ordinances) from thy head." 



In the same manner, he announced t0 them, that in order to arrive at 

 the Hakikat and mdrifat, or the true and intellectual knowlege of God, 

 they must first renounce the Tarikat or means of spiritual progress; and 

 thus he seduced tlie ignorant peasants into infidelity, and, for an infidel, 

 says our author, there is no path towards GdD. After having thus chilled 

 the religious zeal of his disciples, respecting the external ordinances, he- 

 gradually explained to them' his own doctrines; and initiated, them in his 

 principles, by a variety of gradations, not unlike the modern illuminatism 

 of the German and French philosophersv His^mystic doctrines were gra- 

 duated into eight degrees of knowledge, each of which: was: termed 

 Zeker ; and his disciples were, in the same maimer, arranged in eight 

 classes, which he denominated ^Ai/wa^ ; and when once a person entered 

 *on his degrees, says Akhu'n-Derwe zeh, adieu forever to the doctrines of 

 the law. 



