46 KEY. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A., D.D., ON THE INFLUENCE 



in unsuitable language and often using " erotic and bacchanalian 

 symbolism."* Sufi writers trace back to Christ this inculcation 

 of love to God, and Jalalu'ddin and Bayazid both assert, in 

 accordance with the iSTew Testament, that man's love to God is 

 the result of God's love to man (cf. 1 John iv, 19). We find 

 many passages in Sufi books which evidently owe their origin 

 to certain Xew Testament verses. For example : — 



Muliammadan tradition says that God said to David : 



" I was a hidden treasure, therefore I desired that I should 

 be discovered, and I created the creation (mankind) in 

 order that I might be discovered." (Cf. Matt, xiii, 44.) 



Suhrawardi quotes the words : " Except a man be born again " 

 (John iii, 3, 5). 



Even the celebrated old Greek saying, yvcoOt aavrov, became 

 known to the Sufis through Christian writers, and in the form 

 uJ~c JJii -^j^ is ascribed to 'Alt. Sufis 



represent Muhammad as saying, " He that hath seen me hath 

 seen God" {cf. John xiv, 9). This is hardly exceeded in 

 audacity by the sentence to which Husain ibn Mansuru '1 Hallaj 

 owed his death at Baghdad in a.d, 922, jj\ \j \ "I am the 

 Truth (God)." To Hallaj is ascribed the saying: "If thou 

 seest me, thou seest Him ; and if thou seest Him tliou seest us 

 both." Another Sufi, Hallal, said : 



" Thy will be done, 0 my Lord and Master ; 

 Thy will be done, 0 my purpose and meaning." 



The Masnavi of the famous Sufi poet Jalalu'ddin Eumi is full 

 of Christian sentiments, though the Pantheism which underlies 

 Sufiism pervades the whole book. In spite of this, much more 

 reverence is shown to our Lord than to Muhummad or even to 

 'All. In fact, in even those passages in which honour is 

 ostensibly paid to either of the latter, careful study of the 

 spirit of the poem displays something very different in the 

 writer's mind. A very large number of passages contain open 

 or implied references to the Xew Testament. A few of these 

 may be given here. 



* Nicholson, pp. 4, 5. 



