If one is inclined to assume that the major religions differ more in their presentation than in their essence -- a didactic measure by the Creator with regard to the cultural segregation of mankind -- then a closer look at what the others do will surely help to clarify one's own position.

In this sense, Ikbal Ali Shah's Muhammed: The Prophet offers a singular insight into the essence of Islam beyond all excesses and exaggerations, of which the religions become victims only when they cease to influence their disciples.

Read thus: Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, Muhammed: The Prophet. Paris 1996(2). ISBN 2-909347-04-4 (republication of the original edition London 1932)

Introduction

In the world of today, when rank, ancestry, race, ascendance, and above all desire of material wellbeing have swept over the nations of the earth and are precipitating crisis after crisis in the life of mankind; when individually or collectively the entire Adam's family is in a sad way; when men's lives are in the swirl of a giant machine-age; when they dare not tarry, but must eternally, as it seems, be moving onwards and onwards to an uncertain and unknown destination; when remedies for the ills of "civilised man" are suggested, only to be found unspecific; and when humanity--if humanity has the courage to own to it--is distracted, and stands as a man lost in a fog, not knowing which way to turn: let me perform my humble duty towards humanity!

I shall not deliver a sermon nor yet write a pious treatise as if begotten of me; and say "do not act thuswise, but do thus and benefit thereby, for I am doing better".

I am simply placing before you the life story of a Perfect Man; aye, man is the word, not God: for the Prophet Muhammed was made of flesh and bone, even like you and I; and yet he was a model.

This was possible, for he was an ideal Personality. And it is in the study of the life work of this timely wondrous man that the whole drama of Islam is cast.

Read, therefore, in this book about the remarkable method by which success was so permanently attained, that the world has ceased to be what it was, before the sixth century. There is no achievement like it in the known history of man.

In writing this book, I have consulted the works of many Moslem scholars. Especially I am indebted to the researches of Maulana Shibli Nomani, Syed Amir Ali, Bin Ibrahim and Ibn Hisham; and, being a Moslem, as I do not owe allegiance to non-Moslem writers in the matters of Islamic religious history, I had to shun much which otherwise might have been of some interest. I hope that this story of the Prophet might act as a mirror transmitting to others the way of supreme and ever shining benevolence, as it has done to me.

In conclusion, I record my gratitude for encouragement and help of Sir Akbar Hydari, His Highness the Agha Khan, Maulana Abdul Majid and my wife. Allah alone can reward them.

Al Faqir.
Syed Ikbal.
London
1st Ramadanul Mubarik. 1350 A.H.
10th January, 1932, A.D.


Extract from chapter 1; "Pre-Islamic Arabia", p. 21-30:

Here is what ... [the poet Asha] says in Asha and Alqama:

Many a time I hastened early to the tavern--

while there ran

At my heels a ready cook,

a nimble, active serving-man--

'Midst a gallant troop, like Indian scimitars,

of mettle high;

Well they know that every mortal,

shod and bare alike, must die.

Propped at ease I greet them gaily,

then with myrtle-boughs I greet,

Pass amongst them wine that gushes

from the jar's mouth, bittersweet.

Emptying goblet after goblet--

but the source may no man drain--

Never cease they from carousing save to cry:

'Fill up again!'

Briskly runs the page to serve them:

on his ears hang pearls: below,

Tight the girdle draws his doublet

as he bustles to and fro.

'Twas the harp, thou mightest fancy,

waked the lute's responsive note.

Here and there among the party,

damsels fair superbly glide:

Each her long white skirt lets trail

and swings a wineskin at her side.

Considering the state of society in which the poet lived, and the many ceremonies which were held in Arabia over his grave, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that Asha meant literally every word that he wrote.

There were no allusions, nothing whatever of the gorgeous imagery which characterised the later mystics of Islam.

In Asha's poems dwelt no deep significance of hidden instructions, in which he who seeks may, indeed shall, find if he be eager enough or ardent enough. It was a plain tale of riotous living; no more, no less.

Asha's or Imra's 'wine,' for example, did not signify devotion, any more than 'sleep' meant meditation of the Divine perfection; or 'perfume,' the hope of the Divine afflatus.

In the songs of these spokesmen of pre-Islamic Arabia, zephyrs did not signify the gift of godly grace, and kisses, the transports of devotion and piety. With them, the keeper of the tavern was no hierophant.

Compare these materialistic poems with what was sung in the Masnavi centuries afterwards: the song is there, the flute and all the elements of passion, but cast in a different mould. The Maulana sings:

Oh! hear the flute's sad tale again:
Of Separation I complain:
E'er since it was my fate to be
Thus cut off from my parent tree,
Sweet moan I've made with pensive sigh
While men and women join my cry.
Man's life is like this hollow rod;
One end is in the lips of God,
And from the other sweet notes fall
That to the mind the spirit call
And join us with the All in All.

Whatever disparity may exist between these two classes of poets, no one can deny that each class was a mouthpiece of its epoch; and it is my purpose to show how the poet's art in both cases brings the contrast vividly before us, as a result of the preaching of Islam.

Here again, we have Omar Khayyam singing:

And lately by the Tavern Door agape,
Came stealing through the Dusk an Angel Shape
Bearing a Vessel on his Shoulder; and
He bid me taste of it; and 'twas--the Grape!

The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-Seventy jarring Sects confute:
The Subtle Alchemist that in a trice
Life's leaden metal into Gold transmute.

In this, like Rumi's work, you have the imagery par excellence, for these men acquired the state of initiation of the self.

The term 'beauty' is used to denote the perfection of God, and 'lovelocks and the tresses' the infinitude of His Glory. 'Down on the cheeks' is symbolic of the multitudinous spirits which serve Him. 'Inebriation and dalliance' typify that abstraction of soul which shows contempt of mundane affairs.

The reason of it is, as I have said before, to be found in the initiation of the self, which the authors of Muallaqat sadly lacked, even though their poems were hung at the shrine in Mecca. The moral glow and warmth which you find in Islamic poets was not due entirely to their devotion to the rites and ceremonies of the religion, it was on account of their attuning to a state of spirituality as well.

Ritual of itself is naught compared with this spiritual knowledge. They no doubt symbolise the process and lend dignity to it, but that is all: for rite and symbols, apart from high intentions and spiritual significance, can even be degrading if performed for show.

Yet they express much more than mere words: that is, they are efficacious in supplementing the imperfect medium of human speech in the conveyance of subliminal ideas.

And whereas it is entirely by virtue of that initiation of the self which exalts the Islamic poets above those of the Dark Ages, yet initiation itself can never reveal the truth in its entirety. The degree of truth unveiled is in ratio to the seeker's own potentialities.

Of such potentialities, those who sang at Mecca before their idols were singularly barren. Their society, vitiated as it was, did not demand anything other than what they were.

Here, however, we must see how that initiation of the self worked in the minds of men, which characterises their Islamic poetry.

The nature of the doctrine revealed to their initiates is assuredly capable of expression in one formula:

It is the entrance into a new life, or rather, the return to an old and real one; that is, to that 'paradise' from which man fell, to that divine communion from which he, by his own acts, has been excluded.

Initiation is the instinctive as well as intellectual aspiration of the higher man towards restoration to the divine communion, unity with, or absorption in, the divine. The initiate is equipped with the knowledge of how he came into the material world, and how he must re-ascend.The several grades of initiation, although they differ considerably in respect of the various orders which have existed in the history of mankind, may actually be reduced to three, or perhaps four.

The first is the nascent grade or 'rebirth'; but not in the Hindu or Buddhist sense, however.

The second is the stationary, or that of spiritual 'hovering', or juvenility.

The third is the new life proper, and lastly and more occasionally, its sequel, which is symbolical of the experience of the new condition.

It is only when material life is left behind and 'supernatural rebirth' is achieved, that initiation has taken place.

The three great degrees may roughly be described as purification, consecration, and illumination.

Does initiation, in itself, suffice for actual illumination?

That actual spiritual knowledge was passed on to the epopts, we cannot doubt. Even so, it must have been insufficient of itself, without a spiritual transformation in the soul of the neophyte.

Indeed, the genuine neophyte is himself the true hierophant, nor can the official hierophant be other than a demonstrator, adviser and inspiring force. He cannot by any word or act transform the neophyte into the perfected initiate unless there be already, in the heart of the latter, a supreme intention and responsive desire.

Initiation is, indeed, an inward act of the soul, a supernatural act of the psychic entity in man: free, unfettered, determined, responsive, yet with the self wholly inspired in the ultimate.

But it may well be said, that, having accomplished initiation, it is impossible for the epopt to convey its full significance to those outside of the portals, even if he would.Words and forms he can reveal, if he be so minded, but these would hold no meaning for the uninitiated; simply because such a person would be confronted with matters unterrestrial, and outside the scope and vocabulary of mundane knowledge and apprehension.

Indeed, such secrets as are unveiled to him are, and were, conveyed to his spirit through the voiceless message of symbols and not through words. And they are actually apprehended as often as not through subsequent reflection and contemplation, rather than through immediate illumination.

There is, to be sure, nothing in the mysteries which the born mystic may not excogitate for himself by dint of his own genius, just as the born poet invariably discovers for himself those fundamental truths regarding his inspirational art which appear almost as of a semi-supernatural order to workaday men.

He will quickly find for example that, of itself, the human soul is imperfect; that, lacking the quality of receptivity, the spirit is powerless--and other and equally cogent illuminations will rapidly present themselves to the veridical mystic. It follows that the initiation of the self is perfectly possible, that it has been attained in hundreds of instances, and not only by the exceptional.

The descent of the soul into matter is one of the most profound mysteries of human existence, as is its converse, the ascent of the spirit into the realms immaterial. These twain constitute symbolic death and 'rebirth'; and were bodied forth in the Mysteries.

It is a legend of ages untold, embraced by all the mystical orders. It is, indeed, the intellectual and psychic discernment of the divine, when the soul, making not a mythos for herself, but through sheer sleight of awakened and instinctive spirituality, arrives at a knowledge of the truth concerning her actual origin and the 'realities' of her existence.It is a novel, or rather, a reawakened sense of perception, and initiation is merely its drama, the symbolic gesture of its aroused consciousness of the need for reunion with divinity.

By initiation, nothing can be gained except that which has to be gained.

The seeming crudity of such a statement includes a truth so obvious, and yet so deep, as to appear as needless as profundity frequently appears to persons of material tendency--for there is but one way which God opens into the temple which was founded before the beginning of the world.

The way is well trodden, the stones are deeply worn. There are no unessentials of power, of mere romantic potentialities won for the adept--like wealth, charm, long life, or the ability to wield occult powers.

These are, indeed, the insignia of the slight and fatuous soul dallying in the purlieus of the temple, vain and degenerate in essence.

The true secrets are those of grace, understanding, perfect apprehension, and joy in the knowledge of the abounding life unrolled before the spirit; rhythmic delight: the sovereign poise of certainty.

The core of the revelation in the Greater Mysteries lay in intellection, in which the archetypal image of universal nature was revealed. The contemplation and union with the Highest supervened.

Thus it will be seen that the ritual and drama had little to do with the higher stages, which were almost purely of a supernormal and spiritual character. But to express this adequately, mere language fails. These things are apprehended, neither seen nor heard.

What is there to learn in this apprenticeship of life, other than the essential poise necessary to the approach towards Otherwhere?This world is, indeed, an aerodrome, in which man is building, fitting and testing those winged pinnaces which shall bear him to immortality. If he fail in his 'prentice task, then must he assuredly lose and suffer accordingly.

It is merely the self discipline of the Divine, endeavouring at great distances to justify itself through various experiments in the depths of time and space, sending out its colonist particles to replenish the spheres, and to triumph, ere they return to the Fatherland, to gain new strength from the sources of the Ultimate, and answer for what they have done.

This means that, toward this end, it becomes essential to cultivate a particular psychic state through steady contemplation of the divine; the afar--that distance, that wonder of aloofness--which is the heart of Paradise.

Intellection, introspection, the reduction of mental and psychic chaos, of the worldly confusion of the heart, mind, and soul, towards the orderly though rapt comprehension of the one simple truth and necessity--'union with God.'

Moreover, the true significance of the divine union is too frequently misapprehended, especially by those who dread it as being peradventure of the nature of individual psychic extinction.

In one sense, the human soul is never entirely out of communication with the divine, indeed its native character renders it more easy to aspire than to grovel--the doctrine of its native wickedness notwithstanding.

The wretched and truly damnable doctrine which says that the heart of man is 'desperately wicked' has, I contend, wrought mischief untold, and has probably wrecked more lives than it has helped to ways of grace. It is a dark saying of hierophantic superiority, based on a degenerate assumption of universal and widespread human depravity, which could only have been engendered in some hypersensitive and cloistered mentality, unused to human converse and aloof from the true nobility and divineness of the common mind, which shows visibly in the neighbourhood of each and every one of us.

The soul of man is tired of being told it is wicked, when, on the whole, it is good; and is essaying most admirably to find its way through the fogs of sin to the sun. And who can blame it if it is equally tired of religions, in which the truth that eternal life must inevitably not end in spiritual ecstasy (if its laws be adequately fulfilled), and is somewhat occluded by a ministry, which, with all its virtues, is prone to lay stress on the gloomy side of things, and is most certainly unvisited by the spirit of rapture in things divine, devoting all its song and poem to love of this world, as did the authors of intellectual outpourings in pre-Islamic Arabia?

The consciousness of fellowship with God is the First significant token that the process of union with the divine has commenced.

But of this I am very sure: that it does not imply the full achievement of unity.

It is, I believe, an expression prior and preparatory to, initiation, for union with God grows and advances as comprehension and expression and intuition grow through successive acts of the spirit.

The wings strengthen and the flight grows longer. The lamp is constantly burning and it behoves man to make use of the light.

The neophyte, however, understands that the Mysteries, as we know them, must assuredly be described as the Mysteries of Earth. Their whole intent is a stepping from this mortality to immortality, consequently they cannot in any way be related to the Mysteries of the Divine, of which man has rumours, but cannot even conceive the nature or the felicity thereof.

The Prophets alone have that honour.Mystery, in short, reveals, on its unveiling, fresh mystery: and so must the progression proceed far past the human ken.

The peculiarly insensible attitude of the greater part of the pre-Islamic Arabs toward the deeper mysteries of spiritual existence constituted a grave danger to humanity.

Avidly seizing upon the husks of the material, it had permitted itself to forget the inestimable treasures of the spirit. Its attitude of impatience with affairs spiritual and of granting the utmost importance to its own racial and individual welfare ought undoubtedly to have aroused the gravest unrest in men and women of serious and exalted character.

A country like pre-Islamic Arabia, which could not afford to examine and grapple with the great problems of psychic existence, and which was wrapped up in things material and pleasurable, and which was not established on the rock of indubitable truth; whose people believed all wisdom to be based on material fact--which had, in short, no strain or desire towards spiritual ascension--was indeed in a perilous position.

Just as I am well assured that no individual can lead a life of psychic security without at least a minimum of contemplation upon things hidden and divine, so am I equally persuaded that no nation which, in the main, ignores them, can be secure in justice and in loftiness of ideal if it lives only according to a passion-exhausting programme of life--as did the people of Arabia before the advent of the Prophet Muhammed.

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