The orthodox Law of Islam, which many Muslims seek to allegorize.]
when they are in ignorance alike of its apparent and of its inward
meaning, and have fallen far, very far from it! One may perhaps say of
them that those people who have no understanding have chosen the route
which is entirely of darkness and of doubt.'

Ignorance, then, is, according to the Bab, the great fault of the
Sufis [Footnote: Yet the title Sufi connotes knowledge. It means
probably 'one who (like the Buddha on his statues) has a heavenly
eye.' Prajnaparamita (_Divine Wisdom_) has the same third
eye (Havell, _Indian Sculpture and Painting_, illustr. XLV.).]
whom he censures, and we may gather that that ignorance was thought to
be especially shown in a crude pantheism and a doctrine of incarnation
which, according to the Bab, amounts to sheer polytheism. [Footnote
4: The technical term is 'association.'] God in Himself, says the
Bab, cannot be known, though a reflected image of Him is attainable
by taking heed to His manifestations or perfect portraitures.

Some variety of Sufism, however, sweetly and strongly permeates the
teaching of the Bab. It is a Sufism which consists, not in
affiliation to any Sufi order, but in the knowledge and love of the
Source of the Eternal Ideals. Through detachment from this perishable
world and earnest seeking for the Eternal, a glimpse of the unseen
Reality can be attained. The form of this only true knowledge is
subject to change; fresh 'mirrors' or 'portraits' are provided at the
end of each recurring cosmic cycle or aeon. But the substance is
unchanged and unchangeable. As Prof. Browne remarks, 'the prophet of a
cycle is naught but a reflexion of the Primal Will,--the same sun with
a new horizon.' [Footnote: _NH_, p. 335.]