THE BAB

Such a prophet was the Bab; we call him 'prophet' for want of a
better name; 'yea, I say unto you, a prophet and more than a prophet.'
His combination of mildness and power is so rare that we have to place
him in a line with super-normal men. But he was also a great mystic
and an eminent theosophic speculator. We learn that, at great points
in his career, after he had been in an ecstasy, such radiance of might
and majesty streamed from his countenance that none could bear to look
upon the effulgence of his glory and beauty. Nor was it an uncommon
occurrence for unbelievers involuntarily to bow down in lowly
obeisance on beholding His Holiness; while the inmates of the castle,
though for the most part Christians and Sunnis, reverently prostrated
themselves whenever they saw the visage of His Holiness. [Footnote:
_NH_, pp. 241, 242.] Such transfiguration is well known to the
saints. It was regarded as the affixing of the heavenly seal to the
reality and completeness of Bab's detachment. And from the Master we
learn [Footnote: Mirza Jani (_NH_, p. 242).] that it passed to
his disciples in proportion to the degree of their renunciation. But
these experiences were surely characteristic, not only of Babism,
but of Sufism. Ecstatic joy is the dominant note of Sufism, a joy
which was of other-worldly origin, and compatible with the deepest
tranquillity, and by which we are made like to the Ever-rejoicing
One. The mystic poet Far'idu'd-din writes thus,--

Joy! joy! I triumph now; no more I know
Myself as simply me. I burn with love.
The centre is within me, and its wonder
Lies as a circle everywhere about me. [a]