'The Sufi has no prejudice against any prophet, and, contrary to
those who only love one to hate the other, the Sufi regards them all
as the highest attribute of God, as Wisdom herself, present under the
appearance of names and forms. He loves them with all his worship,
for the lover worships the Beloved in all Her garments.... It is thus
that the Sufis contemplate their Well-beloved, Divine Wisdom, in all
her robes, in her different ages, and under all the names that she
bears,--Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mahomet.' [Footnote: _Message Soufi
de la Liberte_ (Paris, 1913), pp. 34, 35.]

The idea of the equality of the members of the world-wide prophethood,
the whole body of prophets being the unique personality of Divine
Wisdom, is, in my judgment, far superior to the corresponding theory
of the exclusive Muhammadan orthodoxy. That theory is that each
prophet represents an advance on his predecessor, whom he therefore
supersedes. Now, that Muhammad as a prophet was well adapted to the
Arabians, I should be most unwilling to deny. I am also heartily of
opinion that a Christian may well strengthen his own faith by the
example of the fervour of many of the Muslims. But to say that the
Kur'an is superior to either the Old Testament or the New is,
surely, an error, only excusable on the ground of ignorance. It is
true, neither of Judaism nor of Christianity were the representatives
in Muhammad's time such as we should have desired; ignorance on
Muhammad's part was unavoidable. But unavoidable also was the
anti-Islamic reaction, as represented especially by the Order of the
Sufis. One may hope that both action and reaction may one day become
unnecessary. _That_ will depend largely on the Bahais.

It is time, however, to pass on to those precursors of Babism who
were neither Sufites nor Zoroastrians, but who none the less