Note 127 — Chapter XI

كرامة, kerámet, signifies a prodigy, or sign, manifested by any pious person without his claiming prophetic dignity.—(See Pococke. Specim. Hist. Arab., p. 186. 1st edit.)

The Asiatic Doctors admit that extraordinary things may be operated by men who pretend to be deities, prophets, Valis (Saints, of whom more hereafter), and magicians, who are supposed to command demons. Thus they quote Pharaoh, who arrogated divinity to himself, and performed miracles, and thus it shall be with the Antichrist. Celestial favors granted to Valis are believed by the orthodox Muhammedans, upon the strength of the Koran and authentic traditions. To these are added innumerable tales accredited among the superstitious, some of which are ingeniously combined with a moral lesson. Jâmi, in his Lives of Sufis, quotes the following words of another illustrious personage, whom he does not name: “The principle on which all is comprised is, that, when a man performs an extraordinary action, renouncing something which other men are wont to do, or which he himself was wont to do, God also, on his part, by a sort of compensation, changes, in that man’s favor, something in the ordinary course of nature. It is that which the vulgar call Kerámet. But distinguished men understand by this word the divine favor which gave a man aid and force to renounce the things to which he was accustomed. This is what we understand by Keramet.” This explanation differs from that given above. The whole doctrine relative to this subject is united with that of Sufism, which is hereafter to be developed.—(See Notices et Extraits des MSS., vol. XII. pp. 357-369.)