(^662) ISLAMIC MYSTICAL LITERATURE
Jesus said, "Whoever seeks the world is like one who drinks sea-
water. The more he drinks, the more his thirst increases, until it
kills him." (3.161)
The students said to Jesus, "How is it that you can walk on water
and we cannot?"
He said to them, "What do you think of the dinar and the
dirham?"^7
They answered, "They are precious."
He said, "But to me they are the same as mud." (3.175; see also
John 6:16-21 and other gospel texts regarding Jesus' walking on
water)
Jesus the messiah used to take nothing with him except for a
comb and a jug. Then he saw a person combing his beard with
his fingers, so he threw away the comb, and he saw another per-
son drinking from a river with his hands, so he threw away the
jug. (4.182; a similar story is told about Diogenes the Cynic
philosopher)
Additionally, in an inscription from a mosque at Fatehpur Sikri, India
(also known from the Clerical Instruction of Petrus Alphonsi), Jesus says,
"This world is a bridge. Pass over it, but do not build your dwelling there." This
resembles, as much as any other saying, Gospel of Thomas 42: "Be passersby."
ISLAMIC GNOSIS AND THE MOTHER OF BOOKS
The Muslim devotees of the party (Shi'a) of Ali, now commonly called
Shi'ites, emerged from the bleak and bloody times that saw the assassination
of Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, and Ali's sons Hasan and
Husayn. The commitments of these partisans of Ali included an insistence
that the leaders of the Muslim community—the caliphs—be direct descen-
dants of Muhammad, and that these leaders were legitimated by Allah and
given knowledge by Allah. Among the early adherents of Shi'a were certain
thinkers, called ghulat, "exaggerators" or "extremists," who were referred to in
this way because of their extreme devotion to the figure of Ali and whose per-
spective could be messianic, mystical, even gnostic. Advocates of such ghuluw,
- Pieces of money.