ISLAMIC MYSTICAL LITERATURE 659
of light, including Seth (Sethel), Noah, Enosh, Enoch, Shem, Abraham, Bud-
dha, Aurentes, Zoroaster, Jesus, Paul—and Mani, the consummate messenger
of light.
This observation leads Kurt Rudolph, the prominent scholar of gnosti-
cism, to draw a provocative conclusion:Manichaeism, which flourished longer in the Orient, found its
reflection in early Islamic theological trends, apparently most ef-
fectively in the book of the Arab prophet himself. Mohammed,
according to the Qur'an, advocates the same cyclic theology of
revelation as the gnostic prophet Mani from Mesopotamia, and
stands similarly at the end of a series of forerunners who pro-
claimed the same as he did, but with less success, and whose
teaching was falsified by their followers. Mohammed has the
same predilection for the Old Testament figures from the Penta-
teuch as has Mani. But their view of the world and their doctrine
of salvation are almost in opposition and separate them; they are
united in their claim to be the last prophet of a very ancient his-
tory of salvation. Mani's work has vanished in history, while
Mohammed's foundation, thanks to a different point of depar-
ture that had a more positive attitude to the world, developed
into the greatest post-Christian world religion, a fame which
Mani was also able to claim for a time.^4JESUS THE SAGE IN ISLAM
The role of prophet Jesus (in Arabic, Tsa) in Islam may be secondary to that of
prophet Muhammad, but Jesus remains a glorious prophet and sage. Within
Islam Jesus is confessed to be not only a prophet of god but also the messiah,
servant, spirit, and word of god, the son of Mary, who spoke words of wisdom
and performed mighty deeds as he taught submission to Allah. At the end of a
remarkable life he died—or perhaps he only to seemed to die, says the Qur'an,
in terms that bring to mind the unreal death of Jesus in the Second Treatise of
the Great Seth and the Revelation of Peter in the Nag Hammadi library, as well
as other gnostic sources. Features of prophet Jesus in Islam recall aspects of
- Rudolph, Gnosis, 376.