The doctrines of the Druses mark an advance over the tenets of the Ismailiyyah and the Karmathians, their immediate predecessors, and they regard the teachings of the Ismailiyyah, like Shiitiam and Islam in general, as superseded by their own and even hostile to them. On the other hand, the Mohammedans consider the Druses infidels, and Islamic writings seldom mention them. The difficulty of a clear presentment of the confused doctrines of the Druses is increased by the fact that their religion is esoteric, its adherents being forbidden to reveal its mysteries to non-believers and being required to hide their religious books from all. Druses who have been initiated into the faith seldom become converts to other religions, and from the uneducated nothing can be learned. Many dogmas and customs, moreover, which formerly had a distinct religious meaning, now survive as unintelligible remnants, especially as the Druses seldom pursue deep religious studies, and the very fact that the religion is secret (as it must be on account of the Mohammedan attitude toward it) renders it peculiarly liable to the danger of degenerating into meaningless phrases and ceremonies. The many-sided character of their religion makes it possible for Druses to emphasize the Islamic elements of their faith in conversing with Mohammedans and to follow a similar course with Christians or even with freemasons.
According to the teaching of the Druses, God is one, and the confession of his unity is the first duty of religion. While this coincides with the Koran, their doctrine that God is devoid of all attributes, having neither origin, limitations, definitions, names, or anthropomorphism of any sort, makes them closely akin to the rationalistic Mutazilah. This philosophical concept of God might seem to lead to pantheism, but its principal result was the theory that the Deity, in order to approach more closely to man, has revealed himself in bodily form, and has accordingly hidden himself in men; although man does not thereby become the Divinity. God ever remains the same, even in these forms which serve him as a veil, and it is, therefore, the duty of each one to attain through these manifestations a knowledge of God and a proof of his existence. The last of the ten (or nine) incarnations of the Divinity was the calif al-Hakim.
The real administrators of the world and the actual preachers or priests for mankind, however, are the "bonds" (ḥudud), or "revelations" (ayyat), which are also called by many other names. The chief terms are derived from the fact that before the origin of the Druses the Mohammedan sect of the Bataniyyah interpreted every expression of the Koran allegorically and applied it to persons. In the system of the Druses such administrators were primarily abstract ideas which were later regarded as incarnate. The persons in whom they dwelt,
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A subordinate hierarchy must be distinguished from the one just described. On the "Following" are dependent the spiritual leaders of the Druses, who are called, in decreasing order, Da'i ("missionary"), Ma'dhun ("he to whom it is permitted"), and Mukassir ("breaker," i.e., of the doctrines of other beliefs). These subordinate hierarchs are invariably regarded as men. The five celestial administrators are opposed, furthermore, by five principles of error, who have been incarnate in Mohammed, Ali, and others.
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