Real Revolution — Page 82
82 fore, except in cases where the sacrifice of this life furthered the higher aims, the offering of this blood in superstitious and silly sacrificial rites was forbidden, since such sacrifices only did harm to the higher object for which he was created. . At this stage sacrifice was given a rational and philosophical basis, where it no longer remained only an outward and ritual process. For instance lives could be sacrificed in battle if necessary in the course of the struggle to uphold values and ideals without which human life became meaningless. It would be the sacrifice of a thing of lower value for something of higher value, in this case one or more human lives, for the sake of values without which the whole scheme of life would suffer frustration. . In other words, sacrifice was placed on a rational and philosoph al basis on certain occasions it was permissible, even binding, while on others it was strictly forbidden; and side by side with the growth of this concept rose the idea that man was the most superior creature in all creation, giving birth to the earliest form of tasawwuf, generally translated as mysticism. Man began to realise that the object of his creation was that he should win the approval of his Creator and become the beloved of Allah. Tasawwuf in this sense started with. Abraham, though only the first foundation was laid, which later was developed to great heights. This