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'The follower of Sufism is he who seeks to reach the rank of being dead
to self and alive to truth by means of struggle. He who has reached this end is called a Sufi'
Hujwiri (XI AD)
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| Sufi Ahmed Murad |
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CONTENTS: The Word 'Sufi' (S, U, F; 'Sophia';
'Wool'; 'Ain, Sof') . Sufi Ideas Behind Theories, etc. . Sufi Literature Ahead of its Time (Rumi, El-Arabi...) . Evolution,
Relativity, Space Travel, etc . Higher Aim & Interaction (Rumi) . Islam & Other Formulations (Ibn el-Farid, Sufi Zia
Gokalp, Kant, Hermes, Nietzsche...) . Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Hermetism.Com . The Sufi Teacher (Rumi &
Gurgani) . Omar Khayyam
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* The word Sufi itself became current about
a thousand years ago both in the Near East and in Western Europe. 'Sufi' is traceable to the Arabic word, pronounced
'soof', which literally means 'wool', referring to the material
from which the robes of the early Muslim mystics were made... The Sufis claim that a certain kind of mental and other activity
can produce under special conditions and with particular efforts, a higher working of the mind. Sufism is therefore the
transcending of ordinary limitations... The word 'sufi' has been linked with the Greek word for divine wisdom or 'sophia', and also with the cabbalistic term 'Ain,
Sof' or 'the absolute infinite'. The Sufis themselves claim that their knowledge has existed for
thousands of years, and that it is an equivalence of the Hermetic, Pythagorean and Platonic streams... The Sufis regard
the sounds of the letters S, U, F (in Arabic, the signs for Soad, Wao, Fa) as significant in their effect upon human mentation.
The Sufis are therefore 'the people sssuuufff'...
* Sufi ideas and literal texts are borrowed
by or lay behind theories, organizations and teachings of those of Chilvary, of St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila,
Roger Bacon, Geber, the father of Western Alchemy (surnamed the Sufi), Raymond Lully the Majorcan, Guru Nanak (the founder
of Sikhism), the Gesta Romanorum, as well as Hindu Vedantist teachings. We can find materials taken from Sufi ideas, methods,
tales, legends and even poetry of the Sufis in the Troubadours, in Shakespeare, D. H. Christian Andersen, in children's books,
in the symbology of the Rosicrucians, and of the Illuminati, in the Bhaktticult of the Hindus, in the secret books of the
Ismailis, in tales and techniques of Zen, in Yoga, in the Knights Templar, in Chaucer and Dante Aligieri, etc.
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| Jalaludin Rumi |
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* Sufi literature contains material which is
ahead of its time. Certain Sufi books contain material which seems to become comprehensible only when new psychological
and even scientific technical discoveries are made and become well known. The Afghan Jalaludin
Rumi (died 1273), Hakim Sanai of Khorasan
(14th AD), El-Ghazali of Persia (died 1111), and Ibn El-Arabi of Spain (died 1240) speak of psychological states, theories of psychology
and psychotherapeutic procedures which would have been incomprehensible to readers without the contemporary infraestructure
which we lately acquired in the West (e.g. Freudian. Jungian, etc.)
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* Sufi claims that 'man rose from the sea', and that
he is in a state of evolution; covering an enormous period of
time, appeared to be fanciful nonsense until the 19th century. Darwinists
seized upon this material with delight. References said to be to the forces contained to the atom, to a fourth dimension,
to relativity, to space travel, telepathy, telekinesis, are frequent... Over 700 years ago,
Ibn-el-Arabi stated that thinking man was forty thousand years old, while orthodox Jewish,
Christian and Moslem belief was still commited to scriptural 'datings' of the Creation at only 4-6 thousand years before.
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| (c) Nitin Dadrawala 1993 |
* Sufi ideas are never intended to challenge the man,
only to provide him with a higher aim, to maintain his conception that
there may be some function of the mind which produced, for instance, the Sufi giants. Rumi:
'A short time in the presence of the Sufis is better than a hundred years' sincere obedient dedication.' Sufis
contend that, far from this knowledge being available in books, a great part of it must be personally communicated by means
of an interaction between the teacher and the learner. Too much attention to the written page can be harmful. Many Sufi
passages are designed to stimulate thought by healthy criticism. Sufis do not stick to any convention and use religious
format, poetry, jokes, tales and legends, art-forms, etc.
* Although Sufis claim that Sufism is an esoteric teaching within Islam, it also stands behind formulations which many
people consider to be quite different from one another (e.g. Prophet Mohammed, Uwais el-Qarni, Suhrawadi & Rosicrucians,
Hermes of Egypt, etc.). Ibn el-Farid (1181-1235): Sufism lies
behind and before systematization ('Our wine existed before what you call the grape and the vine.')... Sufi Zia Gokalp: Sufi writers centuries ago had outlined and employed theories later
identified with the names of Berkeley, Kant, Foullee, Gruyeau, Nietzsche and William James.
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* No Sufi sets up an institution intended to endure.
The outer form in which he imparts his ideas is a transient vehicle,
designed for local operation. That which is perpetual is in another range... The Sufi teacher is a conductor, and an instructor,
not a God. Personality-worship is forbidden in Suffism. Rumi:
'Look not at my exterior form, but take what is in my hand.' Gurgani:
'My humility is not there for you to be impressed by it. It is there for its own reason.'
In cell and cloister, in monastery and synagogue,
Here one fears hell, another dreams of paradise.
But he who knows the true secrets of his God
Has planted no such seeds within his heart
-Omar Khayyam, 1123.
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