I question'd the Pen and the Tablet of Fate,
But they whisper'd not where He pavilions His state;
My vision I strain'd; but my God-scanning eye
No trace, that to Godhead belongs, could descry.
My glance I bent inward; within my own breast,
Lo, the vainly sought elsewhere, the Godhead confess'd!
In the whirl of its transport my spirit was toss'd,
Till each atom of separate being I lost."
These are the words of the greatest authority among the Súfís, the famous Maulána Jelál-ud-dín Rúmí, founder of the order of the Mauláví Darwíshes. He also relates the following story: "One knocked at the door of the beloved, and a voice from within said: 'Who is there?' Then he answered, 'It is I.' The voice replied, 'This house will not hold me and thee!' So the door remained shut. The lover retired to a wilderness, and spent some time in solitude, fasting, and prayer. One year elapsed, when he again returned, and knocked at the door. 'Who is there?' said the voice. The lover answered, 'It is thou.' Then the door was opened."
The great object of life, then, being to escape from the hindrances to pure love and to a return to the divine essence, the Tálib, or seeker, attaches himself to a Murshid, or teacher. If he prosecutes his studies according to Súfíistic methods he now often enters one of the many orders of Darwíshes. After due preparation under his Murshid, he is allowed to enter on the road. He then becomes a Sálik, or traveller, whose business henceforth is súlúk that is, devotion to one idea—the knowledge of God. In this road there are eight stages. (1) Service. Here he must serve God and obey the Law for he is still in bondage. (2) Love. It is supposed that now the Divine influence has so attracted his soul that he really loves God. (3) Seclusion. Love having expelled all worldly desires, he arrives at this stage, and passes his time in meditation on the deeper doctrines