It might at first sight appear almost an impossibility for mysticism to engraft itself upon the legal system of the Qurʾān, and the Aḥādīs̤, with the detailed ritual and cold formality which are so strikingly exemplified in Islām; but it would appear that from the very days of Muḥammad, there have been always those who, whilst they called themselves Muslims, set aside the literal meaning of the words of Muḥammad for a supposed mystic or spiritual interpretation, and it is generally admitted by Ṣūfīs that one of the great founders of their system, as found in Islām, was the adopted son and son-in-law of the Prophet, ʿAlī ibn Abī T̤ālib. The Ṣūfīs themselves admit that their religious system has always existed in the world, prior to the mission of Muḥammad, and the unprejudiced student of their system will observe that Taṣawwuf, or Ṣūfīism, is but a Muslim adaptation of the Vedānta school of Hindū philosophers, and which also we find in the writings of the old academics of Greece, and Sir William Jones thought Plato learned from the sages of the East.
The Ṣūfīs are divided into innumerable sects, which find expression in the numerous religious orders of Darweshes or Faqīrs [[FAQIR]]; but although they differ in name and in some of their customs, as dress, meditations and recitations, they are all agreed in their principal tenets, particularly those which inculcate the absolute necessity of blind submission to a murshid, or inspired guide. It is generally admitted that, quite irrespective of minor sects, the Ṣūfīs are divided into those who claim to be only the Ilhāmīyah, or inspired of God, and those who assert that they are Ittiḥādīyah, or unionist with God.
I. The Doctrine of the Ṣūfīs.
The following is a succinct account of the doctrines of the Ṣūfīs:—
1. God only exists. He is in all things, and all things are in Him.
2. All visible and invisible beings are an emanation from Him, and are not really distinct from Him.
3. Religions are matters of indifference: they however serve as leading to realities. Some for this purpose are more advantageous than others, among which is al-Islām, of which Ṣūfīism is the true philosophy.
4. There does not really exist any difference between good and evil, for all is reduced to Unity, and God is the real Author of the acts of mankind.
5. It is God who fixes the will of man: man therefore is not free in his actions.
6. The soul existed before the body, and is confined within the latter as in a cage. Death, therefore, should be the object of the wishes of the Ṣūfī, for it is then that he returns to the bosom of Divinity.