Sufism,
Or Theosophy From the Standpoint of Mohammedanism.
A Chapter from a MS. work designed as a text-book for Students in Mysticism
BY C. H. A. BJERREGAARD, Stud. Theos.
In Two Parts:—Part I, Texts; Part II, Symbols.
(Continued.)
PART II.—SYMBOLS.
The practical expounders and preachers of Sufism are the Dervishes, the monks of Islam.
It must have become clear to our readers, that the sweet and peaceful sentiments of the couplet of Katebi, placed as motto over our first part, are the expressions of at least one side of the inner life of Sufism. But, if we listen more closely, we shall hear the plaintive note of the nightingale more distinct and perceive more readily the gloom of the cypress; both of them, like the soul of man, bewail in melancholy our disunion from Deity. That, too, is another side of Sufism, which now has been illustrated, and we have given enough quotations to show, that the highest aim of the Sufi is to attain self-annihilation by losing his humanity in Deity.