Sufi Science of the Soul

Science of the Soul and Metaphysics

When we talk about psychotherapy today, we generally mean a mode of non-medical treatment of
mentally disturbed people that employs psychological methods. The mode of treatment may not be
based upon a comprehensive theory of personality and may isolate a segment of human experience,
concentrate upon it, and thus produce a "cure." "Cure" itself is a word that has a plenitude of
meanings, with the result that no sensible or rational discussion of it can take place about it--unless
one defines it as the removal of a symptom or the disappearance of a syndrome. Syndrome is
another expression that psychiatrists use frequently but with their own personalized meaning.
Another aspect of modern psychotherapies is that they are not related to any metaphysical
principles. Any reference to metaphysics, psychotherapists think, would vitiate the scientific
character of their theories and would certainly create disorder in their practice--if it is not already in
a state of confusion. By metaphysics, I do not mean the modern metaphysics which creates an
endless chain of arguments and only sets up more puzzles rather than solving genuine problems. By
metaphysics, I mean what René Guénon asserts, "In all true metaphysical conceptions it is
necessary to take into account the inexpressible."
The Sufi science of the soul and the cure of its maladies, or psychotherapy, are, however, a mode of
psychological treatment based on a metaphysics that embodies the principles of the Islamic tradition
in the sense that tradition is used by such writers as Guénon and F. Schuon. The Islamic tradition
points out that the origin of every soul is paradise. This archetypal reality is a "primordial idea" that
is veiled in every soul. It can, however, manifest itself through spiritual practice based upon
sustained invocation (dhikr), or repeated remembrance of the Supreme Name of God. In this way,
the forgotten "trust" center of the personality becomes activated-a center that is both immanent and
transcendent.
Traditional View of Personality
Traditional metaphysics has a clear theory of personality. Human personality, according to the
Islamic tradition, has three aspects: spirit (ruh), heart (qalb), and soul (nafs). A distinction must be
made among the following: (1) al-nafs al-hayawaniyyah--the animal soul, the soul as passively
obedient to natural impulsions; (2) al-nafs al-ammarah--"the soul which commands," the passionate,
egoistic soul; (3) al-nafs al-lawwamah--"the soul which blames," the soul aware of its own
imperfections; and (4) al-nafs al-mutma'innah--"the soul at peace," the soul reintegrated in the Spirit
and at rest in certainty. The last three of these expressions are from the Quran.
 
This view of the personality has been elaborated by various Sufi authorities and they have given a
very clear account of human thought process and its stages. Thought passes through five stages
before it becomes a decision. The first stage (hajis) is the stage of a passing thought. The second
stage (khātir) is the stage at which the thought persists for some time. The third stage is hadith al-
nafs, the inner dialogue that the ego has with its "soul" (nafs). The fourth stage (hamm) is reached
when there is a readiness for decision, and the fifth stage ('azm) is the level of decision making
itself. From the point of view of mental disease, the third stage is the most crucial one. It is the stage
of inner verbalization or possibly subvocalization, and if one continues to talk to oneself mental
disturbance is created. These inner stages have been described by a great Darqāwī Sufi, Shaykh
Habīb of Tetuan, as "thought impulses." He says, "Beware of the deception of thought-impulses;
they weaken good counsel and they are lies."
According to a tradition of the Prophet, "Allah has forgiven for my ummah those thoughts about
which they talk to themselves, provided they do not express them." Sufis have commented on this
saying and provided an analysis of man's thought process and if one enters into a state of
murāqabah, or meditation on thought, he will find that thought is circular. It can, in fact, be regarded
as a vicious circle. This vicious circle of thoughts can be broken only by entering into a higher
circle. Therefore, many Sufis advise, "Take a sincere brother as your intimate. He will discriminate
between the thought-impulses and dispel the source of doubt in you."
All subvocal verbalization implies a philosophical proposition and is an indication of a particular
attitude to life. Such a verbalization may appear to be sheer nonsense, but if you analyze it, it turns
out to be a serious expression of a latent attitude. It is really a statement of a philosophical
proposition that expresses fear and anxiety.
From another perspective, the picture of human personality according to the Sufi point of view is
this:
The spirit (al-ruh) and the soul (al-nafs) engage in the battle for the possession of their common son,
the heart (al-qalb). This is a symbolical way of expressing the nature of the spirit, which is
masculine and the nature of soul, which is feminine. By (al-rūh) we mean the intellectual principle
which transcends the individual nature and al-nafs is the self-centered compulsive tendencies which
are responsible for the diffuse and changeable nature of the "I". Al-qalb is the point of intersection
of the "vertical" ray, which is al-rūh, with the horizontal plane, which is al-nafs.
The two contraries al-ruh and al-nafs try to capture the qalb. If the nafs wins the battle, the heart is
"veiled" by her. The nafs is also interested in the nimble transitions of the conditions of the world.
She passively clings to form which dissipates. There is a tradition of the Prophet according to
which, "it should be known that there is a lump of flesh in the body of a man on which depends his
being good or bad. When this piece of flesh is healthy, man remains (spiritually) healthy. When it is
not healthy, man goes astray--and that lump of flesh is man's heart." Heart in this context should not
be confused with either the physical heart, the human emotions, or the mind. It would be relevant
here to quote F. Schuon, who has given an excellent account of the functions of the heart which are
related to the intellect and intellectual intuition. He says: "Intellectual genius must not be confused
with the mental acuteness of logicians. Intellectual intuition comprises essentially a contemplatively
which in no way enters into the rational capacity, the latter being logical rather than contemplative.
It is contemplative power, receptivity in respect of the light which distinguishes transcendent
intelligence from reason." To understand the continuous temptation brought about by the nafs, it is
necessary to delve further into the meaning of the heart and its nature.
The heart is the abode of Divine Light. Divine Knowledge can be attained through its activity. In
the mortal human body, it is the only organ that is the locus of the energies one receives from the
spiritual realm. It opens up ways for spiritual development. God has called it His own abode. The
Prophet has said that heart is the house of God.
All hearts are only potentially the houses of God. Most hearts can never lift the veil of mundane
passions and desire which cover the heart. Some Sufis describe it as being covered by the "rust" of
earthly passions, which settles on the heart. This rust can be removed only by ardent and persistent
invocation (dhikr). The nafs creates unbreakable bonds--passive habits and ambitions--while the
Spirit unites, because it is above form. With a rapier like thrust it separates reality from appearance.
If the Spirit wins the battle, the heart will be transformed into spirit and at the same time transmute
its soul, suffusing her with spiritual light. Then the heart reveals itself; it becomes the tabernacle
(mishkāt) of the Divine Mystery (sirr) in man. The heart can be quickened only by invocation and
contemplation, by the attainment of virtues, and by realizing their relationship to metaphysics.
Emotional conflicts, anxieties, worries, and almost all forms of neurosis can be outgrown by a
change in cognitive reorientation and a shift in perspective. Whenever there is an anxiety, a free-
floating state of fear expecting a disaster at every turn of the corner, and a sense of doom on waking
up to a new dawn, there is a need for a deliberate and willful redirection of attention to the
Absolute, to God. Very soon the invocation will capture the heart, and the invocation will become
spontaneous. Energy will begin to flow to the spirit, and once the spirit is awakened and sharpened
the temptations to worry will die out.
There is another function of the heart. There is, of course, the physical heart with its physiological
functions, but the heart the Sufis talk about is the seat of Divine Knowledge and Love. In fact, the
intellectual intuition that Schuon speaks about is equivalent to love as understood by the Sufis, the
love that, according to Rumi in the prelude to his Mathnawi, is "the physician of all our maladies."
This love is primarily the love of God. "The Eye of the Heart" begins to see the Eternal Essence.
Only subsequently is it love for human beings and for existence in general. It is also love for nature,
virgin nature in both its aspects--the aspect of beauty (jamāl) and the aspect of rigor (jalal). This
love does not exclude the "wisdom of fear," which is an aspect of love for the awesome grandeur of
the eternal Substance.
Sufi Practices and the Cure of the Soul
Strictly speaking, there can be no cure for the maladies of the soul unless the sick man enters into
bayat with a master (receives spiritual initiation from him). Some Sufis say: "One who has no
master, Satan is his master." Relationship with the master gives the novice a new sense of being,
which gradually develops into a new consciousness and finally reaches beatitude. This relationship
draws the novice from the turmoil of the world into the refuge provided by the master's spiritual
presence and protection. This result demands, however, that two conditions be fulfilled: (1)
confession and (2) compliance with the master's guidance. Confession consists in the statement of
what the novice (murīd) experiences, his fears, his anxieties, and his problems. The master responds
to the confession by guidance and provides directions with which the novice has to comply if he
wants to emerge from his agony and suffering.
Prayer by itself cannot eliminate the imperfections and compulsive tendencies of the novice. Prayer
awakens the "heart" but needs spiritual will (himmah), effort (mujāhadah), and meditation
(murāqabah) on one's tendencies to heal one's sick soul. Meditation can be of two kinds: (1)
takhliyah, that is, self-analysis with a view to obviating one's moral weaknesses; (2) tahliyah, that
is, self-analysis with a view to strengthening one's virtues so that vices become weak and ultimately
die out. Schuon has spoken of the six stations of wisdom, which are forms of meditation aiming at
the spiritual development of the novice and complementing invocation. Sufi Masters takes up each
imperfection of the novice separately and guides him toward its cure. The Master expects the novice
to meditate on both his imperfection and the suggested cure. These and other methods employed by
the Sufis have proved effective in bringing relief from suffering and inducing in the novices a sense
of the sacred. But, as already mentioned, all these methods require a master, and the Sufi master has
to be chosen with care and caution. Not everyone who claims to be a master is really so. Jalāl al-Dīn
Rumi has, in fact, called some of these self-proclaimed masters "devils." The seeker has to realize
that all genuine Sufi masters derive their authority from the Prophet Muhammad. The Quran refers
to the Last Messenger in these words: "Verily in the messenger of Allah ye have a good example for
him who looketh unto Allah and the Last Day, and remembereth Allah much" (XXXIII, 21).
On the Laylat al-mirāj (Night of Ascension) Muhammad ascended all the scales of being. His body
was reabsorbed into the soul, soul into spirit, and spirit into Divine Presence. This re-absorption
traces the stages of the Sufi path. The Prophet is the fount from which all orders of Sufism flow.
The Sufi master is thus a representative of the Prophet, and allegiance (bayat) to him is indirectly
bayat with the Prophet and finally with God. One who becomes a pilgrim on this path has to give
his whole self to it. Piecemeal devotion is poor devotion. "Knowledge only saves us on condition
that it enlists all that we are, only when it is a way which works and transforms and wounds our
nature even as the plough wounds the soil-metaphysical knowledge is sacred. It is the right of the
sacred things to require of man all that he is."
Within the context of the master-novice relationship, the novice turns a new leaf and begins a new
life in order to have the ailments of his soul cured. He begins with repentance. The sura al-Qiyāmah
(LXXV) begins with the following words:
Nay, I swear by the Day of Resurrection. Nay, I swear by the accusing soul.
The accusing or reproachful soul (al-nafs al-lawwāmah) is the soul that blames and is aware of its
imperfections. It is the conscience, the inner voice, which persuades man to repent for his sins.
Some Sufis have given a detailed account of the diverse aspects of this force.
Repentance
Sufis of the Chishtiyyah order have described three kinds of repentance (tawbah): (1) Repentance of
the present--which means that man should be penitent about his sins. (2) Repentance of the past--
which reminds man of the need to give other people's rights to them. If one has reprimanded
someone unduly, he should ask for forgiveness from the victim of his hostility. If one has committed
adultery, he should seek forgiveness from God. (3) Repentance of the future--which means that one
should decide not to commit any sin again. Sufis, however, do not ask their followers to dwell on
their sins because dwelling on one's sins gives them a secret pleasure. It fulfills the neurotic need
for self-persecution or masochism. The more one wallows in repentance on sins, the more one tends
to repeat them. It is one instance of the general principle of enantiodromia enunciated by Heraclitus.
The principle simply states that if you try to reach the extreme of anything, you will achieve the
opposite. Quite a few people get involved in the vicious circle of creating self-defeating situations.
It is, therefore, desirable that after a solemn resolve one may try to direct one's attention to the
image of the shaykh and begin the invocation of the Supreme Name.
The main point of repentance is that it does not mean wallowing in penitence or self-pity or self-
devaluation. As Rūmi points out, wallowing in penitence is itself a form of self-indulgence. The
best time to start the process of spiritual transformation is the present--here and now. One who
dwells on the past is driven to the past through regression. He who has the himmah (spiritual will)
to transcend himself can alone be himself. It is quite probable that the novice may lapse into an old
habit, but he can always return to the domain of the Spirit. As Abū Said Abi al-Khayr says: "If you
have broken your vow of penitence a hundred times, return to the spiritual fold."
Time and again Sufis have emphasized that there is no need to despair even when one has broken
one's vows of repentance a thousand times. One can begin again afresh, but sincerity and
wholeheartedness are the principal conditions. "Believe that sins of a hundred worlds can be
removed from the (Right) Path by one sigh of repentance." "Again if you come to the Right Path
with sincerity for a moment, you will attain a hundred stations (of spiritually) every moment."
Sufis have always regarded repentance as a positive turning away from sin and directing one's
vision toward God. The relative significance of repentance varies from one religion to another.
Sufis, by and large, attach a great deal of importance to repentance, but they strongly discourage
"wallowing in repentance" or enjoying repentance. When one is penitent, the Sufi way is to redirect
one's will to invocation, persistent and ardent invocation.
Disease

The Quran refers to "disease" in various contexts. In the sura al-Baqarah (The Cow) there is a verse about the "sickness
in the heart":

And of mankind are some who say: We believe in Allah and the Last Day, when they believe not. They think to beguile
Allah and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves; but they perceive not. In their hearts is a disease,
and Allah increases their disease. (II, 8-10)

Khwājah Abdallāh Ansāri in his voluminous commentary on the Quran has defined "disease" in various ways. In
discussing the above verse, he defines it as follows:

It is a sickness which has no limit, and it is a pain which has no remedy. It is a night which has no dawn. What could be
a more miserable state than the state of the hypocrite? That is a state of alienation from the beginning to the end. Today
he is in an inward agony and tomorrow he will be in external despair.

In another place, Khwājah Ansāri explains disease as "doubt" and dissociation (nifāq), a condition from which modern
man is suffering so grievously.

The first symptom of this "sickness" is alienation--from self, from society, from one's own history, and from one's
cultural roots. Modern man is seeking a balm for his psychological wounds, but in all respects his solutions to problems
themselves become problems. This is true of all fields today, be they economic, administrative, or psychological.
Modern psychologists have called this phenomenon self-healing. Psychoanalysis has been facetiously defined as a
disease of which it is supposed to be the cure.

objects and associate himself with people who possess a sacred presence. He, therefore, cannot perceive and experience
the sacred. This desacralization has led to the spiritual impoverishment of the youth. A large number of young men and
women throughout the world are seriously interested in the "return of the sacred."

The third symptom, which is derived from the first two, is what Guénon has called "dispersion into multiplicity." The
attractive objects around him lure modern man in diverse and contrary directions, and each direction exercises such a
fascination for him that he feels imprisoned in them. He would like to lead a single-directed and wholehearted life but
fails to find a center.

A related symptom is the crisis of identity. Mass migration has accentuated this crisis. Immigrants in a new country,
however affluent, feel empty within. Their inner conflicts generated by the process of adjustment to the new
environment create in them a sense of meaninglessness of life. The "void" they feel within because of the nostalgia for
the past and the environmental pressures goading them to move forward with the times are so acute that they affect their
belief system, their morality, and their attitude toward life.

Cure

Sufis believe that these symptoms can be removed by a sustained effort (mujāhadah) to subordinate one's "thought-
impulses" to the moral will and thus bring oneself closer to God. The Supreme Being is reflected in the Supreme Name,
and invocation of the Supreme Name alone can bring relief to suffering. "Orison (dhikr) is a space into which no evil
enters," says Schuon.
There are some other methods of helping the novice to overcome his or her diseases of the soul and emotional
difficulties. They are, roughly speaking, the following:

(1) Therapy through Opposites. Some Sufis have advocated this mode especially for the cure of emotional disturbances
caused by jealously and envy. A novice suffering from jealousy may be advised to talk affectionately and lovingly to the
person toward whom he is jealous and say good things about him in public. In case he is not present in the vicinity, the
novice should write to him an affectionate letter. Deliberate opposition to a negative conscious attitude has to be
cultivated. The assumption is that the desire to love and to understand others is latent in all human beings; it has only to
be brought into consciousness.

(2) Therapy through Similars. This form of therapy consists in pointing out to the novice that his experiences are not
unique, especially when they are accompanied by a negative effect. A novice suffering from depression or anxiety may
be given examples of other people suffering from similar maladies. This form of therapy induces in the novice a feeling
of sharing and helps to alleviate the yoke of his isolation.

The first essential element of the Sufi science of the soul or psychotherapy is confession or admission of one's
problems. Verbalization of one's thoughts and feelings, disturbing questions and problems need to be communicated to
the master (murshid). As Hafiz Shirāzi has said, "He told the friend our spiritual condition. It is not possible to conceal
one's pain from our real friends." After communication has been made to the master, it is imperative for the novice to
comply with his instructions. These instructions or interventions are not authoritative commands, but they are based
upon acceptance by the disciple. The master also accepts the condition of the novice. This mode of therapy is the most
effective method for eliminating vices like pride, arrogance, and egotism. The worst form of pride is subliminal pride
(kibr). A man who is very proud is likely to assume an air of humility and self-abnegation. If he declares in false
humility, "I am an ignorant man, and the best therapy for him is to confirm his statement by saying, "Yes, you are an
ignorant man." If he is genuinely humble, he will not be disturbed by this response. If his humility is only a pretense,
however, he is likely to become furious. The motive for such a humble statement is to evoke a denial by others. Once
this expectation is frustrated, the proud person is likely to be shaken out of his fake attitude. This mode is very much
like Viktor Frankl's "paradoxical intention." But it is not a twentieth century invention. It was known to the Sufi masters
who were fully aware that long morbid cogitations in turn breed more conflicts. These conflicts are relevant only to the
passionate level of existence. Once one abandons that level and rises up to the higher level, the inner chatter and the
corresponding conflicts are gradually diminished both in frequency and in intensity.

Some Sufis have advocated a dialogue with God every night before going to sleep. The novice has to confess all to God,
verbalizing his main weaknesses. The confession has to be accompanied by a true statement that the novice will not
persist in his sins. The point is that the novice should not make any false promises to God. If the novice feels helpless in
the clutches of a bad habit, he should not make a promise to God that he will abandon the habit. By persisting in his
dialogue, he will become more aware of the Divine Presence in his heart, and he is likely to muster inner strength to
outgrow the disturbing habit. It has been observed by some Sufis, that quite a few novices have experienced an inner
conversion by persisting in the dialogue with God and have thus abandoned unwholesome tendencies. But he also
advises the novice to accept his states. It is only by acceptance that one can change.

The concept of acceptance as employed by Sufis is based upon the distinction between voluntary and involuntary
thoughts. Strong and distracting thoughts impede concentration. Hadith al-nafs (or "inner chatter") generally obstructs
free flow of invocation or meditation. But this obstruction is generally involuntary. The best way to outgrow it is to
accept it, that is, neither to attempt to force it out of one's consciousness nor to pay heed to it. In other words, it is only
by consciously ignoring it, that one can outgrow it. Shaykh al-Arabi al-Darqāwi says:

The sickness afflicting your heart, faqir, comes from the passions which pass through you; if you were to abandon them
and concern yourself with what God orders for you, your heart would not suffer as it suffers now.... Each time your soul
attacks you, if you were to be quick to do what God orders and abandon your will entirely to Him, you will be saved
from psychic and satanic suggestions and from all your trials. But if you begin to reflect in these moments when your
soul attacks you, to weigh the factors for or against, and sink into inner chatter, then psychic and satanic suggestions
will flow back towards you in waves until you are overwhelmed and drowned, and no good will be left in you, but only
evil.

The last and by far the most humanistic method is to imagine what the other man is feeling by saying to oneself,
"Suppose I am this man, why should I be ranting and raging against something unimportant?" By this imaginative
reversal one can empathically imagine the other man's emotional problems. As a result, one is likely to feel less
concerned about how his behavior affects us. This is the essence of empathy, of putting oneself in another man's
position. In personal relations, malice or hostility develops on account of misunderstanding. Such a reversal helps to
remove the misunderstanding and thus eliminates the feeling of hostility. It may be mentioned that the gestalt
psychologists employ this method for making a client aware of his repressed feelings.

Another aspect of Sufi treatment of the soul or psychotherapy is that it discourages statements of generalizations by the
disciples. Generalizations are instances of thinking in connotation which keep the disciple in a state of vagueness and
sometimes ambiguity. A Sufi master always requires denotation of specific instances and symptoms. If a novice writes
to him, "I am depressed," the Sufi master wants to know the specific reason for depression and the context in which it
occurs. It is only then that he gives guidance. Sufis also emphasize the value of prayer--prayers which are uttered in an
attitude of humility, surrender, and helplessness before God. They also insist that special prayers should not be
expressed in generalities but should be addressed to God in the form of specific requests.

Sufis realized that thinking in connotation is itself a sickness. It encourages ambiguous cogitations and is a rich source
of exaggerations, overstatements, and understatements. It makes disciples confused and leads to other sicknesses like
self-pity and seeking care and attention from others.

In modern times, Alfred Korzybski (in his Science and Sanity) and Samuel Hayakawa and others have built up a system
of psychotherapy based upon the principle of reducing all connotations to denotations. The basis of their therapy,
however, is materialistic and profane. It reduces all mental and spiritual processes to brain functions.

The question-and-answer method, which has been hallowed by its association with Socrates, is venerated by
philosophers. This method has dominated European thought for centuries, but it is only in the present times that its
limitations and the nature of its fascination have been determined. Psychoanalysts have explained children's questions
as revealing their repressed impulses, and any literal understanding of these questions is regarded as self-defeating.
Today psychologists, especially gestalt psychologists like Frederick Perls, regard the question-and-answer method as a
torture game. They think that quite a few questions are disguised commands and that several others are ways of
escaping an unpleasant situation.

During the spiritual guidance of their followers (muridin), some Sufi Masters always scrutinized the questions their
novices asked him. If the question was rooted in the novice's experience, only then would they reply. If the question was
general and not relevant to the novice's stage of spiritual development, they would dismiss the question as emanating
from a "confused mind" or a mind that finds it irksome to meditate over the real problems and admonished them to
refrain from asking such questions. The Sufi master thus teaches them the virtue of relevance.

The Goal of the Sufi Science of the Soul

"Sufi psychology does not separate the soul either from the metaphysical or from the cosmic order." Metaphysics
provides the basis and qualitative criteria for psychology and cannot form a part of empirical psychology. Empirical
psychology studies aspects of phenomena, psychic and behavioral, and seeks their immediate causes. This hunt for
"causes" and "explanations" has produced a plethora of hypotheses and theories that are a source of confusion and
bewilderment for the modern student. Sufi psychology, on the contrary, presents an adequate account of symbols and
does not reduce them to the thought-impulses of a repressed mind and gives a living meaning to them by creating an
attitude of reverence toward them.

The final aim of the Sufi science of the soul or psychotherapy is to create in the novice a sense of detachment from and
noninvolvement in the world. The Sufi has to renounce his attachment to the world but not to abandon living fully. In
fact, he has to reach that station wherein he finds himself in the presence of God. He begins to perceive reality in a new
light, the light of God. In the process of the gradual unfolding of his spirit, he begins to be moved by symbols and
integrates them into his life. Without an appreciation of symbols, no one can attain mental health. Without developing a
capacity of discernment between truth and illusion, the sacred and the profane, beauty and ugliness, no one can claim to
be normal. The spirit becomes open to the Infinite once the impediments of the psyche are removed.

The spiritual life is equivalent to symbolic life, regulated by the perception of different aspects of the Spirit. Different
forms express different facets of reality. Man is the central expression of the Spirit on the earth. One aspect is revealed
in the form of a tree of which the trunk symbolizes the axis of the Spirit passing through the whole hierarchy of the
world while its branches and leaves correspond to the differentiation of the Spirit in the many states of existence.
Similarly, some birds like the peacock and the dove reveal other aspects of the reality of the Spirit, and some Sufis have
said that the most luminous of all symbols are "the shining stars, and the brilliant precious stones."
The norm of the human state is the saint, and only his soul can be said to be completely healthy, as it has become wed to
the Spirit. Sufism sees the ordinary soul as being in a state of sickness resulting from separation from God and in turn
causing the forgetfulness of God. There has, as a result, developed a vast Sufi science of the soul, whose aim is to
reinstate man in his original perfection and to rid him of the often-neglected diseases that weigh upon his soul.
Ultimately, only a science such as the Sufi science of the soul can succeed in curing the soul's diseases and in being an
effective psychotherapy. Only the Spirit can cure the soul of its ills. Only the soul that is united with the Spirit possesses
health; for it alone is the soul of man as God created him in his primordial perfection.

Notes

1. See J. Needleman, The Sword of Gnosis (Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1974) 44.

2. "Tradition" is "truths or principles of a divine origin, revealed or unveiled to mankind... through various figures
envisaged as messengers, prophets, avataras, the Logos or other transmitting agencies, along with all the
ramifications and applications of these principles in different realms, including law and social structure, art,
symbolism, the sciences, and embracing of course Supreme Knowledge along with the means of its attainment"
( S. H. Nasr, Knowledge and the Sacred [ New York: Crossroad, 1981] 68).

3. The Quran states, "Lo! We offered the trust (amānah) unto the heavens and the earth and the hills, but they shrank
from bearing it and were afraid of it and man assumed it. Lo! He hath proven a tyrant and a fool" (XXXIII, 72).

5. See his Diwan (London: Diwan Press, 1982) 31.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid., 255.

9. F. Schuon, Gnosis: Divine Wisdom, trans. G. E. H. Palmer (London: John Murray, 1959) 49.

10. See T. Burckhardt, An Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, trans. D. M. Matheson (Lahore: M. Ashraf, 1983) 27.

11. See Schuon, Stations of Wisdom, trans. G. E. H. Palmer (London: John Murray, 1961).

12. See M. Lings, What is Sufism? (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975) 35.

13. F. Schuon, Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts, trans. D. M. Matheson (London: Faber & Faber, 1953) 138.

14. Abd al-Majid Daryābādi, Tasawwuf-i-islam (Azamgarh, 1947) 177.

15. See Ansārī, Kashf al-asrār, ed. ʾA. A. Hikmat (Tehran: Dānishgāh, 1952-60) 1: 75.

16. J. Haley, Changing Families (New York: Grune & Stratton, 1970) 70.

17. Personal communication 1979.

18. See Letters of a Sufi Master, trans. T. Burckhardt (Bedfont, Middlesex: Perennial Books, 1969) 9.

20. Burckhardt, Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, 37.

 
By Mohammad Ajmal
Islamic Spirituality: Manifestations. Contributors: Seyyed Hossein Nasr - editor. Publisher:
Crossroad. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1991.