Chapter VI, Islam, Sufism, Summary and Analysis

Passing over the Sunni/Shi'ite division that exists in Islam today because it amounts to a kind of in-house debate, a smaller but significant sect called the Sufis rejected worldliness and searched for an inner relationship with God. For this special methodology, the Sufis collected around spiritual masters called sheikhs and formed into orders called tariqahs in which the members were called faqirs. These orders are not unlike the contemplative orders of Roman Catholicism, with the difference being that the members generally marry and engage in normal business occupations. In their attempts to draw nearer to God, they embrace mysticism of love, mysticism of ecstasy, and mysticism of intuition. In the first, great poetry expresses the love of god for man that is far greater than man's love for God. The second approach, ecstasy, involves...