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The Eighth Lesson: Sufiism.1277
cynical, skeptical, old wine-bibber and libertine epicurean—wait a while,
until you learn “The Secret of Omar.”
The Sufi philosophy is very simple. There is very little more to it than the
fundamental principles we have already stated. The Sufis do not concern
themselves with hair-splitting metaphysical discussions regarding the “How”
phase of the universe—enough for them to know that God is, and that His
Reflection and Image is in themselves—they hold that in this realization
there is “a knowing of That, which when once known causes all to be known.”
They believe in Reincarnation, and have some vague teachings regarding
States of Rest, in Heavens and Hells, between Incarnations, but some of the
advanced Sufis pay but little attention to these teachings, deeming them at
the best but discussions of inferior phases of existence but little above or
below the earthly life—holding that there is but one life looking forward
to—Union with God. Some of these advanced thinkers, in their writings
and verses, speak of the highest heavens of their brethren as “those petty
villages, filled with hovels, called Heavens—at which we will tarry not, but
shall hasten on to the Mansion of our Beloved One, wherein our Wedding
Feast is awaiting us, and our Nuptial Couch is spread with the finest silks and
most costly adornments—wherefore shall we dally with the petty villages
and the hovel-like resting places”; and again: “What terror shall the lowest
Hell have for him who knows that eventually, yea, even at the end of many
æons, he shall be clasped in his Beloved’s arms?—’tis but a foul nightmare
fantasy, and awakening the Lover shall find his Beloved gazing longing into
his eyes.” Surely, heaven can hold no reward, nor hell any punishment, for
souls like these.
The general philosophy may be summed up as follows: God is Pure Being—
the Necessarily Existent (Wajibul-wujud)—the Absolute Good (Khayrimahz)—the
Absolute Beautiful. In His aspect of the Absolute Beautiful,
He desired to witness Himself in reflection—wished to realize His own
beautiful nature and being—and so caused His divine image to fall on the
mirror of “not-reality” (adam), the reflection thus caused being the cause