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The_Savior_from_Spiritual_Error, page : 100
the intellectuals and the learning of the learned and the scholarship of the
scholars, who are versed in the profundities of revealed truth, brought
together in the attempt to improve the life and character of the mystics, they
would find no way of doing so; for to the mystics all movement and all rest,
whether external or internal, brings illumination from the light of the lamp of
prophetic revelation; and behind the light of prophetic revelation there is no
other light on the face of the earth from which illumination may be received.
In general, then, how is a mystic `way‟ (tariqah) described? The purity
which is the first condition as bodily purity is the prior condition of formal
Worship for Muslims is the purification of the heart completely from what is
other than Allah Most High, the key to it which corresponds to the opening
act of adoration in prayer,⁷ is the sinking of the heart completely in the
recollection of Allah; and the end of it is complete absorption (fana’) in
Allah. At least this is its end relative to those first steps which almost come
within the sphere of choice and personal responsibility; but in reality the
actual mystic „way‟ it is the first step, what comes before it being, as it were,
the entrance for those who are journeying towards it.
scholars, who are versed in the profundities of revealed truth, brought
together in the attempt to improve the life and character of the mystics, they
would find no way of doing so; for to the mystics all movement and all rest,
whether external or internal, brings illumination from the light of the lamp of
prophetic revelation; and behind the light of prophetic revelation there is no
other light on the face of the earth from which illumination may be received.
In general, then, how is a mystic `way‟ (tariqah) described? The purity
which is the first condition as bodily purity is the prior condition of formal
Worship for Muslims is the purification of the heart completely from what is
other than Allah Most High, the key to it which corresponds to the opening
act of adoration in prayer,⁷ is the sinking of the heart completely in the
recollection of Allah; and the end of it is complete absorption (fana’) in
Allah. At least this is its end relative to those first steps which almost come
within the sphere of choice and personal responsibility; but in reality the
actual mystic „way‟ it is the first step, what comes before it being, as it were,
the entrance for those who are journeying towards it.