From tariqas-approval@facteur.std.com Tue Apr 9 09:08:54 1996 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id JAA09348 for ; Tue, 9 Apr 1996 09:08:54 -0700 Received: from europe.std.com (europe.std.com [199.172.62.20]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id JAA03853 for ; Tue, 9 Apr 1996 09:08:53 -0700 Received: by europe.std.com (8.7.5/BZS-8-1.0) id LAA11083; Tue, 9 Apr 1996 11:30:38 -0400 (EDT) X-Authentication-Warning: europe.std.com: daemon set sender to tariqas-approval using -f Received: from mail04.mail.aol.com by europe.std.com (8.7.5/BZS-8-1.0) id LAA11074; Tue, 9 Apr 1996 11:30:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Hafizullah@aol.com Received: by mail04.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id LAA25458 for tariqas@europe.std.com; Tue, 9 Apr 1996 11:30:42 -0400 Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 11:30:42 -0400 Message-ID: <960409113041_372036439@mail04> To: tariqas@facteur.std.com Subject: Re: Sufism and Tassawuf Sender: tariqas-approval@world.std.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: tariqas@facteur.std.com Status: RO In a message dated 96-04-08 13:06:17 EDT, you write: >Now I am wondering, what is the difference between Sufism outside of Islam >and gnosticism/mysticism? I would submit that there is a discernably sufic thread that distinguishes a sufi school from other gnostic or mystical schools. There may be more, but these traits, taken together, come to mind: * An emphasis on an holistic, adualistic and embodied spirituality, rather than the transcendent sort ("Let's get the hell off this rock") approach typified by the traditional (dualistic) yogas et al. Along with this goes the philosophical (and ultimately experiential) stance that God is the subject and creation is the object, and the whole host of implications following from that * Some form of Tasawwuri Murshid * Some form of zikr, whatever be the outward formula >Why do those who wish to be Sufis without being Muslims gravitate toward >Arabic names and selective Islamic practices to a greater extent than >those of other traditions? Sometimes this approach is applied by Muslim Sufi teachers who do not themselves require their students to become (outwardly) practicing Muslims. Suleyman Dede, the late Konya Shaikh of the Mevlevi, was one such. Shaikh Bulent Rauf was another, and there is Pir Zahumiat in India, the head of two sufi Orders, who has students who are Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Parsi. I suspect that sometimes there is (selective) use of Arabic/Persian names and practices because you can only teach what you know. Another is that there is enormous barakat embodied in many of the traditional practices, and it would be foolish to not avail onself of that, if your goal is to lift your students as high as possible as fast as possible.