“Passion for that Beloved took me away from erudition and reciting the Koran until I became as insane and obsessed as I am. I had followed the way of the prayer carpet and the mosque with all sincerity and effort. I wore the marks of asceticism to increase my good works. Love came into the mosque and said, "Oh great teacher! Rend the shackles of existence! Why are you tied to prayer carpets? Let not your heart tremble before the blows of My sword! Do you want to travel from knowledge to vision? Then lay down your head! If you are a profligate and a scoundrel, do justice to troublemaking! If you are beautiful and fair, why do you remain behind the veil?” (The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 3)
“Theologians mumble, rumble-dumble, necessity and free will, while lover and beloved pull themselves into each other.” (The Essential Rumi, p. 180)
“That intellectual warp and woof keeps you wrapped in blindness.”( p 66)
“Someone was saying: ‘I have studied so many branches of knowledge and mastered so many concepts; yet I still do not know which concept in man will abide forever. I have not discovered it yet’. If it could be known by means of words, there would be no need for the annihilation of individual existence or for so much suffering. You must strive to rid yourself of your own individuation before you can know that thing which will remain.”(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi, p. 203)
“The great scholars of the age split hairs in all the sciences. They have gained total knowledge and complete mastery of things that have nothing to do with them. But that which is important and closer to him than anything else, namely his own self, this your great scholar does not know.” (The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 148)
"I know everything permitted and not permitted by the Divine Law." How is it you do not know if you yourself are permitted... You know the value of every merchandise, but you do not know your own value - that is stupidity... The spirit of all the sciences is only this: to know who you will be on the Day of Resurrection.” (The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 128)
"I know everything permitted and not permitted by the Divine Law." How is it you do not know if you yourself are permitted... You know the value of every merchandise, but you do not know your own value - that is stupidity... The spirit of all the sciences is only this: to know who you will be on the Day of Resurrection.” (The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 128)
“Since cleverness is your pride and fills you with wind, become a simpleton so that your heart may remain healthy. Not a simpleton warped by buffoonery, but one distraught and bewildered in God.” (The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 224)
“You seek knowledge from books. What a shame! ... You are an ocean of knowledge hidden in a dew drop…” (p. 64)
“I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I've been knocking from the inside!” (The Essential Rumi, p. 281)
“Mysteries are not to be solved.” (The Essential Rumi, p. 107)
In Islam there has been a continuous tension (as in Christianity as well) between Philosophy and Mysticism. Sufism is the paradigm of the mystical approach – seeking an experience of union with God in praise, worship, dancing and sometimes silence. It uses stories to communicate truths which, it is held, go far beyond the truths of logical.
In Islam there has been a continuous tension (as in Christianity as well) between Philosophy and Mysticism. Sufism is the paradigm of the mystical approach – seeking an experience of union with God in praise, worship, dancing and sometimes silence. It uses stories to communicate truths which, it is held, go far beyond the truths of logical.
By contrast, Aristotelian philosophy has led many Muslim thinkers to emphasise the importance of reason and rationality. However this path has sometimes been seen to threaten the status of the Qur'an and, therefore, has also been considered unacceptable.
Both traditions have been, are and will continue to be important and it is, perhaps, best to regard the tension between the two as creative.
ISLAM
ISLAM
The requirements of Islam are in a way simple – they can be performed by anyone, irrespective of their station in life.
The requirements of Islam are in a way simple – they can be performed by anyone, irrespective of their station in life.
God is just and merciful but requires submission and obedience. Every individual will be judged by God at the end of time. The righteous will be rewarded in paradise and the wicked punished in hell.
Because God is just, God requires justice in social relationships – which are an important part of the Qur'an.
Although Islam accepts the story of Adam and Eve, there is no idea of original sin as developed by Augustine in the Christian tradition. Each individual is ‘free’ – although in Islam there is a strong idea that God pre-destines everything.
