Jean-Louis Michon - Sufism: Love and Wisdom

The editors wish to thank the following authors, editors, and publishers for their consent to publish the articles in this anthology:

Titus Burckhardt, Sufi Doctrine and Method (the chapter in the present volume includes the chapters At-Taawwuf, Sufism and Mysticism, and Rites from):
An Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, Thorsons Publishers Limited, 1976, pp. 15-27, 99-105. Translated from French by D. M. Matheson.

William C. Chittick, Sufism and Islam:
The Sufi Doctrine of Rumi, World Wisdom, 2005, pp. 9-21.

Michel Chodkiewicz, The Vision of God According to Ibn Arab: Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Societ y, Volume 14, 1993, pp. 5367. Translated from French by Cecilia Twinch.

ric Geoffroy, Approaching Sufism (this chapter is taken from a longer chapter entitled Approches in):
Initiation au Soufisme, Librairie Arthme Fayard, 2003, pp. 15-30. Translated from French by Roger Gaetani.

Denis Gril, The Prophetic Model of the Spiritual Master in Islam (Le Modle Prophtique du Matre Spirituel en Islam):
Maestro e discepolo, ed. Giovanni Filoramo, Morcelliana, 2002, pp. 345-360. Translated from French by Roger Gaetani.

Ren Gunon, aqqa and Shara in Islam (the chapter in the present volume includes the chapters Islamic Esoterism and The Shell and the Kernel [Al-Qishr wa al-Lubb] from):
Insights into Islamic Esoterism and Taoism, Sophia Perennis, 2004, pp. 1-13. Translated from French by Henry D. Fohr.

Martin Lings, Sufi Answers to Questions on Ultimate Reality: Studies in Comparative Religion, 13:.3 & 4, 1979, pp. 137-148.

Angus Macnab, Sufism in Muslim Spain (the chapter in the present volume includes the chapters Spanish Sufism and Sultans and Sufis from):
Spain Under the Crescent Moon, Fons Vitae, 1999, pp. 129-140.

Maria Massi Dakake, Walking upon the Path of God like Men?: Women and the Feminine in the Islamic Mystical Tradition:
Sophia 8:2, Winter 2002, pp. 117-138.

Jean-Louis Michon, Sacred Music and Dance in Islam:
Islamic Spirituality: Manifestations, ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1997, pp. 469-483 & 486-489. Translated from French by Katherine OBrien.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Spiritual Needs of Western Man and the Message of Sufism:
Islam and the Plight of Modern Man, ABC International Group, Inc., 2001, pp. 71-100.

Leo Schaya, On the Name Allh (Du Nom d Allh):
La Doctrine Soufique de lUnit, Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1962, pp. 7986. Translated from French by Roger Gaetani.

Reza Shah-Kazemi, Jesus in the Quran: Selfhood and CompassionAn Akbari Perspective:
Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Societ y, Volume 29, 2001, pp. 57-75.

William Stoddart, Aspects of Islamic Esoterism:
Studies in Comparative Religion, 13:.3 & 4, 1979, pp. 215-224.

Frithjof Schuon, The Quintessential Esoterism of Islam:
Sufism: Veil and Quintessence, World Wisdom, forthcoming in 2007. Translated from French by Mark Perry.

The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity, edited by Harry Oldmeadow, 2005

Borderlands of the Spirit: Reflections on a Sacred Science of Mind, by John Herlihy, 2005

A Buddhist Spectrum: Contributions to Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, by Marco Pallis, 2003

The Essential Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, edited by Rama P. Coomaraswamy, 2004

The Essential Sophia, edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Katherine OBrien, 2006

The Essential Titus Burckhardt: Reflections on Sacred Art, Faiths, and Civilizations, edited by William Stoddart, 2003

Every Branch in Me: Essays on the Meaning of Man, edited by Barry McDonald, 2002

Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars, edited by Joseph E. B. Lumbard, 2004

Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encounters with Eastern Religious Traditions, by Harry Oldmeadow, 2004

Living in Amidas Universal Vow: Essays in Shin Buddhism, edited by Alfred Bloom, 2004

Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East, edited by James S. Cutsinger, 2002

Returning to the Essential: Selected Writings of Jean Bis, translated by Deborah Weiss-Dutilh, 2004

Science and the Myth of Progress, edited by Mehrdad M. Zarandi, 2003

Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred, edited by Barry McDonald, 2003

Singing the Way: Insights in Poetry and Spiritual Transformation, by Patrick Laude, 2005

Sufism: Love & Wisdom, edited by Jean-Louis Michon and Roger Gaetani, 2006

Ye Shall Know the Truth: Christianity and the Perennial Philosophy, edited by Mateus Soares de Azevedo, 2005

Titus Burckhardt

At-Taawwuf

Sufism, Taawwuf,1 which is the esoteric or inward (bin) aspect of Islam, is to be distinguished from exoteric or external (hir) Islam just as direct contemplation of spiritual or divine realities is distinguishable from the fulfilling of the laws which translate them in the individual order in connection with the conditions of a particular phase of humanity. Whereas the ordinary way of believers is directed towards obtaining a state of blessedness after death, a state which may be attained through indirect and, as it were, symbolical participation in Divine Truths by carrying out prescribed works, Sufism contains its end or aim within itself in the sense that it can give access to direct knowledge of the eternal.

This knowledge, being one with its object, delivers from the limited and inevitably changing state of the ego. The spiritual state of baq, to which Sufi contemplatives aspire (the word signifies pure subsistence beyond all form), is the same as the state of moka or deliverance spoken of in Hindu doctrines, just as the extinction (al-fan) of the individuality which precedes the subsistence is analogous to nirva, taken as a negative idea.

For Sufism to permit of such a possibility it must be identified with the very kernel (al-lubb) of the traditional form which is its support. It cannot be something super-added to Islam, for it would then be something peripheral in relation to the spiritual means of Islam. On the contrary, it is in fact closer to their superhuman source than is the religious exoterism and it participates actively, though in a wholly inward way, in the function of revelation which manifested this traditional form and continues to keep it alive.

This central role of Sufism at the heart of the Islamic world may be veiled from those who examine it from outside because esoterism, while it is conscious of the significance of forms, is at the same time in a position of intellectual sovereignty in relation to them and can thus assimilate to itselfat any rate for the exposition of its doctrinecertain ideas or symbols derived from a heritage different from its own traditional background.

It may appear strange that Sufism should on the one hand be the spirit or heart of Islam (r al-islm or qalb al-islm) and on the other hand represent at the same time the outlook which is, in the Islamic world, the most free in relation to the mental framework of that world, though it is important to note that this true and wholly inward freedom must not be confused with any movements of rebellion against the tradition; such movements are not intellectually free in relation to the forms which they deny because they fail to understand them. Now this role of Sufism in the Islamic world2 is indeed like that of the heart in man, for the heart is the vital center of the organism and also, in its subtle reality, the seat of an essence which transcends all individual form.