iism? The term Sufi is
most probably derived from the Arabic word Suf, "wool," of which material
the garments worn by Eastern ascetics used to be generally made. Some
persons, however, derive it from the Persian, Suf, "pure," or the Greek
[Greek: sophia], "wisdom." Tasawwuf, or Sufiism, is the abstract form of
the word, and is, according to Sir W. Jones, and other learned
orientalists, a figurative mode, borrowed mainly from the Indian
philosophers of the Vedanta school, of expressing the fervour of devotion.
The chief idea is that the souls of men differ in degree, but not {88} in
kind, from the Divine Spirit, of which they are emanations, and to which
they will ultimately return. The Spirit of God is in all He has made, and
it in Him. He alone is perfect love, beauty, etc.--hence love to him is the
only _real_ thing; all else is illusion. Sa'di says: "I swear by the truth
of God, that when He showed me His glory all else was illusion." This
present life is one of separation from the beloved. The beauties of nature,
music, and art revive in men the divine idea, and recall their affections
from wandering from Him to other objects. These sublime affections men must
cherish, and by abstraction concentrate their thoughts on God, and so
approximate to His essence, and finally reach the highest stage of
bliss--absorption into the Eternal. The true end and object of human life
is to lose all consciousness of individual existence--to sink "in the ocean
of Divine Life, as a breaking bubble is merged into the stream on the
surface of which it has for a moment risen."[80]

Sufis, who all accept Islam as a divinely established religion, suppose
that long before the creation of the world a contract was made by the
Supreme Soul with the assembled world of spirits, who are parts of it. Each
spirit was addressed separately, thus: "Art thou not with thy Lord?" that
is, bound to him by a solemn contract. To this they all answered with one
voice, "Yes."

Another account says that the seed of theosophy (m'arifat) was placed in
the ground in the time of Adam; that the plant {89} came forth in the days
of Noah, was in flower when Abraham was alive and produced fruit before
Moses passed away. The grapes of this noble plant were ripe in the time of
Jesus, but it was not till the age of Muhammad that pure wine was made from
them. Then those intoxicated with it, having attained to the highest degree
of the knowledge of God, could forget their o