In case you were wondering....What Is a Sufi?

[Agnomen]

What is a Sufi?

by Hazrat Inayat Khan


What is a Sufi?
One who does not separate himself from others by opinion or dogma;
and who realizes the heart as the Shrine of God.

What does the Sufi desire?
To remove the false self and discover God within.

What does the Sufi teach?
Happiness.

What does the Sufi seek?
Illumination.

What does the Sufi see?
Harmony.

What does the Sufi give?
Love to all created things.

What does the Sufi get?
A greater power of love.

What does the Sufi find?
GOD.

And lose?
self


What is meant by the word Sufi?

The word Sufi is derived from the Arabic word Safa, or Saf, which means,
literally, pure, i.e. pure from distinctions and differences. In Greek the
word means wise.

Sufism cannot be called deism, for the Sufi does not consider God as an
entity separate from oneself. Neither can it be called pantheism, because
the Sufi not only sees the immanence of God in nature, but also realizes
God¹s Essence in the infinite, naming God Allah, the Formless, the
Colorless. The Sufi is neither a believer in the unrealized God nor an
unbeliever in the idealized Deity, and thus one is distinguished from godly
and ungodly alike. The Sufi is not an atheist, for the Sufi denies neither
God nor God¹s Messengers.

To the question, "Are you a Christian?", "Are you a Muslim?", "Are you a
Jew?", the Sufi¹s answer would be Œyes¹ rather than Œno¹, for the Sufi
opposes no religion but sympathizes with all. In fact Sufism cannot be
called a religion, for it does not impose either belief or principle upon
anyone, considering that each individual soul has its own principles best
suited for it, and a belief which changes with each grade of evolution.

Sufism is not an intellectual philosophy, because it does not depend merely
upon cold reasoning, but develops a devotional tendency in one. Sufism
cannot be called occultism, for the Sufi does not give any importance to the
investigation of phenomena; seeing the brevity of life, a Sufi deems that a
worthless pursuit: the Sufi¹s aim is God alone.

The Origin of Sufism

The germ of Sufism is said to have existed from the beginning of the human
creation, for wisdom is the heritage of all; therefore no one person can be
said to be its propounder. It has been revealed more clearly and spread more
widely from time to time as the world has evolved.

Sufism as a brother/sisterhood may be traced back as far as the period of
Daniel.

We find among the Zoroastrians, Hatim, the best known Sufi of his time. The
chosen ones of God, the salt of the earth, who responded without hesitation
to the call of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed, were Sufis, and were not
only simple followers of a religion but had insight into divine knowledge.
They recognized God¹s every messenger and united with them all.

Before the time of Mohammed they were called Ekuanul Safa, Brothers of
Purity, but after his coming they were named by him Sahabi Safa, Knights of
Purity. The world has called them Zoroastrian, Christian, Jewish, or Islamic
mystics, and the followers of each religion have claimed them as their own.
For instance, a Christian would claim that Saint Paul was a Christian and a
Muslim that Shams Tabriz was a Muslim. In reality Christ was not a Christian
nor was Mohammed a Muslim, they were Sufis.

from Gatheka I



What is a Sufi? Strictly speaking, every seeker after the ultimate truth is
really a Sufi, whether he calls himself that or not. But as he seeds truth
according to his own particular point of view, he often finds it difficult
to believe that others, from their different points of view, are yet seeding
the same truth, and always with success, though to a varying degree. That is
in fact the point of view of the Sufi and it differs from others only in its
constant endeavor to comprehend all others as within itself. It seeks to
realize that every person following his own particular line in life,
nevertheless fits into the scheme of the whole and finally attains not only
his own goal, but the one final goal of all.

Hence every person can be called a Sufi either as long as he is seeking to
understand life, or as soon as he is willing to believe that every other
human being will also find and touch the same ideal. When a person opposes
or hinders the expression of a great ideal, and is unwilling to believe that
he will meet his fellow men as soon as he has penetrated deeply enough into
very soul, he is preventing himself from realizing the unlimited. All
beliefs are simply degrees of clearness of vision. All are part of one ocean
of truth. The more this is realized the easier is it to see the true
relationship between all beliefs, and the wider does the vision of the one
great ocean become.

from The Way of Illumination, Part 3

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Ya Pir-o-Murshid!

Thank you for listing these words, which are the ones that speak to me, that I might read and remember them!