The goal of Sufism for one is to know Allah, to experience one's nothingness in the sight and in the knowledge of Allah, and finally to see and witness that Allah is the one alone that subsists forever. Many people have fulfilled many practices to reach this goal and they have given a lot of works in order to share their knowledge and experiences with others. They who pay attention to the words of RasulAllah Mohammed (pbuh) and who tried to READ (understand) the Koran have come around two different views upon the conclusion of their practices and experiences. 1. They who accepted the one referred to as "Allah" as a god beyond man and outside the universe. 2. They who understood what is referred to as "Allah" as limitless and endless one, the AHAD, and who accepted no other "separated being" aside from Allah, and even who did not accept the concept of "separatedness". All spiritual masters who we know by the names as Hazrat Ali, Hazrat Abu Bakr, Imam Jafari Sadiq, Junaydi Baghdadi, Bayazidi Bestami, Imam Ghazali, Ibnul Arabi, Abdulqadir Geylani, Hasan Shazali, Ahmed Rufai, Ahmed Bedevi, Abdulkarim Jili, Jalaluddin Rumi and many we haven't named, have agreed upon Allah as AHAD as a result of their investigations and experiences. The people of truth living in our day have also been convinced about their determinations. Because the Truth is one, so it is impossible for those who have abserved It to disagree. The information received from Hazrat Mohammed for the first time, have been communicated to all spiritual people of truth --Sufi masters-- in time through the teachings of Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Abu Bakr in an undulating fashion and has finally been systematized as an understanding known as "wahdati wudjud" (oneness of existence) by Imam Ghazali and Ibnul Arabi, which is the understanding of Oneness in Sufism.
sorry if this is offending, but wasnt sufi a type of pudding. it sounds familiar... as do you, quite PMish really. ah well.
Does sufism have any practical purposes like providing immortality like other religions? I'm not sure why I would want to follow sufism to experience the nothingness of a god when I already experinece the nothingness of gods. Which is fully consistent with things that do not exist. Kat
I'm sorry if these question's, are to hard for you. But how can you know allah, if there's nothing to experience. and how can you do this, in the sight of something? that not there. and lastly is it possible to see and witness, that nothing(allah) is the one that subsist's forever, if there is nothing to see or witness.
The Sufi Tradition is nice, but I find a problem in that there are no big recent Saints. Catholicism seems closer to the Action in that there have been some spectacular Apparitions of the Virgin Mary, and Catholicism has had some Christ-like Saints not too far from recent memory (I'm thinking of Saint Padre Pio). The Sufi Tradition needs to reach back quite a distance in order to point to anything Miraculous. Why Miracles? Well, without Miracles, there is nothing to differentiate between quality Religious Teachings and just aestheically appealling nonsense. And, can anybody deny that alot of what goes by the name of Sufism is just easy mindless Poetry and Verse that uses Drug and Sex metaphors to express the idea that True Religion is nothing more than a Super Orgasm of the Soul. Yes, a wonderful thing to wish for, but the most actual bliss we see is from these so-called Sufis who are extremely happy to be selling alot of books.
If yu mean the life after death, I have already started another thread on it. Some of them could be... to know yourself far more than a physical body, to tap into invisible part of yourself, yo use your mind, to experience your direct connection with the universal principles and the guiding forces that are at work in the universe... and to get prepared for your afterlife through empowering your spirit by way of practices... These principals are working in the universe independent of your opinion about them, very much like the principles of moon on its orbit, or of digestion and other circulations are working within your body without your help. Whether you believe in these universal principles or not, they are going to work. But should you decide to tune in to them, you may find yourself living at an entirely new level and enjoying a higher kind of awareness, if you will. As long as you resist, you will not see the benefits, you will stay with your old ways.
