The Dimensions of Islam
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the disciple follows the spiritual path under the direction of the guide with the goal of reaching God, becoming “annihilated” and effaced (al-fanā’) in His Infinite Reality, and gaining subsistence (al-baqā’) in Him. The path may be said to consist of three elements: a doctrine concerning the nature of Reality; a method to reach the Real; and a science or alchemy of the soul dealing with embellishing the soul with virtue and removing from it all the imperfections or veils that prevent it from becoming wed to the Spirit. This last element can also be described using another Sufi symbol: removing the opacity or the veils that prevent the “eye of the heart” (‘ayn al-qalb or chism-i dil) from seeing God and viewing everything as a theophany of God. The doctrine is ultimately always a commentary on the two shahādahs, although in later Islamic history it became elaborated into a vast metaphysical edifice, especially in the hands of the seventh/thirteenth-century master of Islamic gnosis Muhyī . al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī. Over the centuries Sufis have provided the profoundest metaphysics, cosmology, angelology, psychology, and eschatology to be found in the Islamic tradition and one of the most complete metaphysical expositions found in any religious tradition. In the expounding of these doctrines, they have drawn at times from the formulations of Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, and ancient Iranian and in some cases Indian teachings, but the central truth of their doctrine has remained the doctrine of Unity (al-tawh. īd) and the teachings of the Quran, whose inner meaning they have expounded in their many works.