believe that God only exists. He is in all things, and all things in Him, and all created beings visible and invisible are an emanation from God, and not really distinct from Him. That the soul of man existed before the body in which it is confined as in a cage. The great object of the Súfí being to escape from the trammels of humanity, and to return to the bosom of divinity, whilst the teachings of their mystic creed are supposed to lead the soul onward, stage by stage, until it reaches the goal—perfect knowledge.
The natural state of every Muslim is Násút, in which state the disciple must observe the precepts of the law, or Shariʾat; but, as this is the lowest form of spiritual existence, the performance of the journey is enjoined upon every searcher after Truth.
The following are the stages (Manzil) which the Súfí has to perform. Having become a searcher after God (Tálib), he enters the first stage of ʾUbúdíyat, "service." When the Divine attraction has developed his inclination into the love of God, he is said to have reached the second stage of ʾIshaq, "love." This Divine love, expelling all worldly desires from his
