ABSTRACT
Sufism designates the inner, experiential aspects of Islam known as Islamic mysticism. Since Sufism is known as the esoteric or the mystical path of Islam, a definition of mysticism becomes an important for an understanding of Islamic mysticism. By looking up the definition of “mysticism” in the dictionary, we get three “hits.” First, mysticism is defined as the doctrine or belief that direct knowledge of God is attainable through immediate insight rather than logical reasons. Second, mysticism is described as any type of theory asserting the possibility of attaining knowledge through faith. The third definition equates mysticism with vague speculation. All three definitions share the idea that experience should be favored over theoretical insight in the experience of looking for God. As for mystical experience, the American philosopher William James wrote the following passage in his classic book, The Varieties of Religious Experience:
Our normal waking consciousness … is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens; there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question, for they are so discontinuous with ordinary
consciousness. Yet they may determine attitudes though they cannot furnish formulas, and open a region though they fail to give a map. At any rate, they forbid a premature closing of our accounts with reality.
