ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author concentrates attention on the sounder elements of Persian mystical teaching, but one need not therefore be blind to other elements which may rightly be regarded as divagations and deformations, or, at any rate, as exaggerations of a disconcerting or even repulsive nature. In the early years of the Moslem conquests, the Sufis constituted a powerful reaction against worldliness and hypocrisy. Many confraternities, based on Sufi principles and ideals, did arise in course of time and, in a number of cases, still survive, although the times are against them. A great deal has been written as to the possible origins of the Sufi movement. Thus the Sufi Movement soon spread like wildfire over the whole Islamic scene. The Sufi teacher willingly makes use of theological statements, but his treatment and interpretation of them always goes beyond them, in what he considers to be the pure, spiritual sense.
