ABSTRACT
t he concrete content—and thus the origin—of Islamic spirituality is the spiritual Substance of the Prophet, this Substance whose modalities such Sufi authorities as al-Qushayrī and Ibn al-ʿArīf have tried to catalog by means of the notion of “stations” (maqāmāt). Sufism is the realization of Union, not only by starting from the idea of Unity that is both transcendent and immanent but also, and correlatively, by reintegration into the Muḥammadan Substance that is hidden and yet ever present—and this whether accomplished directly or indirectly or in both manners at once. This means that the mystical “traveler” (sālik) may “follow the example of the Prophet” in a way that is either formal or formless, hence indirect or direct. For the Sunnah is not just the multitude of precepts; it is also the “Muḥammadan Substance” 1 —of which these precepts are the reflections at various levels—which coincides with the mystery of the “immanent Prophet.” The intrinsic qualities are in principle or in themselves independent of outward comportment, whereas the whole reason for the existence of the latter lies in the former, somewhat as, according to the Shaykh al-ʿAlawī, 2 the sufficient reason of the rites is the remembrance of God, which contains all rites in an undifferentiated synthesis.
