These may seem startling words for a future ayatollah. But to those familiar with the principles of Sufism, Islam’s other major religious branch, they are not at all unfamiliar. For Sufis, Islam is neither law nor theology, neither creed nor ritual. Islam, according to Sufism, is merely the means through which the believer can destroy his ego so as

... See more

The Sufi Gnostics, or knowers of truth, developed doctrines similar to ally work. In some of their schools, they taught that a person could have direct perception of the angelic beings who run the universe, which has three major results. It connects the individual directly with the ruling forces of the universe and establishes, at least

... See more

Attar was a Sufi master who developed through his poetry and teachings the concept of “spiritual alchemy,” in which the soul was treated like a transmutable base metal that must be rid of impurities before it can be restored to its original, pristine—one could say golden—state. Like most Sufis, Attar considered all souls to be receptacles for God’s

... See more