Tim’s Reviews > Understanding Islam > Status Update

The Sufi, following the example of the Prophet, wants neither "to be God" nor "to be other than God"; and this is not unconnected with all that has been said above and with the distinction between "extinction" (fana) and "permanence" (baqa). There is no extinction in God without universal charity and there is no permanence in Him without that supreme poverty which is submission to the origin.

At death all assurance and all cleverness fall away like a garment and the being who remains is impotent and like a lost child; nothing is left but a substance we have ourselves woven which may either fall heavily or on the contrary let itself be drawn up by Heaven like a rising star.

Not an introduction to Islam. The author states that he assumes some doctrinal basics, and the book thus far is an attempt to integrate Islam within a higher metaphysical symbolism as it relates to the ONE, and also to compare it to other traditions incorporating the Perennialist school/philosophy.

"Like the world, the Qur'an is at the same time one and multiple. The world is a multiplicity which disperses and divides; the Qur'an is a multiplicity which draws together and leads to Unity."