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Editor's
Note is a quarterly column with inspirational words of wisdom from
the Editor-in-Chief of Sufism: An Inquiry, Shah
Nazar Seyed
Dr. Ali Kianfar.
Knowledge
is the Light God Pours
Into the Heart of whoever
He Desires
Editor's
Note
from Vol. 2, No. 2
Can
We Step Beyond Our
Limitations
Editor's
Note
from Vol. 9, No. 4
An
Essential Principle of Sufi Teaching
Editor's
Note
from Vol. 6, No. 3
Contact
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affiliated with the United Nations.
The
various articles presented
here represent the individual
views of their authors. SUFISM
does not imply any gender bias
by the use of feminine or
masculine terms, nouns
and/or pronouns.
©
Sufism Journal and the
International Association of
Sufism. All rights reserved.
TARIGHAT:
WAY by
Shah Nazar Seyed Ali Kianfar steps
back from the material world of sense perception, with all its limitations
of time and place, and is directed instead toward an inward search,
an inner quest to witness such understanding, then many similarities
in method emerge between very different religions and belief systems.
The
different systems of spirituality and religious belief have developed
an esoteric dimension to their approach to solve the question of
the Divine. They have crafted systems of an inner traveling as a
way to understanding the reality of Being. This esoteric dimension
reflects the dissatisfaction that conventional descriptive metaphysical
theories of religion engender. No matter how much one may theorize
from sense perception, no matter how carefully one may reason in
constructing abstract systems of metaphysics, the spark of life
remains elsewhere, for it is only to be found within. Typically,
the esoteric dimension of religions has focused their search towards
the practice of the ways of understanding, rather than reading and
talking about them. As
history progressed, civilizations developed, and theories and practices
found their chapter in the book of humanity; many of these practices
and teachings of the inner journey of the schools of spirituality
and faith found their rightful place in the book of cultures. Many
such systems emerged as a reaction towards the immorality of social
conditions and the degradation of the established forms of religions.
They arose in rebellion against the leaders' fascination and desire
for wealth and unlimited personal power, and in revolt over the
cultures of self-indulgence that brought such leaders to the fore.
This may be one of the reasons why most inner schools of religions
have focused on piety, virtue, compassion, abandonment of the world,
and freeing one's self from the temptations of the world. But
merely to rebel against the world and turn inward is not enough.
It may reveal spiritual advances, and it will bring a certain measure
of inner freedom to the individual; but mere introspection cannot
discover the truth of religion, any more than meditation on nothing
can lead to the understanding of Being. Those
who search to find a way towards understanding the meaning of the
Divine have developed their own way, their own tarighat, as the
way towards the Divine. Their conceptions of the Divine differ.
Yet it is of no surprise that many religions and belief systems
focusing on inner traveling as a key to understanding God have found
a degree of common ground; for example, in monotheism, the realization
of the wholeness of Being . . . To
read the rest of this article,
From
Vol. 8, No. 2
The
search for an answer to solve the mystery of God and to understand
the relationship between the human being and God has an ancient
history. Every culture and every era has searched for answers, according
to its scope of understanding and its fund of knowledge. The diversity
of the world's peoples and cultures has colored the results of this
search, and as a result many different answers have been proposed.
But when the human search for the Divine and its understanding
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