Oriental Mysticism: Part I: Chapter V. Concerning Attraction and Devotion
CHAPTER V.
CONCERNING ATTRACTION AND DEVOTION.
THE Sufis hold that there are three aids necessary to conduct the Traveller on his path.
1. Attraction; 2. Devotion; 3. Elevation.
Attraction is the act of God, who draws man towards Himself. Man sets his face towards this world, and is entangled in the love of wealth and dignity, until the grace of God steps in and turns his heart towards God. The tendency proceeding from God is called Attraction; that which proceeds from man is called Inclination, Desire and Love. As the inclination increases, its name changes, and it causes the Traveller to renounce everything else becoming a Kiblah, to set his face towards God; when it has become his Kiblah, and made him forget everything but God, it is developed into Love.
Most men when they have attained this stage are content to pass their lives therein, and leave the world without making further progress. Such a person the Sufis call Attracted (
)
Others, however, proceed from this to self-examination, and pass the rest of their lives in devotion. They are then called Devoutly Attracted (
). If devotion be first practised, and the attraction of God then step in, such a person is called an Attracted Devotee (
). If he practise and complete devotion, but is not
influenced by the attraction of God, he is called a Devotee (
).
Sheikh Sheháb-uddín 1, in his work entitled ’Awárif al Ma’árif, says that an elder or teacher should be selected from the second class alone; for although many may be estimable and righteous, it is but few who are fit for such offices, or for the education of disciples 2.
Devotion is the prosecution of the journey, and that in two ways, to God and in God. The first, the Sufis say, has a limit; the second is boundless; the journey to God is completed when the Traveller has attained to the knowledge of God; and then commences the journey in God, which has for its object the knowledge of the Nature and Attributes of God; a task which they confess is not to be accomplished in so short a space as the lifetime of man.
The knowledge wisest men have shared
Of Thy great power and Thee
Is less, when with Thyself compared,
Than one drop in a sea.
Of Thy great power and Thee
Is less, when with Thyself compared,
Than one drop in a sea.
The Unitarians maintain that the journey to God is completed when the Traveller has acknowledged that there is no existence save that of God; the journey in God they explain to be a subsequent inquiry into the mysteries of nature.
The term Elevation or ascent (
) is almost synonymous with Progress, and will be explained in that part of the work which treats of the study of Man.
Footnotes
20:1 Shiháb-ud-dín Abu Hafs Omar bin Mohammed bin Abdallah, Soharawerdí, died A.D. 1106. See Hajji Khalfa, Vol. IV. p. 275.
20:2
muríd is properly one who possesses the Inclination
before mentioned.