Shams-i-Tabriz, the Shiva of Persia, was flayed alive by the people because he had been accused of declaring that the Godhead existed in his mortal body. From his decayed flesh small vermin grew and waxed larger and larger as they devoured it and he, when while walking saw any of them fall from him would pick them up and place them again upon his body saying, “Your food has been created in this.”
From past times until the present Sufis have shown great renunciation in their lives. Now most of them are as Jains or Brahmins, leading a most harmless life.
The Sufi is Muslim without any doubt, not only because many Muslims turn out to be Sufis or because of the use of Muslim phraseology, but because one proves in one’s life what a true Muslim is and what the heart of the true Muslim ought to be. Muslims as a race have so much devotion that no matter how great a sinner or how cruel a person may be, the name of Allah or Mohammed at once reduces them to tears. Islam prepares one to become a Sufi. The practices of Sufism first develop the heart qualities which are often overlooked by other mystics. It is the purification of the heart which makes it fitted for the illumination from the soul. The Prophet Mohammed prophesied, “There will be seventy-two diverse classes of people among those who will walk in my light, but among them there will be only one kind who will surely find their way aright.” This is applied to the Sufis because it is they who read the Qur’an from every experience in life, and see and recognize Mohammed’s face in each atom of the manifestation.
The Sufi is a Buddhist for one reasons at every step one takes as one proceeds in one’s spiritual journey. The teachings of the Sufis are much akin to those of the Buddhists. In fact it is the Sufi who unites the believers and the unbelievers in the idea of God, in the knowledge of unity. The Sufi, as a Zoroastrian or a Parsi, looks toward the sun, and bows before the air, fire, water, and earth, recognizing the immanence of God in God’s manifestation, taking the sun, moon, and stars as the signs of God. The Sufi interprets fire as the symbol of wisdom and the sun as the celestial light. The Sufi not only bows before them but also absorbs their quality. As a rule, in the presence of dervishes, a wood fire and incense burn continually. The Sufi is an Israelite especially in the study of the different names of God and the mastery of them. At the same time the miraculous powers of Moses can be seen in the lives of Sufis past and present. The Sufi, in fact, is the master of Hebrew mysticism. The divine voice heard on Mount Sinai is audible to a Sufi today.
