An Introduction Who was Rumi? Sufism and Islam God and the World Universal Man The Fall The Trust Union with God The Nafs Knowledge and Method The Limitations of Rational Knowledge

slide 3 of 11 “Love is that flame which, when it blazes up, consumes everything else but the Beloved.” —Rumi “Sufism is the most universal manifestation of the inner dimension of Islam; it is the way by which man transcends his own individual self and reaches God. It provides within the forms of the Islamic revelation the means for an intense spiritual life directed towards the transformation of man’s being and the attainment of the spiritual virtues; ultimately it leads to the vision of God. It is for this reason that many Sufis define Sufism by the saying of the Prophet of Islam concerning spiritual virtue (ihsan): ‘It is that thou shouldst worship God as if thou sawest Him, for if thou seest Him not, verily He seeth thee.’”