8 AN INTRODUCTION TO SUFI DOCTRINE

the monotheism of Abraham. In a certain sense Chris-
tian dogmas, which can be all reduced to the dogma of the
two natures of Christ, the divine and the human, sum up
in an “historical” form all that Sufism teaches on
union with God. Moreover Sufis hold that the Lord
Jesus (Seyidna ‘Issa) is of all the Divine Envoys (rusil)
the most perfect type of contemplative saint. To offer
the left cheek to him who smites one on the right is true
spiritual detachment ; it is a voluntary withdrawal from
the interplay of cosmic actions and reactions.

It is none the less true that for Sufis the person of
Christ does not stand in the same perspective as it does
for Christians. Despite many likenesses the Sufi way
differs greatly from the way of Christian contemplatives.
We may here refer to the picture in which the different
traditional ways are depicted as the radii of a circle
which are united only at one single point. The nearer
the radii are to the centre the nearer they are to one
another; none the less they coincide only at the centre
where they cease to be radii. It is clear that this
distinction of one way from another does not prevent the
intellect from placing itself by an intuitive anticipation
at the centre where all ways converge.

To make the inner constitution of Sufism quite
clear -it should be added that it always includes as
indipensables elements, first, a doctrine, secondly, an
initiation and, thirdly, a spiritual method. The doctrine
is as it were a symbolical prefiguring of the knowledge
to be attained ; it is also, in its manifestation, a fruit of
that knowledge. The quintessence of Sufi doctrine comes