SUFISM AND MYSTICISM 13

transmission from one master to another. So Tasawwuf
could only be translated as “mysticism” on condition
that the latter term was explicitly given its strict mean-
ing, which is also its original meaning. If the word
were understood in that sense it would clearly be legiti- |
mate to compare Sufis to true Christian mystics. All/
the same a shade of meaning enters here which, while
it does not touch the meaning of the word “mysticism”
taken by itself, explains why it does not seem satis-
factory in all its contexts to transpose it into Sufism.
Christian contemplatives, and especially those who came
after the Middle Ages, are indeed related to those Mus-
lim contemplatives who followed the way of spiritual
love (al-mahabbah), the bhakti marga of Hinduism,
but only very rarely are they related to those Eastern
contemplatives who were of a purely intellectual order,
such as Ibn ‘Arabi or, in the Hindu world, Shri Shan-
karacharya.! Now spiritual love is in a sense inter-
mediate between glowing devotion and knowledge ;
moreover, the language of the bhakta projects, even into
the realm of final union, the polarity from which love
springs. This is no doubt one reason why, in the
Christian world, the distinction between true mysticism
and purely religious “mysticism™ is not always clearly
marked, whereas in the world of Islam esotericism
always involves a metaphysical view of things—even
in its bhaktic forms—and is thus clearly separated from

1. There is in this fact nothing implying any superiority of one tradition
over another ; it shows only tendencies which are conditioned by the genius and
temperament of the peoples concerned. Because of this bhaktic character of
Christian mysticism some orientalists have found it pos ible to assert that
Ton ‘Arabi was ““not a real mystic.”’