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34 AN INTRODUCTION TO SUFI DOCTRINE

Sufi doctrine includes several branches in which two
chief domains can be distinguished, that of Universal
Truths (al-Haqa’ig) and that which relates to human and
individual stages of the way (ad-daq@’iq) or, in other
words, metaphysic and a “science of the soul””’. Need-
less to say these domains are not separated into water-
tight compartments. Metaphysic includes everything,
but in Sufism it is always envisaged according to points
of view connected with spiritual realisation. The cos-
mology is derived from metaphysic and applied at the
same time to the macrocosm and to the microcosm, so
that there is a psychology of cosmic amplitude just as
there is a cosmology built up on analogy with the inner
constitution of man.

In order to put this quite clearly it is necessary to
insist at some length on this relationship. Apart from
the two domains of al-Haga’iq and ad-daqa’iq already
mentioned three chief domains of doctrine can be distin-
guished—metaphysic, cosmology and spiritual psycho-
logy. This distinction corresponds to the triad: “God,
the world (or the macrocosm) and the soul (or micro-
cosm).”’ Inits turn cosmology can be conceived either
by applying metaphysical principles to the cosmos—and
this is the contemplation of God in the world—or by
drawing an analogy between the cosmos and the human
soul. Moreover in its complete development cosmology
necessarily includes the cosmic reality of the soul, while
no spiritual psychology can cut off the soul from cosmic
principles. In the fabric of the cosmes there is no
radical break ... In its own fashion discontinuity does