I

THREE ASPECTS OF THE WAY : DOCTRINE,
VIRTUE AND SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY

“ ("YPERATIVE” Sufism, like every way of contempla-

tion, and quite apart from its differentiation
according to various “paths,” includes three elements
or constituent aspects. These are: doctrine, spiritual
virtue and an art of concentration which we shall call,
using the expression of certain Sufis, “spiritual al-
chemy.””!

The assimilation of doctrinal truths is indispensable,
but of itself it does not bring about a transformation
of the soul, except in very exceptional cases in which
the soul is so well disposed for contemplation that even
a glimpse of the doctrine is enough to plunge it into
contemplation, even as a supersaturated solution may,
even under the very slightest shock, suddenly be trans-
muted into crystals. In itself doctrinal intelligence is
purely static; it may deliver the soul from certain
tensions but cannot truly transform it without the
concurrence of will, which represents the dynamic ele-
ment of the way. It may even quite easily come about
that intuition of metaphysical truths, first awakened by
study of doctrine, gets worn away little by little jn one

1. The most usual Arabic term is al-kimijva as-sa‘dah, the literal meaning

of which is * the alchemy of bliss *>. This term al-Ghazzali uses in a more
general and external sense than that which is intended here.