by Don Steiny

In the summer of 1985, Usenet's net.religion newsgroup hosted an extended discussion of Islam sparked by the rise of political Islam in the news. Don Steiny, a software developer in Santa Cruz, California, had been making the case that Western audiences were too quick to judge Islam by its most extreme expressions. This post — written after his own recent study of Sufism — became a landmark contribution: a practitioner-level introduction to the Islamic mystical tradition, drawing on Idries Shah's "The Way of the Sufi" (1968). Steiny's discovery of Sufism's cross-cultural sophistication — its resonances with Lao Tzu, William James, and Zen — visibly astonishes him as he writes.

Sufism (Arabic: تصوف, taṣawwuf) is the inner, mystical dimension of Islam, emphasizing direct personal experience of the divine through devotional practice, poetry, and the relationship between master and student. The tradition reached its classical flowering in 12th- and 13th-century Persia, with figures like al-Ghazali, Rumi, and Attar. By the time this post was written, Sufism was little-known in American popular culture — making Steiny's enthusiastic and informed introduction a small act of intercultural bridge-building on the early internet.

"People oppose things because they are ignorant of them."

— Imam el-Ghazali, 12th Century Islamic mystic

I am happy to report that 100% of the mail I have received about my pleas for tolerance and understanding of Islam have supported this position. I suggested in one posting that it might be worthwhile to try to understand Islam before making statements about it. I pointed out that it is a well developed world religion, and that there are a variety of practices and beliefs that all are Islamic. I pointed out that the Shiites and the Sunnites have had wars with each other, so one cannot necessarily quote a Shiite like Khomeini to form opinions about the Sunnites. I pointed out that even within the Shiites, there must be considerable diversity, because the Sufis originated in Persia from the Shiite branch of Islam. It was whole heartedly adopted by the Sunnites too.

My knowledge of the Sufi was kind of fuzzy, because in the books I have read on Islam, Persia, or India (where modern day Sufis live), they have not been covered too thoroughly. Following my own advice, I have been reading about the Sufi. Sufi are Moslem mystics, and they have had an important influence on the social and moral fabric of Islam. The Sufi master I quote at the beginning of this article, Ghazali, was a Persian. In the 12th century the ideas introduced into the Arab world from the Greek civilization were challenging the Islamic world view. Ghazali's thinking allowed Islamic thought to prevail, and it is part of the fundamental structure of modern day Islam. The Sufi are not heretics in any way. Their ideas are considered completely compatible with mainstream Islam. Further, Sufi influence has extended into India and has had considerable influence on some modern day Hindu practices.

I am stunned to the highest degree by the Sufi. Their beliefs are so compatible with contemporary thought that it is like a mystical revelation to just find out about their beliefs. It confronted me with assumptions that I did not even know I had, and showed me plainly that the world is far more rich than I will ever know.

The quote at the beginning is by one of the most well-known and important Sufi. It shocked me, because it was exactly that assumption that got me started reading about Islam in the first place. I was concerned about how easy it was for me to form a negative impression of Islam, a religion practiced by 500,000,000 people, when the amount I really knew about it could fit in a thimble. Was I simply opposing Islam because I was ignorant about it?

The Sufi have beliefs that are startling.

"Over seven hundred years ago, Ibn el-Arabi stated that thinking man was forty thousand years old . . ."

— The Way of the Sufi, Idries Shah, p. 23

Shah says that the Sufi believe in gradual evolution, and believe that human beings are also evolving. The Sufi "Way" is an evolutionary path, where people can evolve into higher beings. There are several poems that put people on an evolutionary path, from mineral to plant to animal to human to beyond. The Sufi attach considerable importance to conditioning and believe that we are conditioned into accepting opinions as fact. Whatever the true knowledge of a Sufi master is, it does not seem to be governed by conditioning as the rest of us are. Many of the Sufi masters say things that bear an uncanny resemblance to Lao Tzu, the great Taoist. If you can talk about it it is not the Way. Sufi masters teach by allegory, exercises, and demonstration.

The Sufi are masters at identifying and creating "states." These mental states remind me of the work of William James or Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Hypnosis is a special "state."

Much of the written Sufi wisdom is in the form of aphorisms, like much of Nietzsche's writing, Ludwig Wittgenstein's writing, Zen koans, parables, and other familiar styles.

I will type in several of these items, and I hope you will take the time to amaze yourself as you recall that rather than being unusual, these writings reflect some of the most fundamental principles of the social and moral fabric of much of the Islamic world.

I hope that these few items by Sufi masters add to the impression that one cannot judge Islam by the likes of Khomeini.

Now I am called the shepherd of the desert gazelles,
Now a Christian monk,
Now a Zoroastrian.
The beloved is three, yet One;
Just as the three are in reality one.

— Mohiudin ibn el-Arabi (died 13th century)

[This poem makes a strong case for a pantheist viewpoint in some parts of Islam.]

Cross and Christian, end to end, I examined. He was not on the Cross. I went to the Hindu temple, to the ancient pagoda. In none of them was there any sign. To the uplands of Herat I went, and to Kandahar. I looked. He was not in the heights or the lowlands. Resolutely, I went to the summit of the mountains of Kaf. There was only the dwelling of the Anqa bird. I went to Kaaba of Mecca. He was not there. I asked about him from Avicenna the philosopher. He was beyond the range of Avicenna . . . I looked into my own heart. In that, his place, I saw him. He was in no other place.

— Jalaludin Rumi (The Way of the Sufi, p. 102)

One day a penurious old man went to see Fazl-Rabbi to discuss some matter or other.

Because of weakness and nervousness, this ancient stuck the iron point of his walking-stick to wound Fazl-Rabbi's foot.

Listening courteously to what the old man had to say, Fazl-Rabbi said no word, although he went pale and then flushed, from the pain of the wound and the iron, for it stayed lodged in his foot.

Then, when the other had finished his business, he took a paper from him and put his signature to it.

When the old man had gone, delighted that he had been successful in his application, Fazl-Rabbi allowed himself to collapse.

One of the attendant nobles said: "My lord, you sat there with blood pouring from your foot, with that old man in his dotage piercing it with his iron-tipped staff, and you said nothing, nothing at all."

Fazl-Rabbi answered: "I made no sign of pain because I feared that the old man's distress might cause him to withdraw in confusion, and that he might abandon his application for my help. Poor as he was, how could I add to his troubles in that manner?"

Be a real man: learn nobility of that action, like that of Fazl-Rabbi.

— Attar of Nishapur (died at the hands of the Mongol invaders, 13th century) (The Way of the Sufi, p. 63)

A raindrop, dripping from a cloud,
Was ashamed when he saw the sea.
"Who am I where there is a sea?"
When it saw itself with the eye of humility,
A shell nurtured it in its embrace.

— Saadi of Shiraz (The Way of the Sufi, p. 83)

Ordinary human love is capable of raising man to experience of real love.

— Hakim Jami (1414–1492) (The Way of the Sufi, p. 95)

Love becomes perfect only when it transcends itself —
Becoming One with its object;
Producing Unity of Being.

— Hakim Jami (1414–1492) (The Way of the Sufi, p. 95)

The jackal thinks that he has feasted well, when he has in fact only eaten the leavings of the lion.

I transmit the science of producing "states." This, used alone, causes damage. He who uses it only will become famous, even powerful. He will lead men to worship "states," until they will be unable to return to the Sufi Path.

— Abdul-Qadir of Gilan (The Way of the Sufi, p. 128)

Colophon

Written by Don Steiny of Don Steiny Software, Santa Cruz, California, and posted to the Usenet newsgroup net.religion on August 17, 1985. Sufi poems and aphorisms quoted from The Way of the Sufi by Idries Shah (Jonathan Cape, 1968), with attribution as in the original post. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

The post was part of an extended discussion of Islamic pluralism on the early internet, at a time when Sufism was barely known to Western popular audiences. Steiny's encounter with Sufism — mediated through Shah's anthology — became a small bridge between the academic study of Islam and the curious generalist reader on Usenet.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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