I would say that, within Sufism, there are multiple tendencies, just as there are within Hinduism. Many Sufi practices and teachings are very much akin to Bhakti, particularly as many Sufi writers emphasized love and often used love between humans as a metaphor for love of God.
In addition, many Sufis speak of the Wahdat al-Wajud, the Unity of Being, which means that there is no true existence except the Ultimate Truth (God). Thus, all things only exist within God. This is illustrated in the Sufi interpretation of 'La ilaha il allah" (No God but God). The "No God" is the negation of all that is not The One, and "But God" is the affirmation of the One Reality. Is this not reminiscent of the Upanishads, which declare that all is Brahman? The Advaita position that only Brahman truly exists is echoed by all the Sufis who say that only God exists (thus, in Sufism, God is often seen in a similar way to the way that Advaita sees Brahman).
In one famous case, the Sufi teacher Mansur al-Hallaj famously declared "I am The Truth" (which in Islam carries the connotation of "I am God"), and was arrested, tried, and imprisoned for 11 years before being executed for heresy. This illustrates the point that, just as with Christian mystics, realization of unity with God often took Sufis into conflict with established religious authorities because they seemed to be contradicting official religious dogma. One Sufi writer later remarked "What should he have said, 'I am Falsehood'?"
The great Sufi poet and mystic Rumi addressed the significance of Hallaj's statement three centuries later:
Thus, many Sufis are non-dualists because they deny the existence of two beings, affirming only God's existence. Many Sufis speak of this in terms of realizing one's nothingness or "naughting oneself" before God, the One Reality.People imagine that it is a presumptive claim, whereas it is really a presumptive claim to say "I am the slave of God"; and "I am God" is an expression of great humility. The man who says "I am the slave of God" affirms two existences, his own and God's, but he that says "I am God" has made himself non-existent and has given himself up and says "I am God," that is, "I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God's." This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement.
Ibn 'Arabi, one of the greatest of Sufi mystics, wrote that 'The self is an ocean without a shore. There is no end to the contemplation of it in this world or the next'.
Bayazid Bastami (another great Sufi master), when asked how Islam viewed other religions, replied that "All are vehicles and a path to God's Divine Presence."
I have great respect for Sufism, and have felt myself drawn to the writings of Sufis, including their beautiful poetry. The only reason I would not become a Sufi is that many Sufi orders require conversion to Islam, and I am very much averse to any kind of dogma. However, some Sufi orders do not require conversion, so there would be no assumption of dogma in that case.
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