The role and impact of emotions on human nature in the Sufi path of spiritual self-realization

Abstract

The present article wants to describe some of the fundamental principles and modes concerning the path of spiritual self-realization as outlined by the authorities of Sufism within the Islamic tradition. It focuses on the individual and cosmological implications which, in the traditional Sufi world-view, are at the base of the concept of ‘universalization of the individual’ and investigates the role and relationship that develops and subsists between the accomplished master and his pupil during this process. The Sufi initiate undergoes not only a process of transformation, but of sublimation and refinement of his human dimension in an approach to the divine which, to many modern Muslims and non-Muslims, may appear as alien and provocative as it is challenging, since it relies on a wisdom and a vision more and more unfamiliar for those whose perception of Islam is increasingly defined by the ‘outer’, purely social and political dimension of Islam.