Lawaih : A Treatise on Sufism

The Lawaih is a treatise on Sufi theology or theosophy, as distinguished from the religious emotions experienced by all Sufis, learned and unlearned alike. Catholic authorities have drawn this distinction between experimental and doctrinal mysticism and it is a great help towards clear thinking on this subject. The religious emotion common to all mankind is, so to speak, raised to its nth power in the mystics. They are overwhelmed by the sense of the Divine omnipresence, and of their own dependence on God. Hey are dominated and intoxicated by their vivid sense of the close relation subsisting between the soul and God. They conceive themselves as being in touch with God, feeling His motions in their souls, and at times rising to direct vision of Him by the ‘inner light’ vouchsafed to them. These religious experiences were the rough material out of which the doctrinal reasoned system, set out in treatises like the Lawaih, was built up. Psychologists have advanced various theories as to the genesis of these experiences. With these we are not at present concerned. But as to the origin of the philosophical ideas and terms employed in the Lawaih and similar works to formulate the Sufi theology, there can be little doubt. The source of Sufi theology was Neoplatonism.