Sufism

             This central belief of Sufism solves a grievance with Islamic thinking, e.g., how can one worship something without knowing it? A popular Sufi teaching emphasizes an adherence to a five-fold path to actualize a relationship with Allah, 1) Search Allah, 2) Reach Allah, 3) Love Allah, 4) Live with Allah, 5) Sacrifice yourself to Allah. Following this path is closely knit to a traditional Islamic practice, with its difference arising in the first two steps. Sufi teaching states that unless Allah is searched, he can not be reached, and without reaching for Allah it is impossible to love him. Islam does not necessarily perpetuate that Allah is a fearful divine figure, but rather that He should be blindly loved. Sufism is an expansion of Islam's divine submission, involving an enlightened inner being, though not intellectual proof, revelations, witnessing, and logic. Through mystic and spiritual experience, Sufism stresses transcending earthly means of divine relation to reach a way of being that culminates in the actualization of the attributes of God. By communicating with something, one must be able to perceive its existence, and subsequently its wholeness and unique perspective. In the context of Sufism, this means that by communicating with God one somewhat attains His perspective, and subsequently arrives at their own divine ascension. By realizing the viewpoint of someone else, one loses part of him/herself in the process. Sufi's believe that through understanding God's perspective, one loses a part of themself, God becoming a part of that person in the place of what was lost. .
             Expanding upon the movement of Sufi philosophy is best described through the spiritual passage that its followers are motivated to undertake. The path taken begins with begins with one accepting sorrow as an intrinsic component of existence, then adhering to strict practices of abstinence and meditation to remedy this unhappiness.