One of the most difficult questions touching the manifestation of Sufism in Islamic history is its relation with Shi'ism. In discussing this intricate and somewhat complex relationship, in principle and essence or in the light of its ************historical reality as well as in time and history, we need hardly concern ourselves with the too-often repeated criticism made by certain orientalists who would doubt the Islamic and Quranic character of both Shi'ism and Sufism. Basing themselves on an a priori assumption that Islam is not a revelation and that even if it ranks as a religion, it is only an elementary 'religion of the sword' intended for a simple desert people, these would-be critics brush aside as un-Islamic all that speaks of gnosis ('irfan) and esotericism, pointing to the lack of historical texts in the early period as proof of their thesis -as if the non-existent in itself could disprove the existence of something which may have been there without leaving a written trace for us to dissect and analyse today. The reality of Shi'sm and Sufism as integral aspects of the Islamic revelation is too dazzlingly clear to be ignored or explained away on the basis of a tendentious historical argument. The fruit is there to prove that the tree has its roots in a soil that nurishes it; and the spiritual fruit can only be borne by a tree whose roots are sunk in a revealed truth.

continued ... Insha'Allah

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