These are the words of the greatest authority among the Sufis, the famous Maulana Jelal-ud-din Rumi, founder of the order of the Maulavi Darwishes. He also relates the following story: "One knocked at the door of the beloved, and a voice from within said: 'Who is there?' Then he answered, '_It is I._' The voice replied, 'This house will not hold _me_ and _thee_!' So the door remained shut. The lover retired to a wilderness, and spent some time in solitude, fasting, and prayer. One year elapsed, when he again returned, and knocked at the door. 'Who is there?' said the voice. The lover answered, '_It is thou._' Then the door was opened." The great object of life, then, being to escape from the hindrances to pure love and to a return to the divine essence, the Talib, or seeker, attaches himself to a Murshid, or teacher. If he prosecutes his studies according to Sufiistic methods he now often enters one of the many orders of Darwishes. After due preparation under his Murshid, he is allowed to enter on the road. He then becomes a Salik, or traveller, whose business henceforth is suluk that is, devotion to one idea--the knowledge of God. In this road there are eight stages. (1) Service. Here he must serve God and obey the Law for he is still in bondage. (2) Love. It is supposed that now the Divine influence has so attracted his soul that he really loves God. (3) Seclusion. Love having expelled all worldly desires, he arrives at this stage, and passes his time in meditation on the deeper doctrines {93} of Sufiism regarding the Divine nature. (4) Knowledge. The meditation in the preceding stage, and the investigation of the metaphysical theories concerning God, His nature, His attributes and the like make him an 'Arif--one who knows. (5) Ecstasy. The mental excitement caused by such continued meditation on abstruse subjects produces a kind of frenzy, which is looked upon as a mark of direct illumination of the heart from God. It is known as Hal--the state; or Wajd--ecstasy. Arrival at this stage is highly valued, for it is the certain entrance to the next. (6) Haqiqat--the Truth. Now to the traveller is revealed the true nature of God, now he learns the reality of that which he has been for so long seeking. This admits him to the highest stage in his journey, as far as this life is concerned. (7) That stage is Wasl--union with God. "There was a door to which I found no key; There was a veil past which I could not see: Some little talk of Me and Thee There seemed--and then no more of Thee and Me."