_Abu-Said-Abul-Chair_, the accredited founder of Sufism, when asked what Sufism was, answered: “What you have in the head, give it up; what you have in the hand, throw it away; whatever may meet you, depart not from it.” _Dschuneid_, a Sufi Shaikh, thus defined Sufism: “To liberate the mind from the violence of the passions, to put off nature’s claims, to extirpate human nature, to repress the sensual instinct, to acquire spiritual qualities, to be elevated through an understanding of wisdom, and to practice that which is good—that is the aim of Sufism.” _Abul Hussein Nuri_ thus expressed himself: “Sufism is neither precept nor doctrine, but something _inborn_. If it were a precept, it could be followed; if it were a doctrine, it could be learned; it is rather something inborn—and as the Quran says: ‘Ye are _created_ in the image of God.’ Evidently no one can, either by application or by teaching, possess himself of the likeness of God.” SUFI DOCTRINES. DEITY. _The Deity alone_ IS _and permeates all things. All visible and invisible things are an emanation from Deity, and are not absolutely distinct from it._ One sect “the Unionists,” believe that God is as one with every enlightened being. They compare the Almighty to a flame, and their souls to charcoal; and say, that in the same manner that charcoal when it meets flame, becomes flame, the immortal part, from its union with God becomes God. According to the Dabistan, the presence of the universal Deity is fivefold. The first is the presence of “the absolute mystery.” The absolute mystery is one with “the invariable prototypes” (or realities of things). The second is the presence of “the relative mystery,” and this belongs to pure intellects and spirits. The third is the presence of “the mysterious relation,” which is nearest to the absolute evidence; this is the world of similitude or dream. The fourth is the presence of the “absolute evidence” which reaches from the centre of the earth to the middle of the ninth empyrean heaven. The fifth is “the presence of the rest,” and this is the universe in an extensive, and mankind in a restricted acceptation.