Glimpse of Tassawuf Sufism

Exposure

Direct Exposition of a spiritual theme is avoided in the holy scriptures of most religious. The glare of the sun is too strong and blinding to the watery eye. If one wishes to have a view even of its penumbra, one must colored glasses. Direct facts are misleading and confusing to the ordinary man ; esoteric writers and speaker have all along clothed realities in many-hued garbs, so that those who have eyes to see may see. Sri Krishna has not laid his truths in their sample nakedness. Jesus Christ has spoken in parables; he, even said that pearls should not be thrown before swines. Common people not realizing the drift of argument, go astray; it requires a certain amount of leaving in one's temperament to grasp facts; culture is not a correct word here to use, as that implies only intellectual ploughing and swing; leavening implies fermentation of feeling to the proper degree, in addition to training of the intellect. Not possessing this leavening, they either go astray or are led to make the confusion of the world worse confounded. Great teachers have therefore hit upon ceremonials as the basis on which training is fixed. These ceremonials are their shari'at or exoteric laws. Shari'at is from shar, the beaten-out path in the desert, which leads to a watering ghat. If you take this way, it leads you straight to the ghat, where the water of life is found- the haqiqat (truth) lies enveloped in this shari'at. To cut through the shell to get at the kernel of the truth is a laborious task. In the Quran itself, the verses are of two kinds- Ayat-i-bayyinat, plain verses; they are writ large, so that one that runs read, e.g the stories of the former prophets, laws about the division of property (ilm-i-farayid) commandments-positive and negative etc. Then there are Ayat-i-Mustashabihat ( verses involving doubt) : which can be interpreted in as many seven different ways.
These latter kind of verses have given rise to as many as 72 sects. They relate to essence and attributes of God, the mysteries of prophet ship- in fact to the Greater Mysteries of Islam ( Ilm-i- Darayaq).
Not only in the Quran are there such narratives, but Sufi writers have exposed their facts in the form of stories.
The Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi is full of stories; and moral is drawn only for those who have eyes to see; the lesser writers of mysteries- Shayakh Saadi, For example, also sometimes draw out their truths in the form of stories. While this form of exposition obscures the mental horizon of those who have no taste for the deeper truths of life, It becomes most palatable to those who are in for it.

"The Intoxication of this wine you do not relish, until you have tasted of it."