A Critical Review of Religious Doctrines of the Eminent Mystic Sheikhs

Division and separation of the doctrines of religion and religious law, in its general sense, by the Muslim mystics, and the distinction followed by that between the jurisdiction of the authorities of each one of these areas can be regarded as among the common esoteric and wayfaring doctrines of Muslim mystics. This group have not only organized the religious doctrines according to such a division, but they have based levels of mystical wayfaring on it as well and based the layers of religion and religiosity on the outward (ẓāhir) and inward (bāṭin), and the inward and inward aspects, and in other words, religious law (shari‘at), esoteric path (ṭarīqat), and esoteric truth (ḥaqīqat).
This division is clearly noticed in Sufi doctrines and is, of course, considered as one of the significant grounds and factors for the sensitivity and opposition of religious Islamic jurists toward Sufism. As for the relation between mysticism and Sufism and the status of religion, religious doctrines, teachings of religious law, and the type of Sufi functions, there are different discourses and topics are being discussed about. While elucidating the status of shari‘at, ṭarīqat, and ḥaqīqat with the Muslim mystics and reporting the specific perspectives of the Islamic Sufism toward these topics, the present writing is intended to examine the relation of each of these notions and the inward and outward status of religious doctrines with each other and to explain the specific perspectives of the eminent Muslim mystics.