The doctrine of the Sufis, a sect of Mohammedan mystics; imported into Mohammedanism the idea that the soul is the subject of ecstasies of Divine inspiration in virtue of its direct emanation from the Deity, and this in the teeth of the fundamental article of the Mohammedan creed, which exalts God as a being passing all comprehension and ruling it by a law which is equally mysterious, which we have only to obey; this doctrine is associated with the idea that the body is the soul's prison, and death the return of it to its original home, a doctrine of the dervish fraternity, of which the Madhi is high-priest.
The Nuttall Encyclopædia: Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge[1] is a late 19th-century encyclopedia, edited by Rev. James Wood, first published in London in 1900 by Frederick Warne & Co Ltd.
WikipediaEditions were recorded for 1920, 1930, 1938 and 1956 and was still being sold in 1966. Editors included G. Elgie Christ and A. L. Hayden for 1930, Lawrence Hawkins Dawson for 1938 and C. M. Prior for 1956.[2]
Read More