214 No god but God
In traditional Western philosophy this concept of radical unity is
often called monism: the notion that all things, despite their variety,
can be reduced to a single unified “thing” in either space, time,
essence, or quality. However, it is perhaps more appropriate to refer to
the Sufi ideal of radical unity as ahadiyyah, or “oneness,” to emphasize
the theistic quality of this monistic ideal: al-Ahad being the first and
most important of God’s ninety-nine beautiful names.
It is precisely this theistic monism that leads Sufis to reject tradi-
tional dualities, not because they eschew morally correct behavior, but
because they accept only “the Existence of Oneness”: that is, Divine
Unity. Admittedly, this concept has led to a great deal of confusion
about the true teachings of Sufism, especially in light of the actions of
the so-called Drunken Sufis who blatantly violated Islamic law by
publicly drinking, gambling, and womanizing as a means of overcom-
ing the external aspects of religion. The nonexistence of traditional
dualities is, however, usually demonstrated through metaphor. And
the most common metaphor for doing so is that of drunkenness and
debauchery, both of which have become dominant symbols in Sufi
poetry for this self-annihilating and intoxicating love.
“I will take one hundred barrels of wine tonight,” wrote Omar
Khayyám in his superb Rubáiyát. “I will leave all reason and religion
behind, and take the maidenhead of wine for mine.” Khayyám’s wine
is spiritual wine—it represents “the grace of the Lord of the World”—
and the Sufi is he who has rejected the traditional ideals of religious
piety and moral behavior, who has fled “reason and the tangled web of
the intellect,” in order to fill the cup of his heart with the intoxicating
wine of God’s love. So says Hafiz: “Piety and moral goodness have
naught to do with ecstasy; stain your prayer rug with wine!”
Once the veil of traditional dualities has been lifted, the ego oblit-
erated, and the ruh allowed to absorb the qalb, the disciple finally
achieves fana, which, as mentioned, is best translated as “ecstatic self-
annihilation.” It is here, at the end of the Way, that the truth of the
Divine Unity of all creation is revealed and the Sufi realizes that, in
the words of Shah Angha, “the brook, the river, the drop, the sea, the
bubble, all in one voice say: Water we are, water.”
By discarding his own qualities and attributes through a radical
act of self-annihilation, the Sufi enters fully into the qualities and