Shariah and Sufism L. Ali Khan
Sufism without the knowledge of Shariah is misguided. Sufism anchored in the knowledge of Shariah fuses experiences of spirituality with the knowledge of law. Islamic divine texts recognize the difference between knowledge and experience, a fundamental pair necessary to understand Sufism. While knowledge without experience is plausible, experience without knowledge is perilous. Albert Einstein’s pronouncement that “the only source of knowledge is experience” is a mystical utterance, which justifiably emphasizes the value of experience to the enterprise of knowledge.**
