Lawaih

The Lawaih is a treatise on Sufi theology or theosophy, as distinguished from the religious emotions experienced by all Sufis, learned and unlearned alike. Authorities have drawn this distinction between ‘experimental’ and ‘doctrinal’ mysticism, and it is a great help towards clear thinking on this subject. The religious emotion common to all mankind is, so to speak, raised to its nth power in the mystics. They are overwhelmed by the sense of the Divine omnipresence, and of their own dependence on God. They are dominated and intoxicated by their vivid sense of the close relation subsisting between the soul and God. They conceive themselves as being in touch with God, feeling His motions in their souls, and at times rising to direct vision of Him by the ‘ inner light ‘ vouchsafed to them. These religious experiences were the material out of which the doctrinal reasoned system, set out in treatises like the Lawaih, was built up. The title of the book, Lawaih, or ‘Flashes of Light,’ suggests the philosophy employed to systematize and give a reasoned basis for the unreasoned ‘ experiences of unlearned Sufis. It of course refers to the ‘inner light.’