Sufism is comparable to the mystical aspects of most other religions

TOPICS: Most religions crystallize into two factions – the outer word and the Living Word – some people need the outer path for a time – mysticism has a mixture of true and false revelation – must dare to strive for discernment – Islam does not live up to its highest potential – no branch is entirely pure – Muslims have divided themselves –  Shia and Sunny are man-made divisions – can the old religions be renewed? 


Question: In Islam Mohammad gave the outer teaching through the Koran. Did Ali, Mohammad’s cousin, give the inner teaching to the Koran? And what is the source of Sufism in Islam?

Answer from ascended master Jesus through Kim Michaels: (December 30, 2007)

Sufism is comparable to the mystical aspects of most other religions. Where in any religion on earth that gains a certain amount of followers, you see sort of a crystallization into two basic movements. One that is more attached to the outer path – the outer words, the outer scriptures, the outer rules and regulations – and one that follows the inner path, which is often based on some source of direct revelation from above.

When a lifestream is at the lower levels of spiritual awareness, it is not able to have a direct experience of God. So it needs an outer path to follow until – often after many lifetimes – it attains more inner discernment, more belief in its own ability to know what is real and unreal. And thus it becomes open to the inner path, where it now has to follow its own inner promptings, its own inner direction, without blindly trusting or following an outer teaching or teacher.

So there is a certain validity in the outer path for those who are not ready for the inner path, which is why I myself taught at two different levels—gave my parables to the multitudes and expounded all things to my disciples. So you will see this pattern in many religions, including Judaism, where you have the teachings on the Kabbalah forming the mystical path. Sufism therefore is a viable path for those who are further along on the path and yet come from a Muslim background.

Yet, as with any mystical movement, you cannot simply look at such a movement and say that everything that goes on within that movement is necessarily of the light. For the nature of a mystical movement is that it has greater freedom, and thus there will usually be many people who will have, or claim to have, some contact with the spirit. And thus, they will claim to be receiving some form of revelation from a higher realm. And there will usually be some who have genuine revelation and some who do not, which is why, in a mystical movement, discernment is the essential element. And that is precisely why the people who are not yet mature enough to have discernment often shun the mystical movement, somehow subconsciously knowing that they are not ready for this.

The trouble is, of course, that in many cases lifestreams become attached to an outer religion, and they might begin to believe in the fear-based teachings of an outer religion. So they do not even dare to exercise their discernment. And thus, as you see with many Christians today – even though at inner levels they are mature enough to embrace the mystical aspects of Christianity – their outer minds do not dare to let go of the belief that by blindly following the outer religion they are guaranteed to be saved. And thus, they do not dare to let go of that outer sense of security, and go through the period of turmoil that most beings go through as they leave behind the outer path and start on the inner path.

Question: About Ali, did he give the inner teaching of the Koran? Because some people in Shia Islam believe that he was supposed to get the prophethood, and he gave inner teaching and the outer teaching was given through Mohammad.

Jesus: The answer is yes and no, in the sense that I have no desire whatsoever to make a particular branch of Islam feel that they are superior to other branches. Ali did have some inner revelation but this does not mean that his teachings were entirely accurate. Since he was also somewhat colored by his own personal beliefs and cultural beliefs—as was Mohammad.

So the unfortunate reality is that there is not a mainstream branch of Islam that is entirely pure. There are some Sufi sects that have a greater degree of purity. But to be quite honest with you, Islam as a religion is far from living up to its highest potential. And it is difficult for us of the ascended masters to see how that religion can be renewed, given the state of consciousness you find in the various main branches of Islam.

Islam was given in an attempt to unify the various tribes in the Middle East—who have been fighting for thousands of years. Yet do you not see exactly how they have used Islam to create divisions amongst themselves? For I can tell you that it would have been better if there was no such division and there was a more unified movement in the Islamic world.

So Shia or Sunni are really artificial, man-made divisions that have no reality in God. And therefore, I do not want to give the impression that one particular branch is somehow purer or superior to another. For if they truly want to understand the true teachings behind the Koran, then all branches of Islam, all Muslims, would have to reach far beyond, even far beyond the original teachings given by Mohammad. And then you would have to question whether there would be any point in continuing the old religion, or whether an entirely new religion would emerge, based on the old foundation.

This, of course, is a question that applies also to Christianity and other major world religions—of whether they have become so rigid due to people’s beliefs, held over many centuries, that they can actually be renewed. Or whether they must be replaced by an entirely new religion.

My hope and one of my purposes with the AskRealJesus website is that, eventually, many who call themselves Christians will begin to heed my living word, and will therefore use it to transform Christianity. But I can tell you that at this point it is an open question whether Christianity can be renewed—or whether it will simply become a shrinking religion that will eventually shrink into insignificance and be replaced by a new, more Aquarian-age form of spirituality.

 

 Copyright © 2007 by Kim Michaels