87various names of God and other mysterious expressions, illuminates the whole body of the Safi; and the perception of the same illumination in the external world completely extinguishes the sense of "otherness". The fact that these methods were known to the Persian Sufis misled Von Kremer, who ascribed the whole phenomenon of Sufiism to the influence of Vedantic ideas. Such methods of .contemplation are quite un-Islamic in character, and the higher Sufis do not attach any importance to them.
Let us now return to the various schools, or rather the various aspects, of Sufi Metaphysics. A ,careful investigation of Sufi literature shows that Sufiism has looked at the Ultimate Reality from three standpoints which, in fact, do not exclude but ,complement each other. Some Sufis conceive the essential nature of reality as self-conscious will, others beauty, others again hold that Reality is essentially Thought, Light or Knowledge. There are, therefore, three aspects of Safi thought:
The first in historical order is that represented by Shaqiq Balkhi Ibrahim Adham, Rabi'a, and others.This school conceives the Ultimate Reality as "Will", and the Universe a finite activity of that will, It isessentially monotheistic and consequently more