Sufism
theWay of the Heart is the Mystical Path of Islam
A lifetime without Love is of no account
Love is the Water of Life
Drink it down with heart and soul!
--Rumi, Divan-i-Shams 11909
Some, though not all Sufi orders accept seekers from outside Islam. The great Sufi mystic and poet Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273 A.D.)was known to have among his followers members of all faiths.
One ecumenical Sufi order is The Winged Heart Sufi Order of the West. An excerpt from their site: "The Sufi Order is not concerned with converting or saving others. Our hope is that a person's involvement in the teachings may deepen and expand his/her understanding of the tradition with which s/he is affiliated. The Sufi Message does not call a person away from a belief or church; it calls one to live it."
In The Threshold Society, North American representative of Rumi's order the Mevlevi, commitment to Sufism "entails a willingness to acquaint oneself with and understand the sources and framework of the Sufi tradition, including the Qur'an and the sayings of the Prophet. It is not, however, required that a Mevlevi dervish embrace the religion of Islam in its outer, sociological form."
Of course every Sufi order is open to followers of the Prophet.
* Liberal Religion Alert: The Sufi way involves accepting the authority of a Master. While this is a time-honored tradition, caution is recommended.
The following list of lists will get you to a wealth of Sufi resources in a couple of jumps:
More on the wonderful Rumi:
Mevlana "was not only a great poet and philosopher but first and foremost he was a mystic, a spiritually touched man. His mind and heart had reached for heights and depths of the spiritual world. In his vision there were two universes which coincided in Man. The inner world was like an endless infinite ocean, which could only be felt and seen with the eyes of the heart, while the outer world was but like the passing foam which appears on the surface of the waves emenating from that ocean.
"Mevlana also integrated a dualist approach in his mind: In approaching issues pertaining to daily life he is a rationalist, but in approaching spiritual and mystical matters he recognizes only the mastery of the heart and emotions. According to him, the only way to approach absolute being is through love; and God's love is everywhere, permeating everything. If one were to love another being in the name of God, one would find a pathway leading to the absolute. According to him everything in the universe, every being, even matter itself-all are but manifestations of God and exist in God and are united in the Absolute Being. Thus Mevlana views all existence as a united whole. In a sense, one could call his vision that of Unity Consciousness. This vision impelled Mevlana to transcend all differences and prejudices, and formed the basis of his immense tolerance and of his real and deep humanism. With these characteristics, Mevlana and his thought transcended the boundaries of his time and thus he and his writings are still relevant and fresh in this day and age, some 700 years after. The universality of his thought finds its reflection in, for example, the famous verses where he says:
Come!
Come whoever you are.
Doesn't matter if you are an unbeliever.
Doesn't matter if you have fallen a thousand times.
Come!
Come whoever you are.For this is not the door of hopelessness.
Come,
Just as you are!
"With the tens of thousands of verses he wrote, and with the depths of spirituality he fathomed which helped him grasp qualities of timelessness and humanistic universality, Mevlana and the sect which was founded after him, have not only influenced the Anatolian-Turkish civilizations but indeed have had far-reaching influences on the intellectual and artistic life of many individuals and nations." (from Handan's Home Page)
