.. is identified with this dimension, which is at once beyond and within the macrocosm and the microcosm. Nasr, 1991, p. xiii)

He further explains the important difference between Sufi mysticism and the Shar?'ah or the law of ordinary Islam:

All of Islam is, of course, concerned with God and His Will as embodied in the Shar?'ah, the Divine Law of Islam, obedience to which is sufficient in order to live a life of balance and happiness in this world and to be saved at the moment of death. A study devoted to Islamic spirituality, however, could not be synonymous with one devoted solely to the Shar?'ah. While taking into account the great significance of the spiritual dimension of everyday piety and the Shar?'ah, such a study must pay special attention to those aspects of the Islamic tradition which in the Islamic context itself would be most concerned with r-h?

niyyah and ma'nawiyyat... A study of spirituality, therefore, must turn most of all to the inner dimension of Islam. (ibid)

The undertaking of the Sufi doctrine is also explored in the work of Henry Corbin. Corbin, in his renowned work, the Man of light in Iranian Sufism propounds a view of which reveals the Sufi as an explorer and revealer of the great depth and extent of Islamic spirituality as well as the range of Islamic cosmology. Sufism is aligned to the concept that beyond the sensory world there exists another universe with a contour and dimensions and extension in a space, although these are not comparable with the shape and spatiality as we perceive them in the world of physical bodies. It is the 'eighth' keshvar. The mystical Earth of Hurqalya with emerald cities: it is situated on the summit of the cosmic mountains, which the traditions handed down in Islam cal the mountain...

(Corbin, H. p. xii)
The world of Islamic Cosmology is complex and requires intensive research and understanding. The emergence of Sufism can be seen as a natural development within the religion and as a necessary revelation of Islamic faith.

Bibliography

Bowering, Gerhard. "The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn Al-'Arabi's Cosmology." The Journal of the American Oriental Society 121.1 (2001): 161. Questia. 16 Dec. 2004 http://www.questia.com/.

Burrell, David B.C.S.C. Knowing the Unknowable God: Ibn-Sina, Maimonides, Aquinas. Notre Dame, in: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986.

Corbin, H. Alone with the Alone. New York: Princeton University Press. 1969/

Ed-Din, Abu Bakr Siraj. "12 the Nature and Origin of Sufism." Manifestations. Ed. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. New York: Crossroad, 1991. 223-237.

Hitti, Philip K. History of the Arabs: From the Earliest Times to the Present. 5th ed. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1951.

Landolt, Hermann. "Henry Corbin, 1903-1978: Between Philosophy and Orientalism." The Journal of the American Oriental Society 119.3 (1999): 484. Questia. 16 Dec. 2004 http://www.questia.com/.

Michon, Jean-Louis. "The Spiritual Practices of Sufism." Manifestations. Ed. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. New York: Crossroad, 1991. 265-291.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, ed. Islamic Spirituality: Foundations. New York: Crossroad, 1987.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, ed. Manifestations. New York: Crossroad, 1991.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Religion and the Order of Nature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Schuon F. Understanding Islam. Boston. Mandala Books. 1983.

See Seyyed Hossein Nasr's article the Interior Life in Islam