Malik bin Dinar

KEHIDUPANKU dimulai dengan kesia-siaan, mabuk-mabukan, maksiat, berbuat zhalim kepada manusia, memakan hak manusia, memakan riba, dan memukuli manusia. Kulakukan segala kezhaliman, tidak ada satu maksiat melainkan aku telah melakukannya. Sungguh sangat jahat hingga manusia tidak menghargaiku karena kebejatanku.

Malik bin Dinar Rahimahullah menuturkan :

Pada suatu hari, aku merindukan pernikahan dan memiliki anak dari pernikahan tersebut. Maka kemudian aku menikah dan dikaruniai seorang putri yang kuberi nama Fathimah. Aku sangat mencintainya. Setiap kali dia bertambah besar, bertambah pula keimanan di dalam hatiku dan semakin sedikit maksiat di dalam hatiku. Pernah suatu ketika Fathimah melihatku memegang segelas khamar, maka diapun mendekat kepadaku dan menyingkirkan gelas tersebut hingga tumpah mengenai bajuku. Saat itu umurnya belum genap dua tahun. Seakan-akan Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala-lah yang membuatnya melakukan hal tersebut.

Setiap kali dia bertambah besar, semakin bertambah pula keimanan di dalam hatiku. Setiap kali aku mendekatkan diri kepada Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala selangkah, maka setiap kali itu pula aku menjauhi maksiat sedikit demi sedikit. Hingga usia Fathimah genap tiga tahun. Saat usianya genap tiga tahun itulah Fathimah meninggal dunia.

Maka akupun berubah menjadi orang yang lebih buruk dari sebelumnya. Aku belum memiliki sikap sabar yang ada pada diri seorang mukmin yang bisa menguatkanku atas cobaan musibah. Kembalilah aku mejadi lebih buruk dari sebelumnya. Setanpun mempermainkanku, hingga datang suatu hari, setanku berkata kepadaku: “Sungguh hari ini engkau mabuk-mabukkan dengan mabuk yang belum pernah engkau lakukan sebelumnya.” Maka aku bertekad untuk mabuk dan meminum khamr sepanjang malam. Aku minum, minum dan minum. Maka aku lihat diriku telah terlempar di alam mimpi.
Hingga kemudian aku melihat sebuah mimpi. Aku melihat hari kiamat. Matahari telah gelap, lautan telah berubah menjadi api, dan bumipun telah bergoncang. Manusia berkumpul pada hari kiamat. Manusia dalam keadaan berkelompok-kelompok. Sementara aku berada di antara manusia, mendengar seorang penyeru memanggil: Fulan ibn Fulan, kemari! Mari menghadap al-Jabbar. Aku melihat si Fulan tersebut berubah wajahnya menjadi sangat hitam karena sangat ketakutan. Hingga aku mendengar seorang penyeru menyeru namaku: “Mari menghadap al-Jabbar!”

Kemudian hilanglah seluruh manusia dari sekitarku seakan-akan tidak ada seorangpun di padang mahsyar. Kemudian aku melihat seekor ular besar yang ganas lagi kuat merayap mengejar ke arahku dengan membuka mulutnya. Aku pun lari karena sangat ketakutan. Lalu aku mendapati seorang laki-laki tua yang lemah. Aku pun berkata: “Hai, selamatkanlah aku dari ular ini!” Dia menjawab: “Wahai anakku, aku lemah, aku tak mampu, akan tetapi larilah ke arah ini mudah-mudahan engkau selamat!”

Aku pun berlari ke arah yang ditunjukkannya, sementara ular tersebut berada di belakangku. Tiba-tiba aku mendapati api ada dihadapanku. Aku pun berkata: “Apakah aku akan melarikan diri dari seekor ular untuk menjatuhkan diri ke dalam api?” Akupun kembali berlari dengan cepat sementara ular tersebut semakin mendekat. Aku kembali kepada lelaki tua yang lemah tersebut dan berkata: “Demi Allah, wajib atasmu menolong dan menyelamatkanku.” Maka dia menangis karena iba dengan keadaanku seraya berkata: “Aku lemah sebagaimana engkau lihat, aku tidak mampu melakukan sesuatupun, akan tetapi larilah kearah gunung tersebut mudah-mudahan engkau selamat!”

Akupun berlari menuju gunung tersebut sementara ular akan mematukku. Kemudian aku melihat di atas gunung tersebut terdapat anak-anak kecil, dan aku mendengar semua anak tersebut berteriak: :”Wahai Fathimah tolonglah ayahmu, tolonglah ayahmu!”

Dia Rahimahullah berkata:

Kemudian aku mengetahui bahwa dia adalah putriku. Akupun berbahagia bahwa aku mempunyai seorang putri yang meninggal pada usia tiga tahun yang akan menyelamatkanku dari situasi tersebut. Maka diapun memegangku dengan tangan kanannya, dan mengusir ular dengan tangan kirinya sementara aku seperti mayit karena sangat ketakutan. Lalu dia duduk di pangkuanku sebagaimana dulu di dunia.

Dia berkata kepadaku: “Wahai ayah, “Belumkah datamg waktunya bagi orang-orang yang beriman, untuk tunduk hati mereka mengingat Allah.” (QS. Al-Hadid: 16)

Maka kukatakan: “Wahai putriku, beritahukanlah kepadaku tentang ular ini.“ Dia berkata: “Ini adalah amal keburukanmu, engkau telah membesarkan dan menumbuhkannya hingga hampi memakanmu. Tidakkah engkau tahu wahai ayah, bahwa amal-amal di dunia akan dirupakan menjadi sesosok bentuk pada hari kiamat? Dan lelaki yang lemah tersebut adalah amal shalih, engkau telah melemahkannya hingga dia menangis karena kondisimu dan tidak mampu melakukan sesuatu untuk membantu kondisimu. Seandainya saja engkau tidak melahirkanku, dan seandainya saja tidak mati saat masih kecil, tidak akan ada yang bisa memberikan manfaat kepadamu.”

Dia Rahimahullah berkata:

Akupun terbangun dari tidurku dan berteriak: “Wahai Rabbku, sudah saatnya wahai Rabbku, ya, “Belumkah datang waktunya bagi orang-orang yang beriman, untuk tunduk hati mereka mengingat Allah.” Lantas aku mandi dan keluar untuk shalat subuh dan ingin segera bertaubat dan kembali kepada Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala.

Dia Rahimahullah berkata:

Aku pun masuk ke dalam masjid dan ternyata imampun membaca ayat yang sama:
“Belumkah datang waktunya bagi orang-orang yang beriman, untuk tunduk hati mereka mengingat Allah.” (QS. Al-Hadid: 16)

Itulah dia, Malik bin Dinar Rahimahullah, salah seorang imam generasi tabi’in dan termasuk ulama Bashrah. Dia terkenal selalu menangis sepanjang malam dan berkata:
“Ya Ilahi, hanya Engkaulah satu-satunya Dzat yang mengatahui penghuni sorga dan penghuni neraka, maka yang manakah aku di antara keduanya? Ya Allah, jadikanlah aku termasuk penghuni sorga dan jangan jadikan aku termasuk penghuni neraka.”

Malik bin Dinar Rahimahullah bertaubat dan dia dikenal bahwa pada setiap harinya selalu berdiri di pintu masjid menyeru dan berkata:
“Wahai para hamba yang bermaksiat, kembalilah kepada Penolong-mu!
Wahai orang-orang yang lalai, kembalilah kepada Penolongmu!
Wahai orang-orang yang melarikan diri (dari ketaatan), kembalilah kepada Penolong-mu!
Penolong-mu senantiasa menyeru memanggilmu di malam dan siang hari.

Dia berfirman kepadamu:
“Barangsiapa mendekatkan dirinya kepada-Ku satu jengkal, maka Aku akan mendekatkan diri-Ku kepadanya satu hasta.
Jika dia mendekatkan dirinya kepada-Ku satu hasta, maka Aku akan mendekatkan diri-Ku kepadanya satu depa.
Siapa yang mendatangi-Ku dengan berjalan, Aku akan mendatanginya dengan berjalan kecil.”

Aku memohon kepada Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala agar memberikan rizki taubat kepada kita. Tidak ada sesembahan yang hak selain Engkau, Maha Suci Engkau. Sesungguh aku termasuk orang-orang yang zhalim.

Malik bin Dinar Rahimahullah wafat pada tahun 130 H. Semoga Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala merahmatinya dengan rahmat-Nya yang luas. (Mizanul I’tidal, III/426)

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Syeikh Uways dan Aliran Sufi Populer

KALI INI ini saya ingin menyentuh pula gerakan sufi di kalangan orang awam, khususnya kepada kehidupan Shaykh Uways bin Muhammad al-Baraawe (1847 - 1909).

Terletak di Biolay (Biyooley), Somalia, maqam Shaykh Uways dilewati saban tahun oleh pelbagai lapisan masyarakat dari seluruh pelusuk Afrika Timur, terutamanya Somalia, Tanzania, timur Congo dan Zanzibar. Demikianlah luasnya pengaruh Shaykh Uways dalam menghidupkan kembali roh Islam di kalangan khalayak awam.

Dilahirkan seorang yang berbangsa Black Tunni (kulit gelap) semestinya menjadi suatu kelebihan buat Shaykh Uways membawa penganut-penganut animisme di Afrika kepada Islam. Shaykh Uways juga mengarang pelbagai sajak sebagai medium dakwah. Dikatakan, keindahan sajak dan sessi dhikr beliau mengalahkan keseronokan tarian dan lagu-lagu animist hingga para penari ini memeluk Islam.

Pendekatan ini sedikit berbeza dengan para ulama Hadramaut di timur Afrika yang lebih berperanan di kalangan orang elit. Juga, para Sharif Hadramaut secara umumnya bersikap eksklusif dengan mengutamakan keturunan merekadalam interaksi sosial, pendidikan dan ekonomi.

Aliran tasawwuf Shaykh Uways ialah tariqat Qadiriyya. Pada waktu itu, wujud juga Shadhiliyya dan Salihiyya yang saling merebut pengaruh. Shaykh Uways mendapat tentangan hebat dari jemaah Salihiyya pimpinan Sayyid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, iaitu salah satu cabang dari ajaran tasawwuf neo-sufi Shaykh Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi (Ahmadiyya/Idrissiyya) yang pernah popular di Negeri Sembilan suatu ketika dahulu.

Salihiyya ini bersifat radikal mirip kepada idea-idea Wahhabiyya di Hejaz kerana menyerang amalan-amalan sufi Qadiriyya. Mereka juga membangkitkan semangat nasionalisme Somalia sebagaimana gerakan Wahhabiyya meniup semangat pan-Arab. Persamaan Salihiyya dengan Wahhabiyya bertambah jelas apabila pengikut Salihiyya bertindak agresif; kemuncaknya Shaykh Uways sendiri dibunuh dengan begitu tragis oleh ahli-ahli kumpulan Salihiyya pada 1909.

Salihiyya dari utara Somalia ini terkenal sebagai hero nasionalisme Somalia kerana mengusir penjajahan British. Sementara itu, pengikut-pengikut Shaykh Uways pula beralih fokus kepada Tanganyika dan menggantikan peranan Pemberontakan Maji Maji menentang penjajahan German. Usaha ini dikatakan bersabit dengan semangat pan-Islam dari kerajaan Turki Uthmaniah.

Namun, kemerdekaan negara Islam Somalia kini diancam oleh Ethiopia dan sokongan Barat. Amat malang bagi Mogadishu menjadi medan pertempuran kuasa antara UIC dan Ethiopia. Semoga umat Islam Somalia bersatu menentang kerakusan kuasa pihak kuffar di samping memperbetulkan idea-idea yang radikal kepada tradisi mainstream Sunni.

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Rumi: A Passionate Heart Still Beats

IN THE middle of the 13th century, a Muslim mystic cupped his palm around a pillar in a Turkish mosque, spinning and uttering ecstatic poetry so beautiful that almost 800 years later his poems are selling out in bookstores across America.
Jalalu'ddin Rumi, usually referred to by his last name alone, is on his way to becoming a household name. Publishers Weekly magazine called him the best-selling poet in America. Amazon.com lists 173 Rumi titles in books, tapes, CDs, and videos, by everyone from Persian musicians and American scholars to New Age gurus like Deepak Chopra. Madonna has recorded one of his poems, and a character on the ABC television series "Providence" quoted him in an episode.

America, it seems, has a bad case of "Rumi-mania."

The Internet search organ Lycos lists 162 websites that contain some reference to him--everything from concert listings to calligraphy, Rumi-inspired art to a program in self-esteem based on his poems. In the last four months, there have been five international Rumi festivals held everywhere from the poet's home in Konya, Turkey, to Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Who was this Rumi? And why is he, a man who lived and died in a culture so far removed from ours in time and temperament, so well-known and loved?

"People have dreams of Rumi, visions of Rumi, they feel him, they sense him," said Shahram Shiva, a Persian who translates and performs Rumi's poems. "He is accessible. He is almost eager to reach out to people, to touch people, to help them, to uplift them. This is not just a case of beautiful words on paper. It is a case of the cosmic force of this man who lived 800 years ago now living in this world in some subtle form, just as a saint or a prophet would."

Jalalu'ddin Rumi was born in 1207 in Afghanistan. His father, part of the mystical Sufi branch of Islam, brought his family to Turkey to escape invading Mongols. Rumi grew up to become a religious scholar, eventually taking over his father's position as sheikh, or head, of an Islamic learning community.

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Sufism: The Mystic Tradition of Islam

FOR THESE who have heard of the Sufis, the first thing that typically comes to mind is the whirling dervishes in their camel-hair hats and their white twirling skirts. Others recognize that it has something to do with Islam and perhaps that the gyration has some sort of spiritual significance, but little more is known than that. Most would probably be surprised to learn that not all Sufis are whirling dervishes. In fact, the thing that most characterizes Sufis, whirling or otherwise, is the path of devotion they take toward union with the Divine; in short, Sufis constitute the “mystical core of Islam” (Loutfy 144).

This orthodox Muslim faith is characterized by the Five Pillars, which include the confession of faith (“There is no God but Allah,[1] and Muhammad is his prophet”), prayer, charity, fasting, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. As with all Muslims, most Sufis embrace these tenets, but venture beyond them to esoteric practices as well (Loutfy 145), sometimes subtly reinterpreting them in the process. Put another way, Islam may be (though does not have to be) viewed as a primarily external path of devotion to Allah, whereas virtually all forms of mysticism, including Sufism, are overtly internal in their focus, desiring nothing short of complete union with God: God and the soul united as one. Sufism, then, is not content to follow the external path of devotion to Allah, but desires spiritual union with him in a life centered primarily inward such that the invisible is always brought to bear upon the visible.

Historically, Sufism grew as a corrective both to the excessive legalism emphasized by the mullahs (Muslim clerics) on the one hand and the increasing decadence of the Muslim empire on the other; it also formed a middle ground between those parts of the Qu’ran that characterize Allah as an omnipotent ruler and judge and those that describe him as being nearer to humanity than breath, desirous of living within the human heart (Zeidman). What is more, it also incorporated elements it borrowed from the traditions of its conquered peoples; Zeidman includes “Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, Hellenistic, Zoroastrian and Hindu” in his list of contributors. This syncretism could easily explain why critics tend to ridicule Sufism as not authentically Islamic, though its core is nevertheless firmly rooted in the tradition beginning with the Prophet Muhammad and the teachings attributed to his name.

Whatever its history, the path of the Sufi is one that involves self-discipline and self-mastery: a day-by-day immersion in the Absolute and an increasing awareness of the self. Twelfth-century Sufi philosopher Al-Ghazzali (1058–1111) characterizes this approach to life with an extended metaphor: a child cannot ever fully grasp what it means to be a full-grown adult, a common man cannot conceive of the attainments of a great scholar, and the great scholar has no way of understanding the consciousness of a fully enlightened Sufi (Loutfy 145). In time, of course, each could become the other, but while each remains in the lower state, understanding is not possible. And even within Sufism, there are different levels of attainment, always leaving open the temptation of spiritual pride, perhaps one of the greatest downfalls of an overtly mystical emphasis.

Sufis come in many varieties and we have said that not all of them are of the spinning sort. For example, in the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan—bordered by China and Afghanistan and formerly a part of the Soviet Union until 1991—two primary Sufi orders coexist, namely the Naqshbandiyya and the Qadiriyya (Arabov 345). The Naqshbandiyya, the newer, larger, and more prominent order, do not perform the public invocations to God known variously as dhikr or zkir (of which the twirling is often a highly visible part), instead performing the silent version known as zikr khafi (Arabov 345; “Zikr”). The high-profile sheihk (or spiritual guide) Ishan[2] Zubaydulla believes that the silent zkir is superior because it does not necessitate a teacher and can be performed anywhere without accessories as an act of spiritual devotion (Arabov 345, 347). The Qadiriyya, however, practice the zikr jali (or “loud zikr”) with its dancing and chanting; according to a young devotee who was interviewed, they see the public manifestation as a means of both drawing followers and giving the common people a spiritual focus to help them purify their hearts and minds (Arabov 345).

Spinning Sufis in general, at least outside of Tajikista, are expressly part of a tradition in which the love of the Divine predominates. Rabi’a al-Adawiya (d.801) was a woman from the city of Basra in Iraq who was motivated neither by heavenly reward nor fear of hell but rather by sheer devotion to God himself. It was she who introduced the theme of Divine Love into the Sufi order and it soon became a dominant feature of Sufism (Zeidman). Not surprisingly, mystical poetry began to circulate in which the central motif extolled the virtues of Divine Love. The Sufi poet and philosopher Jalal ad-Din Rumi (1207–1273) in particular was a venerated master—he was even named “Mawlana” meaning “our Lord or Teacher” (Zeidman)—and his Mathnawi-i-Maanwi (“Couplets of Inner Meaning”) with its over 20,000 rhyming lines has sometimes been described as “The Qu’ran in Persian Tongue,” its blend of everyday elements and depth of spiritual insight an inspiration to countless devotees (Loutfy 145). However, what Rumi is perhaps best known for is establishing the Mevlevi Order of the Sufis, better known as the Whirling Dervishes: we have now arrived at the most familiar aspect of Sufism to the curious Westerner.

To such a one, the etymology of the word “dervish” might come as a surprise. “Dervish” derives from Turkish derviş, itself a derivation of Persian darvīš meaning “poor, mendicant” and often encompassing connotations of a wanderer as well. At least figuratively, the whirling dervishes then are whirling paupers whose rising skirts represent the shedding of sins: spiritual pilgrims with no extra baggage whose canopy is the stars and whose panoply stretches as far as the green grass and hot desert sands. In fact, poverty actually plays a significant part in Sufi spirituality, for a bit like St. Francis of Assisi to Christianity, al-Adawiya and Rumi extolled the virtues of poverty in Sufism, placing an emphasis not only on material poverty but also on its spiritual counterpart until nothing is left but God: until nothing is left but the joyful response of a heart free and overflowing with Divine Love. Nothing weighs such a heart down, having escaped its earthly fetters. And it so happens, spinning was one of the spontaneous overflows of love and gratitude that Rami experienced when contemplating his Creator; his followers developed this display into a ceremonial feat of song and dance known as sama, or “listening,” in which the mental faculties are finely focused, a state of heightened receptivity is entered into, and ultimately wajd (“finding”) is experienced: a finding and then merging with God, if only for a time (LaMothe 64).

When the dervishes enter the sacred space, they are wearing black outer robes signifying the “tomb of the ego”; their “tall camel-hair hat . . . the tombstone” (Goddard H01). While performances may differ, often a sole ney, or flute, accompanies the dance, suggestive of the very soul of the universe (ibid.). Three times the dervishes circle counterclockwise—the direction pilgrims encircle the Kaaba and the planets orbit the sun—and then receive a blessing and a kiss from the shaykh or teacher (Lamothe 64; Safieddine). Rotations complete, they cast aside their black cloaks—the nafs or ego to which they must die—to reveal the purity of white floor-length robes beneath that began to swell into graceful bells as first the right foot steps across the left and then the left circles to meet the right, right, then left, right, then left, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out (Lamothe 64). Their right hand is open, palm upward; their left hand is open, palm downward: “From God we receive,” explained guide Nurretin Bayral of the upturned hand, “to humankind we give” of the other: “we keep nothing for ourselves” (Goddard H01).

Hicham Safieddine puts a particularly compelling frame around this scene when he talks to the forty-seven-year-old dervish Hani Mohammad Ameen, a student of the art for almost forty years. In some ways Ameen is not the typical dervish: for nearly the past two decades of his career, he has toured with a troupe in Egypt whose purpose is to preserve what is fast becoming a dying tradition, far too often deemed heretical by fundamentalist Islam, sharing it with the outside world as well as those who still proudly preserve the name Sufi. Assembled in 1988 by the Egyptian ministry of culture, Al-Tannura, as the troupe is called, is comprised of dervishes whose only formal training has been that of the cultural heritage conferred on them by their fathers who taught them the art of the dance. Their performances are free and are one of the most popular attractions in Cairo; they have also traveled to over thirty countries including Canada, sharing their art and spirituality with the world. The Al-Tannura wear hand-sewn variegated skirts that integrate all the colors of the various orders of the dervishes, representative of the different centers of spiritual consciousness (Safieddine).

Ameen, alone, is the sun at the center, his junior associates the planets orbiting this rotating sphere. “When I spin,” says Ameen, “I am in a completely different state of mind, far away from this world, as if I am swimming in the sky. And the more I spin, the lighter I become, just like when you spin a ball in your hand and you feel its weight is diminishing” (ibid.). Ameen has gone far beyond the usual and performs a spiritual showstopper, in which he unties his skirt and raises it by degrees, representative of the shedding of his sins. Ameen—now in a trance-state, the smile of serenity on his face, bare feet mesmeric in syncopated rhythm, one foot keeping time, then the other, then the one, the skirt now a floating sun disk above his head, twirling, twirling—folds the skirt and gives it a gentle toss to one of the musicians, never stopping until his forty minutes alone with his fellows and God is finished. But he does not get dizzy, even when he twirled for a full hour and a half in India in the mid part of 1995. “When you start spinning at a young age, you actually get dizzy and fall off repeatedly, sometimes even throwing up. But within a year or so, you begin to feel your brain and eyes becoming somewhat unaffected by the movement of the rest of your body, and that is when you know you have begun to master the spin” (Safieddine). For Ameen, the dance not only connects him to God for whom his soul was created, but sends a powerful message of love and tolerance all too often unheard in the Islamic world.

In sum, Sufism has many faces for many are the creations of Allah who alone is one. Yet in the hearts and minds of countless persons, the whirling dervishes are the most vivid and metaphoric embodiment of the cosmic dance between humanity and its Creator: a sama centered in love and self-surrender in which the soul, like the skirt in which it is clothed, begins to float free, rising higher and higher, forming a picture of exquisite grace and beauty, a bit like heaven on earth.

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Mysticism

This is a belief in or the pursuit in the unification with the One or some other principle; the immediate consciousness of God; or the direct experience of religious truth. Mysticism is nearly universal and unites most religions in the quest for divinity. It can also be a sense of mystical knowledge. Dionysius the Areopagite was the first to introduce the concept "unknown knowing" to the Western World. In areas of the occult and psychic it denotes an additional domain of esoteric knowledge and paranormal communication. Even though it is thought that just monks and ascetics can become mystics, mysticism usually touches all people at least once in their lives.

The term "mysticism" comes from the classical Greco-Roman mystery cults. Perhaps it came from myein meaning "to close the lips and eyes, and refers to the sacred oath of the initiates, the mystes, to keep secret about the inner workings of the religion." In Neo-platonism "mysticism" came to be associated with secrecy of any kind. The term mystica appeared in the Christian treatise, Mystica Theologia, of an anonymous Syrian Neoplatonist monk of the late fifth or early sixth century, who was known pseudonymously as Dionysius the Areopagite. In this work mysticism was described as the secrecy of the mind.

Despite the various approaches to mysticism it seems to possess some common characteristics. Such were the findings of the philosopher W. T. Stace, who discovered seven common themes of mysticism when studying Roman Catholic, Protestant, ancient classical, Hindu, and American agnostic mystical experiences. They were (1) a unifying vision and perception of the One by the senses and through many objects; (2) the apprehension of the One as an inner life; (3) and objective and true sense of reality; (4) feelings of satisfaction, joy, and bliss; (5) a religious element that is a feeling of the holy and sacred; (6) a paradoxical feeling; (7) and inexpressible feelings.

From the above is can easily be seen that mysticism is not the same to every person experiencing it. Therefore, there are various kinds or types. Various mystics subscribe to one of two theories of Divine Reality: emanation or immanence. In the emanation view, all things in the universe are overflowing from God. In the immanence view, the universe is not projected from God, but is immersed in God.

Mysticism is usually thought of as being of a religious nature, which can be either monistic or theistic. The objective of monistic mysticism is to seek unity and identity with a universal principle; while theistic mysticism seeks unity, but not identity, with God.

The ultimate expression of monistic mysticism is perhaps best displayed in the Upanishads of India, as in the concepts of "I am Brahman" (the all-pervading principle) and tat tram asi "that thou art," meaning that the soul is the eternal and Absolute Being. Monistic mysticism is also found in Taoism,, which seeks unity with Tao, the ineffable way. Theistic mysticism, unity with God, characterizes Christianity, Judaism (in the Kabbalah), and Islam (the Sufi sect), and is also found in Hinduism.

There are other forms of mysticism throughout the world. Many assume a religious nature according to the beliefs and practices of the practitioners. Most of these states of mysticism commonly possess what is deemed a mystical communion with what is considered sacred which varies from group to group, even subgroup to subgroup, and includes dance, song and chant, the sacred pipe, purifying sweats (a preliminary for undertakings), fasts, dreams, vision quests, and the occasional use of psychotropic drugs.

Apart from religious mysticism, but not entirely separated from it, is nonreligious mysticism. This is more of an experiencing mysticism through, or from, Nature, although some have discovered God or the Absolute of Nature through such experiences. An authentic experience of mysticism derive from Nature is essentially the unity of the subject and the object. In other words, the person becomes one with Nature; all boundaries or separation between the person and Nature disappears. The person becomes part of nature and is not separate from it.

This is clearly seen in the Goddess religion, which includes neo-Paganism and neo-Pagan Witchcraft, which worships Nature. Such worship includes love where the separation between the subject and object vanishes. Starhawk, in The Spiral Dance, defines it as immanence. Immanence is one of the three core principles of the Goddess religion, the other two being interconnection and community. "Immanence means that the Goddess, the Gods, are embodied, that we are each a manifestation of the living being of the earth, that nature, culture, and life in all their diversity are sacred. Immanence calls us to live our spirituality here in the world, to take action to preserve the life of the earth, to live with integrity and responsibility."

A similar point was made in the description of Gaea, previously called Terrebie, or the planet Earth by Otter Zell (formerly Tim Zell), founder and high priest of the Church of All Worlds in Ukiah, California. He redefined divinity and deity as the fulfillment of potential as "the highest level of aware consciousness accessible to each living being, manifesting itself in the self-actualization of that being." So, the cell is thought of as God by its components; the tissue is God to the cells, and so on. The human being manifests a whole new level of awareness, organization, and "emergent wholeness." When describing this level of organization Zell wrote, "We find it appropriate to express recognition of this Unity in the phrase: 'Thou art God.'" And as all things are connected biologically, all eco-systems express a new level of awareness. Therefore, Mother Earth is seen as God. Of this, Zell wrote:

Indeed, even though yet unawakened, the embryonic slumbering subconscious mind of Terrebria is experienced intuitively by us all, and has been referred to instinctively by us as Mother Earth, Mother Nature (The Goddess, The Lady.)

Instinctively every one has done what the neo-Pagan openly admit doing, calling Earth, Mother. This recognition of Earth as our Mother is justified because we all are dependent on her for our survival. Just as the child comes to love the mother who cares and nurtures him, so too, we love Mother Earth who we know loves and nurtures humankind as her children. By definition, this is mysticism

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