evealing the tendency to act as an apologist by avoiding any further mention of un-Islamic elements in Sufism, focusing instead on the catholic genius of Islam. A thorough and critical examination of historical and present day Sufism, quickly reveals the influence of numerous religious ideas foreign to Islam. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, who so vehemently argues against the idea that Sufism is based on religious practice and doctrine inherently alien to Islam, does admit that in his opinion, Zoroastrianism had more intimate contact with Islam than did Manichaeism.29 Nasr states that in Persia Zoroastrianism provided first of all a vocabulary for Sufi poets like Hafiz who often speak of the fire-temple, the Zoroastrian priest, etc., as symbols of the Sufi center (khaniqah or zawiyah), the spiritual master and so on..30 Nasr also states that Zoroastrian angeology and cosmology were also resuscitated by Shibab al-Din Suhrawardi, the founder of the [Sufi] school of Illumination or Ishraq, who made these symbols transparent in the light of Islamic gnosis.31 Though these assertions have a solid scholarly basis, they fly in the face of Nasrs earlier attempts to declare Sufism a legitimate and original development of Islam. Nasr appears to realize the quandary he has placed himself in, attempting to resolve the dilemma with the declaration that this manner of speaking, however, does not at all imply an historical influence of Zoroastrianism upon Sufism.32 Most scholars would be perplexed by this rather illogical conclusion, especially when it is considered that Zoroastrianism as a religion predated Islam by over 1000 years. The further one delves into Sufism from an academic perspective, the more clear it becomes that both the origins and content of Sufism clearly show the inclusion of religious ideas and influences contrary and contradictory to orthodox Islam. The scholar Elliot Miller states that [being] based on experience rather than doctrine, Sufi...
