The Sufis have been educators of hearts for at least fourteen centuries. Their teaching and methods are based upon neither dogma nor conjecture, but upon a divine and objective foundation that is the primordial "religion" of humanity. Sufism does not offer "salvation" in the sense of a guarantee of heaven in the afterlife. It offers a path to complete humanness, a state in which the spiritual and the human are unified, in which the world of spiritual qualities and material existence are seen as one. This education is a unified whole, but it touches on many areas of experience: individual psychology, relationships, marriage, family, community, livelihood, creativity, and worship. It is empirical, practical, and integrated with daily life. At the same time it is attuned to the most transcendent Truth. This is an education that restores the unity between substance and form, between the spiritual and human dimensions. The goal of this education is the living realization of an intimate connection between ourselves and the Divine.

Kabir Helminski, The Knowing Heart