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Footnotes (9)

120 Soorah al-Anfaal 8:34.

121 Soorah Younus 10:62-63.

122 Al-'Aqeedah at-Tahaaweeyah, p.358.

123 Soorah al-Baqarah 2:257.

124 Encyclopedia of Islaam, p.629. See also 'Alee ibn 'Uthmaan al-Hujweeree, Kashf al-Mahjoob, trans. by Nicholson (London: Luzac, rep. 1976), p.214.

125 Soorah al-Hajj 22:6 and 62, 24:25 and 31:30.

126 Sanskrit term meaning "blown out" referring to the extinction of all worldly desires, or salvation. Though the term originated in Vedantic (Bhagavad-Gita and the Vedas) it is most often associated with Buddhism. In Hinayana Buddhism the term is equated with extinction while in Mahayana Buddhism it is a state of bliss (W. L. Resse, Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1980), p.393).

127 Ibid, p.72.

128 From the Greek "Mystes" meaning "one initiated into the mysteries." The term is derived from the Greek mystery religions whose initiates bore the name "mystes" (Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, p.374).

129 Colliers Encyclopedia, vol.17, p.114.

130 Dictionary of Religions, p.68.

131 Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion, pp.365-6 and 374.

132 "The authors of treatises on Muslim mysticism have often compared the "annihilation" of Sufism with Buddhist Nirvana; but according to others this comparison is entirely inadequate as the Buddhist idea of annihilation is independent of the idea of God and includes the idea of transmigration of souls, to which Nirvana puts an end. In Muslim mysticism on the other hand, there is no question of the passing of soul upon death into another body and the notion of a personal and all-present God is throughout predominant. The origin of the Muslim conception of Fanaa has rather to be sought in Christianity from which it seems to be borrowed. This conception simply means the annihilation of the individual human will before the will of God, an idea which forms the center of all Christian mysticism." (Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, p.98).

133 Dhikr, which normally means the remembrance of God, in mystic circles, is used to refer to the continuous repetition of God's names and attributes.

134 Collected by Muslim (Sahih Muslim (English Trans.), vol.1, pp.111-112 - nos. 337,339 and p.113, no.341.

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