“(…) In ISLAM, two ‘religions’ meet, combine, and sometimes confront one another: the outward religion –that of Revelation and Law– and the religion of the Heart, of Intellection, of immanent Liberty; they combine inasmuch as the outward religion proceeds from the inward religion, but they are in opposition inasmuch as the inward and essential religion is independent of the outward and formal religion.” (EsoterismPW, p.230)
ISLAM is the Message of Unity, and thereby of the Absolute and the Essence, and this implies in principle that along with the simplifications and impasses of theology – whose authority in ISLAM is after all somewhat fluctuating – it offers all the mysteries that Unity comprises by its nature; that in consequence it postulates not only transcendence, which is separative by definition, but also immanence, which is unitive and which links man existentially and intellectually to his divine Origin. (GTUFS: ChristISLAM, The Idea of “The Best” in Religions)
ISLAM . . . proceeds through sincerity in unitary faith; and we know this faith must imply all the consequences logically following from its content, which is Unity, or the Absolute. First there is al-iman, the accepting of Unity by man’s intelligence; then, since we exist both individually and collectively, there is al-islam, the submission of man’s will to Unity, or to the idea of Unity; this second element relates to Unity insofar as it is a synthesis on the plane of multiplicity; finally there is al-ihsan, which expands or deepens the two previous elements to the point of their ultimate consequences. Under the influence of al-ihsan, al-iman becomes “realization” or a certitude that is lived – knowing becomes being – while al-islam, instead of being limited to a certain number of prescribed attitudes, comes to include every level in man’s nature; a priori faith and submission are hardly more than symbolical attitudes, although nonetheless efficacious at their own level. By virtue of al-ihsan, al-iman becomes gnosis, or participation in the divine Intelligence, and al-islam becomes extinction in the divine Being. (GTUFS: UISLAM, The Path)