The Importance of Illusion in Sufism

Like Akunawi, Rumi believed that Sufism is not so much a stark alternative to philosophy as a higher discipline. Many of Rumi's most celebrated images appear in verses where he exhorts us to abandon the self. The terms for intellect and soul, Akun and Nafs are grammatically masculine and feminine. This represents the relation between intellect and soul with the relation between man and woman or Adam and Eve.