(Part of our weekly Sufi Wisdom series. T.L. James is moving, so I'm taking this on again for the next few weeks.)
Today's wisdom comes from Ala'uddin al-Bukhari al-Attar, one of the great Shaykhs of the Naqshbandi school:
"All religions, as theologians - and their opponents - understand the word, is something other than what it is assumed to be.
Religion is a vehicle. Its expression, rituals, moral and other teachings are designed to cause certain elevating effects, at a certain time, upon certain communities.
Because of the difficulty of maintaining the science of man, religion was instituted as a means of approaching truth. The means always became, for the shallow, the end, and the vehicle became the idol.
Only the man of wisdom, not the man of faith or intellect, can cause the vehicle to move again."
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