Sufism is a discipline, a methodology, for enhancing and refining spiritual perception. The human being has a range of subtle faculties for knowing, the totality of which we can call the spiritual heart. The science of the heart is a science of qualities, not quantities. Through the heart we can know this existence qualitatively. Behind the beautiful images and met- aphors of Sufi poetry lies a systematic knowledge of spiritual perception. When Rumi, for instance, speaks of the Beloved, he is describing a qualitative relationship with Being. The heart is the core of our subjective experience through which we experience relationship with other living beings, and ultimately with Being itself. Ultimately, knowledge and love are not two contrary functions, but a synergy through which we discover this communion and intimacy with the Absolute.
