Allah in sufism

The Sufism of those early Muslims was characterized by the renunciation of worldly pleasures and an intense fear of Allah and His judgments. it had been not till some 300 years after the death of Muhammad that such doctrines as appear to be pantheistic came to be outstanding features of Sufism. In other words the first Sufis were properly speaking ascetics, with poverty because the ideal of their religious life. Ibn Khaldun (A. D1406) has expressed a somewhat similar view within the Prolegomena to his great historical work: “The way of the Sufis was regarded by the traditional Muslims and therefore the ir illustrious men - the Companions of the Prophet the Successors and the generation that came after them - because the way of Truth and Salvation. To be assiduous in piety to offer up all else for God’s sake to show faraway from worldly gauds and vanities, to renounce pleasure, wealth and power, which are the overall objects of human ambition, to abandon society and to steer in seclusion a life dedicated to the service of God -these are the elemental principles of Sufism which prevailed among the companions and Muslims of the old time.