Religious and therapeutic elements in Sufi teaching stories

Like the teaching stories of many other religions—the parables of Jesus, Zen koans, Hasidic tales—the stories of the Sufis, or Islamic mystics, offer important insights into the nature of religious experience and emotional well-being. This paper discusses the comments of selected Sufi tales on the basic structure of situations, non-rational or lateral problem-solving techniques, the process of consciousness-raising, and the experience of confronting unexpected reality.