The Sufi is the student of two worlds, the world within and the world without. The world within is equivalent to what is popularly named "the next world", because of the widespread belief that time is the all-important factor; that we have a life now, and another life at another time. The Sufi knows otherwise. The world without has two aspects, the social world in which we are placed, and the greater world which is the topic of history, past, present, or prophetic. The world within can be entered only by the student himself, though he may learn about it as "esotericism", a subject which also has two aspects, that of the forces in the mind and that of the divine light. The latter is the real goal of the Sufi's enquiry, it is his Shekinah, it is his Holy of Holies.