Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin
Researcher of Political Science & Classical Islam. Initiated by the Khwajagan i-Naqshband.
Sir Richard Burton: “Sufi-ism [was] the Eastern parent of Freemasonry.”
According to Sir Richard Burton, “Sufi-ism [was] the Eastern parent of Freemasonry.” (See, F. Hitchman, Burton, Volume 1, p. 286). Robert Graves claimed that Freemasonry first began as a Sufi society that reached England in the guise of a craft guild during the reign of King Athelstan (ruled 924-939), and was then introduced into Scotland. He describes the Sufic origins of the Craftmasons’ guilds and the part played by Templar teaching and tradition in the transformation of these guilds into Freemasonry. Graves traced Sufi origins back to the second millennium BCE and recounted that their hidden wisdom was passed down the generations by a process of initiation, from master to pupil. He asserts that the role of the Sufi masters in building of Solomon’s Temple is a key point that is commemorated in Freemasonic ritual.” (The Enigma of the Freemasons by Tim Wallace-Murphy).
Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin 
If you are interested I can sent you some quotes from rituals we use in Dutch freemasonry. If you don’t know they were from masonic rituals you could think Sufis would have written them.
We considered keeping secrets a very important part of the path. Kashifi writes, “The disciple must keep the secrets of spiritual master and not disclose them to the uninitiated. He should not place the familiar coin in a stranger’s hand. Rumi says (verse): The Prophet said that whoever concealed secrets would quickly be joined with is heart’s desire; Learning the secret of the absent befits him who can seal his lips from speech.”
However, we live in the information age today, and these principles have been reduced to just that, principles. I would love to hear from you.
Indeed I take the secrets I have been entrusted seriously. The quotes I will sent you can not be understood by somebody outside of freemasonry. But they show the beauty of the Art, which I also (just as Sir Richard Burton) see as the Western version of the same essence as Sufism. Some Muslims have a negative opinion about freemasonry. By giving some of it ‘away’ I hope to build a bridge between the cultures, at least the esoteric cultures. The Prophet Muhammed also gave us the order to build bridges.