Description
‘To express in the language of Sufism, that is, Islamic mysticism, some of the universal truths which lie at the heart of all religions’—this is the book’s avowed purpose. It came into being because the author was asked by a friend to set down in writing what he considered to be the most important things that a human being can know. He was also asked to make it very easy, and despite the depth of all that it contains, it has in fact a remarkable simplicity and clarity, due no doubt to the constant use of traditional imagery which awakens and penetrates the imagination.
‘The publishers claim this volume to be ‘the first authentic modern account of Sufic teaching written from within’. Every page bears out this claim, for the author is steeped in the esoteric teaching of the sufi sheikhs… It is both enjoyable and instructive to peruse his little volume.’
Prof. A. J. Arberry.
‘This book is an excellent introduction to Sufism, highly intelligent, balanced, lucid, well-written and in places really eloquent.’
Islamic Culture, Hyderabad.
‘Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din has bestowed upon the world a great benefaction in giving it this very important Sufic treatise, for, belonging as it does to our own time, it is easier for us to assimilate than are the treatises and commentaries of Sufis of old.’
Islamic Quarterly.
‘A wonderful, short and sweet discussion of symbols and the spiritual world… an important and significant window into the Sufi mode of speech.’
Journal of Islamic Studies.
‘There are indeed few works known to the author of this review which, in so small a space and in a manner so vivid and so free from abstruseness, have been able to present the basic ideas required by one minded to engage in the spiritual course with full intent and not merely out of that passing interest which stops short at theory.’
Marco Pallis, France-Asia.