THE GARDEN OF TRUTH
The Vision and Promise of Sufism: Islam’s Mystical Tradition
A result of over fifty years of scholarly study of existential participation in Sufism, this volume presents to the reader a Sufi text written in English and using contemporary language. Though based on profound scholarship, it is not a history of Sufism or just an academic work on the subject. After some two centuries of study of Sufism in the West, with the appearance of many translations, analyses, histories, and some profound expositions of Sufi metaphysics, and given an ever greater interest in Sufism by certain Westerners, it was necessary to write, not just another book about Sufism, but a Sufi book. It is necessary to present the reality of Sufism as did the authorities of old, but in a manner accessible to the present-day serious Western seeker or Western-educated Muslim seeker, even if such a person has no previous knowledge of the subject. This book deals with universal truths of interest to those attracted to the life of the Spirit and in light of the human condition in general, presenting them from within the spiritual and intellectual universe of Sufism while providing a means of access to that universe and revealing some of its riches. It is concerned not so much with the cultural and civilization role of Sufism as with the souls of men and women in quest of the Truth and seeks to present the realities of Sufism while keeping in mind the concrete spiritual and intellectual needs of contemporary men and women in both East and West.
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