The Way of the Sufi: (American Edition)($13.99Value)

Description

The Way of the Sufi is the best-selling follow-up and complimentary work to Idries Shah’s first landmark book on the subject, The Sufis . Idries Shah’s, The Way of the Sufi is a compendium of traditional tales, poetry, epigrams, anecdotes and sayings from individual Sufis and Sufi schools over the last millennia. Shah’s work presents an unparalleled cross-section of Sufi teachings—from Morocco to Indonesia—as an introductory and basic course of Sufi study. Included are biographical sketches of some of the best-known Sufi masters from the classical Islamic period, and descriptions of four of the major Sufi orders: the Chisti, Qadiri, Suhrawardi and Naqshbandi schools. Shah considers attitudes to Sufi ideas, and evidence of their existence in other traditions. Medieval Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jewish mysticism and various modern philosophical teachings, the author shows us, all bear some imprint of Sufi influence. Shah’s comprehensive and well-sourced introduction conveys the essentially undefinable nature of Sufism, both through what outside observers have in part believed it to be, and also what it is not. Forming a matrix of disparate yet synergistic materials, The Way of the Sufi illuminates aspects of the Sufi tradition relevant to the contemporary world. "His work is as exciting as a good novel" — The Times Literary Supplement "More wisdom than I have found in any other book this year." —The Critics, BBC Radio "Like a door opening where one least expects it." — New York Times "It's seminal stuff, springing mines of suggestive ideas... A key book." — The Observer "A great many common Western distortions and misinterpretations are cleared away, and much valuable source material anthologized." — Tribune