SUFISM
“Sufism, Taṣawwuf, which is the esoteric or inward (bāṭin) aspect of Islam, is to be distinguished from exoteric or “external” (ẓāhir) Islam just as direct contemplation of spiritual or divine realities is distinguishable from the fulfilling of the laws which translate them in the individual order in connection with the conditions of a particular phase of humanity. Whereas the ordinary way of believers is directed towards obtaining a state of blessedness after death, a state which may be attained through indirect and, as it were, symbolical participation in Divine Truths by carrying out prescribed works, Sufism contains its end or aim within itself in the sense that it can give access to direct knowledge of the eternal.”
~Titus Burckhardt~
Featured Books & Articles
Lectures
Classical Texts of Sufism
- A Kind Word in Response to those who Reject Sufism by Shakh al-Alawi
- Alchemy of Happiness by Imam Al-Ghazali
- Sawanih by Ahmad Ghazali
- Selections from Ahmad al-Ghazali’s Sawanih by Joseph Lumbard
- Fusus Al Hikam (Arabic) by Ibn Arabi
- Fusus Al-Hikam (English) by Ibn Arabi
- Ibn Arabi’s Own Summary of the Fusus Translated by William C. Chittick
- ON MAJESTY AND BEAUTY The Kitâb Al-Jalal Wa-l Jamal of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi
- Extracts from the Letters of Shaikh Al-`Arabi Ad-Darqawi Translated by Titus Burckhardt
- The Book of Assistance by Imam al-Haddad
- Al-Hikam (Sufi Aphorisms) of Ibn ‘Ata Allah al-Iskandari
- Conference of the Birds by Faridudin Attar
- Tadhkirat al-Awliya by Farid al-Din Attar (Muslim Saints and Mystics) Translated by A. J. Arberry
- Rashid al-Din Maybudi’s Kashf al-Asrar – Tr. William Chittick
- The Wine Song (Khamriyyah) of Ibn al-Farid
- The Tawasin of Mansur al-Hallaj
- Bidayat al-Hidaya (Beginning of Guidance) by Imam al-Ghazali (Book)
- Discourses of Rumi (Fihi Ma Fihi) Translated by A. J. Arberry
- Forty Hadith on Sufism by Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami
Articles on Sufism
- The Experience and Doctrine of Love in Ibn Arabi by Claude Addas
- On the Divine Love of Beauty by Pablo Beneito
- The Imprint of the Bezels of the Wisdom – Ibn Arabi’s own summary of the Fusus al-Hikam translated by William Chittick
- The Perfect Man as the Prototype of the Self in the Sufism of Jami by William C. Chittick
- The Circle of Spiritual Ascent According to al-Qunawi by William C. Chittick
- The Divine Roots of Human Love by William C. Chittick
- The Evolutionary Psychology of Jalal al-Din Rumi by William C. Chittick
- Reason, Intellect, and Consciousness in Islamic Thought by William C. Chittick
- The Nature of Man, Universal Man By William Chittick
- Themes of Love in Islamic Mystical Theology by William Chittick
- The Need for Need by William C. Chittick
- The Bodily Positions of the Ritual Prayer by William Chittick
- Friendship and Love in Islamic Spirituality by William C. Chittick
- Mysticism versus Philosophy in Earlier Islamic History: The Al-Tusi, Al-Qunawi Correspondence by William C. Chittick
- Visionary Dreams in Islamic Spirituality by Henry Corbin
- Practical Sufism an Akbarian Foundation by Vincent Cornell
- Women and the Feminine in the Islamic Mystical Tradition by Maria Masse Dakake
- Guest of the Inmost Heart, Conceptions of the Divine Beloved among Early Sufi Women by Maria M.Dakake
- Islamic Mysticism by Victor Danner
- Controversies over Ibn Arabi’s Fusus: The Faith of Pharaoh by Carl W. Ernst
- Haqiqa and Sharia in Islam by Rene Guenon (Shaykh Abd al-Wahid Yahya)
- The Encounter with Mystery by John Herlihy
- Ibn Sina and Mysticism – Part 4 of the Isharaat wa Tanbihaat Translated by Shams Inati
- Is God Obliged to Answer Prayers of Petition, The Response of Classical Sufis and Quranic Exegetes by A. Khalil
- Tawba in the Sufi Psychology of Abu Talib al-Makki by Atif Khalil
- The Divine-Human Interplay of Gratitude in the Non-Dualism of Ibn al-Arabi by A. Khalil
- Prayers of Supplication (Dua) in Classical Islam by Atif Khalil
- Sufism and Orientalism by Atif Khalil & Shiraz Sheikh
- Islam: Sufism and Poetry by Patrick Laude
- The Method by Martin Lings
- Sufi Answers to Questions on Ultimate Reality by Martin Lings
- From Hubb to ‘Ishq – The Development of Love in Early Sufism by Joseph Lumbard
- Women of Light in Sufism by Sachiko Murata
- Al-Tariqah – the Spiritual Path of Islam by Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1965)
- Sufism and the Perennity of the Mystical by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
- The Complementarity of Contemplative and Active Lives in Islam by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
- God Is Reality – Metaphysical Knowledge and Spiritual Realization by Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1984)
- The Complementarity of Contemplative and Active Lives in Islam by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
- Psychology, Eschatology, and Imagination in Mulla Sadra’s commentary on the Hadith of Awakening by Mohammed Rustom
- Approaches to Proximity and Distance in Early Sufism by Muhammed Rustom
- Beyond Metaphysical Idolatry by Mohammed Rustom
- Ibn Arabi on Proximity and Distance by Muhammed Rustom
- Forms of Gnosis in Sulami’s Sufi Exegesis of the Fatiha by Muhammed Rustom
- The Ocean of Nonexistence by Muhammed Rustom
- The Sufi Teachings of Dhul Nun by Muhammad Rustom
- Philosophical Sufism (Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy, 2016) by Mohammed Rustom
- Dawud al-Qaysari-Notes on his Life, Influence and Reflections on the Muhammadan Reality by Muhammed Rustom
- Forms of Gnosis in Sulami’s Sufi Exegesis of the Fatiha by Muhammed Rustom
- Remarks on the Sunnah by Frithjof Schuon
- The Two Paradises by Frithjof Schuon
- The Three Dimensions of Sufism by Frithjof Schuon
- The Spiritual Virtues by Frithjof Schuon
- The Three Dimensions of Sufism by Frithjof Schuon
- Remarks on the Sunnah by Fritjof Schuon
- Norms and Paradoxes in Spiritual Alchemy by Frithjof Schuon
- Jesus in the Quran: Selfhood and Compassion – An Akbari Perspective by Reza Shah-Kazemi