What is Sufism ?

 What is Sufism ?
Slim Paperback - 132 pages,
by Martin Lings (aka 'Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din').


Description :

The title of this book is a question; and that question, as far as the Western world is concerned, has been given some dubious and suspect answers in recent years.


Moreover the rapidly expanding interest in Sufism increases still further the need for a reliable introductory book, introductory in the sense that it requires no special knowledge, and reliable in that it is not written any more simply than truth will allow. But though such a book may presuppose no special knowledge, it necessarily presupposes a deep and searching interest in spiritual things. More particularly, it presupposes at least an inkling of the possibility of direct inward perception-an inkling that may become a seed of aspiration. Or at the very least, it presupposes that the soul shall not be closed to this possibility.


Nearly 1000 years ago a great Sufi defined Sufism as 'taste', because its aim and its end could be summed up as direct knowledge of transcendent truths, such knowledge being,  insofar as its directness is concerned, more comparable to the experiences of the senses than to mental knowledge.



Contents :

---The Originality of Sufism, 
---The Universality of Sufism,
---The Book,
---The Messenger,   
---The Heart,   
---The Doctrine,
---The Method,
---The Exclusiveness of Sufism,
---Sufism throughout the Centuries,
---Index of Persons, Books, Titles and Places,   
---Index of Arabic Words.