The Other Islam

 The Other Islam - Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony,
Hardback - 285 pages,
by Stephen Schwartz.



This eye-opening, insightful exploration of Sufism, the spiritual tradition that has supported Islam for more than a thousand years, shows why it offers a promising foundation for reconciliation between the Western and Muslim worlds.


Many Americans today identify Islam with maniacal hatred of the West. The Other Islam transforms this image and opens the way to finding common ground in our troubled times. Sufism, a blend of the mystical and rational tendencies within Islam, emerged soon after the revelation of Muhammad, May Allah bless him and grant him peace. A reforming movement against the increasing worldliness of Muslim society, it focuses on Islam’s spiritual dimension.


In The Other Islam, Stephen Schwartz traces the origins and history of Sufism, elucidates its teachings, and illustrates its links to the other religions. He comments on such celebrated Sufi poets and philosophers as Rumi and Al-Ghazali, and narrates their influence on the Kabbalah, on the descendants of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, and on Christian mystics like Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Ávila as well as the American transcendentalists.


Review:

Stephen Schwartz, author of the best-selling The Two Faces of Islam about Saudi Arabia and the bigoted Wahhabi cult, has recently published the story of Sufis in The Other Islam. The subtitle of Schwartz's book – Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony – is indicative of the importance of the subject in an era of Islamist terrorism and clash of civilizations.

In Schwartz's eloquent retelling of Islam's teachings through the lives of Sufi mystics – men and women who spare nothing of themselves in seeking to experience God in the here and now – the essential truth of Muhammad's, May Allah bless him and grant him peace, life shines forth.  

Muhammad, May Allah bless him and grant him peace, was transfigured by his encounter with Abraham's God into a great soul and yet, as the Sufis address him, he remained the most loving friend and trusted master of every common seeker of God's compassion. _{--- Salim Mansour, Toronto Sun}.