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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 181
EAN num: 9780863040832
ISBN number: 0863040837
Label: Octagon Press, Limited
Manufacturer: Octagon Press, Limited
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: September 30, 2004
Publishing house: Octagon Press, Limited
Sale Popularity Level: 861529
Studio: Octagon Press, Limited
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Product Description:
A selection of excerpts from Sufi masters clarifying the philosophy of Sufism.
Amazon.com Review:
'Dominion of the earth from end to end is worth less than a drip of blood upon the earth.' Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam that teaches love, humility, poverty, pragmatism and wisdom. In his timeless introduction, Idries Shah presents selections of lyric poems, fantastic tales, humorous anecdotes, and insightful maxims straight from the writings of revered Sufi masters. Originally a reaction against the increasing worldliness of Islam, Sufi wisdom still hits home in a modern world obsessed with pleasure and material wealth.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I read this book while traveling Europe alone and it anchored me during that time. For whatever reason, being out of my ordinary environment and with a lot of alone time made much of it sink in. The Way of the Sufi samples wisdom from several periods of Sufi history. Perhaps not unexpectedly I found the writings of some of the sages resonated more with me than others. Not one to usually like rereading books, I found myself thumbing back to the same stories and rereading them again later, plucking different layers of meaning off with each new immersion. Many of the stories read like fables. All are succint and provide ample fodder for reflection and thought.
I love this book. I have ordered copy after copy but they keep dissapearing into the hands of my friends and fellow travelers...
Rated by buyers -
The Way Of The Sufi is an anthology of material from Sufi Schools, teachings, and classical writings, intended as a basic introductory course in Sufi study. Author Idries Shah, well-known for expounding upon Sufi ideas and his work to make Sufi teachings accessible to a Western audience, presents contemporary readers with both outward aspects of Sufi thought and evidence that Sufi principles were absorbed into medieval Christianity, Hinduism, Jewish mysticism, and modern philosophical teachings. A very welcome and timely contribution to Religious Studies collections and reading lists, Idries Shah's The Way Of The Sufi not only focuses upon what Sufi is, but also the role Sufi activity and practice has to play in the modern the world.
Rated by buyers -
This book is a great source of information and history on Sufism. A scholarly work, published very first in 1970, it is still pertinent to today.
It opens with an important chapter on the study of Sufism in the Western world -- and its limitations.
Shah raises questions about how much one can learn and understand about Sufism, using books and writings which may not fully understand how Sufism works. As one example, he uses modern Western debates on the meaning of the word "Sufi". Westerners, with our determination that there is an understandable and intellectual explanation for everything, often cannot accept that there may not be a 'logical' explanatin.
As explained in the eleventh -century Revelation, the earliest Persian writings on Sufism by Hujwiri, the term 'Sufi' has no etymology.
But for decades, a common explanation by Westerners is that
'Sufi' is similar to the Arabic word pronounced soof which means 'wool'. Those practicing Sufism wore wool, therefore this is the logical explanation.
(Shah submits that the reason common among Sufis is that the effects of sounds are important in Sufism -- and the sound of the Arabic letters which bring out the sounds of S U F are significant to the Sufis in their practices).
This short chapter is full of useful thoughts for modern day Western "Sufis" , with cautions and thoughts about what Sufism is, how it is understood and much more. He ends the chapter with a list of requirements for Western students studying Sufism -
1. Understand the bulk of translations available are unsuitable 2. seek authorative written and oral information and activities designed by Sufis to operate in the student's own culture and times
3. Recognize organizations not genuinely Sufi are 'conditioning instruments' whether consciously or otherwise
4. be prepared to abandon preconceptions about what it means to 'study'
5. decide whether the student's search is or is not a disguised search for social integration, a manifestation of sheer curiosity, a desire for emotionial stimulus or statisfactin?
6. credit the possibility that there is a conscious, efficient, deliberate source of legitimate Sufic teaching in the West.
(These seem to be true and good questions for any Seeker to ask, of any religious practice)
This is all in the very first chapter, and more - worth the price of the book just to read that section. But, there is of course, much more. Shah states the intent of this book is to give geeral reader an idea of the richness and variety of Sufi ideas, and the rest of the writings have been formed as an introduction to Westerners in the mid-20th century, when the book was written.
Next is a section on Classic Authors with quotes and short biographical/historical/philosophical information about these authors. Twelfth century philosopher El-Ghazali, Omar Khayyam, Attar of Nishapar, Ibn El-Arabi, Saadi of Shiraz, Hakim Jami, Hakim Sanai, Jalaludin Rumi are touched on.
The subsequent section is Four Major Orders, with short explanations of 1) The Chishti Order 2) The Qardi Order 3) The Suhrawardi Order and 4) The Naqshbandi Order.
There are also stories of Sufi Masters, teaching stories, themes for solitary contemplation, group recitals and letters and lectures (very short, at the end).
My Turkish daughter in law when introduced to American Sufis in our Quaker meeting looked puzzled -- they did not seem closely related to the Sufis she is familiar with. This book may explain why.
Rated by buyers 
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Noting still another news report about a wave of interest in the West over 'Sufism' it is worth both endorsing the study of such things, e.g. via Idries Shah, and sounding a word of caution, if not a warning. Shah's works are all worth reading, and then setting aside, because they will leave you stranded. The world of Islamic Sufism is obscure to a westerner, and he takes the surface, and that surface is worthless. It is also obscure to a Moslem in the labyrinth of mystifications. Get some groovy music, and whirl around all night with some friends. It will definitely change your view of things, so what? Is it worth the endless effort of find the 'real' thing? I would bet that not one Islamic 'sufi' in a hundred thousand ever encounters the 'real' thing. Is there such? Note that texts on Sufism never say anything directly about anything, its all covered over. You can go a lot farther these days in a New Age bookshop.
This system is not a democracy, and the few celebrity cases strewn over a millennium does not add up to a way of transformation. The touching portrait of the underground sufi is misleading. The real establishment of Islam has a surprising secret and the escape valve sufism peddled to moslems and westerners alike deserves an Foucauldian expose. Face it, 'mysticism' is cheaper than hashish, and has no overhead, a substitute for the real business of understanding the issue of one's self-consciousness. That doesn't happen through systems designed to dish out mystic pablum. Thus, there are better documened ways to do that without getting inducted into the sufi wild goose chase, with its cynical and elusive promotions.
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In any case, Shah's works often give a glimpse of an interesting historical world, but give no real indication of anything practical and are too obviously baited hooks for the unwary.
Rated by buyers -
I won't say that this book is not worth reading, but I do think that you will walk away from it feeling that it was oddly antiseptic. It has a lengthy introduction, most of which is almost unintelligible unless you have already read Mr. Shah's book "The Sufis." The rest of the book consists of snippets taken from the writings of the great Sufi masters, mostly of the Medieval period. Some of them are rather intriguingly exotic, as if taken from the "Arabian Nights." Some of them seem to express disarmingly fresh and modern views.
Just about all of them are completely divorced from their context, and I find that objectionable. I found this particularly annoying in his treatment of Rumi, but that may be because I'm more familiar with his work than any of the other writers in the book.
Perhaps I am just missing Mr. Shah's point. Or maybe I'm just not the mystical type. However, I do know that I have opened this book at random many times in hope of spiritual nourishment and I always put it down again after a few pages; I don't think that I've ever been able to read the whole thing straight through. While I have respect for Mr. Shah within the Sufi community, if I can use that term, I found this book to be - well, rather boring.
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