An insightful pocket book containing a mishmash of Sufi stories and question-and-answer sessions, collected by R. Easterling and Kamil Hanafy.

Evenings with Idries Shah is a sampler of Sufi discussion meetings, where both instruction and carefully constructed stories for teaching purposes have been shared for thousands of years.

Although teaching stories often appear to be little more than entertaining fairy or folk tales, they enshrine – in their characters, plots, and imagery – patterns and relationships that nurture a part of the mind not reachable in more conventional ways. Familiarising ourselves with these yarns can increase our understanding, flexibility, and breadth of vision.

Shocking, often funny, peppered with uncommon common sense, this far-reaching little book can facilitate a deeper perception in the reader.

EASTERN CULTS

Q: Legitimate Sufi study is anything but a cult; but what is to be the eventual effect of the imported Eastern ones on the West?

A: People import the most peculiar cults from the East, clean them up a little, and package them for use in the West. When people from Europe and America go eastwards, they usually become rather silent about what they have found, on their return. If they only knew how one animal can appear to be another, as in a famous joke, they might think twice before getting involved. Because there are few admonitions about this matter already in Western culture – on the whole only threats from bigots trying to preserve their own frightful cults – people don’t suspect the dangers until the cult has done its work.

We have found it useful to use a gentler, allegorical method. I quote the dog-fight legend:

There was once a man walking a very funny-looking dog who met another man with a champion bulldog, in some fields.

‘I bet you my dog can beat yours,’ said the owner of the bulldog.

‘Not likely,’ challenged the other man. So they started them fighting, for
a wager.

Within three minutes the strange beast had practically eaten the bulldog alive. Paying his money over, the bulldog’s master said: ‘That’s a very strange-looking animal you have there – mustard-coloured, with a huge face...’

‘Yes,’ said the other man, ‘but you should have seen him before I cut off his mane and clipped his tail...’

We shall see, in the West, what the result is to be when the ‘lion’ starts to maraud...

From Evenings with Idries Shah by Idries Shah Copyright © The Estate of Idries Shah

Idries Shah was born in India in 1924 into an aristocratic Afghan family. He was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition and is considered one of the leading thinkers of the 20th century.

Shah devoted his life to collecting, translating and adapting key works of Sufi classical literature for the needs of the West. Called by some 'practical philosophy' - these works represent centuries of Sufi and Islamic thought aimed at developing human potential. His best-known works include the seminal book The Sufis, several collections of teaching stories featuring the ‘wise fool’ Nasrudin, Reflections and Knowing How to Know.

Shah's corpus - over three dozen books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and cultural studies - have been translated into two dozen languages and have sold millions of copies around the world. They are regarded as an important bridge between the cultures of East and West.