El-Ghazali: The Practical Mystic The twelfth-century philosopher and Sufi el-Ghazali quotes in his Book of Knowledge this line from el-Mutanabbi: ‘To the sick man, sweet water tastes bitter in the mouth.’ This could very well be taken as Ghazali’s motto. Eight hundred years before Pavlov, he pointed out and hammered home (often in engaging parables, … Read More
Ibn El-Arabi: A Classical Sufi Master by Peter Brent Born into a Sufi family almost exactly a hundred years after El-Ghazali, almost exactly forty years before Rumi, Ibn el-Arabi, like them, displayed great gifts even in childhood. Brought up in the heyday of Arabic Spain (paradoxically, one of the most civilised societies in European history) … Read More
The following excerpt is from a lecture by Idries Shah about the Sufi use of stories. It is a good example of how he used stories in context, in this case to explain something of the role of stories themselves – Saira Shah, Editor, The Idries Shah Anthology THE TEACHING STORY by Idries Shah I … Read More
The Meaning of Rumi’s Work by Peter Brent
Jalaluddin Rumi, whom Sufis call ‘The Master’ and Professor Fatemi entitles ‘The Light of Sufism’, was born in Balkh, now in Afghanistan, in 1207. His father was a famous scholar and theologian, so that Rumi’s early training was in the rigorously classical and logical modes.
Dr Mohammad Farid Bazger has overseen the distribution of hundreds of thousands of illustrated storybooks to children in Afghanistan, many of them traditional tales collected by Idries Shah.
Behind the door of my father’s study was a shelf. On that shelf were three piles, the contents of which were of immense interest to us three children.
I am hoping that what I am able to offer is what I received as a child, as the result of these stories: the world viewed temporarily through different eyes.
Saira Shah on taking her Father’s Sufi literature back ‘home’ – and searching in Old Istanbul for the right Turkish translator Stumbling through the streets of Istanbul, I wondered yet again if I was on the right path. Following handwritten directions scrawled on a crumpled piece of paper, I found myself instructed to pass under … Read More
Venture capitalist, philanthropist, author and poet Steven Nightingale argues that Idries Shah’s works on Sufism have a transcendental value allied with their practical and daily usefulness.
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