Idries Shah
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Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Sufis
"Perhaps the best introduction to the body of Shah’s work, the most comprehensively informative. And one is immediately forced to use one’s mind in a new way."
- The New York Times
- The New York Times
When it first appeared in 1964, The Sufis was welcomed as the decisive work on the subject: rich in scope, clearly explaining the traditions and philosophy of the Sufis to a Western audience for the first time.
In the five decades since its release, the book has been translated into dozens of languages, and has found a wide readership in both East and West.
In the five decades since its release, the book has been translated into dozens of languages, and has found a wide readership in both East and West.
It is used as a text in scores of leading universities around the world, and the material contained within it has been applied by psychologists and physicists, by school teachers, lawyers, social workers, and by ordinary members of the public.
Ted Hughes wrote of it: "An astonishing book. The Sufis must be the biggest society of sensible men on earth"; and Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said of it: "I had waited my entire life to read this book."
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"... an astonishing book ... The Sufis must be the biggest society of sensible men there has ever been on earth." -- Ted Hughes, The Listener, October 29, 1964
"... incredibly rich in scope and fine detail ... a major cultural and psychological event of our time." -- Professor Robert E. Ornstein, Psychology Today, July 1973
"... its influence is spreading where long overdue - among scientists, psychiatrists, biologists ... a way of relearning to use the mind ..." -- The American Scholar, Spring 1970
"... vastness of learning and exposition that calls to our patience - and perhaps to our loss if it calls in vain." -- Stevie Smith, The Observer, November 1, 1964
"...more extraordinary the more it is studied, because what it states about a subject which is by definition beyond verbalization." -- Doris Lessing, Encounter: Books & Writers, August 1972
"...the best introduction to the body of Shah's work...one is ... forced to use one's mind in a new way." -- Doris Lessing, New York Times Book Review, May 7, 1971
"Important historically and culturally." -- Los Angeles Times
"Incredibly rich in scope and fine detail." -- Psychology Today
"The book has flashes of what (without intending to define the word) I can only call illumination." -- D. J. Enright, New Statesman
"The first fully authoritative book on Sufism and the human-development system of the 'dervishes'..." -- Afghanistan News, May 1964
"... incredibly rich in scope and fine detail ... a major cultural and psychological event of our time." -- Professor Robert E. Ornstein, Psychology Today, July 1973
"... its influence is spreading where long overdue - among scientists, psychiatrists, biologists ... a way of relearning to use the mind ..." -- The American Scholar, Spring 1970
"... vastness of learning and exposition that calls to our patience - and perhaps to our loss if it calls in vain." -- Stevie Smith, The Observer, November 1, 1964
"...more extraordinary the more it is studied, because what it states about a subject which is by definition beyond verbalization." -- Doris Lessing, Encounter: Books & Writers, August 1972
"...the best introduction to the body of Shah's work...one is ... forced to use one's mind in a new way." -- Doris Lessing, New York Times Book Review, May 7, 1971
"Important historically and culturally." -- Los Angeles Times
"Incredibly rich in scope and fine detail." -- Psychology Today
"The book has flashes of what (without intending to define the word) I can only call illumination." -- D. J. Enright, New Statesman
"The first fully authoritative book on Sufism and the human-development system of the 'dervishes'..." -- Afghanistan News, May 1964
From the Publisher
Idries Shah's definitive work, "The Sufis", completely overturned Western misconceptions of Sufism, revealing a great spiritual and psychological tradition encompassing many of the world's greatest thinkers: Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Ibn El-Arabi, Al-Ghazzali, Saadi, Attar, Francis of Assisi and many others.The astonishing impact of Sufism on the development of Western civilization from the seventh century is traced through the work of Roger Bacon, John of the Cross, Raymond Lully, Chaucer and others. Many of the greatest traditions, ideas and discoveries of the West are traced to the teachings and writings of Sufi masters working centuries ago.
But "The Sufis" is far more than an historical account. In the tradition of the great Sufi classics, the deeper appeal of this remarkable book is in its ability to function as an active instrument of instruction, in a way that is so clearly relevant to our time and culture.
The spiritual and psychological tradition of Sufism was regarded, before this pioneering book was published, as the preserve of ecstatic religionists and a small number of Oriental scholars, who treated it in the main as a minority cult. The false image of Sufism as a mere Islamic sect was changed so much by this book that it is now given serious attention as a psychological and mystical system of extraordinary richness and importance.
Today, studies in Sufism, notably through Shah's research and publication, are pursued in centers of higher learning throughout the world, in the fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and many other areas of current human concern.
"The Sufis" is the pivotal work which heralded the revelation of the astonishing richness and variety of Sufi thought and its contribution to human culture contained in Idries Shah's many books on the subject.
See all Editorial Reviews
Ulrika Eriksson
24-06-2016
The Sufis is laudable and audible and readable In my ongoing self-bettering work I have read The Sufis many, many times since the first in 1996. The Sufis is a book about Sufism from an inside perspective and when it first came out in the west 1964 there were no other books like it. What was written about Sufism was written by scholars and orientalists from an outside perspective.
The Sufis records Sufism's influence on human society in Asia, Europe, India, Japan and China, mainly from the 7th century and onwards but Sufism is part of human history right from its beginning. Some periods, like ours, it has been able to work more in the open than others. Important Sufis like Rumi, Ibn el Arabi, Saadi of Shiraz, Ghazzali, Khayyam and many others are presented.
Ulrika Eriksson
24-06-2016
The Sufis is laudable and audible and readable In my ongoing self-bettering work I have read The Sufis many, many times since the first in 1996. The Sufis is a book about Sufism from an inside perspective and when it first came out in the west 1964 there were no other books like it. What was written about Sufism was written by scholars and orientalists from an outside perspective.
The Sufis records Sufism's influence on human society in Asia, Europe, India, Japan and China, mainly from the 7th century and onwards but Sufism is part of human history right from its beginning. Some periods, like ours, it has been able to work more in the open than others. Important Sufis like Rumi, Ibn el Arabi, Saadi of Shiraz, Ghazzali, Khayyam and many others are presented.
Sufism is not accessible through ordinary rational and logical thinking and so it cannot be understood just by reading books but they can serve as a bridge, leading from the ordinary, attenuated or embryonic human consciousness into greater perception and realization, writes Idries Shah. So I keep on reading.
Shah also stresses the necessity for the seeker to find a guide, a task with many pitfalls.
Many thanks to The Idries Shah foundation for relaunching the works of Idries Shah, both in printed form and as eBooks.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful
7 of 8 people found this review helpful
ShahDecember 30, 2015
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Until 1964, when “The Sufis” was published, Sufism was mostly the preserve of scholars, at least in the West. “The Sufis” began a new era, opening a window on Sufi activity, history and influence. Shah presents new information in an accessible way, and many readers feel that it’s a book they’ve been looking for. Stories, history, unusually lucid perspectives on human nature and spirituality, and challenges to assumptions and established ways of thinking, are intertwined throughout, eventually combining to produce a special kind of reading experience.
“The Sufis” begins with the story of “The Islanders.” This is a “teaching story;” Shah’s name for a form of literature whose internal structure and dynamics can support and provoke experience in the reader (a Sufi speciality). Sometimes the learning happens at the time of reading, when the story helps us make sense of perceptions and experiences. Often, as Desmond Morris, author of “The Naked Ape” and ”The Human Zoo” observed, it’s a delayed effect that happens when we encounter situations in life that evoke a story. Morris is one of the leading observers of human nature who has commented on Shah’s work; others include author Doris Lessing, psychiatrist and author Arthur Deikman, and psychologist and author Robert Ornstein.
After “The Islanders” sets the stage, “The Travelers and the Grapes”—another teaching story—opens a discussion of the contextual background. Here we start to look at the history of interaction of cultures; often concealed because spiritual practices not sanctioned by the authorities could have brought severe penalties over the last thousand years or so. Here we also begin to see the Sufi approach to spiritual development; which I’ve found to be unparalleled in lucidity about human nature.
The chapter on “The Elephant in the Dark,” based on Rumi’s story, continues the intertwining of narrative, perspectives on human nature, and intercultural history. Then we meet the joke-figure Mulla Nasrudin, “one of the strangest achievements in the history of metaphysics,” whose antics illustrate “situations in which certain states of mind are made clear;” usually when he’s acting the idiot. Subsequent chapters introduce classical Sufis, including Rumi, Attar, Omar Khayyam, ibn el-Arabi, and el-Ghazzali, and trace the influence of Sufi thought and action on Western figures (such as Chaucer and St. Francis) and groups. We also meet the work of Western Sufis, such as Richard Burton (whose “Kasidah,” a remarkable poem of great depth, is reviewed), and are introduced to The Dervish Orders, The Creed of Love, Magic and Miracles, and more.
Of course, over the five decades since its publication, some things have changed. In his discussion of Sufi orders, which do not need traditional buildings and grounds except as required by local economic and political conditions, Shah mentions that “one Arabic publishing company is a Sufi organization. In some areas all the industrial and agricultural workers are Sufis.” This might have changed in the political, economic and military upheavals of the past fifty years, but the principle remains the same; the “order” is in the hearts and networks of people. The “beautiful tomb,” of the great teacher Data Ganj Bakhsh (Ali el-Hujwiri), in Lahore, “venerated by people of all creeds,” was bombed by terrorists in 2010. The Idries Shah Foundation print and Kindle editions of “The Sufis” omit the original Introduction by Robert Graves (I like Grave’s commentary but “The Sufis” is complete without it).
Still, five decades after its publication, “The Sufis” continues to be relevant. At first reading, and later re-readings after intervals, “The Sufis” continues to pack advanced spiritual psychology, eye-opening history, and impacts that both confirm and extend perceptions, and highlight and disconfirm prejudices and assumptions, into a special reading experience.
posted by Jay Einhorn, PhD, LCPC, www.psychatlarge.com
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D. Wood
5.0 out of 5 starsPractical Knowledge for EveryoneMarch 2, 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
In “The Sufis” Idries Shah does not hold his punches. Straight out of the gate he states, “Humanity is asleep, concerned only with what is useless, living in a wrong world.” Shah strips from Sufism any of the woo woo spirituality often attached to mysticism from the east. Shah grounds his projection of Sufism in the practical - knowledge we all could use. Yet the reader will likely not see this practicality right away because Shah conveys this knowledge through teaching stories. The reader will likely confuse teaching stories with children tales. They aren’t. Teaching stories expose the muddled mind that stands between the normal human and their full potential. Let me illustrate my point with my favorite story from the Sufis.
On one occasion a neighbor found Nasrudin down on his knees looking for something. “What have you lost, Mulla?”
“My key,” said Nasrudin.
After a few minutes of searching, the other man said, “Where did you drop it?”
“At home.”
“Then why, for heaven’s sake, are you looking here?”
“There is more light here.”
Shah, Idries. The Sufis (p. 76). ISF Publishing. Kindle Edition.
The reader would do well to look for the key that they lost here in “The Sufis.” 5 Stars
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Pablo R. Vitaver
5.0 out of 5 starsPowerful insight into one of the world’s most secretive and ...July 27, 2018
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Powerful insight into one of the world’s most secretive and esoteric schools of thought (to simplify with a standard definition, they would not agree with such a narrow scope as ‘thought’)
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Steve Diput
5.0 out of 5 starsHis first and fundamental book on SufismJune 22, 2014
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Mostly I am responding to the review by Wrightson, who sounds like an anti-Shah crusader, perhaps jealous that his pitiful and venomous self-published book does not sell – I could not persuade any of my local libraries to buy it while all of them, both public and academic ones, carry MANY books by Idries Shah.
I think he confuses Sufism with some systems with which Sufism does not share much, and then he expresses his disappointment that he did not get what he wanted but what is actually there. It is like expecting some intoxicant but discovering that you get nutritious substance but without the expected kick. So, he actually fights his own demons but why he involves the book The Sufis and the most remarkable teacher Idries Shah is incomprehensible to an objective observer. The real Sufism is not some kind of either intellectual speculation or religious emotion. It is a pragmatic system which can lead the honest to self-development, to transcending ordinary confusion, from being as it were blind to Reality.
Non-Sufis and fake Sufis are AT BEST people who (to continue the analogy) are blind but through frequent bumping into objects (our ordinary trial and error existence) memorized what is located where in order to avoid future painful collisions. Such a system can be used as an ersatz of real perceptions but in the fluid world the ‘memorized location of objects’ is constantly changes. Therefore this method of living is far from being efficient, as we can see in our daily lives (full of painful mistakes and misunderstanding) and by watching/reading the news, usually about bad things. We ALL use such a system because we do not know how to develop ‘sight’.
Thus comparing Sufism to anything else but itself, as Wrightson does, is a misunderstanding. All these other systems are not capable of leading the seeker to developing “the sixth sense”. And they are NOT a source of Sufi inspiration, Sufism does not owe anything to them whatever the superficial similarities. These other systems are fossils of what once might have been a living school, as contemporary Sufism is. Nowadays, they have only mostly cultural, anthropological, historical, quasi-religious or other significance, but they have nothing to do with what Shah describes and what Wrightson does is worse than comparing apples and oranges.
The Sufi books do not function as a source of secrets how to go to heaven or to live heavenly life here and now. I remember talking to a manager of an ‘esoteric’ bookstore who said that Idries Shah just teases but never openly says how things are. This eager would-be ‘esotericist’ craves to be told what to memorize and use, as in a secret society or something. He barks up the wrong tree.
The secret is that there is no secret of THIS type. The books, plus guidance and HONEST effort may lead to the ability of seeing this secret by developing the skill, the ability, the organ of seeing. How could you explain to a country bumpkin an intricate scientific concept? He needs to go to appropriate schools first, to build a foundation. There is a wonderful analogy to that in the tale of The Algonquin Cinderella in another book by Idries Shah World Tales. Only the honest youngest sister can see the Invisible One. The only reviewer here who gave the book only one star (and he also did it with other books by Idries Shah) is perhaps angry that he is like the older sisters of Cinderella: they may desire to see the Invisible One but have not developed the prerequisite ‘sixth sense’, they did not have what it takes. The hopeful thing is, that the older sisters, at one level of interpretation, can be seen as older selves, can be transcended, can actually morph into the youngest sister, capable of seeing the Invisible One. Can the angry crusader undergo such a metamorphosis? Of course. Epiphanies on the road to Damascus happen more often than we think. Here is your chance Wrightson. Are you a sincere seeker after truth or just a desperate peddler of your own claptrap?
But I should not confront your ghoul so directly, as you can read in The Riddles, one of stories in Shah’s World Tales. It can help. It did help me. I was perhaps as full of air as you are. What a relief it was when my ghoul collapsed under its own weight like the Soviet Union.
Unless the reader becomes like Cinderella, they have no chance of success and there musings lead nowhere, which may cause eruptions of anger, depression, disbelief and many other emotions except the only result that matters: seeing.
A good method of increasing one's suitability for the Teaching is by being generous. It helps to eliminate anger, greed and self-esteem which are major stumbling blocks on the road to develop new perceptions. These perceptions are not esoteric in the sense that everyone has them to some degree in his own area of expertise, either his profession or hobby. The Way of the Sufi (yet another book by Idries Shah) is a specific methodology which helps one find higher perceptions in all areas of life, going beyond one’s forte. Good luck to the honest seekers.
Of course honesty is not necessarily inborn, so do not despair, you can develop it. Start by choosing the title which is in the format which you already like, otherwise you will start with an additional handicap, on top of all the other ones which we already have with all our fascination-cum-worries of the phenomenal world.
With time and practice you can transcend your ordinary anxieties and your linear thinking. But not if you are greedy for quick results, even disguised (dishonestly) as search for truth (Seeker After Truth may disabuse you of such ideas).
I just discovered on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sufis) more specific information about The Sufis new edition made available for the 50th anniversary of the original publication.
This is Shah's first and fundamental presentation of Sufism in the West where in the last century only scarce authentic knowledge was available (like his father's books) or one could find only uninformed and superficial accounts of a scholarly "orientalist" type.
Here, one can find out how Sufism has been invisibly influencing the world affairs for millenia, perhaps starting with antiquity, including the Greek ancient philosophers of our own tradition.
Shah was attacked by entrenched interests but he has proven by his own life and publications that real Sufism is alive and that any other form is just imitation, whether piously religious or academic.
One can read about Sufism or in Sufism, but a historian of, say, medicine is usually not capable of purforming a surgery on you. To whom would you rather go for consultation? Probably a surgeon rather than a historian, however bright and entertaining.
Same in the most important area of your own development, your own understanding of where you came from and where will you go.
Ordinarily, we in the West have had a choice of believing the religious myths or, seeing their inadequacy, becoming atheists or agnostics. Shah provides the better, and the only real, alternative: knowledge which may come if the intended receiver has become capable of receiving. Sufism is a miracle as if teaching my dog how to read, talk and reason. If I can admit that I am relatively as stuipid vis-a-vis the real mechanisms of life as my dog is relative to reading - then I can start from this posture of humility, having emptied myself of dirty water to admit the clean one.
Enjoy. Perhaps at first only at the level of clearing the underbrush and admitting new information.
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J. Rosett
5.0 out of 5 starsgreat translation, captures the poetry and humorApril 27, 2018
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Always has been a terrific book and still is if you want to get a glimpse of this very dynamic veiw into the history and essence of Sufism from a Sufi master who is now deceased.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsA classic sacred tome I purchased for a friend because ...April 20, 2018
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A classic sacred tome I purchased for a friend because I could not part with my own copy. Received before projected date of arrival.
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Malamati
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Caged Indian BirdJuly 8, 2006
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A woman owns a talking parrot that came from India. She's about to visit that country, and asks the bird if he'd like her to do anything. He asks for his freedom, but the woman says 'No.' So he asks her to find his relatives and tell them he's a prisoner.
When she gets back, the bird asks about his relatives. She says, "Sorry. When I told them you were in a cage, one of them dropped dead at my feet on the spot."
At this, the parrot stiffens, twirls on his perch, and drops dead at the bottom of the cage. The woman picks him up, sees no signs of life, and lays his limp body on the windowsill--and the bird snaps to life and flies to freedom in a nearby tree.
He turns to his mistress and says, "You thought you were bringing bad news from my relatives--but in fact, you carried a message from them that told me how to escape."
The Sufis say that humans are "caged," too, but have a real self that is naturally free. This self is chained by "jealous owners," so the means of escape must be signalled in a way that is obvious, but disguised and subtle: rather like an "open secret" that can slip past (and even be delivered by) the guards, but be recognized and put to use by those who are watching for it.
"The Sufis" contains many things, and people see it in many ways. Some praise, some dismiss. The book itself says Sufi teaching can provoke scorn and praise, irritation and delight--even in the same reader--but such reactions are irrelevant. The real question is, "Can the intended reader use and gain from the material?"
As the Indian Bird said, "You thought you were bringing bad news, but in reality, you gave me the hint I needed to escape."
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Cheryl A. Stephison
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Complete Guide to Sufis and SufismJuly 28, 2013
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I rate this book highly because I have used it for years as a resource for my own studies. After wearing out one copy I have bought a replacement. Shah carefully follows the origins and growth of Sufism from it's earliest inception in antiquity throught it's blossoming in the 7th though the 9th centuries and into the present. He lays out many overlooked or obscure references. I would recommend the book to anyone wanting to learn about Sufism or anyone needing a resource.
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JTHeyman
4.0 out of 5 starsA good place to start but not a final resourceNovember 25, 2015
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Begins really well, becomes a bit dry and dull by the end, occasionally slips into claiming lots of famous people as Sufis even if they never said they were Sufis, but gives a good starting point for anyone seriously interested in studying Sufis.
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Pam
5.0 out of 5 starsFive StarsFebruary 6, 2018
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I have only started this book, but it is definitely informative for all seekers.
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The Sufis
by
Idries Shah,
Robert Graves (Introduction)
4.22 · Rating details · 844 ratings · 77 reviews
Idries Shah's definitive work, The Sufis, completely overturned Western misconceptions of Sufism, revealing a great spiritual and psychological tradition encompassing many of the world's greatest thinkers: Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Ibn El-Arabi, Al-Ghazzali, Saadi, Attar, Francis of Assisi and many others.
The astonishing impact of Sufism on the development of Western civilization from the seventh century is traced through the work of Roger Bacon, John of the Cross, Raymond Lully, Chaucer and others. Many of the greatest traditions, ideas and discoveries of the West are traced to the teachings and writings of Sufi masters working centuries ago.
But The Sufis is far more than an historical account.
In the tradition of the great Sufi classics, the deeper appeal of this remarkable book is in its ability to function as an active instrument of instruction, in a way that is so clearly relevant to our time and culture.(less)
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Paperback, 1st edition, 451 pages
Published February 5th 1971 by Anchor (first published 1964)
Original Title
The Sufis
ISBN
0385079664 (ISBN13: 9780385079662)
Edition Language
English
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Oct 08, 2014H.M. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
The prodigious Work of the Sufis:
The Sufis by Idries Shah offers a wide overview of the historical development of the Sufi Way, through the works of individual masters (many of whom were highly successful polymaths), schools and orders, and through a whole host of fields in which they were engaged or through which their work was projected, such as religion, ethics, learning, science, the arts, traditional psychology and (not least) humour. Though it came to maturity in the classical Islamic era, the Sufi Way (which may be thought of in part as the esoteric heart of [exoteric] religion), it is said to have been a vital "yeast" or leaven in societies since time immemorial.
The Sufis shows the extraordinary and largely unknown or unsuspected influence and shaping of society, of what some term the "Ancient Teachings" or the "Secret Doctrine", not only in the East but also gradually diffusing throughout Medieval Christondom, a process which continues to this day, being re-presented as ever in accordance with the needs of time, place and people.
There's little point in reading out a list of the many topics covered by the chapters in the book, but suffice it to say that the Sufis influenced or were behind a great many of our institutions, or that these institutions are relics of previously dynamic Sufic operations. At random, then, we can see this Sufic influence in our poetry; literature; mythology; magic; alchemy; freemasonry; and in the Troubadour movement (with the concept of chivalry, romantic love and hence much modern music that has come along in its wake).
However, this book is no mere historical or academic exposition. If The Sufis appears scholarly, then that is only really of secondary importance. It comes over not only as an authoritative work but it clearly shows that the author is thoroughly familiar with the Sufi Way itself, having trodden that Path like Sufi mystics and action-philosophers before him, and having returned to help others along the Way. The work offers a detailed explanation of Sufi thought and action, scattered throughout the book, and together these points not only slowly build up a more-and-more coherent picture in the reader's mind but form a constellation of minor impacts designed to bypass the mind's censors, and "loosen up" prejudices and fixed thinking patterns.
As well as providing information, which has its place in preparatory studies, Shah's many books are primarily works designed to provoke and bring about change in the reader, initially perhaps at the level of opinion and belief, intellect and emotion (not least through the use of specialist teaching stories). But ultimately – if the studies are followed with sufficient dedication, and ideally with the help of a teacher – the studies bring about a succession of real and lasting changes in his or her actual being, through the activation of latent, subtle organs of higher perception. First, however, much groundwork and seed-planting has to be accomplished, what the Sufis call "learning how to learn" (which, it has to be said, also involves a lot of un-learning), before the real "self work" can begin in earnest.
Re-reading the work, I felt deeply saddened about the vicissitudes that the various genuine mystical traditions, their teachers, their followers (and folk in general) have gone through over the years; and about how different things could have been for future generations, not least here in the West, "if only ..." Over the years, we appear to have lost, squandered, misappropriated, twisted, discounted or rejected so much of inestimable worth and ended up in an almighty jam (with rampant materialism in the West and zealous extremism in the East). And at the same time, I'm thinking: "Hey, without Grace and without the folk in the traditions or favourably disposed to the traditions, and the struggles and sacrifice that they have been through, things could have been a whole lot worse." And for that, I will be eternally grateful.
In the end, I'm compelled to concede that I still can't find the words to do this work, The Sufis, anything like the justice that it so richly deserves, and can offer no better advice than to read (and re-read) the book yourself, and other books in the corpus. As Shah's son, Tahir has noted in his own book "In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams", shortly before he died Shah stated that his books form a complete course that could fulfil the function he had fulfilled while alive. As such, The Sufis can be read as part of a whole course of study. (less)
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Jul 30, 2011A. rated it it was ok · review of another edition
I do not recommend this book or this author anymore. Avoid him, in fact.
Without going into details but I have discovered far better, clearer, more closer to the source and available authors since (when referring to the English/French languages that is) namely Letters of a Sufi Master by Sheikh Darqawi, Faouzi Skali, Abdal Hakim Murad, Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings,Roger Du Pasquier - among others.
There is a certain smell of someone who doesn't not speak out of lived experience, but rather of papers and of specific "romantic" or sentimental interpretations. And God knows best.
However, I am thankful for his exposition of Nasrudin jokes (Juha in North Africa, Nasrudin in asia minor and to the east) - which some of them, are indeed deep. (less)
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Oct 31, 2014Tim rated it it was amazing
Shelves: islam, islam-sufism
“The Sufis often start from a nonreligious viewpoint” says Idries Shah towards the beginning of this book. Religions after all are nothing more than languages, paths, symbols, collections of forms pointing towards something so real that it is beyond form, yet so intimate that it permeates all. Sufism as a name is perhaps unfortunate just as naming divinity carries its own inherent limitations. When we attempt to name or define “God”, we immediately create a set of conceptions, assumptions that are colored by our environment. This idea of God is nothing more than a caricature. It can be no other way. To get beyond this, the Sufi might start by telling a person to “know their self”. The self is an idea or “place”, a conception that might be the most authentic mental location to begin the path. The attempt to know the self becomes a concept that begins to make it possible to strip away the institutionalization of religion in an effort towards realization, but it is only the first step, Shah would say.
The Sufi might then be said to be the person who wants to know the real…the real that is beyond form. Yet this simplistic idea doesn’t convey the full sense of what Shah is trying to say, and the very premise of the book is that it is only a means to bridge a gap between the intellectual and the form of knowledge that the Sufi comes to realize. Sufi writings can be difficult to penetrate precisely because they point to a knowledge that is beyond standard patterns of intellectual learning. Shah says that literature and intellectual ideas can only be preparatory work at best. To truly progress, a living teacher is required as guide on the path. The Western mind tends to become defensive towards the idea of a guide or master, but Shah would be the first to say that defensiveness is exactly the kind of patterned thinking to be overcome. It contains assumptions of what we mean by “teacher” and “path”.
Shah’s attempt at reducing patterned ideas comes in his emphasis of the wide variety of means in Sufic education. He incorporates much of this throughout the book, in his communication of alchemical ideas around numerology and linguistics, and ideas concerning psychology and philosophy and his emphasis on parables and stories. All have been influenced by this stream he calls Sufism, but this stream stretches much further back than is usually credited. As Sufism points to the truest reality, the truest being, the stream is as old as being itself.
In the Sufi ideal of everything coming from one source, Shah takes us through many known concepts, such as Freemasonry, magic, secret societies, even the Illuminati and shows us how these often dark conceptions are shells that have lost their essence. It’s an amazing insight into the nature of evil as conceived in the Islamic mind – in that evil is “not-God” and not a definite reality in itself. It is seen as a lack rather than a concrete existence. This is consistent with the idea of one truth, one reality, one being, one God. Islam as a form has become the primary vehicle of origination for the Sufi since the revelation to the Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w.), but it is not the only form.
The idea of the guide in current forms of Sufism stretches back as a spiritual lineage to the Prophet Mohammad (s.a.w.), and this concept of spiritual ancestry leads us to the realization that religious knowledge as a language, a set of forms, symbols is necessary to the Sufi. Religion is a path, and the destination is reached by remaining on the path. There is deep knowledge in religious traditions. They have remained and stood the test of time through the essence of truth contained past the dross of cultural and societal baggage. There is diversity thanks to the Real that is beyond form, and can only express itself in this world of form through diversity, hence the variety of religious paths.
For a mind accustomed to Western conditioning, this work is a wonderful introduction to Sufism, but operates on so many different levels thanks to the subject matter that it will likely be appreciated by many different seekers. It should though, be approached from a certain perspective: “In effect, this book is not addressed to intellectuals or other orthodox thinkers, or to anyone who will fail to recognize it at once as addressed to himself” – Robert Graves, preface.
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Feb 26, 2017منى الجبريني rated it really liked it · review of another edition
الكتاب ممتع و شيق في بدايته ، به الكثير من المعلومات عن الصوفية و كذلك عدد من أهم أقطابها ، أيضًا يضم في رحابه الكثير من المعلومات عن ارتباط الصوفية بالماسونية ، الأدب الإسباني و تأثيرها على أوروبا بشكل عام ، كذلك علاقة الصوفية بالكابالا و السحر ، لكن يعيبه تكرار المعلومات في الكثير من الصفحات مما أدى إلى شعوري بالملل أحيانا ، كما أن هناك بعض الفقرات شعرت أنها غير مكتملة ، كذلك المعلومات عن أهم الشخصيات الصوفية ، سطحية و لا تقدم الجديد في ذلك المجال . عامة يُعد الكتاب مفيد بالنسبة لمن يرغب في ال ...more
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Jan 13, 2018Sunny rated it it was amazing
Shelves: arabic-literature, culture, intellectuals, philosophy, religious-literature
I loved this. I tend to love books that give me insight into words and the origins of phrases and organisations. At times I must admit that this did sound conspiratorial in places as Idries tried to link the origin of organisations like the Carboneri in Italy and the Freemasons and Knights Templar to Sufiism which I found a little dubious but the way he puts his arguments across it did sound reasonable in certain places. The book is one of the best I have read on the subject. It covers some of the great Sufi leaders of the past like Rumi, and Ghazali, Fariddun Attar and Ibn El Arabi and a really funny Sufi warrior called Nasrudin! His allegorical stories are beautifully and intellectually tinged with humour and comedy. Here are some of my favourite bits from the book:
• “Your problem is that what you call intellect is really a series of ideas which alternately take possession of your consciousness.”
• “One went to the door of the Beloved and knocked.
A voice asked: “Who is there?” He answered: “It is I.”
The voice said: “There is no room here for me and thee.”
The door was shut.
After a year of solitude and deprivation
this man returned to the door of the Beloved.
He knocked.
A voice from within asked: “Who is there?”
The man said: “It is Thou.”
The door was opened for him.”
• “To be in the world but not of it free from ambition, greed intellectual pride, blind obedience to custom or awe of persons higher in rank – that is the Sufis ideal.”
• “Like the bat the Sufi is asleep to things of the day – the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all important and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment is a commonplaces of Sufi literature.”
• “A Sufi school comes into being like any other natural factor in order to flourish and disappear not to leave traces in mechanical ritual or anthropologically interesting survivals. The function of a nutrient is to become transmuted not to leave unaltered traces.”
• “Man is wrapping his net around himself. A lion bursts his cage asunder.”
• “Their real problem was that they assumed themselves able to formulate the questions and ignored the fact that the questions were every bit as important as the answers.”
• “A child learns to read by mastering the alphabet. When he can read words he retains the knowledge of the letters but reads whole words. If he were to concentrate upon letters he would be severely handicapped by what was useful only at an earlier stage. Both words and letters should now have a more settled perspective. Thus the Sufic method.”
• “Four men – a Persian a Turk an Arab and a Greek were standing in a village street. They were travelling companions making for some distance place but at this moment they were arguing over the spending of a single pieces of money which was all that they had among them. I want to buy an ANGUR said the Persian. I want UZUM said the Turk. I want INAB said the Arab. We should buy STAFIL said the Greek. Another traveller passing, a linguist, said give the coin to me. I undertake to satisfy the desires of all of you. At first they would not trust him. Ultimately they let him have the coin. He went to the shop of a fruit seller and bought four small bunches of grapes. This is my ANGUR said the Persian. This is my UZUM said the Turk. This is my INAB said the Arab. This is my STAFIL said the Greek. The grapes were shared out among them and each realised that the disharmony had been due to his faulty understanding of the language of the others. The travellers said the Aga are ordinary people of the world. The Sufi is the linguist.”
• “The totality of life cannot be understood so runs Sufi teaching if it is studied only through the methods which we use in everyday living.”
• “Nasruddin hammers away at the essential idea that mystical experience and enlightenment cannot come through a rearrangement of familiar ideas but through a recognition of the limitations of ordinary thinking, which serves only for mundane purposes.”
• “People sell talking parrots for huge sums. They never pause to compare the possible value of a thinking parrot.”
• “Attar died as he had lived. Teaching his last action was deliberately calculated to make a man think for himself. When the barbarians under Jhengiz Khan invaded Persia in 1220, Attar was seized, by now a man of one hundred and 10 years of age. One Mongol said do not kills this man, I will give a thousand pieces of silver as a ransom for him. Attar told his captor to hold out for he would get a better price from someone else. A little later another man offered only a quantity of straw for him. Sell me for the straw said Attar for hat is all that I am worth. And he was slain by the infuriated Mongol.”
• “Ecstatogenic methods – a phenomenal example of the method of scatter whereby a picture is built up by multiple impact to infuse into the mind the Sufi message.”
• “In order to approach the Sufi way the seeker must realise that he is largely a bundle of what are nowadays called conditionings – fixed ideas and prejudices automatic responses sometimes which have occurred through the training of others. Man is not as free as he thinks he is. The first step if for the individual to get away from thinking that he understand and really understand. But man has been taught that he can understand everything by the same processes – the processes of logic.”
• “The book of Sufis is not the darkness of letters it is the whiteness of a pure heart.”
• “Cease thought except for the creator of thought – thought for life is better than thought of bread. In the amplitude of Gods earth why have you fallen asleep in a prison? Abandon complicated thoughts in order to see the concealed answer. Be silent of speech to attain enduring speech. Pass life and world in order to see the life of the world.”
• “Participation in music and dancing under any other circumstances is says Ghazali, not only forbidden it is actually harmful to the aspirant. Modern psychology has not yet realised that there is a special function of sound for elevating consciousness.”
• “Abjad scheme: a fairly simple substitution cipher ….. Which is widely used in literature many people read it or at least look for it almost as a matter of course especially poets and writers. Each Arabic letter has a numerical equivalent … seek knowledge, even as far as china the phrase which is on all Sufi lips has more than a literal or even a figurative sense. This meaning is unlocked by analysing the se of the word china interpreted through the secret (Abjad) language. China is the code work for mind concentration, one of the Sufi practises, an essential prerequisite to Sufic development.”
• “The process by means of which a foreign word of phrase becomes adopted into another language is well established in literature and custom. There are numerous examples and the system has been named, being catalogued in dictionaries as Hobson-Jonson. The interminable religious chant in India “Ya Hassan Ya Hussain” is accepted in English under the sound Hobson-Jobson, an attempt by British soldiers to reproduce the chant.”
• “The sensual nature of music is here referred to as well as the mere emotional and limited intellectual value of music. These are dangers both because they may lead to sensuality and because through producing a taste for the secondary indulgence (music because one enjoys music) it veils the real usefulness of music which is to develop the consciousness.” (less)
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Apr 17, 2012Aubrey Davis rated it it was amazing
Common sense, straight thinking and evolution are not typically associated with religion or spirituality. But it’s scattered throughout this 50th anniversary edition of The Sufis by Idries Shah. Not simply Islamic mystics or “hairy-footed metaphysicians”, the Sufis and their teachings took many forms to suit the time, place and people. Surprisingly, their many insights anticipate current social scientific research. Shah’s groundbreaking book has an uncanny atmosphere: mysterious and yet curiously familiar. It’s filled with major historical figures and “secret” societies who were influenced by these remarkable people. It solves ancient lingering puzzles, only to introduce new deeper ones: not for amusement, but as something to work through or grow through. The Sufis adapted themselves to prevailing circumstances throughout history. Could their ancient practical philosophy help us make the necessary changes to solve today's seemingly intractable problems; and even help us go beyond? (less)
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Oct 08, 2014Holly rated it it was amazing
This is THE book on Sufism as explained to the Western world. I originally read it several years ago, and this book is timeless. I highly recommend it to anyone who is wondering what Sufism is all about.
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May 23, 2013Kevan Bowkett rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favorites
THE SUFIS by IDRIES SHAH
This year (2014) marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of "The Sufis" by Idries Shah -- an event which seems to have clarified a good many puzzles regarding this group of people. A new 50th anniversary edition has just been released by ISF Publishing (http://www.idriesshahfoundation.org/b...).
In some ways it seems superfluous to attempt a review of the book. The best thing is to get it and read it. And perhaps reread it, as it includes materials that seem to have ...more
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Jan 02, 2017Andrew Boden rated it it was amazing
This is one of the few books I can say definitively changed my life for the better. I remember reading it in university, when I was in the firm grip of western analytic philosophy. I picked up Shah's book and immediately started dissecting it as I would any other academic text. But I'd gone camping alone on an isolated beach and, as I read the first chapter it was as if something in me -- something obscuring, like wearing someone else's glasses -- fell away. I realized, at once, that every philo ...more
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Sep 08, 2012Neil rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
A massive book in terms of ideas and insight, impossible to reduce the content to soundbites in a short review . I first read this book back in the late seventies and it had a major influence on me. It was a a real gem in a time of peculiar cults and superficial views of spirituality. The book is an experience to read and reread and does lead to glimpses of a different way of seeing and experiencing the world. It clearly has a place now in a time perhaps even more full of pointless distractions and depressing nihilistic views of humanity. Reading 'The Sufis' could lead into a whole new world of ideas and viewpoints and at the very least will make a person think about things afresh. (less)
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Sep 21, 2018Yigal Zur rated it really liked it
amazing read for everyone wjo to understand the way of the sufis and the better side and part of islam
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Feb 28, 2019Ita Marquess rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
The Sufis are the extraordinary people who have guided, and are still guiding, the evolution of human consciousness. They do not preach or evangelise but, through books such as these, and through living exemplars, they offer an opportunity for self development that is in harmony with the development of mankind.
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May 02, 2014Robs rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shah's first book, now 50 years old and republished, new jacket, new font, available as a PoD, and soon to be issued as an ebook.
It's challenging to review a book in which the author states, ''... All descriptions are useless distortions of the facts. ...'' but anyway.
Within its covers Shah introduces the reader to Sufism, which some take to mean 'Islamic mysticism' yet the author opines, that while many of its leading lights have been members of the Muslim faith, metaphysics actually precedes religion and controversially, that religions are the cultural husks, the detritus of mystics and their communities. However this is just one thread, from a book that comprehensively addresses the reader from numerous angles, always asking that we question and question our questioning, that we examine, turn over, absorb, and ponder.
And although many may say, after fifty years, that it has lost some of its relevance, to others it seems most pertinent - most pertinent to the rise of theological fascism in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, for it asserts that the Sufic strain has always been one of tolerance and cooperation, between individuals and cultures, and has much to say on how an individual mind or society, can escape pedants, bullies, fanatics and tyrants, religious or secular. (less)
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Apr 12, 2016Amira Isa rated it it was ok · review of another edition
ليست مراجعة وإنما ملاحظاتي على الكتاب
- يحذر الكاتب من البداية بإنه مالم يكن القارئ صوفياً فلن يفهم الكتاب!!
- الكتاب يقدم ربط تاريخي لجميع الحركات او الجماعات "الصوفية" في العالم
- كثير كثير من التطويل والاسهاب احسست بالملل بعض الأحيان
- شيء من فلسفة وفكر الصوفية
- ركز على اللغة الرمزية للصوفيين وشرح بعض طرق التشفير
- وصف. لطريقة دخول "السالك" اي التلميذ الى جماعة صوفية والمراحل التي يمر بها
-خصص بعض الفصول لاهم الشخصيات الصوفية. لم تقدم جديداً بالنسبة لي
-في مواقع كثيرة من الكتاب المعلومات غير مكت ...more
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Feb 28, 2019John Zada rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
There are many, many books about Sufis and Sufism. But 'The Sufis,' by Idries Shah, is by far the most penetrating and authoritative work. Though it looks at influential Sufi figures from Islam’s golden age, the book’s scope is timeless. One of the themes and contentions running through Shah’s work which differentiates it from all the others on the subject is that Sufism, though well-known for its association with Islam, actually antedates Islam and monotheistic religion, and reaches back to antiquity and far beyond. One of the most remarkable books you will ever read. (less)
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Aug 19, 2013Toni rated it it was amazing
A new paper back and e book edition is now out. Paper back Oct 2014 and The e-book just now April 2015.
A compass of learning and teaching, impossible to encompass. A book that both, by passes and contains the intellect. A book that has changed the way, the world looks at the world.
It has changed the way I look out from the 'prison bars,' containing within itself, a myriad twinkling stars, ready to shine, a millimetre further, at each reading.
I remember the impact it had on me, in the early seventies. Attention, initially caught by the `Derelict Organisations.'
'Since it is this outer shell which is most easily perceptible to the ordinary man, we have to use it, to point to something deeper.'
So that was what Chivalry was about; The Legends of the Grail; Elenour of Aquitaine; The Troubadours and Harlequins that had captured a puzzled imagination. Richard Coeur de Lion, around whom, there was a strange coalition of stories. And who was Geoffrey of Anjou with his Broom, for a favour or symbol?
Past puzzles, on the way to being elucidated, did not end there. Those breath taking cathedrals, with their soaring cadences of stone; the strange gargoyles, stared at with unholy relief; medieval guilds and their closed membership. Names like Pythagoras, Anaxagoras and Socrates, rang bells. A touched on explanation, for Shakespeare's unequalled body of work in the English language made instant sense.
The fog, that was Alchemy, Witches, and the Freemasons cleared, so did some of the mists, of the Illuminists, previously mixed with tares.
That was what the Philosopher's stone signified.
How the Franciscans had become the Spanish inquisition.
Then there were those Speaking Heads or Black Heads, and the vilified history of the Templers. Puzzles that had more or less been banished as unknowable, or to the dustbin of someone else's, fevered imagination.
Here was Sir Richard Francis Burton, and The Kasidah that entranced: caught by the rhythms of the English language and the haunting refrain.
Of course there is much more to 'The Sufis than the above. I am describing, the first tremendous blow. A lantern in the darkness of the detritus left in the West: a solid account that was neither cranky or cultish.
Ted Hughes, I think, referred to forlorn mysteries, come to life.
More or less unfamiliar names like Sheikh Saadi; Fakriduddin Attar The Chemist; Our Master Rumi; Ibn El Arabi; El Ghazali, became over years, familiar.
`The secret book wisdom of illumination states that the philosophy is identical with the inner teachings of all the ancients; the Greeks the Persians the Egyptians and is the science of Light and the deepest truth, through whose exercise man can attain to a status about which he can normally only dream.'...........................................
`In many cases they `scholars' have faithfully recorded the Sufi's own reiteration that the way of the Sufi can not be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.' (less)
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Jun 05, 2017الشناوي محمد جبر rated it did not like it · review of another edition
الكتاب يقع في 600 صفحة، ظننت حينما بداته أنني ساقرأ شيء جديد عن الصوفية إلا أنني للأسف لم أجد الجديد، . الكتاب يبدأ بحكاية رمزية عن الصوفية باعتبارهم ملاك الحقيقة دون غيرهم، وان نسيان الناس للحقيقة الصوفية لا يعني انتفاء وجودها.
ووتحدث عن الصوفية الغربية.
قدم الكتاب سيرة لعدد من أهم أقطاب الصوفية
الكتاب به الكثير من الغرائب، كالعلاقة بين الصوفية والماسونية.
اهتم المؤلف بالنفاذ إلي رمزية قصص وحكايات الصوفية ومن أشهر أصحاب القصص التي شرحها، الشهير (جحا)، فالكاتب يري أن وراء الظاهر للقصص أمور رمزية خ ...more
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Jan 24, 2015Dan Sperling rated it it was amazing
Until Idries Shah’s seminal book THE SUFIS was published more than a half-century ago, most people in the West knew next to nothing about the subject – and what little they did know was likely to be erroneous. THE SUFIS remedied that so effectively that it remains the definitive work on Sufism to this day, and the world into which it gives a tantalizing glimpse is one of unsuspected breadth, sophistication and relevance to the human condition. With deft scholarship and eloquent prose, Shah shows Sufism to be nothing like what one might expect – not a religious cult, nor a political movement, nor a collection of vague-minded idealists. Instead, it emerges as a body of men and women who see themselves as engaged in the practical task of unlocking the hidden potential of the human being and guiding it to completion, on both an individual and a societal level. The multiple ways in which they do this, they say, are not set by dogma but instead are tailored to local needs and conditions and thus vary from epoch to epoch and from culture to culture, as well as from individual to individual – something that has confused scholars no end and given rise to a great deal of misunderstanding. This has been exacerbated by a profusion of imitators, many of them well-meaning but misguided. Sufism seems to have achieved an understanding of the human mind that goes far beyond that of modern psychology, many of whose tenets – e.g., conditioning and the unconscious – it anticipated by centuries. Its influence on the world has been enormous, though not widely known. In the West alone, Sufism lies behind a host of diverse cultural heirlooms, ranging from Freemasonry to alchemy to the Kabala, and had a profound impact on such thinkers as Roger Bacon and St. Francis of Assisi. While many of these examples have been well-documented by individual scholars operating in various fields, the information has been scattered here and there like broken fragments. In THE SUFIS, Shah combines these fragments with a wealth of other information to form a picture of a fascinating society of people, still very much alive and kicking, that since ancient times has had a profound effect on mankind. A fitting introduction to Shah's many other excellent books, it’s one the reader is unlikely to ever forget. I know that I certainly won't. (less)
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Jun 07, 2013Ulrika Eriksson rated it it was amazing
I have read The Sufis by Idries Shah, 1924-1996, many times since the first time 1996 in my ongoing self bettering work. It was thanks to Doris Lessing, who I also admire immensely, that I found my way to Idries Shah. Sufism is not accessible through ordinary rational and logical thinking and so it can not be understood just by reading books but they can serve as a bridge leading from the ordinary, attenuated or embryonic human consciousness into greater perception and realization, writes Idries Shah. So I keep on reading
The Sufis is a book about Sufism from an inside perspective and when it first came out in the west 1964 there were no other books like it. What was written about Sufism was written by scholars and orientalists from an outside perspective
The Sufis records Sufism´s influence on human society in Asia, Europe, India, Japan and China mainly from the 7:th century and onwards but Sufism is part of human history right from its beginning. Some periods, like ours, it has been able to work more in the open than others. Important sufis like Rumi,Ibn el Arabi,Saadi of Shiraz, Ghazali, Khayyam and many others are presented
Shah also stresses the necessity for the seeker to find a guide. But to find the right one is a task with many pitfalls
Starting in 2014 The Idries Shah foundation will relaunch the work of Idries Shah, both in printed form and as eBooks.
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Aug 23, 2009Rob Springer rated it it was ok
Shelves: books-read-long-long-ago
The book review has it wrong. It describes Sufis as "A unique and little-known religion..." Sufism is an outgrowth of Islam. I'm not conversant enough with either to say that Sufism is to Islam as Buddhism is to Hinduism, but the historical connection is there.
As for the book, I read it in 1977 and remembered it for the Nasrudin stories. I bought it recently, and as I started reading it, I realized all the wisdom thyat I remembered must have been in the Nasrudin stories. Outside of those, as much as I got through before putting it back on the shelf, it's just Shah going on about the superiority and elite nature of Sufism. He doesn't tell you anything that would make you want to follow that path — unless you're driven to be one of the elite. Of course, you can't even take this path if you so choose. So elite is it, that you'll be asked to join if the Sufis notice you and think you are worthy.
Contrast that with Christ who said "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (less)
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Mar 27, 2007James rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Recommends it for: the pure of heart
One comes away with the idea of Sufi thought, while now closely associated with Islam, as pre-dating and encompassing all known religious thought. Written from the point of view of an adept, one feels one has touched but a tiny piece of something pure and sacred.
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Mar 03, 2017سلمى العاقل rated it it was ok · review of another edition
وقت طويل ..حتى تمكنت من اكمالهـ
الترجمة سيئة، وهناكـ اطالة في أجزاء كثيرة منهـ..
الصوفيون.. الماسونية... المنظمات السريّة.. كلهم مترابطون.. حتى وإن لم أفهم كيف ذلكـ.؟؟!!.. برابط قديم ؛ وقديم جدا!!!؟؟؟
أسوأ جزء.. أن على المريد أن يتبع شيخهـ الصوفي؛ اتباع أعمى..مهما فعل هذا الشيخ من منكرات؛ فكل مشايخ الصوفية هم سيدنا الخضر.. بالرغم من أن القصة تقول: أن سيدنا موسى، ورغم أن الله هو من أوصاهـ أن يتبع هذا الرجل العليم..مع ذلكـ، لم يمنع هذا سيدنا موسى، من استنكار أفعاله..ولم يرد أي لوم ، لسيدنا موسى على ا ...more
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Apr 22, 2015John Richards rated it it was amazing
Almost two decades ago, Doris Lessing wrote: 'I met Idries Shah because of 'The Sufis', which seemed to me the most surprising book I had ever read, and yet it was as if I had been waiting to read just that book all my life. It is a cliché to say that such and such a book changed one’s life, but that book changed mine. That was in 1964. It is a book that gives up more of itself every time you read it, and this is true of his other books, which all together make up a phenomenon like nothing else in our time, a map of Sufi living, learning thinking. If I emphasise the books, it is because they are the evident legacy of this man's life, and available to anyone. He used to say he had never been asked a question whose answer is not in his books.'
Reading this book again, having read the whole body of Shah's work, 'The Sufis' has changed. Of course, the text remains the same; the reader has changed. Re-reading this book seems a good way of measuring any increase in one's understanding; however small or gradual. For me, as it may be for many readers, this is the most important, valuable book I have ever read.
And, for a kindle or e-book reader like myself, the best news this year is that ‘The Sufis’ is now available as a kindle book on Amazon.
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Oct 19, 2014Glenn Davisson rated it it was amazing
When I first read this book many years ago, I was shocked by the information that I was exposed to. There were very many radical ideas being promulgated by the author. More than a few of those ideas challenged the underpinnings of my worldview. It was a challenge to Western consensus reality. I did not accept the author's assertions on face value. Some of the things he was suggesting that were true, if he was right, would mean that many beliefs I held were based on inaccurate and/or incomplete i ...more
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Apr 21, 2012Gwen rated it liked it
Shelves: islam-related, relgion
I was really excited to read this book when I first got it. Quite a few people that I know talk about Indries Shah and his writing. The way the book is written wasn't really all that interesting to me and eventually I became bored. I don't want to be offensive here. There are wonderful parts of this book, but there are also a good number of parts in this book where my eyes glazed over a little bit (especially the many parts where the numerical values and many many definitions of words were laid ...more
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Jul 10, 2014Claire rated it did not like it · review of another edition
I found this interesting, especially with the introduction by The Classicist R. Graves, but the Marx quote referring to religion as the opiate of the masses made me refuse to embrace this middle eastern mindset.
What also brought caution to approach the languages and cultures immediately south and east of the Mediterranean was an innate fear of foreigners, even if couscous tastes nice and Yury taught me how to write allahu akhbar in Farsi so it's not as scary.
What might help assuage my nerves associated with that study would be copying it out into another notebook, as those green and pastel notebooks make me tremble and my heart beat faster. (less)
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Jun 18, 2012Borut rated it it was amazing
Remember Socrates who used to say: “I only know that I know nothing.” The less one knows the easier it is to judge!??:) So, let me say this: I personally love to see Sufism as an organic and evolutionary school of practical philosophy directed by the Teacher of the Age – the most enlightened human being of any particular moment in time. Idries Shah must have been such a teacher. And The Sufis may well be an example of a book written by the Sufi Teacher of the Age. Go now, judge.
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Mar 13, 2019Sam Parkes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
The Sufis is a book designed to bridge the gap between the modern 'scientific' ways of thinking of the West (so often mechanistic, reductionist) and the premodern ideas of the ancient Near East. Through a dissemination of poetry, folk tale, lore, allegory and alchemy- militating against the dead end, literal minded thinking that the rationalist tradition of the West can foster- The Sufis acts as both historical insight and present day guide for the development of human potential.
Sufism is usually defined as the mystical tradition of Islam, but Shah insisted that Sufism predated Islam and was said to be the inner essence of all religions. It must also be remembered that the definitions of Sufism most readily available to the average person are not necessarily the most accurate. Though this may seem a coy attempt to wriggle out of any formal definition, it is more the acknowledgement of the difficulty of trying to define something that is intrinsically indefinable and that must be experienced first hand, analogous to the impossibility of learning how to swim by reading a pamphlet, or attempting to understand what love is by means of attending a public lecture. I’m reminded of what Alan Watts had to say of Zen, another word that by its very nature precludes it from any constrictive definition…'Zen is not peeling potatoes, thinking about God. Zen is peeling potatoes.’
Mysticism and the occult are words that have taken on pejorative connotations in much of the West today, terms that have little or no resonance in our modern lexicon- unscientific, superstitious, illogical, or just plain nonsense-but Sufism is, as Shah states in his preface, ‘occult and mystical inasmuch as it follows a path other than that which has been represented as the true one by authoritarian and dogmatic organisation.’
The Sufis offers the reader a broad overview of the diffusion of Sufic thought through the lives and works of historical Sufi exemplars (with emphasis on the seventh century of the current era). Clearing the way of so much dogma and misunderstanding that has inhibited human development, much of the book’s dynamism is that it speaks to us in the present with voices from the past; Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Ibn El-Arabi, Al-Ghazzali, Francis of Assisi, Richard Francis Burton, among others. Voices that resound in deep polyphonic symphony- an eternal presence, essentially- communicating over vast distances like the elemental whirring of a bullroarer.
The Sufis is an organic antidote to extremism- much needed in our time- and reminds us that the problems of extremism do not have their roots in religion (so often the platitude of Western intelligentsia), but rather in ignorance of religion. Sufism is used as a sort of ‘template in clear thinking’, designed to overturn assumptions and fixed thinking patterns. Shah connects different fields of enquiry through the exploration of science, the arts, religion, ethics, learning, traditional psychology and places a great emphasis on humour. The insistence on active integration within current culture patterns is an essential characteristic of the book. ‘Sufis believe that, expressed in one way, humanity is evolving towards a certain destiny. We are all taking part in that evolution.’
Unlike much of modern, Western thinking, culture bound as it is to a mechanistic, materialist world view, so often disregarding the ideas of a bygone age and hubristically labelling them as obsolete, romantic, ignorant (many of which are, of course), The Sufis is concerned with unearthing the lines of vital communication and continuity which are of crucial importance for the world today. ‘The regeneration of an essential part of humanity, according to the Sufis, is the goal of mankind.’…..‘The separation of man from his essence is the cause of his disharmony and unfulfilment. His quest is the purification of the dross and the activation of the gold. The means of achieving this is found within man- it is the Philosopher's Stone.’
The Sufis rewards reading and rereading over and over. This is not a book for kooky appropriators of all things mystical and ‘alternative’, neither is it a book to sit idly within a purely scholastic framework or for isolated anthropological study. If its ideas were pursued purely as an intellectual hypothesis it would become remote and out of touch with the needs of our time, but rather, as Shah states, it serves 'to lead the ordinary, attenuated or embryonic human consciousness into greater perception and realisation.’
Man ‘has within him an essence, initially tiny, shining, precious.’ Reading The Sufis is like being given a magical three-dimensional map. In accordance with the reader’s capacity for understanding what that map reveals, it presents a topography of human potential and destiny not yet achieved by the populace at large, but which is eminently within Man’s reach. More than merely pointing the Way, it actively goads one ‘by his own effort, towards growth of an evolutionary nature’.
With the book’s emphasis upon psychological balance, cultural integration and the overcoming of inhibitory conditioning, at no time in the last half century since The Sufis was written have its ideas been more urgently required; ‘so essential is this more rarefied evolution that our future depends upon it.' (less)
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Aug 11, 2011Sincerae rated it really liked it
Shelves: islam, sufi-islam
Idries Shah's interesting and sometimes complex book gives a kind of history of Sufism along with some of Christianity's similarities to Sufic thought.
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