Sufi Bodies

Download Sufi Bodies full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Sufi Bodies ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Sufi Bodies

Author : Shahzad Bashir
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231144911
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sufi Bodies by : Shahzad Bashir

Download or read book Sufi Bodies written by Shahzad Bashir and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bashir weaves a rich history of Sufi Islam around the depiction of bodily actions in Sufi literature and miniature paintings produced circa 1300-1500 CE. Focusing on the Persianate societies of Iran and Central Asia, he explores medieval Sufis' conception of the human body as the primary shuttle between interior (batin) and exterior (zahir) realities with particular attention to three arenas: religious activity in the form of rituals, rules of etiquette, asceticism, and a universal hierarchy of saints; the deep imprint of Persian poetic paradigms on the articulation of love, desire, and gender; and the reputation of Sufi masters for working miracles, which empowered them in all domains of social activity. Bashir ultimately offers a new methodology for extracting historical information from religious narratives"--Cover p. [4].

Sufis and Saints' Bodies

Author : Scott Kugle
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 0807872776
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sufis and Saints' Bodies by : Scott Kugle

Download or read book Sufis and Saints' Bodies written by Scott Kugle and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islam is often described as abstract, ascetic, and uniquely disengaged from the human body. Scott Kugle refutes this assertion in the first full study of Islamic mysticism as it relates to the human body. Examining Sufi conceptions of the body in religious writings from the late fifteenth through the nineteenth century, Kugle demonstrates that literature from this era often treated saints' physical bodies as sites of sacred power. Sufis and Saints' Bodies focuses on six important saints from Sufi communities in North Africa and South Asia. Kugle singles out a specific part of the body to which each saint is frequently associated in religious literature. The saints' bodies, Kugle argues, are treated as symbolic resources for generating religious meaning, communal solidarity, and the experience of sacred power. In each chapter, Kugle also features a particular theoretical problem, drawing methodologically from religious studies, anthropology, studies of gender and sexuality, theology, feminism, and philosophy. Bringing a new perspective to Islamic studies, Kugle shows how an important Islamic tradition integrated myriad understandings of the body in its nurturing role in the material, social, and spiritual realms.

Sufi Deleuze

Author : Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 1531501826
Total Pages : 124 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sufi Deleuze by : Michael Muhammad Knight

Download or read book Sufi Deleuze written by Michael Muhammad Knight and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2023-02-07 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “There is always an atheism to be extracted from a religion,” Deleuze and Guattari write in their final collaboration, What Is Philosophy? Their claim that Christianity “secretes” atheism “more than any other religion,” however, reflects the limits of their archive. Theological projects seeking to engage Deleuze remain embedded within Christian theologies and intellectual histories; whether they embrace, resist, or negotiate with Deleuze’s atheism, the atheism in question remains one extracted from Christian theology, a Christian atheism. In Sufi Deleuze, Michael Muhammad Knight offers an intervention, engaging Deleuzian questions and themes from within Islamic tradition. Even if Deleuze did not think of himself as a theologian, Knight argues, to place Deleuze in conversation with Islam is a project of comparative theology and faces the challenge of any comparative theology: It seemingly demands that complex, internally diverse traditions can speak as coherent, monolithic wholes. To start from such a place would not only defy Islam’s historical multiplicity but also betray Deleuze’s model of the assemblage, which requires attention to not only the organizing and stabilizing tendencies within a structure but also the points at which a structure resists organization, its internal heterogeneity, and unpredictable “lines of flight.” A Deleuzian approach to Islamic theology would first have to affirm that there is no such thing as a universal “Islamic theology” that can speak for all Muslims in all historical settings, but rather a multiplicity of power struggles between major and minor forces that contest each other over authenticity, authority, and the making of “orthodoxy.” The discussions in Sufi Deleuze thus highlight Islam’s extraordinary range of possibilities, not only making use of canonically privileged materials such as the Qur’an and major hadith collections, but also exploring a variety of marginalized resources found throughout Islam that challenge the notion of a singular “mainstream” interpretive tradition. To say it in Deleuze’s vocabulary, Islam is a rhizome.

Muhammad's Body

Author : Michael Muhammad Knight
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469658925
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Muhammad's Body by : Michael Muhammad Knight

Download or read book Muhammad's Body written by Michael Muhammad Knight and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2020-08-06 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Muhammad's Body introduces questions of embodiment and materiality to the study of the Prophet Muhammad. Analyzing classical Muslim literary representations of Muhammad's body as they emerge in Sunni hadith and sira from the eighth through the eleventh centuries CE, Michael Muhammad Knight argues that early Muslims' theories and imaginings about Muhammad's body contributed in significant ways to the construction of prophetic masculinity and authority. Knight approaches hadith and sira as important religiocultural and literary phenomena in their own right. In rich detail, he lays out the variety of ways that early believers imagined Muhammad's relationship to beneficent energy—baraka—and to its boundaries, effects, and limits. Drawing on insights from contemporary theory about the body, Knight shows how changing representations of the Prophet's body helped to legitimatize certain types of people or individuals as religious authorities, while marginalizing or delegitimizing others. For some Sunni Muslims, Knight concludes, claims of religious authority today remain connected to ideas about Muhammad's body.

Sufis

Author : Idries Shah
Publisher : eBook Partnership
ISBN 13 : 1784790052
Total Pages : 540 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (847 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sufis by : Idries Shah

Download or read book Sufis written by Idries Shah and published by eBook Partnership. This book was released on 2020-06-20 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sufis is the best introduction ever written to the philosophical and mystical school traditionally associated with the Islamic world.Powerful, concise, and intensely thought-provoking, it sums up over a thousand years of Eastern thought - the product of some of the greatest minds humanity has ever produced - into a single work, presenting timeless ideas in a fresh and contemporary style.When the book was originally published in 1964, it launched its author, Idries Shah, on to the international stage, attracting the attention of thinkers and writers such as J. D. Salinger, Doris Lessing, Ted Hughes and Robert Graves.It introduced to the Western world concepts which have subsequently become commonly accepted, varying from the psychological importance of attention and humour, to the use of traditional tales as teaching instruments (what Shah termed 'teaching-stories'), and the historical debt owed by the West to the Middle East in matters scientific, literary and philosophical.As a primer for the many dozens of Sufi books that Shah later produced, it is unsurpassed, offering a clear window onto a community whose system of thought and action has long concerned itself with the advancement of the whole of humankind, and whose ideas about individuals and society, their purpose and direction, need to be understood now more than ever before.

Sufi Women, Embodiment, and the ‘Self’

Author : Jamila Rodrigues
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000833410
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (8 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sufi Women, Embodiment, and the ‘Self’ by : Jamila Rodrigues

Download or read book Sufi Women, Embodiment, and the ‘Self’ written by Jamila Rodrigues and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an ethnographic case study of Sufi ritual practice and embodied experience amongst female members of the Naqshbandi community. Drawing on fieldwork in Cape Town, South Africa, and Lefke, Cyprus (2013/2014), the author examines women’s experiences within a particular performance of Sufi tradition. The focus is on the ritual named hadra, involving the recital of sacred texts, music, and body movement, where the goal is for the individual to reach a state of intimacy with God. The volume considers Sufi practice as a form of embodied cultural behavior, religious identity, and selfhood construction. It explains how Muslim women’s participation in hadra ritual life reflects religious and cultural ideas about the body, the body’s movement, and embodied selfhood expression within the ritual experience. Sufi Women, Ritual Embodiment and the ‘Self’ engages with studies in Sufism, symbolic anthropology, ethnography, dance, and somatic studies. Contributing to discussions of religion, gender, and the body, the book will be of interest to scholars from anthropology, sociology, religious ritual studies, Sufism and gender studies, and performance studies.

Sufis & Saints' Bodies

Author : Scott Kugle
Publisher : Munshirm Manoharlal Pub Pvt Limited
ISBN 13 : 9788121512046
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (12 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sufis & Saints' Bodies by : Scott Kugle

Download or read book Sufis & Saints' Bodies written by Scott Kugle and published by Munshirm Manoharlal Pub Pvt Limited. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islam is often described as particularly abstract, ascetic, and uniquely disengaged from the human body. Scott Kugle refutes this assertion in the first full study of Islamic mysticism as it relates to the human body. Examining Sufi conceptions of the body in religious writings from the late fifteenth through the nineteenth century, Kugle demonstrates that literature from this era often treated saints' physical bodies as sites of sacred power.

Breathing Hearts

Author : Nasima Selim
Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 1805392360
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Breathing Hearts by : Nasima Selim

Download or read book Breathing Hearts written by Nasima Selim and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2024-01-05 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sufism is known as the mystical dimension of Islam. Breathing Hearts explores this definition to find out what it means to ‘breathe well’ along the Sufi path in the context of anti-Muslim racism. It is the first book-length ethnographic account of Sufi practices and politics in Berlin and describes how Sufi practices are mobilized in healing secular and religious suffering. It tracks the Desire Lines of multi-ethnic immigrants of color, and white German interlocutors to show how Sufi practices complicate the post secular imagination of healing in Germany.

Re-centering the Sufi Shrine

Author : Irfan Moeen Khan
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110781492
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (17 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Re-centering the Sufi Shrine by : Irfan Moeen Khan

Download or read book Re-centering the Sufi Shrine written by Irfan Moeen Khan and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-01-30 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recentering the Sufi Shrine is a study of ritual, Sufi eschatology, and vernacular theopoetics of pilgrimage to Sufi shrines in the Indus region of Pakistan. The book examines the distinction between two different ritual contestations over pilgrimage to Sufi tombs: (1) an exposition of Ṭariqa-i Muhammadiyya’s millenarian Scripturalist reform of Sufism, and (2) Bulleh Shah’s (d. 1767) vernacular Sufism, a hard-hitting Sufi-poet of textual ("bookish") knowledge of religious scholars. This is the first work examining the legal theology of ritual intervention in using scripture to regulate the resurrected bodies of saints, on the one hand, and the ritual metaphysics of presence in understanding the significance and meaning of Sufi shrines, on the other.

Sufi Meditation and Contemplation

Author : Scott Kugle
Publisher : Suluk Press
ISBN 13 : 9780930872908
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (729 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sufi Meditation and Contemplation by : Scott Kugle

Download or read book Sufi Meditation and Contemplation written by Scott Kugle and published by Suluk Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sufi Meditation and Contemplation offers fresh translations of three classic Sufi texts from Mughal India: The Alms Bowl of Shaykh Kalimullah Shajehanabadi, The Compass of Truth by Dara Shikoh, and the Treatise on the Human Body attributed to Mu'in al-Din Chishti. These texts elucidate meditation practices and the resulting effects. All three come from the Mughal era in India, which witnessed a flowering of Sufism in innovative personalities, diverse mystical orders and bold literary expressions."Meditation is the way to instill the values in the heart, to such a depth that the heart itself is transformed. The heart then is not merely an organ in the body, and is not just on's own personal center; when properly activated through meditation, the heart opens up to reveal the very presence of God with one and with all. To find this state of loving intimacy is the advice of the Qur'an when it says, "So remember me, that I may remember you." And according to Sufi teachings, to meditate and contemplate is the way to draw God down to you and to allow yourself to be lifted up toward God." - from the foreword by Scott Kugle

Sufi Narratives of Intimacy

Author : Sa'diyya Shaikh
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 0807869864
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sufi Narratives of Intimacy by : Sa'diyya Shaikh

Download or read book Sufi Narratives of Intimacy written by Sa'diyya Shaikh and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2012-03-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirteenth-century Sufi poet, mystic, and legal scholar Muhyi al-Din ibn al-'Arabi gave deep and sustained attention to gender as integral to questions of human existence and moral personhood. Reading his works through a critical feminist lens, Sa'diyya Shaikh opens fertile spaces in which new and creative encounters with gender justice in Islam can take place. Grounding her work in Islamic epistemology, Shaikh attends to the ways in which Sufi metaphysics and theology might allow for fundamental shifts in Islamic gender ethics and legal formulations, addressing wide-ranging contemporary challenges including questions of women's rights in marriage and divorce, the politics of veiling, and women's leadership of ritual prayer. Shaikh deftly deconstructs traditional binaries between the spiritual and the political, private conceptions of spiritual development and public notions of social justice, and the realms of inner refinement and those of communal virtue. Drawing on the treasured works of Sufism, Shaikh raises a number of critical questions about the nature of selfhood, subjectivity, spirituality, and society to contribute richly to the prospects of Islamic feminism as well as feminist ethics more broadly.

Sufi Aesthetics

Author : Cyrus Ali Zargar
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 1611171830
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (111 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Sufi Aesthetics by : Cyrus Ali Zargar

Download or read book Sufi Aesthetics written by Cyrus Ali Zargar and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2013-05-22 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sufi Aesthetics argues that the interpretive keys to erotic Sufi poems and their medieval commentaries lie in understanding a unique perceptual experience. Using careful analysis of primary texts, Cyrus Ali Zargar explores the theoretical and poetic pronouncements of two major Muslim mystics, Muhyi al-Din ibn al-'Arabi (d. 1240) and Fakhr al-Din 'Iraqi (d. 1289), under the premise that behind any literary tradition exist organic aesthetic values. The complex assertions of these Sufis appear not as abstract theory, but as a way of seeing all things, including the sensory world. In this study Zargar responds to a long-standing debate in the study of Sufi poetics over the use of erotic language to describe the divine. He argues that such language results from an altered perception of Muslim mystics in which divine beauty and human beauty are seen as one reality. The Sufi masters, Zargar asserts, shared an aesthetic vision quite different from those who have often studied them. Sufism's foremost theoretician, Ibn 'Arabi, is presented from a neglected perspective as a poet, aesthete, and lover of the human form. Ibn 'Arabi in fact proclaimed a view of human beauty markedly similar to that of many mystics from a Persian contemplative school of thought, the "School of Passionate Love," which would later find its epitome in 'Iraqi, one of Persian literature's most celebrated poet-saints. Many in this school advocated the controversial practice of gazing at beautiful human faces, a topic Zargar also discusses. The examination of central Sufi texts in Persian and Arabic establishes that the profundity attributed to mystical encounters with the sensory and supersensory has far-reaching extensions in evaluations of that which is seen, that which is deemed beautiful, and that which is expressed as a result. Through this aesthetic approach, this comparative study overturns assumptions made not only about Sufism and classical Arabic and Persian poetry, but also other uses of erotic imagery in Muslim approaches to sexuality, the human body, and the paradise of the afterlife described in the Qur'an.

Secret Practices of the Sufi Freemasons

Author : Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorff
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1620550016
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (25 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Secret Practices of the Sufi Freemasons by : Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorff

Download or read book Secret Practices of the Sufi Freemasons written by Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorff and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals the secret spiritual exercises of the Bektashi Order of Sufis • Shows how this order, also known as Oriental Freemasonry, preserves the ancient spiritual doctrines forgotten by modern Freemasonry • Explains how to transform the soul into the alchemical Magnum Opus by combining Masonic grips and the abbreviated letters of the Qur’an • Includes a detailed biography of Baron von Sebottendorff Originally published in Germany in 1924, this rare book by Baron Rudolf von Sebottendorff reveals the secret spiritual exercises of the Bektashi Order of Sufis as well as how this order, also known as Oriental Freemasonry, preserves the ancient spiritual doctrines forgotten by modern Freemasonry. Sebottendorff explains how the mysterious abbreviated letters found in the Qur’an represent formulas for perfecting the spirit of the individual. When combined with Masonic hand signs and grips and conducted accordingly to a precise schedule, these formulas incorporate spiritual power into the body and transform the soul from its base state into a noble, godlike state: the Magnum Opus of the medieval alchemists. Laying out the complete program of spiritual exercises, Sebottendorff explains each abbreviated word-formula in the Qur’an, the hand gestures that go with them, and the exact order and duration for each exercise. Including a detailed biography of Sebottendorff and an examination of alchemy’s Islamic heritage, this book shows how the traditions of Oriental Freemasonry can ennoble the self and lead to higher knowledge.

Hallaj

Author : Husayn ibn Mansur Hallaj
Publisher : Northwestern University Press
ISBN 13 : 0810137364
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (11 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Hallaj by : Husayn ibn Mansur Hallaj

Download or read book Hallaj written by Husayn ibn Mansur Hallaj and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Global Humanities Translation Prize Hallaj is the first authoritative translation of the Arabic poetry of Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, an early Sufi mystic. Despite his execution in Baghdad in 922 and the subsequent suppression of his work, Hallaj left an enduring literary and spiritual legacy that continues to inspire readers around the world. In Hallaj, Carl W. Ernst offers a definitive collection of 117 of Hallaj’s poems expertly translated for contemporary readers interested in Middle Eastern and Sufi poetry and spirituality. Ernst’s fresh and direct translations reveal Hallaj’s wide range of themes and genres, from courtly love poems to metaphysical reflections on union with God. In a fascinating introduction, Ernst traces Hallaj’s dramatic story within classical Islamic civilization and early Arabic Sufi poetry. Setting himself apart by revealing Sufi secrets to the world, Hallaj was both celebrated and condemned for declaring: “I am the Truth.” Expressing lyrics and ideas still heard in popular songs, the works of Hallaj remain vital and fresh even a thousand years after their composition. They reveal him as a master of spiritual poetry centuries before Rumi, who regarded Hallaj as a model. This unique collection makes it possible to appreciate the poems on their own, as part of the tragic legend of Hallaj, and as a formidable legacy of Middle Eastern culture. The Global Humanities Translation Prize is awarded annually to a previously unpublished translation that strikes the delicate balance between scholarly rigor, aesthetic grace, and general readability, as judged by a rotating committee of Northwestern faculty, distinguished international scholars, writers, and public intellectuals. The Prize is organized by the Global Humanities Initiative, which is jointly supported by Northwestern University’s Buffett Institute for Global Studies and Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.

Happiness in Life & After Death

Author : Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781928329237
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (292 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Happiness in Life & After Death by : Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

Download or read book Happiness in Life & After Death written by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri and published by . This book was released on 2022-05-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Happiness in Life and After Death -- An Islamic Sufi View, Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri provides a lucid and inspiring account of life, death and the hereafter, according to an Islamic Sufi perspective. The book opens with a wide-ranging sweep of death and dying as viewed in other cultures and religions -- from ancient Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Zoroastrian sources through to Judaism and Christianity. Based on the Qur'an and Prophetic message, this book offers a splendid collection of revelations and spiritual teachings that map a basic path towards a wholesome way of living without forgetting death. There is both physical and spiritual death, and death in both instances is seen as a natural bridge from the suffering and delusions of this life to a unifying and clear abode. As the reader is led from birth of the ephemeral self on earth through an unfolding progression towards higher consciousness and awakening to the eternal soul within, constant awareness of one's intimate dual nature takes away much of the fear of death and makes it seem like a familiar companion.

Witness to Marvels

Author : Tony K. Stewart
Publisher : University of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520306333
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (23 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Witness to Marvels by : Tony K. Stewart

Download or read book Witness to Marvels written by Tony K. Stewart and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2019-09-13 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. There is a vast body of imaginal literature in Bengali that introduces fictional Sufi saints into the complex mythological world of Hindu gods and goddesses. Dating to the sixteenth century, the stories—pīr katha—are still widely read and performed today. The events that play out rival the fabulations of the Arabian Nights, which has led them to be dismissed as simplistic folktales, yet the work of these stories is profound: they provide fascinating insight into how Islam habituated itself into the cultural life of the Bangla-speaking world. In Witness to Marvels, Tony K. Stewart unearths the dazzling tales of Sufi saints to signal a bold new perspective on the subtle ways Islam assumed its distinctive form in Bengal.

The Essence of Sufism

Author : John Baldock
Publisher : Arcturus Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1848584075
Total Pages : 146 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (485 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Essence of Sufism by : John Baldock

Download or read book The Essence of Sufism written by John Baldock and published by Arcturus Publishing. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insight into Life is the real religion, which alone can help man to understand Life.' Hazrat Inayat Khan The Sufis have been using carefully constructed stories for teaching purposes for thousands of years. Though on the surface these often appear to be little more than fairy or folk tales, the Sufis hold that they enshrine - in their characters, plots and imagery - patterns and relationships that nurture a part of the mind not reachable in more conventional ways, thus increasing our understanding, flexibility and breadth of vision. Familiarization with this body of material can eventually provide answers to questions about our origins and our destiny. In this book John Baldock explores the rich body of literature the Sufis have produced to guide spiritual travellers. While explaining the significant teachings and emphasizing their significance for us, he sheds a timely light on the Sufis' fascinating perception of life, revealing it to be a process of the heart and not of the head, and offers intriguing pathways to further study and reflection.