Customer Reviews

Three Early Sufi Texts: A Treatise on the Heart, Stations of the Righteous, The Stumblings of Those Aspiring (Fons Vitae Sulami)

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This book is absolutely phenomenal! It was recommended to me by my Shaykh and I'm sure glad I took his advice. The first text on the heart is a very comprehensive explanation of it's different spheres, and how things like outward knowledge or even gnosis affect it and in which parts. After reading this you can literally visualize the heart as a system. The ability to easily convey the abstract is rare, especially in our age with so many psuedo sufis talking about "the secret," without even an outward understanding of it as a concept (may Allah give us a total experiential understanding of that concept!)

Additionally I would like to note that some people may be turned off from the title (the word sufi is controversial these days), but this is a basic knowledge that would be useful for anyone and everyone. Imam Ghazali said that though some people may be able to discuss very intricate points of law, they don't even know how to remove the doubt of their Lord from their hearts. Both the law, which is knowledge, and the heart, which is the wisdom from the knowledge are needed.

Honestly I haven't read the last two of the three texts in the book, and I will write another review when I have, but for the first alone it is worth it!