Author: Hazrat Inayat Khan
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 255
ISBN/UPC (if available): 812080497x
Description
This is the first volume of the Indian edition of all the works of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the great Sufi mystic who lectured and taught in the western world. This book and other volumes in this series contain his lectures, discourses and other teachings as taken down in shorthand.
The complete series contains fourteen volumes. Each volume is complete in itself, and therefore may be read without any necessity to study following or previous ones. However, one may get a spiritual and mental appetite to continue reading . One will find that a meditative way of reading will convey not only the words but also the spiritual power emanating from them, tuning mind, heart and soul to the pitch which is one's own.
This volume contains four parts: The Way of Illumination; The Inner Life; The Soul, Whence and Whither?; The Purpose of Life. Besides. It contains a crucial treatise on the being of a man The Soul, Whence and Whither? Which was given in the early twenties.
The title essay, The Way of Illumination’ inspires the reader with its Sufi philosophy, cast in a modern and universal form, on the purpose of life, the inner side of life in conjunction with life in the world. It sheds light on the essence of our nature, being of Divine origin. Hints are given as to what and how the Sufi, with the help of a spiritual guide, can contribute to one’s spiritual and religious development.
The Inner Life sheds further light on this journey of seeking and finding, going on in an upward spiral, donning one's life with every growing insights and overwhelming views. The Purpose of Life presents a further elaboration of the relationship between inner and outer life.
“What is a Sufi? Strictly speaking, every seeker after the ultimate truth is really a Sufi, whether he calls himself that or not Everybody can be called a Sufi either as long as he is seeking to understand life, or as soon as he is willing to believe that every other human being will also find and touch the same ideal. When a person opposes or hinders the expression of a great ideal, and is unwilling to believe that he will meet his fellow-men as soon as he has penetrated deeply enough into the very soul, he is preventing himself from realizing the unlimited.”
Sufi Hazrat Inayat Khan provides a beautiful guidebook for your inner path. It contains neither prescription nor do’s and don’ts. You may be provided with an insight and understanding which may be as a welcome in the circle of Sufi friends, or as a silent companion on your further way.
Contents
PART I
Sufi Thoughts
PART II
Some Aspects of Sufism
PART III
The Sufi