The Best English Book to make someone interested in Islam and Sufism ?

[seeker_ikb]

I have an English friend . I want to give him a good book which should make him interested in Islam as well as Sufism. Do you have any suggestion ? Which book do you prefer ?

[thedebater]

I have an English friend . I want to give him a good book which should make him interested in Islam as well as Sufism. Do you have any suggestion ? Which book do you prefer ?

their are many thigns in sufism that is heretical

such as praying to sufi saints instead of praying to allah for forgiveness...maybe your from should rethink

[muhammadnur]

I have an English friend . I want to give him a good book which should make him interested in Islam as well as Sufism. Do you have any suggestion ? Which book do you prefer ?

I here Islam and the Destiny of Man is good.

[seeker_ikb]

I here Islam and the Destiny of Man is good.

I have read an extract from this book available in the following link.

http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemo...index.php?l=21

His writing is really insightful as well as magnetic. However, he was in contact with some people like Martin Lings who belong to Perennialism movement in the West.

I am wondering if Gai Eaton's books have promoted any Perennial philosophy.

[Zhulfiqar]

Assalâmu 'Alaykum brother,

I think this would be great for your friend http://www.tasawwuf.org/writings/lov.../love_full.pdf (love for Allâh from Shaykh Ahmad Zulfiqar حفظه الله)

[seeker_ikb]

Assalâmu 'Alaykum brother,

I think this would be great for your friend http://www.tasawwuf.org/writings/lov.../love_full.pdf (love for Allâh from Shaykh Ahmad Zulfiqar حفظه الله)

"Love for Allah " is really an inspirational book. But , for an atheist , this book might not be suitable since he is confused with the existence of Almighty Allah.

[EuropeanThinker]

I have an English friend . I want to give him a good book which should make him interested in Islam as well as Sufism. Do you have any suggestion ? Which book do you prefer ?

Sunnah Way of the Sufis by Imam al Muhasibi (Sharh Shaykh Abdul Fattah Abu Khuddah)
http://kitaabun.com/shopping3/produc...oducts_id=1562

The World Within by Mufti Muhammed Shafi
http://kitaabun.com/shopping3/produc...oducts_id=1419

http://kitaabun.com/shopping3/produc...roducts_id=939

[seeker_ikb]

I here Islam and the Destiny of Man is good.

It seems to be that there are some grave errors in the book " Islam and the Destiny of Man " . Shaykh Nuh Keller (DB ) has discussed this issue of Perennialism here.
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http://masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/amat.htm

Emir `Abd al-Qadir and Christianity

My point is that it would have been one thing to say it under their own auspices, but to project their views onto great Muslims of the past is a mistake that should be corrected. Another example is found in Islam and the Destiny of Man, in which Charles le Gai Eaton (omissions are his) says: "According to the great mujahid (the 'warrior in the path of Allah'), the Emir `Abdu'l-Qadir, our God and the God of all the communities opposed to ours are in truth One God . . . despite the variety of His manifestations . . . He has manifested Himself to Muhammad's people beyond every form while manifesting Himself in every form . . . To Christians He has manifested Himself in the form of Christ . . . and to the worshippers of whatever form it may be . . . in the very form of this thing; for no worshipper of a finite object worships it for its own sake. What he worships is the epiphany in the form of the attributes of the true God . . . Yet that which all the worshippers worship is one and the same. Their error consists only in the act of determining it in a limitative manner. [Quoted from Mawqif 236 in the Mawaqif of `Abdul-Qadir (French translation by M. Chodkiewicz published by Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1982).] `Abdul-Qadir fought the Christians who invaded his land, Algeria, because he was a Muslim. Exiled in Damascus, he protected the Christians against massacre by taking them into his own home because he understood. Those who would challenge him or accuse him of heresy should be prepared to face his sword and accept death from its blade since small men risk their necks when they challenge great ones"(Islam and the Destiny of Man, 53).

The passage quoted from the Mawaqif is interesting, not only because scissors seem to have been harder at work on it than sword, but because the reference suggests it has been translated from Arabic to French to English, something of a journey from the original words of the author. I don't know who arranged the French original, but the above passage has not been quoted from Mawqif 236 of the Arabic Mawaqif that I have, which was printed in 1329/1911 in Damascus from the copy of Sheikh `Abd al-Razzaq al-Bitar, a manuscript read by `Abd al-Qadir himself, with emendations in his own handwriting in the margins.


The idea, however, is familiar, and is mentioned in a number of places in the Mawaqif, and is also mentioned in the Chapter of Hajj toward the end of the first volume of the Futuhat of Ibn al-`Arabi, whom `Abd al-Qadir follows closely. Ibn al-`Arabi feels that while God consigns idolaters to hell eternally (if a prophetic warner has been sent to them, for otherwise they are not responsible to do or refrain from anything), their worship is not completely amiss, in that everyone, whether Christian, Jew, fire-worshipper, or idolator, consider what they worship to be the Divine (Ar. al-Ilah, "the Deity"), and do not worship what they worship except for this reason, in which sense "your Lord has ruled that you shall worship none except Him" (Qur'an 17:23), in which "ruled", according to `Abd al-Qadir, means "brought about"; namely, that Allah, in virtue of this motive and this name (al-Ilah) and His jealousy for its prerogative, often answers the supplications of such worshippers and fulfills their needs; though as said before, their worship is not valid, for "Allah does not forgive that any should be associated with Him, but forgives what is other than that to whomever He wills" (Qur'an 4:48): From one side they do worship the God, but from another they have associated with Him the specific objects that they believe He inheres in, so their worship is invalid, because it does not conform to the absolute tawhid brought by the prophets, upon whom be peace, who taught that Allah is absolute in manifestation, not bound by any created form.

No matter what the religion, then, for Emir `Abd al-Qadir, Allah cannot not be "worshipped" in the limitary sense of the basic impetus of the worshipper towards the Divine. But this does not mean it is acceptable or valid in Allah's eyes. Whoever confuses these two things, as the above passage does, has done violence to `Abd al-Qadir. He says:

"Since the manifestings of Him Meant by Worship are manifold, so are sects and creeds. For the aim of worship is to exalt with reverence, and the lowliness and humility of every worshipper is only rendered to someone able to harm or benefit, give or withhold, to give sustenance, to lower or raiseand these attributes are not in fact, those of anyone except one alone, who is Allah Most High, and He is absolutely beyond perception (ghayb mutlaq).
"So every worshipper of a form, be it sun, star, fire, light, darkness, nature, idol, phantasm, jinn, or other, maintains that the form he worships is of Him Meant by Worship, and he ascribes the attributes of the Diety (al-Ilah) to it, of harm, benefit, and so on. Such a person would be right, in a way, if only he had not made Him finite and conditional. For no worshipper intends by adoring the form he worships anything except the Reality Deserving Worship, which is Allah Most High, and this is what Allah has ruled (Qur'an 17:23) and brought about. But they have proved ignorant of this Reality's absolute manifestation, unsullied by conditionality or limitariness, and have proved ignorant of the Reality in point of fact, though they do know it in general terms, this being innately possessed knowledge" (al-Mawaqif, 1.33:8).

What is the consequence of their proving "ignorant of the Reality in point of fact?" Does it mean that every worshipper, whether he associates others with Allah or not, is acceptable to Allah? `Abd al-Qadir answers this question in another section of the Mawaqif in his exegesis of the words of the Meccan idolators quoted by Allah in surat al-An`am, "Had Allah not wanted, we would not have associated anything with Him, nor our fathers, nor would we have prohibited anything" (Qur'an 6:148):
"This is truth intended as falsehood, that is: 'If Allah had willed us not to associate others with Him, we wouldn't have associated them with Him; and if Allah had not willed that we prohibited anything, we wouldn't have done so, for nothing we do occurs except what He wills.' And it is true; but the way this truth is intended as a falsehood is that they claim that everything Allah has willed for His servants is acceptable and liked by Him.
"And this is a falsehood, for Allah Most High wills for His servants whatever He knows from them pre-eternally. And that which He knows from them pre-eternally is whatever is entailed by what they most truly are, which they seek through their primal disposition, be it good or evil, pure monotheism (tawhid) or unbelief (kufr). For His will is subject to His knowledge, and His knowledge is subject to what He knows, and what He knows includes both the guided person and the lost, the affirmer of pure monotheism (muwahhid) and the associater of others with Him (mushrik), the damned and the saved, the truthful and the liar. The beings that He Most High has created are the sites of manifestation (madhahir) of His names, and there are those of His names which entail beauty and mercy, this being the share of those who are saved, the 'People of the Right Handful'; and there are others of them that entail rigor and subjugation, this being the share of those who are damned, the 'People of the Left Handful.'

"So Allah's willing something is not the sign of His love for it and acceptance of it, for 'He does not accept unbelief for His servants' (Qur'an 39:7), though He has willed the unbelief of many of them. His will is only a sign of His beginningless eternal knowledge of that which He would will for endless eternity. If everything He willed for His servants were goodness, it would entail that His sending the prophetic messengers and appointing their laws was futile. For they came with commands and prohibitions, and explained the Right Handful and the Left Handful, as He says: 'Of them [humanity], there are the damned and the saved'" (Qur'an 11:105) (al-Mawaqif, 1.46970: 236).

So at the level of creation and destiny, everything is the will of God, and in a sense, all religions, according to `Abd al-Qadir's viewpoint, are "worship" of the Deity. But at the level of validity and salvation, only the worship that conforms to what the prophets (upon whom be peace) have brought is acceptable to Allah.

[tahacemal]

I have an English friend . I want to give him a good book which should make him interested in Islam as well as Sufism. Do you have any suggestion ? Which book do you prefer ?

I highly recommend Imam Ghazali's books, Alchemy of Happiness is an example, and probably the most suitable one. It doesn't really have that deep of Islam in it, so it's quite easy to understand by a non-Muslim. It made my sister be in love with Imam Ghazali so much, she actually went on to learn more about deeper subjects on Islam. I would like to take a note that my sister was not religious at all back then, and that she literally didn't know anything about it apart from the Holy Prophet's name.

[Imperium]

Man and the Universe - an Islamic Perspective by Mostafa al-Badawi would be a good book for that.