The book shows a way to develop an ultimate meaning for life through spiritual connection with the Almighty God Most High. It shows mindfulness of God as a way to excel in all you do in preparation of the ultimate meeting with God.

Answering questions from scholars and travelers on the Sufi path, this core statement of Sufi belief explains confusing and obscure points of devoted practice. The discussion covers the beliefs of the Pole of Time and the Circle of Saints, the states of extinction and subsistence, the nature of universal existence, and technical points concerning the relationship between master and novice. There are also rulings on more practical questions about the respective merits of fame and obscurity, the correct way to worship the spirits of the dead, and the causes of civil war. The book is also notable for a fascinating stylistic technique: the curt and pitiless dismissals of all questions not on the traveler's path.

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.

A collection of essays on Sufism, written by such contemporary contributors as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, William Chittick, and Frithjof Schuon, demystifies its language, philosophies, and history, in a volume that also provides interpretations of classic and modern essays. Original.

Learning How to Learn contains the authentic material from the Sufi stand-point, written in response to more than 70,000 questions received from government leaders, housewives, philosophy professors, and factory workers around the world. The lively question-answer format provides readers a direct experience of a Sufi learning situation. Shah draws from diverse sources, ranging from 8th-century Sufi narratives to today's newspapers, giving us insight into how Sufis learn, what they learn, and how spiritual understanding can be developed.

The Imam, the Divine Guide, is the central point around which the Shi'ite religion turns. The power of Shi'ism comes from the actions of the Imam. This title is reserved exclusively for the sucessors of the prophets in their mission. The author shows that from the beginning of Shi'ite Islam until the tenth century, the Imam was primarily a master of knowledge with supernatural powers, not a jurist theologian. The Imam is the threshold through which God and the creatures communicate. He is thus a cosmic necessity, the key and the center of the universal economy of the sacred. The author presents Shi'ism as a religion founded on double dimensions where the role of the leader remains constantly central: perpetual initiation into divine secrets and continued confrontation with anti-initiation forces. Without esotericism, exotericism loses its meaning. Early Imamism is an esoteric doctrine. Historically, then, at the beginning of esotericism in Islam, we find an initiatory, mystical, and occultist doctrine. This is the first book to systematically explore the immense literature attributed to the Imams themselves in order to recover the authentic original vision. It restores an essential source of esotericism in the world of Islam.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim community represents the followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), a charismatic leader whose claims of spiritual authority brought him into conflict with most other Muslim leaders of the time. The controversial movement originated in rural India in the latter part of the 19th century and is best known for challenging current conceptions of Islamic orthodoxy. Despite missionary success and expansion throughout the world, particularly in Western Europe, North America, and parts of Africa, Ahmadis have effectively been banned from Pakistan. Adil Hussain Khan traces the origins of Ahmadi Islam from a small Sufi-style brotherhood to a major transnational organization, which many Muslims believe to be beyond the pale of Islam.