Five Times of Prayer

by Sharon Marcus

Five Times of Prayer is a mystical Sufi explanation of the five daily prayers performed under the umbrella known as Islam, the path to purity, the surrender to light. Poet and novelist Sharon Marcus offers her own ecstatic verification of the mysteries embedded in these five prayers, each prayer represented by one section of this book length poem. As a map to the metaphors of spiritual ascent, the five sections simutaneously reflect stages of revelation for the world, for the body, of the soul and divine knowledge. A contemplation which is both personal and anecdotal takes the poet through an understanding of her connection to God, to M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, her Sufi master, and to an understanding of her life in prayer.

98 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Sharon Marcus is the Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She is a founding editor of Public Books and the author of the award-winning Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England (Princeton) and Apartment Stories: City and Home in Nineteenth-Century Paris and London.