كشف المحجوب للهجويرى

by الهجويري, Ali bin Uthman Al-Hujwiri, إسعاد عبد الهادى قنديل (Translator)

هذا الكتاب هو الوحيد الذي بقي ووصل إلينا بين مؤلفات الشيخ الهجويري ، وقد كتبه باللغة الفارسية .
ويعد هذا الكتاب أقدم كتاب في التصوف باللغة الفارسية وأول كتاب منظم في الأصول النظرية والعملية للتصوف ولا نعلم تحديداً تاريخ كتابة هذا الكتاب لكن بعض الباحثين يرجحون أنه كتب بين سنتي 435 هـ و442 هـ .

يشتمل الكتاب على 25 قسما ً تكلم فيها المؤلف في الأصول النظرية والعملية للتصوف ، وقدم فيه تراجم لكثير من أعلام التصوف الإسلامي ،كما حوى تعريفا بكثير من الطرق الصوفية والعقائد الدينية .

Genres: Islam, Religion, Spirituality, Mysticism, Nonfiction, History, Collections

710 pages

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

أبو الحسن علي بن عثمان بن أبي علي الجلابي الهجويري الغزنوي ( نوفمبر 1009 - سبتمبر 1072 ) عالم ومتصوف فارسي، صاحب كتاب كشف المحجوب الذي يعد من المصادر الأساسية في التصوف وسجلٌ جامع للتيارات الدينية التي كانت سائدة في العالم الإسلامي في القرن الخامس الهجري.

Reviews

[Peiman E iran]

دوستانِ گرانقدر، این چرت و پرت نامه، نوشتۀ موجودی عرب پرست و بیخرد به نامِ «هجویری غزنوی» است و از 39 فصل تشکیل شده است که سرتاسر چرت و پرت های بیخردانه است که برای محکم سازی خزعبلاتش به احادیث و آیاتِ کتاب تازیان و تازی پرستان (قرآن) رجوع نموده است
در زیر بخشی از این چرت و پرت نامه را به انتخاب برای شما ادب دوستان، مینویسم... تا هم با این کتابِ افتضاح آشنا شوید و هم اینکه خودتان با خردِ انسانیِ خویش، قضاوت کنید و ببینید مردم چه خزعبلات و موهوماتی را ندانسته و نخوانده، بزرگ و مشهور میکنند
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از محمد عُلیّان نَسوی روایت آرند که: من اندر ابتدایِ حال که به آفت‌هایِ نفس، بینا گشته بودم و کمینگاه‌های وی دانسته بودم، از وی حِقدی پیوسته اندر دلِ من بود. روزی چیزی چون "روباه بچه‌ای" از گلویِ من برآمد و حق تعالی مرا شناسا گردانید... دانستم که آن «نفس» است، وی را به زیر پای اندر آوردم. هر لگدی که بر وی می‌زدم، وی بزرگتر می‌شد. گفتم: ای هذا! همه چیزها به زخم و رنج هلاک شوند تو چرا می زیادت شوی؟ گفت: از آنچه آفرینش من بازگونه است. آن‌چه رنج چیزها بود، راحت من بود و آن‌چه راحت چیزها بود رنج من بود
و شیخ ابوالعباس اشقانی که امام وقت بود، گفت: من روزی بخانه اندر آمدم، سگی دیدم زرد بر جایِ خود خفته... پنداشتم که از محلت اندر آمده است. قصد راندن وی کردم، وی به زیرِ دامن من اندر آمد و ناپدید شد
و شیخ ابوالقاسم گرگانی که امروز قطب المُدار علیه وی است .. از ابتدای حال نشان داد که: من ورا به صورت ماری دیدم... و درویشی گفت که: من نفس را بدیدم بر صورت موشی
از شیخ بوعلی سیاه مـروزی حکایت کنند که گفت: من نفس را بـدیدم بصورتی مانندِ «صورت زن» که یک مویِ وی گرفته بود و به من داد. و من وی را بر درختی بستم و قصدِ هلاکِ وی کردم
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دوستانِ خردگرا، شما خودتان ببینید این جرثومه های کثیف و حرامی، چه خزعبلات و چرت و پرت هایی تحویل این جماعت عرب پرست میدهند... هنوز هم به اصطلاح دانشجوهای بیخرد و عرب پرستی را میبینم که این متونِ احمقانه را میخوانند و به به و چه چه میزنند و بخیالشان سوادِ ادبی آنها زیاد شده است. ولی نمیدانند که مغزشان به اندازۀ شعور گوساله ای مقدار ندارد و صد رحمت به گوساله
عزیزانم، همانطور که در متنِ انتخاب شده، خواندید این حرام زاده ها یا آنقدر دروغ گفته اند که در دروغگویی بسیار استاد شده اند و یا همچون پیامبران و امامانشان متوهم و روان پریش بوده اند و مدام در حال کلنجار رفتن با توهماتشان بوده اند... در سالهای پیش این مردم احمق و ساده لوح برای کلّاشان و دروغگوهایی همچون " آیت الله بهجت" تبلیغ میکردند که وی چشم برزخی دارد و انسانها را همچون حیوان میبیند و نفس زشت را همچون چهرۀ زشتِ خودش، با چهره حیوان مشاهده میکند
بله.. عزیزانِ من.. بارها در تاریخ چنین موجودات یاوه گو و دروغگو و همچنین بیمارانِ روانیِ خطرناک و متوهم را داشته ایم که مردم نادان و عرب پرست، دروغ هایِ شاخدار این موجودات پست را باور کرده اند و متأسفانه در سرزمین پاکِ ما تبلیغ این بی اصل و ریشه های متعفن را نموده اند
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امیدوارم این ریویو برای شما خردگرایانِ ایرانی، مفید بوده باشه
«پیروز باشید و ایرانی»

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every once in a while you come across a work that requires a bit more in the way of meditation and contemplation. Sufi books generally will have this characteristic, but some demand a concentration and internal focus that cannot necessarily be realized at all moments of the day. This is one of those books. I read it in the early morning hours just after waking up, when I had the most mental clarity and felt my surroundings most at peace. It’s an amazingly insightful and penetrating book on the entirety of the spiritual path. It’s one of the best I’ve seen thus far at attempting to put into words those things that are so often lacking in description.

[Jawad Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Mera dil meri aankh se hasad karta hai k use mehboob ki deed ki lazzat hasil hai
Aur meri aankh mere dil se hasad karti ha k use mehboob ki fikr ki lazzat hasil hai"

[Sagheer Afzal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided me with an insight into the most enduring form of Islam within history. Sufism was the most dominant expression of Islam for over a thousand years. Al-Hujwiri in relaying the practices of Sufi's inadvertently gives the reason why Islamic science stultified and eventually stopped. He states within the first few pages: "It is not obligatory to learn all the sciences such Astronomy, Medicine and Arithmetic...only know enough Astronomy to know the times of prayer and enough medicine to abstain from what is injurious."

If the leading practitioners of such a prevalent culture think like this then it is no wonder there was little or no progress in Islamic sciences.

What I found disheartening about this book was the fact that Al-Hujiwiri recounts so many traditions and stories that are patently false or ridiculously absurd. Sadly, Sufi lore seems to have accumulated a huge number of apocryphal and fictitious traditions and tales. Some of them really do beggar belief.

This to me highlights the problem of Sufism. The practices of the great Sufi's and saints simply cannot be prescribed for the masses. I remember when reading two of Ibn Arabi's great works, coming to the conclusion that the inner world and theosophy of a Sufi saint can never really be properly understood. You can understand that Sufi's gradate to stations and are granted states which accord them powers to work miracles. But there is so much disparity in their own descriptions of each of these mystical states that a lot of it can quite easily waft over your head. Combine that with a lot of fantastical tales and you come to the conclusion that you are none the wiser and have wasted time trying to delve into psyche of a Sufi saint.

In the final thirty or so pages I read something which left me puzzled as to whether or not I should laugh or cry. He mentions a Sufi sect called the Hululi's who openly practised homosexuality. But in saying that it seems that a lot of Sufi's in their state of rapture or ecstasy did not seem to have any sense of conventional behaviour. But then that is generally the case with a lot of gnostics, the naked Sadhu's of India who walk around utterly oblivious of their nudity are a striking example of this fact.

A point of interest in this book is Al-Hujwiiri's apparent loyalty to Al-Hallaj, the famous mystic who uttered the words: 'I am the truth' and was beheaded for apostasy. Al-Hujwiri seems to have a high opinion of Hallaj saying that he uttered those last infamous last words, because he became bewildered when traversing through the stations. Who knows?

A book for hardcore lovers of Sufism (of which I am not) will cherish. Most certainly, I read it with interest but I regret to say that unlike other readers, I did not swoon or have any nirvana-like moments.

[Muhammad Ahsen Tahiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

A shrine in Lahore, Pakistan that still attracts thousands of devotees across the world is of a Saint that still speaks to the hearts of people even after 966 years of His death, through His lovely way of teachings on Spiritualism of Islam. Hazrat Ali Hajveri r.a. the Saint of the saints and an eminent Man of Tasawwuf (Mysticism of Islam) that taught world love of all mankind, humanity, peace, tranquillity and above all, friendship of Allah. Eventually not only Muslims but Hindus, Sikhs, Paarsees, Christians etc from other religious circles fell in deep love with Hazrat.

His masterpiece, Kashf ul Mahjoob (the Secrets of the Veiled) became the earliest and imminent most treatise on Spiritualism written in 5 AH (626 AD). The "Veiled" referring to Allah al Mighty. The book is excellently written in 11 Veils, that one by one uncovers secrets under common headings that ultimately teaches to reach Allah.

The book immediately got immense fame to people around the world.

I came through this book when I was 6, 16 years ago. And since then I've kept reading this again and again owing to it's charm as if a teacher sweetly teaches you love, keeping it as a textbook on Spiritualism, like many other Sufis.

Well written in 11 Veils (it's parts are named so), most importantly the first one, The Gnosis of Allah, the hottest topic in Spiritualism of Islam and other religions, tells us different ways to find Allah Almighty and teaching about the very existence of the only God, His Qualities, and acquiring His Love the foremost principle to all Islam and major religions together.

The other 10 veils likewise uncover several important secrets to common people, which were otherwise kept only by those sitting on highest seats of Tasawwuf (Mysticism). The secrets that came under headings of Unity of God, Faith, Purification of Soul and Body from Foulness, Prayers, Alms, Fasting, Pilgrimage, Companionship, Defining Sufis and Their Important Ideas and MOST IMMINENTLY Spiritual Auditions that mollify the souls, as said.

Apart from being religious spiritualism in genre the book touches other areas as intelligence, love and humanity to all. It's highly engrossing way of conveying the sacred secrets sticks fast it's readers until they reach the 11th or the last Veil.


Last but not least, Kashf ul Mahjoob is recommended to all people around the world belonging to any religion, owing to it's universality towards whole humankind.

Regards, Dr Ahsen Tahiri

[Natasha11 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most substantial and in-depth book on Sufism I have ever read. You won't find any 'feel good' flim flam in this one.

[محمد الملوي · Rating 5 out of 5]

الحجاب حجابان: ريني وغيني...
ريني: لا ينكشف، كَلا بَلْ رَانَ عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ
غيني: يجوز أن ينكشف وقتًا دون وقت، فهو حجاب صفة

وقد عملت هذا الكتاب ليكون صقالا للقلوب الأسيرة في حجاب الغين ويكمن فيها جوهر ونور الحق، فينكشف عنها الحجاب ببركة قراءة هذا الكتاب، وتجد الطريق إلى حقيقة المعنى.

[Hassan Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who are travelling on the paths of "Tasawwuf".

[Waseem Arshad · Rating 4 out of 5]

an excellent read but difficult to grasp. opens door of mysticism. urdu translation is difficult to understand. will ve to read again.

[رقیه خدابنده اویلی]

...بدانستم که مرا طالبی است -یعنی مرگ- که از وی نتوانم گریخت

[Syed Ali Hussain Bukhari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kashf ul Mahjoob by Hazrat Syed Ali Bin Osman Hijweri

I don't think myself capable of posting a review for this high level spiritual book.
Anyhow, I can say that it is such a wonderful book that not only enlightens the reader's mind with all terms of Tasawuff but also guides a Saalik to follow the path that leads to the final destination of Ma'rifat of Allah Almighty.

کشف المحجوب
مصنف: حضرت سید علی بن عثمان ہجویری المعروف داتا گنج بخش رحمتہ اللہ علیہ
موضوع تصوف پر لکھی گئ ایک بے مثال کتاب جو تصوف کے دقیق نکات و حقائق پر بحث و وضاحت کرنے کے ساتھ ساتھ قاری یا سالک کی اس راہ پر چلنے میں ایک پیر کامل کی طرح رہنمائ کرتی ہے۔
مگر آج کے دور میں اس کو صحیح طور پر سمجھنے کیلئے ضروری ہے کہ ہم کسی ایسے شخص کی رہنمائ میں اس کا مطالعہ کریں جو خود اس کو سمجھنے کے ساتھ ہمارے جیسے ناقصوں کی رہنمائ بھی کر سکے۔ آخر میں میں حضرت معین الدین چشتی اجمیری رحمتہ اللہ علیہ کے اس شعر پہ گفتگو تمام کرتا ہوں کہ
گنج بخش فیض عالم مظہر نور خدا
ناقصاں را پیر کامل، کاملاں را رہنما

[Jeff Cliff · Rating 1 out of 5]

As far as the copyright goes, this book was *so close* to getting things right. The page where you would normally expect a copyright warning to be, was a page declaring all praises be to Allah. This, unfortunately, faked me out - there was a copy right warning at the very end of the book, which is ridiculous. This book is nearly 1000 years old, and should definitely be in the public domain. -1 star for that = 0 stars

There are two other aspects of this book, from which we may judge it

1) Sufism, itself. This is to a large extent a foundational book that documents, as clearly as is probably possible, what Sufis were, and what they believed. In a religion that prides itself on never changing, and sticking to tradition, this makes it current to any Sufis alive throughout the history of the Islamic State ( what other authors might call by other names ) and, given other reviews on this book, even those today who are on the path of tasawwuf. If you have already gone through the Qur'an the Al-Kafi, the big 6 Sunni and ibadi ahadith, this is a natural and obvious next step to get the big, full picture of islam.

Until reading this book, you may have been able to convince me that although sunnis, ibadis, quranists and shi'as are fundamentally broken that perhaps the sufis are somehow an exception to islam and could be considered in some way shape or form reasonable and, hence, there would be something in islam redeemable, somewhere where innovation/reform was possible, where the mistakes of islam could be corrected. Alas, they are not. Sufis are the equivalent of puritans, dervishes perhaps the islamic equivalent of a knights errant. They aren't exceptions to islam: they are its blossoming flowers. They carry with them everything that is wrong with islam, and then some. They are what trapped the middle east into a thousand year reich of darkness. They are what the Sick Man of Europe was sick with. It shouldn't be tolerated.

2) From the perspective of Al-Hujwiri, the author, trying to document Sufis, along with translator (Lt. Col Muhammad Ashraf Javed) who mostly faithfully reproduced his words. On the topic of translation - it was passable. Even with my little bit of arabic understanding I could clearly see a couple of points where the english was hinting at words that were not fully faithfully represented. But I think I understood what he was getting at. There were a few typographical blunders and definitely clumsy language which a better editor may have caught, however, this must have been a fiendishly difficult book to get the typesetting right for, being a mixture of arabic and english text. Perhaps the translator/author/publisher could be forgiven for some of that. All in all, it is a thick, small font, deep, encyclopedic book of the topic - exhausting the subject along a variety of dimensions. Al-Hujwiri clearly worked on this book a great deal, over a long period -- and it shows.

And Al-Hujwiri, unlike virtually every writer I can remember reading who wrote before him, had exposure to a large world full of ideas -- ideas that he had knocking around in his head, and diverse groups who he had clearly been exposed to. These included: Muslims (orthodox sunni, regular sunnah sunni, shi'a/batiniyans, hululi, fari, mutazalite, and, of course Sufi), Christians, Indians/Hindu, Tibetans/buddhists, Zoroastrians, Chinese, Atheists, as well as qarmathians(??) at least. And, though it is not the main thrust of the book, he tries to separate out what is right and wrong in all of these.

And it is in its own way a special book. It's one of the few surviving books of the era in question: long before the invention of calculus(Al-Hujwiri made many statements about the infinite that have a completely different appearance once rewritten in Delta-Epsilon Proof form), the pre-crusades middle east, before the fork between eastern and western orthodox christian churches really had solidified, during a time when the ideas of Aristotle and the other ancient greeks were still seeping into muslim culture from their translating their works en-masse (an effort that would have been going on still within al-Hujwiri's lifetime). This book is a window into a an alien world both to modern islam and the modern west : a world where contact between christian and muslim lands was happening, but when both the muslim world and the christian world were still much more alike to eachother than they are alike to us now. Both sides, clearly working their way through similar kinds of moral problems, and coming up with similar answers. As such it is a fascinating glimpse into a world where things had already started to go wrong, but hadn't fully yet. And yet: to see how al-Hujwiri saw his time -- a time of corruption, of women breaking free from traditional roles and expectations, a time of decay from what he viewed as a golden age: his words could easily have been written by reactionaries today. They give us a depth of understanding of the problems *those* reactionaries are concerned about that you just could not get without the stereo vision of looking from two vantage points, ~1,000 years apart.

As a reference material, it is also quite valuable: the number of arabic terms he defined and gave context for is huge. It is a large part of the puzzle of making sense of islam, to have access to this linguistic rosetta stone.

Back to the 'similar moral problems' bit, there's a passage in the History of Western Philosophy where Christianity goes through a similar phase of sorts -- where the expectation that God's will be done is so thoroughly internalized, that some monks refused to fix their well, once broken, because "god willed it" that the well be broken, and therefor nothing could be done about it. The sufis take this kind of of fatalism to an absurd level. It is, and was absurd - but we have to understand: the christian monks did the same thing, so obviously this is a trap that is easy to fall into from multiple directions once you accept the god delusion. Similarly, the invisible dragon involved in Abu Hamza Khurasani's story, kind of makes me wonder if this is the story that inspired Carl Sagan's tale of his invisible dragon. There's lots of other examples of this kind of absurdity, but they all point to the same point: turning away from understanding the universe, and only focusing on Allah, and only Allah.

Similarly, the way they viewed nafs was very alien to the modern reader: embedded within this book is a fairly fleshed out theory of folk psychology, complete with indestructible (since they are sent by Allah) animal spirits. It's the sort of thing that you would never find, if you looked for it directly, but you just stumble upon it reading this book, because it's there. The author, and the people of the 1060s probably would have never thought to write a book about these beliefs, because they probably seemed obviously true. But a modern reader would find these kinds of naf spirits very strange.

I went down quite a few rabbit holes, digging into the stories in this book. This is one of them: in pre-muslim times / jahiliya , a young woman was sacrificed to the Nile, if it got dry and it didn't bring water as much as they expected. Umar writes a letter to the river on behalf of Allah, and drops it into the river, and the river swells. All is good now, because Umar wrote a letter, dropped it in the river, the river accepted it, because Allah makes it so.

This is one of those 'sounds reasonable to a 11th century bumpkin but laughable in the 21st century' things. Writing a letter to a river is just plain silly, and the only thing it shows is, even a couple centuries into islam's golden age they *still* hadn't really got the handle on the water cycle that some of my old 6 year old students have.

But digging deeper into this story: although we have a better grasph of the mechanisms involved(and climatologists have a better grasp than I have with even the help of a days worth of googling) -- there's still a fair amount of unknowns in the "why does rain fall the way it does in east africa and the african great lakes region". Unknowns that no one would dig into if we left our curiosity at the point where al-Hujwiri does, of course, but it's worth pointing out that the uncertainties involved suggest that the nile is posed on the brink of a major humanitarian disaster within a generation or three, if the rains fail for long enough. Something that has happened in the past, and is documented in this book. The people in that region, in the past, didn't deal with it well, but I doubt we will, going forward, either. This book is a reminder of how long of a time the nile has been struggling with its problems, and how fragile our life is- how much we depend on that couple inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains.

There is also (the fatal flaw of) 'nafy', a cute term that describes sufis tendency to downplay and reject the contribution of, and agency of mankind. It's nice that we have that term, I will definitely be using it.

other interesting tidbits (of which there were many)

The tale of Diogenes and his bowl was associated with jesus, with the added detail that he had a comb and a bowl, not just a bowl. Diogenes and jesus had, by that point, become something like an archtype figure like Robin Hood, acquiring stories that are worth retelling, but which were not necessarily true.

The tale of abu abdullah muhammad b. khafif of shiraz, who had 400 wives, but didn't have sex with any of them.

The tale of the ancalyun, a musical instrument that so far, google only knows about through this book.

To conclude:

"There is nothing to get astonished, for when man is faithful to Allah, then whole of the universe becomes obedient to him."

This is the level of absolute, complete hubris that this book represents in a nutshell. The confusion between "what god says" and "what the guy who speaks for god says" is seen clear, in this book, clearer than even in the qur'an. Beware.

[Matt Friedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good translation, and overall helpful commentary. Rabbani attempts to assert, however, that Hujwiri embraces a full "Wahdat al-Wujud" ("unity of Essence") stance, which strikes me as both anachronistic as well as stretching Hujwiri's words beyond what he means. I'd still join Carl Ernst in suggesting that it's nonetheless well worth the examination.

[Umar · Rating 4 out of 5]

great primer, took notes on this need to review them

[Sara Abbas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ali Hajvery more well known as Data Darbar in Lahore was born in Afghanistan and was of Persian origin and of Alid lineage. He was a young man in 1030, which was the peak of Ghaznavid empire. He wrote this book as an older man, captured and taken to Lahore in 1060s. His personal anxieties included stolen books, enormous debt, a former, quarrelsome wife, Sufi pretenders, plagiarist writers who had stolen his work and angry devotees. His interjection of personal opinion and frankness makes Kash ful Mahjub appealing, narrative and voluble. It posits that the intellect is disconnected from the divine and marifat (gnosis) is innate yet unteachable. His greatest influence are his teacher Al Khattali and Junayd Baghdadi. He explains Sufi terms, sects and conditions and categorizes the saints/ awliya and imams. He spends an entire chapter on criticizing music (audition) with a detailed explanation on why dancing is improper. There are accounts of remorseful caliphs, penitent sinners and magnificent mystics who disdained karamat (miracles). Ali Hajveri comes across as reclusive, far-sighted, prudent, exacting, reticent and conscious of his role on the frontier of the Abbasid caliphate where Islam was a minority, raw, emerging influence. His anxiety is to claim and establish Sufi orthodoxy “sobriety” and preserve Islam for the next generation in northern India. The aim is to establish the orthodox Sufi practices — so he recounts the equipment allowed to novices — a patched garment, a staff, a bucket, thread and needle. He is a saint’s saint.

[Muzammil Ahmad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A definitely one of the best book written regarding Sufism, it's small history, under the laws of Shariah. The writer has indeed covered many aspects regarding Sufism and it's sects. A must read if you want to excel and purify your soul.

[Abu Raihan Khalid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! So far the best book on Sufism.

[Sheraz Mushtaq]

i want to read this book

[Abu Raihan Khalid · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Whoever knows God knows Him by one of His attributes, and the most elect of His attributes are of three kinds: those connected with His beauty (jamal) and with His majesty (jalal) and with His perfection (kamal).

His perfection is not attainable except by those whose perfection is established and whose imperfection is banished. There remain beauty and majesty. Those whose evidence in gnosis is the beauty of God are always longing for vision, and those whose evidence is His majesty are always abhorring their own attributes and their hearts are stricken with awe. Now longing is an effect of love, and so is abhorrence of human attributes, because the lifting of the veil of human attributes is the very essence of love. Therefore faith and gnosis are love, and obedience is a sign of love”.

--- Page 288, Ali ibn Usman, al-Jullabi al-Hujwiri, Kashf al-Mahjub : the oldest Persian treatise on suffism, Translation by Reynold A. Nicholson.

[Muhammad Qaisar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some blasphemous content mentioned which needs clarification and condemnation.
Zia ul Quran Publications
Published on May, 2019
Translated by: Allama Fazal ud Din Gohar

[Shaheed · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book outside of the Quran. I recommend the one with the translation and special commentary by Maulana Wahid Bakhsh Rabbani.

This is a very profound, deep, book. It has to be read a number of times to truly understand some of the deep concepts covered. I found myself lost at times with the mix of arabic terms and deep concepts. At the same time I felt a sense of shame for not knowing basic concepts like Wahdat-ul-Wujud.

The book has a mystical quality that opens up on the reader as one progresses. I felt my soul yearning and desiring only for Allah and losing concern for anything else.

The stories written in the book brought tears to my eyes and gave me some examples of true ashiqs of Allah (I love reading Ashiqi stories).

[Talha Muftee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how many myths and misconceptions regarding sufism are straight away cleared up right at the start of the book. Al-Hajveri was definitely a great mind and tackles philosophical issues of the self from multiple angles encompassing all different schools of thoughts before adding his own opinion. A very interesting read and meant for people who need an introduction to this field (the purpose of the book is to serve as a manual)

[Uzma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Consumed a third of commentary and explanation of the book a decade ago and consumed video commentary on the book by a Pakistani Sufi Scholar.

[Khan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t believe what I have read. It’s nothing but SHIRK , Grave Worshippers and Sufism

[Ebrima Saye]

Highly recommended for the seeker..