The Way of the Sufi (Penguin Arkana)

Rating:
Summary: The Seed of Sufi Knowledge
Review: Humour! History! Stories! Mental teasers! Here are challenges to habitual and defensive thought. We must turn the stone over and examine its several sides.
Shah can be compared to Socrates in his benevolent probing into our cherished but unexamined patterns of thought and action.
Here Idries Shah has translated and assembled a most considerate introduction to Sufi literature and practice. The Way of the Sufi Includes chapters on Sufism in the West, classical authors, Sufi masters, teaching stories and other topics. But this book is not just about the Sufi way, it forms a part of the Sufi Way in our time. Read with energy and an open (but not glib) mind, it can be an avenue for experiential learning.
Enlightening, entertaining, engrossing, The Way of the Sufi just might affect the way you look at things and what you do.

Exerpts:

The Seed of Sufi Knowledge
The true seed was made in Adam's time. The miracle of life, existence.
It germinated in the period of Noah. The miracle of growth, rescue.
By the time of Abraham it had sent forth branches. The miracle of spreading, maintenance.
The epoch of Moses saw the making of the grapes. The miracle of fruit.
The time of Jesus was that of the ripening of the yield. The miracle of tasting, joy.
Mohammed's time saw the pressing of clear wine. The miracle of attainment, transformation. Bayazid Bistami

What Looks After You
Knowledge is better thatn wealth. You have to look after wealth; knowledge looks after you. Ali

The Thief and the Blanket
A thief entered the house of a Sufi, and found nothing there. As he was leaving, the dervish perceived his disappointment and threw him the blanket in which he was sleeping, so that he should not go away empty-handed.

Rating:
Summary: Anecdotal
Review: I won't say that this book is not worth reading, but I do think that you will walk away from it feeling that it was oddly antiseptic. It has a lengthy introduction, most of which is almost unintelligible unless you have already read Mr. Shah's book "The Sufis." The rest of the book consists of snippets taken from the writings of the great Sufi masters, mostly of the Medieval period. Some of them are rather intriguingly exotic, as if taken from the "Arabian Nights." Some of them seem to express disarmingly fresh and modern views.

Just about all of them are completely divorced from their context, and I find that objectionable. I found this particularly annoying in his treatment of Rumi, but that may be because I'm more familiar with his work than any of the other writers in the book.

Perhaps I am just missing Mr. Shah's point. Or maybe I'm just not the mystical type. However, I do know that I have opened this book at random many times in hope of spiritual nourishment and I always put it down again after a few pages; I don't think that I've ever been able to read the whole thing straight through. While I have respect for Mr. Shah within the Sufi community, if I can use that term, I found this book to be - well, rather boring.

Rating:
Summary: Anecdotal
Review: I won't say that this book is not worth reading, but I do think that you will walk away from it feeling that it was oddly antiseptic. It has a lengthy introduction, most of which is almost unintelligible unless you have already read Mr. Shah's book "The Sufis." The rest of the book consists of snippets taken from the writings of the great Sufi masters, mostly of the Medieval period. Some of them are rather intriguingly exotic, as if taken from the "Arabian Nights." Some of them seem to express disarmingly fresh and modern views.

Just about all of them are completely divorced from their context, and I find that objectionable. I found this particularly annoying in his treatment of Rumi, but that may be because I'm more familiar with his work than any of the other writers in the book.

Perhaps I am just missing Mr. Shah's point. Or maybe I'm just not the mystical type. However, I do know that I have opened this book at random many times in hope of spiritual nourishment and I always put it down again after a few pages; I don't think that I've ever been able to read the whole thing straight through. While I have respect for Mr. Shah within the Sufi community, if I can use that term, I found this book to be - well, rather boring.

Rating:
Summary: "Knowledge Is A Higher Form of Human Thought"
Review: My title for this review consists of a quote from Shah's introduction to a number of El-Ghazali's quotes, observations, and admonitions. In a society like ours in which "information" is so often used interchangeably with "knowledge," we suddenly come upon an author (Shah) who uses words in a special, precise fashion that sharpens both his message and our understanding. After Ghazali, Shah introduces us to the works of seven other classical Sufi authors. He then moves on to a consideration of the four major orders, showing us their deficiencies as well as their strengths for raising the consciousness of men and women, primarily in the East. Teaching stories and themes for solitary contemplation are presented toward the end of the book, followed by some revealing "Letters and Lectures," and a Q & A section with two contemporary Sufi masters. The density of Shah's prose, as well as his offerings from other Sufi teachers in later sections of the book, leaves one's mind and heart in awe of the majesty of the Sufi source of Knowledge. I feel that almost anyone can benefit from this book, which is full of material that covers a range from the contemporary and practical to the uplifting and sublime.

Rating:
Summary: Chasing the mystic phantom
Review: Noting still another news report about a wave of interest in the West over 'Sufism' it is worth both endorsing the study of such things, e.g. via Idries Shah, and sounding a word of caution, if not a warning. Shah's works are all worth reading, and then setting aside, because they will leave you stranded. The world of Islamic Sufism is obscure to a westerner, and he takes the surface, and that surface is worthless. It is also obscure to a Moslem in the labyrinth of mystifications. Get some groovy music, and whirl around all night with some friends. It will definitely change your view of things, so what? Is it worth the endless effort of find the 'real' thing? I would bet that not one Islamic 'sufi' in a hundred thousand ever encounters the 'real' thing. Is there such? Note that texts on Sufism never say anything directly about anything, its all covered over. You can go a lot farther these days in a New Age bookshop.
This system is not a democracy, and the few celebrity cases strewn over a millennium does not add up to a way of transformation. The touching portrait of the underground sufi is misleading. The real establishment of Islam has a surprising secret and the escape valve sufism peddled to moslems and westerners alike deserves an Foucauldian expose. Face it, 'mysticism' is cheaper than hashish, and has no overhead, a substitute for the real business of understanding the issue of one's self-consciousness. That doesn't happen through systems designed to dish out mystic pablum. Thus, there are better documened ways to do that without getting inducted into the sufi wild goose chase, with its cynical and elusive promotions.
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In any case, Shah's works often give a glimpse of an interesting historical world, but give no real indication of anything practical and are too obviously baited hooks for the unwary.

Rating:
Summary: Writings That Resonate
Review: The opening essay of this fascinating book provides a clear, concise tracing of the Sufi influence on human thought and action through the centuries. That's followed by sections on the great Sufi masters of the past, including background information and selections from their most influential teachings. The book also includes a wide assortment of teaching stories, lectures, and themes for contemplation, which, taken together, provide a panoramic view of the Sufis and the impact they have had--and continue to have--on society. This is essential reading for those who wish to learn what it means to be "in the world but not of it" from the authentic Sufi perspective.