THE GARDEN OF TRUTH : The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition

DESCRIPTION:

A result of over fifty years of scholarly study of existential participation in Sufism, this volume presents to the reader a Sufi text written in English and using contemporary language. Though based on profound scholarship, it is not a history of Sufism or just an academic work on the subject. After some two centuries of study of Sufism in the West, with the appearance of many translations, analyses, histories, and some profound expositions of Sufi metaphysics, and given an ever greater interest in Sufism by certain Westerners, it was necessary to write, not just another book about Sufism, but a Sufi book. It is necessary to present the reality of Sufism as did the authorities of old, but in a manner accessible to the present-day serious Western seeker or Western-educated Muslim seeker, even if such a person has no previous knowledge of the subject. This book deals with universal truths of interest to those attracted to the life of the Spirit and in light of the human condition in general, presenting them from within the spiritual and intellectual universe of Sufism while providing a means of access to that universe and revealing some of its riches. It is concerned not so much with the cultural and civilization role of Sufism as with the souls of men and women in quest of the Truth and seeks to present the realities of Sufism while keeping in mind the concrete spiritual and intellectual needs of contemporary men and women in both East and West.

DETAILS:

ITEM CODE: TAP2015
AUTHOR: Seyyed Hossein Nasr
BINDING: Hardback
PAGES: 263
DIMENSIONS: 15 x 22 CM
PUBLISHER: Suhail Academy
CATEGORIES: Original Works, Sufism - Doctrines and Practice

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born in Tehran, where he received his early education. He studied in the West and gained his BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MA and PhD from Harvard University, where he studied the History of Science and Learning with special concentration on Islamic science and philosophy. In 1958, he returned to Iran to teach at Tehran University, where he was Professor of the History of Science and Philosophy. In 1962 he was visiting lecturer at Harvard University, and he taught there during the summer of 1965. During 1964-65, he was the first holder of the Agha Khan Chair of Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut. He also served as Vice Chancellor of Tehran University and Chancellor of the Arya-Mehr University of Technology in Iran. He was the founder and first President of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy and is presently University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, Washington D. C. and President of the Foundation for Traditional Studies. Professor Nasr has lectured in America, Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Japan, and Australia and was the first Muslim Scholar to deliver the Gifford Lectures. He is the author of over twenty-five books and five hundred articles in Persian, English, Arabic and French. His works have appeared in more than ten languages. His important contribution is three generations of scholars he has trained in the course of his fifty-year scholarly career in Iran and the West.