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Title: A Waste of Time
Review: Written by a failed spiritual seeker turned anti-spiritual polemical secularist, this book lacks the substance and insight possessed by a vaguely similar but nevertheless far superior work of disenchantment, Jeffrey Masson's *My Father's Guru*. Having spent three years attempting without success to follow the Sufi path, Ibn al-Rawandi in this book returns to Sufism but weakly flails about in his efforts to exact from it his revenge. Ultimately his message is that if you are a rationalist and do not believe in spiritual transformation, do not get involved in Sufism. Sound advice--but isn't this obvious?! The bottom line, though, is that a good piece of yellow journalism should at least be a juicy and engaging read. Sadly, this work is by and large flat. So if you want a book on spiritual disenchantment, read Masson. If you want something on Sufism, read anything but Ibn al-Rawandi.
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