title: The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam&rsquo;s Mystical Tradition
author:  Seyyed Hossein Nasr 
description: Despite the popularity of Sufism, few books provide an overview of this mystical branch of Islam&mdash; a void Nasr, professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, fills nicely, albeit briefly, with this concise primer. Sufism teaches that all aspects of life&mdash;from nature to other people&mdash;are signs of God, and yet the grandeur of God is beyond human comprehension. The goal of each Sufi is to take an inner journey to transcend the human state, to illuminate the dark corners of our soul and reconnect with the inner divinity implanted by God at creation. Nasr's book is not a how-to introduction on removing the veils erected by imperfection, which manifest as evil and block our divine roots, but a wise and tantalizing overview. He also includes a detailed and rare history of the Sufi movement and a brief catalogue of the various Sufi orders. Although readers with no prior background in Sufism may struggle with this rather dense intellectual study of the movement, it provides valuable information about the often overlooked philosophical underpinnings of Sufism along with obscure details that will be fascinating to more advanced practitioners. <I>(Sept.)</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: SIJFT RSSAYS
  by
  Seyyed Hossein Nasr
  SCHOCKEN BOOKS
  • NEW YORK
  
  29
  First published by schocken books 1977
  © George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1972
  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
  Nasr, Seyyed Hossein.
  Sufi essays.
  Reprint of the ed. published by G. Allen and Unwin, London.
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  1. Sufism—Addresses, essays, lectures.
  I.
  Title.
  [BP189.N38
  1977]
  297'.4
  76-39629
  Manufactured in the United States of America
  h
  
  Ihsdn (Sufism):
  ///5QA2 is to adore Allah as though thou didst see Him, and if thou
  dost not see Him he nonetheless seeth thee.
  Prophetic
  tradition
  {hadith)
  1978389
  
  29
  
  CONTENTS
  INTRODUCTION
  page 11
  PARTI
  I
  Sufism and
  the Perennity of the
  Mystical
  Quest
  25
  II
  Sufism and the Integration of Man
  43
  III
  Revelation,
  Intellect
  and
  Reason
  in
  the
  Quran
  52
  IV
  The Sufi Master as Exemplified in Persian
  Sufi Literature
  57
  V
  The Spiritual States in Sufism
  68
  VI
  Man in the Universe: Permanence Amidst
  Apparent Change
  84
  PART
  II
  VII
  Seventh-century