Secret of Secrets: Sirr al-Asrar

Abd Al-Qadir Al-Jilani, Tosun Bayrak (tr.)

Paperback

9780946621293

This work reveals the very essence of Sufism, showing how outward practices such as prayer, fasting and almsgiving contain a wealth of inner dimensions which must be discovered if external actions are to be performed in a manner pleasing to God. When this is achieved, the soul finds true peace and the spiritual life becomes complete.

Contents

1: Man’s Return Home to the Original Source

2: The Descent of Man to the Lowest of the Low

3: The Places of the Souls within the Body

4: On Knowledge

5: On Repentance and On Teaching by the Word

6: On Islamic Mysticism and the Sufis

7: On Remembrance

8: The Necessary Conditions for Remembrance

9: On The Vision of Allah: Arriving at the Level of Seeing the Manifestation of the Divine Essence

10: The Veils of Light and Darkness

11: The Joy of Being Good and the Misery of the Rebel

12: The Dervishes

13: On the Purification of the Self

14: On the Meaning of Ritual Worship and Inner Worship

15: On the Purification of the Perfect Man, who has Isolated Himself from, and Stripped Himself of, All Worldly Concerns

16: On Charity

17: On Fasting Prescribed by the Religion and On Spiritual Fasting

18: On the Pilgrimage to Makka and the Inner Pilgrimage to the Essence of the Heart

19: On Witnessing Divine Truth through the State of Peace Coming from Abandonment of the Worldly and through Ecstasy

20: On Withdrawing from the World into Seclusion and On Solitude

21: Prayers and Recitations Pertaining to the Path of Seclusion

22: On Dreams

23: On the Followers of the Mystical Path

24: Afterword