Principles of Sufism

Authors: Al-Qushayri
Publisher: Islamic Book Trust 
ISBN: 9789839154603
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Pages: 392pp
Year: 2024
Price: RM59

Principles of Sufism is the first English translation of a significant portion from the Risala, the famous compendium of Sufi knowledge and practice by Al-Qushayri (d. 1072).

The book includes all sections of the Risala concerning the fundamental principles of Sufism; it omits only the biographical notices at the beginning of the work and various highly technical matters at its end. The sections chosen for translation relate to the stations and states of the Sufi path: 43 chapters beginning with Repentance (tawba) and ending with Longing (shawq). This represents half the complete text. Given the perennial centrality to Sufism of the topics discussed in the translation, the title Principles of Sufism seems justified.

One of the most widely read Sufi treatises in Arabic, the Risala defines classical Sufism through the use of quotations from the Qur’an, the Prophetic Traditions and reference to the exemplary behavior of the ascetics and saints. Al-Qushayri illustrates the principles of Sufism with tales and sayings of the first generation of Muslims and of his contemporaries in the 5/11th century. Readers are given a rich account of what Sufism as way of life implied for the early Muslims.

The translators, Dr B.R. von Schlegell, did her graduate work at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley. She is presently teaching at University of Pennsylvania. Dr Hamid Algar has written an informative introduction on Al-Qushayri and his place in the history of Sufism. Scholars and students of Islam, religion and mysticism will welcome this important new work.