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POPSRumi's Daughter
Continued from above Rumi's Daughter is both a delightful and informative novel. It comes to us from Muriel Maufroy, French-born author and ex-journalist for the BBC World Service who currently lives in London. Partly imagined and partly factual, it recounts the life of Kimya, the adopted daughter of Maulana Jalalud-Din Rumi (1207-1273) who is known today both for his mystical love poetry written to his beloved God and the Sufi Order of the Whirling Dervishes founded after his death. Nothing is really known about Kimya's origins, and we know very little about her life in Rumi's household. Yet through her enchanting depiction, Maufroy lovingly evokes the spirit of a vivacious and ingenuous young girl. She brings to life this child of seven in all her innocence and simplicity as the girl awakens to a world of wonder and embraces the life of a mystic, even before she meets Rumi and Shams. This book is especially unique, in that it offers a glimpse into Rumi's life from the women's point
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POPSThe Lord of the Rings and the Esoteric Symbolism of the Abrahamic Faiths Tolkien was a Roman Catholic and he delved deeply into the world of archetypes and symbols. Mahmoud Shelton demonstrates how Tolkien used many of these symbols in a distinctly Sufic, alchemical manner in the quest pursued by, and in the lives of, his characters. The mystical traditions of all three Abrahamic religions, while possessing their own distinct perspectives and practices, are nevertheless also very close in what one might term an Abrahamic symbolic pool which is shared by all three religions in varying alignments and semantic expressions, To speak in Sufi terms, the core of the quest is the journey of return to a realization of unity with the One. The path is love, the fuel is love, and the goal is love. Alchemy is the process of transformation that love ffects.
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POPSA Sufi Novel by Irving Karchmar This novel is written by Irving Karchmar who many of you may already know from his blog, Darvish. Exciting, informative, and uplifting, this is the kind of literature we need more of for everyone interested in the spiritual path.
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POPSA book about the life and thought of Ibn 'Arabi Ibn 'Arabi is also known as the Shaykh al-Akbar, the greatest Shaykh. He was born in Al-Andalus in the mid twelfth century and lived half his life there before travelling east. He wrote prodigiously and claimed never to write anything he had not experienced personally. His influence on the development of Sufism was immense. What I appreciate so much about this biography by Stephen Hirtenstein is the way he introduces the reader to the thought of Ibn 'Arabi and also describes the historical context in which he lived, wrote, and pursued his spiritual path. Many scholars see Ibn 'Arabi as being equally significant to our present day concerns alonside the work of Jalaluddin Rumi. To read this book is like stepping into the times of Ibn 'Arabi in Al-Andalus and bathing in his spiritual wisdom. Having lived in Andaluci I often had a sense of his presence in the places he had been whether in the mosque of Cordoba, the port of Adra, or under the mulberry trees in the Alpujarran mountains.
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POPSSufi Teaching Tales Folk tales have always been used in Muslim lands as a way of teaching spiritual lessons. There are a huge variety of them full of heroes, male and female, struggling through the adventure of life with courage and dignity. Many philosophers and spiritual teachers have used such stories to highlight the journey of the soul on the return to the One. Many of them are full of humour as the silly mistakes that we often make are illustrated by characters who bring home the message that we too often follow the ego (nafs) and get ourselves into serious trouble. A lot of these stories are love stories that serve as a metaphor for the soul's longing for the Lord of the Worlds and the trials it is willi...
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