The Garden of Truth
The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam's Mystical Tradition
By Seyyed Hossein Nasr
(HarperOne, Hardcover, 9780060797225, 272pp.)
Publication Date: August 30, 2007
Other Editions of This Title: Paperback (August 14, 2008)
Categories: Islam - History, Islam - Sufi
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The headlines are filled with the politics of Islam, but there is another side to the world's fastest-growing religion. Sufism is the poetry and mysticism of Islam. This mystical movement from the early ninth century rejects worship motivated by the desire for heavenly reward or the fear of punishment, insisting rather on the love of God as the only valid form of adoration. Sufism has made significant contributions to Islamic civilization in music and philosophy, dance and literature. The Sufi poet Rumi is the bestselling poet in America. But in recent centuries Sufism has been a target for some extremist Islamic movements as well as many modernists. The Garden of Truth presents the beliefs and vision of the mystical heart of Islam, along with a history of Sufi saints and schools of thought.
In a world threatened by religious wars, depleting natural resources, a crumbling ecosystem, and alienation and isolation, what has happened to our humanity? Who are we and what are we doing here? The Sufi path offers a journey toward truth, to a knowledge that transcends our mundane concerns, selfish desires, and fears. In Sufism we find a wisdom that brings peace and a relationship with God that nurtures the best in us and in others.
Noted scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr helps you learn the secret wisdom tradition of Islam and enter what the ancient mystics call the "garden of truth." Here, liberate your mind, experience peace, discover your purpose, fall in love with the Divine, and find your true, best self.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the world's leading experts on Islamic thought and spirituality, is university professor of Islamic Studies at The George Washington University. The preeminent Sufi scholar in the United States, Nasr is the author of more than fifty other books, including The Heart of Islam and Islam. Born in Tehran, raised in the United States, and graduate of MIT and Harvard, Nasr is a well-known and highly respected intellectual figure in both the West and the Islamic world. He lives in Washington, D.C.
The Sufi mystical heart of Islam is one of the few antidotes to fundamentalism in the Muslim world, and here Nasr looks at the human spiritual quest for the paradisiacal divine garden from a Sufi perspective . . . Eloquent, elegant, and lucid.
-Library Journal
"Despite the popularity of Sufism, few books provide an overview of this mystical branch of Islam- a void Nasr fills nicely with this concise primer. . . . a wise and tantalizing overview."
-Publishers Weekly
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