Le but de ce livre est de fournir une image vritable de la Kabbalah authentique. L'tude de la Kabbalah implique une bonne comprhension de son ide gnrale, aussi bien que de ses concepts. La Kabbalah nous explique, souvent allgoriquement, le dbut de la cration, les systmes dynamiques qui sont mis en place pour interagir avec l'homme, ainsi que ceux qui font la direction des mondes. Ces systmes nous font comprendre le but de nos actions, leurs interactions avec les dimensions suprieures, ainsi que les messages et significations cachs dans la Torah. Dans ce livre, le lecteur trouvera la plupart des concepts de base ainsi que d'autres plus avancs, afin d'tre sur le bon chemin pour vritablement comprendre la Kabbalah.

The Book of Mirdad, the timeless allegorical story which has touched the hearts of so many readers, continues to show new generations how it is possible to expand one's consciousness, to uncover God in man by dissolving man's sense of duality. Mikhail Naimy, in a similar style to Gibran, unravels one layer after another, showing that the words of his message have descended from some mysterious source. The book is essentially a set of question and answer between Mirdad and his disciples, especially his chief disciple, Naronda. These dialogues occurred during the time he was admitted as a servant in the monastery of Altar Peak, built where Noah's Ark came to rest after the flood waters subsided. Mirdad's teachings cover all the important life issues such as love, the master-servant relationship, creative silence, money, the moneylender and the debtor, the cycle of time and death, repentance, old age, and so on. The culmination, and indeed the message, is that Mirdad's own Ark is the Ark of Holy Understanding, which will bring humankind through another deluge, greater than Noah's, when Heaven will be revealed on Earth. Mirdad's words are the words of an enlightened Sufi master.

Revive Your Heart is a call for spiritual renewal and an invitation to have a conversation with one of the world s most recognizable voices on Islam, Nouman Ali Khan. This collection of essays is disarmingly simple, yet it challenges us to change. To revise our actions, our assumptions and our beliefs so we can be transformed from within, as well as externally. It aims to help modern Muslims maintain a spiritual connection with Allah and to address the challenges facing believers today: the disunity in the Muslim community, terrorists acting in the name of Islam, and the disconnection with Allah. These challenges and more are tackled by Nouman Ali Khan, with his profound engagement with the Qur'an, in his trademark voice that is sought out by millions of Muslims on a daily basis. About the Author Nouman Ali Khan is a Muslim speaker and the CEO and founder of Bayyinah Institute, an Arabic studies educational institution in the United States. Currently, he is recognized as one of the world's most influential Muslims, not only in the West.His deep and profound bond with the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, is at the heart of his work and the focus of his teachings, which manage to reach out to millions of Muslims from many different countries. "

A pathbreaking history of Sufism, from the earliest centuries of Islam to the present After centuries as the most important ascetic-mystical strand of Islam, Sufism saw a sharp decline in the twentieth century, only to experience a stunning revival in recent decades. In this comprehensive new history of Sufism from the earliest centuries of Islam to today, Alexander Knysh, a leading expert on the subject, reveals the tradition in all its richness. Knysh explores how Sufism has been viewed by both insiders and outsiders since its inception. He examines the key aspects of Sufism, from definitions and discourses to leadership, institutions, and practices. He devotes special attention to Sufi approaches to the Qur'an, drawing parallels with similar uses of scripture in Judaism and Christianity. He traces how Sufism grew from a set of simple moral-ethical precepts into a sophisticated tradition with professional Sufi masters (shaykhs) who became powerful players in Muslim public life but whose authority was challenged by those advocating the equality of all Muslims before God. Knysh also examines the roots of the ongoing conflict between the Sufis and their fundamentalist critics, the Salafis-a major fact of Muslim life today. Based on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, Sufism is an indispensable account of a vital aspect of Islam.

More than two decades have passed since Chicago published the first volume of this groundbreaking work in the Religion and Postmodernism series. It quickly became influential across a wide range of disciplines and helped to make the tools of poststructuralist thought available to religious studies and theology, especially in the areas of late medieval and early modern mysticism. Though the second volume remained in fragments at the time of his death, Michel de Certeau had the foresight to leave his literary executor detailed instructions for its completion, which formed the basis for the present work. Together, both volumes solidify Certeau's place as a touchstone of twentieth-century literature and philosophy, and continue his exploration of the paradoxes of historiography; the construction of social reality through practice, testimony, and belief; the theorization of speech in angelology and glossolalia; and the interplay of prose and poetry in discourses of the ineffable. This book will be of vital interest to scholars in religious studies, theology, philosophy, history, and literature.

Few religious traditions have generated such diversity and stirred imaginations as shamanism. In their engagements with other worlds, shamans have conversed with animals and ancestors and have been empowered with the knowledge to heal patients, advise hunters, and curse enemies. Still other shamans, aided by rhythmic music or powerful plant helpers, undertake journeys into different realities where their actions negotiate harmony between human and other than human communities. Once relegated to paintings on cave walls, today Shamanism can be seen in performances at rave clubs and psychotherapeutic clinics. The A to Z of Shamanism has the duel task of exploring the common ground of shamanic traditions and evaluating the diversity of both traditional indigenous communities and individual Western seekers. This is done in an introduction, a bibliography, a chronology, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries, which explore the consistent features of a variety of shamans, the purposes shamanism serves, the function and activities of the shaman, and the cultural contexts in which they make sense.

A major work of mystical literature, this account focuses on 14 visions in the form of dramatic conversations with the divine, interspersed with dazzling visionary episodes regarding the nature of existence, humans' relationship with reality, and the way to achieve true happiness. The introduction presents a resume of Ibn 'Arabi's life and examines in detail the style and symbolism of the contemplations. Presented for the first time in English, this work is a superb example of Ibn 'Arabi's inimitable style and deep perception.

Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) has amazed readers ever since it emerged in Spain over seven hundred years ago. Written in a lyrical Aramaic, the Zohar, the masterpiece of Kabbalah, features mystical interpretation of the Torah, from Genesis to Deuteronomy. The twelfth volume of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition presents an assortment of discrete Zoharic compositions. The first two chapters contain different versions of the Zoharic Heikhalot, descriptions of the heavenly halls or palaces that the soul of the kabbalist traverses during prayer. Piqqudin, or Commandments, is a kabbalistic treatment of the mystical reasons for the commandments. Raza de-Razin (Mystery of Mysteries) is a diagnostic manual for the ancient and medieval science of physiognomy, determining people's character based on physical appearance. Sitrei Otiyyot (Secrets of the Letters) is a mystical essay that maps out the emergence of divine and mundane reality from the tetragrammaton, YHVH. Qav ha-Middah (Line of Measure) is another mystical essay that describes the divine instrument used by God to gauge the mystical overflow to the ten sefirot. The commentary on Merkevet Yehezqel (Ezekiel's Chariot) interprets the details of the prophet Ezekiel's chariot-vision. Beginning with the description of the four creatures, the Zohar demonstrates how Divinity and the cosmos comprise a series of quaternities that pervade all Being. The last main chapter includes Zoharic commentary to various portions of the Torah. The volume closes with a short appendix of passages that printers have labeled Tosefta despite their not fitting into that genre-a suitable end to the Zohar whose parameters and composition will remain ever mysterious.

A first-of-its-kind combination of the legendary wisdom stories of Islam's great comic foil with spiritual insights for seekers of all traditions or none.

"We would do well to heed the Mulla's wisdom. One day, inevitably, our personal storms will not abate before causing destruction. Something will break our hearts and cause us to ask deeper questions. At that point we will become spiritual seekers, each in our own way.... We will begin to hear deep inside the mysterious calling of our soul to ful ll the purpose for which we were created." from the chapter The Storms in Our Lives

The mythical Mulla Nasruddin is a village simpleton and sage rolled into one. His wisdom stories, timeless and placeless, emanate from a source beyond book learning, and contain several layers of meaning.

In this unique presentation, Imam Jamal Rahman weaves together spiritual insights with the Mulla s humorous teaching stories and connects them to the issues at the heart of the spiritual quest. Addressing such topics as human vulnerability, the rigors of inner and outer spiritual work, the hazards of the ego and more, he roots the Mulla s stories in Islamic spirituality by pairing them with sayings from the Qur an, the Prophet Muhammad, Rumi, Hafiz and other Islamic sages.

Together, these sources combined with spiritual practices will awaken your spirit with laughter and inspire you to transform yourself and the world around you."

Studying the history of the notion of the 'Perfect Human' (al-insan al-kamil), this book investigates a key idea in the history of Sufism. First discussed by Ibn 'Arabi and later treated in greater depth by al-Jili, the idea left its mark on later Islamic mystical, metaphysical, and political thought, from North Africa to Southeast Asia, up until modern times. The research tells the story of the development of that idea from Ibn 'Arabi to al-Jili and beyond. It does so through a thematic study, based on close reading of primary sources in Arabic and Persian, of the key elements of the idea, including the idea that the Perfect Human is a locus of divine manifestation (mazhar), the concept of the 'Pole' (qutb) and the 'Muhammadan Reality' (al-haqiqah al-Muhammadiyyah), and the identity of the Perfect Human. By setting the work of al-Jili against the background of earlier Ibn 'Arabian treatments of the idea, it demonstrates that al-Jili took the idea of the Perfect Human in several new directions, with major consequences for how the Prophet Muhammad - the archetypal Perfect Human - was viewed in later Islamic thought. Introducing readers to the key Sufi idea of the Perfect Human (al-insan al-kamil), this volume will be of interest to scholars and students interested in Sufism, Islam, religion and philosophy.

Salvation and Hell in Classical Islamic Thought uses classical Islamic sources to trace the development of Islamic eschatology during the formative centuries of Islamic intellectual history. Marco Demichelis draws on classical Islamic scholars, including Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, to bring together concepts from Islamic philosophy, theology and mysticism - including proto-Sufism - to examine the interplay of these concepts between these traditions. The doctrines of salvation from Hell are examined in depth, in particular the theory of the annihilation of Hell, which proposes the idea that there will be a time when Hell will be empty and no longer inhabited. This is the first book to examine Islamic eschatology in the classical period, and adds to the growing scholarship on Islamic views on salvation and the eternity of Hell. It will be essential reading for scholars of Islamic intellectual history, theology, and comparative religion.

This monograph explores the original literary produce of Muslim mystics during the eighth-tenth centuries, with special attention to ninth-century mystics, such as al-Tustari, al-Muhasibi, al-Kharraz, al-Junayd and, in particular, al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi. Unlike other studies dealing with the so-called 'Formative Period', this book focuses on the extant writings of early mystics rather than on the later Sufi compilations. These early mystics articulated what would become a hallmark of Islamic mysticism: a system built around the psychological tension between the self (nafs) and the heart (qalb) and how to overcome it. Through their writings, already at this early phase, the versatility, fluidity and maturity of Islamic mysticism become apparent. This exploration thus reveals that mysticism in Islam emerged earlier than customarily acknowledged, long before Islamic mysticism became generically known as Sufism. The central figure of this book is al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, whose teaching and inner world focus on themes such as polarity, the training of the self, the opening of the heart, the Friends of God (al-awliya'), dreams and visions, divine language, mystical exegesis and more. This book thus offers a fuller picture than hitherto presented of the versatility of themes, processes, images, practices, terminology and thought models during this early period. The volume will be a key resource for scholars and students interested in the study of religion, Sufi studies, Late Antiquity and Medieval Islam.

Origins of Eastern Christian Mysticism asserts that the thinkers between Basil of Caesarea and Symeon the New Theologian were important mainly for their role in the formation of Hesychasm, a fourteenth-century mystical movement in the Eastern church. The book surveys previous research on Proto-Hesychasm and sets forth eight Hesychastic trends in its practitioners: monasticism, dark and light mysticism, and an emphasis on the heart, theosis, the humanity of Christ, penthos, and unceasing prayer. Theodore Sabo integrates detailed and carefully researched accounts of the lives and thought of the foundational figures of Hesychasm into a compelling narrative of the movement's origins. The Cappadocian fathers established monasticism as the predominant milieu of Proto-Hesychasm and emphasized both theosis and dark mysticism. Dark mysticism would come into conflict with the light mysticism of their contemporary Pseudo-Macarius, but both currents would be passed on to the Hesychasts. Macarius was a seminal figure within Proto-Hesychasm, responsible for its stress on light mysticism and heart mysticism. Hesychasm itself, the author contends, emerged from two main Proto-Hesychast fonts, the philosophical (represented by such figures as Pseudo-Dionysius and Maximus the Confessor) and the ascetic (the realm of figures like John Climacus and Isaac of Nineveh). The former school transmitted to Hesychasm a virtually unacknowledged Platonism; the latter contributed to Hesychasm's preoccupation with theosis, penthos, and unceasing prayer, albeit from a solely monastic perspective. Finally, Symeon the New Theologian emerged as the redoubtable successor to these schools, unifying their distinct traditions in his philosophical approach. While previous scholarship has documented the connections between Proto-Hesychasm and Hesychasm, Origins of Eastern Christian Mysticism is unique in its treatment of the Proto-Hesychasts as a distinguishable group, and as direct instigators of Hesychasm. This provocative study should be of interest to students and scholars of the late antique history of the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as to contemporary theologians steeped in the Eastern mystical tradition.

What cannot be said about God, and how can we speak about God by negating what we say? Traveling across prominent negators, denialists, ineffectualists, paradoxographers, naysayers, ignorance-pretenders, unknowers, I-don't-knowers, and taciturns, Unsaying God: Negative Theology in Medieval Islam delves into the negative theological movements that flourished in the first seven centuries of Islam. Aydogan Kars argues that there were multiple, and often competing, strategies for self-negating speech in the vast field of theology. By focusing on Arabic and Persian textual sources, the book defines four distinct yet interconnected paths of negative speech formations on the nature of God that circulated in medieval Islamic world. Expanding its scope to Jewish intellectuals, Unsaying God also demonstrates that religious boundaries were easily transgressed as scholars from diverse sectarian or religious backgrounds could adopt similar paths of negative speech on God. This is the first book-length study of negative theology in Islam. It encompasses many fields of scholarship, and diverse intellectual schools and figures. Throughout, Kars demonstrates how seemingly different genres should be read in a more connected way in light of the cultural and intellectual history of Islam rather than as different opposing sets of orthodoxies and heterodoxies.

"Mysticism After Modernity" offers a truly postmodern interpretation of the great mystics and their writing, thus appealing to readers across a wide range of disciplines.

Don Cuppitt argues that extensive modern literature about mysticism has rested on a mistake-the belief that their can be meaningful experience prior to language. The mystics have been perceived as first having had profound experiences that they then put into words.

However, in postmodern thought experience doesnot give meaning to language; on the contrary, language gives meaning to experience. And when the mystics are seen as having been primarily writers, our understanding of them is revolutionized.

Menahem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) was the seventh and seemingly last Rebbe of the Habad-Lubavitch dynasty. Marked by conflicting tendencies, Schneerson was a radical messianic visionary who promoted a conservative political agenda, a reclusive contemplative who built a hasidic sect into an international movement, and a man dedicated to the exposition of mysteries who nevertheless harbored many secrets. Schneerson astutely masked views that might be deemed heterodox by the canons of orthodoxy while engineering a fundamentalist ideology that could subvert traditional gender hierarchy, the halakhic distinction between permissible and forbidden, and the social-anthropological division between Jew and Gentile.

While most literature on the Rebbe focuses on whether or not he identified with the role of Messiah, Elliot R. Wolfson, a leading scholar of Jewish mysticism and the phenomenology of religious experience, concentrates instead on Schneerson's apocalyptic sensibility and his promotion of a mystical consciousness that undermines all discrimination. For Schneerson, the ploy of secrecy is crucial to the dissemination of the messianic secret. To be enlightened messianically is to be delivered from all conceptual limitations, even the very notion of becoming emancipated from limitation. The ultimate liberation, or true and complete redemption, fuses the believer into an infinite essence beyond all duality, even the duality of being emancipated and not emancipated--an emancipation, in other words, that emancipates one from the bind of emancipation.

At its deepest level, Schneerson's eschatological orientation discerned that a spiritual master, if he be true, must dispose of the mask of mastery. Situating Habad's thought within the evolution of kabbalistic mysticism, the history of Western philosophy, and Mahayana Buddhism, Wolfson articulates Schneerson's rich theology and profound philosophy, concentrating on the nature of apophatic embodiment, semiotic materiality, hypernomian transvaluation, nondifferentiated alterity, and atemporal temporality.

What is Sufism? Contemporary views vary tremendously, even among Sufis themselves. Contemporary Sufism: Piety, Politics, and Popular Culture brings to light the religious frameworks that shape the views of Sufism's friends, adversaries, admirers, and detractors and, in the process, helps readers better understand the diversity of contemporary Sufism, the pressures and cultural openings to which it responds, and the many divergent opinions about contemporary Sufism's relationship to Islam. The three main themes: piety, politics, and popular culture are explored in relation to the Islamic and Western contexts that shape them, as well as to the historical conditions that frame contemporary debates. This book is split into three parts: * Sufism and anti-Sufism in contemporary contexts; * Contemporary Sufism in the West: Poetic influences and popular manifestations; * Gendering Sufism: Tradition and transformation. This book will fascinate anyone interested in the challenges of contemporary Sufism as well as its relationship to Islam, gender, and the West. It offers an ideal starting point from which undergraduate and postgraduate students, teachers and lecturers can explore Sufism today.