Islamic Sufism

by Ikbal Ali Shah

The Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah says 'The modern world stands in need of biological renewal. And religion, which in its higher manifestations is neither dogma, nor priesthood, nor ritual, can alone ethically prepare the modern man for the burden of the great responsibility which the advancement of modern science necessarily involves, and restore to him that attitudes of faith which makes him capable of winning a personality here and retaining it hereafter.'

Islamic Sufism is possibly the best book ever written on its subject. It gives a clear and uncluttered pictures of both Islam and Sufism, stating exactly what the difference between Sufism and orthodox religiois, and also presents a complete genealogy of its most important teachers and communicators from the Prophet Muhammed onwards. He discusses Sufism's compatibility with modern philosophy

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah was a British author and diplomat of Indian-Afghan origin; he traveled throughout the world on assignment for the Foreign Office. Although he spent most of his life as a resident of the U.K., he spent his last decade living in Morrocco, where he died as a result of a traffic accident in late 1969 at the age of 75.

Reviews

[Sue Dounim · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Updated after finishing the book) This book is very strange, as it reads like essays from a dozen other books on related topics.
To be honest, the reason I sought it out was that its author is Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, the father of Idries Shah, a prolific and famous/notorious writer of dozens of books himself. Reading about both of them in Wikipedia is amazing and unbelievable. This book isn't available in any academic or public libraries within reach of San Diego, California (USA).
As a non-specialist in the subject, I find Shah's book sincere and reasonable. The difference between his and his son's take on Sufism is his definitive affirmation that Sufism is Islamic and that the two things cannot be separated. Idries' Shah's entire premise is the Sufism is some archetypal, timeless philosophy that predates and overarches any specific religious belief.
This last position seems untenable now, but at the time of Idries Shah, his "The Sufis" and dozens of following works seemed to be an answer to Western spiritual seekers for a timeless mysticism that all can believe.
Iqbal Shah's position is more subtle than I state above, and hopefully I can elucidate it better in updates to this review, hoping not to attempt to rewrite his book!