Spiritual Path, Spiritual Reality: Selected Writings of Shaykh Yusuf of Macassar
Yousuf Dadoo, Auwais Rafudeen (editors)
Hardback, 260 pages
9781032433929
A prominent mystic and renowned anti-colonial warrior from Indonesia, Shaykh Yusuf of Macassar (1626–1699), was exiled to South Africa where he played a pioneering role in laying the foundations of Islam. Offering a rich translation of Shaykh Yusuf’s Arabic writings, Spiritual Path, Spiritual Reality fills an important gap on the works devoted to the spiritual dimension in the Muslim intellectual archive.
The introduction gives insight into his life and an understanding of how his mysticism was connected to his political engagement. Focusing on Islamic mysticism – known as Sufism – the volume covers areas of spiritual discipline of the self, metaphysics and gnostic knowledge. The style is pedagogical with an instructive tone in keeping with the Sufi path.
Contents
1. Introduction: The worldview of Shaykh Yusuf
2. Providential gift: A breeze from Ceylon (Al Nafh̟at al-Ṣaylānīyyah fi l-Minḥat al- Rah̟mānīyyah)
3. The essence of secrets (Zubdat al-Asrār)
4. Consolation for the eyes (Qurrat al-‘Ayn)
5. Conditions of the verified gnostic (Shurūṭ al-‘Ārif al-Muḥaqqiq)
6. The crown of secrets regarding gnostic realisation (Tāj al-Asrār fī taḥqīq Mashārib al-‘Ārifīn)
7. A gift regarding the virtues of remembrance (Tuḥfat al-Amr fī Faḍīlat al- Dhikr)
8. The goals of the spiritual wayfarers (Maṭālib al-Sālikīn)
9. The secret of secrets (Sirr al-Asrār)
10. The gift of goodness to the people of innermost secrets (Tuḥfat al-Abrār li Ahl al-Asrār)
11. The method of remembering God (Kayfīyyat al-Dhikr)
12. A saving bequest (Waṣīyyah Munjīyyah)
13. The sequence of remembering God (Tartīb al-Dhikr)
14. The essential, indispensable existence (Wājib al-Wujūd)
15. The specification of remembering God (Ikhtiṣāṣ al-Dhikr)
16. The meaning of existence (Ma‘nā al-Wujūd)
17. The meaning of the phrase "There is no god but God" (Ma‘nā Qaul Lā ilāha illa llāh)
18. Twenty attributes (Ishrīn S̟ifah)
19. The reality of the soul (H̟aqīqat al-Rūh̟)
20. The permanent archetypes (Al ‘Ayān al-Thābitah)
Transcription of the Arabic originals