The Sufis by Idries Shah: book review

The Sufis (1964, this edition 2015) is a non-chronological historical account that seeks to present a comprehensive understanding of Sufi thinkers, such as Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Ibn El-Arabi, Al-Ghazzali, Saadi, Francis of Assisi, and others.

The book defines Sufis and Sufism in (mostly) an understandable manner, sometimes through narrative lessons, sometimes through explanations, and sometimes through parables and fables.

Basically Shah says Sufis ‘cannot be defined by any single set of words or ideas. By a picture, moving and made up of different dimensions, perhaps.’ Lovers and poets, rich and poor, a neighbour, a pilot or a cleaner: ‘Sufism, in one definition, is human life,’ he writes.

Shah defines the concepts and techniques of Sufis across different countries and cultures, as well as through the vast range of literature on the topic. What seems like inconsistencies are but varied interpretations.

The series of Sufic fables in the book include one about shipbuilders and swimmers on an island – ‘a cage with invisible bars’ – and another about travellers and grapes, which highlights disharmony due to the ‘faulty understanding of the language of others.’ Yet another is the famous ‘elephant in the dark’ parable about people feeling different parts of an elephant, yet do not understand the ‘big picture’ in order to determine what the elephant actually looks like, leading to confusion.

The fables present three forms of culture – worldly culture (the acquistion of information); religious culture (following rules); and elite culture (self-development); and two modes of knowledge – through argument and experience (practice). ‘Argument brings conclusions and compels us to concede them, but it does not cause certainty nor remove doubts in order that the mind may remain at rest in truth, unless this is provided by experience.’

At the beginning of the book Shah says that Sufism can’t be explained in words, and yet … this is a dense book of 450 pages. It has patches of easy reading and patches of more complex concepts. Perhaps the reason why the book is so long is because Shah attempts to present as many different views of the Sufis as possible, in the hope that readers will connect with knowledge that is relevant to their own situations.

There are other ways of understanding Sufism – and that is to read Sufi writings (especially poetry), such as those in the magazines, such as ‘Sufism: an enquiry’ or ‘Sufi Journal’ – magazines of collective aspects of mysticism and spirituality through thought and practice via articles, interviews, art, literature reviews, poetry, music, and quotes.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).