Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism: Volume 4: Emerald Hills of the Heart

Highly contested by orthodox circles and literalists who narrow religion to formalism on one hand and victimised by practitioners unable to go beyond traditional boundaries on the other, Islamic Sufism continues to be a beacon enlightening the path of millions of believers around the world. Gulen’s approach to Sufism in this collection represents the middle way, an approach that in a sense revives the legacy of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, with an awareness of the social realities of the twenty-first century. For Gulen, the marriage of the heart and the mind is necessary for a sensible appreciation of our existence and what we are expected of. He does not confine himself with any typical methodology; he endeavours to reach the water source by opening wells everywhere, for the truth is actually manifested in every single creation and waiting for seekers’ drill. This fourth volume of the Emerald Hills of the Heart collection concludes a journey – which is textually long, but spiritually endless – towards insan al-kamil, the perfect human, as unfolded stage-by-stage with an escalating scale of concepts that have developed throughout fourteen centuries on the basis of firm roots established in the time of the Prophet by his own practice. Concepts like Tranquility, Secret, Truth of Divinity, Beyond the Physical Realms, Preserved Tablet, Glorified Attributes, and Beautiful Names are delicately explained in this volume.