Skip to main content

What is Sufism - An Interview With Professor William C. Chittick


Professor William Chittick, one of the greatest contemporary American scholars of Sufism, has authored numerous books on Rumi, Sufism, and particularly on the life and teachings of the great 13th century Spanish -born Sufi master and philosopher, Ibn Arabi. Some of Prof. Chittick's outstanding scholarly works include:

Sufism: A Beginner's Guide.
The Sufi Doctrine of Rumi.
The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi.
The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination.
The Inner Journey: Views from the Islamic Tradition.


Prof. Chittick's masterpiece though, in my very humble opinion, is his outstanding English translation of Shams Tabrizi's 'Maqalat - ??? ??????- ??????', literally meaning Articles, which he has titled as 'Me and Rumi: The Autobiography of Shams Tabrizi', also A MUST READ book for anyone interested in getting to know Rumi's mystical lover and spiritual master, Shams of Tabriz. For a complete list of Prof. Chittick's outstanding works on Sufism, Ibn Arabi, and Rumi, please visit: Books by William C. Chittick






What is Sufism - An Interview With Professor William C. Chittick


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Maula-Maula laakh pukaare - Kalaam by Hazrat Zaheen Shah Taji (R.A.)

????-???? ??? ??????,???? ??? ? ?? ????? ?? ?? ??? ??? ???,???? ??? ? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ????,?? ?????? ?? ????-???? ????-????,?????? ?? ?? ??? ????-???? ????-????,?? ?? ??? ? ?? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ?? ??,?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ???? ???? ??? ? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?? ?? ????? ~ Hazrat Zhaeen Shah Taji (R.A.) Maula-Maula laakh pukaare,Maula haath na aaye Lafzon se hum khel rahe hain,maa'na haath na aaye Jo pani ke naam ko pani jaane,naadaani hai Pani-pani rat'te rat'te,pyaasa hi mr jaaye Shola-shola rat'te-rat'te,lab pe aanch na aaye Ik chingaari lab par rakh lo,lab fauran jal jaaye Ism pe Qaane hone waala aur musamma khone waala Kaam na karne waala moorakh bas naam se ji bahlaye English Translation: Calling out Maula Maula! Maula still escapes us. We only play with words,meaning still escapes us. Who understands the word Water as Water,is a fool, He will keep chanting Water Water and will die of thirst. By ch

Lucan: Opening to his Epic on the Civil War (From Latin)

I have recently finished reading (for the first time in its entirety) Lucan's unfinished epic Bellum Civile " The Civil War." I found it extraordinary. When I had finished, I wanted to translate the entire thing. Though I quickly realized that I hadn't the time or the resources to do so without the task taking several years. So I have selected a few excerpts from the Bellum Civile  that I think read well on their own, and have added these to my translation queue. Starting with this part here from the poem's opening. You can see a list of the planned excerpts on my table of contents (list of translated poems.) Opening to his Epic on the Civil War (1.1-82)  By Lucan Translated by A.Z. Foreman I sing of war far worse than civil war waged in the nasty fields of Thessaly, of crime gone legal, of a powerful state that disemboweled itself with victory's sword, of family front lines 1 ; how when the pact of tyranny imploded, all the forces of a concussed w

Rumi's "Popular Versions" in Their Original Farsi Scripts

I've been receiving numerous emails requesting the original Farsi or Persian verses of Rumi's very famous and often quoted English "Versions" which are "translated" by the popular Rumi "version makers", particularly the incomparable Coleman Barks who has single-handedly made Maulana Jalaluddin Balkhi Rumi a household name here in our beloved America. In some instances, it's virtually impossible to find Rumi's original Farsi verses, mainly due to non-Persian speaking 'version makers' not providing a reference to the original Rumi verses in their famous  new-agey  translation works. Coleman Barks, the foremost Rumi translator and "version maker", not only openly admits, but also calls his Rumi translations as "versions," or "re-renderings" because he doesn't read Farsi:  �Of course, as I work on these poems, I don�t have the Persian to consult. I literally have nothing to be faithful to, except wha