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Suhail Academy, Urdu Bazar, Lahore (2025)

21/12/2024

THE CONCISE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM
Author:
Cyril Glassé
It is the first major reference work about Islam to be written by a Muslim for a Western audience. No other single-volume work in print encompasses the beliefs, practices, history and culture of the Islamic world, whose faithful number some 800 million today.

This revised edition with more than fourteen hundred entries cover an extraordinary range of Islamic literature and history, religious and ritual practices, prayer, prophets, sects, law, the calendar, social institutions, history, ethnography, nationhood, languages, medicine, science and major cities and centers of learning. It provides invaluable background and insights into understanding current events in the Islamic world. A chronology, maps, dynastic charts, diagrams of the Hajj and the branches of Islam and a recommended bibliography are included. Written for the general reader and researcher, it assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. Detailed cross-references lead the general reader into deeper knowledge of Islam, whatever his starting point. Many quotations, and hitherto un-translated prayers, support the religious and philosophical entries.

***
“Erudite, accurate and comprehensive. All this factual information is given in detail, yet readably, with clarity and elegance.”–Daily Telegraph

***
“This beautifully illustrated book is a feast of fact and insight …. An enormous amount of information is contained here, all of it fascinating.”

–Washington Post

20/12/2024

QUEST FOR THE RED SULPHUR
Author:
Claude Addas
QUEST FOR THE RED SULPHUR- The Life of Ibn ‘Arabi Claude Addas
This excellent biography is the first of its kind. This major study is based on a detailed analysis of the whole range of Ibn `Arabi’s own writings as well as a vast amount of secondary literature in both Arabic and Persian. The result is the first-ever attempt to reconstruct what proves to have been a double itinerary; on the one hand, the journey that took Ibn `Arabi from his native Andalusia to Damascus— and on the other, the `Night Journey’ which carried him along the paths of asceticism and prayer to the ultimate stage of revelation of his mystic quest. The writings of Ibn ‘Arabi are inseparable from his life. They cannot be isolated from the various stages of his inner experience or from his lengthy wanderings from West to East, across the Muslim world, which was menaced on the one hand by the “Reconquista” and on the other by the Crusades. In the drama of both his inner and outer life, his companions and his contemporaries were far from being mere onlookers. The places where he stayed, and the events he lived through, represent a great deal more than so many anecdotal details providing the background for his spiritual quest.
***
“Quest for the Red Sulphur is undoubtedly a landmark in Ibn ‘Arabi studies, and its author’s gift of narrative allied to a consummate understanding of the subject should make this volume compulsory reading for anyone interested in Islamic mysticism.” – Washington Post

11/12/2024

Al-Qushayri’s EPISTLE ON SUFISM
Author:
Professor Alexander D. Knysh
(Al-Risāla Al-Qushayriyya fī ‘lm al‑Tasawwuf by Abu ’l-Qāsim al-Qushayri)
His Epistle is probably the most popular Sufi manual ever. Written in 437/1045, it has served as a primary textbook for many generations of Sufi novices down to the present. In it, Al-Qushayri gives us an illuminating insight into the everyday lives of Sufi devotees of the eighth to eleventh centuries C.E. and the moral and ethical dilemmas they were facing. One of the most widely read Sufi treatises in Arabic, the Riseila defines classical Sufism through the use of quotations from the Qur’an, the Prophetic Traditions and reference to the exemplary behavior of the ascetics and saints. Al-Qushayri illustrates the principles of Sufism with tales and sayings of the first generations of Muslims and of his contemporaries in the 5th/11th century. Epistle on Sufism is the first complete English translation of the famous compendium of Sufi knowledge and practice by Al-Qushayri. Readers are given a rich account of what Sufism as a way of life implied for the early Muslims. Scholars and students of Islam religion and mysticism will welcome this important new work.

10/12/2024

MYSTICAL POEMS OF RUMI
(I-II)
(Selections from Diwan i Shams by Jalal al-Din Rumi)
MYSTICAL POEMS OF RUMI (I-II)
Author:
A. J. Arberry
MYSTICAL POEMS OF RUMI (I-II) (Selections from Diwan i Shams by Jalal al-Din Rumi) A. J. Arberry Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273) has long been recognized as the greatest mystical poet of Islam, and it can well be argued that he is the supreme mystical poet of all mankind. Divan-i Shams by Rumi is a masterpiece of wisdom and eloquence expressing spiritual wisdom of the highest level through the use of mundane images.
*5*
He invites and deserves the most attentive and intensive study, by a succession of devoted scholars, whose combined explorations will vastly improve upon our first halting attempt. Future generations, as his poetry becomes wider known and more perfectly understood, will enjoy and applaud with increasing insight and enthusiasm the poems of this wisest, most penetrating, and saintliest of men. – A. J. Arberry *** “An excellent introduction to Rumi, the greatest mystical poet of Islam…. Rumis scope, like that of all great poets, is universal-reaching from sensuous luxuriance to the driest irony.” — Sherman Goldman, East- West Journal *** “[Rumi is] one of the world’s greatest lyrical poets in any language- as well as probably the most accessible and approachable representative of Islamic civilization for Western students.” – James W. Morris
to Sufi thought and history.

09/12/2024

THE DOCTRINE OF THE SUFIS –
(Kitāb al‑Ta‘arruf li‑Madhhab ahl al‑Tasawwuf by Abu Bakr al‑Kalābādhi)
Author:
A. J. Arberry
A. J. Arberry has presented English translation of a classic Arabic text in the history of Sufism, the Mystical aspect of Islam, which is perhaps the most valuable and authoritative compendium of Sufism in print.. It is important because it is the earliest extant text to reconcile the position of Sufism and orthodox Islam and will be of value not only to scholars but also to general readers interested in mysticism and, comparatives religion. The volume consists of five parts: a general introduction on the meaning of the term Sufi and an enumeration of the names of great Sufis; a statement of the tenets of Islam, as accepted by the Sufis; a discussion of the various ‘stations’ of the Sufis such as fear, hope and love: the expressions used by them to designate true mystical experience, union with God; and a discussion of the various phenomena of Sufism. This short work is perhaps the best of the early introductions to Sufi thought and history.

07/12/2024

ORIENTAL ESSAYS –
Portraits of Seven Scholars
Author:
A. J. Arberry
This book is a collection of portraits (one a self-portrait) of seven Englishmen who at different times and in different ways have striven, consciously or unconsciously, by the exercise of somewhat specialized skills to help build a bridge between the peoples and cultures of Asia and Europe. A. J. Arberry has chosen as the subjects of his portraits a handful of those many who have devoted their talents and their lives to a labour often little appreciated and dismally unrewarding, yet supremely important to the future of humanity at large. The selection, unlike his British Orientalists, has been confined to those who have worked in Arberry’s own field of study, and whose contributions to scholarship and to international understanding he was therefore better qualified to estimate. A. J. Arberry has addressed himself to the general public in this work and has explained, in the last chapter, some of the considerations which had determined his own activities as a scholar, and has offered a few general observations on the present and future of oriental studies. It is hoped that what Arberry has written will encourage others in years to come to endeavour, as he had sought to do, to keep faith with those who have gone before, men of heroic stature, whose achievements will, we are confident, be ever more widely and more deeply recognized with the passage of time.

05/12/2024

ISLAM BETWEEN EAST AND WEST
Islam, which occupies a central position between East and West, has to become conscious of its own mission. Now, when it is more and more obvious that the opposed ideologies with their extreme forms cannot be imposed on mankind, and that they must go toward a synthesis and a new middle position, we want to prove that Islam corresponds to this natural way of thinking and is its most consistent expression. As Islam in the past was the intermediary between the ancient cultures and the West, it must again today, in a time of dramatic dilemmas and alternatives, shoulder its role of “intermediary nation” in the divided world. This is the meaning of the third way, the Islamic way. Islam between East and West attempts to present the third way by “translating” Islam into the language which the new generation speaks and understands.
It is not a book of theology. It deals with doctrines, institutions and teachings of Islam with the aim of establishing the place of Islam in the general spectrum of ideas. It is a look at Islam not from within but rather from without. In this sense the topic of the book is not primarily Islam as a teacher but Islam as an outlook on the world. The first part of the book, “Premises”, discusses the question of religion in general. The second part deals with Islam, or more precisely, with one of its aspects– bi-polarity. It is an inspiring and astonishingly integrated analysis of the human condition. The sweep of its power gives an invigorating sense of the beauty and universality of Islam.

Alija ‘Ali Izetbegovic

04/12/2024

THE BOOK OF CERTAINTY
Author:
Martin Lings
THE BOOK OF CERTAINTY- The Sufi Doctrine of Faith, Vision and Gnosis
A little gem which refracts some of the most essential elements of Sufi gnosis based on traditional Quranic esoteric exegesis. The book expresses in the language of Sufism some of the universal truths which lie at the heart of all religions. The first authentic modern account of Sufi teaching written “from within”; enjoyable and instructive, this book is an excellent introduction to Sufism; highly intelligent, balanced, lucid, well written and in places really eloquent. The author was asked by a friend to set down in writing what he considered to be the most important things that a human being can know. He was also asked to make it very easy, and despite the depth of all that it contains, it has in fact a remarkable simplicity and clarity, due, no doubt, to the constant use of traditional imagery which awakens and penetrates the imagination.
***
“Abu Bala Siraj ad-Din has bestowed upon the world a great benefaction in giving it this very important Sufi treatise, for, belonging as it does to our own time, it is easier for us to assimilate than are the treatises and commentaries of Sufis of old.” —Islamic Quarterly

03/12/2024

A SUFI SAINT OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY- Shaykh Ahmad al-‘Alawi: His Spiritual Heritage and Legacy
His Spiritual Heritage and Legacy Martin Lings One of the most thorough and intimately engaging books on Sufism; this masterly study is arguably the finest biography of a Sufi in the English language and almost a prerequisite for any serious study of Sufism in European languages. It serves as a key to understanding the phenomenon of sanctity in Islam as well as a deeper understanding of Islam as a whole. Martin Lings lets above all the sources speak for -themselves. But what he adds by way of commentary is ,of the greatest significance and may serve as a key to a deeper understanding of Islam as a whole. The author lets the Sufis speak for themselves and, in a series of unusual and absorbing texts mainly translated from the Arabic, he gives a vivid picture of life in a North African Sufi order. Against this background stands the unforgettable figure of the Algerian Shaykh whose sanctity recalled the golden age of medieval mystics. The last few chapters are mainly devoted to his writings, which include some remarkable mystic poems. In this well documented book Dr. Lings draws on many rare sources and has made some important original contributions like a most lucid and convincing interpretation of Ibn `Arabi’s whadat
Martin Lings

02/12/2024

MUHAMMAD

Author: Martin Lings

His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

Martin Lings “Before the appearance of this book, Western languages lacked almost entirely a comprehensive and authentic account of the life and the Prophet Muhammad. Now, Lings, has produced a superb narrative that, in its sobriety and dignity of style and its scrupulous and exhaustive fidelity to authentic and reliable sources, constitutes a major addition to Islamic literature in English.” — Religious Studies Review

***

Martin Ling’s Life of Muhammad is unlike any other. Based on Arabic sources of the eighth and ninth centuries, of which some important passages are translated here for the first time, it owes the freshness and directness of its approach to the words of the men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life.

Martin Lings has an unusual gift for narrative. He has adopted a style which is at once extremely readable and reflects both the simplicity and grandeur of the story. The result is something that can be read with equal enjoyment by those already familiar with Muhammad’s life and those coming to it for the first time.

Books

29/11/2024

THE HISTORY OF THE QUR’ANIC TEXT -From Revelation to Compilation A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments
Dr. Muhammad Mustafa al-A‘zamī
From Revelation to Compilation ! A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments Dr. Muhammad Mustafa al-A‘zami Beginning with a catalogue of ancient and contemporary attacks on the Qur’an, this expansive book provides unique insights into the holy text’s immaculate preservation throughout its history and explores many of the accusations leveled against it. The reception of divine revelations, Prophet Muhammad’s role in teaching and disseminating these verses, the text’s compilation under his guidance and the setting of its final external shape shortly after his death, are meticulously and scientifically examined alongside such topics as the origins of Arabic, its palaeography and orthography, the so called Mushaf of Ibn Mas`ud, and the strict methodology employed in assembling textual fragments. It also investigates the histories of the Old and New Testaments, relying entirely on Judeo-Christian sources and uncovers a startling range of alterations that touch almost every facet of the Biblical Scriptures. Using this as a springboard for assessing Western theories regarding the Qur’an, he makes a sophisticated yet passionate case for questioning the aims of Western scholarship continuously undermining Islam’s Holy Book and illustrates convincingly that such research has no scientific bearing on the Qur’an’s integrity. This monumental effort provides a welcome foundation for sincere study at a time when assailing the Qur’an has become all too common.

28/11/2024

STUDIES IN EARLY HADITH LITERATURE
Author:
Dr. Muhammad Mustafa al-A‘zamī
STUDIES IN EARLY HADITH LITERATURE
STUDIES IN EARLY HADITH LITERATURE Dr. Muhammad Mustafa al-A`zami Studies in Early Hadith Literature begins with a brief survey of the literary activities in Pre and Early Islamic Arabia proceeding to the discussion of whether or not the recording of the hadith was permitted by the Prophet. Later on a comprehensive survey of the pre-classical Hadith provides information about the thousands of books of Hadith circulating among scholars in that period. It also reveals the common practice of utilizing written documents. The book proceeds with the elucidation of the technical terminology employed for the transmission of Hadith, questions o? writing materials, problems of authorship, ir mid and its authenticity, authenticity of Hadith and other related subjects. In part Two, there are edited versions of three important early manuscripts that corroborate the arguments presented in the text. Most probably, it is the first work of its kind in the field and it is hoped that it will open new horizons for further research and help eliminate many prevalent misunderstandings that have resulted from a lack of proper awareness of the true nature of the Hadith literature. *** “No doubt the most important field of research, relative to the study of Hadith, is the discovery, verification, and evaluation of the smaller collections of Traditions antedating the six canonical collections of Al-Bukhari, Muslim and the rest. In this field Dr. A`zami has done pioneer work of the highest value, and he has done it according to the exact standards of scholarship.” —A. J. Arberry

27/11/2024

THE UNROMANTIC ORIENT
Author:
Muhammad Asad
This is Muhammad Asad’s first book, consisting of excerpts from his travel journal from March 14 to October 10, 1923, and includes 59 black and white photographs which he himself had taken. Beginning his journey in the Jerusalem train station, Leopold Weiss travelled to Cairo, returned to Palestine, thereafter went to Amman and parts of TransJordan; in July and August he walked from Haifa to Damascus, then on to Beirut, to Alexandria, made another visit to Cairo and in September voyaged through the Dardenelles to Constantinople. The travelogue ended in Malta, on the brink of his return to Europe. This, however, was no journey of just travelling from place to place but was characterized by the tremor of resonating heartstrings. Muhammad Asad’s exquisite narration of what he observed and what he experienced goes beyond the words he writes. We watch people walking in the streets. We see their daily encounters and interactions and become a part of place— their day is our day, and the air they breathe is what we breathe. All in all, this is a fascinating account of the Middle East in the early 1920’s. Intrigued by the timeless spiritual and cultural riches he found, deeply affected by his experiences in the Middle East and gripped by a spiritual quest, Muhammad Asad engages in questions of meaning to understand the Orient, and thereby prompts us to consider new ways of thinking, and heightens our sensibilities and feelings for other people, places, and their ways of being.

25/11/2024

AN OCEAN WITHOUT SHORE Ibn ‘Arabi, The Book and the Law
Author:
Michel Chodkiewicz
AN OCEAN WITHOUT SHORE -Ibn ‘Arabi, The Book and the Law
The Al-Futuhrit al-Makkiyah the revision of which Ibn ‘Arabi completed two years before his death, represent the majestic synthesis of the secrets of the world above and the world below that he transcribed and commented on throughout his life. An Ocean Without Shore is a Study of Ibn ‘Arabi. In the introduction, Chodkiewicz provides a good deal of documentation for the often heard claim that Ibn ‘Arabi has been the most influential thinker in Islam over the past seven hundred years. He shows that this has been true, not only among the intellectual elite, but also among .the common believers. He explains why a few Muslims have considered Ibn ‘Arabi the greatest heretic of Islam, while for many others he is Islam’s greatest spiritual teacher. In the main body of the book, Chodkiewicz demonstrates that Ibn Arabi’s writings are firmly grounded in the Qur’an. In doing this he also shows that Ibn `Arabi’s Qur’anic roots run far deeper than has heretofore been imagined. He explains the principles of Ibn `Arabi’s Quednic hermeneutics with unprecedented clarity, and in bringing out the primary importance of the Shaykh’s magnum opus, Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyah, he solves a good number of riddles about the text that have puzzled modern readers. Chodkiewicz’s work shows how, for Ibn ‘Arabi, the initiatory voyage is a voyage in the divine word itself.

22/11/2024

SEAL OF THE SAINTS
Author:
Michel Chodkiewicz
SEAL OF THE SAINTS
Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine of Ibn `Arab. Michel Chodkiewicz Ibn ‘Arabi was recognized in his lifetime as al-Shaykh al-Akbar— the supreme spiritual Master. Over a period of eight centuries he has exerted a profound influence on Islamic mysticism. In recent years a number of important studies have helped “acquaint the Western reader with Ibn `Arabi’s metaphysics so that a coherent picture of his supremacy has begun to emerge!’ This process is now greatly enhanced by the present volume in which Michel Chodkiewicz explores for the first time, the Master’s ‘hagiology’ or teaching on sainthood. Founded on a careful analysis of the relevant texts, Chodkiweicz’s work examines this essential aspect of Ibn `Arabi’s formulation of a doctrine of sainthood, defusing the nature and function of sainthood, while also specifying the criteria for a typology of saints based on the notion of prophetic inheritance.
***
“Chodkiweicz unravels the interwoven strands of Ibn `Arabi’s thought with a blend of knowledge, intellectual scruple and intelligence. It is very instructive and light-years away from the apologetics and the indictments of Islam which make up most of the current works on the subject.” — Maxime Rodinson ***
“This is by far the best available explanation of the central importance of sanctity for understanding both the practical and the theoretical teaching of Sufism.” —William C. Chittick

21/11/2024

THE MECCAN REVELATIONS (Part-I,II)
Author:
Michel Chodkiewicz
THE MECCAN REVELATIONS (Part-I & II) – Selected Texts of al-Futuhat al-Makkiya
Perhaps no mystic in the history of the world has delved as deeply into the inner knowledge that informs our being as did Ibn ‘Arabi. He was born into the cultural and religious crucible of Andalusian Spain in 1165, a place and time in which Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars learned from each other and’ from the Greek classics that were then being translated and circulated. Drawing from the most advanced philosophical and metaphysical thinking of his time and from his extensive knowledge of the religion of Islam, Ibn ‘Arabi created an extraordinary mystical theology that essentially sprang from his own spiritual realization. Because of the advance natute of his teachings he has been known for 800 yeats as the Sheikh al-Akbar, or the Greatest Master. Because of the subtlety of his language and complexity of his thought, access to Ibn ‘Arabi has always been difficult and translation daunting. Previously only short extracts wete available in English. The first volume contains twenty- two key chapters of this Sufi “summa mystica,’ on such issues as Ibn ‘Arabi’s doctrine of the Divine Names, the nature of spiritual experience, the end of tite, the resurrection and the stages of the path that lead to sanctity, successfully edited and translated by three of the most accomplished scholars of our age. This great book soars beyond time, culture and any particular form of religion. Describing what is fundamental to our humanity, it is astonishingly universal. Finally readers in the West have an enirée into one of the most important, profound works of world literature. Second volume contains key chapters of this Sufi “summa mystica,’ on such topics as the gnostic and the sacred law, the mystic properties of the Qur’anic letters, the secrets of Forgiveness and the attainment of Divine Nearness, successfully edited and translated by some of the most accomplished scholars of out age.

“Suddenly one of the most….inaccessible of the great Sufis has emerged into the limelight of Islamic history with amazing swiftness and an impact no one was prepared to experience… In these days, when the image of Islam provided by modernist and fundamentalist Muslims seem so superficial and uninspiring it is good to from such great traditional authorities as Ibn ‘Arabi, whose ideas seem always fresh and deep.”

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Monday	09:00 - 17:00
Tuesday	10:00 - 19:00
Wednesday	10:00 - 19:00
Thursday	09:00 - 17:00
Friday	09:00 - 17:00
Saturday	10:00 - 19:00