According to the beliefs of the Muslims, Sufism or to give it its proper appellation, Tasawwuf, has its origin in the teaching of and in the personality of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). It may have begun in a state of ecstasy; and that phase of mind always has remained the sublime mystery of all mysteries. According to all correct doctrines, the Quran is the first and the last text book of Sufism, and the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) the greatest Sufi of all times. This has been given explicitly by the author in this book.
Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah, (born 1894 in Sardhana, India, died 4 November 1969 in Tangier, Morocco) was an Indian-Afghan author and diplomat descended from the Sadaat of Paghman. Educated in India, he came to Britain as a young man to continue his education in Edinburgh, where he married a young Scotswoman. Travelling widely, Ikbal Ali Shah undertook assignments for the British Foreign Office and became a publicist for a number of Eastern statesmen, penning biographies, of Kemal Ataturk, the Aga Khan and others. His other writing includes lighter works such as travel narratives and tales of adventure, as well as more serious works on Sufism, Islam and Asian politics. He hoped that Sufism might "form a bridge between the Western and the Eastern ways of thinking"; familiar with both cultures, much of his life and writing was devoted to furthering greater cross-cultural understanding. Ikbal Ali Shah fathered three children, all of whom became notable writers themselves; his son Idries Shah became particularly well known and acclaimed as a writer and teacher of Sufism in the West. When Ikbal Ali Shah's wife died in 1960, he moved from Britain to Morocco, spending the last decade of his life in Tangier.
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