Al Qushayri's Epistle on Sufism : Al Risala Al Qushayriyya Fi 'ilm Al-Tasawwuf

<p>The author of the Epistle on Sufism Abu ’l-Qasim al-Qushayri (376/986–465/1074) was a famous Sunni scholar and mystic (Sufi) from Khurasan in Iran. His Epistle is probably the most popular Sufi manual ever .</p><p>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 in trying to strike a delicate balance between their ascetic and mystical convictions and the exigencies of life in a society governed by rank wealth and military power.</p><p>In al-Qushayri’s narrative the Sufi ‘friends of God’ (awaliya’) are depicted as the true if uncrowned ‘kings’ of this world not those worldly rulers who appear to be lording it over the common herd of believers. Yet even the most advanced Sufi masters should not take salvation for granted. Miracle-working no matter how spectacular cannot guarantee the Sufi a ‘favourite outcome’ in the afterlife for it may be but a ruse on the part of God who wants to test the moral integrity of his servant. In the Epistle these and many other Sufi motifs are illustrated by the anecdotes and parables that show al-Qushayri’s fellow Sufis in a wide variety of contexts: suffering from hunger and thirst in the desert while performing pilgrimage to Mecca participating in ‘spiritual concerts’ reciting the Qur’an waging war against the ‘infidel’ enemy and their own desires earning their livelihood meditating in a retreat praying working miracles interacting with the ‘people of the market-place’ their family members and peers dreaming and dying.</p>