Dear Dirty America

From Sunniport:

The last few centuries have seen many an Englishman and Englishwoman convert to Islam. Prominent figures in the modern Muslim collective consciousness, their journeys into the faith have often-time been sources of amazement and wonder to all who would hear them. And yet one would be hard pressed to find an account more stirring and more beautiful than that of John Gilbert Lennard. Born in 1915 into an upper class family, Lennard’s heart was turned towards Islam after reading Imam Hujwiri’s Kashf al-Mahjub.

In this memorable circle Sheikh Abdal Hakim traces out Shah Shahidullah’s life, from the spires of Oxford to the slums of Karachi, from the world of Wodehouse to the realm of Data Ganj Baksh,Baba Fareed Ganjshakar and his own Sheikh, Hazrat Maulana Syed Muhammad Zauqi Shah

In an age of scepticism and doubt, the life of Shah Shahidullah Faridi stands out as a beacon of light, a proof of the spiritual way and the heights that man can reach when he sets out with sincerity on the path towards the Divine.

I’m told by very legitimate sources that the book to read on the miraculous aspects of Sufism is Faridi’s “Inner Aspects of Faith”. From Moon Over Medina:

Inner Aspects of Faith, is a collection of discourses by the eminent Sufi Saint of English origin, Shah Shahidullah Faridi (r.a.), who was from the aristocratic “Lennard” family of England. He was drawn towards Sufism after reading the famous “Kashful Mahjub” written by Syed Ali Uthman al-Hujweri, and thereafter went out into the world in search of a qualified and perfect Sheikh, whom he found to be Hazrat Syed Mohamed Zauqi Shah (r.a.) from India.

The subject matter of these essays are amongst the most difficult and most controversial. The question of predestination and free-will, for example, has been a controversy raging within all religious faiths from time immemorial. On reading this chapter, a reader will gain better appreciation of predestination and free-will and settle many of his or her doubts on this subject.

The chapter on the Belief of God is covered in such a logical and simple manner that is enlightening for anyone who ever doubted the existence of a God, be he Muslim, Christian or Atheist.