THE ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS

Those who deny the reality of the ecstasies and other spiritual experiences of the Sufis merely betray their own narrow-mindedness and shallow insight. -from Concerning Music and Dancing One of the great works of mystical religious literature, the Kimiya-i-Saadaat strove to bring man closer to understanding God by helping him understand himself. These excerpts from that work, by a strikingly original thinker on Islam who lived and wrote in the 11th century, were first published in 1910, and serve as a potent reminder of how powerful an influence Al-Ghazzali had upon religious philosophers of the Middle Ages, both Christian and Islamic. With its wise and warmly humanistic outlook, this little book may well foster a new measure of understanding in the current philosophical battle between the religious traditions of East and West. Also available from Cosimo Classics