Turning Toward the Heart

Awakening to the Sufi Way
Forty Questions and Answers

Shaykh Hazrat Azad Rasool

180pp., 6 x 9, paper
ISBN: 978-1-9996904-2-7

Published By: Fons Vitae

Book Description

The first work to appear in Fons Vitae’s Contemporary Spiritual Masters series treats the reader or seeker to a firsthand, intimate experience of the master-disciple relationship in the Islamic mystical tradition: Sufism. Following a scholarly introduction, which describes the five great Sufi orders and their lineages of renowned saints and masters (of which Hazrat Rasool is himself a product) the contemporary master answers oft asked and important questions covering such topics as: the transformational changes Sufism may bring about in a serious seeker, the nature of the individual who has achieved the goal, the role of the guide or master, the “centers of consciousness,” the transmission of the methodology and meditation, what it means for the heart to be “awakened” or enlightened, and the kind of realization experienced by students of Sufism.

The book also contains a useful appendix in which all of the Shaykhs of each lineage, their dates and the places where they lived and taught going back to the seventh century are listed.

Reviews

“Scholarly yet accessible, authoritative yet humble, moderate yet firmly rooted in spiritual tradition, ‘Turning toward the Heart’ challenges preconceptions of both Islam and Sufism. In a world in need of beacons of truth, Hazrat Rasool’s gentle voice instructs, informs, and, most importantly, inspires.”
— from the preface by Dr. Kenneth Honerkamp, University of Georgia

“This new book is useful both as a university classroom text and as an intimate introduction to a present-day authentic Sufi master whose spiritual lineage is directly traced back along the great silsilahs (or chains) of saints belonging to five prominent Sufi orders. In his introduction, Dr. Honerkamp makes accessible to the modern reader the wisdom presented in this magnificent contribution by a great contemporary spiritual master.”
— from Dr. Alan Godlas, Associate Professor of Religion and Islamic Studies, University of Georgia