The central gesture
In one small book, Lings attempts to answer the most direct question there is: what is Sufism? The answer he first refuses: Sufism is not a "school" of Islam, a mystical fashion, nor an exotic margin. Sufism is the inner dimension of Islam — its heart, its marrow.
The image Lings uses is that of the almond: Islam has a husk (the Law, the rites, the community) and a kernel. Sufism is that kernel. It does not oppose the husk — it is its reason for being. Without the inner way, religion risks being only an empty shell; without the husk, the kernel would not be protected.
The key concepts (made plain)
- The husk and the kernel — The guiding metaphor. Sufism is the hidden meaning and the goal of all that religion prescribes outwardly.
- The meanings of the word "Sufi" — Lings examines the proposed etymologies — the wool (ṣūf) of the early ascetics, purity (ṣafāʾ) — and shows that the word matters less than the reality it designates: a life turned wholly towards God.
- The components of the way — Lings sets out what makes a Sufi way: a true doctrine, a method of practice, and a master to transmit. None suffices alone.
- Sufism and the modern world — Lings writes for a reader of the 20th century, often far from any tradition. He shows that Sufism is not a curiosity of the past, but a living answer to the spiritual disarray of the present.
The architecture of the work
The book proceeds in concentric circles: it starts from the word and its meanings, reaches the nature of the way, then its method and its goal — the knowledge of God. Short, but complete: nothing essential is missing.
To read it
It is probably the best first reading for anyone approaching Sufism. Brief, clear, of great density beneath an apparent simplicity. To be read before the more demanding doctrinal works — it gives them their right perspective.
Resonances
- The image of the husk and the kernel — see Guénon, the husk and the kernel
- The other books of Lings: A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century, Muhammad
- Discovering the way: Discover