O Humankind: Surah Ya-Sin (Fons Vitae Women's Spirituality)

Muhammad summarized Chapter Ya-Sin with the following noble hadith: “Everything has a heart. The heart of the Quran is Chapter Ya-Sin.” If we think of this universe as an embodiment of the Quran’s meaning, the perfect human beings (al-Insan al-Kamil) described in Chapter Ya-Sin are the heart of this body. As they assume the character traits of the Prophet, they give life to the dead bodies with these character traits. “O Humankind” is an elaborate commentary on the Chapter Ya-Sin, the heart of the Quran, about the inner meanings of each of its verses. Compiled by Cemalnur Sargut, the book is a reference that draws on various tafsir works and the commentaries of the perfect human beings. The great Quran commentary tradition shows us how Muslims have understood their religion over time. The tradition is found here in a selection ranging over ten centuries of commentary on chapter Ya Sin, known as “the heart of the Quran.”

As a female Sufi teacher, Cemalnur Sargut commands a loyal and active worldwide following, especially in Turkey. Her career as a scholar and Sufi leader represents an important case study in the dynamics of contemporary global Sufism. This volume represents the first text in English translation that brings together some of her major discourses and teachings as presented to her students through the genre of oral discourses. More specifically, the discourses that form the core of this book were collected through oral interviews with Cemalnur conducted by her students as part of a weekly program. Victoria Rowe Holbrook teaches philosophy in the Faculty of Architecture at Istanbul Bilgi University. She is a graduate of Harvard and Princeton and a Mellon Fellow. She founded the program in Ottoman and Modern Turkish Literary and Cultural studies at the Ohio State University. She is the author of The Unreadable Shores of Love: Turkish Modernity and Mystic Romance, dozens of articles on literature and philosophy, and translations including The White Castle by Nobel winner Orhan Pamuk, Beauty and Love by Seyh Galip, and Commentary on the Spiritual Couplets of Mevlana Rumi by Kenan Rifai.