Teachings of Rumi: The Masnavi

The influence of Al-Ghazzali upon both the Christian and Islamic thinkers of the Middle Ages and beyond is being more and more widely documented. Known as "The Proof of Islam." Ghazzali finally won acceptance for Sufism in Islam, and his methods of argument and analysis powerfully impressed the schoolmen of the West, who imitated him extensively.

In the East, "Al-Ghazzali has been acclaimed by both Muslim and European scholars as the greatest Muslim after Muhammad" (Professor W. Montgomery Watt). Above all, Ghazzali was a Sufi, and The Alchemy of Happiness is his own abridgement, designed for the ordinary reader, of his colossal masterwork, The Revival of Religious Sciences.

The uncanny relevance of the Masnavi to contemporary life has produced an intense interest in Rumi. Some 43 years in the writing, his masterwork is generally regarded as one of the world's greatest books, influencing Western writers from Chaucer to Hegel to the contemporary poet Robert Bly.

Idries Shah calls the Masnavi: "...a special art form, created by Rumi for the express purpose of conveying meanings which he himself concedes have no actual parallel in ordinary human experience." -- The Sufis by Idries Shah: Octagon Press, London, p. 117. Copyright © 1964, 1977 by Idries Shah.

Biological evolution, how basic psychological drives motivate human behavior, and the process of conditioning -- all are described some 700 years before being identified by Western science.

This one-volume abridgement is a direct translation from the original Persian.