​The Book of Truthfulness: Kitab al-Sidq

The Book of Truthfulness: Kitab al-Sidq

Author: Abu Said al-Kharraz

Publisher: Islamic Book Trust

ISBN: 9789670526072

Pages: 132pp

Weight: 0.4kg

Year: 2014

Price: RM 17.00

The importance of this treatise lies in the fact that it is the earliest systematic presentation of the theory of Sufi experience, written by a practicing Sufi. Beginning with the idea of idq or truthfulness, the author develops his theme to include “stations” of fear, hope, trust, love, shame, longing, intimacy, all of which the mystic must pass on his path to God. Throughout the discourse the author constantly refers, typically as a mystic, to higher degrees of the various stations which cannot be described in written language. In a style which foreshadows the practice of later writers, the author begins with Qur’anic sanctions, and follows these by references to the Sunnah and the lives of the saints.