The Doctrine of Sufis: Translated from the Arabic of Abu Bakr al-Kalabadhi

This 1935 English translation of a classic Arabic text in Sūfīsm, the mystical aspect of Islam, by A. J. Arberry preserves the beauty and simplicity of the original without departing from a literal translation. Little is known of the author of this treatise Abū Bakr al-Kalābādhī, except that he was a lawyer and died in Bukhārā in about AD 990. This book is the work on which his fame rests, and is important because it is the earliest extant text to reconcile the position of Sūfīsm and orthodox Islam. The book consists of five parts: a general introduction to the term Sūfī and an enumeration of the names of the great Sūfīs; a statements of the tenets of Islam, as accepted by the Sūfīs; a discussion of the various 'stations' of the Sūfīs; and a discussion of the various phenomena of Sūfīsm. This is a superb English introduction to Sūfīsm.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Prooemium; 1. How the Sūfīs account for their being called Sūfīs; 2. A list of the famous men among the Sūfīs; 3. A list of the Sūfīs who published the sciences of allusion in books and treatises; 4. A list of the Sūfīs who have written on conduce; 5. Their doctrine of unity; 6. Their doctrine of the attributes; 7. Their variance as to whether God has ceased creating; 8. Their variance concerning names; 9. Their doctrine of the Qur'ān; 10. Their variance concerning the nature of speech; 11. Their doctrine of vision; 12. Their variance as to the Prophet's vision; 13. Their doctrine of predestination and the creation of acts; 14. Their doctrine of capacity; 15. Their doctrine of compulsion; 16. Their doctrine of advantageousness; 17. Their doctrine of promise and threat; 18. Their doctrine of intercession; 19. Their doctrine of children; 20. Their doctrine of the duties imposed by God on adults; 21. Their doctrine of the gnosis of god; 22. Their variance as to the nature of gnosis; 23. Their doctrine of spirit; 24. Their doctrine of angels and messengers; 25. Their doctrine of the faults ascribed to the prophets; 26. Their doctrine of the miracles of saints; 27. Their doctrine of faith; 28. Their doctrine of the realities of faith; 29. Their doctrine of the legal schools; 30. Their doctrine of earning; 31. Of the Sūfī sciences of the states; 32. Of the nature and meaning of Sūfīsm; 33. Of the revelation of the thoughts; 34. Of Sūfīsm and being at ease with God; 35. Their doctrine of repentance; 36. Their doctrine of abstinence; 37. Their doctrine of patience; 38. Their doctrine of poverty; 39. Their doctrine of humility; 40. Their doctrine of fear; 41. Their doctrine of piety; 42. Their doctrine of sincerity; 43. Their doctrine of gratitude; 44. Their doctrine of trust; 45. Their doctrine of satisfaction; 46. Their doctrine of certainty; 47. Their doctrine of recollection; 48. Their doctrine of intimacy; 49. Their doctrine of nearness; 50. Their doctrine of union; 51. Their doctrine of love; 52. Their doctrine of detachment and separation; 53. Their doctrine of ecstasy; 54. Their doctrine of overmastery; 55. Their doctrine of intoxication; 56. Their doctrine of absence and presence; 57. Their doctrine of concentration and separation; 58. Their doctrine of revelation and veiling; 59. Their doctrine of passing-away and persistence; 60. Their doctrine of the realities of gnosis; 61. Their doctrine of unification; 62. Their doctrine of the description of the gnostic; 63. Their doctrine of the seeker and the sought; 64. Their doctrine of toiling and divine practice; 65. Their doctrine of discoursing to men; 66. Of their piety and pious endeavours; 67. Of God's favours to the Sūfīs and His warning them by means of supernatural voices; 68. Of God's warning them by gifts of insight; 69. Of God's warning them by means of thoughts; 70. Of God's warning them through visions and rare favours; 71. God's favours to them which spring of His jealousy; 72. God's bounties in laying hardships upon them to bear; 73. God's grace to them at death and after; 74. Of other graces accorded them; 75. Of audition; Index.