|
'Discourses' brings together four books into one
volume: the Book of Tawhid, the Book of Hubb, the Book
of 'Amal and the Book of Safar. Each of these represents
a series of dicourses on its respective subject,
delivered by the shaykh in Cape Town, South Africa,
between 2004 and 2008. The Book of Tawhid: A series of
nine discourses on the Divine Unity and the first of four
books that use ayats from the Qur'an and commentary on
them to illustrate the themes with which they deal. Its
preface states: "It was only fitting that we should begin
the matter by extracting from the Qur'an itself the
clear explications of Allah, glory be to Him, about
Himself, that is, the knowledge of Tawhid." The Book of
Hubb: The second in the series of four, The Book of
Hubb, taking as its the starting-point of Allah's Words
in the Qur'an, also draws on the works of Sufis, such as
Shaykh Nasirud-Din, the Chiraghi of Delhi, to delineate
the Ten Stages of Love of the Divine. The Book of 'Amal:
The Book of 'Amal activates the teachings of the first
and second books, Tawhid and Hubb. The topic is
mu'amala, or behaviour. Shaykh Abdalqadir describes it
as the foundation of the Deen, and, again drawing from
the Qur'an, describes the essential nature of Nobility
and Character over and above structuralism as the
pivotal elements in the establishment of Islam. The Book
of Safar: The last of the four books, The Book of Safar,
examines the essential subject of travel, as it applies
to the Path of Islam, in both its inward and outward
meanings.
|
|
