Questions on the Spiritual Path [E-book]

Questions on the Spiritual Path That Pertain to Knowledge of the Ultimate Reality stands out in a curious way. It exists in the margins of a few old yellow-paged
books in different regions of the Islamic world, usually found in obscure collections of
invocations and the like.

Most copies ascribe this work simply to ‘Shaykh ‘Izz al-Din b. ‘Abd al-Salam,’ which has led many to think it is the work of the great Shafi’i jurist and legal theorist, the ‘Sultan of the Scholars,’ ‘Izz al-Din b. ‘Abd al-Salam b. Abi al-Qasim al-Sulami (d. 660 AH).

Several years ago, I translated this small text and thought at the time that it was authored by the famous Imam, but evidence points to it being the work of another scholar with a very similar name: ‘Izz al-Din b. ‘Abd al-Salam b. Ahmad b. Ghanim b. ‘Ali al-Maqdisi (d. 678 AH).

The actual author of Masa’il al-Tariqa was a Sufi preacher and writer. His works include Taflis Iblis, a collection of fictitious debates with Shaytan similar to the style and objective of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, as well Hall al-Rumuz on Sufism, al-Rawd al-Aniq on exhortation, Kashf al-Asrar ‘an Hikam al-Tuyur wa al-Azhar, which appears to be a book on wondrous signs in botany and ornithology, and Talkhis al-‘Ibara, a work on the “grammar of the hearts” extracting spiritual allusions from grammatical rules. (Cf., al-Zirikli, al-‘A’lam)

Ibn Kathir says about him in al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya, “The masterful preacher and eloquent poet whose discourses were in the manner of Ibn al-Jawzi and his like, who enjoyed wide acceptance among the people.”

Questions on the Spiritual Path is a series of 62 questions and answers on the foundations of Islamic spirituality and self-refinement. In its unique style, the author, Shaykh ‘Izz al-Din al-Maqdisi gives us several mnemonics from common Islamic terms to connect the basics of the religion to deeper spiritual realities.