sheds light on dowsing crop circles ley lines holy relics the occult exorcism and angels both good and evil and probes how all of these emit extraordinary energy frequencies that ultimately impact on mankind for better or for worse.

The traditional account of the Prophet Muhammad's ascension has inspired generations of writers and storytellers from the beginnings of Islam until today. By the tenth century, narratives describing Muhammad's encounter with prophets and angels, his colloquy with God, and his visits of heaven and hell lead to the formation of the "Book of Ascension", a novelizing and engaging literary genre most commonly written in Arabic and Turkic dialects. This is the study of an extremely rare Persian "Book of Ascension", which was written in Persian by an anonymous author and dates from the Ilkhanid Period (1256-1353). Christiane Gruber presents an English translation alongside the original manuscript text, together with critical commentary on the text as well as a series of Ilkhanid ascension paintings. The text appears to promote adherence, as well as to encourage conversion, to Sunni Islam - providing a fascinating insight into the interplay between artistic practices and missionary efforts aimed at promoting Sunni Islam in Persian lands during Ilkhanid rule.

The Words is the first volume of the Risale-i Nur and consists of thirty-three independent parts or Words, which explain and prove aspects of the fundamental matters of belief. These consist of such matters as God s existence and unity, the manifestation of the Divine Names and attributes in creation, the resurrection of the dead and the hereafter, prophethood, the miraculousness of the Qur’an, the angels, the immortality of man s spirit, Divine Determining (fate or destiny), together with such questions as the true nature of man and the universe, and man s need to worship God. Each subject is explained with comparisons and allegories, and demonstrated with reasoned arguments and logical proofs. The most profound aspects of the truths of belief, which were formerly studied only by advanced scholars, are explained in such a way that everyone, even those to whom the subject is new, may understand without difficulty. This work answers brilliantly the attacks made on the Qur’an in the name of science and philosophy, and demonstrates the rationality of belief in God and logical absurdity of denial. It shows too that man s happiness and salvation both in this world and the next lie only in belief in God and knowledge of God.

The Mishkat Al-Anwar, literally translated "The Niche for Lights," is a theological and philosophical sufi text by the well-known Muhammad Al-Ghazzali. Though the exact date of its writing is unknown, it was authored after his opus Ihya' ulum al-din, or Revival of Religious Sciences. The work focuses on expanding upon the meaning behind a verse in the Qu'ran--the Light Verse (S. 24, 35)--and upon the Veils Tradition in Islam. The book is divided into three sections; in the first Al-Ghazzali deconstructs the word "light" and all its meanings, in the second he discusses the symbolic language in the Qu'ran and Muslim traditions, and in the third he applies his findings to the verse and tradition itself. ABU HAMED MUHAMMAD IBN MUHAMMAD AL-GHAZZALI (1058-1111)was a Persian Islamic philosopher, theologian, psychologist, and mystic, known today as one of the most famous Sunni scholars in history, sometimes cited as next-in-importance only to Muhammad. Born in Tus, Al-Ghazzali was a pioneer of methodic doubt; his work The Incoherence of Philosophers shifted early Islamic philosophy from metaphysics to the theory of occasionalism, an Islamic doctrine that states cause-and-effect is controlled by God. He also succeeded in bringing orthodox Islam in contact with Sufism. The author of more than 70 books on various subjects, his influence continues to stretch far and wide even today.

Analyzing the intersection between Sufism and philosophy, this volume is a sweeping examination of the mystical philosophy of Muḥyī-l-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 637/1240), one of the most influential and original thinkers of the Islamic world. This book systematically covers Ibn al-ʿArabī’s ontology, theology, epistemology, teleology, spiritual anthropology and eschatology. While philosophy uses deductive reasoning to discover the fundamental nature of existence and Sufism relies on spiritual experience, it was not until the school of Ibn al-ʿArabī that philosophy and Sufism converged into a single framework by elaborating spiritual doctrines in precise philosophical language. Contextualizing the historical development of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s school, the work draws from the earliest commentators of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s oeuvre, Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī (d. 673/1274), ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī (d. ca. 730/1330) and Dawūd al-Qayṣarī (d. 751/1350), but also draws from the medieval heirs of his doctrines Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. 787/1385), the pivotal intellectual and mystical figure of Persia who recast philosophical Sufism within the framework of Twelver Shīʿism and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492), the key figure in the dissemination of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s ideas in the Persianate world as well as the Ottoman Empire, India, China and East Asia via Central Asia. Lucidly written and comprehensive in scope, with careful treatments of the key authors, Philosophical Sufism is a highly accessible introductory text for students and researchers interested in Islam, philosophy, religion and the Middle East.