Sufi Meditation and Contemplation

Three texts for a deeper exploration of the practice and impact of meditation.
This work contains fresh translations of three classic Sufi texts from Mughal India: The Alms Bowl of Shaykh Kalimullah Shajehanabadi, The Compass of Truth by Dara Shikoh, and Treatise on the Human Body attributed to Mu’in al-Din Chishti. All three texts are from a period that witnessed a flowering of Sufism in India with innovative personalities, diverse mystical orders, and bold literary expressions. The combined material elucidates meditation practices and the resulting effects in a manner that is both timeless and profound.

“Meditation is the way to instill the values in the heart, to such a depth that the heart itself is transformed. The heart then is not merely an organ in the body, and is not just one’s own personal center; when properly activated through meditation, the heart opens up to reveal the very presence of God with one and with all.”

—From the foreword by Scott Kugle

Scott Kugle is a research scholar in comparative religion and Islamic culture. His research languages are Arabic, Urdu, and Persian. He is currently professor of South Asian and Islamic Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian studies. Previously he was an Assistant Professor of Religion at Swarthmore College and, most recently, a research scholar at the Henry Martyn Institute for Islamic Studies, Inter-Religious Dialogue, and Conflict Resolution in Hyderabad, India. He has lived for many years in Hyderabad, India, where he does research, teaches, and participates in the Kalimi community of the Chishti Sufi order.

Carl Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His research, based on the study of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, has included premodern and contemporary Sufism, and Indo-Muslim culture. His most recent book, which won the inaugural Global Humanities Translation Prize from the Buffet Institute, is a translation from the Arabic, Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr. His scholarly work is summarized by two collections of essays: It’s Not Just Academic: Essays on Sufism and Islam (2017), and Refractions of Islam in India: Situating Sufism and Yoga (2016). His other publications include How to Read the Qur’an: A New Guide, with Select Translations (UNC Press, 2011); Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond (co-authored with Bruce Lawrence, 2002); Teachings of Sufism (1999); a translation of The Unveiling of Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master by Ruzbihan Baqli (1997); Guide to Sufism (1997); Ruzbihan Baqli: Mystical Experience and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism (1996); and Words of Ecstasy in Sufism (1985). On the faculty of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1992 to 2022, he is William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He was also the founding Director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies (2003-2022), and President of the American Society for the Study of Religion (2017-2020).