Peace, one and all…
As you may know, in a recent post I described my intention to visit the library of the School of Oriental & African Studies in central London. Al hamdu lillah, I managed to do this (and I took out some interesting books, more on that in a moment), but it was a bit strange.
When I checked my online account yesterday I discovered, to my horror, that my books were overdue and I’d been charged a £50 fine! Subhan Allah! So, off I went this afternoon, prepared for the worst. When I got to the desk, the attendant told me that they just put such a large amount to scare people into returning the overdue item!! Subhan Allah, it certainly worked in my case (though I had planned to visit SOAS today anyway)!
So, al hamdu lillahi ala kulli hal, I didn’t have to spend anything like as much money there and so I went and bought myself a book from a discount bookshop near Tottenham Court Road, which brings me nicely to books….
I bought Shahzad Bashir’s Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions: The Nurbakhshiya Between Medieval and Modern Islam. I’ve got a copy of Bashir’s brief introduction to the Hurufi sect, so I was pleased to pick this book up. From a cursory glance on the train it seems that the Nurbakhshiya fall somewhere between the Ismailis and Sufi groups in medieval Iran. Should be a good read, insha Allah. I’ll post some thoughts once I’ve read it. In fact, I think I’ll post them over at The Islamic History Corner.
The other books I grabbed in today’s library raid:
- K. S. Avery A Psychology of Early Sufi Sama’: Listening and Altered States
- N. Pourjavady & P. L. Wilson Kings of Love: the Poetry and History of the Ni`matullahi Sufi Order
- M. Cooperson Al-Ma`mun
- the fifth book is an edition of Mevlana Rumi’s Divan-i-Shams-i-Tabriz. As I don’t have it immediately to hand, I can’t remember the translator/editor
I tried to find a copy of P. Nwyia’s work on esoteric tafsir, but couldn’t seem to locate it. Al hamdu lillahi ala kulli hal.
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
December 4, 2006 at 5:54 pm
[...] Seeing “al hamdu lillahi ala kulli hal“often in saturday edition of Abdur Rahman bhai’s corner, some thoughts came to mind. The complete hadith is “al hamdu lillahi ala kulli hali ala kulli hal illa haal haal-u-nnar“(Praise to Allah in all states, except in the state of Hell).Why hell excluded? Is it because hell is void of Allah’s power? Nay. It’s because hell is full of misery and suffering. How will a heart be able to say ‘Al-hamdu’ when it has lost all hopes and fallen into infinite despair? Some traits of the people in hell are: [...]