Search for Truth Life and Teachings of the Indian Sufi Shaykh By Shaykh Azad Rasool (r.a.)

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In Sufism, biographies describing the lives of the saints support the practical learning a seeker or student must undertake with the guidance of a Sufi Shaykh. This biography of Hazrat Maulvi Muhammad Sa’id Khan (r.a.) is the second book published in English by Hazrat Azad Rasool (r.a.). In this new book, the author supplements a selection of Hazrat Maulvi Mohammed Sa’id Khan’s (r.a.) writings, letters and discourses with his own writing to contextualize and provide insight into, the life and teaching methods of his Shaykh. This original material, translated here into English from the Urdu, has been selected from a larger body of material that was transcribed and collected by the author over the course of thirty years, whilst traveling and working with his teacher across the Indian sub continent.

The biography is presented here as both a tribute to a great saint and teacher and as a contemporary essay on the practice and teaching of Sufism as practiced by the Shaykhs of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi order, of which the author Hazrat Azad Rasool (r.a.), was himself a master and teacher. It also provides a rare insight into the relationship of a Sufi Shaykh to his students (murids) and makes clear to the reader the vital role of the teacher in relation to a student’s spiritual progress. The detailed explanation of his Shaykh’s teaching methodology is intended to give the uninitiated seeker a true sense of the work of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi order of Sufism, and in writing this new biography, he himself extends this tradition of innovation in teaching.

Carefully written to specifically address those Westerners seeking a genuine spiritual path and a teacher, this book intends to inspire the student and seeker alike through the recounting of two inextricably linked lives, lived in and with God. It is a book about the teaching and learning process itself, the process of spiritual refinement and what it is to be successful on the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi Sufi path.