
The World of the Sufi
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
David Ault
-
By:
-
Idries Shah
About this listen
Assembled by Idries Shah, The World of the Sufi is a comprehensive collection of learned essays and papers on the subject of Sufi thought. One of the book’s attractions is the way that it considers central questions and areas of study from different angles. Sufi literature, the use of humour, and Sufi communities in various cultural settings are some of the many subjects discussed. In addition, experts in their fields comment on areas such as Sufism and psychiatry, Indian thought and the Sufis, and therapy and the Sufi. Among the book's contributors are Idries Shah, Doris Lessing, Peter Brent, and Dr. Arthur J. Deikman.
©1979 ISF Publishing (P)2019 ISF PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
-
A Veiled Gazelle
- Seeing How to See
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Veiled Gazelle, as the great mystic Ibn Arabi explains in his interpreter of desires, is a subtlety, an organ of higher perception. Sufi experientialists refer to the activation of these centres of awareness as the awakening of real knowledge of truth beyond form. A Veiled Gazelle considers the symbolic and instrumental employment of its literature in Sufi studies. Seldom didactic, and never meant only as entertainment, such works are regarded as some of the world’s greatest and most important writing.
By: Idries Shah
-
Destination Mecca
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1957, Destination Mecca was both an ambitious travel book and a work of ethnographic and cultural research. Shah documents a wide range of fascinating journeys, from his quest for the gold mines of King Solomon on Sudan's Red Sea Coast, to encounters in desert caravanserais and sojourns with Mediterranean contraband smugglers, to his time as a personal guest of the elderly King Ibn Saud.
-
-
Enchanting
- By Abdul-Infinite on 05-20-18
By: Idries Shah
-
Special Illumination
- The Sufi Use of Humor
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 1 hr and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Special Illumination is a term used by the great poet and mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, to stress the importance of humor in metaphysical experience. Of it, Idries Shah says, "Rumi directly contradicts such numerous sour-faced religionists as, in all persuasions, find that humor disturbs the indoctrination which is all that they usually have to offer."
-
-
For serious students only.
- By Kahlo on 08-05-19
By: Idries Shah
-
Wisdom of the Idiots
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Idries Shah's Wisdom of the Idiots, the "idiots" are Sufis, called this because their wisdom penetrates to a depth which renders it inaccessible to the merely intelligent or academically knowledgeable. The stories of the Sufis are tools prepared for a specific purpose. On this level the movements of the characters in a story portray psychological processes, and the story becomes a working blueprint of those processes.
-
-
Great Experience
- By Haresh Raichura on 01-24-18
By: Idries Shah
-
The Hundred Tales of Wisdom
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traditionally known as The Hundred Tales of Wisdom, this collection comprises excerpts from the life, teachings, and miracles of the Sufi teacher Jalaluddin Rumi, together with certain important stories from his works. As well as being part of the bedrock of classical Persian literature, these tales, anecdotes, and narratives are believed, by Sufis, to aid in the development of insights beyond ordinary perceptions. Here, they are translated and presented by Idries Shah.
By: Idries Shah
-
Kara Kush
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 22 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December of 1979, Soviet tanks rolled across the borders of Afghanistan, beginning a period of barbaric aggression that triggered a turning point in modern history. Idries Shah's brilliant novel chronicles the courageous 10-year resistance of the Afghan people, an epic story of triumph over tyranny that deserves to be immortalized.
-
-
A MUST READ
- By JK on 09-15-22
By: Idries Shah
-
A Veiled Gazelle
- Seeing How to See
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Veiled Gazelle, as the great mystic Ibn Arabi explains in his interpreter of desires, is a subtlety, an organ of higher perception. Sufi experientialists refer to the activation of these centres of awareness as the awakening of real knowledge of truth beyond form. A Veiled Gazelle considers the symbolic and instrumental employment of its literature in Sufi studies. Seldom didactic, and never meant only as entertainment, such works are regarded as some of the world’s greatest and most important writing.
By: Idries Shah
-
Destination Mecca
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1957, Destination Mecca was both an ambitious travel book and a work of ethnographic and cultural research. Shah documents a wide range of fascinating journeys, from his quest for the gold mines of King Solomon on Sudan's Red Sea Coast, to encounters in desert caravanserais and sojourns with Mediterranean contraband smugglers, to his time as a personal guest of the elderly King Ibn Saud.
-
-
Enchanting
- By Abdul-Infinite on 05-20-18
By: Idries Shah
-
Special Illumination
- The Sufi Use of Humor
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 1 hr and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Special Illumination is a term used by the great poet and mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, to stress the importance of humor in metaphysical experience. Of it, Idries Shah says, "Rumi directly contradicts such numerous sour-faced religionists as, in all persuasions, find that humor disturbs the indoctrination which is all that they usually have to offer."
-
-
For serious students only.
- By Kahlo on 08-05-19
By: Idries Shah
-
Wisdom of the Idiots
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Idries Shah's Wisdom of the Idiots, the "idiots" are Sufis, called this because their wisdom penetrates to a depth which renders it inaccessible to the merely intelligent or academically knowledgeable. The stories of the Sufis are tools prepared for a specific purpose. On this level the movements of the characters in a story portray psychological processes, and the story becomes a working blueprint of those processes.
-
-
Great Experience
- By Haresh Raichura on 01-24-18
By: Idries Shah
-
The Hundred Tales of Wisdom
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traditionally known as The Hundred Tales of Wisdom, this collection comprises excerpts from the life, teachings, and miracles of the Sufi teacher Jalaluddin Rumi, together with certain important stories from his works. As well as being part of the bedrock of classical Persian literature, these tales, anecdotes, and narratives are believed, by Sufis, to aid in the development of insights beyond ordinary perceptions. Here, they are translated and presented by Idries Shah.
By: Idries Shah
-
Kara Kush
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 22 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In December of 1979, Soviet tanks rolled across the borders of Afghanistan, beginning a period of barbaric aggression that triggered a turning point in modern history. Idries Shah's brilliant novel chronicles the courageous 10-year resistance of the Afghan people, an epic story of triumph over tyranny that deserves to be immortalized.
-
-
A MUST READ
- By JK on 09-15-22
By: Idries Shah
-
Thinkers of the East
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thinkers of the East is a collection of anecdotes and "parables in action" illustrating the eminently practical and lucid approach of Eastern Dervish teachers. Distilled from the teachings of more than 100 sages in three continents, this material stresses the experimental rather than the theoretical - and it is that characteristic of Sufi study which provides its impact and vitality.
By: Idries Shah
-
The Magic Monastery
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many of Idries Shah's books are comprised of tales and teaching stories taken from both written and oral sources, which illustrate the instructional methods employed by Eastern wise men for thousands of years. The Magic Monastery differs from its predecessors in that it contains not only traditional tales - mostly unpublished - but also stories specially written by Shah to complete the book as a "course in non-linear thinking".
By: Idries Shah
-
The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many countries claim Nasrudin as a native, although few have gone so far as Turkey in exhibiting a "grave" of the wisest fool who ever lived, and holding an annual Nasrudin Festival. He is the greatest, most intriguing, character of folklore found in any Eastern land.
By: Idries Shah
-
Sufi Thought and Action
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Previously published only as separate essays, Sufi Thought and Action - assembled and introduced by Idries Shah - covers an extraordinary diversity of Sufi ideas and activities in many countries and cultures. Included in the volume are papers on Sufi principles and learning methods; ritual, initiation, and secrets in Sufi circles; and key concepts in Sufi understanding.
-
-
Thanks for the thoughts and examples of actions
- By Bryant Barber on 11-25-18
By: Idries Shah
-
Learning How to Learn
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Condensed from more than three million words, these conversations involve housewives and cabinet ministers, professors and assembly-line workers, on the subject of how traditional psychology can illuminate current human, social, and spiritual problems. More than 100 tales and extracts from Sufi lore, ranging from the eighth century (Hasan of Basra) to the modern Afghan poet Khalilullah Khalili, are woven into Shah’s narratives of how and why the Sufis learn what they learn and how spiritual understanding develops and deteriorates in all societies.
-
-
bracing and illuminating
- By Nicholas Lesiecki on 09-29-21
By: Idries Shah
-
The Sufis
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When it first appeared in 1964, The Sufis was welcomed as the decisive work on the subject of Sufi thought. Rich in scope, author Idries Shah explained clearly the traditions and philosophy of the Sufis to a Western audience for the first time. In the five decades since its release, the book has been translated into more than two dozen languages, and has found a wide readership in both East and West. Containing detailed information on the major Sufi thinkers, and literary characters, such as Nasrudin, it is regarded as a key work on both Sufism and Eastern Philosophy.
-
-
The Sufis is laudable and audible and readable
- By Ulrika Eriksson on 06-24-16
By: Idries Shah
-
Caravan of Dreams
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caravan of Dreams distills the essence of Eastern thought in a feast of Sufi stories, sayings, poems, and allegories collected by one of the world's leading experts in Oriental philosophy and Sufism. Idries Shah builds up a complete picture of a single consciousness, relating Eastern mythology to reality, illuminating historical patterns, and presenting philosophical legends in this unique anthology.
-
-
Awesome Narrator
- By Ulrika Eriksson on 11-26-15
By: Idries Shah
-
The Way of the Sufi
- By: Idries Shah
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Way of the Sufi presents an unparalleled cross-section of material from Sufi schools, Sufi teachings, and classical writings as a basic course of Sufi study. The author begins with the outward aspects of the teaching most likely to puzzle the student coming fresh to the subject. He considers various attitudes to Sufi ideas and evidence of their absorption into medieval Christianity, Hinduism, Jewish mysticism, and modern philosophical teachings.
-
-
Would Not Recommend.
- By Uniqleeme on 04-06-16
By: Idries Shah
-
Modern Man in Search of a Soul
- By: Carl Jung
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Modern Man in Search of a Soul is the classic introduction to the thought of Carl Jung. Along with Freud and Adler, Jung was one of the chief founders of modern psychiatry. In this book, Jung examines some of the most contested and crucial areas in the field of analytical psychology: dream analysis, the primitive unconscious, and the relationship between psychology and religion.
-
-
Could have almost been an automated text reader
- By Chicken Love on 04-24-15
By: Carl Jung
-
Zen
- The Authentic Gate
- By: Yamada Koun
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why practice Zen? What sets Zen apart from religion? What are its different practices? These questions, and more, are examined and answered by Zen Master Koun Yamada, whose Dharma heirs include Robert Aitken, Ruben Habito, and David Loy. Through compelling stories and a systematic approach, he guides the listener through creating and sustaining a lifelong practice. Warm and ecumenical in tone, Koun uses the insights of Zen to bring a deeper understanding of faith.
-
-
Slow down and listen
- By Captain Morgan on 11-22-22
By: Yamada Koun
-
The Way of Zen Buddhism & Zen Mind for Beginners
- Zen Master's Teaching/Zen Psychology; Zazen Practice for Living & Work Life, Japanese Artistic Life, Key to Enlightenment, Happiness, and Freedom
- By: Anit Korpal
- Narrated by: Samantha Novak
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The book The Way of Zen Buddhism & Zen Mind for Beginners goes beyond teachings of spirituality. The main focus of the book is to empower you to reach your full potential as an individual. Here, you’ll be introduced to Zen minimalist aesthetics, which will help you go from zero to abundance in no time.
-
-
static
- By Justin on 12-05-24
By: Anit Korpal
-
Uncertain Places
- Essays on Occult and Outsider Experiences
- By: Mitch Horowitz
- Narrated by: Mitch Horowitz
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today’s leading voice of esotericism and the occult, Mitch Horowitz explores topics that evoke widespread misunderstanding, including the real history of secret societies, the wisdom of the Satanic, the relevance of Gnosticism, and connection between today’s spiritual culture and antiquity, including in areas of Hermeticism, deity worship, out-of-body experience, and magick. He demonstrates the occult roots of wide-ranging facets of modern culture, including politics, abstract art, mind-body healing, self-help, and scientific fields such as quantum physics and neuroplasticity.
-
-
Uncertain Places
- By Margaret on 12-13-22
By: Mitch Horowitz