The Sufi Experience

The Sufi Experience, a new book by Sharon Marcus, is a provocative journey into the mysteries and mysticism of Sufism.

Sharon Marcus identifies the inner contemplation and mystical traditions of her Sufi path as common property to all the major religions, while their goal and destination lie outside them, beyond.

In her five previous books, whether fiction, nonfiction or poetry, Marcus' passionate devotion to the precepts of Sufism simmers beneath the lyrical writing and explodes commandingly to the surface in her commentaries.

Understanding the experiential nature of that mystical journey to the heart of Islam becomes the structure of this new work, The Sufi Experience. A combination of lucid commentary and cheerful anecdote fills the book, especially in the extended chapter "Journey East," an account of her travels in Dubai, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a critical self-examination to light up the way.

The deliberate thread running through all her books is the search for truth and meaning, for the wisdom to illuminate an open, melting heart, to remember the presence of the divine in the midst of the world.

The pleasures of her finely crafted writing draw us deeply into the mysteries Sharon Marcus examines through the lens of her own spiritual master, M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. She writes clearly, engagingly, with a perspective that does not preach, that is subtle and skilled, purposefully inviting us into a literary conversation as we study the conversion of dross to purity and the prospect of enlightenment.

ISBN 9780973753455n$28.95

For excerpts and more information see: www.sufipress.com. Available online now and in bookstores March 22, 2008.