Turning Toward the Heart

Turning Toward the Heart poses forty questions about Sufism and the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi path with straightforward, lucid answers by an authentic, experienced teacher, Hazrat Azad Rasool. The author contextualizes Sufism within a larger sphere of spiritual transformation, making this book useful for anyone searching for a spiritual teacher, e.g., the responsibilities of a teacher and the qualities necessary for an aspirant. It is impressive to see how the Mujaddidi teachings have been transmitted faithfully from the founder-figure Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624) with skillful adaptation to the modern West. In the range of topics presented, seekers, students of Sufism, and scholars will find nuggets of wisdom distilled from Hazrat Azad Rasool's decades of experience working with hundreds of students from all over the world. The book also contains a useful appendix in which all of the shaykhs of each lineage, their dates and the places where they lived and taught going back to the seventh century are listed. (Shadhiliyyah, Chishtiyyah, Qadiriyyah, Naqshbandiyah and Mujaddidiyyah.)

Born and raised in India, Hazrat Azad Rasool received his B.A. from Jamia Millia Islamia (the National Muslim University), his B.Ed. from Allahabad University, and his M.A. in philosophy from Aligarh Muslim University, which included specializing in both Hindu and Islamic thought. His career included thirty years service to Jamia Millia Islamia, where he worked first as an instructor and later as principal. Drawn towards spiritual pursuits from an early age, he tried different paths and ultimately met his teacher. He spent thirty years with his shaykh, Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Sa'id Khan, from whom he received permission to instruct seekers in a methodology where the practices of five major Sufi orders have converged. While remaining a husband, father, grandfather, teacher, headmaster, community leader, and respected elder, his life encapsulated what a true Sufi is: he became a model of that towards which he now guides others. The principle of his life is "living to give rather than to take."