Imam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti wrote this risala as a Shadhili himself, and that matters — this is a defense of the path from within it, not an outsider's survey. Titled in Arabic Tāyīd al-Ḥaqīqa al-ʿĀliyya wa Tashyīd al-Ṭarīqa al-Shādhiliyya, the work sets out with real erudition to affirm the spiritual legitimacy, doctrinal soundness, and elevated rank of the Shadhili path, situating tasawwuf as an essential traditional Islamic science rather than a peripheral concern.
This edition, published by Visions of Reality Books, marks the first time the treatise has appeared in English, translated by Khalid Williams. It comes with notes from Shaykh Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Siddiq al-Ghumari al-Hasani, whose scholarly annotations sit alongside al-Suyuti's original argument and help ground it for the contemporary reader. The hardback runs to 176 pages, a compact but serious volume suited to close reading rather than a quick skim.
For students of Islamic spirituality, theology, and history, this is a work worth sitting with — a primary source on how one of the tradition's great polymaths understood and defended the Shadhili way, now made accessible for the first time to English readers.
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