Secrets of the Beloveds: A Guide to the Sacred Sufi Language of Love By Syed Muhammad Zauqi Shah Translated by Captain Wahid Bakhsh Sial, Shahidullah Faridi and Qazi Muhammad Saeed Talifat-e-Shaheedi ISBN: 978-969-9512-06-3 602pp.

Sufism has developed a lexicon of its own over the centuries. Sufi literature is steeped in symbolism, metaphors and a vocabulary whose meanings go beyond ordinary usage. To enter this literary world is to encounter a rich intellectual and spiritual tradition, in which language becomes a means of describing one’s inner journey and relationship with the Divine.

Persian and Urdu have a considerable body of literature devoted to explaining Sufic vocabulary and exploring the ideas and meanings embedded within it. In English, however, such works remain relatively limited. Secrets of the Beloveds: A Guide to the Sacred Sufi Language of Love aims to fill this gap.

The book is an English translation of the Urdu version, first published in 1951. Syed Muhammad Zauqi Shah wrote the original work and it has now been translated by Captain Wahid Bakhsh Sial, Shahidullah Faridi and Qazi Muhammad Saeed.

In the introduction, the book is described as the first volume of an “encyclopaedia of Islamic spirituality.” However, it is far more than a glossary of mystical expressions. It is, instead, a detailed guide to the language of Sufism. Most of the entries in the book are accompanied by detailed commentary that explores the........

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