The Writing On The Water

‘The Writing on the Water’ moves through your soul calmly and lightly, like a cool stream moving through a quiet forest. This is a sufi’s account from his entry into Sufism as a novice to his full mastery of what it means to be a Dervish. With quietude and stillness, each page comes in and out of the mind like drawing a deep and relaxing breath. Both like a light breeze and a deep resonation from the center of the earth, this text will take you to places in your soul that you have never been.
A school of Islam which is not discussed often in the west, Sufism is a mysticism that teaches introspection. It’s central tenant is that the ultimate goal of the true believer is a detachment from the material world in exchange for a oneness with God. This is achieved through leading a simple life. The Sufi is a mysterious figure who speaks little, eats little, sleeps little and owns little, because when one can see the true value of his spirituality, these things are trivial.
Muhyiddin Shakoor offers us the innermost thoughts of a man on such a mystical path. When he is deep in thought, he invites us into his internal world to let us see what he is thinking. He tells us day by day of the various tasks that the teacher asks the students to perform. These tasks range from the intriciate, such as finding a specific needle for a record player without bringing the old one to the store, to the peculiar, such as smashing up a chocolate cake with ones hands, to the truly titanic, like moving a building across a field. There is a secret hidden in everything.
Whether the reader is a Sufi himself, or not, the thought provoking meditations that drift in and out of this text will stick with you long after you have finished the last page.