Charles Upton has been involved with Sufism for the past 27 years. His new book Day and Night on the Sufi Path provides both a scholarly introduction to Tasawwuf and a perspective on the spiritual life that arise directly from the mystical depths of that tradition, also relating it to the formidable challenges of contemporary life, both spiritual and political. Spiritual teacher Andrew Harvey has described it as “simply the best and most profound book on Sufism that I have encountered.” Day and Night on the Sufi Path demonstrates how the first textbook of Sufism is the Qur’an, and that there is no principle of Tasawwuf that cannot be traced back to the Holy Book.
In addition to reading from Day and Night, Charles Upton will introduce, and be introduced by, his colleague Dr. John Andrew Morrow, whose phenomenal book The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World sparked the author’s idea for the Covenants Initiative, which has become an international movement among Muslims to defend persecuted Christians. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was both a spiritual teacher and a political leader. His outer mission was to establish faith in Allah as the foundation for social justice; his inner message was the practice of the presence of Allah, which became what is now known as the Sufi path. The ways that Outer and Inner Islam can be brought together in our time—while in no way denying the pre-eminence of the Inner—will be the keynote of this talk.