In Search of the Lost Heart brings together twenty-six essays by William C. Chittick, renowned scholar of Sufism and Islamic philosophy. Written between 1975 and 2011, most of these essays are not readily available in Chittick's own books. Although this is a collection, its editors have crafted it to be a book "sufficient unto itself, which, when taken as a whole, can be said to explore the underlying worldview of Islam."

Chittick draws upon the writings of towering figures such as Ibn al-'Arabi, Rumi, and Mulla adra, as well as other important, but lesser-known thinkers, as he engages with a wide variety of topics, such as the nature of being and knowledge, the relationship between love and scriptural hermeneutics, the practical and theoretical dimensions of Islamic mysticism, the phenomenon of religious diversity, and the ecological crisis.

William C. Chittick is Professor of Religious Studies at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. He is the author and translator of numerous books and articles on Islamic thought, Sufism, Shi'ism, and Persian literature. His books include The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-'Arabi's Cosmology; Imaginal Worlds: Ibn al-'Arabi and the Problem of Religious Diversity; Faith and Practice of Islam: Three Thirteenth-Century Sufi Texts; The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination; The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi; and A Shi'ite Anthology, all published by SUNY Press. Mohammed Rustom is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Carleton University. Atif Khalil is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge. Kazuyo Murata is a doctoral candidate in Islamic Studies at Yale University.

A Note on Transliteration and Style

Editors' Introduction

Part I. Sufism and the Islamic Tradition

1. Islam in Three Dimensions

2. The Bodily Gestures of the Salat

3. Weeping in Islam and the Sufi Tradition

4. A Shadhili Presence in Shi'ite Islam

5. The Pluralistic Vision of Persian Sufi Poetry

6. The Real Shams-i Tabrizi

7. The Koran as the Lover's Mirror

Part II. Ibn al-'Arabi and His Influence

8. A History of the Term Wahdat al-Wujud

9. The Question of Ibn al-'Arabi's "Influence" on Rumi

10. Ibn al-'Arabi on the Benefit of Knowledge

11. Qunawi, Neoplatonism, and the Circle of Ascent

12. Farghani on Oneness and Manyness

13. Jami on the Perfect Man

14. Two Treatises by Khwaja Khurd

15. A Debate Between the Soul and the Spirit

16. A Sufi Handbook from Bijapur

Part III. Islamic Philosophy

17. Rumi and the Wooden Leg of Reason

18. Baba Afdal's Psychology

19. Mulla Sadra on Perception

20. Eschatology in Islamic Thought

21. The Circle of Life

22. The Goal of Philosophy

Part IV. Reflections on Contemporary Issues

23. The Metaphysical Roots of War and Peace

24. Harmony with the Cosmos

25. Stray Camels in China

26. In Search of the Lost Heart

Appendix I: Chronological List of Historical Figures Cited

Appendix II: Chapter Sources

Appendix III: Books by William C. Chittick

Notes
Bibliography
Index of Koranic Passages
Index of Hadiths and Sayings
General Index