We are pleased to present this new edition of Frithjof Schuon’s Sufism: Veil and Quintessence.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest spiritual writers of the twentieth century, Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998) was an authority on an extraordinary range of religious and philosophical topics, and his books have been praised by scholars and spiritual teachers from many different traditions. He was also the leading representative of the perennialist school of comparative religious thought. Deeply rooted in the sophia perennis, philosophia perennis, or religio perennis—that is, the perennial wisdom, perennial philosophy, or perennial religion, as he variously called it—Schuon’s perspective embodies the timeless and universal principles underlying the doctrines, symbols, sacred art, and spiritual practices of the world’s religions.
Sufism: Veil and Quintessence, Schuon’s thirteenth major work, was published in Paris in 1980 by Dervy-Livres under the title Le Sou- fisme: voile et quintessence; an English translation by William Stoddart appeared with World Wisdom Books in 1981. The present edition is based on a fully revised translation of the original French.
Among the special features of this new edition is an appendix containing previously unpublished selections from the author’s letters and other private writings. Throughout his life Schuon carried on an extensive correspondence, much of it in response to questions posed by the many inquirers and visitors, from a variety of religious backgrounds, who looked to him for advice; over a thousand of his letters have been preserved. He also composed nearly twelve hundred short spiritual texts for close friends and associates, compiled in his later years as “The Book of Keys”. These and other private writings often contained the seeds of ideas that were later developed into published articles and chapters, and it is hoped that the selections included here will afford the reader a glimpse into a new and very rich dimension of this perennial philosopher’s message.
The breadth of Schuon’s erudition can be somewhat daunting, especially for those not accustomed to reading philosophical and religious works. The pages of his books contain numerous allusions to traditional theological doctrines, important philosophers or spiritual authorities, and the sacred Scriptures of the world’s religions, but a citation or other reference is not often provided. A series of editor’s notes, organized by chapter and tagged to the relevant page numbers, has therefore been added to this new edition. Dates are provided for historical figures together with brief explanations regarding the significance of their teachings for Schuon, and citations are given for his frequent quotations from the Bible, Koran, and other sacred texts. The Authorized Version of the Bible has been used throughout; since the author made his own translations from the Koran, we have chosen to render his French for these passages directly into English, though the Pickthall interpretation of the Arabic has been given a certain preference when Koranic quotations appear in our editorial notes.
It is customary for Schuon to employ a number of technical terms in his writings, drawn from a multitude of traditions and involving several languages, including Arabic, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit. A glossary has therefore been provided as well; here one will find foreign terms and phrases appearing both in Schuon’s text and in our notes, together with translations and definitions.
James S. Cutsinger