Hidden Lantern is a free library of classical Islamic spirituality. The texts are public-domain translations, each readable in full, chapter by chapter, with no sign-up. A glossary explains the technical terms with quotations from the texts themselves.
If you are new, you do not need to read everything. Pick the path that matches what you came for.
Begin with The Mystics of Islam by Reynold A. Nicholson. It is short, written for general readers, and walks through the whole path in order: the stages of the journey, illumination and ecstasy, gnosis, divine love, saints, and the unitive state. Read the first two chapters, then follow whatever draws you.
Read Kashf al-Maḥjūb (“The Unveiling of the Veiled”) by al-Hujwīrī, written in the eleventh century. It is among the oldest surviving Persian manuals of Sufism, and it combines definitions, biographies of early masters, and arguments over disputed doctrines. Start with the chapters on poverty and Sufism, then dip into the biographies.
Read The Alchemy of Happiness by al-Ghazālī. It is the most practical of the texts here, with chapters on knowing yourself, self-examination, marriage, and the love of God. For how a teacher guides a student, and how retreat and group gatherings work, see Awārif al-Maʿārif by Suhrawardī.
Read The Alchemy of Happiness · Read the Awārif al-Maʿārif
Read Rabia the Mystic for the life and sayings of the eighth-century woman saint of Basra, and the Tarjumán al-Ashwáq by Ibn al-ʿArabī for his love poems with his own commentary. Studies in Islamic Mysticism adds Nicholson’s essays on Abū Saʿīd, the Perfect Man, and the odes of Ibn al-Fāriḍ.
Read Rabia the Mystic · Read the Tarjumán al-Ashwáq · Read Studies in Islamic Mysticism
Read Confessions of al-Ghazali, his own account of doubt, crisis, and the turn to Sufism.
Read the Confessions of al-Ghazali
The same few words recur in all these books: fanā, ḥāl, tawba, dhikr, shaykh. The glossary has 28 entries, each built from passages in the texts here, so you can see how the original authors used the term rather than a modern summary. Good first entries:
These are translations from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and some of the editors’ comments reflect their era. We keep the text as published. They are also historical sources: they describe what these authors taught, not a program to follow without a qualified teacher. Several of the authors say as much themselves; see Shaykh and Pīr.
Some of these texts are also available as paperbacks if you prefer paper. See the catalog.
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