Sufi News and Sufism World Report would like to recommend the new book Journey through Ten Thousand Veils, by Shaykha Maryam Kabeer Faye.It should be on the must read list for anyone interested in following the Sufi path and especially for women aspirants. The following is a slightly edited description of the book from the publisher together with recommendation notes from a variety of scholars and Sufis.
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In her book, an engaging autobiographical tale of journeying through the physical and spiritual worlds, Maryam Kabeer Faye tells of the trials and joys she has met on the Sufi path.
When she was twelve years old, Maryam Kabeer Faye was given a painted scroll of an ancient wanderer, upon which were inscribed the words: Seek and The Truth Shall Make You Free. This message galvanized her soul and determined the course of her life. Following the call, she set out on the journey, internally and then externally, and was guided around the world many times, from one remarkable being to the next, everywhere collecting messages and clues.
Born in a Jewish family, she was led to live in India and Nepal, and in monasteries in Europe, and then guided to embrace Islam at the hands of an ancient Sufi Master a few minutes away from the tomb of the Prophet Abraham. She then was guided to study intensively with Sufi Masters around the world. Her journey to the holy places and people of the earth, led her finally to Africa and the deep truth that all lives are totally interconnected and united with our own. This profound realization dispelled the great myth that the creations of the One Most Loving Creator can be separated by any racial, national, or cultural distinctions.
This book is a significant and revealing social commentary, also dispelling many other myths and stereotypes such as the proposition, often fostered by the media, that women are inevitably oppressed in Islam. On the contrary, it is by entering into the heart of Islam that the author was liberated, elevated, empowered, and guided to realize the true purpose of her existence.
Kabeer Faye paints a picture of a glorious, golden chain of individuals of all faiths and types who welcome her, contribute to her progress, and accompany her along her way. Descriptions of the many lands she explores and the regions she traverses are intense, vivid and colorful.
Among them are her childhood and early youth in sixties’ California, her experiences of the warmth and hospitality shown to her in Afghanistan and Pakistan before the region became wracked by war, and a moving description of her pilgrimage to Mecca that reveals its inner meaning to a believer of deep faith.
The stages of the inner journey are revealed synchronistically with the outer journey, which led her to so many realms. Her encounters with masters and teachers of various faith traditions in India, Europe, the Middle East, and America, and then culminating in Africa, are recalled with insight and reflection, and she makes many astute observations about how their teaching is heard and understood differently by people in different states of awareness. A journey of leaving the world as we know it in order to return to the Source, Journey through Ten Thousand Veils is the story of striving to give up the world while still remaining in the world, to make the return from darkness to the light.
Maryam Kabeer Faye is a speaker and writer on Islam, sufism, and spirituality. She lives in Philadelphia where she owns a home that is a refuge for spiritual travelers, and she herself travels extensively throughout the world on the mission of building bridges of light, knowledge, and understanding.
From the publisher: Tughra Books, distributed by: Independent Publishers Group*
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From 1960s Berkeley to India, Iran, Jerusalem, Europe, Sri Lanka and Senegal--Shaykha Maryam Kabir Faye's amazing account of a spiritual odyssey through religious traditions describes her encounters with some of the greatest guides of the past 40 years and continually offers fresh vistas and deep insights. This is Islamic Sufism from the inside; powerful, authentic, and inspiring. Read this book and believe.
Marcia Hermansen, Director, Islamic World Studies Program, Loyola University, Chicago
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Sheikha Maryam Kabeer Faye takes us on an exciting journey from California to Afghanistan, from India to the French Alps, from Jerusalem to Senegal, in search for a realized Master who can reflect and unveil the hidden knowledge within her. The book plunges the reader into the experience of her discovery of the beauty within all of monotheistic religions, manifesting ultimately as one sole message, revealing the nature of the One Creator, the Only Sustainer. The history narrated in this extraordinary book is not literature, but a practical guide, based upon living experience, for any sincere traveler in search of spiritual transformation and opening to the inner truth.
Dr. Mansur Escudero, President of Junta Islamica, Spain
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Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils contains Shaykha Maryam Kabeer Faye’s autobiographical account of her life long search to become closer to God, ultimately via Sufism, in Islam, and what journey it is! The memoir is all the more impressive, because the author is a historical person in her own right, with a unique experience ranging from the counter cultural milieu of 1960’s California to encounters with various eastern Masters popular in the “new age”, to a long and studied absorption in a number of different Sufi orders and discipleship under their inspired Shaykhs. This book will be highly valuable to any seekers of God, as Faye examines all of the multiple dimensions of a quest. It is also a treasure as a record of a precious and significant part of American Muslim History. The author’s frankness and sincerity through all the variety of what she has discovered make reading her book a memorable experience.
Khalid Yahya Blankinship, Chair of the Department of Religion, Temple University, Phila, PA
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Maryam Kabeer Faye, in her autobiographical Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils, provides a stunning verbal portrait that allows readers to accompany her on her life's journey--feeling what she's feeling and thinking her deepest thoughts. Beginning in the 1940s, her life has been a nearly continuous sequence of pilgrimages. Maryam opens spiritual doorways for readers of many religions and cultures, through which they will be able to recognize the terrible and wonderful importance of their lives at this very moment and thereby enter the timeless reality of the spiritual path.
Dr. Alan Godlas, director, Sufis Without Borders; publisher of Sufi News and Sufism World Report; professor, Islamic Studies, University of Georgia
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Shaykhah Maryam Kabir’s long journey begins in her heart, and in quest of the “Beloved.” It is a journey in search of the Truth that has indeed set her free from all attachments to worldly things, but not to the world, which is the vestibule to the Beloved’s heavenly court.
It is a journey towards God, the Beloved that took her to many parts of His beautiful creation, where she witnessed “His signs” in her soul and in the horizons. Having achieved this earthly journey towards God, May she be now ready for the journey in God, a journey of countless veils of light and darkness. It is a journey that begins with the true humility of nothingness, which is fana’ in the beloved and ends with true baqa’ in Him.
Shaykhah Maryam’s book will no doubt be an inspiration to many readers. It will lead many to join her on this blessed pilgrimage. May He accept and bless this eternal pilgrimage to Him.
Mahmoud Ayoub, Professor Emeritus Temple University and Professor Islamic Studies & Christian-Muslim Relations; Hartford Seminary, Hartford, CT
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Maryam Kabeer Faye invites her reader to join her on two distinctive journeys. One
reveals the events of her life and the other exposes true Islam. She carries her
reader into her experiences and emotions, vividly painting the reality of her life,
her fears, her joys and all that is in between. Her search for a teacher, for
enlightenment, for nearness and submission to God are masterfully woven around
the reader, who joins her on her quest.
In the sound, the rhythm and the power of her story the reader finds, as she does, Islam. With this, the other journey begins and Maryam becomes the teacher. She is the guide telling her reader the meaning of Islam, lifting the veils to expose the spiritual bond between God, humans, and all lives. Maryam Kabeer Faye shows her reader that life can be lived, should be
lived, by seeking nearness to God.
Michelle Byng, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
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With the hard-won key forged from her extensive and adventurous God-seeking world wanderings, Shaykha Maryam, an exemplary Sufi teacher, is given entrance to the world of West African Sufism with its rich mystical tradition. Her journey with her son to Medina and Mecca, and their visit to the Kabah, is probably the most exaltedly symphonic and overwhelming of her pivotal experiences in the book, in her relentless search for transformative liberation and the Truth of Certainty.
Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore (Poet, The Ecstatic Exchange)
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