The Elephant in the Dark: And Other Writings on the Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West by Idries Shah and Others

These essays, many of which were originally published under the title The Diffusion of Sufi Ideas in the West, give a good sense of the relevance of Sufism to Western lives. The title essay of Idries Shah, published here for the first time, deals with the relationship of Islam, Christianity, and the Sufis. The title comes from Rumi’s story of the men who sought to examine an elephant by the sense of touch alone. Each thought that one part was the whole, and experienced it in a manner slightly different from the total reality. For one of them the elephant was only a fan (an ear); for another, a rope (the tail); and for a third, a pillar (a leg); and so on. Sufism, like the elephant, must be approached as an entirety—with our eyes open.