Lata’if al-isharat Subtle Allusions

Although Qushayri sometimes writes as the religious scholar he was, he also uses poetry, metaphors, and word play to make his points. It is a literary form of exegesis that is learned, flexible and elegant. The translation here is based on the Arabic printed edition of the Lataʾif edited by Ibrahim Basyuni, with reference to two additional manuscript sources. Part I includes Qushayri’s extensive commentary on suras 1 through 4.

About the translator

Kristin Zahra Sands is the Harlequin Adair Dammann Chair in Islamic Studies at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, where she teaches courses on the Qurʾan, Sufism, contemporary Islamic thought, and contemporary Muslim literature and art. She obtained her PhD in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from New York University in 2000. She is the author of Sufi Commentaries on the Qurʾan in Classical Islam (Routledge 2006) and other published articles on Sufi hermeneutics.