New Fons Vitae Title: In Quest of God - Maneri's Second Collection of 150 letters

Introduction, Translation and Notes by Paul Jackson (READ MORE)

In India in the years 1346-47 Sheikh Sharafuddin Maneri, wrote an outline of the Sufi Path to God in the form of a hundred letters to a disciple called Qazi Shamsuddin. This collection quickly became well known and has been translated as Sharafuddin Maneri: The Hundred Letters. In 1368 a disciple collected all the letters he could find of Maneri’s replies written to various individuals in the intervening 21 years. This collection is presented here as In Quest of God: Maneri’s Second Collection of 150 Letters. They offer personalized spiritual and religious guidance and encouragement to a variety of individuals and serve as a complement to the first, more general collection.

There is pleasure in separation from You, and tyranny in Your presence:
That pleasure is better, for we have no strength to bear Your tyranny!
… If You welcome me, then I am Your accepted one:
If You do not, I am still Your rejected servant!
I should not be worried whether You accept or reject me:
My task, in either state, is to remain preoccupied with You!

Letter 53 ( from "Sharafuddin Maneri: The Hundred Letters")

"Shaykh Yahya Maneri is arguably the most important Sufi letter writer from Muslim South Asia after Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi. Those familiar with the 100 Letters will now find in this companion volume an echo of the same quest for understanding and connection that makes the writer a spiritual voice across centuries and in variant contexts. All students of India and its legacy of wisdom should delight in the wide accessibility now given to the pir of Bihar in this beautifully produced edition of his 'other' letters."

Bruce Lawrence - Duke University, Professor of Islamic Studies - Author of Introduction to first volume, "Sharafuddin Maneri: The Hundred Letters" (Classics of Western Spirituality)

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