The Kashful Mahjub: "Unveiling the Veiled"

The Earliest Persian Treatise on Sufism, translated by Wahid Bahksh Rabbani.

Hadhrat Syed Ali bin Uthman al-Hujweri, popularly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh (Bestower of Spiritual Treasures) belonged to a place called Hujwer in the town of Ghazna, Afghanistan. He lived during the 5th century A.H. (11th century A.D.) and was well versed in all the Islamic sciences such as Tafsir (exegesis) of the Qur'an, Hadith (Traditions of the Prophet), Fiqh (Muslim Law) and dogmatic theology ('Ilm al-Kalam). Al-Hujweri's spiritual lineage traces back to Hadhrat Junaid Baghdadi through the three intermediaries al-Husri, an-Nasrabi, and Shibli.

In the course of his spiritual journey to God, he journeyed physically to many countries, often alone and with hardship. These places included Turkestan, Transoxania, Iran, Iraq, and Syria where he met innumerable Sufi masters, many of whom he has mentioned in this book. He went to Lahore in the later part of this life to spread Islam, converting large numbers of Hindus into Muslims. He passed away in Lahore in 469 A.H. (1077 A.D.) where his maqam currently stands, visited by people of all walks of life, from near and far.

Kashful Mahjub, originally in Persian, was written at the request of a student of Sufism at that time. He had asked the shaykh to compile a comprehensive study on Tasawwuf (Sufism) as a guide for spiritual aspirants. Although al-Hujweri was a master in the science of Islamic scholasticism and his judgements based on logic, the conclusions he arrived at were the result of his deep spiritual experience, where he has shown the absence of any conflict between true Sufism and Islamic Shariah.