The last few days I’ve been buzzing off one of my favourite, highly under-rated books. It’s called “The Immense Ocean”, and it’s an exegesis of the Quran conducted by a great scholar, Shaykh Ahmed Ibn Ajiba, who went into isolation towards the end of his life, to work on this masterpiece, upon the request of his shaykh (spiritual teacher).    

Although fairly obscure for the last couple of centuries, today “The Immense Ocean” is one of the bestselling Quran tafsir’s in the Muslim world and it’s no wonder. It’s simply brilliant.    

Ibn Ajiba takes each verse of the Quran and gives the well-known, ‘standard’ explanation, to first assert that all Muslims believe in the apparent, obvious, ‘external’ meaning of each verse of the Quran. This alone is beautiful and eye-opening for any Quran fan.    

Then, he takes it to the next level. In a way that everyone from a lay Muslim, or a non-Muslim all the way to seasoned expert of Quran studies can understand, he elucidates a much less obvious, ‘inner-meaning’ of each verse, that is directly related to your personal, spiritual development. Every single verse of the Quran, he contends, has an inner-meaning about the nafs (ego-self), the soul (highest self) and divine insight – the deep realisation of Allah, that we’re all only one thought away from.    

Seeing the Quran this way opens our hearts and minds to the phenomenal depth and transcendence of the Quran as the source of all spiritual teaching in Islam. The Quran truly is the world’s greatest personal development manual, and this exegesis breaks it down for simpletons like me.    

In fact, I was so blown away by this work, that my life’s work is named after it. This is where I got the idea of calling my library of insight-based coaching programs, “The Ocean”.   

However, this book comes with a warning. It’s possible that when the author talks about ‘insight’ or ‘direct perception’ you may have no idea what he’s actually talking about. The only glimpse of understanding into this that I have personally comes from “The Paradigm Shift” – the essential course in The Ocean, upon which all of my coaching programs are based.    

So, if you want to dive head-first into “The Immense Ocean” of the Quran, which I highly recommend, I suggest you do a slightly easier dipping of your toes into the Psychological Reality, first.    

My recommended syllabus:    

  1. The Paradigm Shift Home Study Course – to open your mind to the Psychological Reality that will  open you up to insight and personal transformation 
     
  2. Inside the Soul of Islam – my book which connects the dots between that ‘Psychological Reality’ and the essential teachings of the Quran & Sunnah   
  3. The Immense Ocean by Ibn Ajiba – only one small section of which has been translated into English. You’ll likely gain more benefit reading it and savouring every word of it after completing steps 1 & 2.  

To get access to The Paradigm Shift home study course and begin your magnificent journey into the Soul of Islam and The Immense Ocean of the Quran, start here:   

www.mamoonyusaf.com/shift