There is a journey which every believer in most faith traditions must make – and that journey leads to the Divine. For some, this is articulated as the Way of the Mystic. The present volume attempts to survey and analyse, in a comparative fashion, the roadmap for that mystic journey as espoused by two major religions, Islam and Christianity. Its signposts progress from the quinque viae of perfection – an indicative but by no means exclusivist mode of analysis – through the caves and clouds of unknowing and on to the mountain caverns of revelation and knowledge whereby the thirsty traveller may attempt to slake a thirst for the Divine. And every mystic traveller has a library of roadmaps whereby that attempt may be facilitated and eased. As we read the roadmaps, we note, en passant, as Fran and Geoff Doel remind us, that green is ‘a colour of enchantment’. It was also the favourite colour of the Prophet Muhammad himself. It is thus fitting that this colour will feature in diverse places as an occasional adjunct in our mapping of the mystic journey.

Kenneth Cragg was kind enough to describe my earlier Islam, Christianity and Tradition: A Comparative Exploration as a ‘masterly study of faith-identity’; and it was a particular pleasure to find that book shortlisted for the 2007 British–Kuwait Friendship Society Prize for Middle Eastern Studies, a prize awarded for the best scholarly book on the Middle East published in Britain each year.