In the anti-British riots culminating in Gamal Abdul Nasir’s Arab nationalist revolution in Egypt, three of Lings’ colleagues were killed and, in the move to expatriate British nationals, he had to return to London in 1952. He produced and staged Shakespearean plays, always a fascination with him which was attested by his excellent commentary on Shakespearean plays titled The Secret of Shakespeare: His Plays Seen in the Light of Sacred Arts. His house is said to have been frequented by scholars like Gai Eaton. In 1944, he married Lesley Smaly, his childhood friend and lived with her in a village bordered by pyramids. During his sojourn in Egypt, he learned Arabic and got immersed in the study of Sufism. He came to be attracted to the perennial philosophy of Rene Guenon and became a Muslim under the influence of Frithjof Schuon, a Swiss-German mystic.
In 1940 he came to Cairo and became a lecturer in Cairo University. He spent his higher studies in the US, where he befriended writer and Christian theologian CS Levis. He was born in England on 24th January, 1909. In other words, he was a Sufi in both the senses he outlines in his What is Sufism? (A Sufi combines the particularism of Islam, while he strives to stem the particularisation of its spiritual essence and values) He belonged to perannialist stream of mystical philosophy. Martin Lings, who once stated his wish to be known by his adopted name Abubakar Sirajuddin, needs no introduction to discerning readers while his prolific profile stands above the introductory epithets, classifications and chronological subdivisions possible.
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