Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ Al-Ḥikam: An Annotated Translation of "The Bezels of Wisdom"

205 Pages·2015·0.86 MB·English

by  Binyamin Abrahamov

Ibn al-ÝArabÐ’s FuÒÙÒ al-Íikam
Ibn al-ÝArabÐ’s FuÒÙÒ al-Íikam is a translation of one of the most important works
written on Islamic Mysticism.
MuhyÐ al-DÐn Ibn al-ÝArabÐ (1165–1240) is deemed the greatest mystic of
Islam and his mystical philosophy has attracted the attention of both Muslims
and non-Muslims from his time to the present day. Believing that the world is
the self-manifestation of God, he claimed that all religions are equal and that the
perfect human being is he who knows all the religious phenomena in the world.
FuÒÙÒ al-Íikam examines the singular characteristics of twenty-seven prophets of
Islam and constitutes the best summary of Ibn al-ÝArabÐ’s thought. The translation
of these twenty-seven chapters is preceded by an introduction that explains the
main ideas of Ibn al-ÝArabÐ’ and is accompanied by explanatory notes to the text.
Providing an easily accessible translation of one of the greatest mystics of
Islam, Ibn al-ÝArabÐ’s FuÒÙÒ al-Íikam is essential reading for students, scholars
and researchers of Islamic Philosophy, Mysticism and Islamic Mysticism in
particular.
Binyamin Abrahamov is Emeritus Professor, Department of Arabic, at Bar
Ilan University. He has published five books, including Divine Love in Islamic
Mysticism (Routledge, 2003) and his research interests focus on Islamic Theology,
Philosophy, Mysticism and Qur’anic exegesis.
Routledge Sufi Series
General Editor: Ian Richard Netton
Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
The Routledge Sufi Series provides short introductions to a variety of facets of the
subject, which are accessible to both the general reader and the student and scholar
in the field. Each book will be either a synthesis of existing knowledge or a dis-
tinct contribution to, and extension of, knowledge of the particular topic. The two
major underlying principles of the Series are sound scholarship and readability.
Previously published by Curzon
Al-Hallaj Persian Sufi Poetry
Herbert I. W. Mason An Introduction to the Mystical Use of
Classical Poems
Beyond Faith and J.T.P. de Bruijn
Infidelity
The Sufi Poetry and Teaching of Aziz Nasafi
Mahmud Shabistari Lloyd Ridgeon
Leonard Lewisohn
Sufis and Anti-Sufis
Ruzbihan Baqli The Defence, Rethinking and
Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Rejection of Sufism in the Modern
Sainthood in Persian Sufism World
Carl W. Ernst Elizabeth Sirriyeh
Abdullah Ansari of Herat Sufi Ritual
An Early Sufi Master The Parallel Universe
A.G. Ravan Farhadi Ian Richard Netton
The Concept of Sainthood in Early Divine Love in Islamic Mysticism
Islamic Mysticism The Teachings of al-GhazÁlî and
Bernd Radtke and al-Dabbâgh
John O’Kane Binyamin Abrahamov
Suhrawardi and the School of Striving for Divine Union
Illumination Spiritual Exercises for Suhrawardi Sufis
Mehdi Amin Razavi Qamar-ul Huda
Revelation, Intellectual Intuition and 8 The Naqshbandiyya
Reason in the Philosophy of Mulla Orthodoxy and Activism in a
Sadra Worldwide Sufi Tradition
An Analysis of the Al-Hikmah Itzchak Weismann
Al-‘Arshiyyah
Zailan Moris 9 Sufis in Western Society
Global Networking and Locality
Edited by Ron Geaves, Markus
Published by Routledge
Dressler and Gritt Klinkhammer
1 Muslim Saints of South Asia
The Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries 10 Morals and Mysticism in
Anna Suvorova Persian Sufism
A History of Sufi-Futuwwat in Iran
2 A Psychology of Early Sufi Sama Lloyd Ridgeon
Listening and Altered States
Kenneth S. Avery 11 Spiritual Purification in Islam
The Life and Works of
3 Sufi Visionary of Ottoman al-Muhasibi
Damascus Gavin Picken
‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi,
1941–1731 12 Sufism and Society
Elizabeth Sirriyeh Arrangements of the Mystical in
the Muslim World,
4 Early Mystics in Turkish 1200–1800 CE
Literature Edited by John J. Curry and Erik
Mehmed Fuad Koprulu S. Ohlander
Translated, Edited and with an
Introduction by Gary Leiser & 13 Islamic Mysticism and AbÙ
Robert Dankoff ÓÁlib Al-MakkÐ
The Role of the Heart
5 Indian Sufism Since the Saeko Yazaki
Seventeenth Century
Saints, Books and Empires in the 14 Gender and Sufism
Muslim Deccan Female Religiosities in a
Nile Green Transnational Order
Marta Dominguez Diaz
6 Sufi Castigator
Ahmad Kasravi and the Iranian 15 MullÁ ÑadrÁ and Eschatology
Mystical Tradition Evolution of Being
Lloyd Ridgeon Eiyad S. al-Kutubi
7 Popular Sufism in Eastern Europe 16 Ibn Al-‘ArabÐ’s FuÒÙÒ
Sufi Brotherhoods and the Al-Íikam
Dialogue with Christianity and An Annotated Translation of ‘The
‘Heterodoxy’ Bezels of Wisdom’
H. T. Norris Binyamin Abrahamov
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Ibn al-ÝArabÐ’s FuÒÙÒ
al-Íikam
An Annotated Translation of
‘The Bezels of Wisdom’
Binyamin Abrahamov
First published 2015
by Routledge
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 2015 Binyamin Abrahamov
The right of Binyamin Abrahamov to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ibn al-ÝArabÐ, 1165–1240, author.
[Fusus al-hikam. English]
Ibn al-ÝArabÐ’s Fusus al-hikam: an annotated translation of “The bezels of
wisdom”/Binyamin Abrahamov.
p.cm. — (Routledge sufi series)
Includes bibliographical references and Index.
1. Sufism—Early works to 1800. I. Abrahamov, Binyamin, translator. II. Title.
BP189.26.I2513 2015
297.4—dc23
2014032194
ISBN: 978-1-138-83131-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73665-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
Contents
Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
1 The bezel of the wisdom of divinity exists in the
essence of Adam 14
2 The bezel of the wisdom of expiration exists in the
essence of Seth 27
3 The bezel of the wisdom of transcendence exists in the
essence of Noah 36
4 The bezel of the wisdom of holiness exists in the
essence of Enoch 44
5 The bezel of the wisdom of excessive love exists in the
essence of Abraham 50
6 The bezel of the wisdom of reality exists in the
essence of Isaac 54
7 The bezel of the wisdom of loftiness exists in the
essence of Ishmael 59
8 The bezel of the wisdom of spirituality exists in the
essence of Jacob 63
9 The bezel of the wisdom of light exists in the
essence of Joseph 68
10 The bezel of the wisdom of unity exists in the
essence of HÙd 74
viii Contents
11 The bezel of the wisdom of opening exists in the
essence of ÑÁliÎ 82
12 The bezel of the wisdom of the heart exists in the
essence of ShuÝayb 86
13 The bezel of the wisdom of spiritual power exists in the
essence of Lot 93
14 The bezel of the wisdom of predetermination exists in
the essence of Ezra 98
15 The bezel of the prophetic wisdom exists in the
essence of Jesus 104
16 The bezel of the wisdom of mercy exists in the
essence of Solomon 114
17 The bezel of the wisdom of existence exists in the
essence of David 122
18 The bezel of the wisdom of breath exists in the
essence of Jonah 128
19 The bezel of the wisdom of the unseen exists in the
essence of Job 132
20 The bezel of the wisdom of the majesty exists in the
essence of John 136
21 The bezel of the wisdom of the dominion exists in the
essence of Zakariah 138
22 The bezel of the wisdom of the intimacy exists in the
essence of Elias 142
23 The bezel of the wisdom of virtue exists in the
essence of LuqmÁn 148
24 The bezel of the wisdom of leadership exists in the
essence of Aaron 151
Contents ix
25 The bezel of the wisdom of exaltation exists in the
essence of Moses 156
26 The bezel of the wisdom of recourse exists in the
essence of KhÁlid 170
27 The bezel of the wisdom of uniqueness exists in the
essence of MuÎammad 172
References 183
Index 187