ILLUMINATED ARRIVAL IN THE ḤIKAM AL-ʿAṬĀʾ IYYAH AND THREE MAJOR ...

112 Pages·2007·0.57 MB·English

ILLUMINATED ARRIVAL IN THE ḤIKAM AL-ʿAṬĀʾ IYYAH AND THREE MAJOR COMMENTARIES
by
YUNUS WESLEY SCHWEIN
(Under the Direction of Alan Godlas)
ABSTRACT
The Kitāb al-ḥikam of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh (d. 720/1309) presents a spirituality whose goal is
wuṣūl ilá Allāh, “arrival unto God.” As a collection of aphorisms, the Kitāb al-ḥikam has little
internal structure: the attentive reader himself provides the structure from his religious
background, mystical experience, and repeated re-readings. The commentators Ibn ʿAbbād (d.
792/1390), Zarrūq (d. 899/1494), and Ibn ʿAjībah (d. 1224/1809) reconstruct the author’s unique
expression of core sources from its constituent threads, making the commented-upon work a
microcosm of Islam wherein the whole is visible through each portion. Observations on the
aphorisms and commentary dealing with wuṣūl, translated herein, will illustrate these
hypotheses.

INDEX WORDS: Aphorisms, Commentary, Exegesis, Gnomologia, Hermeneutics, Kitāb al-
ḥikam, Intertextuality, Ibn ʿAbbād, Ibn ʿAjībah, Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh, Moroccan
literature, Mysticism, Non-narrative literature, Shurūḥ, Shādhiliyyah,
Sufism, Wisdom literature, Zarrūq
ILLUMINATED ARRIVAL IN THE ḤIKAM AL-ʿAṬĀʾ IYYAH AND THREE MAJOR COMMENTARIES

by

YUNUS WESLEY SCHWEIN
B.A., Montclair State University, 1998

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree

MASTER OF ARTS

ATHENS, GEORGIA
2007
© 2007
Yunus Wesley Schwein
All Rights Reserved
ILLUMINATED ARRIVAL IN THE ḤIKAM AL-ʿAṬĀʾ IYYAH AND THREE MAJOR COMMENTARIES

by

YUNUS WESLEY SCHWEIN

Major Professor: Alan Godlas

Committee: Kenneth Honerkamp
Carolyn Medine

Electronic Version Approved:

Maureen Grasso
Dean of the Graduate School
The University of Georgia
May 2007
iv

DEDICATION

In the name of Allāh, the all-compassionate, all-merciful, who put you in the intermediate
world between His earthly and angelic realms to teach you the greatness of your
destiny among His creatures and that you are a jewel enfolding within
yourself the shells of His creations; and blessings and peace be
upon the first and last of His messengers, the manifest and
hidden mercy to the worlds, our beloved prophet and
guide Muḥammad. So hallowed is the one who
made no sign unto His friends except as a
sign unto Him, and who made none
to join them except one He
wishes to join Him!

Amin.
v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am profoundly grateful and indebted to the following lights of my life for all they have
done in ways too numerous and unique to detail: to my wife Shams T. Deckter; to my major
professors Alan Godlas and Kenneth Honerkamp, for support, guidance, connections and
insight; to my teachers Carolyn Medine and Glenn Wallis of the University of Georgia, Philip
Miller of Hebrew Union College, Jean Alvares of Montclair State University, and Christopher
Gwin of Haddonfield Memorial High School; to my parents Richard and Constance Schwein; to
my colleagues Bryan Gallant, Mohammad Hanafi, Matt Long, and Akram White; to the
inspiration of Claude Addas, Arthur J. Arberry, Aisha Bewley, William Chittick, Michel
Chodkiewicz, Victor Danner, Nooruddeen Durkee, Stephen Hirtenstein, Muhtar Holland, and
Harald Motzki; to the brilliant Arabists Wheeler M. Thackston, Michael Carter, Hans Wehr, and
J. Milton Cowan, without whom none of my work would be possible; and to my guide Shaykh
Muḥammad Saʿīd al-Jamal al-Rifāʿī al-Shādhilī.

This thesis is typeset in the Gentium font, available at http://scripts.sil.org/Gentium .
vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................................v
LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................................................viii
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................................................ix
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
The Kitāb al- ḥikam al-ʿaṭāʾiyyah........................................................................................2
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh (d. 720/1309).............................................................................................3
Ibn ʿAbbād al-Rundi (733/1333-792/1390).....................................................................4
Aḥmad Zarrūq (846/1442-899/1494)..............................................................................6
Ibn ʿAjībah (1160/1747-1224/1809).................................................................................7
Qur’an and Kitāb al-ḥikam citations.................................................................................9
2 THE GENRES OF ḤIKAM AND SHARḤ: WISDOM AND AMPLIFICATION ........................10
Models of Aphoristic Literature: Qur’an, Hadith, Ṭabaqāt.........................................10
Commentary and the Scholar as Microcosm..............................................................12
Intertextuality and its Paucity as an Hermeneutic Tool...........................................14
3 READING AS LITERARY STRUCTURE: WUṢŪL IN THE KITĀB AL-ḤIKAM.......................20
Circular Reading as the Hermeneutic Key to the Kitāb al-ḥikam..............................22
Ḥikmah 130/122: Inadequacy of Actions.......................................................................27
Ḥikmah 95/88: When You Slip and Fall.........................................................................29
vii
Ḥikmah 213/196: The Knowledge of Allāh, the All-Manifest.....................................30
Kitāb al-ḥikam 16/15B: A Song of Apparency...............................................................33
Kitāb al-ḥikam 29-31/27-28: Arrivers and Travelers...................................................34
Ḥikmah 249/229: Ontological Degrees and the Two Classes......................................37
Ḥikmah 156/148: God-friends and Spiritual Authority..............................................39
4 ARRIVAL UNTO ALLĀH AND THE TWO CLASSES OF MYSTIC........................................42
Ḥikmah 29/27: Inference by and unto Him..................................................................42
Commentary: Ibn ʿAbbād.........................................................................................46
Commentary: Zarrūq................................................................................................48
Commentary: Ibn ʿAjībah.........................................................................................51
Ḥikmah 30/28a: The Man of Plenty; He whose Provision is Stinted.........................55
Commentary: Ibn ʿAbbād.........................................................................................56
Commentary: Zarrūq................................................................................................57
Commentary: Ibn ʿAjībah.........................................................................................58
Ḥikmah 31/28b: Lights of Orientation; Lights of Audience........................................60
Commentary: Ibn ʿAbbād.........................................................................................63
Commentary: Zarrūq................................................................................................64
Commentary: Ibn ʿAjībah.........................................................................................66
Conclusions.......................................................................................................................69
5 ARRIVAL UNTO ALLĀH, MERCY, AND MYSTERY............................................................71
Ḥikmah 95/88: Sin may be a Means of the Arrival .....................................................72
Commentary: Ibn ʿAbbād.........................................................................................74
Commentary: Zarrūq................................................................................................75
viii
Commentary: Ibn ʿAjībah.........................................................................................77
Ḥikmah 130/122: He Covers Your Quality with His to Cause Your Arrival..............79
Commentary: Ibn ʿAbbād.........................................................................................80
Commentary: Zarrūq................................................................................................81
Commentary: Ibn ʿAjībah.........................................................................................82
Ḥikmah 213/196: The Arrival is by Knowledge of Him...............................................86
Commentary: Ibn ʿAbbād.........................................................................................87
Commentary: Zarrūq................................................................................................89
Commentary: Ibn ʿAjībah.........................................................................................90
Conclusions.......................................................................................................................93
6 CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................94
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................96
APPENDIX..................................................................................................................................................99
A CHART OF CONVERSION BETWEEN DANNER’S & NWYIA’S NUMBERING...................99
ix

LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1: Intertextual and Intratextual Features of the Kitāb al-ḥikam and Commentaries...........14
Table 2: Words with highest frequency in the Kitāb al-ḥikam...........................................................25