The Seven Days of the Heart: Prayers for the Nights and Days of the Week

138 Pages·2008·5.79 MB·Arabic

by  Ibn 'Arabi

THE SEVEN DAYS
OF THE HEART
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Mu¢y¨dd¨n Ibn ¡Arab¨
THE SEVEN DAYS
OF THE HEART
Awråd al-usb¬¡ (Wird)
Prayers for the Nights and Days of the Week
TRANSLATED AND PRESENTED IN ENGLISH BY
pablo beneito and stephen hirtenstein
ANQA PUBLISHING • OXFORD
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Published by Anqa Publishing
PO Box 1178
Oxford OX2 8YS, UK
www.ibn-arabi.com
© Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein 2000
First published 2000
First paperback edition, 2008
Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein have asserted
their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors
of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, without
the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 905937 01 1
Cover design by Gerard Lennox
Back cover: Ibn ¡Arab¨’s signature
(courtesy of the Beshara School, Scotland)
Printed in the USA by Quebecor World Eusey Press
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And God said, “Let there be light”: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided
the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night:
and the evening and the morning were the first day.
(Genesis 1: 3–5)
Indeed your Lord is God who has created the heavens and the
earth in six days, and then He settled Himself upon the Throne.
He makes the night cover the day, pursuing it swiftly; and the
sun, the moon and the stars, subservient by His Command. Does
not the creation and the command belong to Him? Blessed be
God, Lord of all beings!
(Quran 7: 54)
The son of Adam wrongs me when he curses the time, for I am
Time. In My Hand is the Order. I cause the night and day to
turn, one upon the other.
(Hadith)
Between Adhri¡åt and Bußrå a maid of fourteen rose to my sight
like a full moon.
She was exalted in majesty above time and transcended it in pride
and glory.
(Tarjumån al-ashwåq XL: 1–2)
v
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1 The Prayers of Ibn ¡Arab¨ 1
2 The Divine Work: request and response 3
3 The three worlds and the three persons 6
4 The structure of the Awråd 8
5 The seven days and seven nights 9
6 The day of Muhammad 17
7 The Awråd: manuscripts and translation 19
the prayers: translation and notes
The opening prayer 23
Sunday: eve & morning 25
Monday: eve & morning 33
Tuesday: eve & morning 39
Wednesday: eve & morning 43
Thursday: eve & morning 49
Friday: eve & morning 57
Saturday: eve & morning 65
Notes to the prayers 73
appendices
A Time according to Ibn ¡Arab¨’s Ayyåm al-sha¤n 101
B The creative week of the Soul 111
C Abjad system 115
D On the meanings of the letters Alif and Wåw 117
Bibliography 125
vii
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Acknowledgements
We would both like to express our sincerest thanks to all those who
have helped to make this translation possible. There have been
many and the following deserve special mention:
Sara, whose editing skills have been exercised with utmost tact and
precision, and whose unfailing eye for detail has removed so many
errors and inconsistencies; Michael, who laboured long to achieve
the simplicity that most readers will never notice; Maurice Gloton,
who kindly allowed us to consult an unpublished French translation
of the Awråd by Michel Vâlsan, and whose numerous suggestions for
our own translation proved invaluable; Michel Chodkiewicz, who
most generously looked over our work and provided many referenc-
es to Ibn ¡Arab¨’s other writings to explain key points; Daud Sutton,
who provided the diagrams of seven-pointed stars; Judy Kearns and
Rosemary Brass, whose excellent proofreading also supplied many
helpful suggestions; and David Apthorp, who prepared the design
and an inlay panel for the cover illustrations.
PB & SH
And I would like to add my personal thanks to Barbara Hirtenstein,
whose constant encouragement through thick and thin has seen
the whole project through to a happy conclusion; and above all to
Bulent Rauf, who first introduced me to these magnificent prayers
and demonstrated the subtle art of translation, encouraging me to
attempt what often appeared an impossible task.
SH
viii
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Abbreviations
The following works are all cited in the notes to the prayers.
Full details can be found in the Bibliography. The Quranic ci-
tations (Q.) are based on Arthur Arberry’s translation, The
Koran Interpreted, Oxford, 1964.
Fuß¬ß al-±ikam by Ibn ¡Arab¨. Arabic edition by A. ¡Af¨f¨
Fusus Fusus al-Hikam, with Ottoman commentary,
rendered into English by Bulent Rauf
Bezels The Bezels of Wisdom, translated by Ralph Austin
Wisdom Wisdom of the Prophets, translated by Angela
Culme-Seymour
Fut. Fut¬¢åt al-Makkiyya by Ibn ¡Arab¨
JMIAS Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ¡Arabi Society, 1984 to present
Kashf Kashf al-ma¡nå by Ibn ¡Arab¨
Mishkåt Mishkåt al-anwår by Ibn ¡Arab¨
RG Répertoire Général des oeuvres d’Ibn ¡Arab¨, referring to the
numbers given in Osman Yahia’s classification of the work
of Ibn ¡Arab¨
SDG The Self-Disclosure of God, William Chittick
UM The Unlimited Mercifier, Stephen Hirtenstein
Concordance Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane,
edited by A.|J. Wensinck
ix
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