Ṣûfism and Ethics [IO Bijapur 393E] Anthology of mystical texts

Ṣûfism and Ethics. 

This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 393E in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 698 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

698.

B 393E. Size 8 in. by 51/2 in.; foll. 37. Seventeen lines in a page.

I. Foll. 1-22v. A mystic treatise, entitled (fol. 2v.) مشكاة البيان فى حقيقة وجود الانسان و جوهر الايمان الذى يتعلق بالقلب و اللسان . Author unknown.

This treatise is divided into seven فصل , as follows : 1. فى معنى وجود حقيقة الآدمى فى عالم التعريف ;

2.وجوده فى عالم التكليف ; 3,4,5. فى علم اليقين و عين اليقين و حق اليقين ; 6 and 7. فى تفضيل الادمى على كثير من المخلوقات فى ظاهره و باطنه .

It is written as a sort of commentary on five mystic verses1 composed by the author in allusion to another verse (الكشف نار الخ the meaning of the first word of which he was asked to explain by a friend).2

The preface begins:الحمدلله الذى ليس لاوليته مبتدا لاخر 

The author quotes Ghazzâli, Ibn ‘Arabî, and his Shaikh, Muḥammad b. ‘Alî b. Muḥammad b. ‘Alî b. ‘Alawî, a Sharîf of the Ḥusainî line.

II. Foll. 22v.-32v. A Commentary on an obscure passage of Ibn ‘Arabî’s  الامر المحكم المربوط; on which see  Flügel, Hdss. Wien, iii. 350 sqq. The passage commented on, which belongs to the concluding portion, is quoted there, p. 352. It begins: فلنذكر منازلهم الالهية . The author of the commentary is AḤMAD B. ‘ABD AL-ḲÂDIR.

Begins:

هذه الكلمات المشكلات المذكورة فى كتاب الشيخ الفاضل المسمّى الامر المحكم المربوط محيى الدين الخ

Then follows the passage in question, after which a poem by the author is inserted. The commentary is introduced by a preface, which begins (fol. 23v.): الحمدلله الذى انزل اولياءه نزلا فى حضرة ذاته .

III. Foll. 32v.-37. A mystic treatise on Eternity. No title found.

Begins:

الحمدلله رب العالمين .... اما بعد فان الحقيقة للذات الالهية من حيث هى هى امتدادها اعنى مدة بقائها غير مضبوطة الخ

This treatise ends with fol. 36. It is followed by a postscript and a poem by the author, on fol. 37.

An indifferent copy. Of the middle of the twelfth century.

Inscribed شرح ابيات خمسه . Cf. Cat. 233, xlvii.

1 Hence the inscription of this MS.; see below.

2 These verses are rather corrupt.