Ṣûfism and Ethics [IO Bijapur 84] Anthology including نهج السعادة

Ṣûfism and Ethics. 

This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 84 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 697 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

697.

B 84. Size 10 in. by 6 in.; foll. 485. Twenty-two, nineteen, and ten lines in a page.

I. Foll. 1-443. ‘OMAR B. ‘ABD AL-WAHHÂB’S (Ḳâdirî ‘Urḍî Ḥalabî Makkî, d. A.H. 1024) Commentary on his own mystic Ḳasîdah, لاميّة الشرف . It is entitled (fol. 2v.) نهج السعادة و نسج الافادة. See Ḥ. Kh. v. 291 sq., who, however, gives the title somewhat differently.

The name of the author does not occur in this MS.

It begins:الحمدلله الذى انزل على عبده الكتاب المبين ‘ و اصطفى آدم و نوحا و آل ابرهيم و آل عمران على العالمين.

The whole Ḳaṣîdah is inserted after the preface.

The commentary is very copious; numerous other verses are quoted in it. It concludes with a Ḳaṣîdah by the author, each verse of which is devoted to one letter of the alphabet. It begins:

الف الالوهة اوّل الايجاد و قيامها لجوامع الافراد

It is also accompanied by a commentary.

II. Foll. 443-466v. مواقف الحق على بساط الخلق .

This appears to be a fragment of MUḤAMMAD B. ‘ABD AL-JABBÂR’S كتاب المواقف (see no. 597).

Begins:

موقف العُلَى بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وما توفيقى الا بالله القادر العليم اوقفنى الله العلى الاعلى فى مقام العلا و قال لى افتح بصيرة نظرك الخ 

The last ‘’station’’ which occurs here is موقف اسماء الروح 

III. Foll. 466v.-485. Forty sayings of the Prophet, each illustrated by a hemistich; entitled الترياق لاهل الاستحقاق  

According to Ḥ. Kh. ii. 286, this collection was made by JÂMÎ.

The preface begins:

الحمدلله منزل الكتاب‘ و معلم الصواب ... و بعد فان فضل الانسان بنطق اللسان

Imperfect at the end.

This MS. is written in a bold hand, which becomes very large in the latter portion. After fol. 21 is a defect, and the following leaves are injured. The last fol. is torn.

The first twenty-one leaves, which bear the correct title, had been separated from the rest, and the latter erroneously inscribed انفاس الخواص . Cf. Cat. 230, xii. And 232, xvii.