Ṣûfism and Ethics [IO Bijapur 424]

Ṣûfism and Ethics. 

This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 424, 408 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 666 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

666.

B 424. 408. Size 8 in. by 6 in.; foll. 61. Twenty lines in a page.

I.Foll. 1-22. The preface and introductory part of ‘ABD AL-KARÎM JÎLÎ’S work on the divine mysteries of the letters of the alphabet, which is entitled (fol.2): حقيقة الحقائق ‘ التى هى للحق من وجه و من وجه للخلائق .

The preface begins:الحمدلله منزل الحروف العاليات من محيط الاجمال الى مركز التفصيل ..... اما بعد فانه لما اشهدنى الحق حقائق الحروف و الكلمات الخ.

The author says in it (fol.4) that he was inspired with the present work, on one of the last days of Rabi’ II., 805, during the morning prayer, in the mosque of Sikandar (?) at Zabîd (in Yaman), when he was in the company of his Shaikh, Sharaf al-dîn Ismâ’îl b. Ibrâhîm b. ‘Abd al-ṣamad Jabartî,1 who was then in his eighty-fourth year. He then speaks of the knowledge of the absolute essence (الوجود المطلق), which is also the chief object of the present work.

This work consists of thirty books or parts, each of which refers to one of the letters of the alphabet (ء and لا included). The introduction, مقدّمة (which begins on fol. 10v.), treats of the mysteries of the diacritical point, and forms also a separate book, كتاب النقطة . It is subdivided into ten chapters, viz. 1.فى حقيقة النقطة ; - 2.فى التجلّى الالهى من حيث النقطة ; - 3. فى مراتب النقطة ; - 4. فى بطون النقطةً و شئونها ; - 5. فى ظهور النقطة و مقنضياتها ; -6. فى النقطة البيضآء و النقطة السودآء ; -7.فى توحُّد النقطة و تثنّيها و تثلّثها ;-8.فى منافع النقطة و كيف تزيد قوّة الحرف بها و تنقص (or فى مقام النقطة , fol.16): 9.فى الاسمآء المختصّة بالنقطة و اوفاق تلك الاسمآء

10.فى الوفق المختصّ بالنقطة .

The contents of the thirty books into which the work itself is divided, are expounded in general on fol. 9v. The appendix (خاتمة) consists of ten chapters, on vowels, words, etc. A list of these is given on fol. 10.

The introduction concludes as follows:تمت المقدّمة من كتاب حقيقة الحقائق و هو جزؤ من ثلاثين جزؤا (!) و الحمدلله الخ.

Well written and emended.

A list of the works of ‘Abd al-karîm Jîlî has been added at the end, by a different hand. It runs as follows:شرح مشكلات الفتوحات المكية – قطب العجائب و فلك الغرائب – المملكة الربانية المودعة فى النشأة الانسانية – الانسان الكامل – الكمالات الالهية فى الصفات المحمدية فى شرح اسماء الله الحسنى (!) – كتاب انسان عين الوجود فى وجود عين الانسان الموجود – كتاب حقيقة الخ 1 – كتاب الالف و هو جزء من ثلاثين جزء من كتاب حقيقة الحقائق – الكهف و الرقيم فى شرح بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم – الكتاب المرقوم فى سر التوحيد المجهول المعلوم – الوجود المطلق المعروف بالواحد الحق – مراتب الوجود – المناظر الالهية – غنية ارباب السماع فى كشف القناع عن وجوه الاستماع – كتاب النقطة – بحر الحدوث و القدم و موج الوجود و العدم – الخضم الزاخر و الكنز الفاخر – الناموس الاعظم و القاموس الاقدم – شمس ظهرت لبدور زهرت و هو الجزء الرابع من تجزئة اربعين من كتاب القاموس الاعظم .

Then follows, written in the same hand,--

II. foll. 23v.-33. A mystic explanation of the Basmalah, entitled الكهف و الرقيم فى شرح بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم , by the same author . See the above list, and Ḥ. Kh. v. 267, where the author is called ‘Abd al-karîm Ḥanbalî,1 a descendant of ‘Abd al-ḳâdir Jîlânî.2

This MS. is imperfect at the end;3 the portion which remains treats only of word بسم , and explains the meaning of each letter, from the very dot of the ب , separately.

III.Foll. 34-61. Another mystic treatise, which appears to be المناظر الالهية , by the same author. See the above list.

Begins:الحمد لله ذى المناظر العلية‘ و المحاضر السنية .... اما بعد فان المناظر الالهية محاضر اجمال العلوم اللدنية.

The work gives an account of a hundred and one ‘’Divine aspects,’’ or manifestations of the Deity unto man, each followed by an exposition of the ‘’bane’’ (آفة) necessarily attached to it, on account of the frailty of the human nature. A list of these ‘’aspects’’ is given at the beginning of the work: 1.منظر اعبد الله كانك تراه ; 2.منظر المراقبة ; 3.منظر التجلى على الاطلاق ; 4. منظر الشهود ; 5.منظر الوجود ; and so forth. The principles of the author are those of orthodox Ṣûfism.

Ends: تمت المناظر الالهية بعون الله الخ.

Written by the same hand as I. and II. Slightly injured near the end.

A note on the meaning which الوسع has with the Ṣûfîs, fills the title-page of this volume.

Wrongly inscribed شرح مشكلات فتوحات مكية

Cf. Cat. 231, ii. 4.

1 Cf. Ḥ. Kh. v. 267, and below (II.).

1 The present work.

1 حنبلى is a mere error instead of جيلى .

2 Nothing is to be found in this MS. regarding the Shaikh Jabartî. See however, above (I.). The passage in Ḥ. Kh. is corrupt (cf. Add. Vii. 864).

3 According to a recent note on fol. 11v., only three leaves would be wanting.