Sufism and Ethics [IO Bijapur 238]

Sufism and Ethics. 

This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 238 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 677 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

677.

B 238. Size 101/4 in. by 51/2 in.; foll. 119. Thirteen lines in a page.

Tenets of the Ṣûfîs, collected from sayings of celebrated Shaikhs, such as Abu’l-Ḳâsim b. Ḳussî, author of كتاب خلع النعلين 1 ; Ibn ‘Arabî ; Safî al-dîn b. Manṣûr ; ‘Abd al-karîm Jîlî ; and the two masters of the author, Saiyid Muḥammad Wafâ and Saiyid ‘Alî Wafâ.2 The work is entitled (sec fol. 3v.) الموازين الدُّرّية المبيّنة لعقائد الفرق العلية . The author is not named; but from quotations of other works of his, he appears to be ‘Abd al-wahhâb SHA’RÂNÎ, and this work is probably identical with the قواعد الصوفية , mentioned in Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. morgenl. Ges. xxi. 272.

Begins:الحمدلله ... و بعد فهذه عقيدة شريفة انقرحت (!) لى من تصفح عبارات الاولياء المحققين اصحاب لدوائر الكبرى الخ . The author undertakes to prove that the Ṣûfî tenets do not really depart from the orthodox faith, as is often suspected. The work is divided into sections (فصل) , the first of which contains, as an introduction, the principle of the علم التوحيد ; and it concludes with a خاتمه , on the unlawfulness of accusing any one of infidelity (التكفير) .

An indifferent copy. Several blanks.

Fol. 65 has been erroneously inscribed اين اجزا تكميل الاعراف در علم حقايق .

Cat. 232, xl.

1 See Flügel, Hdss. Wien, iii. 401.

2 Both of them are of the Shâdhilî order; see Von Haneberg in Zeitschr. d. Deutsch. morgenl. Ges. vii. 24.