Inner Secrets Of The Path [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Introduction and Biographical Background

In
the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

Praise belongs
to Allah, the Lord of the worlds who in His essential divine substance is
before time and ever‑existent, who in His own necessary independence is
the beginning and the end and whose eternity does not admit of end.

Praise belongs
to Him who by His essence is Him. The Beloved is He who is Allah, the Soul
Being, the Beloved is Him. He is the Independent, the Eternal, who begets no
one. The One, who was not begotten, without opponent or rival. He is the
Possessor of Splendour, the One, the Eternal. His Oneness is not, however, of
the kind to be counted. He is without likeness, existent before creation and
time. There has been, nor is nothing similar to Him.

He is untouched
by time and place. The chapter of The Unity (in the Qur'an) is an indication of
this. He is Existence from before time and without need. He is the Real and the
Creator of the different essences. He is without annihilation, subsistent of
Himself. He exists by His essence, the Source of Outpouring of all essences.

May blessings
and peace without end be on Muhammad, the first radiant manifestation of the
Essence, the first of the messengers of Allah, whose reality is the radiant
point of manifestation of the essence of the Lord of the Worlds, who is himself
also the seal of His prophets, and on his caliph and successor, the greatest of
caliphs, the most excellent of guardians and the seal of spiritual authority
from the Maker of the heavens and the earth, the Commander of the Faithful and
the just divider of people between the Fire and the Garden, the yamin of
Allah' ‑ one of Allah's people of the right ‑ as mentioned in
the Qur'an. [1]

May peace and
blessings be also on the family and progeny of Muhammad, the purest of the pure
who are the joy and gladness of the worlds, and in particular on the last of
these, the lord of the age and time itself, the caliph of the Merciful, the
leader of men and jinn ‑ may God grant him great favours. By the family
of Muhammad was the correct path made known. It was in their houses that the
Book was revealed. They are the proofs of Allah for mankind. In them and their
forefathers there is no doubt. In particular Abu Hasan Ali is revered for his
high station of knowledge. He is the tremendous news, the ark of Noah, the door
of Allah and the final word in eloquence.

He is the first wave from the ocean
of Allah's beauty and love.

He is of the depths of the sea of nobility, from the
Majestic.

He is the witness and the witnessed and, by your life,
endowed with great eloquence,

He
is the guide of the path leading to the fortunate abode. From God through him
issues the intellect in its entirety. He is the king of the gathering of those
messengers,

The completion of the prophets by the divine
overflowing from before endless time,

The source of light for all the friends of Allah.

There is one sole sun which possesses radiance,

Although from him many lights of dawn appeared on the
horizon.

It was that same face of the moon whose light broke
though,

But it was by him that the twelve came to rejoice in
their blessing.

The state of Muhammad issues from the outpourings of
the essence,

And the family of Muhammad are the nobility of
creation. The family of the Prophet are the lords of the two worlds.

The family of the Prophet are the keys to the doors of
the gardens.

The family of the Prophet are the light of His beauty
from before time.

The family of the Prophet are a source of gnosis which
never dries up.

May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon them

Until the moment the trumpet is sounded on the day of
rising.

* * * * * * * *

The divine
decrees come into being in a world other than our own and they are governed by
an order and time which is particular to them ‑ such that whenever the
will of Allah impinges on this world, then the decree passes from the Tablet of
knowledge in the malakut (the invisible world of spirit and angel) to
the pages of material forms in the world of men. Since different manifestations
of the divine decrees become visible in this world, we have taken to calling
them events which happen by chance' or occurrences.' It is because we
interpret what happens in relation to ourselves that we react with surprise
when the decree of Allah causes something to come into being, or not to come
into being, and we become happy or unhappy accordingly.

The work before
the reader came about in the following manner. One day some years ago one of
my friends said that he had purchased a modest library wherein were several
handwritten volumes. He asked me to take a look and to choose any book that I
found interesting. However much I tried to refuse his offer ‑ saying
that, although handwritten, they remained for me a mere adornment and a financial
investment for the book collectors, adding that after the death of their owner
these papers would be sold again in the market for a ludicrous price ‑
there was nothing I could do but peruse the books for the sake of our
friendship and to avoid offending him. Of all the books ‑ most of them of
great value by reason of their illuminated pages, calligraphy and age ‑
one in particular, which in contrast contained very bad calligraphy and not
even the name of the author, attracted my attention. Despite its worn exterior,
I purchased it at an extravagant price. This book was in fact The Mysteries of
the Revealed Law, the Stations of the Way and the Light of the Truth' (Asrar
al‑Shariah) which the decree of God was now placing before my path.

By the style of
the text I realized that it was the work of the lord of gnostics and divines
Sayyid Haydar Amuli, an Iranian gnostic of great standing of the eighth century
AH. His writing is eloquent and he fulfils the demand for spiritual knowledge
among those persons whose mother tongue is Persian. Despite the poor
calligraphy, it was nevertheless exceedingly correct and had been copied from
the actual work of the author himself, may Allah protect his secret; moreover,
there were marginal notes elucidating most places in the book written in 950
AH. Despite research in different libraries of Iran and Turkey I could
find no trace of another copy which would permit a cross‑check of my
copy. The copy possessed by the University of Tehran was only
a selection containing no more than five or six pages of the book; the copy I
found in the Islamic Consultative Assembly (previously the National Assembly)
was half missing and full of defects. I thus made a photocopy of my copy and
made up for the defects of the Assembly's copy. It was again the workings of
the divine decree which caused me to then find a copy in the library of
Ayatullah Mar'ashi of Qum. [2]

Although the
copy from the library of Mar'ashi was good, having been written during the time
of the Qacharis, it was not as correct as the copy I myself possessed. For this
reason I made a further copy of my text and substituted it for the other which
had been registered under the number of 388. I then completed correcting that
work, spending many years in the process. It so happened that one day I went to
meet some friends at the Iranian Academy of
Philosophy; the head of the academy was talking about the lack of correct texts
and the plethora of unedited annotated works. It was at this point that the
manifestation of another divine decree caused the bringing to a head of those
previous incidents of destiny which I had all but forgotten. [3] Thus I
disclosed that a rare text, of which no more than two copies existed in the
world, lay in my hands ready for printing. Mention of this was greeted with
great pleasure, and after attending to the technical matters of publication,
the work was then actually printed.

As for the
biography and historical importance of this divine prodigy, the men with whom
he studied and the date of his death, in the majority of cases such details are
recorded inaccurately; biographers have plagiarized details from others and in
their ignorance some have added material to inaccurate material of a previous
date. In investigating these matters great care must be taken to look closely
at what actually happened and to weigh the matters up with precision in order
to discriminate the chaff from the grain and jumbled invention from reality.
Most of the books containing such material are sources of erroneous data not
only with regard to the life of this man but also with regard to his works.

One such book is
Al‑Kashkul fi ma jara li ali'l‑rasul (Album of Events
concerning the Family of the Prophet) which is attributed to Sayyid Amuli but
in fact is the work of Haydar ibn 'Ali, a contemporary of Fakhr al‑Muhaqqiqin,
the teacher of Sayyid Amuli. He is mentioned with regard to the strife which
broke out between the Sunnis and the Shiahs in 735 in Baghdad [4] when in fact at that time Sayyid Amuli was only sixteen years
old and had never been in Iraq.
The source of this and many other pieces of false information is the book Majalis
al‑Mu'minin (The Gatherings of the Believers).

As for the
various (dubious) biographies there is that of Sayyid Haydar Tuni. It is
significant that it is included in Rawdat al Jinnah (The Meadow of
Paradise) as an appendix to the biography of Sayyid Amuli wherein many
miraculous feats are ascribed to him. It is for this reason that we have not
made any commentary on these matters. The stations, inner states and spiritual
journeying are described in his own words, they being truer and clearer than
any one else's, so that any contradictory statements may be avoided. We have
thus avoided the usual method employed which is to record anything which one
has heard or read without checking its veracity and without assuming any
responsibility for the facts presented. Such writings only serve to obscure the
true spiritual path of this friend of Allah and give a completely distorted
picture of the story of his life; as a result his way of illumination has
become hidden for subsequent generations and access to the right path, the path
of light indicated by him, has been obstructed for the seeker, concealed from
the sight of mankind.

Until now, no
complete biographical commentary on this great gnostic, which is free from
extraneous and erroneous material and which contains material written by himself,
has been written in Persian. Little, moreover, has been written in Arabic: the
introduction which precedes his book Jami al‑Asrar (A Compendium
of Secrets) is lengthy and tiring, and that which accompanies his work Nass
al‑Nusus (The Text of Texts) is concise but uninformative and does
nothing to elucidate those matters about which we are ignorant. It was for this
reason that I decided to take the task upon myself. It was with the help of God
that I set about composing this biography, using material from within his own
works and avoiding any commentary or marginal notes.

Sayyid Amuli was
born in 819 AH. His birth heralded the tremendous influence of his life. He
illumined the world of darkness and tribulation, and embellished this world,
this planting ground for the next. He says himself at the end of the
introduction to Nass al‑Nusus (The Text of Texts), which is a
commentary on the Fusus al‑Hikam (The Bezels of Wisdom) of
Shaykh Muhyi al‑Din ibn 'Arabi: I completed this commentary in 782 AH at
the age of sixty three.'

A brief
genealogy and biography of his life appears in the first volume of his
commentary entitled Al‑Muhit al‑Azam (The Mighty Ocean)
M.S. 301, Mar'ashi Library, Qum.
The following is a translation of this: I am Rukn al‑Din Haydar, the son
of Sayyid Taj al‑Din 'Ali Padashah, the son of Sayyid Rukn al‑Din
Haydar, the son of Sayyid Taj al‑Din 'Ali Padashah, the son of Sayyid
Muhammad Amir, the son of 'Ali Padashah, the son of Abu Jafar Muhammad, the
son of Zayd, the son of Abu Jafar Muhammad, the son of Ibrahim, the son of
Muhammad, the son of Husayn Kusaj, the son of Ibrahim, the son of Sana'illah,
the son of Muhammad Harun, the son of Hamzah, the son of Ubayd ullah al‑Araj,
the son of Husayn Asghar, the son of Imam 'Ali ibn al‑Husayn Zayn al‑Abidin,
the son of Husayn the Shahid ‑ the martyr, the son of the Commander of
the Faithful 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, may the peace of Allah be upon them all.'.

In the
introduction of Jami al‑Asrar (The Compendium of Secrets) he
further states: Know that from the earliest vigour of my youth, namely from my
childhood to the age of thirty or thereabouts, I was engaged in studying the
religion of my own forefathers, the ma'sumin ‑ the infallible
ones. With regard to the outer aspect of the shariah, I undertook a
study of the Imamiyah sect and their juridical school (madhhab) ‑
which is daily practiced amongst the Shiahs; and with regard to the inner,
namely the study of the truth and reality (haqiqah), I devoted my
attention to the Sufis and the masters of the science of the unity of Allah (tawhid).
The two aspects came together and a joining of the outer shariah and
the inner haqiqah was effected such that I reached the station of
constancy and firmness. This I say not through any sense of pride, but rather
as an expression of the endless bounty of Allah. Indeed I swear by Allah that
if the seven heavens were made of paper and the trees of the earth were pens,
if the seas of the world were ink and the spirits, mankind and the angels were
scribes, then they would be unable to write even a jot of what I had witnessed
of the divine gnoses and realities referred to in the authentic or divinely
inspired hadith, "I have prepared for the chosen of My slaves
something no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no heart has perceived"
and in the Qur'an, "So no soul knows what is hidden for them of that which
will refresh their eyes; a reward for what they did" (32:17). The least of
these truths was such that after seeing reality from both sides and the true
and false aspects of each side, after perceiving in what manner the one was
true and the other false, I was able to understand how every one of these
matters was connected to a point of reality and tawhid ‑ just as
the line which is drawn from circumference of a cycle is connected to the
central point. I was also able to understand the meaning of Allah's words,
"There is no living creature but He holds it by its forelock; surely my
Lord is on the right path" (11:56) and "Allah's is the East and the
West, therefore, whither you turn, thither is Allah's purpose" (2:115);
and the secret contained in the words of the Prophet, "The ways leading to
the Real are as many as the persons in creation". The saying of the
Commander of the Faithful, "Knowledge was no more than one point ‑
and it was the ignorant who added to it" also became clear to me. I became
as the incipient form before materialization, the form which is capable of
taking on any other form, the form which accepts and understands any belief
structure or desire, such that all was swallowed up in my boundless existence.
This is as the sublime station of the Prophet when he stood before Allah
saying, "O Allah, show me the realities of the beings of creation just as
they are"; this is highest of the stations of tawhid and the most
sublime of positions in the world of unveilings. "That is Allah's grace; He
grants it to whom He pleases, and Allah is the Lord of mighty grace"
(62:4).

From the poetry
of Shaykh Muhyi al‑Din ibn 'Arabi:

Before this I used to deny my friend, for my heart
could not accept his religion.

Now my heart has adopted every shape of belief; It has
become a pasture for the fine‑eyed gazelles and a place of worship for
the monk in his monastery.

It is the temple of idols and also the Ka'bah above
which they make the rounds.

It is the tablets of the Torah and also the book of
the Qur'an.

I have drawn close to the religion of love and passion
such that From wherever their caravans leave I set off too ‑ for passion
has become my way of life and faith.

After my
affirmation of the truth of Sufism, certain persons were troubled by some of
its more abstruse and esoteric aspects with regard to the Real ‑ such
people imagined that I was availing myself of invalid and other spurious means.
May they realize that this was not the case and that in reality I was only
drawing upon the religion of my own forefathers ‑ the infallible Imams.
Because of their extreme ignorance, the majority of Sufis think that the Imams
were devoid of the excellencies and superior insights of Sufism. Moreover many
Shiahs also believe that the knowledge of their Imams is restricted to that
same knowledge which is in common use amongst themselves. In fact there is not
a single form of knowledge but that the Imams are the source of that knowledge;
there is not a secret or hidden wisdom but that they are the mine from which it
may be extracted; they are the teachers of the shariah and the leaders
of the tariqah and the poles of the haqiqah; they are the caliphs
and the vicegerents of Allah in the heavens and the earth; they are the
manifestation of the power and majesty of Allah in His mulk ‑the
earth and heavens ‑ and in His malakut ‑ the realm of the
spirits and angels. I swear by God that if they did not exist, then the heavens
would not be standing, the earth would not be outspread and the creatures would
not be living in them. This is the meaning of Allah's words to His Prophet,
"If you were not, then I would not have created the cosmos"; here
what is meant is the abode of the different creatures. According to the
scholars of the divine sciences, the whole world is maintained in existence by
reason of the reality of the Perfect Man and the planets are kept in orbit by
his very breaths. Muhyi al‑Din ibn 'Arabi says in his book Nuskhat al‑Haqq
(Copy of the Truth): "Allah established the Perfect Man as the
teacher of the angels and has caused the planets to turn by his life and breath
‑ and this by reason of his nobility, sublimity and elevated station.' By
the consensus of the nation of Muslims, there are none greater than those great
persons ‑ neither from an intellectual standpoint, nor from conclusions
drawn from the body of the traditions, nor from the station of unveilings.

It was the
Prophet's own successor ('Ali) who proclaimed with pride: "I am the sign
and indication of Allah, the All‑Powerful and the Conqueror; I am the
reality of the secret truths; I am the leader and guide of the heavens; I sit
with the angels who make praise and with Gabriel and I am the friend of
Mika'il; I am the guide of the planets; I am the tree of Sandalwood of the
planets; I am the guardian of the thunder and the dazzling lightning; I am the
face of Allah, the flank of Allah, the hand of Allah; I am the first and the
last, the manifest and the hidden." '

Sayyid Amuli
also says in his own commentary: After understanding religion and its
associated sciences and after mastering the different degrees of knowledge with
regard both to the intellect and the related body of ahadith (traditions
of the Prophet) this study being undertaken partly in the town of Amul, birthplace
and childhood home of myself and my forefathers, partly in Khurasan and
Astarabad, and partly in Isfahan ‑ I continued to strive until I arrived
at the core and inner meaning of these matters.'

These studies
lasted for approximately twenty years until for the second time I returned from
Isfahan to Amul. Here I took up
employment in the service of the just and temperate Padshah Fakhr al‑Dawlah,
the son of Shah Kay‑Khisraw ‑ may Allah grant them both a fair
place in the Garden. Fakhr al‑Dawlah treated me with particular respect
and honour and placed me with those of his entourage who were intimate with
him. After a while he made me one of his most trusted confidants and thereupon
one of his special deputies and chamberlains; he accorded me this special
treatment as he himself was descended from Anusharvan, Yazdagird and Perviz,
one of his close relatives being a Padshah by the name of Ardishir, son of
Hasan, the son of Taj al‑Dawlah whom Tahir al‑Din Faryabi Sha'ir,
Siraj al‑Din Qamari and other poets and reciters of qasidahs (odes)
would honour and praise in their writings.

After some
time, the just padshah, the champion of his time, the living padshah of
padshahs, the brave unflinching warrior Fakhr al‑Dawlah made a request to
me. Thus it was that just as Jalal al‑Dawlah Iskandar and the majestic
Sultan Gustaham and Tus Malik came to be employed in the service of Fakhr al‑Dawlah's
brother, I also came to take up duties in his service. It was not long before ‑
by the blessing of his company ‑ I acquired such great position and
wealth that it is impossible to imagine. In this way I came to live a life of
luxury, prosperity and honour amongst the people, my friends and my fellow
townsfolk.

I passed some
time in this state until a desire for the truth, a desire both instinctive and
natural, began to flare up within me and Allah made me aware of the evil and
corruption growing in me as a result of my ignorance and forgetfulness of Him.
It became clear to me that I was following a way of perversity far from the
straight path; it became manifest to me that I was treading the path of
misguidance, close to the precipice of sin and crime. It was at this moment
that I prayed to the Lord from deep within myself. I implored him to free me
from these actions of mine ‑ all my passion and desire was to leave this
world and its pleasures. I found within myself that I was ready to turn in the
direction of the Real and to set out on the path of tawhid (divine
unity).

It was for this
reason that I no longer wished to keep the company of those padshahs nor to
continue living in my own locality and place of birth, despite my love of that
place; nor too could I continue to sit with my friends and brothers. It seemed
the best thing to do was to abandon them completely and to move away to a place
where I could carry out those duties necessary for a life devoted to the Real
and where the form of my existence would be of the highest order. Thus it was
that I freed myself forthwith from the rulers, as well as from the wealth of my
sons and of my mother and brothers [5] and I put on a patched garment ‑
not worth more than a dirham ‑ that had been thrown into an alley at the
back of the house. It was in this that I set out via Ray, Qazvin and Isfahan with the intention of making the pilgrimage and visiting the sacred
House of Allah and with the intention of visiting my forefather, the Messenger
of Allah and the infallible Imams. In this way I arrived in Qazvin where I had previously spent a long
period of my youth amidst wealth and honour.

It was because
a contract of brotherhood had been made with the young men of that town (and by
this I mean with the group of Sufis) that a contract was also made between
myself and the perfect shaykh, the one of arrival, Nur al‑Din Tihrani ‑
Tihran being a village on the way to Isfahan in the region of Dardasht and
which is pronounced with the open t' sound by the people in contrast to the
Arabic t' with which it was originally spelt.

Shaykh Nur al‑Din
Tihrani was a gnostic of Allah and an ascetic. All the people, both the common
and the elite, accepted him and became his disciples. I spent a month, or
rather, a little less than a month, in his company ‑ until he gave me the
real patched garment of the Sufis to wear, [6] and I came to master the dhikr
(remembrance of Allah) of the elite rather than that of the common people;
by sitting with him, I was able ‑ by an alchemic transmission ‑ to
profit greatly, despite the extreme brevity of my stay. After this I went on
from Isfahan to two other
places, namely Aydhaj and Maliamir, where in company with another man of
perfection and spiritual gnosis, I spent some time while waiting for the
caravan to form which was bound for Baghdad. The caravan never materialized, however, and this, and the onset
of a severe sickness, caused me to return to Isfahan. After a time, I did finally reach Baghdad and from there I had the honour of visiting the sacred site of the
martyrdom of the Commander of the Faithful, the graves of Husayn, Musa and
Jawad together with the Imams of Samarra. I spent a whole year in these places
before setting out in the direction of the Ka'bah with the intention of
performing the pilgrimage. I was alone and destitute when I set out.

Having visited
the tombs of the Messenger and the four Imams in Madinah, I returned to Iraq
and in the holy city of Najaf may Allah bless those who visit it ‑
I took up residence and busied myself with spiritual exercises, periods of
isolation (Khalwah), worship, and the seeking of ilm al‑laduni
(knowledge bestowed by Allah on His slave through no effort of his own).
There was no one in the region who had knowledge of this kind of activity and
of these states. I associated, however, with a gnostic and man of perfection of
this locality who, although living in obscurity, was in fact the leader of the
saints of Allah; he was known amongst the people as Abd al‑Rahman ibn
Ahmad Muqaddasi and although enjoying the most meagre of means was among the
finest and most excellent of the men of knowledge. I took to studying Manazil
al‑Sa'irin (The Stages of the Gnostic Travellers) together with its
commentary, thereafter Fusus al Hikam (The Bezels of Wisdom),
together with its commentary and other books of the same nature. It was during
this period of study that most of the realities contained in the books on
Sufism (including both the simple and more detailed treatises) were revealed to
me with clarity ‑ and this by the blessing of that holy place, this holy
person and the Imams. Thus it was that I came to write many commentaries, made
many notes on this subject and then wrote several other books. Twenty years
have elapsed since that date and the books which I have written now number
between twenty and twenty‑four; these I catalogued with an index, the
last of the books being a commentary on the Quran.'

Up to this point
Sayyid Amuli records in detail the spiritual journey upwards to his Lord by a
process of divine attraction. As for the journey through the self and the death
of desire, he continues the description of his own states in the introduction
of his commentary of the Fusus al‑Hikam entitled Nass al‑Nusus
(The Text of Texts) (with regards to the second aspect of the wilayah of
Shaykh Muhyi al‑Din ibn 'Arabi): I remained for a period in Isfahan
occupied with the states of the spiritual path. It was then that,
intending to go to Baghdad in order to visit the places of martyrdom of the
Imams, the saints and the shaykhs of that region, and whilst planning to go to
the house of Allah to perform the hajj and to remain forever close to
this house, I suddenly saw one night in a dream that I was standing in the
middle of a bazaar. I perceived that my body was as if dead, wrapped in a white
shroud and fallen flat on the ground. While trying to discover the cause of
this, I was at the same time in a state of great surprise: how was it that I
was both standing and lying flat on the ground. It was in this state that I
awoke. This in fact was the beginning of the death of desire and the start of
my spiritual path ‑ the same death alluded to by the Prophet when he
says, "Die before you die" and the same as that described by the sage
who said, "Die by your own will so that you may live the true and natural
life". [7] God says: "Is he who was dead then We raised him to life
and made for him a light by which he walks among the people, like him whose
likeness is that of one of utter darkness whence he cannot come forth?"
(6:122) I thanked God for His blessings; it is He who is the cause of eternal
life and constant prosperity: "Most surely this is the mighty achievement.
For the like of this then let the workers work). (37:60‑6l )

Likewise I saw
again on another occasion that I was sitting in the shop of some friends. On my
back there was copper receptacle ornamented with gold, just like those of the
water carriers who would tour the bazaars pouring water for the people to
drink. This receptacle had a strange mouth; just like that of the large jars
which they make out of fired clay. I was giving water to those present from
this receptacle while at the same time I was searching for myself. I was also
sitting at the same time as I was standing. Moreover, just as I was giving
water to the people to drink, I would take a drink myself. Because of this
strange picture, I would repeatedly burst out laughing at myself and I felt
great amazement at this state until I finally woke up. This dream was
instrumental in bringing me many tremendous insights.

On another
occasion, in Isfahan, I saw
myself seated holding a severed head in my hand; at the same time my own head
had been severed, although I had no knowledge of this. I was busy turning and
playing with the head and at any moment would be seized by laughter at this
strange picture, until I finally woke up. This dream was the means by which I
arrived at many of the most precious spiritual truths; indeed a wealth of the
finest insights were revealed to me as they flowed out from the generosity of
the divine unseen. In a similar dream to this, I heard that my father gave no
more nor less than a thousand dinars to the person who could interpret such dreams,
and this sum was also paid without delay by some of the padshahs by the law of
the exoteric. As for the inner world of meaning, a thousand things of note and
worth, purer than the finest gold and clearer than the most translucent jewels
promised to man in the Garden, were received from the real Padshah, namely
Allah may He be exalted: "That is Allah's grace; He grants it to whom He
pleases, and Allah is the Lord of mighty grace." (62:4); "And none
are made to receive it but those who are patient, and none are made to receive
it but those who have a mighty good fortune" (41:35). Such events often
occur to myself and our spiritual friends, but despite being far‑removed
from the state of man, they are not extraordinary for God: "And this is
not difficult for Allah" ' (14:20).

At the end of Muqaddimah
Fusus (An Introduction to the Bezels), which is about the meaning for him of
the unveilings and secrets of the Fusus al‑Hikam, he
describes the holy city of Najaf as being the cause of openings from the unseen
occurring in his heart ‑ just as one night Makkah became the cause of openings
for Shaykh Muhyi al‑Din and thereafter Madinah inspired the Madinan
disclosures. He then goes on to explain the course of his own spiritual
journey both in relation to himself and to the cosmos: Know that since God has
commanded me to leave everything which is other than Him and to concentrate the
heart completely on Him, there arose in my heart such a feeling of divine inspiration
that I decided to take the noblest and most sublime locality on earth as my
place of residence and worship of Him. Thus it was that I set out for Makkah ‑
may Allah increase it in every way. It would be impossible to contain in a
whole set of books the trials and hardships, the misfortune and toil which I
underwent on the journey from Isfahan to that place. Despite all this, however, the words of Allah were
always on my tongue: "And whoever goes forth from his house flying to
Allah and His Apostle, and then death overtakes him, his reward is indeed with
Allah and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful" (4:100), and also the lines of
that gnostic and lover of the Truth who says:

I have left all men for the sake of Your satisfaction.

I have abandoned as orphans my own sons for the sake
of Your witnessing.

Even if You cut me to pieces, my heart would still
long for no one but You.

This
was my state when I arrived in Makkah and completed the obligatory pilgrimage
together with all the necessary and supererogatory rites. It was at this point ‑
in 751 AH ‑ that I conceived the desire and intention to stay forever in
the proximity of that illustrious house. It was not long, however, that there
arose within me the desire to live in the illuminated city of Madinah and it was for this reason
that I set out for this city, where I visited the tomb of the Messenger of
Allah and conceived the intention of staying within the confines of his
splendid grave. At that moment, however, many obstacles were placed in my path,
the greatest of these being a physical sickness, which made it necessary for me
to return to Iraq and take up residence in the
familiar surroundings of Najaf.

Thus I returned
without further trouble to this spiritual city and busied myself with religious
exercises, pious seclusion and acts of worship ‑ of an intensity and
severity never before achieved. By this means, throughout all this period,
meanings, gnoses, realities and truths flowed into my heart from the direction
of Allah, the Lord of the unseen. It would be impossible to' reckon these
things for they are divine utterances and as such cannot be contained within
clearly defined limits. [8] God, however, commanded me to reveal some of these
gnoses to the elite of His slaves and so I set about writing a book about
divine unity (tawhid) and an explanation of its secrets. Within a short
time, I completed it and named it Jami'al Asrar wa Manba'al‑Anwar (Compendium
of Secrets and Source of Lights). I then wrote two more books called Risalat
al‑ Wujud fi marifat il‑Mabud (Treatise on Existences
on the Knowledge of the Worshipped One) and Risalat al‑Maadfi ruju
alIbad (Treatise of Eschatology; on the Return to the Godhead). After
these I composed some forty other books and essays in both Persian and Arabic.
It was then that Allah commanded me to undertake a commentary of the Qur'an
and so, after completion of the above‑mentioned essays, I composed a work
of seven thick volumes under the title of Al‑muhit al‑A'zam wa'l‑Tawd
al‑Asham fi Ta'wil Kitabillahi 'l‑Aziz al‑Muhkam (The
Mighty Ocean and Lofty Mountain: esoteric exegesis on the clear and precious
Book of Allah). With the help of the Lord it was completed in the best and most
perfect manner and in the finest and most eloquent language such that no one
surpassed me in this matter, neither in the way it was arranged nor in the way it
was edited.

Allah then
commanded me to undertake a commentary on the Fusus al‑Hikam which
is a work directly inspired by His Messenger ‑ it was the latter who gave
it to Shaykh Muhyi al‑Din in a dream saying: "Communicate it to
those slaves who are worthy of it and who are ready to receive it". Thus I
began this work, some thirty years after first taking up residence in Najaf, in
781 AH and completed it in 782 AH, a period of one year or less; my age at that
time was sixty three years.'

The rest of what
happened to him is described in different places of his own commentary; it is
thus that he says: After this activity I began service with the great shaykh
of perfection, the sultan of the scholars, the Honour of the Truth and the
Religion, Abu Mutahhir Hilli. In his company I studied many of the books which
contain both the foundation and ramifications of the sciences of the Family of
the Prophet. The Shaykh bestowed on me a license in which he addresses me as
"Zayn al‑Abidin the Second" ‑ having witnessed
something in my behaviour which caused him to believe that my station was only
second to that of infallibility. He also issued many other licenses for me ‑
both of a general and explicit nature ‑ in all the sciences, one of which
I shall now give:

The most excellent Sayyid, the great Imam, the
worthiest of the scholars of the world and the most knowledgeable of the noble
amongst men, the guide to those on the spiritual path, the saviour of the souls
of the gnostics, the renewer of the faith and the giver of life to the way of
his forefathers, the one who combines the sciences of tradition with those of
reason, and those of the foundations of jurisprudence with its branches, the
possessor of a purified soul and the courtesy of a prophet, the pride of the
family of the Prophet, which is the object of the special attention of the Lord
of the Worlds, the pillar of the nation, of the truth and of the religion,
Haydar ibn Sayyid al‑Said Taj al‑Din 'Ali... (including the rest of
his genealogy to the Commander of the Faithful) has read and studied with me in
the most scrupulous manner the following books: the Qur'anic commentary, Jawami
al jami by the great shaykh and protector of the faith, shaykh Tabrisi, Shariah
al‑Islam by the great jurist Shaykh Najm al‑Din Muhaqqaq Hilli,
Manahij al‑Yaqin concerning the science of theology (kalam) by
my father, may Allah have mercy on him, Tahdhib al‑Ahkam (An
Education of the Laws) by Shaykh Tayfah Tusi, Nahj al‑Balaghah by the
Commander of the Faithful and Sharh Nahj al‑Balaghah by the sage
Ibn Maytham. Thus do, I give permission for him to transmit all of these books,
just as I give permission for him to transmit all of his own works and writings
concerning the sciences based both on the traditions and reason. I also hand
over to him all the above‑mentioned books which he may use with his own
direct chain of transmission from them ‑ in particular the books of my
father which he has acquired through me. Moreover, he has permission to
transmit the books of Shaykh Mufid (there being thus two paths of transmission
from himself to Shaykh Mufid) together with the books of Shaykh Tusi, Sayyid
Murtada and all the ahadith transmitted from the family of the Prophet
(the "Four Books"), all with a complete chain of transmission.'

This detailed
license (ijazah) was given in Ramadan, 761 AH in Hillah; the Arabic text
is in my possession, but for reasons of brevity I have omitted to mention the
full chain of transmission, making do with a translation and resume of the
whole.

After recording
this ijazah he says: This kind of license given to me with regard to
the sciences based on the ahadith (traditions) and on reason is well‑known
only amongst the Arabs.' In Rajab 753 AH be was given a license to teach Manazil
al‑Sa'irin and Fusus al‑Hikam, together with their
commentaries, by Abd al Rahman ibn Ahmad al‑Muqaddasi; this license is
written in much the same manner as that of Fakhr al‑Muhaqqiqin and in it
we read: I have benefited from him more than he (Sayyid Amuli) has benefited
from me.'

He then mentions
a method of dhikr (remembrance of Allah) from Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr
Simnani. It is possible that he was instructed by this man himself because he
was one his contemporaries. Sayyid Amuli goes on to say: Some of the fuqara'
‑ the bereft in Allah ‑ have explained their own way of dhikr',
and the following is quoted: This poor fakir Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Simnani
‑ may God bestow on him the same as those who receive eternal life after
the annihilation of this world ‑ was instructed in the way (of dhikr) by
Shaykh Salih al‑Din Abi'l Khayr Shams al‑Din Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn
Muhammad Isfahani and the latter learnt the dhikr la ilaha illa'llah on
the Id al‑Fitr 703 AH in the khanqah's assembly (Sufi spiritual
retreat) of Samisati in the Bayt al-Ahzan quarter near the Friday mosque in
Damascus from Shaykh Salih Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Isfarayni Zayn al‑
Ibad, the Flag Bearer of the ascetics, the Honour of the virtuous, the one of
constant dhikr in the morning and the evening. He in turn learnt it from
Shaykh Sayf al‑Din Abu'lMu'ali ibn Mutahhir ibn Said Badarzay and he
from the Shaykh and Pole of the Age, Abu'l‑Janab Najm al‑Din Ahmad
ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah Khiyuqi, the same Shaykh Najm al‑Din al‑Kubra,
one of the poles of the "golden" chains of transmission (indeed any
"golden" chain of transmission connected to him is known as a
"major golden chain"); the latter in turn received it from Shaykh
Isma'il Qasri and he from Shaykh Muhammad ibn Mankil who got it from Shaykh
Daud ibn Muhammad known as the Servant of the Poor. The latter received it
from 'Abbas ibn Idris who got it from Abu'l‑Qasim ibn Ramadam who in turn
got it from Abu Ya'qub Tabrisi, from Abu Abdullah ibn Uthman, from Abu Ya'qub
Nahrjuri, from Abu Ya'qub Susi, from Abd al‑Wahid ibn Zayd, from Kamil
ibn Ziyad Nakh'i (may God be content with them all), from the Commander of the
Faithful, from the Messenger of Allah, from Gabriel the Guardian of Revelation,
from the Lord of Power may He be exalted.' [9]

Sayyid Amuli
describes the method of instruction of the dhikr: Transmission of the dhikr
takes on a distinct form and order amongst the people of this science'; a
concise description is contained in the detailed ijazah of the above‑mentioned
fakir, namely Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Simnani; in it we see an affirmation of the
transmission of the following hadith by the Sufi shaykhs: One day 'Ali
came in to see the Messenger of Allah saying: "Instruct me in the way
which leads quickest to Allah and which is the most acceptable to Him and the
way which is easiest for His slaves." He replied: "O 'Ali, may you be
blessed in that which has come to you by way of prophethood." 'Ali then
asked: "And what is that, O Messenger of Allah?" He replied: "Dhikr
of Allah." He then said: "If the excellence of dhikr is so great,
then all the people would make dhikr of Allah." He replied:
"Abandon such thoughts ‑ the Day of Resurrection will not take place
so long as there is someone on the earth saying Allah Allah.' He then said:
"O 'Ali, be silent. I will say this dhikr to you three times and
you should listen; when I am silent, you should then say it so that I may hear
it from you." Thus it was in this way that the Messenger of Allah
instructed 'Ali in the way of dhikr, who then transmitted it to Hasan al‑Basri,
to Habib al‑Ajami ‑ to Da'ud al‑Ta'i, to Ma'ruf al‑Karkhi,
to Sid al Saqti, to Junayd al‑Baghdadi, to Mimshad Daynuri, to Ahmad
Aswad Daynuri, to Muhammad ibn Abdillah Bakari Suhrawardi, known as Awami, to
Qadi Wajih al‑Din Umar ibn Muhammad Bakari, to Abu'l‑Najib Abd al‑Qahir
Suhrawardi, to Shihab al‑Din Umar ibn Muhammad Suhrawardi Bakari, to
Mu'in al‑Din, one of the companions of the Shaykh of the Shaykhs of the
land of Rum (the west or Byzantine), to Ahmad ibn Mas'ud in the town of Konya,
one of the shaykhs of my father and forefathers, who then transmitted it to
myself, the fakir, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Simnani on the 10 Jumada al‑Ula
in 731 AH.'

As for the
taking on of the patched robe, this has been transmitted from the Commander of
the Faithful in various chains of transmission. He goes on to say: The kharqah
‑ the patched garment ‑ both among the common and the elite is
an expression of the secret of wilayah (intimacy with Allah) and the
hidden wisdom of tawhid. This wilayah and wisdom was bestowed by
Allah on Adam' (as we have explained earlier); he continues: As for an
investigation into the relationship of the kharqah to the Commander of
the Faithful and his infallible progeny ‑ both in the outer realm of the
manifest and in the inner realm of meaning ‑ then it is as follows: as
for what is manifest, I am Rukn al‑Din Haydar, the son of Sayyid Taj al‑Din...'
and the ancestry here given is the same as that stated earlier. As for the
realm of meaning, the account of his own childhood, spiritual development and
his donning of the outer kharqah has already been mentioned; he himself
says: Most of the chains of transmission of the kharqah come through
Junayd al‑Baghdadi, as he was the leader of a community, the Shaykh of a
spiritual order and lived soon after the time of the infallible Imams."
[10]

He then relates
the chain of transmission of the patched robe of the perfected shaykh Sa'd al‑Din
Hamawi and thereafter the chain of the gnostic and muhaqqiq (he who has
arrived at the station of inner truth) Shihab al‑Din Suhrawardi according
to the license that he had given to some of his own disciples ‑ a chain
which stretches back in three different paths of transmission to the Commander
of the Faithful.

He quotes this
license given by Shaykh Shihab al‑Din to his disciples saying: Know that
the way of the Sufis has two aspects: the aspect of company and that of the
patched robe. As for the aspect of company, I trace my relationship to my
shaykh, Shaykh al‑Islam Muhammad ibn Hamawi who himself held company with
Khidr. As for the aspect of my kharqah, know that Muhammad ibn Hamawi
took it on from his grandfather Imam Muhammad ibn Hamawi... from Ibn 'Ali
Farmadi, from the pole of the age Abu'l‑Qasim Gargani, from Ma'ruf al‑Karkhi,
from 'Ali ibn Musa al‑Rida and the latter took it on from the Seal of the
Prophets (Muhammad).

Shaykh Shihab al‑Din
Suhrawardi, known as Abu Hafs says: "My paternal uncle Shaykh al‑Islam
Abu'1‑Najib Dia' al‑Din Abd al‑Qahir Abdullah ibn Muhammad
Suhrawardi invested me with the patched robe and he himself was invested with
it by his paternal uncle Wajih al‑Din Muhammad known as Amawiyya... and
he, by two great shaykhs, the first Akhi Faraj al‑Din... whose chain of
transmission reaches to 'Ali ibn Musa al‑Rida and the second by his
father Muhammad ibn Amawiyya from Shaykh Aswad Daynuri whose chain also
reaches to 'Ali ibn Musa al‑Rida.' [11]

In the same book
Al‑Muhit al‑Azam, he relates how, besides the chain of
transmission of the patched robe of Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Simnani, he also took
on another kharqah from the hand of Shaykh Nur al‑Din Tihrani: I
(Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr), the shaykh of the shaykhs of Abu'l‑Hasan ibn
Umar ibn Abi l‑Hasan, have been invested with the kharqah from
Imad al‑Din Umar ibn Abi'l‑Hasan 'Ali ibn Muhammad Hamawi and he
held company with his grandfather Imam Muhammad ibn Hamawi (this being an
indication that Sayyid Amuli also took on the kharqah from the hand of
Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Simnani).'

In conclusion he
says: My arriving at the Truth and my unveilings were not dependent on the
above; my arrival was first and foremost because of God rather than on account
of my own spiritual progress. I was a majdhub ‑ a person
intoxicated by divine attraction ‑ amongst spiritual travelers: I was of
the beloved of Him rather than of those who love Him and the former have
precedence over the latter ‑ just like the prophets, the saints and their
followers in the correct path for Allah says: "Those who have been
recorded with good deeds from Ourselves they are far removed from the
bad"; I had achieved the desired goal through the care and grace of God,
not through any action on my part nor through any knowledge I possessed.' [12]

Up to this point
we have described the life of this great gnostic Sayyid Haydar Husayni Amuli,
the pole of the gnostic cosmos and the moon in the heaven of glory and
sublimity up to the year 782 AH, using his own words of truth and drawing from
different places from a variety of his works.

Many of the
works of this great gnostic resemble the name of the fabulous Simurgh; nothing
remains of them but their titles. From 782 AH onwards we have no information
about the life of this sage. We know nothing about when and where he died ‑
except that he wrote a book entitled Risalah fi'l‑Ulum il‑Aliyya'
(A Treatise concerning the Sublime Sciences) in 787 AH, and as Sahib
Dhari'ah has noted: In it is mentioned that it was written after the book Muntakhab
al‑Ta'wil (An Anthology of Hermeneutics),' but other than this we
have no other information or indication of any date.

As for the body
of gnostic writings he has left us, it is better that I describe them by
quoting from his own illuminating words which are the truest and most
appropriate record of the matter; indeed his work is as a burning torch in the
darkness of history and a shining lamp in the darkened hearts of the ignorant.

In the
introduction of Nass al‑Nusus (The Text of Texts) he himself says,
after the opening section entitled The historical circumstances related to the
writing of the books':

1. Realize, O
seeker of knowledge, that God painted the eye of the heart with the light of
guidance and success after I finished writing Majma'al‑Asrar wa
Manba'al‑Anwar (Collection of Secrets and the Source of Lights); [13]
this work contains an explanation of tawhid (the unity of Allah) and the
hidden truths, which are connected to tawhid (general definitions, classifications,
states of doubt and ambiguity, subtleties and points of wisdom, secrets and
indications), and a description of how tawhid may be defined in terms of
divine tawhid or existential tawhid. It also shows how the
science of tawhid may be divided in another way, namely into the tawhid
of essence, of attribute and of action, or to express this otherwise, the tawhid
of knowledge, of experience and of absolute truth; thereafter follows a
clarification of these matters with respect to prophethood, to the message of
prophecy and to wilayah; in conclusion there is an investigation into
the shariah, tariqah and haqiqah together with an investigation
into submission, faith and certainty accompanied by appropriate examples.

2. I then
undertook Risalat al‑Wujud fi Marifat al‑Mabud (Treatise
on Existence; on the Knowledge of the Deity) concerning the nature of
existence ‑ with respect to absolute, accidental and necessary existence
and also with respect to the oneness of existence, the manifest existence and
the plurality of existence. In this work I have proved that He, that is
"Existence", is the necessarily existent by His essence and that He
necessarily cannot be conceived as non‑existent; I have also shown that
that which is in the outward is not other than Him for "He is the First
and the Last and the Ascendant (over all) and the Knower of hidden things, and
He is Cognizant of all things" (57:3).

3. After this I
completed Risalal al‑Maadfi Rujuil‑Ibad (Treatise
of Eschatology, on the Return to the Godhead) together with a study of those
matters pertaining to the Last Day and the rising from the grave, according to
its three aspects: the minor day of rising, the intermediate day and the major
day and a proof of these according to the twelve risings of the outward
and inward within the balanced framework of the cosmos as a whole and within
that of the human self.

4. I then
finished Al‑Usul wa 'l‑Arkan fi tahdhibi 'l‑Ashab
wal Ikhwan (Principles and Pillars, concerning the Reform of the Companions
and Brothers). This work describes the five principles of belief, and each
belief is examined with regard to the three classifications of shariah,
tariqah and haqiqah, and the five pillars of the religion (prayer,
fasting, alms tax, pilgrimage and jihad ).

5. I then
completed Risalat al‑I1m (Treatise of Knowledge) which deals with
the three groups of men, namely the Sufis, the sages, and the scholastic
theologians (mutakallimun); in it I describe the different spheres of
knowledge of the three groups, including the principles, major subject matters
and finer points associated with each.

6. There then
followed the Risalat al‑Aql wa 'l‑Nafs (Treatise on the
Intellect and the Soul) which contains an examination of the difference between
the intellect and the soul ‑ with regard to both the particular and the
general ‑ together with an investigation into other related matters.

7. ...
thereafter Al‑Amanat al‑ilahiyah fi tayin al‑khilafat
al rabaniyyah (Divine Trusteeship in Man, determining the Divine
Caliphate) which is concerned with the ayah: "Surely We offered the
trust to the heavens and the earth..." (33:72) and offers an explanation
of why the mention of the injustice and ignorance of man is as a form of praise
of the highest order on behalf of Allah ‑ in contrast to those
shortsighted persons who think that this cyah refers to the disgrace and
ignominy of man. [14]

8. ... Al‑Hujub
wa Khulasatu 'l‑Kutub (The Veils and Quintessence of Books),
containing a study of the ayah: "Then thrust him into a chain the
length of which is seventy cubits" (69:32), an explanation of the saying
of the Prophet, "There are seventy thousand veils of light and darkness
before God...", and a comparison of these two statements. Such a
comparison presents considerable difficulties, especially with regard to the
whole sum and its parts, with regard to the parallel drawn between the Qur'an
and the Prophetic traditions and with regard to the phrases "a thousand
years," "five thousand years" and "three hundred thousand
years"; such metaphors are similar to the statement of one of the great
shaykhs: "I am two years younger than my Lord", and that of another:
"Between myself and my Lord there is no difference except that I come
first in the state of slavery."

9. ...Risalat
al‑Faqr wa Tahqiq al‑Fakhr (Treatise on
Poverty and the Fulfilment of Glory) containing a comparison of the three ahadith
related from the Prophet concerning faqr ‑ poverty: "Poverty
is my honour and by it I gain distinction over the rest of the prophets
and messengers" and "Poverty means blackness of face in the two
worlds" and "Poverty brings one almost to a state of unbelief (kufr)."
[15]

10.
...Risalat al‑Asma'i‑Ilahi wa Ta'yin al‑Mazahiruha min al-Ashkhas
al‑Insaniyah (Treatise on the Divine Names and Identification of
their Epiphanies among Human Beings) which deals with the prophets from Adam to
Muhammad ‑ may peace be upon them.

11. .
...Risalat al‑Nafs fi Marifat al‑Rabb (Treatise of the
Soul; on the Knowledge of God) which contains the saying of the Prophet:
"Whoever knows himself knows his Lord" and which is composed in the
light of the words of Allah: "And He is with you wherever you are (57:3)
and "And in your own souls (too); will you not then see?" (51:21).

12. ...Asrar
al‑Shariati wa Anwar al‑Haqiqah (Mysteries of the Law and
Lights of the Truth) containing a description of each by the people of each
group ‑ just as Allah says: "For every one of you did We appoint a
law and a way" (5:48) and just as the Prophet has said: "The law (shariah)
is my speech, the spiritual way (tariqah) my work and the truth (tariqah)
my inner state. [16]

13. ...Risalat
al-Jadawal (Treatise of the Diagrams) also entitled Madarij al‑Salikin
fi Maratib al‑Arifin (Degrees of the pilgrims, concerning the
Ranks of the Gnostics) describing the hundred basic stations of the journeying
and the thousand subordinate grades, drawn from a cycle ofone hundred divisions
each containing ten grades:

14 . ...Naqd
al‑Nuqud fi Marifat al‑Wujud (Final Examination of the
Knowledge of Existence) which is a selection from our Risalat al‑Wujud.
[17]

15.
...Muntaqa al‑Maad fi Murtada il‑Ibad
(A Quintessential Eschatology of the Chosen One amongst the Slaves) which
is a selection from our work Al‑Maad.

16.
...Risalat al‑Tanbih fi l‑Tanzih (Treatise
of Advice in the via negations) which, as is clear (by its title), is
about Allah ‑ may He be exalted.

17 . ...
Amthalat al‑Tawhid wa Abniyat al‑Tajrid (Examples of Divine
Unity and the Principles of Divestment) after the manner of the book Lamaat
Iraqi. [18]

18. ...
Risalatu Kanz al‑Kanuz wa Kashf al‑Rumuz (Treatise of the
Treasure of Treasures and the Unveiling Symbols).

19. ... Nihayat
al‑ Tawhid fi Bidayat at‑ Tajrid (The Conclusion of
Divine Unity in the Beginning of Divestiment) which is a selection from Jami
al‑Asrar and Manba al‑Anwar.

20. . Tayin
al‑Aqtab wa 'l‑Awtad (Identification of the Poles and Supports)
containing mention of nineteen persons (seven great prophets and twelve Imams) ‑
no more nor less (neither three hundred nor forty nor seven nor three nor one)
since the number is nineteen with regard to the station of realization; I have
also composed a further forty or so writings in a similar vein, in both Arabic
and Persian.

21. ...after
completion of the above mentioned works ‑ during a long period extending
over thirty years ‑ I wrote a commentary on the Qur'an entitled Al‑Muhit
al‑Azam wal‑Tawd al Ashamm fi Ta'wil Kilab illahi 'l‑Aziz
al‑Muhkam (The Mighty, Ocean and Lofty Mountain; esoteric exegesis of
the clear and precious Book of Allah), comprising seven large volumes; I composed
it in the manner of the great shaykh Najm al‑Din Razi, known as
"Dayah", who wrote a further six volumes of his book after completing
the volume called Bahr al‑Haqa'iq wa Manba' al‑Daqa'iq (The
Sea of Truths and Source of Subtleties). Our commentary is also written in
accordance with the hadith of the Prophet which says "The Qur'an
has an outer and an inner aspect: as for the inner there is always another aspect
within this ‑ extending to seven inner aspects"; all of the .great
and well‑known figures of spiritual realization and all those intimate
with these matters affirm that this work has no equal, in particular with
respect to Qur'anic knowledge. Moreover, this work is not a product of any
effort of any effort on my part, but rather it is the result of the outpourings
from the unseen ‑ from the Beneficent Himself. [19]

22. After
completion of all these writings a group of persons of perspicacity together
with a number of eminent men of Allah were exceedingly desirous that I write
for them a commentary on the Fusus al‑Hikam... and this work is
the same Nass al‑Nusus fi Sharh al‑Fusus (The Text of
Texts Elucidating the Bezels) mentioned at the beginning of the introduction.'

These are books
and essays (Rasa'il) written by Sayyid Amuli up to 782 AH and
which have been described by his own hand in the introduction to the Nass al‑Nusus
‑ the commentary on the Fusus al‑Hikam of Shaykh Muhyi
al‑Din Ibn 'Arabi.

He has made no
reference to any other essays, but other works written in his graceful hand
have been recorded by the bibliographers:

23. Risalat
al‑Ta'wilat (Treatise of Spiritual Hermeneutics), a work of Qur'anic
commentary which is a selection from the book Al‑Bahr al‑Khadm (The
Great Sea) and which is also known as Muntakhab al‑Ta'wil (Extract
of Hermeneutics).

24. Masa'il
al‑Amulial (Amuli Questions), a copy of which, consisting of
approximately six pages and written in the hand of the author, exists in the
Central University Library of Tehran (under the file no. 1022); in it he
says: These treatises are concerned with questions of jurisprudence and take
the form of questions, posed by myself (on various occasions), and the
corresponding answers in the form of legal opinions (fatwas) by the
great Shaykh, the sultan of the scholars of the earth, the honour of the Arab
and non‑Arab alike, the example and model of realization for the whole or
creation, the object of special favour by the Lord of the Worlds, the Imam and
eminent scholar, Fakhr al‑Haqq wa 'l‑Millat wa 'l‑Din, the
son of Allamah Hilli; the first of these interviews took place at the end of
the month of Rajah in 759 AH in the town of Hillah; I, the questioner,
am the slave and fakir Haydar ibn Ali ibn Haydar al‑Alawi al‑Husayni
al‑Amuli.' The questions are twelve in number and cover a variety of subjects
in the realm of theology and jurisprudence. They, together with the
accompanying treatises, are all in Arabic and all are written in the hand of
Sayyid Amuli; the replies in the form of fatwas are in the hand of Fakhr
al‑Muhaqqiqin Hilli; the date of the writing of the Masa'd is 761 and
the other risalahs 762 AH. [20]

25. Risalatu
fi'l‑Ulum al‑Aliyah (Treatise on the Sublime Sciences),
related by the author of Al‑Dhariah and composed and written in
787 AH. [21]

As for the other
treatise which have been attributed to him in such bibliographies as Iyan
al‑Shi ah, Idah al‑Maknun (The Unveiling of the Hidden), Majalis
al‑Mu'minin (The Gatherings of the Believers), Muajam al‑Mu'alifin
(The Encyclopaedia of Authors), Fuwa'id al‑Ridawayah (The
Benefits of al‑Rida), Hadiyat al‑Arifin (The Guidance of the
Gnostics), Rawdat al jannah (The Meadow of Paradise), Al‑Dhariatu
(The Dhari'ah), Rayhan al‑Adab (The Scent of Courtesy), and
others it should be said that it cannot be ascertained for certain whether they
are actually his works or not; indeed there is more evidence to indicate the
contrary; the following is a list of such works:

26. Rafiat
al‑Khilaf an Wajh Sukut Amir al‑Mu'minin an al‑Ikhtilaf (Justification
for the First Imam's attitude to the three first Caliphs). [22]

27. Risalat
al‑Mutamid min al‑Manqul fi‑ma Awha ila al‑Rasul (Treatise of the Trustworthy Narrations concerning the Revelations
to the Messenger).

28. Risalat
al‑Zad al‑Musafirin (The Treatise of the Travellers'
Provision).

29. Lubb al‑Istilahat
al‑Sufyah (Kernel of Sufi Terms) ‑
which is a selection of the Istilahat of Kamal al‑Din Abd al‑Razzaq
al‑Kashani.

30. Kitab al‑Kashkul
fi‑ma jara li'l Alil‑Rasul (Album of Events concerning the
Family of the Prophet) which has already been mentioned.

If these works
had actually been written by him, then he would have mentioned them in the
introduction to Nass al‑Nusus ‑ in particular al‑Kashkul
which dates from 735 AH. Nass al‑Nusus was composed in 782 AH;
if we examine the rest of the books from this perspective, then it is clear,
just as it is clear at first glance to those who are familiar with the style of
Sayyid Amuli, which of the works are actually his and which are merely
attributed to him: Whenever we scrutinize a particular art, it seems that art
belongs to a particular person.'

In conclusion we
should not forget that Asrar al‑Shariah is twice mentioned by
Sayyid Amuli in Jami al‑Asrar; as we have seen from above list
many of the works of Sayyid Amuli are either shortened versions of his own
books or ‑ to use the language of the logicians ‑ they are either
complete abridgements or abridgements with regard to one aspect only; thus the
content of one of his books may closely resemble that of another, or the
structure of one may reflect that another. Thus, for example, the important
work Ta'wilat Qur'an al‑Karim (The Hermeneutics of the Noble Qur'an),
which I read in the Mar'ashi library in Qum, usually treats the ayat according to the same three levels,
namely shariah, tariqah and haqiqah, and the text of Asrar alShari'ah
is almost always perceptible throughout the whole of the commentary. Similarly,
the book Jami al‑Asrar revolves around the three levels of tawhid
‑ essence, attribute and action ‑ together with tawhid of knowledge,
experience and truth, a study of prophethood, prophecy and wilayah, a
study of shariah, tariqah, and haqiqah, and the subjects of submission
(islam), faith (iman) and certainty (iqan). The Risalat
al‑Maad, which is about the resurrection of God's slaves, contains
amongst other matters the three‑tiered aspect of the day of rising ‑the
minor, intermediate and the major ‑ which has already been dealt with in
a more comprehensive manner in Asrar al‑Shariah. Similarly, the
book Usul wa'l‑Arkan (Principles and Pillars) is an abridgement
of this same book and the abridged text of Risalat al‑Hujub (The
Treatise of the Veils) is to be found in the chapter concerning the Day of
Resurrection, just as the subjects of prophecy and the Final Day are dealt with
in Risalat al‑Asma' (Treatise of the Names) in an abridged and
different form. Risalat al‑Tanbih (Treatise of Advice) explains
the three levels of divine unity, and Risalat al‑Wujud (Treatise
of Existence) ‑ in particular in the introduction ‑ deals with many
of the questions of tawhid, albeit in a different manner.

Thus this
precious work contains the subject matter for seven or eight of his main books
of research into the divine truths; it contains the finest selection of Sayyid
Amuli's ideas, both with regard to the Islamic system of belief and to the acts
of worship ‑ drawn from the Possessors of Divine Inspiration, the pillars
of divine unity, the store‑houses of boundless knowledge, namely the
infallible Imams ‑ drawn by way of unveilings and witnessing after long
years of divine attraction, spiritual exercises and acts of worship and then
set down in this book at the command of Allah as if without any effort on his
part.

Shari'ah,
tariqah and haqiqah‑are different names
indicating one truth ‑ namely the pattern of behaviour of Muhammad. Each,
however, has its own specific realm of meaning: just as the almond consists of
a shell, an outer skin and the kernel, so the shell is as the shariah, the
outer skin the tariqah and the kernel the haqiqah ‑ the
inner core; the almond as a whole embraces all three.

In the Majallah
(Place of Manifestation) of Ibn Abi Jamhur and Bahr al‑Maarif (Sea
of Gnosis) by Mulla Abd al‑Samad Hamdani prayer is treated as consisting
of three different levels: khidmah (service), qurbah (a drawing
closer through humility) and wuslah (union); khidmah is thus on a
level with shariah and the physical actions of the prayer, qurbah on
a level with tariqah and the concentration of the heart during prayer,
and wuslah on a level with haqiqah and the core meaning of
prayer; all three are also contained in the word prayer. Sayyid Amuli also says
in Jami al‑Asrar: Shari'ah is on a par with the divine message, tariqah
with the prophecy and haqiqah with wilayah (intimacy with
Allah); all accept these truths: anyone who rejects them or who rejects just
one of them is an unbeliever.'

Therefore, do not
deny something simply because you cannot understand it. It is by purifying the
heart of the impediments and troubles caused by this world, and by deep
reflection on the words of these great people that the outward meaning of what
they are saying will become comprehensible to you; this is because their
speech comes from the world of witnessing and vision and not from the realm of
mere knowledge and explanation; however much one tries to express this state in
the language of knowledge and explanation, it is never more than secret compounded
upon secret; God himself says: And they do not assign to Allah the attributes
due to Him' (6:91). Imam Ahmad Ghazali has said: Anyone who has no portion of tawhid,
then I fear for him that the outcome of his affair will be a bad one ‑
that is his final seal and judgment on death will be as one of the
unfortunate'; the minimum portion is that he accept and submit to the people of
realization ‑ who are the saints or friends of Allah. Our Imams have also
said: To deny is to cover up the truth: those who speak of the essence, the
attributes and the actions of God are speaking only in order to increase our
awareness and to encourage us'; in fact nobody really understands the wali (the
intimate friend of Allah) and the attributes of the wali but the wali
himself the unripe cannot encompass the ripe so it is better to be brief
and say: Peace! The denial of those who deny is merely a physical response to
what they hear: their very efforts not to understand such matters are all‑powerful
and all contentment and submission have been extinguished in them. Since this
group live on the level of the senses, they are incapable of understanding
anything but tangible things; they are incapable of going beyond this level.

Since the worm is hidden in the apple, it knows
nothing but that as its world and heaven.

If they were to
step out of the prison of the senses into the world of the heart, they would
perceive that:

The
heavens are contained in the wali whose divine Intimacy causes the ordering of
this world's heaven.

Most of mankind is
in the station of those who are anxious for their sustenance, who are greedy
and miserly, and who are caught up in all the material aspects of the world.
Imam Baqir has said:

Most men are beasts and four‑footed animals
... .

Open the eye of your heart that you may see the soul
and the unseen.

If you enter the realms of divine passion, you will
see all horizons as a garden.

Rise
above all the people of this world by your intent and look around the heavens.

The heart wants that which you see and that which your
heart wants you shall see.

The heart will see its sun in every splitting of the
atom. If you give everything you have with passion, then call me an unbeliever
if you ever suffer loss in your desiring. If the soul burns up with the fire of
passion, then you will see passion as the elixir of the soul.

Travel beyond the confines of this life and see the
vastness of His kingdom beyond space.

Let your ear listen to what it has not heard and your
eye see what it has not seen, until it leads you to where you see the One of
the world and all the worlds.

Express your passion for the One from your heart and
soul until you see Reality with the eye of certainty:

There is only One and nothing but Him, He is Alone and
there is no god but Him. [23]

It is for this
reason that the teaching shaykhs always warn their students and disciples
against denying the people of Allah saying: The expressions of these people are
obscure; it is hard to understand them when they talk about their thoughts and
intentions because such matters are far removed from the minds of ordinary
people. Shaykh Mahmud Shabistari comments in the following way: The saints of
this path, both before (Muhammad) and after (him) have given indications of
their inner experiences. When they became aware of the parameters of the self,
they described both the one who acquires knowledge and the source of this
knowledge. Since each man's speech is a reflection of his station, the common
people find it difficult to understand this variety of experience.'

Shaykh Sa'd al‑Din
Hamawi said to some of his own disciples: Do not be duped by the variety of
terms, and do not be negligent of their inner meanings, for on the day when the
people are raised from their graves and when that which was hidden in their
breasts becomes known, when the great plain of the Last Day encloses all of
mankind, out of every thousand persons who are raised up, nine hundred and
ninety nine of them will be killed by the sword of those expressions or by the
arrow of those indications ‑ blood will be split on the necks of those
very people who were careless with regard to the meanings, who pursued the way
of rejection and denial and abandoned the edifice of knowledge.'

Allah will forgive
the person who desired that his actions be just and who, with the help of his
intellect, avoided any dispute because he realized that he had no knowledge in
these matters; this is the way of the spiritually advanced (salihun) and
the sincere of His slaves. He says: Those who listen to the word, then follow
the best of it; those are they whom Allah has guided, and those it is who are
the men of understanding' (39:18) [24]

It remains to me
to thank those at the Cultural Studies and Research Institute of the Islamic
Iranian Academy of Philosophy and all those who, whatever the circumstances
have a passion for Islamic texts and who have a profound love for the truths of
gnosis ‑ all those who by the music of spirituality awakened my lifeless
heart and broken spirit after an extended period away from any research of this
nature. I have completed this introduction with the desire that it be of
particular interest to the honoured scholars and researchers of this institute;
I have added to it a list of contents which shows in detail the principles on
which each section is based, principles which are as it were the links in the
golden chain of this divine religion and which reflect the progression from shariah,
through tariqah to haqiqah. I hope that I have managed to
portray the beauty, radiance and splendour of these gnostic truths and
subtleties which issue from behind the subtle veils of that garden of
profundities, that abode of magnificence and elegance (which is the heart). I
desire as reward for my efforts nothing but increase in God's grace and
generosity, nothing but illumination by the lights of the Muhammadi realm and
nothing but spiritual assistance on the path from Sayyid Haydar Alawi. It is
thus that I present this brief work as a service to Allah who is reward can
only be received in the next world.

This
introduction was completed in the evening of the first of Muharram 1403 after
the hijrah, lunar dating (26 Mehr 1361 AH, solar dating); I ask Allah
that He bless all those who undertook that hijrah.

Sing the song of goodness in this echoing dome of the
world.

For it shall return your song generously after death.

Muhammad Khajavi
(26/7/1362 AH solar dating)

Notes:

[1] 'Ali is the yamin
(right hand) of Allah, guarded by the army of Truth. The phrase ashab al
yamin (the Companions of the Right Hand) indicates none other than the
people of 'Ali.

[2] It was with
much charm and kindness that the employees of this fine library put a photocopy
of the work at my disposition. The director of the library also supplied me
with a copy of Al‑Muhit al‑Azam. (The Mighty Ocean), which
had been handwritten by the author himself this is the only copy which exists
in Iran ‑the only other extant copy is in the library of Najaf ‑
and I shall subsequently refer to it. When my eyes fell on the amber‑like
calligraphy of this sayyid, written as it were in the ink of the Cathay musk deer, they brightened with joy,
and on a thorough reading I was apprised of his knowledge of the chains of
transmission, of his way of the patched garment and granting of permission to
his students.

[3] The reason
for my forgetfulness was that I was totally absorbed in correcting the books of
commentary of Sadr al‑Muta'lihin The Core of the Divine Gnostics ‑
which number fourteen detailed volumes ‑ and Kitab Mafatih al‑Ghaib
(Book of Keys to the Unseen). The latter is the last introduction to the
commentary of this great commentator and the key to understanding the deeper
meanings of the Qur'an.

[4] This strife ‑
mostly occurring in the Karkh area of Baghdad inhabited by the Shiahs ‑ was caused by political motives,
according to historical testimonies (in particular that of al‑Kamil Ibn
Athir).

[5] Thus acting
in accordance with the ayah: Say: If your fathers and your sons and your
brethren and your mates and your kinsfolk and property which you have acquired,
and the slackness of trade which you fear and dwellings which you like, are
dearer to you than Allah and His Apostle and striving in His way, then wait
till Allah brings about His command; and Allah does not guide the transgressing
people' (9:24).

[6] With regard
to the patched robe, he himself says in AI‑Muhit al‑A zam (The
Mighty Ocean): This garment which is well‑known amongst the common and
elite of the muwahhidin ‑ those who affirm the unity of Allah ‑
is an indication of the secret of wilayah ‑ friendship with Allah ‑
and the secret wisdom of tawhid which came from Allah by means of
Gabriel to Adam and then to his son Seth: this wilayah was transmitted
as an inner reality by means of this lineage. Thereafter, it was transferred to
Noah through a chain of prophets and saints (awliya) until it reached
the Mahdi, may Allah speed his appearance on earth. With the Mahdi this
transmission came to an end and it is for this reason that he is the seal of
the awliya'. Thus the patched garment is not an indication, as the
ignorant maintain, of something made of wool or cotton or the like ‑ all
are aware that the outer garment itself is not an indication of tile taking on
of the qualities of human perfection ‑ rather it is connected to the
right‑guidance of the prophets, saints and the great amongst the shaykhs
and men of perfection. As an explanation of the taking on of the inner meaning
of the way of these great men ‑ through an embodiment of their character
and qualities and obedience to: their way of life ‑ the patched garment
is a term both noble and subtle; thus it is that God says: Say: If you love
Allah then follow me, Allah will love you, (3:31).'

[7] That is
according to the divine pattern or sunnah which holds sway over nature; this means
that those whose desire has not died are, according to the natural pattern of
life, themselves dead. This pattern of nature is an order of interconnected
harmony based on wisdom and the whole cycle of beneficence is as a spark from
the inner divine order.

[8] This is an
allusion to the ayah: And if you count Allah's favours, you will not be able
to number them'. (14:34)

[9] A biography
of each of these great shaykhs requires detailed investigation; there does in
fact exist ample biographical material, but since it would be difficult to
include in this introduction these golden chains of wilayah will be
investigated according to the strict methodology of this science (of
determining the veracity of the men and chains of transmission) if a suitable opportunity
arises, God willing.

[10] The form of
my ijazah to wear the outward kharqah ‑ which I received
from Shaykh Nur al‑Din Isfahani ‑ was in accordance with the way he
himself had received it and under the same conditions imposed by the shaykhs of
this realm; indeed all the shaykhs without exception took it on in this way ‑
right up to the perfect shaykh, Junayd al‑Baghdadi, who himself received
it from his maternal uncle Sirri al‑Saqti, who received it from Ma'rufal‑Karkhi
and in turn from Ali bin Musa.

[11] The three
dots indicate that some of the links in the chains are omitted to avoid
repetition. They are delineated in Sufi books; it is possible that they will
vary somewhat in who they include or omit.

[12] My opinion
was and still is that when the state of profound divine attraction overcomes a
person ‑ just as it overcame Ibrahim Adham and Shaykh Ala' al‑Dawlah
Simnani and many others like Uways al‑Qarani, then the Real transports
them to His court where He himself undertakes to bestow perfection and courtesy
on them ‑this has been witnessed to be true in the case of many of the majdhubs,
who are amongst the great saints of God: people such as Shaykh Abu I‑Hasan
al‑Kharaqani who drew perfection from the spirituality of Bayazid
Bastami; indeed Sayyid Amuli also received perfection directly from the
spirituality of the infallible Imams, from the poles of previous ages and from
the poles and saints of his time, and in the course of his spiritual path he
crossed the station of the majdhub ‑ and Allah knows best the
truth of such matters.

[13] This book
was printed in 1347 (Persian solar calendar) by the Iran and France Institute.

[14] This work
is wrongly entitled Risalat al‑Amanah (Treatise of Divine
Trusteeship) in some copies.

[15] Sayyid
Qutub al‑Din Nayrizi, one of the great gnostics and torch bearers during
a time of declining Sufism and darkness, says in his book Fasl al‑Kitab
(The Decisive Book on the subject of the gnostics who believe in the
unity of existence). Sayyid Haydar bin 'Ali al‑Husayni al‑Amuli of
the country of Tabaristan and Mazandaran possesses boundless excellence
and is of the station of unveiling and witnessing; from among his beautiful
works there are those entitled Jami al‑Asrar (Compendium
of Secrets), Muhit al‑Azam wa 'l‑Bahr al‑Khadam (The
Mighty Ocean and the Great Sea).' These works which are in my possession
are amongst the most precious of books. The commentator of Fasl al‑Kitab
who it appears had seen the Risalat al‑Faqr (Treatise on
Poverty), relates: I have written this book after seeing some of the ignorant
believing that there is a contradiction in terms between the way of faqr
(the state of the fakir on the path to Allah) and the way of the Shi'ah. In it
I have demonstrated that any Shi'ah who is not of the people of poverty
and spiritual journeying is not of the Shi'ah and every fakir who is not
a Shi'ah is not a true fakir nor a salik (spiritual traveler), since
these two matters are of their nature connected ‑ the way of poverty
being the way of the infallible Imams: to profess Shi'ism means that one
follows them in their actions and their worship. Thus anyone who is neither a
faqir nor a salik is in reality beyond the pale of Shi'ism, even though
he may call himself a Shi'ah. I have composed the following lines about the
people of the outward:

Such people are unaware of both the outward and
the inner, and so they go astray by their ignorance and lack of guidance;

They are immersed in worship of other than Him,
while to tell the truth,

There is in reality no actor save Allah.'

[16] This book
is referred to sometimes as Asrar al‑Shariati wa Anwar al‑Haqiqah
and sometimes as Anwar al‑Haqiqah wa Asrar al‑Shariah
in the book Jami al Asrar; according to the text in my possession it is Anwar
al‑Haqiqah wa Atwar al‑Tariqah wa Asrar al‑Shari'ah; according
to the index of the university it is Asrar al‑Shariati wa Anwar al‑Haqiqah;
in the library of Ma'rashi in Qum it is Anwaral‑Haqiqah wa Asrar
al‑Shariah.

[17] This book
together with Jami'al‑Asrar was printed by the Iran and France Institute in 1347 AH
(solar dating).

[18] These two
books, namely Risalat al‑Tanbih and Amthalat al‑Tawhid in
addition to Jami al‑Haqa'iq were written in Persian and the
another indicates this at the end of Jami al‑Asrar.

[19] In another
volume of this book (No. 301 in the library of Mar'ashi in Qum) he says: I completed this at the end
of the month of Shawwal 777 AH in Najaf'

[20] These risalahs
are written in the hand of Sayyid Amuli, a hand more fair and beautiful
than a ravishing face; the fatwas of Fakhr al‑Muhaqqiqin, the
teacher of Sayyid Amuli, are to be found in the margins and between the
different sections of the work; the following is a list of these
thirteen risalahs:

1. Masa'il
Amuliat consisting of twelve questions put to Fakhr al‑Muhaqqiqin by
Sayyid Amuli: (1) concerning the necessity of divine gnosis and
concerning the attributes which may or may not be associated with Him; (2)
concerning the mukallaf (the one on whom some duty is incumbent) who
does not have the capacity to carry out that duty, who by his ignorance is in a
state of extreme weakness and by his foolishness is in great need of sustenance;
(3) concerning the duty of the mukallaf and how a portion of it
may be more difficult than the rest (4) concerning the trader who does not pay
the khums tax on his wealth; (5) and (6) concerning the Alawi Sadat
(those who are descended from the Prophet by the lineage of 'Ali) and
the way in which khums is given to them; (7) and (8) concerning the khums
of those who are not descended from the Prophet and who are either
employees or workers; (9) concerning the love of the mukallaf for
the Prophet and the Imams and concerning what kind of love it should be ‑
whether it should be the same as that associated with mankind ‑ a love
caused by inclination, natural passion or some other kind of love (10) concerning
the request for blessings on the Prophet and whether or not it is obligatory or
recommended and whether it is obligatory in the prayer and at other times just
recommended; it also concerns the question as to whether it is an absolute
obligation and deals with the difference between the asking of blessings
on Muhammad and his Family and the asking of blessings merely on His
family; it discusses too the difference between ahl and al, both
linguistically and in terms of their application; (11) concerning the
saying of amin after the al‑Hamd surah (something which is
done by the Sunnis), whether or not the saying of it invalidates the prayer and
whether or not this word is part of the Qur'an or not; (12) this particular
page is torn and patched up and the fatwa of Fakhr al‑Muhaqqiqin
is missing.

Within this
collection ‑ apart from the Masail Amuliat there are also twelve
other treatises, all written in the hand of Sayyid Amuli:

2. Masa'il
Madaniyat (Madinan Questions) by Allamah Hilli; written on the back of
this manuscript is the ijazah of Fakhr al‑Muhaqqiqin and in the
work itself he corrects several points of the risalah of his own father.

3. Risalatu
fi Hajj al‑Mutamatti bihi wa Wajibatuhu (The Treatise of the
Hajj alTamattu and its obligations) by Fakhr al‑Muhaqqiqin.

4. Risalatu
Miraj al‑Salamah wa Minhaj al‑Karamah (The Treatise of the
Ascent to Safety and the Miraculous Way) by 'Ali ibn Sulayman al‑Bahrani.

5. Kitab
Suyun al‑Hikmah (The Book of the Springs of
Wisdom) by Fakhr.

6. Risatatu l‑Hudud
(The Treatise on the Legal Parameters and
Punishments) by Ibn Sina.

7. Masa'il
Mutafarriqah (Miscellaneous Questions).

8. Risalat al‑Tawhid
(The Treatise on Divine Unity).

9. Istalahat
Hukama (The Terminology of the Wise).

10. Risalah
Khwajah Nasir al‑Din Tusi.

11. Risalat
at‑Ilm (The Treatise on Knowledge).

12. Questions
put by Shaykh Sadr al‑Din Qunyawi to Khwajah Nasir al‑Din Tusi.

13. Risalat
al‑Qada' wa l‑Qadr (The Treatise of the Decree and
Predestination) by Hasan Basri.

[21] I saw this
work ‑ written in the hand of the author ‑included with the book Muhit
al‑Azam in the library of Najaf (there is another copy of the same
volume in the library of Mar'ashi in Qum). In it the author says: I wrote this brief treatise concerning
the sciences of the three groups (the Sufis, the philosophers and the
theologians) at the behest of certain respected persons. It consists of an
introduction and ten subjects of investigation: the introduction deals with the
three types of knowledge, the first an explanation of the knowledge of the
people of Allah, the second concerning the way in which revelation and
inspiration are transmitted, and the third concerning the nature of unveiling
together with the different orders of divine names ‑ the names of action,
the names of the attributes and the names of the essence.' This risalah
is the same Risalat al‑Ilm which has already been mentioned
above (no. 5) or rather it is a shortened version of it; the year 787 AH,
however, does seem rather late; Sayyid Amuli would describe each year of his
life in the course of his writings but from 782 AH, the year in which he
completed the commentary on the Fusus to 787 AH, there is an inexplicable gap
of five years of which we know nothing; with regard to the date of writing of
the commentary (in the library of Mar'ashi ‑ written in the
graceful hand of the author) the year 777 AH is recorded, and it is possible
that this treatise, which is part of another volume of commentary, has been
wrongly dated by the writer or has been misread ‑ that is that the middle
number has been inverted: and Allah knows better the truth of all matters.

[22] Henry
Gorbin attributes this work to Haydar Amuli and states that it was written at
the request of his teacher Fakhr al‑Muhaqqiqin. See La Philosophic
shi'ite (Tehran and Paris, 1969), p. 41

[23] This set of
verses ending (in the original) with the refrain 'you see' is an indication of
divine passion and the witnessing of the Truth ‑ which is the basis of
divine gnoses. Such witnessing entails a divine attraction towards oneness by
means of the attributes of tawhid, then an entering into the different
levels of unveiling ‑ in which the heart becomes aware of every molecule ‑
and then a passing into the levels of fana' (annihilation) whereby the
spiritual traveler gives up everything he possesses to his desire for the
divine existence. In doing so, all excess or lack of material wealth ceases to
exist since his own illusory existence has disappeared into oneness with God.
Thereafter there is the baqa' ‑ in which one abides in Allah; in
this state passion is transformed by alchemy into the elixir of existence and
one moves beyond the limits of the world of the senses and the four dimensions.

[24] The editor's commentary on the text
has been omitted since it largely comprises a selection of passages translated
into Persian for the benefit of the Persian reader with a poor knowledge of
Arabic.