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This book is the first comprehensive attempt to explain Ibn
'Arabi's distinctive view of time and its role in the process of
creating the cosmos and its relation with the Creator. By comparing
this original view with modern theories of physics and cosmology,
Mohamed Haj Yousef constructs a new cosmological model that may
deepen and extend our understanding of the world, while potentially
solving some of the drawbacks in the current models such as the
historical Zeno's paradoxes of motion and the recent
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox (EPR) that underlines the
discrepancies between Quantum Mechanics and Relativity.
This book is the first comprehensive attempt to explain Ibn
'Arabi's distinctive view of time and its role in the process of
creating the cosmos and its relation with the Creator. By comparing
this original view with modern theories of physics and cosmology,
Mohamed Haj Yousef constructs a new cosmological model that may
deepen and extend our understanding of the world, while potentially
solving some of the drawbacks in the current models such as the
historical Zeno's paradoxes of motion and the recent
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox (EPR) that underlines the
discrepancies between Quantum Mechanics and Relativity.
This book is one of two unique versions of one of Ibn al-Arabi's
masterworks: the Turjuman al-Ashwaq (The Discloser of Desires) and
his own commentary on it: Dhakhair al-Aalaq (The Precious
Repository). This great work by Ibn al-Arabi has always been
characterized by its bilateral nature; on the outer form it is
wonderful pure love poetry, yet it has a distinctive inner
interpretation on the spiritual and divine planes. This book has
been translated into English at least twice before, but the problem
is how to illustrate its two completely different sides at the same
time. Therefore, this innovative translation is executed in two
different modes; for the poems themselves the rhythmic style was
given the priority by concentrating on the sentiments the author
desired to disclose, while giving more variations and minutiae when
expounding them by translating Ibn al-Arabi's own commentaries and
also extensively linking with related concepts from his other
books. This first version is published under the title: "The
Discloser of Desires," which contains the Turjuman al-Ashwaq alone,
and the second takes the title: "The Precious Repository in
Expounding the Discloser of Desires," which contains Dhakhair
al-Aalaq fi sharh Turjuman al-Ashwaq, and both include an extensive
introduction to the book and to the Greatest Master Muhyiddin Ibn
al-Arabi. The abridged and illustrated version should be enough for
someone who only wants to enjoy reading this inspiring
chef-d'oeuvre, while the full version could be nominated to those
who would like to explore Ibn al-Arabi's immense knowledge and
prominent divine wisdom.
This book is about the biography of a prominent contemporary Sufi
mystic Sheikh Ramadan Deeb al-Dimashqi who is a Sea that minds are
incapable of sailing in his horizons, and imagination is unable to
dive into his depths; yet I want people to know him, though I
realize that my depiction cannot satisfy some of the least of his
attributes, and my words shall no doubt fail to reach the first
degree of high principle, because he combines between the most
decent dignities and simplicity and humility, even many people
around him probably do not pay attention to his presence, while
among the righteous knowledgeable Gnostics he is a shining full
moon and bright light, whose gesture is worth the most precious
gems, and whose Secret is always surrounded by sanctification. When
I met him for the first time, I was confronted with a myriad of
surprises; when I entered the guest room in his home in the Mosque
of Abu-l-Nour, where he meets students and answers questions from
the general people who seek him every day in dozens, so when I
entered I thought to a good degree of certainty that I am in the
workshop of an electrical engineer, and then I said to myself: No,
he must be an electronics engineer, but then I saw other types of
different tools that filled the corners of the small room whose
walls are also filled with books which includes varieties of books
in different languages. Yet I was told that he conducts all such
crafts and reads in all these books and references Then after he
welcomed us and exchange some talking, I began to realize as if he
knows me very well, no but he seemed to really know me more than I
know myself; and he was wisely and ingeniously able to diagnose my
complications and explain them to me without letting anybody feel
that he was speaking personally about me I definitely felt, without
the slightest doubt, that I was an open book in front of him, and
for the first time in my life I realized in practical concrete
terms the divine narration that says: "watch the insight of the
believer since he looks with the light of God." Thus, not only his
shirt and cap are white and his beard is white, but his heart is a
white polished mirror in which reflected the light of God which
allows him to see. He filled his time with teaching and learning
the Koran and hadith, and dedicated himself to the service of
people who come to him from all over the cities and countries, for
their slight affairs and complicated problems, and they find in him
the compassionate Father and Brother, both in worldly matters or in
matters of religion; since he is knowledgeable in various sciences
of jurisprudence and general affairs of religion, and in medical
sciences, as he used to work as physician, and he is expert in
electrical engineering and electronics, construction, mechanics,
agriculture, and even in the Culinary Arts and foods; he simply
does not waste a glimpse of his time but only in science, either
learning and teaching. Yet, although he is prominent mystic and
expert master in the spiritual sciences, he relies mainly on usual
discipline and normal causes. As he was born in 1921, just after
the first world war, when Syria was occupied by France, he was
unable to follow the usual education program, thus he was
illiterate, but he started to take make-up courses at the age of 20
and he took the BSc at the age of 65, and the PhD at the age of 89.
Despite his advanced age, he still carries on all his work by his
hands, driving every day before dawn from his family house in the
countryside to the town center in Damascus to the Mosque of
Abu-l-Nour where he performs the prayers and gives many of his
weekly preaching sessions and meet all the people who come to seek
his advice or help. He has been following this same program for
decades, allowing himself only few hours for sleep. Yet he only
sleeps by the phone and answers his many students and others who
call him from all over the world sometimes not observing the time
difference.
This book is about the Sufi Interpretation of Joseph Story in the
Quran. The interpretation theme is focused on the Path of the Heart
from Being to Annihilation and then to Enduring. Quran is the
ultimate miracle of Islam, because of it is exquisite meanings and
cognizance, and because of the wisdom and guidance and healing for
the believers. One aspect of this supremacy of the Quran is its
multi-layer systems of interpretation; on the outward form the
meanings of most verses are direct and easily understood by the
public, yet with little thoughtful contemplation one could dig for
many fascinating meanings which were not readily understood from
the first reading. But there are even deeper layers of
interpretations which are only accessible to the mystics. It has
been reported that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said
that the Quran has an outward form and an inner form, and its inner
form has yet an inner form, and so on to seven inner levels. The
fundamental key to get to understand these inner levels of
interpretation is based on the mystic Sufi view that everything in
the cosmos is reflected in the human, and vice versa; thus we can
say that the cosmos is a macro-human and the human is a
micro-cosmos. Thus Ibn Arabi explains that Allah created the world
in the image of the Human Being and the Human Being is on the Image
of God. Hence the manifest world, like the Perfect Human Being, is
according to the Image of the Real Himself although without the
Perfect Human Being it could not participate in this perfection.
But there are also other levels of correspondences, for example
between the various prophets and saints or evils and enemies of God
on the one hand and the human intellectual faculties on the other
hand. In this regard, the famous story of the prophet Joseph and
his father Jacob, and his other brothers, in Chapter 12 in the
Quran, is a good example of how the Sufis apply their metaphysical
views on the interpretation of Quran. According to this account,
Joseph corresponds to the Heart who wants to guide the Body or the
Human to salvation, and thus he is favored by his father Jacob, the
Reason, who turns always to the Heart and to the Rational Force
(the brother of Joseph) with love and care and gives them more
attention than their brethren (the five phenomenal senses: Hearing,
Sight, Smell, Taste and Touch, and the five inward senses:
Imagination, Rational, Illusion, Remembrance and Memory, in
addition to Anger and Lust) who only care about themselves and run
after their own fantasies. To this end, these twelve forces -
except the force of Memory, which does not envy the Heart - see
that the Heart has accounted for all the attention of Reason and
took their chances, so they planned to get rid of their brother.
And so the story develops in the same way as it happened in real
life with prophet Joseph and his father and brothers, ... until he
meets the Soul (Zuleika) who fancies him and loves him
passionately, but being on the wrong faith she wanted only to drag
him to fulfill her earthly desires. But God's care and mercy
preceded to the Heart and He saved him from drowning in the sea of
deadly desires, ... so he preferred to stay in seclusion ... where
he stayed in the prison for some years. When he entered in
solitude, entered with him two friends: the power of spiritual love
and the fancy power of the Soul, ... The first later returned to
his lord and the latter was stopped ... when the Soul was about to
elevate into higher level of true faith and her natural love and
desire will turn into spiritual love so she will follow the Heart
in his path to God rather than attracting him to her fantasies...
which will pave the way for the state annihilation in God, which is
the perfection state of the Heart, ... thus he was inaugurated on
the treasures of the earth... and so another phase of the story
begins, the phase of enduring life that starts when the Heart is
fully realized in his Lor
This book is an attempt to shed some light on the aspects of the
life of a great Muslim scholar who devoted himself to knowledge and
wisdom, and Allah has granted him an ample portion and a prodigious
magnitude, and he in turn broadcasted this in his boundless
numerous books, to enlighten the whole world, east and west. By
studying the biography of this great knower, we want to explore
some of these sciences and knowledge bequeathed to us by Allah on
his hands, that made scientists and philosophers sometimes
astounded and sometimes pondering and often unable to dive into the
seas of his words to extract the jewels and pearls therein.
Muhammad Ibn al-Arabi dedicated his entire life to learning and
knowledge, but he did not follow the ordinary way of thought and
consideration, such as other scientists do, rather, he followed the
path of piety that is the only obligation imposed by Allah the
Almighty to take care of educating His servants, because the
Almighty said: (fear Allah and Allah teaches you 2:2282]), and He
said: (O ye who believe if ye fear Allah, He will grant you a
criterion 8:28]), to judge between right and wrong. Thus those who
accomplished piousness they obtained the great divine knowledge
which is the true guiding light. This knowledge obtained by the
appropriate pious is the divine unveiling knowledge of taste (ilm
al-zawq) attained through the spirits of prophets and angels who
irrigate from the sea of eternal knowledge, the Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him, a knowledge of certainty realized by insight and
vitiated by no doubt ever, unlike other theoretical knowledge based
on reasoning that can be true but is often erroneous. The span
between these two kinds of knowledge is like the span between
tasting honey and reading about it in books or hearing its
description from someone who has tasted; the latter may probably
approach the truth after great effort and trouble, yet he may never
be sure, but that who tastes receives his necessary knowledge with
uttering certainty, just by tasting and without any effort or
fatigue, yet with delight and ecstasy, providing the prosperity of
perception; for one might take honey in his sick mouth and he would
not like its taste. Although he was attached with many of master
counselors in his early life, and he was raised up on their hands,
the true repentance of the Greatest Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi,
may Allah be pleased with him, was on the hands of Jesus son of
Mary, peace be upon him, who guided him to the right path at the
beginning of his youth and he took care of all his affairs. After
that, he used to connect with other prophets and messenger,
including the Messenger of Allah Muhammad, peace be upon them all.
In fact, he wrote his many books by direct inspiration from Allah
brought down to him by those high spirits, and the last one of his
many hundreds of such books is the unique book of the bezels of
wisdom (Fusus al-Hikam), that was handed down to him by Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him, in a promising vision he saw in
Damascus in the last ten days of the month of Muharram in the year
627 Hijri, so he conveyed the book out to the world exactly as it
was given to him, no more and no less; that book that spread like
fire amongst the scholars with now hundreds of annotations and it
was translated into many languages, despite its highly symbolic
language and the many equivocal phrases that can be accessed only
by those with enlightened heart and sharp hearing.
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