Sufis of Andalucia

The Ruh al-Quds and Al-Durat Fakhirah

M. Ibn 'Arabi, Ralph Austin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415442596
• eBook ISBN: 9781135029937
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Sufis of Andalusia consists of biographical sketches of some of the contemplatives and spiritual masters among whom Ibn 'Arabi spent his early years.

The Translation

1 Abu Ja’far al-’Uryani of Loule¹

This master came to Seville when I was just beginning to acquire knowledge of the Way.² I was one of those who visited him. When I met him for the first time I found him to be one devoted to the practice of Invocation.³ He knew, immediately he met me, the spiritual need that had brought me to see him.

He asked me, ‘Are you firmly resolved to follow God’s Way?’ I replied, ‘The servant may resolve, but it is God Who decides the issue.’ Then he said to me, ‘If you will shut out the world from you, sever all ties and take the Bounteous alone as your companion, He will speak with you without the need for any intermediary.’ I then pursued this course until I had succeeded.

Although he was an illiterate countryman, unable to write or use figures, one had only to hear his expositions on the doctrine of Unity to appreciate his spiritual standing. By means of his power of Concentration⁴ he was able to control men’s thoughts, and by his words he could overcome the obstacles of existence. He was always to be found in a state of ritual purity, his face towards the qiblah⁵ and continuously invoking God’s Names.

Once he was taken captive, along with others, by the Christians.⁶ He knew that this would happen before it took place and he accordngly warned the members of the caravan in which he was travelling that they would all be taken captive on the next day. The very next morning, as he had said, the enemy ambushed them and captured every last man of them. To him, however, they showed great respect and provided comfortable quarters and servants for him. After a short time he arranged his release from the foreigners for the sum of five hundred Dīnars and travelled to our part of the country.¹

When he had arrived it was suggested to him that the money be collected for him from two or three persons. To this he replied, ‘No! I would only want it from as many people as possible; indeed, were it possible I would obtain it from everyone in small amounts, for God has told me that in every soul weighed in the balance on the Last Day there is something worth saving from the fire. In this way I would take the good in every man for the nation of Muḥammad.’

It is also told of him that, while he was still in Seville, someone came and informed him that the people living in the fortress of Kutamah² were in desperate need of rain, begging him to go there and pray for them, so that God might bring them rain.

Although there lay between us and the fortress the sea and an eight-day journey overland, he set off with a disciple of his named Muḥammad. Before they set off someone suggested to him that it would be enough for him to pray for them without traveving to the fortress. He replied that God had commanded him to go to them in person.

When they had finally reached the fortress they found themselves barred from entering it. Nevertheless, unknown to them, he prayed for rain for them and God sent them rain within the hour. On his return he came to see us before going into the city. His disciple Muḥammad later told us that when God had sent the rain it had fallen on all sides of them but that not a drop of it had touched them. When he expressed his surprise to the master that the mercy of God did not descend upon him also, the master replied that it would have done so if only he had remembered when they were at the fortress.³

One day, while I was sitting with him, a man brought his son to the master. He greeted him and told his son to do the same. By this time our master had lost his sight. The man informed him that his son was one who carried the whole of the Qur’an in his memory. On hearing this the master’s whole demeanour changed as a spiritual state came upon him.¹ Then he said to the man, ‘It is the Eternal which carries the transient. Thus it is the Qur’an which both supports and preserves us and your son.’ This incident is an example of his states of spiritual Presence.²

He was staunch in the religion of God and in all things blameless. Whenever I went to see him he would greet me with the words, ‘Welcome to a filial son,³ for all my children have betrayed me and spurned by blessings⁴ except you who have always acknowledged and recognized them; God will not forget that.’

Once I enquired of him how his spiritual life had been in the early days. He told me that his family’s food allowance for a year had been eight sack-loads of figs,⁵ and that when he was in spiritual retreat his wife would shout at him and Abūse him, telling him to stir himself and do something to support his family for the year. At this he would become confused and would pray, ‘0 my Lord, this business is beginning to come between You and me, for she persists in scolding me. Therefore, if You would have me continue in worship, relieve me of her attentions; if not tell me so.’ One day God called him inwardly, saying, ‘0 Aḥmad, continue in your worship and rest assured that before this day is over I will bring you twenty loads of figs, enough to last you two and a half years.’ He went on to tell me that before another hour had passed a man called at his house with a gift of a sack-load of figs. When this arrived God indicated to him that this was the first of the twenty loads. In this way twenty loads had been deposited with him before the sun set. At this his wife was most grateful and his family well content.

The Shaikh was much given to meditation and in his spiritual states generally experienced great joy and hope.¹

On my last visit to him, may God have mercy on his soul, I was with a company of my fellows. We entered his house to find him sitting and we greeted him. It happened that one of our company was intending to ask him a question on some matter or other, but as soon as we had entered, he raised his head to us and said, ‘Let us all consider a point which I have previously put to you, O Abū Bakr (meaning me), for I have always wondered at the saying of Abū al-’Abbās b. al-’Arīf,² “That which never was passes away, while He Who ever is subsists.” We all know that that which never was passes away and that He Who ever is subsists, so what does he mean by it?’ None of the others in our company were prepared to answer him so he offered the question to me. As for me, though I was well able to deal with the question, I did not do so, being very restrained in speaking out. This the Shaikh knew and he did not repeat the question.

When he retired for sleep he did not remove his clothes and when he experienced Audition³ he did not become disturbed, but when he heard the Qur’an being recited his restraint broke down and he became very agitated.⁴ One day I was praying with him at the house of my friend Abū ‘Abdallāh Muḥammad al-Khayyāt,⁵ known as the starcher (al-’Assād), and his brother Abū al-’Abbās Aḥmad al-Ḥarīrī,⁶ when the Imām⁷ was reciting the chapter of the Qur’an entitled ‘The Tidng’.⁸ When he came to the place where God says, ‘Have we not made the earth a resting place and the mountains for supports…”¹. I became abstracted from the Imīm and his recitation and saw inwardly our Shaikh, Abū Ja’far, saying to me, ‘The resting place is the world and the supports are the believers; the resting place is the community of the believers and the supports are the gnostics; the gnostics are the resting place and the prophets are the supports; the prophets are the resting place and the apostles are the supports; the apostles are the resting place and then what?’² He also uttered other spiritual truths, after which my attention returned once more to the reading of the Imīm as he was reciting, ‘… and He speaks aright. That is the true day.’³ After the prayer I asked him about what I had seen and found that his thoughts concerning the verse had been the same as I had heard him express in my vision.

One day a man rushed upon him, knife in hand, to kiU him, at which the Shaikh calmly offered his neck to the man. The Shaikh’s companions tried to seize the fellow, but the Shaikh told them to leave him alone to do what he had been urged to do. No sooner had he raised the knife to cut the Shaikh’s throat than God caused the knife to twist about in the man’s hand so that he took fright and threw the knife to the ground. Then he fell down at the Shaikh’s feet full of remorse.

Were it not for the lack of space I would have related much more concerning this man, of his amazing aphorisms and the discussions we had on spiritual questions.

From ‘al-Durrat al-fākhirah⁴

This Shaikh had turned to God while attending the sessions (majlis) of the Shaikh Abū ‘Abdallāh b. al-Hawwās whom I met and with whom I established a true companionship. I have omitted his Shaikh from this selection since he does not come within the category of persons considered in this work.

Al-‘Uryanī was well known for his being engaged in Invocation whether he was awake or asleep;¹ I myself would often watch his tongue moving in Invocation while he was sleeping. His spiritual states were intense and the people of the locality were ill-disposed towards him, so much so that one of the leading members of the community persuaded them to expel him.² It was in this way that he came to us in Seville.

As a result of their action God sent to the people of that place one of the Jinn,³ called Khalaf, who occupied the house of the above-mentioned leader and forced him out. This Jinn stayed in the house and called the people of the place to come to him, which they did. When they had come to the house they heard the voice of the Jinn asking one of their number if something had been taken from his house and whether he suspected anyone of taking it. Having answered in the affirmative to both questions the Jinn told him that he was wrong in his suspicions and that the name of the real culprit was so and so who was in love with his wife and had committed adultery with her. The Jinn then bade him go and see for himself and he found all that the Jinn had told him to be true. In this ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• THE TRANSLATION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX OF ARABIC TERMINOLOGY
• GENERAL INDEX