The Spiritual Writings of Amir ʿAbd al-Kader

By Michel Chodkiewicz
Translated by James Chrestensen & Tom Manning

Subjects: Islam
Series: SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions
Paperback : 9780791424469, 244 pages, July 1995
Hardcover : 9780791424452, 244 pages, July 1995

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Table of contents

Introduction

I. On the Way

1 God has Stolen my "I" from Me
2. The Two Ways
3. On Pure Love
4. Perfect Adoration
5. Oh, thou, Soul at Peace
6. What then has He Lost who has Found You?
7. On the Necessity of a Spiritual Master
8. The Two Deaths
9. When the Sight will be Dazed . . .
10. On the Prayer by Day and the Prayer by Night
11. On Certitude
12. He who Speaks and he who Listens
13. On the True Fear of God
14. When the Sun will Rise in the Place of its Setting

II. On the Unicity of Being

15. On the Supreme Identity
16. The Truth which should be Concealed
17. On the Eternal Solitude of the Divine Essence
18. Being and Non-being
19. And He is with you wherever you are . . .
20. The Exclusive Orientation
21. Concerning Universal Life
22. The Secrets of the Lam-Alif

III. The Theophanies

23. The Face of God
24. Transcendence and Immanence
25. The Light of the Heavens and of the Earth
26. The Theophanies and their Receptacles
27. The Minaret of the Divine Names

IV. On God and the Gods

28. He is that . . .
29. The God Conditioned by Belief
30. Concerning "Learned Ignorance"

V. On Secondary Causes

31. Divine Knowledge and Divine Decree
32. Concerning the Attribution of Acts
33. On Evil
34. On Secondary Causes
35. The Return to God

VI. On the Prophet

36. On the Imitation of the Prophet
37. Concerning Extinction in the Prophet
38. Concerning Abandonment to God
39. Unitive Vision and Separative Vision

VII. I am God, I am Creature . . .

40. I am God, I am Creature

Notes

Index

A selection of writings by a great nineteenth-century Sufi Shaikh in the direct lineage of Ibn 'Arabi.

Description

Behind 'Abd al-Kader's role of brilliant warrior lay another, that of spiritual master in the direct lineage of Ibn 'Arabi, the Shaikh al-Akbar (the greatest shaikh). The thirty-nine texts translated here were chosen because they represent the major themes of the teaching of 'Abd al-Kader. Many are commentaries on passages from the writings of Ibn 'Arabi. They offer a rare opportunity to share the illumination of a master writing from his own direct experience.