Shams Part 2

And among them is alFaras alAkbar 1, which is [also] ®ū lŶanā¬ 2. There are twenty stars in the shape of a horse that has a head and two front legs but has no hind legs or rump.

And among them is Andromeda (Andrūmīdā), which is said to be alMar’a alMusalsala3. There are twenty-two stars and their image is that of an upright woman with her hands outstretched, in whose hands there is a chain as if hanging from them. It has also been said that the chain is in his feet.

And among them is alMu’alla£4, which are four stars between the stars of Pisces (alSamaka) and between the bright [star] that is on the head of the ogre (Ra’s algūl). And the set of these figures [of the constellations] of the north are three hundred and sixty stars in all.

As for the southern constellations (januyya), they add up to three hundred and ten stars5, and f one of them is QayÐus 6, which are twenty-two stars and its image is that of a marine animal that has two
front legs (riŷlān) and its tail is like the tail of a fish.

And among them is al-Abbār 7, who are thirty-eight stars, and their image is that of a man on a throne, in whose hand is a staff and at his waist a girdle and a sword. One of its stars is Yad alJawzā’ 8, which is a red star.

Another of them is alNahr 9, which are thirty-four stars, and its figure is that of a stream with many curves.

And among them is alArnab 10, which are twelve stars gathered under the figure of Orion (al-Abbār), resembling a hare whose face is to the west and its back to the east.

And among them is alKalb alAkbar11, which are twenty-eight stars, and those that are alien to its image are eleven stars behind Gemini (alŶawzā’), and in front of the ship (alSafīna). Among its stars is alŠi’rà al’Abūr12, which is a bright star also called al’Abūr, while the second is called alMirzam13. Alṭṣṇa is the star that rises after Gemini (alṣawzā’), and its rising takes place in the intense heat. And these are the two stars called Ši’rà: al’Abūr, which is after Gemini; and alŠi’rà alGumay1⁄2a, which is in al-irā®’ [alMaqbūÅa],14 and the Arabs hold that they are

1 “The great horse”, this is the constellation of Pegasus, also known as alFaras al’AÞam. 2 “The [horse] endowed with wings.”
3 “The Chained Woman”.
4 “The triangle” (Triangulum).

5 Three hundred and sixteen according to manuscript B.
6 “Sea monster”, constellation of the Whale (Cetus). 7 “The Giant”, constellation of Orion.
8 “The hand of al-awzā’,” the α star of Orion.
9 “The River”, constellation of the river Eridanus (Eridanus).
10 “The Hare”, constellation of the Hare (Lepus).
11 “The Canis Major” (Canis majoris).
12 Sirius or star α of Canis Major.
13 “The Precursor”, β of the Canis Major.
14 Here designating the stars α and β of Canis Minor.

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sisters of Suhayl. As for the Mirzamān1, they are the forerunners of the two Ši’rà, and they are two stars, one of them is next to alŠi’rà alŠāmiya and the other in al-irā®’ [alMaqbūÅa].

And between them is alKalb alA1⁄2gar 2, and they are two stars, one of them called alŠi’rà alŠāmiya and also [alŠi’rà] alGumay1⁄2a, both bright stars.

And among them is alSafīna3, forty-five stars gathered in the south that come out in the footsteps of alKalb alAkbar, among them being Suhayl, the red star.

And among them is al-Huja’ 4, which is twenty-five stars, and those outside of it are two stars. Its figure is that of a long serpent with many curves, and its upper part is above the figure of the square of Pegasus (alFaras). It starts from the scorpion’s pincers (Zubānā al’Aqrab)5, and is between alSi’rà alSāmiya and Qalb alAsad.

Another of them is alKa’s 6, which are seven circular-shaped stars that are located on the back of alŠuŷā’, and is [also] called alBāÐiyya 7.

And among them is al-Gurāb 8. There are seven stars, and it is called ‘Arš alSimāk alA’zal 9, and also ibā©’ 10.

Another constellation is Centaurus (Qanðūris). There are thirty-seven stars and their image is that of an animal composed of man and horse, whose front part is that of a man from his head to his back, and the back is that of a horse from the beginning of its back to its tail, which grasps with its hand a leg of a wild beast (Sabu’). And the Arabs call it Šamārīj 11.

And among them is alSabu’ 12, which are nineteen stars gathered behind the stars of the Centaur, next to the southern part of Scorpio (al’Aqrab).

And among them is alIklīl alJanubī 13, and there are thirteen stars whose figure is a conical shape, and its name is alQubba 14, for that is how the Arabs call it.

1 Stars β of Canis Major and Canis Minor.
2 Canis minor (Canis minoris).
3 “The Ship”, constellation of the Argo, which is currently divided into the constellations of Carina,

Puppis and Vela.
4 “The serpent”, constellation of the hydra (Hydra).
5 Alpha and beta Libra stars; we correct the original, where it is written “Zubānā alSaraÐayn”, a name that

it does not designate any star or constellation.
6 “The Cup”, constellation of the Crater.
7 “The little jug”.
8 “The Raven”, constellation of the Raven (Corvus) 9 “The throne of the unarmed Simāk”.

10 “The store”.

11 “The [date-laden] branches”, a constellation that among the ancient Arabs occupied the space of the Ptolemaic constellations of the Centaur and the Wolf (Lupus).

12 “The beast”, corresponds to the constellation of the Wolf (Lupus). 13 “The crown of the south” designates the Southern Crown.
14 “The Dome”.

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And among them is the©ūt al-Anubī 1, which is eleven stars, and those outside its figure are six stars. Its shape is that of a large fish whose stars are south of the stars of Aquarius (alDalū); its head is to the east and its tail to the west.

And among them is alMijmara2, south of the gems of [the crown of] scorpion3. And this is the set of the stars of the south and the north.

I say that this is what some sages mentioned concerning the stars that are not very well known. As for the seven planets and their characteristics, we will mention it, God willing, exalted be He, in the chapters that follow, and God, praise be to Him, is wiser.

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APART ABOUT THE VOLUMES [OF THE PLANETS] AND WHAT RELATES TO THEM e

You must know that the volume of the Sun is one hundred and sixty and a half times that of the Earth. 4. The volume of the Moon is thirty-nine times that of the Earth, and in the same way Venus, Mercury and Mars. The volume of Jupiter is eighty-twice the earth, and Jupiter is also called al¬war5. And Saturn’s volume is ninety-nine times larger than Earth.

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One of our teachers said that the body of the Sun [has power] fifteen degrees in front of it and also behind it. The body of the Moon [has power] twelve degrees in front of it and also behind. Jupiter’s body has nine degrees in front and also behind, as does Saturn’s body. The body of Mars has power eight degrees in front of you and also behind you. The body of Venus has seven degrees in front of it and also behind it, just like the body of Mercury, and God is wiser!6

And you must know that every star in the sky occupies the volume of the Earth, and it has been said that it supposes its volume many times, with the exception of the moon, which is smaller than the earth. And as for those who say that the smallest star in the sky occupies several times the volume of the earth, it is true, but not the moon, which has not been admitted by anyone.

The most important fixed stars are al-i’rà al’Abūr, al-Simāk, al-Nasr al-Æā’ir, alNasr al-Wāqi’, Qalb al-Asad and others, being fifteen in all, and each of them occupies ninety-four and a half times the volume of the earth.

1 Constellation of the Southern Fish (Piscis Austrinus)

2 “The cauldron” designates the constellation of the Altar (Ara). Both manuscripts erroneously spell the Majarra, “the Milky Way”.

3 We believe that it refers to alIklīl, “the crown [of the scorpion].” See above, p. 25, n. 6.
4 The Berlin manuscript reads one hundred and sixty-six.
5 A word used to designate an eye that has a very black iris and a very white cornea (or that

person who has eyes this way), probably alluding to the appearance of the planet Jupiter. 6 Cf. ABŪ M A’ŠAR, The Abbreviation of the Introduction to Astrology, p. Question 34.

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APART ON THE JOURNEY OF THE SEVEN PLANETS to

You should know that the Moon travels the sky in twenty-nine days and less than a third of a day. Mercury travels through it in less than twenty-eight days. Venus travels through it in two hundred and twenty-four days and a little more than a third of a day. The Sun travels through it in three hundred and sixty-five days and a little more than a quarter of a day. Mars travels it in six hundred and thirty days. Jupiter travels through it in eleven years and three hundred and twenty-seven days. And Saturn traverses the firmament in twenty-nine Persian years and one hundred and seventy-six days; and Allah, may He be praised and exalted, knows better what is right.

APARTADO ON THE STANZAS (maqamāt) [OF THE SEVEN PLANETS] IN THE ZODIACAL CONSTELLATIONS

You should know that the stay of the Moon in each zodiac constellation is two days and three nights. The stay of Mercury in each zodiacal constellation is fifteen days. The stay of Venus in each zodiacal constellation is twenty-five days. The Sun’s stay in each zodiacal constellation is one month. The stay of Mars in each zodiacal constellation is forty-five days. Jupiter’s stay in each zodiacal constellation is one year. And Saturn’s stay in each zodiac sign is 30 months, and God is wiser!

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ONTHE EXALTATION (ŠARAF) OF THE PLANETS

c

APARTADO SOBRE LA VÍA LÁCTEA (ALMAŶARRA) D

You should know that the exaltation of the Moon takes place in Taurus, the exaltation of Mercury is in Virgo, the exaltation of Venus is in Pisces, the exaltation of the Sun is in Aries, the exaltation of Mars is in Capricorn, the exaltation of Jupiter is in Cancer, and the exaltation of Saturn is in Libra.

It was said that it is a lamp in the sky because it gathers the stars together like the vault; it is the gate of heaven and the Arabs call it “the mother of the stars” (um alnujūm), because there is no place in the sky where there are more stars.

STARTINGON THE SEVEN DAYS THAT CORRESPOND TO EACH PLANET

You should know that Sunday is for the Sun, Monday for the Moon, Tuesday for Mars, Wednesday for Mercury, Thursday for Jupiter, Friday for Venus and Saturday for Saturn.

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ASECTION ON THE CONJUNCTION (IQTIRĀN) OF THE PLANETS

The meaning of conjunction (alqirān) is that the two planets are united in a single zodiac sign, so that they influence each other by the decree of Allah, may He be exalted, as it takes place during it. You must understand this, for when Saturn is conjunct Jupiter, wars are spread in the regions, and a certain king of the earth will die; when Saturn is conjunct Mars it happens just as we have said, and when the Sun is conjunct Saturn occurs as well. When Venus is conjunct Saturn, it implies rising prices and drought. When Saturn is conjunct Mercury, it implies the good situation of learned men (alkuttāb). When Saturn

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it is conjunct the Moon, it indicates the appearance of injustice. And when Jupiter is conjunct Mars, the world suffers great misfortunes, and God is wiser!

APART ABOUT THE NATURAL QUALITIES OF THE PLANETS

You should know that the Moon is feminine, cold, and phlegmatic in nature (balgamī), and there is heat in it accidentally, because its light comes from the light of the sun. Its domain resides in the spleen and lung, and it is fasta minor.

Mercury is masculine and feminine, sometimes lavish and sometimes disastrous, and heat and cold are balanced in its nature. Their domain is speech and writing.

Venus is a mixed female, of good omen, cold and wet, and has phlegm [as a natural humor]. Its domain is the sexual organs and joints. To her belong passion, the braiding of [the bride’s] crown, the harmony of melodies, singing, fun and laughter.

c

The Sun is masculine, warm, dry and has yellow bile. It is splendid in appearance (naÞar), nefarious in opposition (muqābala). Its metal is gold, its dominion is over the heart (alfu’ād) and it has nobility, greatness, joy, joy and power.

Mars is feminine, warm, dry and nefarious, it has yellow bile, its metal is iron and its taste is bitter. Its dominion takes place over the head and stomach, and it has the fatal disease, death, and weakness of women in pregnancy.

Jupiter is masculine, temperate, pneumatic (rū¬ānī), airy, of good omen, and has blood [as a natural humor]. Its metal is tin, its flavor is pleasant and its color is white. Its dominion is over the pneuma that dwells in the heart. And he has the gift, the devotion, the greatness, and the dominion.

And Saturn is masculine, cold, dry, disastrous, it has black bile and its metal is lead. Its taste is bitter and its color is black. His dominion is over the testicles (mā2ākīr) and he has courage, isolation, uniqueness, submission and predestination. And God is wiser!

Some people maintain that these zodiacal constellations, the stars and the planets influence the world, that they are the organizers of the [seven] worlds, and they argue with His saying, exalted be He!: ﴾ By those who conduct a matter! ﴿1, and [argue] in that sense. We will say that it has already been transmitted that Idrīs2, peace be upon him, when he ascended to heaven, informed us of the zodiacal constellations, the stars and the rest [stars]. What came from him concerning this chapter is accepted, and that which is forbidden by the law will not be dealt with, for on the contrary the arguments and proofs arose that the Creator, may He be praised and exalted, created, elevated, and invented.

1 Cor. LXXIX:5.
2 The prophet Enoch.

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And as for His saying: ﴾ By those who conduct a business! ﴿, Ibn ‘Abba’s said that they are the angels, some in charge of providing food, others in charge of the rain and others in charge of the winds, when he mentioned the creation of the angels. And if they are commissioned, then it is by the decree of the Creator, exalted and glorified be He, for He is the Mighty, the Knower, the Organizer, the Wise, praised and exalted be He! Praise be to Him to whom this power and this wisdom belongs!, ﴾ Do not Creation and the Command belong to Him? Blessed be God, Lord of the worlds! ﴿ 1.

1 Cor. VII:53.

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CHAPTER FIVE
ONTHE SECRETS OF THE BASILAND THE MYSTERIES AND HIDDEN BLESSINGS IT HAS

You should know, may Allah help you to fulfill His obedience, that whoever knows the secrets that Allah, may He be praised and exalted, deposited in BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ramon al-Ram, and writes it, will not burn in hell. In the same way he who writes it and harmonizes it [in magic square] will not burn in hell. And it is narrated to us that when BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ramon descended from his descent, the mountains trembled because of his descent, and the jailer angels (alzabāniya)1 said that he who recites it will not enter hell, for there are nineteen letters, according to the number of the angels in charge of hell, God save us from them!

Whoever recites it continuously, gains prestige in the upper and lower world, for it was the first thing that the Supreme Calamus (alQalam al’alawī) wrote on the surface of the Tablet, and it is [the formula] with which God raised up King Sulaymān b. Dāwūd, peace be upon him! And he who writes it six hundred times2 and carries it with him, acquires respect in the hearts of creatures.

It is narrated from ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Umar3, may Allah be satisfied with both, who said: Whoever has a need of Allah, exalted be He, let him fast on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and when it is Friday, let him purify himself and go to the mosque, give some alms. for the more the better, and when he says the Friday prayer, he says after it: “My God, I beseech You by Your name ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿ ﴾ There is no god but Him. He knows the hidden and the apparent. He is the Gracious, the Merciful ﴿ 4. And I ask you by your name, ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿, who ﴾ there is no god but Him, the Living, the Subsistent. Neither drowsiness nor sleep takes hold of Him. To Him belongs all that is in heaven and earth” ﴿ 5. And I ask you by name ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿, before whom faces are humbled, voices are silenced and hearts tremble with fear. I ask you to bless and save our Lord Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, and to solve my need, which is such and such,” and you will mention them. And he used to say, “Do not make it known to the wicked, for some who call on it are listened to.”

It is related of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and save him), who said: “There is no between BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ramon al-Ram and the Supreme Name of Allah, but what is between the black of the eye and the white of the eye.” And the Prophet (may Allah bless him and save him) said: “The veil that lies between men and demons is ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ra¬īm ﴿ 6.

1 According to the Qur’an (xcvi:18), this name is given to the angels charged with casting the damned into hell.
2 The base manuscript says one hundred times, while manuscript D says six hundred and forty-six.
3 ‘Abd Allah b. ‘Umar b. alKhaððāb (d. 693 CE), son of Caliph ‘Umar, was an important traditionist and

transmitter of prophetic sayings. 4 Cor. Lix:22.

5 Cor. II:254.
6 Neither of these two sayings is found in the collections available to us.

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[APARTADO SOBRE EL NOMEN, SUPREMO DE DIOS]

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“Bismi” is the implied name, which indicates that behind it is the Supreme Name, which is Allāh, because this is the name of the Majesty (aljalāla), it is the name of the supreme Essence (al-āt®al-‘aliya), it is the name that brings together the meanings of all the most beautiful Names of God, it is the sovereign of all Names, for to him they refer, and it is for the [most beautiful Names of God] as the standard, because when you ask Who is the Gracious, you say Allāh. And in this way the rest of the Names are attributes of him and are recognized in the Majesty and superiority of his Excellency.

And it is superior to the rest of the Names, for if you suppress the letter alif in it, there remains “liLlāh” (for God), if you suppress the first lām, there remains “laHu” (for Him), and if you suppress the second lām, Huwa (Him) remains, for each letter of it is a name containing its very essence. That is not so with His other Names, for if you suppress one of His letters, its meaning is lost, while this Supreme Name is inculcated in each of His letters without its meaning being distorted. So it has a virtue over the rest of the Names and a sign that indicates that it is the Name of the sacred Essence and firm in Power and Perpetuity. And He has another distinction in denoting the odd Unity and the Divine Oneness, for indeed His first letter is the alif, which is the first of the letters and the first number of the units, since He is unique in His attribution, one in number, and this indicates the Unity of His Master, Who created Him. And the last of its letters is the hā’, which indicates the divine Oneness of its Lord, for none of the other divine Names ends with this letter.

He says in the language of His condition: I am the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden One ﴿1; then He completed it with the attribute of Clemency, of Mercy, and said, Exalted be He: ﴾ the Gracious, the Merciful ﴿ 2. Therefore he said: ﴾ Say: Call on God or call the Gracious, however you call on Him. He possesses the most beautiful names ﴿ 3. It is better for You to invoke Him by saying “O Allah”, for this Name comprises the two attributes of Divine Mercy. And all Names are noble, so if you want to ask for mercy, you will say “O Clement”, since it is the most concrete [Name] of the most concrete [Name] (aja1⁄21⁄2 alaja1⁄21⁄2), with “Allāh” being the most concrete of the Names and the most congruent.

b

It is a Syriac name, and as for its interpretation, it means “one who extracts things from non-existence to existence”, and it has meanings that for those who observe them it is indispensable to hide them
from the wicked, so that they do not succeed in doing evil and forbidden acts, thus losing the esteem of God. exalted be he, as Bal’ām b. Bā’ūrā, when by this
He wished to disobey God, 5 in Allah we take refuge from His wrath, and do not consider us among those who
use His sublime Name to disobey Him.

1 Cor. LVII:3.
2 Cor. i:2, etc.
3 Cor. XVII:109.
4 That is, it includes the meaning of al-Ramon and al-Ram.
5 This is the biblical Bil’am b. Beor, who in the Pentateuch appears as a prestigious soothsayer, and whom he

some commentators believe that it is alluded to in Cor. vii:175: ﴾Tell them the case of the one to whom We gave Our Signs and he emptied himself of them, then the Šay��ān went after him and was among the deviants. According to Ibn ‘Abbaş he had knowledge of the Supreme Name, and when Mūsà confronted the Canaanites, Bal’am used it against the Prophet (See the English translation of the Qur’an by Abdel Ghani Melara Navío, Medina: Mujamma’ alMalik Fahd liÆibā’a alMu1⁄2¬af alŠarīf, 1417 h., p. 273).

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Know that this sublime name has four letters: an alif, two lām, and a hā’, for the natural qualities are four, the regions of the earth are four: east, west, north, and south, and the angels of praise (altasbī¬) are four: Ŷabrā’īl, Mīkā’īl, Isrāfīl, and ‘Azrā’īl.

[APARTADO SOBRE LOS CUATRO ÁNGELES DE LA ALABANZA]

Jabbra’īl, peace be upon him, is in charge of carrying the message to the messenger prophets, and he is in charge of conquest and victory, for through him Allah, may He be exalted, causes the disbelief of the nations to perish by extinction, shock, terror, and throwing [their souls into the flames].

Isrāfīl is in charge of the horn and the blowing. He has appointed three breaths: the breath of terror, by His saying, exalted be He: ﴾ Those who are in heaven and who are on earth will be terrified, except those whom God wills ﴿1; the breath of thunder for His saying: ﴾ And those who are in heaven and who are on earth will be struck down ﴿2, and the breath of the resurrection, by His saying: ﴾ Then it will be breathed into him again, and then they will stand waiting ﴿ 3. So each horn blast has a mystery assigned to it.

‘Azrā’īl, peace be upon him, is charged with gathering souls and annihilating them, for in this lies the extinction of tyrants and the elimination of the arrogant and sinners. In this also lies the believer’s rest, his union with his Lord, the fulfillment of his hopes and his rejoicing in what God has given him through His nobility, His generosity, His forgiveness, His indulgence and His mercy.

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Mīkā’īl, peace be upon him, is charged with providing for the servants of God, for replenishing what has been consumed, for replenishing their strength, and preserving their existence, for there is not a single grain of sesame on earth that is not in charge of one of his [angels] helpers, so that he can bring it to its owner. Each of them has innumerable helpers, and they have litanies and magical operations corresponding to them, by which their help is requested.

These four angels have days of their own: Jaabrā’īl, peace be upon him, has Monday, because it is cold and damp. Isrāfīl, peace be upon him, has Thursday, being hot and humid. ‘Azrā’īl, peace be upon him!, has the Sabbath, as it relates to the qualities of cold and dryness, its nature being that of earth, death, and extinction. And Mīkā’il (peace be upon him) has Wednesday, for in it there is a mixture of the four natural qualities.

And the four angels have four magic squares (jawātim) of their own, the mention of which follows, God willing, exalted be He! They are the 9 x 9 for Jaabrā’īl, peace be upon him!, the 4 x 4 for Isrāfīl, peace be upon him, the 3 x 3 for ‘Azrā’īl, peace be upon him!, and the 8 x 8 is from Mīkā’īl,

1 Cor. XXVII:89. 2 Cor. xxxix:65. 3 Cor. xxxix:65.

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Peace be upon him! And as for its magic squares to which we have alluded, they are the following:

Square of the Moon – ‘Azrā’īl Square of Mercury – Isrāfīl

Fig. 10

492 357 816

Square of Saturn – Ŷabrā’īl (perpetual sum 369)

8 11 14 1 13 2 7 12 3 16 9 6 10 5 4 15

Fig. 11

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45 49 35 57 25 65 15 73 5 4 44 48 34 56 24 64 14 81 80 3 43 47 33 55 23 72 13 12 79 2 42 46 32 63 22 71 70 11 78 1 41 54 31 62 21 20 69 10 77 9 40 53 30 61 60 19 68 18 76 8 39 52 29 28 59 27 67 17 75 7 38 51 50 36 58 26 66 16 74 6 37

Square of Jupiter – Mīkā’īl

Fig. 12

39 55 30 14 44 60 17 1 63 47 6 22 52 36 9 25 12 28 49 33 7 23 62 46 20 4 41 57 31 15 38 54 29 13 40 56 18 2 35 51

5 21 64 48 10 26 59 43 42 58 19 3 37 53 32 16 50 34 11 27 61 45 8 24

And when you want to do some work on the four squares, you will write a stamp after you write its numbering, insert it into the square, and check its correctness. And if you add to this the name of the object of the ritual, then it is more effective and faster in what you ask.

Fig. 13

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[ISUMMONING THE MAGIC SQUARE OF 9 X 9 TO DO GOOD] TO

As for the magic square of 9 x 9, it will be written on white paper or in pure white silver, on Monday with the sunrise, at the time of the moon. If your work is for good, write it down when the moon is waxing in light and calculation (¬isāb),1 being in its moment of exaltation or good omen, and free from harmful influences. And you will utter the words that we will mention below, for you will certainly get what you expect and you will attain your object of desire.

And as for whether it is for disobedience to God, then in the forbidden there is no response. If, on the other hand, you want to take revenge on harmful enemies, on an evil person or a tyrant, then let the moon be waning, and be in a state of application (itti1⁄2āl) 2 with Saturn or Mars. Beware of using it against those who do not deserve it, and beware that you do not delight [in it], let us seek refuge in God: ﴾He who has patience and forgives, he is among those who are well disposed ﴿3, ﴾He who forgives and reconciles has his reward with God ﴿ 4, ﴾ And whoever defends himself after having suffered some injustice… There is no reason to go against them ﴿ 5.

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Then you will fumigate it with the most pleasant-smelling incense and for evil with the opposite. And if the moon is in a zodiac sign of the air (riya¬ī), hang your work to the wind; if it is in a sign of
fire, then [put] it in the fire or you shall hang it over the fire; if it is in a sign of water, hang it over
the water, or bury it beside the water, and if you prefer to leave it in the water, then let it be inside a
quiver of Persian reed blinded with wax, and pronouncing the words that follow afterwards. If the moon is in
a zodiacal sign of the earth, you will bury your work on earth under the threshold of its door, or your door
if you want to attract it to you, for even if it is the caliph he will answer you and fulfill your requests.

As for what You are to say for good, for they are these words: “My God, I ask You by Your most beautiful names, all of them praiseworthy and glorious, those that when they take place over something, it becomes insignificant before them, when You pray with them for blessings, You obtain them, and when You want to turn away from misfortunes through them, you step aside. [I pray] by Your perfect words, that ﴾ If all the trees on earth were limestones, and the sea along with seven other seas were ink, God’s words would not be exhausted. God is Powerful, Wise ﴿ 6. O Sufficient, O Protector, O Forgiving, O Merciful, O Benevolent, O Provider, O Lover, O Victorious, O Immense, O Generous, O Giver, O Who Extends [Sustenance], O Lord of Power, O Lord of Favor, O Giver, O Enricher, O Clement, O Merciful, O Rich, O Compassionate, O Benefactor, O Magnanimous, O Benefactor, O Benefactor, O Favorer. My God, grant that by what You allow I may dispense with what You have forbidden, through obedience to You of disobedience, and through Your favor from Him who seeks to equal You, O Gracious, O Most Merciful, O Most Gracious of the Merciful. I pray Thee, O my God, by Thy name Allah, that there is no god but Him, the Beautiful, the Gracious, the Merciful, the Merciful, the Best.

1 Cf. ABŪ M A’ŠAR, The Abbreviation of the Introduction to Astrology, p. 32. 2 Cf. ABŪ M A’ŠAR, p. 40.3
Cor. XLII:40.
4 Cor. XLII:37

5 Cor. XLII:38. 6 Cor. XXXI:26.

b

71

Subtle, the Wise, the Pious, the Forgiving, the Trustworthy, the Custodian, the Answerer [of prayers], the Helper, the Near, the Swift, the Noble, the Lord of majesty and generosity, the Lord of Power, the Benefactor.”

And know that the bearer of these names acquires nobility of character and improves in honesty and piety with people, as well as people with him, for they will witness among the traits of subtlety admirable things in him. And he will obtain the acceptance of his appearance, for his exterior and interior will be beautified, since in it resides the Supreme Name of God, with which if you invoke, you are heeded, and if you ask, it is granted to you. It is one of the most sublime invocations and one of the most distinguished, and there is no one who persists in its recitation without having a great deal of knowledge revealed to him, and God giving him what he asks, granting him what he desires in the most important matters. He who recites it repeatedly in the middle of the night is a witness of wonderful things to the extent of his aspiration (himma), for its continued invocation opens the hidden secrets. And no one perseveres in his invocation unless he sees among the affairs of the upper world a breeze of the secrets of the Cosmos (alKawn), and every world of angels, men, jinn and spirits (ahl alta1⁄2wīr) is placed at his service, for they are the perfect words and in them reside the wonders of the mysteries.

[ONTHE VIRTUES OF SOME DIVINE NAMES]1

1. 62

His Name ‘the Sufficient’ (alKāfī), to everyone who recites it continuously and desires something that he does not attain, God causes him to obtain it from where he did not expect or suspect it. And everyone who constantly repeats it
and finds himself in a weak position, intending to ask to be in a higher position, for Allah, exalted be He, will make it easier for him to reach it without great fatigue, or any loss of the condition in which he was. And he who perseveres in his repeated invocation, returns to him what he had lost.

As for His Name ‘the Protector’ (al-Walī), for God is the protector of the believers.

As for His Name the Forgiving, it is good for avoiding hardships on earth and in relation to the Otherworld.

As for His Name ‘the Mercious’ (alra’ūf), His repeated invocation is good for the fearful, for no one perseveres in it unless he finds the calm of security and his fear is calmed. And he who has a great knowledge of it mentioned that he who perseveres in this repeated invocation until he is seized by a spiritual state derived from it and in a state of fasting, can catch the fire without it harming him; and if in that state it blows into a kettle boiling over the fire, it lessens its boiling, God willing, exalted be He!, except that the Names ‘the Patient’, ‘the Pious’ and ‘the Benefactor’ must be added to it, saying: “O Patient, O Merciful, O Benefactor”.

And he who writes this invocation (2ikr) at the hour of the moon, on the first Monday of the month, and thereby finds himself in front of the person whose wickedness he fears, for God extinguishes his wickedness when he sees him. And there is no person who is dominated by an earthly passion and perseveres in the continual invocation of these three Names whom Allah, exalted be He, does not free from the desire he feels for it during the invocation.

b

1 The following Divine Names are mentioned in the above invocation.

72

As for His Name ‘the Subtle’ (alLaÐīf), He is the quickest to calm distress in times of adversity, without adding any other [Name], showing in His effects the most astonishing.
Everyone who recites it continuously when he suffers some suffering in his soul or body, for God
causes his suffering to cease during the invocation. If it is recited by someone in whose midst there is an important matter that distresses him, and figuring it in his imagination he begins to invoke it repeatedly while visualizing that matter in his mind, he will witness something wonderful, how he gets rid of it and disappears [the anguish], because he will not get up from his place and there is something left of it to frighten him.

And that [Name] is profitable for all diseases and diseases and their eradication. The way to deal with it is that you will write and drink [its filter] for all pains. It shall be written one hundred and sixty times, which is the total of the numerical values of its letters1, then you shall unfold the letters of the Name and write each letter its number of times, in this way: the alif one hundred and forty-two times, the lām one hundred and two times, the Ðā’ ten times, the yā’ eleven times, and the fā’ eighty-one times, 2 [For in this way] you will get rid of the sicknesses and overcome.

As for His name ‘the Provider’ (alRazzāq) and the ‘Very Loving’ (alWadūd), they are for the one who experiences infatuation, their effects are distinguished in him and his circumstances increase, for he who takes the name of the person whose love he desires and adds ‘alWadūd’ to it fifty-one times3 together with the name of the applicant, Separate them (kasr) until that name is found again at the end4, then you will take the ones above [the last row] separated, put them on a piece of paper that you will carry with you and meet the person from whom you desire their love, for he will certainly love you, follow you and depend on you, after you make this invocation the number of times mentioned, after writing it and after sprinkling it with the most aromatic of incense, and you will have prayed two rak’at, the first with the Fāti¬a (‘um alQur’ān) and the surah of theZodiac 5, and the second with the Fāti¬a and the surah ﴾ Have we not opened your chest? ﴿6 three times. Then you will write it down and arrange it in the manner we have mentioned, seeing a wonder in it. And in the same way you will act with the rest of the preceding divine Names.

[APART ON THE VIRTUES OF THE BASILICA]

It is said that when BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ramon al-Ramim descended, the angels of heaven rejoiced, the throne trembled at her descent, a thousand angels descended beside her, the angels grew in faith, the genii prostrated themselves, the stars were agitated, and the sovereigns humbled before her greatness.

And ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿ was written on the forehead of Ādam, peace be upon him!, before he was created for five hundred years.

1 Add up the values of the letters that make up the Name, including the item.

2 In this case he takes the values of the name of each letter, except in the case of the alif and the lām, to which he adds 31, the value of the article “aliflām”.

3 Add the letters of alWadūd, including the article.

4 This refers to the procedure in which letters are exchanged in successive rows until they meet again in the same order as the first row in the last row.

5 Cor. lxxxv. 6 Cor. xciv.

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to

b

73

And ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm was written on a wing of Ŷibrīl, peace be upon him!, on the day of his descent on Ibrāhīm alKhal, peace be upon him!, and he said: ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿, ﴾ We said: Fire! Be cold and harmless to Ibrāhīm! ﴿1.

And ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿ was written on the staff of Mūsà, peace be upon him!; it was written in the Syriac language, and if it were not for that the sea would not have parted before him.

And ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿ was written in the tongue of ‘Īsā b. Maryam, peace be upon him!, on the day he spoke in the cradle, and with her he spoke to the dead and they rose again at the command of Allah, exalted be He!

And ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿ was written on the seal of Sulaymān b. Dāwūd, peace be upon him!

c

One of its virtues (faÅā’il) is that it is found at the beginning of every surah of the Noble Qur’an. And if a person recites BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram al-Ra¬īm ﴿, the number of times the value of his letters added five hundred and eighty-four times, for seven days with some intention, for he obtains that benefit or avoids that harm, or the merchandise [he intends to sell] will be sold, God willing, exalted be He!

If one recites BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm twenty-one times in sleep, that night one is safe from the accursed Devil, safe from theft, from sudden death, and avoids all misfortune.

Among the peculiar virtues (jawā1⁄21⁄2) of BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ra¬īm ﴿, one is that if you recite it in front of an evil person fifty times, he submits to it, and Allah, exalted be He, inculcates the fear of Him in that person’s heart, and he is safe from his wickedness.

Another of the peculiar virtues of BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram al-Ram is that if it is recited for any ailment a hundred times for three days, Allah, exalted be He, causes that ailment to cease.

And if it is recited at sunrise in front of it for three days three hundred times, and it is prayed by the Prophet our Lord Muhammad, may Allah bless and save him, a hundred times, God provides for you from where you do not expect it, without changing this situation until Allah, may He be exalted, has filled you with His grace. Perseverance [in recitation] is necessary as we have mentioned.

Another of the peculiar virtues of BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ramon al-Ram is that if it is recited by a prisoner, Allah, blessed and exalted be He, frees him even though he is condemned to death, if he recites it every day and night a thousand times.

If someone recites one hundred and thirteen times ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram ﴿ on Friday while the preacher is in the mimbar, and then raises his hands and implores Allah, exalted be He, at the moment,

d

1. 64

to

1 Cor. XXI: 68.

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from the prayer (du’ā’) of the preacher in the pulpit, and there is in his mind something that he desires, he obtains it by the command of Allah, exalted be He!

If one recites BismiLlāh al-Ra¬mān al-Ra¬īm in order to obtain love, reciting it over a glass of water the number of times mentioned above, and gives that water to drink [to the person who is desired], he will love him intensely and exclusively, provided that it is within the lawful. And if the fool is given to drink of this water at sunrise for several days, the foolishness that is in him disappears and he memorizes everything he hears, by the command of God, exalted be He!

If it is recited with the fall of the rain sixty-one times, with the intention of asking for rain for any place on earth, God, exalted be He, bring the rain that same day to that place, even if it is the town you want in the east and the place you want in the west.

Whoever recites BismiLlāh alRaṣmān alRaṣṇ after the morning prayer (al1⁄2ub¬) with sincere intention and humble heart for forty days, Allah, exalted be He, pours into his heart the hidden aspects of the mysteries, and sees in his dreams all that is happening in the world. As for the number of times it is to be recited, for it is two thousand five hundred times each day, the practice of asceticism [and abstention] from everything that has a vital breath or that derives from it is indispensable, for he will certainly see a prodigy, and if he keeps his secret he will obtain what he desires.

[METHODOF OPERATING WITH THE BASMALATO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE]

b

You must know, brother, God help us to fulfill His obedience, that I will not explain anything about Basmala and its virtues that is not profitable within obedience to God, exalted be He, because I have a responsibility to you.

When you want to operate with it to meet your needs and to gain the acceptance of the lords, then fast on Thursday, and you will only break the fast with oil or dates. Then you will pray the sunset prayer (almagrib) and recite it one hundred and twenty-one times, and when you lie on your right side on your cot you will recite it indefinitely until you fall asleep. When you wake up on Friday, pray the evening prayer (al1⁄2ub¬), recite it the same number of times as in the previous evening prayer, and write it on a piece of paper with musk, saffron and rose water, which paper will be fumigated with aloe wood and ambergris, the Basmala having already written the number of times mentioned, and by God that there is no man or woman who bears this writing without it turning in the eyes of the people like the shining moon, and being powerful, respected, distinguished, pleased, and honored, and everyone who sees it loves it and solves its problem, imposing respect and affection for it on the hearts of all creatures. And this is the way you will act:

c

You can write it this way: b s m a l l h a l r ¬ m n a l r ¬ and m writing it twenty-one times. Or you can write it normally, in the way we mentioned in the first place,

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writing it like this: ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿, on a gazelle-skin parchment one hundred and fifty-one times with rose water and saffron. Then you will fumigate it with cost, storax resin, and benzoin. By the person whose sustenance is insufficient, for his problem is over and God, exalted be He, opens the door of goods for him. And if the person in debt carries this parchment with him, then God, exalted be He, settles his debt, having in it a protection against all evil and all misfortune.

[VIRTUDES PECULIARES DE LA BAASMALA]

If it is written forty times on a crystal cup, it is erased with water [from the well] of Zamzam1 or drinking water from another well, and a sick man drinks from that water, Allah, exalted be He, heals him. And if a woman with complications in childbirth drinks from that water, she gives birth immediately, God willing, exalted be He, safe from all misfortune and unharmed.

If the Basmala is written on a sheet of parchment thirty-five times and hung in the house, no demon or genie will enter it, and the blessing in your house and your goods will increase. If you hang this sheet or another similar one in a store, your clientele increases, your profits increase, and your products and merchandise are easily sold; and Allah, exalted be He, hides that from the eyes of the wicked. All this through the blessing of Basmala and the blessing of God, exalted be He!

If it is written on the first day of the month one hundred and thirteen times on a sheet of paper and carried by a person with him, he and his family will not suffer any misfortune or inconvenience during his life.

and

If it is written on a sheet for the miqlāt woman, who is the woman from whom no child lives, and also for the barren woman, who is the one who does not become pregnant, after a period of purity (Ðuhr) of three days, the sheet is placed on it, being the same number [of times to be written] as the previous one, and then the man lies with his wife, becomes pregnant by the command of God, exalted be He! She will not be separated from the writing for sixty-one days, and after that, if she wishes, she will either part with it or keep it with her, for she will certainly have a child in good health, and
she will never feel pain or discomfort in her pregnancy. In some manuscripts it says that the Basmala should be written sixty-one times, which is more correct, and God knows better! In the same way it will be done with
the sheet for the miqlāt woman, for the pregnant woman will give birth to her child alive, God willing, may He be exalted! This has already been proven several times and turns out to be true if it is with pure intention.

If one writes BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm on a white sheet one hundred and one times and buries it in the crop, its harvest is good, it is safe from all pests, it grows abundantly, blessing enters into it, and what is desired is obtained from it, God willing, may He be exalted!

b

1. 65

1 Well located within the sacred complex of Mecca.

76

If the Basmala is written seventy times and put on the shroud of the deceased, he will be safe from fearing Munkar and Nakīr1, and he has a light in it until the Day of Resurrection, God willing, exalted be He!

If it is written on a graphite tablet three times and put in a fisherman’s net, the fish are piled into it, God willing, from every place, and catch in it what he wills through the blessing of God, exalted be He, and the blessing of this noble and sublime Name, for it is the most preferable of God’s names, Exalted be He!

c

If it is written once on a certificate (biṇqa) and placed under the setting of a ring, then the ring is put in butter whey and drunk from it by the one who has been stung [by a scorpion] and then vomits it, the poison will come out, freeing you from the pains that the poison causes, if Allah, exalted be He! Want

If it is written in the following way with the letters separated, and carried with it, then there is a great blessing in it. This is the way in which it will be written:b s m a l l h a l r ¬ m n a l r ¬ y m.

[VIRTUDES OF THE LETTERS AND NAMES THAT MAKE UP THE BASMALA]

You should know that the letter bā’ is the Splendour (Bahā’) of Allah, exalted be He, the sīn is His Loa (Sanā’) 2, the mīm His glory (Majd) and His heavenly kingdom (Malakūt), the alif is His pre-eternity (azaliyya), the lām His goodness (luÐf), the hā’ is ﴾ Huwa Allāh lā ilāh illa Huwa ﴿; the alif is His command (Amr), the lām is ﴾ Lahu alMulk ﴿ 3, the ¬ā’ Living (©ayy) Perpetual, the rā’ is Pious Clement (Ra’ūf Ra¬īm), the mīm His lordship (Mulk) and the nūn His grace (Ni’ma).

If the bā’ of the Basmala is written twenty-one times in this way: ب, then the Basmala is recited a hundred times over it with pure intention and the goods are put together, the blessing in them is increased and they are increased, God willing, exalted be He!

If it is written in this way twenty-one times, the following letters are added to it in the manner you see:s l a m ‘ l à nū¬ f y a l ‘ a l m ī n”4, and then sedaabeber[the filter made with it] to the one who has been stung by a scorpion or a snake, he is freed from the pain that it causes and God, Exalted be He!, he heals him.

And if you write [the Basmala] on a sheet of paper and stare at the letter mīm every day forty times saying: ﴾ Say: O my God! You give royalty to whom you will, and you strip royalty from whom you will. You elevate whom you will, and humble whom you please. Happiness is in your hand.

1 According to tradition based on some of the sayings of the Prophet, this is the name given to two angels charged with interrogating and punishing, if necessary, the dead in their graves (cf. A. J. WENSICK, “Munkar waNakīr”, in EI 2 ).

2 We adopt the interpretation given to this term by J. N.URBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, iv, p. 256. 3 “Sovereignty belongs to him”, cf. Cor. VI:74; xxxv:13; xxxix:7; LXIV:1.
4 Salām ‘alà Nū¬ fī l’ālamīn, “peace to Nū¬ in all the worlds” (Cor. XXXVII:79).

d

and

77

Thou art mighty over all things, He makes the night penetrate into the day, and He brings the day into the night. You bring the living out of the dead, and you bring the dead out of the living; You give food, without counting, to whom you want ﴿ 1, and then the person takes that sheet with him, he will not know where the goods come from.

If you write al¬mān fifty times on a sheet of paper, with ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Raṣṇn al¬īm one hundred and fifty times on it, carry it with you and go before a governor or an unjust or tyrannical man, you will be safe from his wickedness and no misfortune or unpleasant situation will befall you.

If you write Basmala a thousand times every day with pure intention and a submissive heart, after a period of fasting, spiritual retreat and ritual purity, being that for fourteen days and in another version, if you write it after each prayer a thousand times the period of time mentioned then that person will see all the angels, they will speak to him and he will talk to them, they will put themselves at his service, they will be with him in all his affairs, he will have them at his disposal in the world and they will obey him in everything he wants and desires, God willing, exalted be he!

If you write [al-Ramān] with the separate letters like this: “n m ¬ r l a”, and you also write the name of whomever you want and the name of his mother with the separate letters, you separate them and unfold them harmoniously2, and then you take them with you in time of good omen and stand in front of that person, for when he sees you, he will solve your problem, and even if you order him to throw his soul into the fire, then he will do it.

If you write al-Ramon in this way: “a l r ¬ m n”, […] times, you also write the name of a servant of yours who habitually elopees, and then bury this writing in the house by putting a stone on it and after saying: “My God, I ask you for the right (bi-aqq) of ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramān al Ra¬īm ﴿, and I ask Thee by the right of Thy name to ram to prevent this servant from escaping, O Lord of the worlds!” For he will really stop running away at God’s command, exalted be He, and he will not leave the house where he is and will not be able to flee in any way.

If you write al-Raman on a knife with a steel blade, you read on it what you wrote three hundred and thirty-one times, and you slaughter a with it, separating its head from its body, so that it walks headlessly, and after that you take the head of the and bury it under the threshold of the door of your house, all noisy insects and also all geniuses will flee from it. If you fry the head of that with good oil and preserve that oil, then it acquires a magnificent use, God willing, exalted be he! And if the woman who has hemorrhages carries it on her lower back, then it is beneficial to her, God willing, exalted be he!

If you write to Ra¬īm two hundred and ninety-nine times, and carry that writing and enter the battlefield, weapons will have no effect on you, nor will you suffer any harm, for everyone who comes to meet you flees from your presence, God willing, exalted be He!

1 Cor. III: 267.
2 Cf. supra, p. 73, n. 4.

f

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If you write to Rama twenty-one times and hang the writing on the person who has a headache, then that will go away, God willing, praise be to him!

If you write His Name al-Ra¬īm on the hand of an epileptic (ma1⁄2rū’) and pronounce it in his ear seven times, it is restored on the spot, God willing, exalted be He!

If you write the blessed Name al-Rama on seven almonds with a brass needle, on Friday in the hour of Venus, which is the first hour with the sunrise, and after writing the noble Name with its numerical value on those almonds you give them to eat to whomever you want, that person will love you more than anyone else.

If you write the name al-Rayom in this way1 on a piece of tiger or panther’s skin, and the faint-hearted person carries it with him, his heart is inflamed and his courage is strengthened, God willing, exalted be He!

If you write the name al-Rahëm in this way on a new mirror on Monday at sunrise, and continually look at the person with facial paralysis in it, Allah, exalted be He, cures him of it.

If al¬īm is written in this way: a l r ¬ y m, on a silver seal weighing two dirhams, God, exalted be He, provides its bearer with the condescension, respect and obedience [of creatures].

[ADEPARTED ON THE MAGIC SQUARE OF THE ASMALA] This is the figure of the seal:

Fig. 14

To exterminate the wicked and the arrogant, write the square (jadwal) of Basmala on a piece of lead. You will put the name of the mentioned target on the square of the seal, and you will spray it with asafoetida and maro (al£ūm ala¬mar). Then you shall bury him near a fire that burns constantly, and beware that the fire touches the lead, for then the person who is the object of it will die, and you

c

d

ÁÎYj»A “A ÁnI ÆÝ

ÆÝ ÁÎYj»A

ÅÀYj»A

1 We think it refers to writing it with the letters separated.

ÆÝ ÁÎYj»A ÅÀYj»A “A

ÁnI ÆÝ ÁÎYj»A ÅÀYj»A “A ÁnI

ÅÀYj»A “A ÁnI

ÁnI ÆÝ
ÁÎYj»A ÅÀYj»A “A

79

and

you will be responsible for it on the Day of Resurrection. This is His figure, and these are the Names that You will pronounce upon the above-mentioned seal: “My God, I ask Thee by the right (bi-aqq) of Thy sublime name, which is BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram al-Ra¬īm, before whom faces are humbled, necks bowed, voices are silenced, and hearts tremble for fear of Him. I ask you to bless and save our Lord Muhammad, his family, and his companions, and to solve my problem regarding So-and-so, So-and-so’s son. O my God, if you know that he will turn back from what he does, guide him and help him, and if you know that he will not desist from that, then bring down upon him Your trial, Your wrath and Your wrath, and cause him to die, O Conqueror, O Ruler, O Mighty, O Almighty, O Allāh, O Allāh seven times.” And thou shalt utter this invocation seven hundred times, for God will cause the person who is the object of it to perish, or else he will guide him. Fear God, exalted be He, for He is the One Who helps in what is right.

[TALISMAN OF THE BASILTO BE A LOVED ONE]

1. 67

And if you write the holy Basmala, as you will see below, in the middle of a circle, and write within the circle and around it: Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Those who are with him are severe
with the disbelievers ﴿ 1 until the end of the surah, then fumigate him with everything that has a good smell and in a moment of good omen and take him with you, for you will become a person loved, respected and honored
by all, and no one will see you without loving you and desiring your friendship and your company, even women will sympathize with you and seek intimate contact with you. Fear God in secret and in public, for
Allah, exalted be He, is the One Who gives success.

This is the image of the circle:

1 Cor. 48:29.

Fig. 15

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And if the complete Basmala is written on a scroll of gazelle-skin, the Moon being in Pisces with an ascendant splendor, and it is carried with him after having recited it on the parchment the number of times of its numerical value, then its bearer lives happily, and if he dies, he will be a martyr, and he will never find evil in his soul thanks to the blessing of the noble Basmala.

[APART ABOUT THE SECRETS THAT THE BASIL CONTAINS IN RELATION TO THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES]

Know that, O may Allah help us to fulfill His obedience, that “Bism” is the implied Name (alism almuṥmar), “Allāh” is the Supreme Name, and in both Names “al-Ramān al-Raṣīm” His Breath (Nafas) is described,1 for He is the Gracious in this world and the Merciful in the Hereafter.

And ﴾ al©amdu liLlāh Rabb al’ālamīn ﴿ is located opposite ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān al Ra¬īm ﴿, “BismiLlāh” opposite “al©amdu liLlāh”, “Rabb” opposite “alRa¬mān”, and “al’ālamīn” opposite “alRa¬īm”.

And you should know that all this is expressed in His saying: ﴾ King of the Day of Judgment ﴿, meaning by Judgment (alDīn) the manifestation of His Lordship (Rubūbiya), for He is the King, the Owner and the Sovereign in the illumination of the intellects, whose lights are the effects of divine Beneficence on the Day of Judgment through the attribute of Kingship (almalakiyya).

So He is King (malik) and His theophany will be projected into souls by Coercion and Sovereignty. He is the Owner (Mālik) of the Day of Judgment and his theophany will take place in those who have received the effects of Mercy in the earthly abode by the acceptance of the Dominion (altamlīk). And He is the Mistress of kings (Mālik almulūk), and thus His theophany takes place in those endowed with Approach to the Sovereign (Malīk) according to His saying, exalted be He!: ﴾ In a dwelling of true rest, near an Almighty Sovereign ﴿ 2. Try to understand the secret of these subtleties, for all of it is found in ﴾ Bismi Llāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿

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And the letter bā’ that takes place in the Name is by the union of the good that exists in the created worlds towards True Sovereignty, for you raise the proclamation with your tongue when you pronounce it, so “BismiLlāh” is a path of unlimited ascent. And “al-Ramon al-Raim” descends towards the final Return
, just as “BismiLlāh” ascends towards the First Beginning, so in the Basmala lies the mystery of the Beginning and the End.

1 On the concept of the Breath of Divine Mercy (alnafas alra¬mānī), cf. NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, iv, pp. 167169; T. B.Urckhardt, Islamic Esotericism, p. Article 154.

2 Cor. LIV:55. We interpret in these words that Theophany (tajallī) reaches all souls and is manifested on the Day of Judgment through the attribute of Sovereignty, albeit in different degrees. The first theophany is that which will be projected upon the souls of all men, gullible and unbelieving, of whom He is the King. The second will reach the believers who receive His Mercy, and the third corresponds to the mystics and the elect (cf. NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, iv, pp. 206207).

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And in Basmala reside the degrees of the declaration of the Oneness of God (altaw¬īd), for “Bism” corresponds to “Šahida,” “Allāh” corresponds to “Allāh,” “alMalā’ika” corresponds to “al-Ra¬mān,” and “Awwalūl’Ilm” is equivalent to “al-Ra¬īm”1.

And in the same way resides in it the proportion of the world of the four that He mentions with His saying: ﴾ Those will be with whom God has benefited: the Prophets, the Truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous ﴿2. The prophets are the proportion from “Bism” to “Allāh”, and in the truthful there is the proportion from “Allāh” to “Bism”, which are the degrees of the prophets. The martyrs from Clemency to Mercy, and the just from Mercy to Clemency. And these are the successive degrees in the ascension to ﴾ BismiLlāh alRamān alRa¬īm ﴿. And the beginning of the cycle of ﴾ Bismi Llāh al-Ra¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿ is like its end, and its hidden part is like its manifest part. With it God, exalted be He, erected the tree of beings, and with it made visible the mystery of Generation (al takwīn). And in this way the whole Universe derives from ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿

[NOTES OF THE VIRTUES OF BASILCOLLECTED IN SOME PROPHETIC SAYINGS AND ACCOUNTS OF THE PRIESTSAND THE SAINTS]3

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It is narrated in the ¬adī£ that [Allah said]: “He who on the Day of Resurrection shall have on his page ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa��mān alRa¬īm ﴿ eight hundred and twelve times, since the number resulting from the sum of its letters not counting those that are repeated is four hundred and six, the double being eight hundred and twelve, be a believer and be certain of His lordship (Rubūbiyya), God delivers him from hell and makes him enter paradise, the abode of permanence.”

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Also that Allah said to ‘Īsà b. Maryam: “O ‘Īsà, may ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ra¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿ be at the beginning of your recitation and your prayers, for whoever puts it at the beginning of his recitation and prayer will not fear Munkar or Nakīr. And if he dies in that condition, I will make light the agony of death and the narrowness of the tomb, My Mercy will be with him, which will make the space of
the tomb wide for him and illuminate the range of his sight in it, and I will bring him out of his tomb on the Day of Resurrection
with a white light radiating from his body and his face, his accountability will be easy, I will tip his scales and grant him the perfect light for the path, so that he may enter Paradise and the one in charge of proclaiming in the squares of Judgment the verdict that announces happiness and forgiveness will be ordered. And
he said, ‘Īsà, peace be upon him: O Lord, this is a privilege for me (jā1⁄21⁄2a). And God said, “It is a privilege
for you, for whoever follows you, for whoever takes your example, and for whoever speaks with your words.” And after
you, it will be for A¬mad 4 and for his community.”

1 In allusion to Cor. III:18. ﴾ God testifies that there is no god but Him, as well as angels and those endowed with knowledge… ﴿.

2 Cor. IV: 68.

3 None of the following sayings attributed to the Prophet are recorded in the compendiums that we have.

4 That is, Mu¬ammad.

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‘Īsà reported this to his companions, and when he ascended to heaven and then the apostles disappeared, others came who went astray, led into error, changed, substituted and replaced religion with the earthly. Then the sign of faith disappeared from the breasts of Christians and monks, and remained in the breasts of the people of the Gospel (ahl alinjal), until Allah, exalted be He, sent our Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and save him, and sent it down upon him in the Surah of Ants. Then it assumed an opening (fat¬) and the authority of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless and save him!, so it was written at the beginning of the surahs and documents (aldafātir), and in the headings of the letters. And the Lord swore by His power that it would not be uttered by a believing servant [at the beginning] of any matter without his blessing for it.

And it is related of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and save him), who said: “Whoever recites BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram as a believer, the mountains and the stars praise him with him, except that he does not hear his praise.” And he said, God bless him and save him!: “When the believing servant says ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram ﴿, Paradise says: My God, you are fortunate, for your servant So-and-so said ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram al-Ramon ﴿; My God, take him away from Hell and bring him into Your Paradise.”

And the Prophet (may Allah bless him and save him) said: “In my ummah there are people who will come to the Day of Resurrection saying “BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram,” and the weight of their good deeds will be greater than that of their sins.” For when the rest of the nations say “Sub-Ana Allāh” they do not increase the weight of the good deeds of the ummah of Muhammad, God bless and save you! And their prophets will say to them, “They have been given the Name of God, and that is because at the beginning of their words are three of the most sublime Names of God, that if you were to put them in a saucer and put the heavens, the earth, and what is in them, and what is between them in the second dish, they would surpass them in weight, and they are ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿. Then he said: “[God] set it up as a protection against every misfortune, as a remedy for every disease, and as an amulet against the accursed Devil. And through his blessing this community is saved from baseness, slander, falsification and sinking, so persist in its recitation, for through it you will approach the Lord of Majesty and Generosity.”

He said to©the asan al-Ba1⁄2rī, God have mercy on him!, about His saying: ﴾ When in the Qur’an you mention the Oneness of Your Lord, they turn their backs in contempt ﴿,2 which by this means ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ra¬īm ﴿. And it is said of His saying, Exalted be He: ﴾ And [God] poured out in them the word of Fear of Him, of which they were most deserving and most worthy ﴿,3 which is ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ramon al-Ra¬īm ﴿. And [he said that] whoever writes and recites it in a formidable way is inscribed among those closest to God.

And according to ‘Ikrima4 [the Prophet] said: “God was there and there was nothing beside Him. Then he executed the creation of Light5, and then he created the Table and the Calamus from the Light. Then he ordered the Calamus to

1 In allusion to Cor. XXVII:30.
2 Cor. XVII:46.
3 Cor. xlviii:26
4 One of the main transmitters of the traditional interpretations of the Qur’an attributed to Ibn ‘Abbas, and

authority frequently cited in the collections of prophetic sayings. He died in Medina in the year (7234 AD). 5 Manuscripts B and D read “la nūn”, alluding to Cor. LXVIII:1.

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He wrote on the Tablet all that existed until the Day of the Resurrection, and the first thing that the Calamus wrote on the well-guarded Tablet was: ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ra¬mān al-Ra¬īm ﴿, and made it the salvation of His creatures, who continue their recitation, for it is the recitation of the angels of the seven heavens and the angels of the baldachins of Glory, the cherubim, the pure and those of Praise.”

And he said: And the first thing that descended upon Ādam, peace be upon him!, was this verse, which is BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram al-Ram ﴿, and he said: Now I know that the believers of my descendants will not be punished with Fire as long as I continue with them. After him he ascended to the time of Ibrāhīm, peace be upon him, and descended upon him when he was in the catapult, and Allah, exalted be He, saved him from the fire. After him he ascended to the time Sulaymān b. Dāwūd, peace be upon you both, upon whom he descended, and the angels said: Now God has completed your power, O Sulaymān b. Dāwūd. And Allah, exalted be He, commanded him to proclaim peace (al-Amān) in all tribes and deserts and in all directions, i.e., to make the verse of peace heard. So they went to Sulaymān in their father’s bar, and they gathered together with him. Then Sulaymān arose, ascended to the pulpit and recited to them the verse of peace and in some versions it is said that the verse of faith (al’īmān) is ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿. When they met her, they received her with great joy and said, “We bear witness that you are indeed the Messenger of God, O son of David.”

After him he ascended to the time of Mūsà, peace be upon him, and descended upon him, for with it he defeated Pharaoh (fir’awn), Qārūn and Hāmān, as well as his armies and his followers. Then he ascended after Moses to the time of ‘Īsà, peace be upon him, and God revealed it to him, saying: O son of Mary, do you not know which verse has descended upon you? and he said, “Yes, my Lord.” He said: O Jesus, upon you the verse of peace descended, and it is ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ra¬īm ﴿, continue in its recitation night and by day, by going and arriving, by sitting and rising, by eating and drinking, and in all your circumstances, for surely whoever on the Day of Resurrection has on his page the Basmala eight hundred and twelve times, for the saying of the Prophet 3 was mentioned before.

And it is told of a certain devotee who went before a saint to visit him and ask for his prayer and blessing, and found the people gathered at his door waiting for him to come out. And one of the ends of the rainbow was perched on its door, and so the šayj opened the door and went out, put his foot on the rainbow, said: ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿, and walked over it until he descended at the other end, while the astonished people looked at him. Then the man who had come to visit him, who is said to be the šayj al-Malīŷī4, said, and when he saw what the šayj had done, he exclaimed in admiration and said: “It is in this way that he surpasses the rest of men, and God willing we too.” After that,

1 In allusion to Cor. 21:6770. Tradition says that Abraham was put on a catapult to be thrown into the fire, where he actually fell, unaffected by the fire thanks to divine intervention.

2 Both the biblical Qur’ah and Haman, a character who does not quote from the Bible, appear in several verses of the Qur’an as two ministers or persons in some way connected with Pharaoh, and all of them at odds with Moses (cf. A. J. WENSICK, “Fir’awn,” in EI 2).

3 See supra p. 82.4
AlMalījī according to ms. base, unidentified.

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He devoted himself to struggle and spiritual effort until he attained the degree of the Singulars (alafrād). And the aforementioned jaykh who crossed the rainbow was Abū ‘Abd Allāh alRajājŷī1, may Allah be pleased with him!

[VIRTUDES DE LA BASMALA Y LAS LETRAS QUE COMPOSE IT]

So observe, brother, all that is in BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ramon al-Ram, listen and listen to the words of Allah, exalted be He: He is Sulayman’s, and he is: In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. Do not rise up against me, but come to me in submission ﴿ 2, and in this way Bilqīs3 submitted to Sulayman, and faith penetrated his heart, which happened by the blessing of Bismi Llāh al-Ramon al-Ram al-Ram, for in it lies an extraordinary secret for actions, for the attraction of hearts and bodies, and for that with which hearts rejoice and souls rejoice.

And you must know, brother, that ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿ are nineteen letters as has already been said, and in it there are ten letters not counting the repeated ones, which are: bā’, sīn, mīm, alif, lām, hā’, rā’, ¬ā’, nūn, yā’. In it, the mīm is repeated three times, the lām four times, the rā’ twice, the ¬ā’ twice, and the bā’ is not repeated, nor is the nūn, the yā’, the hā’ and the sīn. In it, the ones that are repeated are five letters, which are: mīm, alif, lām, rā’, hā’, and the mīm is repeated three times and the alif also, the lām four times, the rā’ twice and the ¬ā’ twice.

From this we deduce that the base of ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿ is ten letters without repeating themselves. Among them is the bā’, which is for the union of Good4, and it is a cold letter, which is why the Verse of Peace always begins with it. And the letter bā’ is one of the perpetual letters on the Day of Resurrection, which is an arcane mystery, and that is that the singular is the secret of allusions (ališārāt) as to the Essence, except that it is an allusion to the Truth and it is from you to Him.

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You should know that the first thing that was written in the pages of the revelation of Ibrāhīm, peace be upon him!, are these names: ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿; and in the same way in the book (1⁄2a¬īfa) of Nū¬, peace be upon him!, and also in the book of Sulaymān b. Dāwūd, Peace be upon him! Then came the first revelation about the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless and save him, for His saying, exalted be He: ﴾ Preach in the name (Bism) of your Lord, He who has created you! He has created man from a clot ﴿5. So He began with the secret of bā’, which implicitly includes the mysteries of divinity, and these are from you to Him, for they are the places of conception of the Essence through the secret of theophany, when it says, “By me (bī) you know me.” And when God created it, He created eighty-one angels with it, who praise and sanctify Him.

1 Nor have we been able to identify this Sufi saint.
2 Cor. XXVII:3031.
3 Name given to the Queen of Sheba in Arabic literature. 4 See supra p. 81.5
Cor. xcvi: 1 2.

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[APART ABOUT SOME VIRTUES OF THE BASILFOR PROTECTION AGAINST POISON AND OTHER EVILS]

Among the peculiar virtues of BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram al-Ram, one is that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless and save him, said: “Whosoever upon awakening says three times: ‘In the name of Allah, the Exalted, by Whose name He harms you nothing on earth or in heaven, He is the Hearer, the Omniscient”, because an unexpected or a misfortune does not happen to him until sunset. And if he says it three times in the evening, no unexpectedness or misfortune will happen to him until he wakes up the next day, and in another version he says: he will not be affected by paralysis (fāliŷ), and in another version [he says], nothing bad will happen to him”1.

And it is said that Khalid b. alWālid2, God be pleased with him!, sipped the poison, and that was when the Byzantine emperor, that is, the king of the Christians, sent him a messenger, saying: “If what you say is
true, and that poison does not cause any harm with these words, then drink it.” And our lord Khalid b. alWālid, may Allah be pleased with him, took the poison in the presence of the messenger and
in the presence of the companions and other people, put it in his hand and said: “In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful, in the name of Allah, with Whose name nothing harms you on earth or in heaven
, He is the Hearer, the All-Knowing,” absorbed him and did him no harm, except for a sweat through
which the poison came out, by the command of God, exalted be He!3 So see how this sacred Name protects from poison.

With this noble name sailed the ship of Nū¬, peace be upon him!, and sailed according to His saying, exalted be He: ﴾ May his course and his arrival be in the name of God ﴿4. And with him God saved Ibrāhīm alJalīl, peace be upon him, from the fire of Namrūd, for Allah, exalted be He, made it cold and harmless to him. And in him lies the protection when you go in and out of your house, according to the saying of the Prophet, may Allah bless and save you: “When you go in and out of your house, say: In the name of God we enter, in the name of God we go out, and in Him we trust. And thou shalt utter it when thou shalt shut the gates, for the devil shall not open a lock upon which the name of God, exalted be He, shall he come near.”6

And among his peculiar virtues, another is that when you come into your bed, you will say, “In the name of God, and by the religion (mile) of the Messenger of God,” may God bless you and save you, [for you will sleep safely].7 And the Prophet, God bless him and save him, said: “The ablution of the person who does not call on the name of God is not valid.”8 And according to Abu Dawūd he said: “Whoever eats with a leper and says: “In the name of

1 Abū Dawūd, no. 4425; A¬mad, no 418, 444, 497, etc.
2 The most famous general of the early conquests of Islam, he died in 639 AD.
3 This legend is found in connection with the message that Muhammad sent to Emperor Heraclius in 628 A.D.

In which he incited him to embrace Islam, and which according to Ibn ‘Abbās began with Basmala (cf. HUGHES, Dictionary of Islam, New Delhi: Munshiran Manoharlal, 1995, p. 173).

4 Cor. XI:41.
5 In reference to Cor. XXI: 6770.
6 This is a different version of the ¬adī£ collected by Abū Dawūd, no. 4432.
7 It is the same formula that the Prophet laid down for the burial of the dead (Ibn Maja, no. 1539, 1542;

A¬mad, not 4571; etc).
8 Abū Dawūd, no 923; Ibn Maja, no. 3914, etc.

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God, safety is with God, and in Him we trust, nothing bad will happen to him.”1 Thus did ‘Umar b. al-Jaððāb, may Allah be pleased with him, with Mu’ayqib al-Dawsī2, for he had leprosy when he brought the food to ‘Umar, and ‘Umar said to him: “Eat with us in the Name of Allah, seeking His protection and trusting in
Him,” and he ate with him.

And with this noble Name the evil eye is cured, for you will strike with your hand on the breast of one who is the victim of an evil eye and say: “In the name of God, my God, remove his heat and his pain.” And you will also say it when you start the journey, when you put your foot on the stirrup of the

mount, saying: ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿, for in truth a misfortune will never occur. When the believing servant says ﴾ BismiLlāh alRa¬mān alRa¬īm ﴿, the Devil

it dwarfs until it is like a fly.

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless and save him, said it to those who went on a journey, and wanting to take leave of him, he said when he was riding: “In the name of Allah, for Allah’s sake, and for the religion of the Messenger of Allah”, may Allah bless and save him!

With it the Messenger of God began his journey, saying, “In the name of God, in God I seek refuge from the hardships of the journey to the end in good health, from finding affliction upon my return, and from the unhappiness of my family and property in my absence.”3

And the Prophet, may Allah bless him and save him, said to Æal¬a b. ‘Ubayd Allāh, when they struck his hand by cutting off his fingers: 4: “If you were to say ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramān al-Ra¬īm ﴿, the angels would lift you up [in the heat of battle] while the people watched you.”5

So observe well this Name, with which the angels elevate the one who pronounces it, the demons are dwarfed by its mention and the poison is destroyed by its invocation. The master of mankind (Sayyid albašar)6 made known to you his power, and the Lord of the Throne has shown you his secret and his benefit, for wherever you seek it, you will find his virtue. Nothing moves or stops except by its mention, and with it you procure sustenance, happiness, health, and salvation. All this resides in BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram al-Raim , and it was with this that ‘Īsà, peace be upon him, begged and expelled sickness and all suffering.

1 We do not find this saying in Abū Dawūd, but in alTirmi2ī, not 1739.

2 Mu’ayqīb or Mu’ayqib b. Abī FāÐima alDawsī (d. 40 h.), companion of the Prophet, and who is said to have been afflicted with lion’s disease (dā’ alasad) or leontiasis (cf. ‘ALĀ’ ALDĪN MUGULTAY, Ikmāl tahdīb alkamāl fī asmā’ alriŷāl, Cairo, AlFazūq al-Khadīta, 2001, vol. xi, p. 314, where it is said that it was the Prophet himself who ate with him).

3 AlNasā’ī, no. 5403, Abū Dāwūd, no. 2231, etc.

4 Æal¬a b. ‘Ubayd Allāh (d. 656 CE) was one of the most important companions of the Prophet. The event referred to here was the battle of Uud, where he received numerous wounds, including paralysis of one or two fingers, for which the Prophet promised him Paradise (W. M.Adelung, ‘Æal¬a b. ‘Ubayd Allāh, in Ei 2).

5 AlNasā’ī, no. 3098. 6 It refers to the Prophet.

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[VIRTUDES OF THE LETTERS THAT MAKE UP THE BASMALA: LETRA BĀ’]

A certain šayj said that whoever writes the figure of the [letter] bā’ on Friday, having fasted on Thursday, gives some alms and hangs it on his right arm, Allah, exalted be He, opens his breast,
takes away his laziness, makes the blessing manifest to him and makes him see the secret in the bā’, so that
he sees the lights of the angels and their upper and lower forms are manifested. And a standing figure
will appear, whole and fragrant-smelling, seeing that those more worthy Gnostics, only he must pronounce the
bā’, because his light appears every time he pronounces his name, thus remaining unchanged. And that is one of
the preserved Names.

This letter, when it is in one of the Names of God and someone undertakes his dikr, is thereby treated kindly in all its affairs. And it is profitable to write the Name in which the bā’ is found for every affection concerning dryness and for every difficult matter, for Allah will make this matter easy for him. Among the Names of Allah, exalted be He, in which this letter is found, for it is in His name ‘the Gracious’ (alBarr), ‘the Creator’ (alBāri’), ‘the Perpetual’ (alBāqī) and ‘the Resuscitator’ (alBā’i£), and in it lies the mystery of the End. Therefore Allah, exalted be He, deposited it in [the beginning of] ﴾ BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ra¬īm ﴿, and that is that the letter alif that resides [in ism] is the extremity of the bā’, for it is the extension that takes place in the bā’ itself in this way: @@@@@@@@@@I

The bā’ also appears in His name the Seer (alBa1⁄2īr), in His name the Inventor (alBadī’) and in His name the Hidden One (alBāÐin). In each name there is a meaning that is specific to it, for ‘the Kind’ (alBarr), for the people of divine piety (ahl alBirr)1 serves as a help in the works of charity and filial piety. And he who calls upon him two hundred and thirty-three timesevery day, after mixing it with the name of the person for whom he wishes to do good, that is, for example, thou shalt take the name ‘Amrū [separating its letters] in this way: ‘m r w; then thou shalt take the first letter of His Name from the Barr, put it in the first row, and after it the first letter of the name ‘Amrū, and so on to the last letter of both names in this way: a ‘ l m b r r w. Then you will take these letters and permute them (kasr) until the first sequence of letters reappears, like this:

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Fig. 16

The first line is also the last. Omitting the last one, there are four lines [with letters] mixed in. Write it down for whatever you want, and put it in your pocket saying these words: “O Lord of

1 It refers to those mystics who clothe themselves (tajalluq) with the divine attribute of piety (see NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, vi, pp. 355-6).

2 Since this number is the sum of the numerical value of its letters: alif (1) + lām (30) + bā’ (2) + rā’ (200).

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Sirs, instructor of all things with the gift of Thy lordship, hasten the outpouring of Thy favor upon me, so that I may plunge into one of the seas of Thy Omnipotence and rejoice in the sweetness of that sea, a sweetness that pleases spirits pleased by the realization of Thy secrets. Grant me one of the Names of Thy Omnipotence, those that whoever arms himself with them, avoids the evil of what is created on earth and the evil that comes out of it, that which descends from heaven and that which ascends to it. You are Benevolent, Guardian, Wise.”

As for His name the Creator (albārī’), it is for the healing (‘ibrā’) of pains and diseases. And the Eternal (albāqī) and the Resuscitator (albā’i£) have some peculiar virtues that we will mention in due course, God willing, exalted be He!

[APARTADO ON THE LETTER SĪN]

As for the letter sīn, when Allah, exalted be He, created it in the world of His decree, He sent down to it nine thousand eight hundred and thirty angels, and it is the first letter that receives from the bā’ the mystery of His invention (ījād), and it is one of the letters of the manifest part of the Supreme Name. As for this Supreme Name, for it has a manifest part and a hidden part. With its visible part the heavens are sustained, and its hidden part supports the upper worlds of the Throne and the Footstool. That is why the sīn takes place in the first of the heavens and in the third degree of the footstool1.

And since the bā’ is one of the dependent letters of Omnipotence, which are the implicit of the implicit, then the hā’ [also], because the hā’ goes from you to Him, since you say, “He, He (Huwa),” and He says, “For me, for me (Bī).”

In Surah YāSīn there are some of the names of Theosophy (al-ikma): whoever discovers them, writes them down and drinks them by making a filter with pure water facing the qibla, and does this for the same number of days as of Names, God, exalted be He, grants him the gift of speaking with Wisdom. They are in the middle of the surah and the number of their letters is sixteen; Two of its letters have dots above and two of them have dots below. There are five words, it begins with the letter sīn, and ends with the mīm 2.

This letter [sīn] appears in His name ‘the Peaceful’ (alSalām), His name ‘the Hearer’ (alSamī’) and His name ‘the Presto’ (alSarī’). And ‘the Hearer’ is particularly the Name of those who insist on the invocation, for sometimes it presses the answer. In the same way [His name] the Presto (al-Sarī’), who invokes with him and asks to be attended, gets it.

Whoever wants to solve a need of God, exalted be He, let him draw it on the palms of his hands, and pray with his hands uplifted for the Name multiplied by the days, for certainly the answer will come from God, exalted be He!, after invoking Him the aforementioned number of days, and His number multiplied by the days is four thousand two hundred and seventy-seven3.

1 The letter sīn is the first in “Samā'” and the third in “Kursī”.
2 The solution to this riddle is Cor. xxxvi:57. ﴾ Peace (Salām): Word of a Merciful Lord (Ra¬īm) ﴿ 3 I do not know the meaning of this phrase and how this figure is obtained.

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And whoever wants to have a vision of the spirits, let him pray with him to God, exalted be He, so that he may reveal to him the vision of certainty (‘ayn alyaqīn),1 for he will talk to them, ask them what he will
, and they will obey him, for in him reside arcane mysteries and extraordinary effects. Research and practice,
be consistent and you will reach your goal.

As for His name ‘the Hearer’ (al-Samī’), whoever adds His name ‘the Seer’ (al-Ba1⁄2īr), saying: “O Hearer, O Seer”, writes them at the appropriate time and throws the writing on one who has fainted, comes to himself instantly. This has been ascertained by those who know the mysteries, for when they went before Ibrāhīm b. And they found him fainting, the magic square was drawn on him, and they threw him on him after he had recited the two names seven hundred and fifty-four times, and he came to himself by the command of Allah, exalted be He! And if both names are written in gold and carried by a person, he hears the tongues of the jinn, sees them, and has authority for what he desires from the spirits. And he who persists in the recitation of both, the secrets of the creatures and what is in their consciences are revealed to him, and the states of all the servants are visible to him. This has already been witnessed several times.

And as for His name the Pacific (alsalām), it is to ask for peace and security, and it is the recitation of our lord the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless and save him!, on the Day of Resurrection, “and on the day when his community crosses the Bridge he will say: O Pacific, grant salvation (yā Salām sallim)!” and according to another version: grant salvation, O Pacific!”3.

[APART ON THE LETTER MĪM]

The letter mīm of “Bism” is one of the diameters (aqÐār) of the letters, and the diameters of the letters b are each of them whose beginning is like their end: and they are the wāw, the mīm, and the no. 4. The mīm alludes to the Gathering because of the roundness that resides in it, and alludes to the calm because of the reverential awe that resides in it.
It is one of the letters of the Tablet, and when God, exalted be He, created it, He made it like a round light without
brightness. It is also one of the letters of the Intellect (al’Aql) because of its absolute inclusion. From its prolongation results the sun in the fourth sphere, with its secret God erected, exalted be He, the Sovereignty and
the Heavenly Kingdom (alMulk walMalakūt), and with it made visible the divine Knowledge (al’Ilm).

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So the support for the labors lies in the secret of the light of mīm, which is the last degree of “Bism”5, and in it is the secret of the attainment of maturity, according to His saying, exalted be He!: ﴾ And when he attains maturity, after having reached the age of forty years ﴿ 6, for the numerical value of the mīm is forty.

1 Certainty achieved through unveiling (kašf) and contemplation (cf. NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, ii, p. 198).

2 Unidentified.

3 In reference to a saying of the Prophet, of which there are different versions (Muslīm no. 269, 288; alTirmi2ī no. 2356, 2480, etc.), according to most of them, the believers will say: “Allāhumma sallim sallim,” or “Rabb sallim sallim.”

4 It refers to the fact that these three letters are the only ones in whose name the first and last letters are the same. 5 As it is its last letter.
6 Cor. XLVI:14.

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God, exalted be He, entrusted her to ninety of the angels1 of the Tablet. It is the secret that God deposited in the name of His prophet Muhammad, may God bless and save him, in its beginning, thus participating in the mystery of the Heavenly Kingdom; and in its 2nd half, with the secret of Sovereignty, bringing together in this name the essence (kunh) of the world of the Celestial Kingdom and the world of Sovereignty.

To those who look at the figure of the mīm forty times every day and recite: ﴾ Say: My God, King of Sovereignty, give Sovereignty to whom you will, as far as it says, without limitation ﴿ 3, Allah, exalted be He, provides him with the means of subsistence in this life and in the Hereafter. We refer to the figure of 8 x 8, whose shape and explanation will take place later, and which corresponds to Mercury and Wednesday.

and

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Whoever writes his numerical sigil after a fast of forty days in a state of ritual purity and continuous dikr, and writes it at the hour of the Sun when the Moon is in Sa’d al-Su’ūd 4, on a clean parchment and facing the qiblah, for its bearer will have no reprehensible thought, and God, exalted be He, will inspire him with the truths of faith and sacred illuminations; and whoever carries it with him will be safe from every harmful situation and God will provide him with respect [for him by other creatures]. And to him who invokes with him on Friday in a state of fasting and continual dikr, and thereby prays for a devout need, for Allah, exalted be He, solves his need. And in the same way, to those who carry it with the intention of obtaining their means of subsistence, God, exalted be He, increases his goods and facilitates his provisions, providing him from where he was not expected. And in this also lies a great blessing for the union of hearts, their affection and their attraction to those who ask for it, apart from other virtues for those who have hope in them and for those to whom God makes them understand his mystery. Later we will mention its formation and composition.

The way to invoke it to solve the need is that you will gather all the numerical values of the most beautiful Names of God, exalted be He!, as I will show you along with their corresponding figures. I will also explain to you the manner in which you will attract each other’s hearts, their love for you, their transformation in the different states of affection for you, and their submission to you, which you will not find in any book or anthology. So you must hide it and preserve it, for it is red sulphur, the supreme treasure, and the excellent lodestone.

And you must know, brother, that to whom the secrets of the mīm, of its roundness, its closedness, and the worlds it comprehends, are revealed, he is a witness of the wonders of created beings. In the same way, whoever God (exalted be He!) facilitates his memorization (al¬ifÞ), he will write this numerical square on Thursday, being in a state of purity and in front of the qibla, and next to it he will write the name of the Prophet, God bless him and save him!, forty times. He will erase it and then drink it with water and honey saying, “My God, by the blessing of what I drank, make it easy for me to memorize and understand,” and if he perseveres for forty days, God will inspire him inwardly and externally. This will have

1 Mīm+yā’+mīm=90.
2 That is, in his first and third. 3 Cor. III: 267.
4 See above, p. Question 26.

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place with one who understands the secret of the mīm, so that he witnesses the force that resides within him in every world that participates in the mystery that sustains the mīm, for only through this aspiration will divine inspiration take place.

As for the square of the letters, it is one of the secrets preserved. Whoever wishes to foresee the consequence of some enigmatic matter, let him write it on a clean parchment on Monday in the hour of the Moon and fumigate it with storax. On the same day he will render to God, exalted be He, a sincere fast that he will break with a little bread. Then he will pray the night prayer (wird) and sleep in a state of purity lying on his right side, and in this way he will recite Surah of Sovereignty1, with the scroll under his head. And after that he will not talk to anyone and will sleep, for surely God, exalted be He, will reveal to him the consequence of that matter to the extent that He desires. And this is only suitable for those who practice purity of heart and body and for those who practice mortification (ahl alriyāÅa).

In the same way, to those who write it on a crystal cup and drink it [after filtering it out], God, exalted be He, facilitates Wisdom. To the one who hangs it, God, exalted be He, facilitates the understanding [of secrets] and grants him the faculty of speaking with Wisdom. And whoever writes it and next to it writes “lā ilāh illā Allāh” eighty times, and hangs it on his right arm, or writes it on a garment and wears it, Allah, exalted be He, provides him with respect and kindness [from
creatures].

[IINVOCATION TO SUBORDINATE THE JINN]

And if the mystic is in the degree of the one soul (nafs wā¬id)2 and practices asceticism, there is no doubt that Allah, exalted be He, will reveal to him the world of jinn, after he has written what I will explain to you next. In this way, if you want to take the believing geniuses as brothers, so that they will solve your needs and hasten to please you, then you will begin with the fast on Wednesday until the fourth Saturday after that. Then you should wash and wash your clothes every day and whenever possible. And you shall recite the Surah of the Cult3 thousand times, and Surah YāSīn4, Surah of Humareda5, Surah of Prostration6 and Surah of Sovereign 7 once; and when it is Saturday evening and it is ten o’clock, you shall depart from the people to an empty and clean place, You shall take seven pieces (barwāt) of paper and write on the first His saying, may He be exalted!: ﴾ It is He Who gives you life and gives you death as far as He says and on the day ﴿ 8, and His saying, Exalted be He!: ﴾ When He decrees something, it is enough for Him to say: Be!, and it is ﴿ 9, ﴾ Allah is sufficient for you against them. He is the Listener, the All-Knowing ﴿ 10.

1 Cor. LXVII.
2 Cf. NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, v, pp. 1056. 3 Cor. CXII.
4 Cor. xxxvi.
5 Cor. LXIV.
6 Cor. xxxii:1.
7 Cor. LXVII:.
8 Cor. xxiii:81.
9 Cor. II:116.
10 Cor. II: 136.

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Thou shalt write upon the second His words, exalted be He: ﴾ Verily, your Lord is God. a He has created the heavens and the earth in six days. Then he sat on the throne to where he says: Blessed be God, Lord of the worlds! ﴿1, and His words, exalted be He: ﴾ His knowledge is all-encompassing
﴿ 2 ﴾ and counts everything in detail ﴿ 3, ﴾ God is sufficient for you against them. He is the Listener, the All-Knowing ﴿.

And you shall write on the third: And a messenger unto the children of Israel as far as he says with the permission of God 4, God is sufficient for you against them. He is the Listener, the All-Knowing ﴿.

And you shall write on the fourth: Then when you are called once from the earth, you shall go forth 5, God is sufficient for you against them. He is the Listener, the All-Knowing ﴿.

And thou shalt write on the fifth: “Then they shall come out of the tombs quickly, and go unto their Lord.” 6 God is sufficient for thee against them. He is the Listener, the All-Knowing ﴿.

You shall write on the sixth: ﴾ And then they shall stand, waiting ﴿ 7, ﴾ God is sufficient for you against them. He is the Listener, the All-Knowing ﴿.

And you shall write on the seventh: ﴾ On that day they shall come forth in haste from the graves, as if they were running toward a goal ﴿ 8, ﴾ God is sufficient for you against them. He is the Listener, the All-Knowing ﴿.

This will be after you pray four rak’at, the first with the Fatia and Yāshan, the second with the Fatia and the Smoke Surah, the third with the Fatia and the Surah of the Prostration, and the fourth with the Fatia and the Surah of Sovereignty. And in the last prostration you will say: “Praise be to Him who puts on power and expresses himself with it. Praise be to Him Who covers Himself with Glory and is glorified by it. Praise be to Him who reckons all things with His knowledge. Praise be to Him To Whom alone is praise. Praise be to Him who when He wants something, it is enough for Him to say: I know, and it is. Praise be to Him who when He wills, is, and what He does not desire, is not. Praise be to the Lord of gift, benefit and favor. Praise be to the Lord of wisdom and patience, praise be to the Lord of power and grace. Praise be to the Lord of the Throne, the Tablet, the Calamus and the Light.”

Then Thou wilt lift up Thy head and say, “My God, I beseech Thee for the assemblages of Power in Thy Throne, and for the merciful purpose of Thy book. I ask You by Your Supreme name, by Your Sacred face, and by Your perfect words, to subordinate to me a helper from among the devout and believing geniuses, so that He may help me in the earthly and spiritual needs I want.”

Then seven individuals of the most notable and important geniuses will appear before you, they will appear before you and they will be [with you; and] before you recite the names, you will have hung over you the seven pieces of paper in a cord like that of the hood (alÐurÐūr), hanging them over your head. That will be before you begin your prayer, and there will be a candle next to you. When they appear in front of you, you will take the first of the seven cards that you wrote and recited in the prayer, read it to them, and then say, “Which of you is the owner of this card and the owner of this patch (ruq’a)?” One of them will say, “I am your

1 Cor. VII:52.
2 Cor. LXV:12.
3 Cor. LXXII:28. 4 Cor. III:48.
5 Cor. xxx:24.
6 Cor. xxxvi:50. 7 Cor. xxxix:65. 8 Cor. LXX:43.

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owner,” and say, “What’s your name?” He will say to you, “My name is So-and-so, son of So-and-so,” then you will write his name on the top of the paper and then say, “Give me your seal,” and you will take the cord [with the papers] and the candle and seal it on the top of the paper in the same way that the document or writing is sealed. Then you will return his seal and say the same to each of them until you finish with the seventh. Then you will say: “I adjure you by the Names that are in these papers to come forward and respond obediently to my call when I summon you.” And at last you will say, “Go away, God bless you!”

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Then you will collect the documents, that is, those papers with the seals, in a clean place until you have a need to eat, to drink, to know something, to bury something or hide it or something else. Then you will call upon them, and they will answer you faster than lightning and wind, at the command of God, exalted be He! And be careful, brother, to do that if you are not strong of heart and firm in resolution. If you are of stable judgment, endowed with great aspiration, strong character and heart, and expert in the religious sciences, then this will be courage enough to do your work. And if you are not firm in heart and serious in your initiative, then beware of being in their presence, for this will harm your spirit, since they are lethal1, and be careful when observing them, for it detaches you from the armor of the heart. And if you limit yourself to making the eightfold square that we mentioned before, then that will be enough, God willing, exalted be he!

[CONTINUATION OF THE SUBPARAGRAPH ON THE LETTER MĪM ]

Whoever writes the seal [eightfold] on a scroll of gazelle-skin, and hangs it on one who has bodily ailments such as fevers and colds, or uses it for other works such as those of harmony or contemplation of the consequences of affairs, for Allah, praise and exalted be He, will make him see in it prodigious things. The secrets of numbers have an intellectual virtue (quwa ‘aqliya), because numbers allude to letters, from which acquisition takes place (altalaqqī), and letters allude to numbers, from which ascent takes place (altaraqqī)2. The numbers allude to the spiritual world and the letters allude to the corporeal world, whose essential interior is spiritual. And letters manifest in the subtleties of physical entities, while numbers manifest in the subtleties of spiritual entities.

One who understands the secret of the mīm, for the secret of the ringing of the cowbell (1⁄2al1⁄2alat aljaras) that takes place with the descent of the Revelation is shown to him. They asked the Prophet (may Allah bless and save him): “In what way does the Revelation come to you, O Messenger of Allah?” and he said: “Sometimes it comes to me like the tinkling of the cowbell, and sometimes the angel appears to me in the form of a man, he speaks to me, and I hold fast to what he says.” Do you not see when there are several horses with cowbells around their necks or in their manes, or in the humps of camels, and when they are set off, how the cowbells produce a humming sound (dawī) that can be heard at a distance? For this is the Revelation with the tinkling of the bell, and the Prophet said, upon him be peace and blessings of mind!

1 Manuscripts C and D explain that these genies kill the person in whom they perceive fear and insecurity.

2 We believe that it refers on the one hand to the intellectual acquisition of the divine mysteries, and on the other hand to the spiritual ascent in gnosis as these mysteries are acquired.

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the blessing! “It is for me the most tiring form of revelation. Then it ceases, having retained what he said”1. And the only comparison of the letter mīm with the cowbell (aljaras) takes place because of its roundness, its closeness (inÐibāq) and the importance of its decree and its dread. Have you not heard the words of the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him), about the quality of Isrāfīl, the superiority of his nature, his strength and his obedience, and how on his back rests one of the pillars of the throne along with all its grandeur? Then the Preserved Tablet stands in front of it along with its magnificence and grandeur, and it stands in front of the Horn, the length of which covers a distance of five hundred years. And it is said that he has many throats, that he has put the Horn in his mouth, that he has one foot forward and the other backward, and that his feet cross the seven earths to the end2.

So notice the saying of the Prophet: “He has put (iltaqama) the horn in his mouth,”3 and how the mīm is in the last degree of “iltaqama.” For by the horn there is terror, thunder and resurrection4, and [Isrāfīl] has his gaze fixed on the Throne waiting to be commanded to blow the horn, and the blowing will not come out except with the fold (inÐibāq) of the lips [on the horn], and the letter mīm is pronounced by closing the lips, for it can only be pronounced if it is articulated with both lips closed. That is why the comparison with the tinkling of the cowbell takes place, since the tinkling is the force of sound. And from this we know the difference between the tinkling of the cowbell and the dragging of the chain (ŷarr alsalsala) that characterized the revelation of Mūsà, since the sound of the cowbell (al1⁄2al1⁄2ala) is a state of spiritual agitation, and the dragging of the chain (alsalsala) is a state of bodily agitation5.

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The letter mīm has two aspects, a celestial aspect, which is the first mīm, and a lower aspect, which is the second mīm, in relation to the separate reading of the letter, in this way: m and m. And since the mīm corresponds to a mystery in the higher spiritual spheres and in the lower and corporeal spheres, then its numerical values also have a relationship with the higher spheres. And its letters [which form its name] have secrets in the lower spheres: it is a warm letter in its general conception (‘alà aljŷumla), and in its detailed conception (‘alà altaf1⁄2īl) we find a moist letter which is the letter ŷā’between two warm letters which are the first and the last mīm, in this way: m and m. From these two warm letters derives its closure and agitation, and if the moist yā’ were not mediating between the two warm ones, then the two mountains would be closed alAjšabān6. You should know then that with the letter mīm the highest implied Name was completed, which is “Bism”.

1 Bujārī, no 2, 2976; Muslim, no 4304; Mālik, not 425, etc.

2 Some of these myths and others about the archangel Isrāfīl are briefly described in A. J. W.ENSICK’s article, “Isrāfīl,” in EI 2. Among them, that it has a body covered with hair, mouths and tongues (or throats). On the other hand, manuscripts B and D say that he has a throat in his hand.

3 Cf. al-Tirmidī, no. 2355, 3166; A¬mad, no 2853, etc.
4 See above, p. 69.
5 On the meaning of the tinkling of the bell in other Sufi authors, see NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, ii,

Page. 4256.6
AlAjšabān is the name given to two mountains in Mecca, the first called Abū Qubays and the second

To mar. According to tradition, Abū Qubays is the first mountain that God created on earth (cf. G. RENTZ, “Abū Qubays”, in EI 2). The meaning of this phrase is that when the two mountains are facing each other on either side of Mecca, if they were united they would crush the city between them: another tradition says that the Prophet, after his call to Islam had been rejected by some Meccans, was approached by the angel in charge of the mountains, who offered to unite al-Ajšabān so that the disbelievers would be crushed. if that was what the Prophet wished to command him (cf. Bujārī, no. 2992; Muslim, no 3352; alNasā’ī, no. 2945).

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[APARTADO SOBRE EL NO. “ALLĀH” AND THE NO. ]

And now we will explain the three sublime and noble names, which are Allāh, al-Raman and al-Ram. As for His name, Allah, may He be exalted, is the Supreme Name, which includes all Names, and therefore He begins with Him in His book, closes His book with it, His servants worship Him, alludes to Him, and with Him is recognized, according to His words, Exalted be He: “He is Allāh”1, praise be to Him! for His names refer to Him.

And he who writes the letter mīm2, its figure and its magic square, and reads upon them the words and verses that follow, and carrying it with him goes to see the kings, the rulers, and the supreme judges, he is well received among them and in an influential manner. And this square gives its bearer respect, for although he is before the lions, they humble themselves before him and fear him. If its bearer enters with him into battle, he will overcome the enemies, subdue the adversaries, and no enemy will approach him whom Allah, exalted be He, does not bow down. And its bearer will be loved among the people, loved and well treated, and everyone who sees him will love him and sympathize with him, for he has excellent peculiar virtues.

A certain imām pointed out that one who devotes himself to inner struggle (almujada) and mortification (alriyāṣa), frees himself from desire, anger, ugly customs and evil deeds, sits in an empty place and obstructs the path of the senses, opening the inner sight and ear and putting the heart in correspondence with the world of the Celestial Kingdom, and in his inner struggle he says “Allah Allāh” continuously with his heart and without speaking, until emptiness occurs in his soul and he remains perceiving God alone, exalted be He, for a window will open before him through which he will look and see in waking life what he saw in the dream, the spirits of angels and prophets appearing to him, as well as beautiful forms. And the invisible kingdom of heaven and earth is revealed before him, so that he will see the inexplicable and indescribable, just as the Prophet said, God bless and save him!: “The earth departed before me, and I saw its east and its west.”3 And Allah, exalted be He, said to His Prophet in His noble book: Remember the name of your Lord and consecrate yourself exclusively to Him 4, which means the breaking of all that is not God (alinqiā’),5 the purification of the heart, and total supplication to Him, for this is the path that the Sufis follow in these times.

You must know that among the peculiarities of the Lordship (alRubūbiyya) is the knowledge of His most beautiful names and His highest and most sublime attributes. Among them is particularly the Supreme Name, which is “Allāh”, with which Name alone He is distinguished, with His glory and His majesty, for He is the God (al’Ilāh), to whom the Divinity (al-Ulūhiyya) belongs in the Middle East.

1 Cor. vi:4; XVIII:37, etc.
2 The following paragraph, which is only found in the base manuscript, is taken out of context.
3 Ibn Mājāa, no 3942.
4 Cor. LXXIII:7.
5 Cf. NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, iv, p. 33. Also on the terms “mujā¬ada” and “riyāṣṇa”, pp. 34

39.6
Cf. NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, ii, p. 451: “Lordship is the garment of the divine Attributes […]; the

Lordship is the name of the level of the Attributes, the Names and Divine Acts […].

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Himself and by Himself, and he is Allāh, Who has no offspring or progenitor, ﴾ Verily Allāh is one God ﴿ 1.

That is why a certain saint said to one of his disciples: “Do you want me to teach you a blessed knowledge (fā’ida) that you can put into practice?” He answered him in the affirmative, and said to him [the saint]: “You shall continually say Allāh Allāh Allāh for seven days, without mentioning any other of His names, you shall fast during the day and at night you shall endure as long as you can by repeating this invocation without stopping either day or night. You shall not speak to anyone, stay away from people for seven days, and then the created wonders (al’ajā’ib) of the earthly world will appear before you. Then go on for another seven days, and the wonders of heaven will appear before you. If you continue in the same way for another seven days, the wonders of the angelic realm will appear before you. And if you reach forty days in this way, Allah, exalted be He, reveals to you the miracles (alkarāmāt) of the saints and gives you the gift of disposing of the forces of creation (alta1⁄2arruf).

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And it is related of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and save him, who said: “When the slave to believer says: ‘Yā Allāh’, Allah says: Here I am, my servant! What do you need? “2, but God is the one who knows the most
about Himself, only God knows the deep essence of God’s greatness, He is the Lord of
all and He knows everything.

People have already debated about the deep essence (kunh) of God, exalted be He, and whether it is knowable by man or not. Whoever maintains that it is not knowable for the human being, says that it is because something is known by observation when it is present and by comparison when it is absent, but God, exalted be He! And neither can He be conceived by observation, according to His saying, exalted be He: ﴾ Glances do not reach Him, but He reaches out to the gaze ﴿ 4.

And a certain šayj of the Realized, when He held His eternity without beginning, His perpetuity without end, His oneness without number, and His attributes alien to the attributes of creatures, said, that it is inevitable that the attributes should not reach the deep essence, for if so, there would be for them a definition and a comparison, and definition and comparison lead to disappearance and extinction,
which is impossible as far as God is concerned. He said it al-Muṇsabī5, God be pleased with him!

And it is said that the angel Jibrīl, peace be upon him, sent down upon the Prophet, may God bless him and save him, the Supreme Name on one of the leaves of Paradise sealed with musk, on which he had written: “My God, I beseech You by Your preserved and hidden Name, the Pure, the Purifier, the Holy One, the Living, the Subsistent, the Clement, the Merciful, the Lord of majesty and generosity.”

1 Cor. IV:170.

2 I do not find this “goodbye,” although it seems to be a variant of the one recorded by Ibn Maja (no. 3784), in which the Prophet rather refers to the believer who utters tawīd.

3 Cor. xlii: 9.4
Cor. VI:104.
5 Abū ‘Abd Allāh al©arīt al-Mu¬āsabī (d. 857 CE), one of Islam’s most celebrated mystics.

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And Anas1 relates that a woman said [to the Prophet]: Teach us [the Supreme Name], O Messenger of Allah; and the Prophet said, God bless you and save you!: “It is forbidden for us to teach it to women and children.”2

And a certain man of the good (alajyār)3 wrote to an imām of the pious (alabrār)4, asking him to gather for him some phrases with which he could pray for his most important affairs, and he wrote for him this prayer: “My God, I ask You for Your Name, for You are Allah in the realities of pure designation, because You are Allāh in every case of the enormous and the balanced, because You are Allāh, the Sanctified by the exclusive characteristics of Oneness and Eternity, alien to the opposite or the equal, to the contradictory or the equivalent, because You are Allāh, ﴾ there is nothing like Him. He is the Listener, the Seer ﴿5. [I ask you] to bless and save our Lord Muṣṇd, the family of Muṣṣṇd and everyone who loves Muṣṣṣṇd, and to make up for all my wants, thereby obtaining the good of this world and that of the Hereafter, and thus being guarded by Consideration (alri’āya),6 protected from vices and watched over by the peculiarities of divine Solicitude. O Who always returns to bestow the good, O Who is in the truth of the God-fearing and the good-doing, my God, this is the plea of one who submits to the power of Thy lordship by acknowledging his trouble, Thou art the Who knoweth the unseen, Who witnesses the truths of desires before they take place in hearts, and Who fulfills them with the most beautiful of endings. O the Best of Objects of Desire, may God bless and save our Lord Muhammad, the Beloved of Hearts.”

And it is said that in this invocation is the Supreme Name of God, just as it was said of BismiLlāh al-Ramon al-Ram al-Raim, for you must know that what is between it and the Supreme Name of God is like what is between the black of the eye and the white of its [distance]. God speaks the truth and He shows the way.

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1 Anas b. Mālik (d. c. 710 CE), a contemporary of the Prophet and the transmitter of a large number of his sayings. 2 This “goodbye” is not found among the compendiums we use.
3 Cf. NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, iii, pp. 228230.4
Ibid.

5 Cor. XLII: 9.

6 NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, v, p. 226: “Consideration on the part of God means His protection to the one who walks the Path from falling into dangers or being invaded by deviant thoughts.”

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CHAPTER SIX
I WILLDISCUSS THE SPIRITUAL RETREAT AND WHAT CHARACTERIZES THE MASTERS OF THE DEVOTIONAL RETREATS THAT LEAD TO THE HIGHER WORLDS.

Know that, God help us to obey Him, that with this chapter of magnificent importance comes to the Name of the Mighty One, the Gracious.

One of the virtuous imams used to retire in the main mosque of Aleppo, and there he was [in the dark] as in the tomb, for there was no other access of light than that of the door, and when the door was closed he was as in the tomb because of the narrowness and darkness. He used to pray with his back to the people at the moment of standing up from prayer, and when the prayer was over he reached his mystical state oriented towards the qibla and without anyone looking. He had been continually beseeching and supplicating Allah, exalted be He, to make known to him the Supreme Name, and while he was thus sitting and giving himself up to the supplication of God, exalted be He, by continual invocation (2ikr), a table of light on which were figures was formed in front of him. He turned away from her so that her vision would not distract him from his approach to God, exalted be He! Then [the Tablet] struck him in the face and it was said, “Take what will be profitable to you,” and at that moment he opened his eyes and went to the tablet to look at it.

There were four lines on it, one line above, one line below, one to the right and one to the left. In the middle was a circle, and inside the circle was another circle, with a certain space between them. In the middle of the small circle was a line dividing it into two halves. In the upper half, two other lines crossed towards the separating line forming a triangle, in the center of which he had written from the axis of the circle: ﴾ But no, He is Allāh ﴿1. There was a letter jŷīm at the angle of the two lines [forming the triangle]; at one end of the right line that meets the diameter of the circle was a letter dāl, and written near the letter the Name ‘the Eternal’ (al1⁄4amad), starting from the [right] line of the triangle and ending near [the line] of the circle. At the angle of the diameter with [the line] of the circle was the letter alif and the Name ‘the One’ (alWā¬id), exalted be He!, in front of the name ‘the Eternal’, and behind him the name ‘the Dominator’ (alQahhār), and behind him the name ‘the Dominator’ [for the second time] behind him, and ‘the Dominator’ [second] stood at the top of the circle line. Inside the line, that is, the line of the triangle, was the letter yā’. At one end of the line on the left that reaches the diameter of the circle, the letter hā’. In diameter, within the angle formed by the [left] line that meets the circle, the name ‘the Gracious’ (al-Ra¬mān), and the name ‘the Merciful’ (al-Ra¬īm) in the line [running from the left side] of the triangle to the circle, and after it the name ‘the Forgiving’ (alGafūr). Inside the triangle, on the axis, the letter Ðā’. In the lower half [of the circle], above the diameter there is a [curved] line that spans a quarter of the circle, over which is a letter jā’, and there is another [curved] line that comes out of it ending towards the middle of the circle. Inside

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1 Cor. xxxiv:27.

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This [first] line was written “manifested” (mutaŷallī), and inside the other line of diameter was written “by light” (bilnūr), at the end of which closest to the circle was the letter zay. Outside this line that delimits a quarter of the circle, was written “It has reached you”; and in the left half of the [lower] half of the circle, which is a quarter of it, two lines, in one of them which is the one following [where it is] “manifested” (mutaŷallī) was written “chosen” (mujtār), written on the next line “by the straight way” (bilhudah), and outside of it “a servant of Ours” (‘abd linā). Inside the other two lines, towards the middle of the circle was written the letter wāw, and written ﴾ those ten [days] in total ﴿ 1, starting towards the middle of the axis. And written on the top of this diameter, in the outer circle ﴾ Aliflāmmīm. Allāh, there is no god but Him, the Living, the Subsisting One ﴿ 2, with the letters separated. “Alif lām mīm” in front of the yīm that is inside the triangle. The “lām alif” of “there is no god but Him” in front of the alif which is at the far left of the axis. “The Living One” in front of the wāw [letter] at the bottom of the circle, and the mīm of “the Subsisting One” in front of “alif lām mīm”, and the lines just mentioned in front of him. At the [right] end of the circle, it was written on the outside of it: ﴾ God behind them surrounds them ﴿3, and on the other side [also] outside the circle: ﴾ Yet it is a glorious Recitation on a protected Tablet ﴿4. And in the bottom line outside the circle: ﴾ Those who have branded the Book and that with which We have sent our Messengers a lie, will soon know ﴿5.

[And he went on to narrate:] when I memorized his figure well, the image disappeared from my sight, and after praying the dawn prayer (al1⁄2ub¬) I sat down, began to recite my litanies (wird) and fell asleep. And while I was asleep, I saw the Prince of the Believers, ‘Ali b. Abī Æālib (may Allah, may He be exalted, honour him and be pleased with him), and he said to me: “Where is the tablet which you received and which was composed with me?” I handed it to him and, giving it great importance, he told me several things about its meaning of which I did not understand a single word. Then the Prince of the Believers pointed with his finger to the letter jķīm which is at the angle of the triangle, in the upper half of the circle, and said: “From it derives the Name of the Divine Majesty (aljal).” Then I knew that it was the Supreme Name of God, that the [other] Names allude to it, and that that Name indicates the Transcendence (tanzīh)6 of the sacred Essence. And I said, “Prince of the Believers, I did not understand what you told me.” And he said to me: “Muṣṣṇa b. Æal¬a7 will explain it to you, God willing, exalted be He!” Then I woke up, finished my wird, went to Ibn Æala, for there was a bond of brotherhood in God between us, and told him what had happened. Then he thanked God and began his explanation; and having mistakenly believed that no one

1 Cor. II:195.
2 Cor. III:1.
3 Cor. LXXXV:20.
4 Cor. LXXXV:212.
5 Cor. XL:70.
6 Transcendence or Purity (tanzīh) implies the impossibility of associating God with the attributes of beings

created because of His Uniqueness (cf. NURBAKHSH, Sufi Symbolism, iv, p. 262).
7 Mu¬ammad b. Tal¬a al’Adawī, who died in 652 AH (cf. ISMĀ’ĪL PASHA, Hadiyyat al’Ārifīna.

Asmā’ almu’allifīna waatār almusannifīna, 2 vols., Beirut: Dār Ihyā’ alturāt al’arabī, 195155, ii, p. 125).

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When he heard me tell him that, he asked God for forgiveness and began his explanation, and he titled it The pearls strung on the Supreme Name of God, or it is also said “on the supreme secret” 1.

After that, on another occasion I saw [in a dream] the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and save him!: he was sitting on the mirab, and the Prince of the Believers ‘Ali b. Abī Æālib, may Allah be pleased with him, was present there mentioning that tablet in the presence of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and save him! And ‘Ali, may Allah honour him, said: “No other name contains the sacred Name better in its symbolism (dalāla).” And the Prophet (may God bless him and save him) replied: “And so did the angel Jabrīl, peace be upon him, the Faithful Spirit, teach me.”

When I woke up from my sleep, I went to the jaykh [Ibn Æala], told him what had happened, and he was silent for an hour. Then he stretched out his hand behind him and took out a sheet on which he had written this very phrase, namely, “No other contains the sacred Name better in its symbolism.” When I saw that, I said, “Why don’t you put it in the comment?” and he said, “I thought it wouldn’t be revealed to anyone but me when it happened to me.” Then he asked forgiveness from God, exalted be He, for that, as he did before, and included it in his commentary, which he titled as we mentioned before. So it is one of those secrets of God, exalted be He, which is attained only by the truthful who are rigorous with prudence (altaqwà), for it is a sublime Name and a sacred secret, of which, if you know a single sign of its disposition, men and geniuses obey you, and the treasures of Science and the treasures of the earth are opened before you. Hide it from those who are not worthy of it, and do not touch it without finding yourself in a state of ritual purity.

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This is his image, as you can see. Try to understand and you will prosper, God willing, praise and exalted be He, for God speaks the truth and He guides the right path2.

Fig. 17

1 Aldurr almunaÞÞam fī ism Allāh al’aÞam (or fī sirr al’aÞam). Both Ismā’īl Pasha (loc. cit.) and Hajjū Jalīfa (Kašf al-Yunūn, iii, p. 193), mention it among the works of Ibn Æal¬a. However, the same title has also been attributed to other authors such as Abū Bakr alSuyūÐī (©AŶŶĪ JALĪFA, loc. cit.), al BisÐāmī (T. F AHD, “Djafr”, in EI 2) or alBūnī himself (supra, p. x).

2 Compare the following figure containing the base manuscript with that of the rest of our manuscripts, in Annex II of our edition, p. 4878.

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