As the newest part of the Imam Al-Haddad Spiritual Masters Series- The Sublime Treasures is an important work in the field of Islamic spirituality.

This volume contains Imam Al-Haddad's answers to letters he received posing questions on easily confusing and subtle Sufi matters, presented in Imam Haddad's inimitable style of succinct clarity. Included are questions pertaining exclusively to Sufism, such as those concerning the Pole of Time and the Circle of Saints, the Afrad- who are the solitary saints said by some to be outside the jurisdiction of the Pole and in direct contact with al-Khidr, the definition of the siddiq, that of the majdhub, the states of extinction and subsistence, various technical points concerning the relationship between the master and the novice, Sufi courtesy with God and His saints, the worlds of Mulk, Malakut, Jabarut, and Lahut, which are the degrees of universal existence, and how to deal with obscure passages in the works of such esoteric writers as Ibn Arabi. There are also questions of a more general tenor, such as those concerning the degrees of the Garden and its gates, the merits of recitation of the Qur'an over awrad, the respective merits and courtesies of poverty and wealth, and of fame and obscurity, the offering of the rewards of certain acts of worship to the spirits of the dead, sins committed in Ramadan when devils are shackled, and the causes of the civil wars that Ali ibn Abi-Talib was forced to wage.
 
It will be noticed how the Imam curtly sweeps aside anything that has no direct bearing on the traveler's path. Questions devoid of practical value are pitilessly dismissed in a summary manner and the reader is firmly reoriented to what is of immediate benefit to him. Sufi masters have always been most reluctant to discourse openly about Divine secrets, knowing that such discourse causes much confusion and frequently leads novices into believing or pretending they have reached that which they have not. The Imam, however, allowed himself more freedom in letters addressed to his scholarly disciples- extracts of which constitute this volume- than in books.

About Author:

Imam Abd Allah ibn Alawi al-Haddad was born in 1634 CE (1044 Hijri). He lived his entire life in the town of Tarim in Yemen’s Valley of Hadramawt and died there in 1720 CE (1132 Hijri). In Islamic history, he was considered one of the great Sufi sages. He was an adherent to the Ashari Sunni Creed of Faith (Aqeedah), while in Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh), he was a Shafi'i.

He lived at Tarim in the Hadramaut valley between Yemen and Oman, and is widely held to have been the ‘renewer’ of the twelfth Islamic century. A direct descendant of the Prophet, his sanctity and direct experience of God are clearly reflected in his writings, which include several books, a collection of Sufi letters, and a volume of mystical poetry. He spent most of his life in Kenya and Saudi Arabia where he taught Islamic jurisprudence and classical Sufism according to the order (tariqa) of the Ba'Alawi sayids.

In spite of being a major source of reference among the Sunni Muslims (especially among Sufis), only recently have his books began to receive attention and publication in the English-speaking world. Their appeal lies in the concise way in which the essential pillars of Islamic belief, practice, and spirituality have been streamlined and explained efficiently enough for the modern reader. Examples of such works are The Book of Assistance, The Lives of Man, and Knowledge and Wisdom.

About Translator:

Dr. Mostafa Badawi was born in Cairo in 1948. He graduated from Cairo University Medical School in 1971 and thereafter completed his postgraduate training in the United Kingdom in 1985. He has been practicing as a consultant psychiatrist since then. Dr. al-Badawi has authored several books in English, including Man and the Universe: An Islamic Perspective, The Prophetic Invocations, and Sufi Sage of Arabia: Biography of Imam al-Haddad.

He is a distinguished authority on the history and teachings of the Ba 'Alawi Sayyids. He studied under many shaykhs, foremost among whom is the late Habib Ahmad Mashur al-Haddad.

Dr. Badawi is one of the leading contemporary translators of Islamic books from Arabic to English and has authored several books in Arabic. In addition, he has translated from the original Arabic into English several of Imam Abdallah ibn Alawi al-Haddad's works, including The Book of Assistance, The Lives of Man, Gifts for the Seeker, Wisdom and Knowledge, Good Manners, and Mutual Reminding. He also translated into English Habib Ahmad al-Haddad's Key to the Garden as well as Shaykh Abd al-Khaliq ash-Shabrawi's Degrees of the Soul.