Gifts for the Seeker
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Translator
Mostafa al-Badawi
Description
About The Book
This book answers many of the questions often asked by seekers of inward illumination.
- What are the real implications of the doctrine of divine unity?
- How can proper concentration be achieved during spiritual exercises?
- When should one avoid participating in Sufi gatherings?
- What is the relationship between the tongue, the mind, and the heart?
- How is one to understand visions received in sleep?
The work also includes the author’s commentary on a poem on inner wayfaring which speaks of the most exalted stations of the path and goes on to explain a number of paradoxes of the Way, such as the reason as why the saints usually refuse to deploy their miraculous powers, preferring to concentrate on self-scrutiny and the compassionate guidance of others. These points are illustrated with references to the famous mystical poems of Ibn al-Farid and Abu Madyan.
The author (died 1720) lived at Tarim, in the Hadramaut valley between Yemen and Oman, and is described as the ‘renewer’ of the twelfth Muslim century. His writings include a volume of mystical poetry and several books, some of which are especially popular in Swahili and Malay translations.
About the Contributor(s)
About the author
Abdallah ibn Alawi al-Haddad: A scholar, Sufi master, and poet of the Hadramawt valley in Yemen, al-Haddad (1044–1132 AH / 1634–1720 CE) was born and lived his whole life in the town of Tarim, where his tomb is still visited. He descended from the Prophet through the Ba ʿAlawi sayyids of Hadramawt, followed the Shafiʿi school in law and the Ashʿari creed, and is widely regarded as the renewer (mujaddid) of the twelfth Islamic century. Though he lost his sight in childhood, he became one of the most influential teachers of the Ba ʿAlawi tradition, drawing on al-Ghazali and the earlier masters of Tarim. He wrote with a clarity that made deep matters accessible, and several of his books are still read daily. Landmark works include al-Nasaʾih al-Diniyya wa al-Wasaya al-Imaniyya (Counsels of Religion), al-Daʿwa al-Tamma wa al-Tadhkira al-ʿAmma (The Complete Summons and General Reminder), Risalat al-Muʿawana (The Book of Assistance), al-Fusul al-ʿIlmiyya, and a Diwan of mystical poetry, alongside his collected letters. His litanies, especially the Ratib al-Haddad and the Wird al-Latif, are recited across the Muslim world. His legacy endures in the living spiritual tradition of Tarim and in English translations that have carried his counsel to new readers.
About the translator
Mostafa al-Badawi: Mostafa al-Badawi (b. 1948 CE, Cairo) is one of the leading contemporary translators of classical Islamic texts from Arabic into English, and a scholar associated with the Ba ʿAlawi sayyids of Hadramawt in Yemen. He graduated from Cairo University Medical School in 1971 and completed his postgraduate training in the United Kingdom, where he has practiced as a consultant psychiatrist and is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Alongside his medical career he pursued a serious study of the Islamic sciences and of the spiritual path of the Ba ʿAlawi tradition. He is best known for his translations of the prose works of Imam ʿAbdallah ibn ʿAlawi al-Haddad, the great Hadrami sage and poet, including The Book of Assistance, Gifts for the Seeker, Counsels of Religion, and The Lives of Man. His translation work also extends to The Degrees of the Soul of Shaykh al-Shabrawi and Key to the Garden of Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad. As an author in his own right, he wrote Sufi Sage of Arabia, a full biography of Imam al-Haddad drawing on the life and teachings of seventeenth-century Yemen, and Man and the Universe, among other studies. He is regarded as a careful, faithful translator who has made the devotional and ethical literature of the Ba ʿAlawi masters accessible to a wide English readership.
Specifications
EAN 13 / ISBN
9781887752572
Publisher
Fons Vitae
Author
Abdallah ibn Alawi al-Haddad
Pages
75
Translator
Mostafa al-Badawi
Year Published
2003
Size
W-5.2 in | H-8.5 in | D-0.3 in
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