Letters On The Spiritual Path

About the author

Mulay al-Arabi al-Darqawi al-Hasani: Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Arabi al-Darqawi al-Hasani, rahimahullah (1760-1823), was a Moroccan Sufi master and one of the most influential figures in the Shadhili tariqa in North Africa. He was descended from a Hasanid-Idrissid sharif family that lived among the Beni Zerwal Berbers in the hills to the northeast of Fez. His spiritual teaching centered on dhikr, the remembrance of God, and he authored a collection of letters offering guidance on the spiritual path and instructions for daily life - a corpus now translated as 'Letters On The Spiritual Path.' He strongly emphasized non-involvement in worldly affairs and spoke against Sufi orders that exploited claims of barakah. His relationship with political authority was fraught: he was imprisoned by the Moroccan Sultan Mulay Slimane (r. 1792-1822) for his association with revolts against the throne, but was subsequently released under Sultan Abderrahmane (r. 1822-1859). After his death, his disciples organized the Darqawa, a distinct branch of the Shadhili order, around his teachings. The Darqawa once constituted the most widespread tariqa in Morocco, drawing members from across social groups before its influence waned as it spread throughout North Africa. His tomb remains in the Zawiya Bou Brih in the Rif.

About the translators

Mohamed Fouad Aresmouk: Mohamed Fouad Aresmouk is a Moroccan translator known for making classical Sufi and Qurʾanic works available to English readers. He grew up in a traditional Marrakesh family, the son of an Arabic teacher and grandson of one of the most renowned Qurʾan teachers of the city, and he completed his degree in Islamic Studies and Arabic at Qadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh. Over the years he has translated more than a dozen works, most of them concerned with Sufism and the spiritual heritage of Morocco. A good deal of his output is collaborative, and he is frequently paired with Michael Abdurrahman Fitzgerald on translations of Moroccan Sufi texts. Among his best-known projects is the English rendering of Ahmad ibn ʿAjiba's Qurʾan commentary al-Bahr al-Madid (The Immense Ocean), including its selections on the chapters of Maryam and Ta Ha. He has also translated Letters on the Spiritual Path, the correspondence of the Darqawi master Mulay al-ʿArabi al-Darqawi, as well as Ibn ʿAjiba's The Book of Ascension to the Essential Truths of Sufism and material from al-Ghazali's Ihyaʾ ʿUlum al-Din, including treatments of purification and the discipline of the tongue. His careful, accessible translations have helped bring the devotional and contemplative writings of the Moroccan tradition to a wider audience.

Michael Abdurrahman Fitzgerald: Michael Abdurrahman Fitzgerald is an American translator and educator best known as the lead translator of Fons Vitae's series of works by the Moroccan Sufi master Ahmad Ibn ʿAjiba (d. 1224 AH / 1809 CE), a teacher of the Darqawi-Shadhili order. Originally from California, Fitzgerald and his wife settled in Morocco in the late 1970s, and he has since spent decades engaged in education and in the study of Arabic, Islam, and Sufism. He directs the Center for Language and Culture in Marrakesh and holds degrees from the University of California and from Shenandoah University in Virginia. Most of his translation work has been carried out together with Mohamed Fouad Aresmouk. Their joint renderings of Ibn ʿAjiba include The Immense Ocean (al-Bahr al-Madid), a portion of his Qurʾan commentary; The Book of Ascension (Miʿraj al-Tashawwuf), his lexicon of Sufi terminology; and a selection from his commentaries published as Two Sufi Commentaries. Fitzgerald also collaborated on Ibn al-Qayyim on the Invocation of God, issued by the Islamic Texts Society. Through these translations he has made the spiritual and Qurʾanic writings of one of the major figures of the later Moroccan Sufi tradition accessible to English-speaking readers.