Patterns of Contemplation is a uniquely innovative and comprehensive introduction to the sacred principles and symbolism of geometry, letters and numbers, discussed through the first in-depth analysis and English translation of a major Sufi devotional masterpiece, The Blessing-Prayer of Effusion (al-?alat al-fay?iyya). It examines the kaleidoscopic structure of this prayer on the Prophet Muhammad, who authored it, and how it reveals profound teachings on human perfection.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: The Geometry of Reality: the circle and the dot
- Chapter 2: Contemplation in letters and numbers, circles and mirrors
- Chapter 3: The Two Effusions and the Language of Numbers: Fay, Suryaniyya and the letter ad
- Chapter 4: Quranic Principles of creation: kun fa-yakun and the Names Ghafur and Wadud
- Chapter 5: Authorship and inspiration: Bosnevi's approach in different texts
- Chapter 6: The Blessing-prayer a) parallel Arabic-English (facing pages, numbered, without notes, for recitation) b) English translation with notes
- Appendices
- A: Transliteration
- B: Spanish translation
- C: Letters and numbers, rhymes and key words in the Blessing-prayer
- D: Structural analysis of the Blessing-prayer
- E: The Prayer of Blessing by al-Mahdawi Arabic-English (facing pages, E notes at end)
- Bibliography
- Index
About the Author :
Stephen Hirtenstein is director of Anqa Publishing, Senior Research Fellow of the Muhiyddin Ibn Arabi Society and editor of the Society Journal, and a freelance Senior Editor for the Institute of Ismaili Studies (London). His main research interest is in the works of Ibn 'Arabi and his school, and he has numerous publications including the Unlimited Mercifier and translations of Ibn 'Arabi's works. Pablo Beneito is currently Professor (Profesor Titular) at the Department of Translation and Interpretation, Facultad de Letras, University of Murcia. Specialising in the study of Islamic thought and Sufism, he has taught courses and contributed to conferences in some twenty countries and directed more than 30 international congresses. As an author, editor and translator he has published extensively on Ibn 'Arabi and the mystical tradition. In 2011 he became the Director of MIAS Latina (www.ibnarabisociety.es), and since 2014 the Director and Editor of El Azufre Rojo
Review :
"a comprehensive introduction to sacred geometry, symbolism, and numerology articulated against the backdrop of a well-known Akbarian prayer on the blessed Prophet. As such, this book is a guiding light for those travelling from the darkness of the periphery to the luminous Muhammadan Centre"Mohammed Rustom, Carleton University
"This fascinatingly complex volume, as its long title already suggests, actually covers a wide range of subjects that are all connected in various ways to a metaphysically complex invocation (the Salat Faydiyya or "Blessing-Prayer of Effusion" of the title), attributed ostensibly to Ibn 'Arabi, which first appears in a commentary by his well-known later commentator al-Nabulusi-some five centuries after the Shaykh's passing-and which the authors of this volume persuasively attribute to Abdullah Bosnevi, who wrote roughly a century earlier than Nabulusi. This short prayer is of such density and richness of allusions that the authors have provided the Arabic text, literal English and Spanish translations, a fully annotated commentary, and detailed transliterated versions that allow readers without specialized background or Arabic to more fully appreciate its poetic and aesthetic depths. It provides, firstly and most importantly, the most elaborate English introduction to the Arabic 'science of letters' and a host of closely related poetic features, devices and symbols which are central to deciphering and fully understanding both Ibn 'Arabi's immense poetic production and his prose; secondly, a previously unstudied window on the study, ongoing contemplation and spiritual interaction with Ibn 'Arabi in the Ottoman realms (from the Balkans to the Arab heartlands); and thirdly, a quite different historical tradition of related metaphysical poetry and prayer-blessings, which gradually spread in devotional settings across North and West Africa down to the present day"
James Winston Morris, Boston University
"At once mathematical and spiritual, Patterns of Contemplation is a uniquely rich introduction to the science of letters and number symbolism, and itself a rare expression of artistic and scholarly devotion to the study of our human mystical heritage"
Aydogan Kars, Monash University
"An extraordinary achievement. The Science of Letters combined with numerical and geometric symbolism in particular is treated with thorough investigation and deep insight. The reader is taken by the hand, and even those who do not possess a specific training, nor that particular aptitude that would be desirable for such a peculiar and essential field, should be able to follow and appreciate the articulated dimensions of this 'Pythagorean' vision of existence. At the same time, one should also be able to understand that Ibn ʿArabi's treatment of this Science and, consequently, of a Master of his school like Abdullah Bosnevi, goes far beyond what may have ever been produced in the West, and reveals the heights of the Muhammadian doctrines"
Paolo Urizzi, Perennia Verba
