International Mevlana Symposiuın Papers

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Birleşmiş Minetler 2007 Eğitim, Bilim ve Kültür MevlAnA CelAleddin ROmi

Kurumu 800. ~um Yıl Oönümü

United Nations Educaöonal, Scientific and aoo:ı Anniversary of

Cu/tura! Organlzatlon the Birth of Rumi

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The root of all things: Letters, words, speech

Pilar Garrido Clemente 1 Spain

Kun, the divine command of creation

Kun: "Be!", "come into being!" This is the general creative com­

ınand of Go d that initiates the coming in to being of all creatures in the Universe

(kawn), their entry into the world, the realm of actual existence, from the dimen­

sion of pure possibility. Therefore, God gives existence to all beings in the

Universe by means of:His Word: Be this! Be that! Each thing exists, then, at the

very moment that God names it and commands it to be1 by means of the spe­

cific kun that corresponds to it. Thus, the Order of the Universe is based up on the

Order of God. It is the Divine W ord that establishes the Order, commands all

beings to come into existence and arranges their degree and disposition. This ini­

tial Word of God, the imperative kun, is the generative and unifying principle of

the order of all manifestation. The diversity of the articulated words or names -

which are the different beings of the Universe - is, therefore, inherently unified

by the primordial intrinsic unity of the all-engendering Word, which is an attrib­

ute of God as the Speaker. The whole of existence is, consequently, a single dis­

course. Thus, the world is united by the Word: a unified visian of the casmos is

a unified word-view. 2

1 As the Qur'an shows in different verses Gad has created the World through His Word saying to each being/creature "Be! (kun) ".See 0: 2: 117, 3: 47, 3: 59, 7: 44, 15:98, 16:40, 19:35,36:82,39:66 and 40:68. 2 Or using the term Pablo Beneito formulated in his writings, a unifıed logovision. See P. Beneito, Ellenguoje de /as alusiones: amor, compasian y belieza en el sufismo de lbn 'Arabi, Murcia: Editora Regional de Murcia, 2005, p. 60.

1118 A5 is well known, Rumi had a close relation of friendship with Şadruddin

Qünawi, the most eminent disciple of Ibn 'Arabi (a. C. 1165-1240). Acording to

some texts studied by ümid Safi or Gerald Elmore, Ibn 'Arabi himself was con­

nected to Shamsuddin Tabnzi. Thus, Andulusian Sufism was present in Konya

through Ibn 'Arabi's teaching.

In this paper, I'm going to speak of Ibn Masarra's Kitiib al-IfurüP Ibn

Masarra al-Jaball (883-93 1) may be considered the first eminent Master whose

teaching established an Andalusian Sufi tradition. This book on the Isolated

Qur'anic letters, often quoted by Ibn 'Arabi, is the first major work that has sur­

vived on this essential matter.

The word, the book, the universe

The Divine Word is manifested in the revealed Book. This concept is the condi­

tion of possibility4 that underli es the Sufi exegesis of letters presented here. The

primordial Matrix of Scripture is manifested and actualised in the written and

recited Book; but it is also manifested in the Bo ok of the Universe, the revealed

Bo ok of Creation that shows the signs on the horizons (ii.fiiq), and is equally man­

ifested in the interi or of the human microcosm. The human being, according to

Ibn Masarra in his R. al-I'tibiir (The Epistle of Interpretation}, is an interpreter

(mu 'tabir), who deciphers the signs of these three dimensions of the Book, w hile

contemplating the correlations established among them. Lil,ce Sahl al-Tustan,5 in

his writing on the letters, or Ibn 'Arabi in different passages of his works, Ibn

3 See on this author and his complete works, Pilar Garrido, Estudio, traducciôn y ediciôn de la obra de lbn Masarra de Côrdoba: la ciencia de fas Jetras en el sufismo (Doctoral Thesis), Universidad de Salamanca, 2007. 4 As a paradigmatic model of this attitude, see Marcos el Gnôstico in Iren eo de Lyôn, Contra fas herejfas, 1, 14 -16, in Los Gnôsticos, vol. 1 (introduction, translation and notes from Jose Montserrat Torrents), Madrid: Gredos, 1983. See also Evange/io de la Verdad lll in Biblioteca de Nag Hammad i ll. Evange!ios, hechos, cartas (translation by Francisco Garcia Bazan), Madrid: Trotta, 1999. 5 See G. Böwering, The Mystical Vision of Existence in Classical Islam: The Qur'anic Hermeneutics of the Şüfı Sahl at-TustarT, Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1980 and M. K. Ja'far Risatat ai-J:Iurüf in Minal-turas al-şüfı li-Sahl b. 'Abd Allahai-TustarT (The Sufi Legacy of Sahl b. 'Abd Allah ai-TustarT. Study and Critical ed.), Cairo: Dar ai-Ma'arif, 1974, pp. 366-375 (Faşl fı 1-Qur'an pp. 372-373 and Ma _a' min al-ism ... , pp. 373-375).

Pilar Garrido Clemente Tlıe raat of all tlzings: Letters, ıvords, speeclı

Masarra declares at the beginning of his Risiilat al-I'tibiir that the entire Universe

is a Book, whose lerters are the divine speech.

This correspondence - which is simultaneously a relation of identity and dif­

ference- between the Divine Word, the Universe and the Book, is the background

of all Sufi hermeneutics. Certainly, the same can also be said in relation to other

esateric schools within Islam, as well as in the other Religions of the Book.

As Rumi says in his Flhi mii fih: "The root of all things is speech and words.

You know notlıing of speech and words and consider them insignificant. But

speech is the fruit of the tree of action, for words are bom from action. Go d most

High created the world from a Word, for He said, 'Be!' and it is".6

The Arabic letters of revelation

Like Tustar'f or Ja'far al-Şadiq among Muslim authors who preceded him, and

Ibn 'Arabi, Rumi and many later authors, Ibn Masarra explores the symbolic

meanings of the Arabic lerters, as these are precisely the signs that, providen­

tially, have been used to articulate the Islamic revelation, which is his funda­

mental domain of study. Although the author does not mention this fact explic­

itly, it is understood that the revelation re-establishes the providential and orig­

inal character of the Arabic language, w hi ch serves as its verbal support.

Letters as the principles of all created beings

Thus, in the scriptural esateric tradition all beings are considered to be words of

the Creator and the Universe is seen as His discourse. According to Ibn Masarra,

who in this case resorts to the authority of Sahl al-Tustaıi, lerters are the princi­

ples of all things (uşül al-ashyii 1, the origins of their constitution. 8

6 See A. J. Arberry, Discourses of Riimf(Fihi mii fiht), London: John Murray, p. 75. 7 See Pilar Garrido, "El tratado de las letras (Risolat a/-lıunıj) del sufi Sahl Al-Tustari" en la Aııuario de Estıidios Filo/6gicos, Universidad de Extremadura, Caceres, 2006, volumen XXIX, pp. 87-100. 8 See Ib n Masarra, Kitiib Khowiişş of-l;ıuriif wo-l;ıoqii'iqi-hii wo-uşiili-hii in ed. M. K. Ja'far, Kitiib Khawiişş al-l;ıuriif wa-l;ıaqii'iqi-hii wa-uşiili-hii in Min qaziiyii 1-fikr

1120 The letters from which the names are composed are not mere conventional

elements of ordinary language: they are the providential, original principles by

means of w hi ch the world is originated. Therefore, the letters are, in reality, the

Materia Prima of all creation, consubstantial with the Divine W ord.

The fourteen isolated letters of the Qur'an

In his K. Khawiişş aHıurüj, lbn Masarra does not deal with all the twenty-eight

letters of the Ara b i c alphabet. Rather, he only comments on half of them, that is,

on fourteen letters, the so-called initial letters (awii'il al-qur'iin or fawiitib)

which appear at the very beginning of twenty-nine Qur'anic süras. These letters

have led to numerous exoteric and especially esoteric9 interpretations, while they

have also been one of the most important and en during stimuli for the develop­

ment of the Science of Letters in Islam.

Apart from the terrus awii'il (which refers to the letters as principles) and

fawiitib (a term which evakes opening keys, keywords that encode and decipher,

or spiritual openings), these fourteen letters (corresponding symbolically to the

fourteen lunar mansions), are also called isolated letters (muqatta'a), since they are

traditionally recited pronouncing their full name - for example, al if liim mfm -, as

separate signs that do not form words, even though they are strung together

graphically. On the other hand, these letters are somehow "separated" from the

rest of the letters and from the remaining Qur'anic text, due to this exclusive

condition that distinguishes them from ordinary language.

lbn Masarra, following the example of Tustari, also calls them seeret or

interior letters (biitina), as opposed to the other fourteen, which are conceived as

apparent or external (ziilıira). It is understood that these interior letters - as they

are not pronounced forming words - correspond to the spiritual realm of divine

al-isliimi, Diriisa wa-nuşüş, Cairo: Maktabat Dar ai-'Uiüm, 1978, p. 317, and ed. P. Garrido, "Edici6ry critica del K. Jawiişş al-J;ıurüfde lbn Masarra", in ai-Andalus­Magreb: Estudios Arabes e Jslıimicos, n' 14 (2007), p. 63 (ms. p. 135). 9 On this subject see the excellent study by J. D. Pearson on the interpretation of the mysterious letters, especially canceming the view of the orientalists, in his article "AI-Kur'an", EJ2, pp. 413-416. Although 1 disagree with same of Pearson's approaches, his questions and final conclusions (pp. 415-416) seem to me very relevant and revealing.

Pilar Garrido Clemente The root of all t/ıiııgs: Letters, ıvords, speeclz

Mystery (ghayb), while the rest of the letters belong to the World of witnessing

('ii lam al-shahiida), as manifestation of the articulated language.

At the same time, they are known, particularly in European languages, as the

'mysterious' or 'enigmatic' letters, due to their symbolic character, open to different

interpretations. They are also known as the lurninous letters (nüriiniyya) - matrices

that illurninate the creation - in contrast to the other letters which are dark.

According to his interpretation of the context in which they appear, these

fourteen letters are, for Ibn Masarra, the portentous signs of the Book (iiyiit al­

kitiib) par excellence. More than fifteen times in the Qur'anic text, a sequence of

isolated letters is followed by the statement "Those are the Signs of the Scripture ... "

(Q. 10: 1), or "That is the Scripture ... " (Q. 2: 2), and sirnilar expressions.

Like other formulae that appear at the beginning of different süras, these

letters may also be interpreted as divine oaths. Thus, -for example- by analogy

to the Qur'anic expressian "By the fig and the olive!'' which appears at the begin­

ning of süra ninety-five, the letter nün in the first verse of süra sixty-eight might

be understood as "By the nün!" As we shall see, Ibn Masarra sametimes inter­

prets the letters in his treatise in this way.

Of course, letters are present in Rumi' s discourse as a major symbolic realm.

He specifically refers to some of the mysterious letters of the Qur'an, for exam­

ple in bo ok five of the Mathnawl. The letters here refer to the mysterious nature

of the realized human being. He says:

"This Alif-Lam-Mim and :çıa.· -Mim - these Letters become, on (real) com­

prehension (of their meaning), like the rod of Moses.

The (other) letters resemble these Letters outwardly but are subject (to them)

in respect of the (sublime) attributes of the latter.

This Breatlı- i. e. the above-mentioned Letters -is (like the breath) of Jesus

(in its effects); it is not (like) any wing and breatlı that arises fromjoy or sorrow.

This Alif-Lam-Mim and I:Ia'-Mim have come from the presence of the Lord

ofMankind.

What resemblance has any (other) alif-liim to these? Do not regard them

with this (external) eye, if you have a (rational) soul.

Although they are composed of letters, and resemble the composition of

(words used by) the common folk, (yet they are not the same).

Muhammad is composed of flesh and skin; (but he is unique) although

every body is homogeneous with him in its composition.

1122 It hath flesh, it hath skin and bone; (yet) has this (ordinary) constitution the

same (qualities as his)?

(No); for in that constitution (of Muhammad) there appeared mirades by

which all (other) constitutions were vanquished.

Likewise, the composition of the (Letters) Ifti'-Mim in the (Holy) Book is

exceedingly lofty, while the atlıers are low (in comparison).

Because from this composition comes life, like the blast of the trumpet (of

Resurrection), (to those) in helplessness.

By the dispensation of God Ifti'-Mim becomes a dragon and cleaves the sea

like the rod (ofMoses)". 10

The degrees of letters, signs, paradi se and the nam es of God

In the introduction to his treatise, Ibn Masarra establishes a direct carrespan­

dence between the degrees of the mysterious letters (which are the Signs par

excellence), the Qur'anic verses in general, the Names of God transmitted in the

revelation, the stages of sp iritual progress and the successive levels of Paradise,

all of which can be compared to a ladder.

As Pierre Lory explains, "Ibn Masarra emphasizes that 'the esateric science

of the Qur'an is the understanding of the Divine Names as exposed by the

Prophet'. He compares the ninety-nine names of God, enumerated by the

Tradition, to the step s of a stairway or a ladder stretched, between the believer

and Paradise. Each name is at the same time divided into intermediary degrees.

The initiate's interior ascension from one degree to the other, and from one name

towards another, becomes thus the reference of his own spiritual progress: at

each step, the mystical understanding of a name produces a transformatian with­in the disciple". ı ı

This un derstanding of the meanings of the letters and of the Qur'anic vers­

es is a transforming experience because it reveals to our consciousness what we

10 See R. A. Nicholson, The Mathnawfof Jalii/u'ddin Rümi, Cambridge: The Trustees of the "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial", 1982 (4' ed.), Book V, pp. 80-81. 11 See P. Lory, "lbn Masarra", in Dictionnaire critique de J'esoterisme, ed. Servier, J., Paris: PUF, 1998, p. 663.

Pilar Garrido Clemente Tlıe root of all tlıiııgs: Letters, ıvords, speeclı

originally are, since by virtue of the divine order kun, "be!", 12 "all the heavenly

and earthly creatures are fundamentally linguistic entities that are meant to be

read and decoded"Y

The first comprehensive exegesis of the isolated letters

We understand from Ibn Masarra's writings that the esoteric meaning of the !et­

ters remains hidden to ordinary exoteric understanding, due to their distin­

guished position as principles of Creation.

To realise the importance of this treatise, we should be aware that Ibn

Masarra was the first in the history of Islamic thought, as far as is known from

extant texts, to interpret methodically each and every mysterious Ietter of the

Qur'an within a comprehensive, uni:tying view. The author explains, classifies

and associates all the Ietters, establishing coherent categories, degrees and cor­

respondences in an all-embracing ıvord-vieıv or logovision which presents them

as the fundamental scriptural reference of Islamic ontology and cosmology.

The K. Khaıviişş al-J;urüf is also the first general exegesis that deals with

the sequences of mysterious Ietters and explains them within their Qur'anic con­

text, either in relation to the specific passages in which they are found - a par­

ticular verse or a group of verses with whose content they are connected - or in

relation to the position in which they appear with respect to the rest of the

sequences, according to the order of the süras in w hi ch they are included. In fa ct,

the author dedicates two sections of his treatise to the interpretation of the !et­

ters understood as degrees following their order of appearance. In the first enu­

meration, the exegesis follows an ascending nurnerical order which, from an

ontological perspective, is a descending one, from the alif (süra 2) to the nün

(süra 68), while in the second enumeration the inverse order is followed, so that

it is an ascending order from a metaphysical perspective, although numerically

it is a descending one, starting from the nün and ending with the alif.

As in Ibn Masarra's Epistle on Interpretation (Risiilat al-I'tibiir), the cycle

12 Referring to Q. 2:117; 3:47 y 59; 6:73; 16:40; 19:35; 36:82 and 40:68. 13 . See P. Lory, /dem, p. 664.

1124 of descending manifestation and ascending interpretation is, thus, completed: the

ascent of the interpreter in his hermeneutic journey corresponds to the descent

of revelation. Ibn Masarra's commentary, like a never-ending inclusive circle,

comes back to the endless beginning.

The symbolic designation (kinaya)

The author interprets the symbolical meaning of the lerters according to differ­

ent ways of signification (daliila). The main term which he uses to explain its sig­

nification is kiniiya, i. e. metonomy (in this context, mainly, designating the

whole, a term, through its part, one of its lerters) in a symbolic sense. The lerter,

therefore, is conceived, in a certain way, as an abbreviation or initial.

In general, a lerter stands for a term - frequently a name - which begins

with the same lerter (for example, the liim from lawJ.ı) or which contains it (for

example, the tii' offitra, the nün of kun) and, consequently, the real meaning or

the degree that term designates.

Similarly Ibn Masarra transmi ts a tradition in which the sequence of lerters

can also be interpreted as an abbreviation of a complete phrase, but this is not

the way the author normally proceeds.

Sometimes, Ibn Masarra also explains the signification by the formal anal­

ogy of the way lerters are wrirten. For example, the fa ct that the al if is not con­

nected to the lerter that follows indicates the 'isolation' Qf the undifferentiate

Unity, and the graphic form of the lerter n ün, whose name - as a word - means

'fish', resembles the shape of a fish, according to the traditional image.

Ibn Masarra collects traditions which relate the lerters to the Divine Names

and provides a specific case using the composition of the name al-Rafımiin from

the sequences a-l-r, plus J.ı-m, plus n. The sequences of lerters of words are

anather possible kind of signification, but again this is not a characteristic pro­

cedure of the Cordoban Master.

Anather important means of signification in his treatise, which in a way pre­

cedes what has been already explained, is the contextual meaning. The lerters have

a special meaning (1) depending on the group of the isolated lerters-according to

their position in the sequence - and (2) their Qur'anic context. Therefore, the

order in w hi ch the lerter appears in relation to the order of the süras corresponds

Pilar Garrido Clemente The root of all tlıings: Letters, ıvords, speeclz

to a progression of degrees; the fact that one lerter repeats itself in different

sequences a certain number of times indicates its relation to a reality that implies

this number (for example, when the 'ayn is repeated twice it indicates the exis­

tence of two types of 'ilm, 'Science', a term whose first lerter is 'ayn); and, last­

ly, the group of verses that appears following a sequence of lerters, to which it

is inseparably linked, also reveals its meaning.

The two halves of the Qur'an

In relation to the mysterious lerters, Ibn Masarra distinguishes two parts or

'halves' 14 (niifj of the Qur'anic text. He explains that the second part begins with

the lerter kiif, which initiates the sequence of isolated lerters in süra nineteen,

and ends with in terms of the nün of süra sixty-eight. This is the last of the iso­

lated lerters appearing in the Qur'an. Thus, in the first half (which also happens

to correspond, approximately, to the first physical half of the Qur'an), there are

a total of five isolated lerters (alif lam mfm şiid rii '), that appear in nin e

sequences, all of which begin with the lerters al if lam, as in the Arabic definite

artide and the name Allah.

Ibn Masarra explains that these five lerters of the first part are the sublime,

Supreme Signs (al-iiyiit al-kubra), the five principles that correspond to the world

of Mystery, whereas the isolated lerters of the second part of the Qur'an, includ­

ed between the kiif and the nün of the divine command ku n, logically correspond

to the realm of manifestation. The second part contains thirteen of these lerters,

that is, all of them, including those mentioned previously, except for the lerter rii'.

The rii' is the only o rı e of the fourteen lerters to appear exclusively in the first part

of the Qur'anic text, and its six appearances are related to the six days ofCreation.

Thus, the four mfm-s that symbolise the angels carrying the Throne are

mentioned in the first part, whereas the four that correspond to the carriers of

the Footstool (the domain of the duality of manifested existence) are mentioned

in the second part.

14 lnvestigators have not been able to observe this fact before bec:ause in one of the key references to the term nişf, as both the manuscript c:opy and the Egyptian edition of the text read şinf(type, ki nd) due to a mistaken inversion of the letters.

1124 of descending manifestation and ascending interpretation is, thus, completed: the

ascent of the interpreter in his hermeneutic joumey corresponds to the descent

of revelation. Ibn Masarra's commentary, like a never-ending inclusive circle,

comes back to the endless beginning.

The symbolic designation (kinaya)

The author interprets the symbolical meaning of the lerters according to differ­

ent ways of signification (daliila). The main term which he uses to explain its sig­

nification is kiniiya, i. e. metonomy (in this context, mainly, designating the

whole, a term, through its part, one of i ts lerters) in a symbolic sense. The lerter,

therefore, is conceived, in a certain way, as an abbreviation or initial.

In general, a lerter stands for a term - frequently a name - which begins

with the same lerter (for example, the lam from law~) or which contains it (for

example, the tii' of.fitra, the nün of kun) and, consequently, the real meaning or

the degree that term designates.

Similarly Ibn Masarra transmi ts a tradition in which the sequence of lerters

can also be interpreted as an abbreviation of a complete phrase, but this is not

the way the author normally proceeds.

Sometimes, Ibn Masarra also explains the signification by the formal anal­

ogy of the way lerters are wrirten. For example, the fa ct that the alif is not con­

nected to the lerter that follows indicates the 'isolation' oJ the undifferentiate

Unity, and the graphic form of the lerter n ün, whose name - as a word - means

'fish', resembles the shape of a fish, according to the traditional image.

Ibn Masarra collects traditions which relate the lerters to the Divine Names

and provides a specific case using the composition of the name al-Ra~miin from

the sequences a-1-r, plus ~-m, plus n. The sequences of lerters of words are

anather possible kind of signification, but again this is not a characteristic pro­

cedure of the Cordoban Master.

Anather im portant means of signification in his treatise, which in a way pre­

cedes what has been already explained, is the contextual meaning. The lerters have

a special meaning (1) depending on the group of the isolated lerters-according to

their position in the sequence - and (2) their Qur'anic context. Therefore, the

order in which the lerter appears in relation to the ord er of the süras corresponds

Pilar Garrido Clemente The root of all tlıiııgs: Letters, ıvords, speeclı

to a progression of degrees; the fact that one letter repeats itself in different

sequences a certain number of times indicates its relation to a reality that implies

this number (for example, when the 'ayn is repeated twice it indicates the exis­

tence of two types of 'ilm, 'Science', a term whose first letter is 'ayn); and, last­

ly, the group of verses that appears following a sequence of letters, to which it

is inseparably linked, also reveals its meaning.

The two halves of the Qur'an

In relation to the mysterious letters, Ibn Masarra distinguishes two parts or

'halves>~4 (nişj) of the Qur'anic text. He explains that the second part begins with

the letter ktif, which initiates the sequence of isolated letters in süra nineteen,

and en ds with in terms of the n ün of süra sixty-eight. This is the last of the iso­

lated letters appearing in the Qur'an. Thus, in the first half (which also happens

to correspond, approximately, to the first physical half of the Qur'an), there are

a total of five isolated letters (al if lam m im şiid rii '), that appear in nin e

sequences, all of which begin with the letters alif lam, as in the Arabic definite

article and the name Allah.

Ibn Masarra explains that these five letters of the first part are the sublime,

Supreme Signs (al-iiyiit al-kubrii.), the five principles that correspond to the world

of Mystery, whereas the isolated letters of the second part of the Qur'an, includ­

ed between the ktif and the n ün of the divine comman d kun, logically correspond

to the realm of manifestation. The second part contains thirteen of these letters,

that is, all of them, including those mentioned previously, except for the letter rii'.

The rii' is the only o rı e of the fourteen letters to appear exclusively in the first part

of the Qur'anic text, and i ts six appearances are related to the six days of Creation.

Thus, the four mını-s that symbolise the angels carrying the Throne are

mentioned in the first part, whereas the four that correspond to the carriers of

the Footstool (the domain of the d uality of manifested existence) are mentioned

in the second part.

14 lnvestigators have not been able to observe this fact before because in one of the key references to the term nişf. as both the manuscript copy and the Egyptian edition of the text read şinf(type, ki nd) due to a mistaken inversion of the letters.

1126 This partition reminds us of the hadith in w hi ch Go d Himself explains that

the Fiitiba is divided into two halves: the first half, containing praise, belongs to

the Lord, while the second, containing supplication, belongs to the servant. 15

About the "three sciences" mentioned in this treatise

The Book of the Letters' Meanings, their (Metaphysical) Realities and their

Principles (Kitab Khawaşş al-l)urüf wa-J;ıaqa'iqi-ha wa-uşüli-ha) is a short, but

dense and comprehensive treatise about the symbolic meaning of the fourteen

isolated letters of the Qur'an. It belongs to the tradition of Sufi texts that deal

with the knowledge of reality and with the sublime and subtle truths through the

interpretation of letters, understood as matrices of the word and of the Creation.

This co n ception of the es oteri c character of the luminous letters takes us to the

very heart of Ibn Masarra's thought, which presents the Materia Prima of the

world as a reality which is consubstantial with the Divine Word.

As Lory explains, when commenting on the text of the Kitiib al-Ifurüf, this

"is definitely not presented as a philosophical treatise. The purpose of the work

is not an argument that uses a sequence of demonstrative reasoning. Instead, it

makes use of meditations and intuitions that spring from analogies provided by

Qur'anic data. In fact, Ibn Masarra announces clearly from the beginning of his

treatise that the Qur'an provides human beings with a unifYing science, divided

in to three types of (religious) knowledge: ( 1) the Science of ~ordship and its con­

templative perceptions; (2) prophetic science, its signs and allusions, and (3) the

science of trial or testing, which consists of legal manda tes" .16

Lory interprets that the purpose of Ibn Masarra's spiritual teachings is to

raise the disciple from the third state (that of an ordinary believer, a level which

corresponds to the science by trial) to the first one (the condition of an accom­

plished mystic, a level corresponding to divine science), by means of the second

stage: prophetic science. He adds: "It is a question, therefore, of directing the read-

15 See lbn 'Ara bi, Divine sayings: The Mishkiit al-anwiir af lbn 'Arabi, ed. and trans. S. Hirtenstein and M. Notcutt, Oxford: Anqa, 2004, pp. 49 (English) and 24-25 (Ara b i c). 16 See P. Lory, "lbn Masarra", in Dietion na i re critique de l'esoterisme, ed. Servier, J., Paris: PUF, 1998, p. 663.

Pilar Garrido Clemente The raat af all tlıiugs: Letters, ıvords, speeclı

er of the Qur'anic text towards the esateric meaning of the holy Book, through

the transmutation of the comman meaning of the verses, so that the general

exhortations may have an intimate, profound impact on the soul of the Sufi". 17

W e may note that, in other passages of this treatise, Ibn Masarra mentions, on

the one h and,· the sdence of Go d ('ilm Allah), represented by the letter liim that sig­

nifies the Tablet (law~ı), and on the other, the two sciences, the science of the Unseen

('ilm al-ghayb) and the science of mallifestation ('ilm al-shahiida) which are men­

tioned together in the Qur'iin and which are represented by the letter 'ayıı. This let­

ter is only mentioned twice among the seventy-eight isolated letters (including the

repetitions). So we have three sciences corresponding to the three just mentioned:

the divine; the prophetic or esoteric; and the science of trial or exoteric.

lbn Masarra in lbn 'Arabi's KWib a1-Mim wa-1-waw wa-1-nün

Let us examine a particularly important example of the influence that Ibn

Masarra's treatise on letters had on the work of the Shaykh al-Akbar, Ibn 'Arabi,

who would later become the main exponent of the science of letters in Sufism.

In his book On the esateric meaning of the letters mim (M), waw (W) and

nün (N) (Kitab al-Mim wa-1-waw wa-l-nün), 18 Ibn 'Arabi e:xplains that the sci­

ence of letters is a kind of knowledge which is reserved for the prophets and the

awliya', the Friends og God~ He says:

"This science of letters is a truly sublime station that confers the divine

knowledge of Being, which. corresponds to the contemplation (mashiihid) of the

mfm, the wiiw and the nün. The first letter of the names of these letters is the

same as the last one, so that they have neither beginning nor end. 19

Therefore, you must know -may God help you- that the letters are one of

the secrets of God -great is His Majesty- and that the science of letters is one of

17 See Lory, Jbid. 18 See lbn 'Ara bl, Le Livre du Ml m, du Wöw et du N ün, intro. and trans. by Ch.-A. Gilis, Paris: Albouraq, 2002. This treatise, which 1 have been working on in collaboration with Pablo Beneito, is to be published in its fırst critica! edition translated into Spanish. 19 The identity of the beginning and the end establishes a principle of circularity. In his edition, based on a single manuscript, Gilis reads shöhid instead of mashöhid (See lbn 'Ara bl, Le Livre du Ml m (ed. Gilis, p. 38).

1128 the more elevated sciences preserved among the treasures of God.20 It belongs to

the preserved science by w hi ch only the prophets (aııbiyii') and the fıiends of Go d

(awliyii') whose hearts are pure are distinguished. Al-I:Iaki:m al-Tirmidhi said

about it that this is the science of the holy Friends of God ('ilm al-awliyii')"Y

Tirmidhl, whose Book of the DeptTı ofthings22 is availableina French trans­

lation, appears here as a distinguished representative of this science of the

Friends of God. Ibn 'Arabi, while recalling the great oriental Sufi thinker, sug­

gests that the science of letters is the science of the awliyii' par excellence, that

is, the highest of sciences.

Further on in the same work, Ibn 'Arabi explains that his discourse deals with

the mysteries of the letters, and not with their sympathetic properties (khawiişş),

and mentions precisely, by way of example, the style of Ibn Masarra. He says:

"Our discourse speaks about their secrets [the meanings of the Arabic let­

ters]. W e follow in this a path (tarfqa) like the way of Ibn Masarra al-Jabali and

other masters. It is not about their sympathetic, functional properties (khawiişş),

because speaking of the possible uses ofthings usually leads to suspicion (tuhma)

and allegations against the author [accused ofbeing an impostor] (takd1ıfb)".23

This mention of Ibn Masarra is truly significant. First of all, as in other ref­

erences in his Futübiit al-makkiyya and other works, Ibn 'Arabi shows that he

knows of Ibn Masarra due, in particular, to his Treatise on the letters, which he

may have had the opportunity to read, or perhaps was simply transmitted to him

orally. It is also worth pointing out that only Andalusian Sufi thinkers refer to

Ibn Masarra and daim to have been inspired by him, whereas the faliisifa,

Andalusian or otherwise, never do.

On the other han d, the fa ct of mentioning Ibn Masarra - like the prior men­

tion of Tirmidhi - in relation to the exclusive science of the awliyii', reveals a pro­

found recognition of his co ndition of walf, Friend of Go d and spiritual master. Ibn

20 Referring to Q. 15:20. 21 See lbn 'Ara bl, Le Livre du Mi m (ed. Gilis), p. 40. This is my translation.

Concerning this reference to al-~aklm ai-Tirmidhl, see also D. Gril, "La science des lettres", in Les illuminations de La Mecque, ed. M. Chodkiewicz et al., Paris: Sindbad, 1988, p. 423 and note 93. 22 See al-~aklm ai-Tirmidhl, Le livre de la profandeur des choses, (ed. and trans. G. Gobillot), Villeneuve d'Ascq (Nord): Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1996. 23 V. lbn 'Ara bl, Le livre du Mi m (ed. Gilis), p. 56. This is my translation.

Pilar Garrido Clemente Tlıe root of all tlıiııgs: Letters, ıvords, speeclz

'Arabi also shows his close relation to the thought of Ibn Masarra, when he con­

firms that he follows in the treatment of this privileged science a way like Ibn

Masarra's (ka-tanqat Ibn Masarra). It is understood that this methodological

resemblance comes from the fact that both masters approach the lerters from the

same hermeneutic perspective, taking into consideration their symbolic, meta­

physical and cosmological meaning, rooted in the same scriptural background of

the Qur'an. Therefore, it is not a question of providing information ab out the prac­

tical applications or powers (khawiişş) of the lerters, which is the domain of sym­

pathetic medicine or alchemy. lnstead, the intention is to penetrate the metaphys­

ical meanings of the lerters and their spiritual realities in the Qur'anic context.

According to the manuscript which is stili extant, the title of Ibn Masarra's

treatise about the lerters (which is simply called Kitiib al-Ifurüf, Book of Letters,

by Ibn 'Arabi in his Futübiit), begins in the following way: Kitiib Khawiişş al­

~ıurüj. .. , which can be translated as The Book of the properties of the letters ...

Taking into consideration the above-mentioned arguments, the fact that the first

term of the title is precisely the word khawiişş, which is used in the domain of

practical sciences with the meaning of 'natural properties', might be confusing.

However, given the content of the text, it seems clear that the term khawiişş,

which Ibn Masarra used in the title according to the manuscript, represents here

the symbolic qualities of the lerters, w hi ch are, in reality, their meanings, and not

their practical properties or powers. In K. Khawiişş aHıurüfthe meanings of the

lerters may only be consideted to have 'practical application' either inthesense

that assimilating their realities produces a transformatian within the disciple, or

in the sense that the lerters have an active function in the divine W ork of

Creation as its constitutive elements. This particular meaning can in fact be relat­

ed to spiritual alchemy, understood as a metaphysical science.

Evaluation of the intluence of lbn Masarra's treatise on lbn Arabi's thought

According to Denis Gril, who has studied the development of the science of let­

ters in Islam in the time preceding the master from Cordoba, his interpretation

of each group of isolated lerters "results from his own inspiration". On the other

hand, in relatiim to the possible influence of this personal exegesis on the work

..

1130 of Ibn 'Arabi, Gril considers the content of the interpretations of Ibn Masarra to

be "only partially reflected in the thought of Ibn 'Arabl".24

However, from a different perspective, taking into consideration the

integrity of the text, Claude Addas comments as follows: "Referring to certain

passages in the Kitiib al-Ifurüf, we cannot fail to be struck by the similarities.

When, for instance, Ibn Masarra brings up the notian of kawıı, the existential

fiat, or [the notian of] habii', the primordial dust which he and others regard as

constituting the materia prima, or the connection between the manifestation of

creatures arising out of this materia prima and the setting out of the lerters, or

when he underlines the connection between the 28 lerters of the Arabic alpha­

betand the lunar cycles, every reader familiar with the Shaykh al-Akbar's works

will recognise themes running through his writings".25

Nevertheless, given the fact that these ideas were already present somehow

in the thought of Sahl al-Tustan or, in so me cases, in the Rasii 'il of the Ikhwan

al-Şafii.', Addas also points out that "it would be wise not to exaggerate, but also

not to minimise, the influence of Ibn Masarra on the thought of Ibn 'Ara bi". 26 I

agree with this view on the marter.

To conclude, let me point out that knowledge of the harmony of the mys-

terious Lerters fo und in the Qur'an, through the teachings of Ibn Masarra, might

serve as a mirror for a visian of universal harmony.

24 See Gri i, "La science des lettres ... ", 11/uminations, p. 428. 25 See Ad das, "Anda i us! Mysticism and the Rise of lbn 'Ara bl", in The Legacy of Muslim Spain, ed. S. Khadra Jayyusi, Leiden: Brill, 1993, voL ll, p. 919. 26 See Addas, lbid.

Pilar Garrido Clemente Tlıe root of all tlıiııgs: Letters, words, speeclı