Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2021 Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding (category: translation from Arabic into English) This is an unabridged, annotated, translation of the great Damascene savant and saint Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s (d. 751/1350) Madārij al-Sālikīn. Conceived as a critical commentary on an earlier Sufi classic by the great Hanbalite scholar Abū Ismāʿīl of Herat, Madārij aims to rejuvenate Sufism’s Qurʾanic foundations. The original work was a key text for the Sufi initiates, composed in terse, rhyming prose as a master’s instruction to the aspiring seeker on the path to God, in a journey of a hundred stations whose ultimate purpose was to be lost to one’s self (fanāʾ) and subsist (baqāʾ) in God. The translator, Ovamir (ʿUwaymir) Anjum, provides an extensive introduction and annotation to this English-Arabic face-to-face presentation of this masterpiece of Islamic psychology.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2021 Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding (category: translation from Arabic into English)
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Translation Notes Translator’s Introduction 1 Madārij and Its Author 2 The Formation of Sufism 3 Sufism and Antinomianism 4 Sufism and Mysticism 5 Defining Sufism 6 Al-Harawī and Manāzil 7 Madārij’s Reverential Critique of Manāzil 8 The Problem of Ontology: Annihilation (fanāʾ) 9 Causality and Ethics 10 The Problem of Epistemology 11 An Egalitarian and Accessible Path 12 Conclusion Selected Bibliography Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Madārij al-Sālikīn: Text and Translation Prolegomenon 1 Merits of the First Chapter of the Qurʾan, The Opening 2 The Opening Affirms All the Three Types of Divine Unicity 3 The Five Pivotal Names of God Affirm His Attributes 4 Ten Levels of Divine Guidance 5 The Opening Heals Hearts as well as Bodies 6 Refutation of Heresies 7 Exegesis of “You we worship and You we supplicate for help” 1 The Stations of the Journey 1 The Station of Awakening 2 The Station of Insight 3 The Station of Purpose 4 The Station of Resolve 5 Interlude: On the Ordering of the Stations 2 The Station of Reflection 1 Interlude: The Station of Annihilation 2 Three Types of Annihilation 3 The Causes of Experiential Annihilation 4 The Essence of Experiential Annihilation 5 The Dangers on the Path of Annihilation: Antinomianism 6 Volitional Annihilation: The True Goal of the Righteous 3 The Station of Self-Reckoning 1 The First Pillar 2 The Second Pillar 3 The Third Pillar 4 The Station of Repentance 1 Repentance and The Opening 2 The Conditions and Realities of Repentance 3 Legitimate and Illegitimate Excuses for Sins 4 The Inner Realities of Repentance 5 The Finer Points of the Inner Realities of Repentance 8 Interlude: Affirmation of the Ethical Value of Acts and Causality 9 Levels of Repentance: The Commoners 10 Some Rulings Concerning Repentance 11 The Full Meaning of Repentance 12 Sins: The Object of Repentance 13 Twelve Kinds of Sins in the Qurʾan 14 Perspectives on the Nature of Sin and Repentance Index
