Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first systematic overview of the science of letters (ilm al-huruf) according to the great Andalusian spiritual master, scholar, poet and philosopher Ibn Arabi (d. 1240). Ibn Arabi defined the science of letters as familiarity with the building-blocks of the Quranic revelation and everything in the world of Nature. Letters are understood as visual and aural signs of pointing to the mysteries of existence. The present study examines how the universe came to be, for what purpose it as created and the hierarchical structure it is endowed with. It is an old story told anew -- through the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, their orthographic forms and the meanings attributed to them, utilising Ibn Arabis own diagrams. Although the story could be told through geometrical figures or numbers, letters were chosen on the basis of Ibn Arabis doctrine that the meanings carried by the letters fully encompasses the whole of existence: God and the universe.
Trade ReviewThe Written World of God is the first and only detailed introduction to Ibn ʿArabis science of letters. Through meticulous and thorough research, Dr. Raić has shone important light on this essential and vast region of the authentic teaching of the greatest master of Sufism. In the process, she demonstrates how this sacramental science is used by Ibn ʿArabi to mine and display the incalculable power of the holy language of Arabic and elaborate a literal metaphor for the creation and functioning of the cosmos and everything in it. This book corrects errors in previous scholarship and opens a very welcome door to the further study of what has been a too-long-neglected - sometimes unfairly disparaged - feature of the writings of Ibn ʿArabi in particular and Sufism in general. --Todd Lawson (Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto)
"The 'Science of Letters' pervades Ibn ʿArabi's entire work in ways that are both obvious and hidden, so this book by Dunja Raić is very welcome, because it opens a well-crafted window on it for the serious seeker." -- Paolo Urizzi (Perennia Verba, Italy)
