Kashf al-Ma’na: The Journey of Researching and Translating a Book

Every book we publish has a story, but this particular book represents a journey that began with a mere thought and culminated in its tangible realization. For me, the work of Shaykh al-Akbar Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī, Kashf al-Maʿnā ʿan Sirr Asmāʾ Allāh al-Ḥusnā, is not just a book. It is the chronicle of a spiritual journey, with every turn offering opportunities to learn, to understand, and to better myself.

A First Acquaintance and an Inchoate Idea

My first introduction to this book was in 2008, through my friend Qaiser Shahzad. He told me that Shaykh al-Akbar had authored a precious book on the Divine Names (al-Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā), in which he discussed the three levels of a servant’s engagement with each Name: taʿalluq (connection), taḥaqquq (realization), and takhalluq (adornment). To be honest, at that time, I was not fully acquainted with the profound meanings of these terms myself, but knowing that the Shaykh had written on this subject sparked a deep curiosity within me. At that point, I had no clear idea of translating or editing it, but in our quest to gather manuscripts, we happened to acquire a few copies of this text as well.

A Phone Call That Changed Everything

Several years passed, and the book remained in a corner of my mind. Then, about a decade ago, I received a phone call from Ms. Nayyar Zamani. She was a regular reader of the books published by our institute and appreciated our standard of research. She expressed her wish over the phone to commission an Urdu translation of the Shaykh’s book on the Divine Names, so that she herself could become familiar with its realities and so this knowledge could reach the general public in the best possible form.

Her passion was pure and her intention noble. We requested that she provide us with the Arabic text of the book. She entrusted this task to Mr. Habib Abbasi, the owner of a respected bookstore in Karachi. It seems Providence had willed it, as within a few days, Mr. Abbasi happened to travel to Iraq and found the Arabic text in a small shop there. When the book reached us, Ms. Nayyar Zamani’s joy was immense. She not only promised but also provided all the material resources needed for the project, and thus, this great work formally began.

The Scholarly Challenge of the First Edition

The Arabic text we received was the critical edition prepared by the Spanish scholar, Pablo Beneito. At first glance, the text seemed to be of a very high standard, and we thought it might not require a new scholarly review. However, as we began the translation, we noticed a fundamental difference in the editorial methodology (manhaj). Pablo Beneito had incorporated words from all manuscripts into the main body of the text, whereas our methodology is to establish the most authentic and reliable manuscript as the base text and to note the variants from other copies in the footnotes.

From this point, we decided to prepare a new critical edition of the book, one that would be closer to Shaykh al-Akbar’s true intent. At the time, I had two manuscripts. We contacted Ms. Jane Clark, the librarian at the Ibn Arabi Society in Oxford, who greatly assisted us by providing three more manuscripts. Afterward, the draft of the Arabic text, along with all the manuscripts, was sent to our colleague in Yemen, Abdul Aziz Sultan al-Mansub, for final proofreading and verification.

The translation phase was even more arduous. This is one of the Shaykh’s most difficult books, where profound realities are alluded to in concise sentences. We faced immense difficulty in the initial translation, even having to consult Mr. Abdul Aziz al-Mansub again for commentary on certain passages. After all these efforts, the first edition of the book was published in June 2014.

The Second Edition: A Journey a Decade Later

After the first publication, by 2023, when we decided to republish the book, the landscape had changed. In those ten years, my own familiarity with the sciences of the Shaykh had deepened, a special affinity with his style had developed, and access to new manuscripts had also become possible. All these factors demanded that the work on the book be revisited.

We contacted Mr. Muhammad Haj Yousef, a renowned expert on the Shaykh’s sciences in the Arab world, who very graciously provided us with several more manuscripts. We now had a collection of more than ten manuscripts, from which we prepared this new edition based on the eight best copies.

This time, the journey of translation was considerably easier. When you spend more than fifteen years immersed in the Shaykh’s sciences, understanding his language and intent becomes less daunting. Our focus now was not only on an accurate translation but also on presenting it in a lucid and accessible style that could be understood by both the general reader and the specialist.

The Comprehensive Preface to the Book

Our objective in publishing this book was never merely to present a literal translation, and the reason for this is quite clear. This book is written on the secrets and meanings of the Divine Names (al-Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā). If a reader is not familiar with these Names and their pervasive effects throughout the universe, how can they possibly grasp their realities? And for one who is unacquainted with the realities of the Names, to become imbued with their qualities (takhalluq) is a distant prospect indeed. Since our mission is the revival of these sciences, it was incumbent upon us to present the book in such a way that the purpose of communication could be fully realized.

In light of this necessity, we decided to adorn the book with a comprehensive preface. A major reason for this was also the style of Shaykh al-Akbar himself. He wrote this book with great conciseness, making only allusions to profound topics that he had already detailed in al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyyah and other works. Therefore, we considered it our duty to familiarize the reader with all these fundamental realities in the form of a preface before they reached the main text, so that they could understand the true stations and meanings of the Divine Names according to the Shaykh.

The Provision of Footnotes

When the literal translation of the book was complete, it became even more apparent to us that understanding it through translation alone was impossible. Its passages contained oceans of meaning. Thus, we resolved to provide a commentary and footnotes, and for this purpose, we sought assistance from the other works of Shaykh al-Akbar himself.

In this endeavor, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyyah was our greatest guide, particularly its 558th chapter, in which the Shaykh discusses the topic of the ‘Presences of the Names’ (Ḥaḍarāt al-Asmāʾ) in great detail. We identified the most difficult concepts in this book and then, by the grace of Allah, we transcribed what we came to understand into the footnotes, according to the relevance of the topic. The primary objective of this entire process was to enable readers—including ourselves—who are not directly familiar with these subtle concepts to gain some level of acquaintance with them and to make the book easier to comprehend.

We are certain that with the addition of these footnotes, the utility of the book has greatly increased, and readers can now benefit from it far more, in accordance with their own capacity and understanding. All excerpts for the commentary have been translated from the Abdul Aziz Sultan al-Mansub edition of al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyyah, and where necessary, the original Arabic manuscript was also consulted. We are immensely grateful to that Pure Being who not only made it easy for us to understand these profound meanings but also granted us the ability to present them in an organized manner. This too is from His grace.

A Word of Thanks

This long and painstaking journey would have been impossible without the support of many sincere friends and colleagues. First and foremost, I am grateful to my Shaykh, Ahmad Muhammad Ali, whose guidance was with me at every step. For understanding the difficult passages of Shaykh al-Akbar, I know of no greater scholar.

The sincerity and financial support of Ms. Nayyar Zamani were foundational to the first edition of this book. Similarly, my thanks go to Ms. Jane Clark and Mr. Muhammad Haj Yousef, who ensured the provision of manuscripts. For their work on the linguistic fluency and proofreading, I am also indebted to Malik Hamish Gul, Brigadier Shahid, and Saadia Basharat.

I pray that Allah Almighty accepts the efforts of all these individuals and grants His acceptance to this humble endeavor of ours. Amen!