The Book of the Cure of Souls

A. J. Arberry

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00085373

The Book of the Cure of Souls

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

A. J. Arberry

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In a former number of this journal I published a specimen translation of one of the Rasā'il of Junayd, as an announcement of my intention to make that famous personage the subject of a monograph. It will be useful at this stage to print the text and translation of what is one of the most interesting of the little treatises preserved in the Istanbul manuscript, both because of its contents, and also for the reason that it is the only work of Junayd for which we have a second authority. It is unfortunately true that the Istanbul manuscript, as the copyist himself is at pains to admit. is derived from a very faulty archetype, and with such an author as Junayd the work of emendation is necessarily attended with countless pitfalls. The Cairo manuscript of the Kitāb Dawā' al-arwāḥ exhibits roughly ninety variants as compared with the Istanbul manuscript, in the space of rather less than 2½ folios. In by far the majority of places the Istanbul manuscript appears to be the more correct.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 69 , Issue 2 , April 1937 , pp. 219 - 231

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00085373 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1937

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^{page 219 note 1} JRAS. July, 1935, pp. 499–507.

^{page 219 note 2} In the text, C = Cairo majāmī', 75; I = Istanbul Şehid Ali, 1374.

^{page 219 note 3} On fols. 57b, 60b.

^{page 219 note 4} Equally striking divergences are exhibited by the Kitāb al-Luma' in those passages which are common to it and the Istanbul MS.

^{page 219 note 5} For the “vision” of God, literally understood, is a conception abhorrent to orthodoxy.

^{page 219 note 6} Cf. Massignon, , Essai, p. 28, n. 2Google Scholar.

^{page 219 note 7} A similar meditation on a Qur'anic passage occurs on fols. 58–9 of the Istanbul MS.

^{page 220 note 1} C + I +

^{page 220 note 2} C

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^{page 222 note 1} ^-1I —

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^{page 224 note 1} C

^{page 224 note 2} ^-2 C

^{page 224 note 3} I

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^{page 224 note 10} I¹

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^{page 224 note 13} CI^marg

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^{page 224 note 16} I

^{page 225 note 1} I

^{page 225 note 2} C

^{page 225 note 3} I¹

^{page 225 note 4} C

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^{page 225 note 6} C —

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^{page 226 note 1} Such descriptions of the indescribable nature of God are commonplaces in Ṣūfī literature; see the well-known definition of Ḥallāj quoted (anonymously) in Kalābādhi, Kitāb al-Ta'arruf, p. 13.

^{page 226 note 2} Sc. of setting bounds to the illimitable nature of God.

^{page 226 note 3} Q. xx, 43. This and the following quotations in their context refer to Moses; here they are given a universal application.

^{page 226 note 4} Q. xx, 40.

^{page 226 note 5} Q. xx, 39.

^{page 226 note 6} Literally, “they have no foot (cf. Q. x, 2) of a knowledge…” The meaning of this and the following phrase is, that the mystics pass on continuously from revelation to revelation, so that their minds are in a state of flux.

^{page 227 note 1} Sc. the heart of man, which is the locus of God's love.

^{page 227 note 2} The knowledge that sweeps over the mystic is not of himself, but of God, and never leaves Him.

^{page 227 note 3} Q. lxxxi, 26: man cannot escape from God.

^{page 227 note 4} “Folding up what He displayed” is man's non-existence from the time of the creative kun until his birth in time; “revealing what He concealed” is the knowledge of God, which was taken from man when he was disobedient.

^{page 227 note 5} Q. liii, 10–11. This passage is usually taken by the commentators to refer to a vision of Gabriel; it seems that Junayd interprets it as a vision of God Himself.

^{page 227 note 6} Q. liii, 8.

^{page 227 note 7} Sc. of other than God.

^{page 227 note 8} By speaking before God spoke to him, as if eager to claim Him.

^{page 227 note 9} Q. xxiv, 53; the burden of Prophethood.

^{page 228 note 1} For there only God could make revelation in space, as explained later.

^{page 228 note 2} Q. liii, 16.

^{page 228 note 3} The heavenly tree was able to withstand God's glance, which otherwise destroys all upon which it falls.

^{page 228 note 4} Q. vii, 139–140. This is the story of Moses, who asked God to let him see Him: the mountain turned to dust before the vision of God (not being preserved, as was the lote-tree).

^{page 228 note 5} Speaking of it as a mystical experience.

^{page 228 note 6} For the experience of God is ineffable.

^{page 228 note 7} So the Ṣūfis ever draw back from writing of their highest experiences.

^{page 228 note 8} Sc. Muḥammad.

^{page 228 note 9} Q. liii, 13: this is usually taken to refer to the mi'raj.

^{page 228 note 10} In the mystical sense of the word.

^{page 228 note 11} The two “revelations” described in Q. liii: the first “two bows' length off or nearer still”, an earthly visitation, the second “at the lotetree”, in highest heaven.

^{page 229 note 1} Permitting converse with God, a feature of much Ṣūfi experience, as the Maiwāqif of Niffarī exemplify.

^{page 229 note 2} So. phenomena, the “natural” mysticism.

^{page 229 note 3} Q. xlii, 50.

^{page 229 note 4} Literally, “places.”

^{page 229 note 5} Sc. with God.

^{page 229 note 6} Sc. the Ṣūfis.

^{page 229 note 7} Since they rest not in any goal, but take each achievement as a starting point for higher things.

^{page 229 note 8} Their souls are as other men's bodies, for by and for them they live.

^{page 230 note 1} They observed adab in their behaviour towards God.

^{page 230 note 2} Sc. created things, the guides to natural religion.

^{page 230 note 3} The intellectual guides to God's religion.

^{page 230 note 4} Whatever they suffer or undertake, they do it for God alone, with no other motive.

^{page 230 note 5} The variant reading would mean “others addressing them”, which less appropriate to the context.

^{page 230 note 6} They continue to listen to God, and are not puffed up by their position as counsellors of others, into imagining that what they do is by their own power.

^{page 231 note 1} As in the well-known Tradition, “no monkery (rahbānīyah) in Islam” which Junayd thus explains.

^{page 231 note 2} Religious theory—the law, and its ramifications in religious practice.

^{page 231 note 3} That is, knowing what God's purpose was in prescribing certain duties to man. This passage is obscure, and perhaps the reading of I¹ is correct.

^{page 231 note 4} This is the true purpose of Ṣūfī discipline.

⁵ Literally, “places.”

^{page 231 note 6} Q. i, 21.

^{page 231 note 7} A play on words— ḥadīd and ḥudūd.

^{page 231 note 8} Literally, “their courses.”

^{page 231 note 9} In the context, heaven and earth.

^{page 231 note 10} Q. ii, 256. The foregoing translation is of necessity somewhat tentative, and I should welcome any suggestions for emendation or clarification.

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