The Supreme Law and the Primordial Ocean: and other esoteric epistles

ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī is one of the major figures of Islamic esotericism. A descendant of the saint ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, trained in Yemen under theshaykh al-Jabartī, and an heir to the intellectual tradition of Ibn ʿArabī, he travelled from India to Cairo in pursuit of a quest that was both spiritual and intellectual.This collection brings together eight texts by al-Jīlī, five of which are epistles drawn from the Nāmūs al-Aʿẓam wa-l-Qāmūs al-Aqdam (The Supreme Law and the Primordial Ocean). Although the greater part of this monumental prophetic work has been lost, these treatises remain invaluable fragments of it, offering a rare window into the author’s profound vision:The Distance of Two Bows - (Qāb Qawsayn)The Flashes of Lightning - (Lawāmiʿ al-Barq al-Mūhin)The Epistle of the Strange Journey - (Al-Isfār al-Gharīb)The Tongue of the Decree - (Lisān al-Qadar bi Nasīm al-Saḥar)The Secret of the Established Light - (Sirr al-Nūr al-Mutamakkin)The volume is completed by three foundational treatises:A spiritual testament on the stages of spiritual realization:The Reality of Certainty - (Ḥaqīqat al-Yaqīn)An exposition of the secrets of the Basmala:The Cave and the Inscription, Commentary on the Basmala - (Al-Kahf wa-al-Raqīm fī sharḥ: Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm)An ontological synthesis describing forty degrees of Existence:The Degrees of Existence - (Marātib al-Wujūd) Read more