4.6.22 - The Holy Spirit in Self-Accounting (Mecca 600/1204)

As we mentioned in the Introduction, the treatise of Ruh al-Quds fi Muhasabat al-Nafes (The Holy Spirit in the Counseling of the Soul) is one of the most important books that provides invaluable information for the study of the life and biography of Shaykh Muhyiddin, and many of the shaykhs whom he met in Morocco and Andalusia, before he came to Mecca. This book is a long treatise that he wrote in 600 AH in Mecca and sent to his companion Abu Mohammed Abdul-Aziz Ibn Abu Bakr al-Qurashi al-Mahdawi whom he visited in Tunisia several times as we mentioned in the previous chapters.

However, in addition to the important biographical information, and as the title suggests, Shaykh mentioned in this book some strict methods for treating the self in guidance for the highest stations by comparing oneself with those famous companions and other righteous shaykhs who were distinguished by what they did that made them honorable in the Path pf Allah.

This book has been printed many times based on various manuscripts, and it has been translated into several languages. Some of the alternative names of this treatise include: the Holy Letter, the Holy Spirit and the Mahdawian Treatise. In many of his trips after 600, Shaykh Muhyiddin used to read this book on his students in most of the cities that he visited, so we find many hearings recorded on various manuscripts, especially the copy preserved in Istanbul University Library under number 79A, Collection number 151. This copy was written in the presence of Shaykh Muhyiddin in this year 600 AH, apparently before he left Mecca to take the first trip to the North, because it carries many authenticated hearings in the various cities that he visited, as we shall see in the coming chapter. Osman Yahya described this copy as an autograph, but it was actually written by Majduddin Ishaq al-Rumi, the father of Sadruddin al-Qunawi, whom we shall mention in section

efishaq-al-rumi in Chapter V, although it is also stated on it that it is written according to the narration of Abdullah Bader al-Habashi. However, this invaluable copy carries many hearings verified and singed by Shaykh Muhyiddin in various dates and places including Mecca, Baghdad, Mosul, Malatya, and Damascus, between 600 and 604 AH.