6.5.9 - The First Recension of the Meccan Revelations (Damascus, Safar 629/1231)

We already mentioned in section

effutuhat1i in Chapter IV that the Greatest Shaykh, may Allah be pleased with him, began writing the book of the Meccan Revelations in his first visit to the Holy Mecca in 598 AH, and he was working on it whenever he had the opportunity during his busy travels, although he did not stop teaching and writing other books in various occasions. However, when Shaykh Muhyiddin settled in Damascus, he had the opportunity to continue writing in a faster pace, so he was able to finish his first recension of the Meccan Revelations only in this year, and then he rewrote it again between 632/1234 to 636/1238, where he added, deleted and modified on this is the first version.

There are dozens of manuscripts of this precious book in the libraries of the world, the most important of which is the Konya manuscript, now preserved in Evkaf Muzesi in Istanbul under numbers: 1845-1881. This manuscript is written by Shaykh Muhyiddin himself, and it constitutes the second recension of the book, as we shall see further below. There are also other manuscripts on the first recension, including the Beyazid copy (numbers: 3743-3746) containing the first version copied from the original written in Ibn al-Arabi’s hand.

The book of the Meccan Revelations was printed several times, the first of which was the edition of Bulaq in Egypt printed on four volumes:

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item Volume I: in 802 pages containing the first 72 chapters, printed in Dhul-Hijja 1269/1853,

item Volume II: in 772 pages containing chapters 73-299, printed in Shawwal 1270/1854,

item Volume III: in 630 pages containing chapters 300-400, printed in Dhul-Qaada 1272/1856,

item Volume IV: in 619 pages containing chapters 401-560, printed in Muharram 1274/1857.

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However, this version contained many errors although at the end of volume I the editors say that this edition is based on a number of manuscripts, without giving any more details. It seems from various texts that the manuscripts were from both the first and second versions that the author produced. The book was edited again with corrections by Shaykh Muhammad Qatta Ajami, and it was reprinted in 1293/1876, also in four volumes each divided into two parts, and each also containing the same chapters as the first edition, but the numbers of pages were 960, 916, 743 and 719 pages per volume, respectively.

With the efforts of the prince Abdul-Qadir al-Jazairi, a third edition was also produced by the Great Arabic Books House: Dar al-Kutub al-Arabiyya al-Kubra, established in Cairo by Mustafa Halabi and his brothers. This third edition was printed in 1329/1911 at the expense Hajj Feda Muhammad Kashmiri in Makkah, and corrected by a committee chaired by Shaykh Muhammad al-Zuhri al-Ghamrawi, who compared the previous editions with a copy of the manuscript of Qonya written by Shaykh Muhyiddin himself, as the editors stated. As with the previous two editions, this third one also appeared in four volumes each containing the chapters but the number of pages were 763, 693, 568 and 554 pages per volume, respectively.

This famous edition became known as Cairo edition, or al-Maymaniya, and it is still widely referenced in most related studies, though it was reproduced again by several publishing houses. After that, newer versions also appeared with different typesetting, but all based on al-Maymaniya edition without any more comparisons with the original manuscripts.

In 1954, Osman Yahya started working on producing a critical edition based on the manuscript of Qunya, containing 37 volumes. After publishing volume 14 in 1992, he died and the project was terminated. In 2010, Abdul-Aziz al-Manssub produced a complete edition of Qunya manuscript, but it appeared in 12 volumes.

Shaykh Muhyiddin divided the book of Meccan Revelations into five hundred and sixty chapters ranging in size from one page or less than one page to several hundred pages. These chapters are divided into six sections, as follows:

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item Section I, on Knowings, containing chapters: 1-73,

item Section II, on Dealings, containing chapters: 74-188,

item Section III, on States, containing chapters: 189-269,

item Section IV, on Positions, containing chapters: 270-383,

item Section V, on Juxtapositions, containing chapters: 384-461,

item Section VI, on Stations, containing chapters: 462-560.

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In Chapter 559, Shaykh Muhyiddin summarized the main mysteries presented in all the chapters, and then he ended the book with the long Chapter 560 containing a large group of essential commandments that should help in refining the morals and ethics of the seekers as well as many great benefits to the general public, all presented in simple statements without any complex philosophical arguments such as the complicated the sciences and knowledge he mentioned inside this great book. Therefore, this final chapter was often printed alone as a separate book called the Commandments (al-Wasaya).

The Shaykh, may Allah be pleased with him, mentioned in chapter 48 that the order of the chapters was not his own choice, nor based on any intellectual reasoning, but that the Praised Real dictated to him all what to write in this book through the Angel of Inspiration, to the point that he sometimes mentions some words that do not seem to be related to the statements before or after. He then gave an example from Quran, where Allah Almighty mentioned the verse in Surat Al-Baqarah: ((Maintain the prayers and the middle prayer and stand obedient before Allah [238])) between other verses that speak about divorce and marriage, and that’s for some mysterious occasion known only by the People of Disclosure [Meccan Revelations, II.163]. We also mentioned in Chapter IV how Shaykh Abu al-Abbas al-Sabti was amongst the few men who know the precise occasion in the order of the verses of the Quran, and not just its chapter.

Then, the Shaykh, may Allah be pleased with him, also said in chapter 366 that everything he speaks in his discussions or books, is but from the presence of the Quran and its treasuries, because he was given the keys to its understanding and provisions and he never deviates from that precious source that nothing is comparable to its value [Meccan Revelations, III.334].

After the death of Shaykh Muhyiddin, may Allah’s mercy be upon him, many of his followers tried to explain this great book, or summarize it, as well as some attempts to translate it into different languages. For example, it was summarized by Shaykh Abdul-Wahhab al-Shaarani (died 973/1565), in a book he called “The Holy Lights Selected from the Meccan Revelations”. He then summarized it again in a book called “The Red Sulfur from the Sciences of the Great Shaykh”, without departing from the original order of the book containing 560 chapters. He also wrote the book “The Sapphires and Jewels in the Doctrines of the Greats” on the same subject.

There are many other annotations to some chapters presented by many scholars such as Abdul-Qadir al-Jili (died 820/1417), Ahmed Ibn Suleiman al-Khalidi (died 986/1578), Abdullah al-Busnawi (died 1054/1644), and Shaykh Abdul-Ghani al-Nabulsi ( Died 1143/1730). There are also some translations of various parts into Turkish, Persian, French as well as English.

Nevertheless, just as it happened with the Fusus, some scholars could not understand the precious contents of this great book, thus denounced it and described its author as a disbeliever, as Shaykh Burhanuddin al-Buqaai did. We will come back to this point in Chapter VII.