2.0 - THE SECOND SOURCE: The Hearings and Leaves of Sadruddin al-Qunawi

“I saw the Sheikh, may Allah be pleased with him, on the night of Saturday the 17th of Shawwal 653 AH, in a long incident (in a vision), and there was a long conversation between me and him, where I was saying to him during my speech: I want to realize how you witnessed the permanent and eternal self-manifestation! I meant what had happened to him of witnessing the self-manifestation after which there is no veiling. Complete men (of Allah) would not settle without that. So he said: Yes. And he approved me to that, and then he said to me: This is done for you.

Sheikh Sadruddin al-Qunawi, al-Nafḥāt al-Ilāhiyya, p. 6.

In the same collection that we have relied on in chapter I above, in editing the treatise of the Index, which is the Yusuf Agha collection No. 7838, Sheikh Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi wrote some Auditions and Leaves he received from the Greatest Sheikh, documenting his reading on him a number of books over two and a half years, starting from Muharram in 627 AH until Jumada the First in 629 AH. In these Leaves, there are 43 titles, most of which are originally mentioned in the text of the Index, or in other well-known books confirmed by the Sheikh Muhyiddin, and therefore these hearings confirm the attribution of many well-known titles, especially the book of the Bezels of Wisdom, over which some researchers cast doubts. The titles mentioned exclusively in these auditions, and not in any other source, are the treatise of the Index itself, the book "sharḥ al-alfāẓ al-latī yastʿamiluha ahl ṭarīq Allāh fī mā baynahum: Explaining the Words Used by the People of the Way of Allah Between Themselves", and the book of "B". Similarly, from the books in these auditions that are not mentioned in the Index, but mentioned in other sources, we find the book "al-fanāʾ fī al-mushāhada: Annihilation in Witnessing", which is mentioned in the Meccan Revelations, the book "nuskhat al-haqq: the Image of the Real", which is mentioned in the Supplement of the Leave to the Triumphant King, and the book "al-jawāb al-mustaqīm fī ajwibati al-masaʾi al-latī saʾala ʿanhu al-Tirmidhī al-ḥakīm: the Straight Answer on the Answers to the Issues of the Questions Asked by the Wise Tirmidhi", which is also mentioned in the Supplement of the Leave, under the name: "al-ajwiba al-makkiyya fī sirr asʾilat al-Tirmidhī: the Meccan Answers in the Mystery of the Questions of al-Tirmidhi", and it is also contained in chapter 73 of the Meccan Revelations. In summary, these Auditions and Leaves add twelve titles to the previous source of the Index, so the total becomes 267.

The following figure (ref(ijazaqunawi1) shows an example of Sheikh Muhyiddin's endorsement of reading some books by Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, taken from the top of page 346a, which we will describe shortly.

[Sheikh Al-Akbar’s endorsement of Al-Qanawi’s reading of some books, from the Yusuf Agha manuscript No. 7838.] Part of page 346a of the Yusuf Agha manuscript No. 7838 in which the Sheikh Al-Akbar’s endorsement of his stepson Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi’s reading of some books.

2.1- Available Manuscripts

2.2- The Text of al-Qunawi's Auditions