Hisham Rifa’i’s sensitive and brilliant translation of Al-Ansari’s masterpiece Sufi teaching manual is now available for the English speaking reader in a simple and elegant edition from Raqim Foundation through Albouraq Diffusion Distribution.
Brief and excellent introductory sections provide background and point the interested reader to further resources and neglected dimensions of this justly famous figure in Sufi thought. The treatise speaks as a prayer of many perspectives in the ancient and ingenious way it was intended by the famous Pir of Herat. Unencumbered by copious footnotes and freed in meaning within the garment of the impeccable translation well-poised on its meanings, the ancient Master approaches each heart like a tuning fork fitted to the spiritual state of diverse readers.
If the reader returns to it from the vantage of greater experience, its meaning inflects, refracts and guides more deeply into the prism of Al-Ansari’s words, as intended by the Pir’s unique teaching devices both practical and soaring aimed at three levels of seeker in 100 poetical chapters, a treatise in verse form for all persons studying, entering or journeying on the Path to Unity.
The translation is a commendable first in many ways. It is the first complete translation into English, and the first in English, making it finally accessible to the English-speaking world. The Stations, dictated by the blind Pir in 1082 CE (475H) in his declining years, distills the Master’s unique teaching style integrating multiple perspectives on every meaning sufficient to illustrate and clarify applications ranging from ethics to the psychological and spiritual stages along the mystical Way.
The manuscript adds significantly to the important world Collection of Sufi manuscripts. The naturally metaphorical Arabic appears on facing pages, facilitating easy comparative access to meaning.
Al-Ansari is recognizable for a rational clarity and observation from every direction bearing on each concept he introduces without sacrificing the mystical meaning of Bliss in the Annihilation in mystical Unity. Form and content unite.
The manual, like the Holy Qur’an, is remarkably memorizable and musical. Al-Ansari, great teacher that he was, selected verses from the Qur’an to introduce each of 100 chapters, each poised to expand and explode meaning, giving ethical, psychological, metaphysical and spiritual context for the Pir’s lessons. In form and content, the 100 translated chapters converge on the 100th Name of Allah residing in the Void.
Dr. Barbara Amodio teaches Comparative Eastern-Western Philosophy at Fairfield University, CT.
You can purchase the book directly by visiting the Rumi Bookstore website.
Price: $20.00. Proceeds from the sale of this book will help Raqim Foundation alleviate poverty in Afghanistan. Raqim Foundation is a 501 c3 non-profit organization.
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