Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
39 lines (32 loc) · 2.11 KB

_introduction.md

File metadata and controls

39 lines (32 loc) · 2.11 KB
Raw

Introduction

In the name of Allāh the Most Merciful and Clement: [O Allāh I implore Your assistance, O Allāh bless Muḥammad and his family and grant them peace]. Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī bin Aḥmad bin Saʿīd bin Ḥazm al-Andalusī !p[him] has said:

  1. Praise be to Allāh for His great gifts. May Allāh bless [our master] Muḥammad, His servant, the seal of His Prophets and Messengers; may He grant them eternal blessings. I rely on Him for any ability and strength I may have, and I seek His aid and protection against all the various terrors and ills of this world. And may He deliver me from all horror and suffering in the next world.

  2. Now, I have gathered together in this book numerous ideas which Allāh, the provider of intellect, has enabled me to profit from as day succeeded day, [and year succeeded year] and circumstances altered, permitting me to understand the vicissitudes[^mean-vicissitudes] of fate and to control its fluctuations, to the extent that I have devoted the larger part of my life to it. I have chosen to master these problems by study and contemplation, rather than throw myself into the various sensual pleasures which attract most souls on this earth, and rather than amass unnecessary wealth. I have gathered together all my observations into this book in the hope that the Almighty may allow it to benefit whichever of His servants He wishes who has access to [is capable of understanding] my book, in the matters over which I have slaved, devoting all my efforts to them, and reflecting at length upon them. I hope that it will be well received, and I present it with good intentions and blessings [with a good heart].

This book will benefit a person more than financial treasures and possessions of property, if he meditates upon it, and if Allāh enables him to make good use of it. As for myself, my hope in this enterprise is to win the greatest reward from Allāh, since my intention is to help His servants, to remedy whatever is corrupt in their character, and to heal the sickness of their souls. I beseech the assistance of Allāh [Almighty, we wish only for Allāh, the best of defenders].