Shams al-Ma'arif - The Most Dangerous Book in the World?

In previous episodes of this series we have begun to explore the fascinating

world

of Islamic occult sciences. They have given us an introduction to the topic. We have explored the

world

of talismanic magic. We have investigated astrology in the early Islamic world and eventually we will do so as well. Dive into

book

s like the famous Hakim or the pikatrix and its Latin title, but the

most

famous or should I say infamous

book

of occult sciences in the history of the Islamic and Arabic-speaking world is probably the mysterious work titled The Shamsalm Arif or the Son of knowledge a book that some revere as a useful book for spiritual practices and esotericism, but others fear it as the

most

dangerous

book in the world a cursed book that just possessing a copy of this book will bring evil forces or gin that will ruin your life then, what is this book?

Who wrote it and what kind of things do we find in it? Foreigner is probably the most famous occult book in the entire Arab and Islamic world. It is an extensive text and is in fact a kind of encyclopedia of all kinds of occult practices that have been common in the Islamic world historically. It covers everything from talismans and amulets to how to construct them, theories of the science of Arabic letters and their magical powers, magic squares, how to summon genies and much more. The book is attributed to the 13th century figure, Ahmed al-Buni, often popularly described as a magician and as the source of many of these sciences, but when we explore this figure and the history of the text itself we find that things are a little different from the life of Ahmed al-buni.

Little is known about how they are generally portrayed. His full name appears to have been Abu Abbas Ahmad IBN Ali IBN Yusuf Al Qureshi al-buni and he probably lived from the late 12th century to the mid-13th century, although the year of his death. is in dispute, as we will see, the name or nispah al-buni suggests that he originated in the city of Buna, which is located in present-day Algeria, and the sources we have indicate the same where he came from and spent most of his life. life in North Africa. he is primarily associated with Egypt after all, this places him in a very interesting and significant time and place.

He was a contemporary of the very famous muhedin Sufi figure IBN Arabi and came from approximately the same region. In fact, al-Buni was a Sufi and was known throughout his life mainly as a Sufi master and not as a magician or something, furthermore, in one of his writings, al-buni says that one of his own sheikhs or Sufi teachers was Abdul Azizawi, who ran a Sufi center in the city. from Tunisia and who was also one of the main teachers of IBN Arabi, further connecting the two figures, this becomes even more interesting as we find many similarities between the teachings of IBN Arabi and al-buni, such as the theories about science of letters and certain cosmological ones. and metaphysical principles and this is important, we should consider Ahmad al-buni as a Sufi master who came specifically from the strongly speculative Sufi culture of the Maghreb, which is northern West Africa and Al Andalus.

This region was ripe with Sufism, but it was a Sufism. that was generalizing more theoretical, more concerned with metaphysical and cosmological speculation, in addition to these spiritual practices and psychological transformations associated with Sufism, more so in the East, one could say that this is an environment that brought great mystics with a philosophical band speculative in quotes like IBN Arabi IBN sabahin ibnbarajan and indeed Ahmed al-buni himself and indeed we find many similar ideas in these writers because, importantly, all sources indicate that Ahmad al-buni later in throughout his life he was seen particularly as a great and revered Sufi master and teacher. who led a group of disciples or students mainly in Cairo, Egypt, would have carried out all the practices associated with Sufism, such as Vicker commemoration and Khalwa spiritual retreats, and most of Albuni's writings attest to this strong Sufi connection and the fact that he was a spiritual.

He taught several students even after his death, which is sometimes said to have been in the year 1225, but other times we see the years 12 31 or 12 32; However, after his death, his tomb became a pilgrimage site showing the kind of status he had. that he had as a Sufi teacher and was perhaps even seen as a kind of saint or Wali Ahmed al-buni also left writings that scholars have come to collectively call Corpus bonionum and it is here that we find those occult and esoteric writings. aspects with which it has become so strongly associated now, most of the albuni writings are simply books on Sufism similar to many other books in that tradition that speak of these stages of the Sufi path, practices such as goodness and the powers of reciting the divine names.

Even the most occult or quote-unquote magical books that exist are essentially within a Sufi framework, specifically speculative Sufi traditions associated with the Islamic West, as we saw, the problem with these writings, at least in relation to the topic of this episode , is that None of them are a farce, at least not as we know it. Recent studies by people such as Noah Gardner and John Charles Colon have studied the Ibonian Corpus and its relationship to the popular farce Salma Arif and suggest that around five works attributed to Albuni may have some undoubtedly considered his authentic work, these include works by more traditional Sufi nature, as the element a commentary on the names of God.

The writings also include books that are decidedly more occult and deal with topics associated with things like esotericism and perhaps even that controversial word magic which of course Albuni himself would not have used as a name for what he was doing, these are mainly the Lata if the subtleties of science in the heavenly letters and in the lead and this is where it gets interesting a work titled Sham Salman, the most famous book whose title translates as something like the son of knowledge and the subtleties of things elevated, most often known simply under the shorter title, the son of knowledge, so Ahmed al-buni wrote a book called The Shamus and according to certain medieval sources it seems that this could have been his most famous and widespread work, the The problem is that this is not the Shams we have today, in fact they differ in some dramatic ways, in reality the Shams as we know it today and which is so famous were Infamous throughout the world is a long text that is often considers a cursed book to be the most

dangerous

book in the world and for those of you who take such things seriously you should know that I will quote this book.

In this video in an English translation, so it's not the original Arabic, but in an English translation it will be pretty clear when I quote it, but that's my warning so you can choose not to watch the video if you're legitimately concerned. about that or just keep an eye out for when I'm going to court these passages, make no mistake, although Albuni's is definitely a work that includes descriptions of practical occult sciences, in fact, Alboon himself writes in the introduction containing the book and here . I am citing secrets of the exercise of occult powers and the knowledge of occult forces, so what is in this book at the center of Ahmad al-buni and really at the center of most of his writings, at least the occult writings, is Theories and speculations around what is known as the science of letters.

This is an idea that we find in many medieval mystics, especially in this era, which theorizes that the Arabic letters, so the letters of the Arabic alphabet, have hidden magical powers that can be used in different letters. They are often connected to certain cosmological or metaphysical principles, a letter could be connected to the Throne of God, the arsh, for example, or to the planetary spheres, and since they have these connections and especially because it is these letters that make up the names of God, which have enormous powers in themselves that can be used in various ways for spiritual practices or when making talismans, for example IBN Arabi, who had very similar ideas, even went so far as to say that the entire universe is essentially composed of letters and words with which God speaks. the eternal moment of creation, so the Shams talk about the science of letters and some of the practical uses of these powers.

The book also talks about the jinn, the names of the jinn that were captured by the prophet Solomon, talks about the angels and their natures, as well as. more practical instructions on how to construct what are known as alpha or cryptograms. This essentially involves using letters and numbers to create symbols that have certain powers. The most prominent example of this is the so-called magic squares, which are squares of numbers and different rows. which add up to the same number, regardless of how the numbers are added, they always add up to the same number, that is the principle and although albuni never uses words like talisman or amulet or that is the Arabic equivalent of those words, he essentially gives us instructions on how to create such objects using these cryptograms.

Letters. Divine names and Quranic verses. He remembers that Al-Buni was a Sufi and theories about these things seem to have been quite common in esoteric Sufi circles, as we saw with the Arabic IBN, for example, and in certain cases. Also in Shiism circles it would not have been strange for a Sufi master at this time to be involved with this sort of thing, especially in the Maghreb or North Africa, as we saw that Albuni and his followers did not consider any of this as Being. . or magic, a word that has very controversial and negative connotations in the Islamic world, even if there have been nuances and different uses of that word as we saw in previous episodes, but a pious person like albuni would not have been involved with quotes. in quotes, magical people have used other words like rohania spiritual work to basically denote these illicit practices that to us certainly seem like adjacent magic but to them it was obviously very different to use the Divine powers of God to affect things in the world is very different from invoking Jinn or forces other than God, however, this was considered something esoteric, it was something taught in Sufi circles, but certainly not revealed to the uninitiated, if anything, that is what makes Albuni and his writings are unique, that he actually wrote about these things. it was only taught orally from master to student in a sort of initiatory context, but even then he makes it clear that these writings are only intended for the elite Sufi audience who can grasp their meanings, as he says in the introduction and here I am quoting again.

I quote shame on anyone who holds this book of mine in their hand and reveals it to a stranger by divulging it to someone who is not worthy of it. This was a book that was clearly intended for his students and this spiritual Adept and not to be disseminated. The general public, then, how did Ahmed al-buni and the Shams get the infamous reputation they have today? And what about the modern

shams

alm Arif that we all know and love in the contemporary world, apart from being a Sufi teacher or teacher, as we saw? Albuni after his death became known as something of an authority on occult sciences and occult matters, probably because he wrote these books on these topics, which was relatively uncommon since they would be spread orally most of the time and therefore , because these writings were attributed to Albuni after his death he was seen as a kind of authority in occult sciences.

It does not appear that these things were rejected or viewed as radically suspect by most people or scholars, as his writings appear to have been quite popular among a wide range of religious scholars and other figures associated with political leadership and aristocracy. Mystics and philosophers Etc. Everyone read this book and it was quite popular. We see that the relationship between Albuni and IBN Arabi continues in these contexts, as it seems that people would read the works of the two side by side, IBN Arabi was often thought to provide the theoretical and metaphysical side of the science of the letters, while al-buni's writings provided practical descriptions of how to actually use them.

We have critical voices like ibentamia and IBN khaldoon who both grouped IBN Arabi and al-Buni as extremist Sufis in quotes and equated things like these letter signs with seher or magic in an attempt to ban it and its practitioners. These two are perhaps the most prominent critics of the popular forms ever called Sciences. in the Middle Ages, but although today these figures are often considered representatives of Islamic civilization and its intellectual tradition, they did not represent the majority at the time and Albuni's writings remain popular in various circles. People studied his works and wrote commentaries on them and developed a kind of Boonian occult tradition during the 14th to 16th centuries and this is where we come to the real bogus research that has shown that the Arif

shams

alm as we know it today, often known As the great son of knowledge, the version that is printed, spread and considered so dangerous appears byfirst time in the 17th century and its content is radically different from the medieval Shams al-madev, it can actually be traced back to Ahmed al-buni himself, so what is going on here?

What is this book? The current academic consensus is that although attributed to Albuni, the shamsubra is a compilation created by one or several writers around the beginning of the 17th century, now the book is based on Albuni's writings, in fact there appears to be a central part of the text that actually comes directly from the different occult writings of albuni, including, of course, the original fake Silma Arif, but a lot of the work, probably most of the work comes from other places, probably from later writings by figure in what which we call the Boonian tradition that had developed over the centuries.

For example, many of the non-Bunian parts of Shams appear to be from the figure Abdulrahman Al-Bistami, one of the main commentators on Albuni's works and a famous occultist, so Salman's modern farce is in fact a species An encyclopedic work, it is a compilation of different writings by various authors, there is a central aspect of the book that could be traced back to Ahmed al-buni himself, but much of this, perhaps most, are interpolations of later writers and, after all, this modern text is the most famous; It is this text that is spread in print in different versions and that has this incredibly infamous reputation of being like the most dangerous book in the world, for example, and for that reason, of course, this version of the book will be the main focus of our discussion. today, so what is in Shams El Cobra is an extensive text that features many chapters and sections dedicated to all kinds of occult sciences, it is often called a grimoire or book of magic and that label is not entirely incorrect, of course, but calling it that also neglects some of the central features of the text, in fact most of it remains within a strong Sufi speculative framework the Shams had a complex and intricate cosmology where everything is connected to everything else a framework in which Because all of these so-called magical aspects now figure in the book is not always terribly consistent in its ideas, which is one of the main reasons we can be sure that it is a compilation, but nevertheless there is an intricate system of threads where everything from the Divine names, the letters that compose them, the stars and the Celestial spheres, the human soul and all other aspects, are part when you read the book you will find sections on the powers of the Arabic letters, how the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are connected with the 28 Mansions of the Moon, as well as specific planetary spheres, all this is connected with the four elements, the signs of the zodiac, different angels. and much more is something truly esoteric where, as we have said, everything has a correspondence with everything else, numbers also play an important role, especially in the construction of talismans and magical objects, the instructions of which can be found in the text, especially in the form of Gematria the common idea that each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a certain number, so the letter alif corresponds to one, the letter ba corresponds to two, Gene corresponds to three, Dal corresponds to four, and so on, and when you write words using these letters, the word as a whole also has a numerical value where the letter numbers add up, which leads to some really juicy esoteric stuff.

These connections and correspondences become central when, for example, you are making a talisman. These can take many forms, but often involve invocations or magic. square, so for example, to harness the power of Jupiter, which has a kind of protective and lucky quality, you can construct a magic square, so take the letter associated with Jupiter Dal, which has the numerical value of 4. So you will create a four by four magic square. where the numbers on any straight line add up to the same number in any direction you count as I said before, then you write the letter Dal 35 times, which is the numerical value of the opaque letter when written as pronounced using Dal alif and Around the square magical you can also write various names of God that include that letter like al-wadud in this case the loving one then inscribe this talismatic symbol when the moon is in a good and fortunate mansion in the sky on a scroll or an iron object or any object that you can carry with you or that you can hang over your door and similar things, you can also write it with ink, then wash that ink with water and drink the water, thus one has harnessed the fortunate powers. of Jupiter using the intricate thread of correspondences from the sphere of Jupiter to the letter associated with that sphere to the numerical value of that letter to the names of God that include that letter and so on, you will see that there is a connection between all of these different aspects, just as the Lunar Mansion connected to these various things, everything is connected according to the Shams, this can be used for spiritual benefit but also for more worldly concerns, it instructs on how these things can be used to please people, including women are attracted to you, of course, to cure a fever or a scorpion bite and even some of the more nefarious things, such as destroying your enemies, although the author also tends to discourage people from doing these things, saying things like "You know, this is how you do it." destroy your enemy, but remember that all these actions will be judged on the day of judgment, so he gives instructions, but also says that you probably shouldn't do this, for example, so if you have a fever, do this again.

I am quoting here quote, if you write it, wash off the ink with water and give water to a sick person to drink. That person will be protected from fever if you are stung by a scorpion. Rewrite the quotes on a piece of copper and then heat them. copper in fire this protects against the sting of the scorpion this should be written while the Moon is in Scorpio and in an unfortunate astrological aspect with Mars then after the seal has been constructed dip it in water and drink the water and even if your intentions are less noble and want quotes for personal benefit, you can also write it on a piece of yellow silk, do this while the Moon is in cancer, your domicile or in the house of Jupiter and be safe from any unfortunate aspects with Jupiter, any incense of pleasant smell it can be burned if you do that and take it with you you will achieve all your goals and you will achieve what you want from the Kings the judges and officials the women will also love you very important do not forget to report there at the end these are just some examples to show We explain how this text works and describes these practices, if you want to invoke Saturn instead of which is associated with other effects, do the same but instead with the letter G which is a letter that is associated with Saturn, this letter has the numerical value of three, so in this case you make a magic square of three by three you write the letter G and you write the letter G with the three letters or G now and Meme and you write letters or names of God using that letter answering the entire process but instead All aspects have changed due to different correspondences in the case of Saturn instead of Jupiter.

The Sufi orientation of this book becomes clearer when it discusses the very strong powers of the Divine names. All the names of God have powers and can be recited or vocally. written to have different effects the merciful has effects that correspond to the attribute of Mercy such as Salam The Giver of Peace can be useful in ending conflict and so on the name Allah is the most powerful of the names as it encompasses them all although there are There is also talk of a greater secret name of God, Ismail Azam, a hidden name supposedly composed of 73 letters known only to prophets.

It is said that just knowing a few letters of this name gives a person the ability to perform miracles and there is a story that by knowing this secret name, figures like Jesus were able to resurrect the dead. I'm going to quote here again, quote through these names that Jesus used to raise the dead and heal the blind and the lepers. These names are written in the heavens. Phrases can have similar effects. especially the phrase Bismillah, which has an entire chapter of the book dedicated to the powers of it. This phrase meaning in the name of God, the most merciful and compassionate, begins in every Sura of the Quran except one and is recited by Muslims before any important task such as holding a speech, for example, this chapter on the Bismillah explains that it is one of the most powerful prayers that exist, it includes three names of God and is the first lion in the Quran, the Shams mentions a tradition where it is said that all reality is contained in the Quran, the entire Quran, in turn, is contained in the first chapter, all of Al Fatiha is contained in the opening prayer and all of the Bismillah is contained in the letter ba, furthermore, all of the ba is contained in the points below the letter.

This point therefore contains the entire Quran and metaphorically the entire universe is the point from which the entire book of God is written the point from which the vast threads of the universe are sown is something truly impressive this phrase that Bismillah brings to Lakwan that you just said but it can also be used as a sort of talisman by writing the phrase on an object or washing it with water and all of these things that we've already mentioned also have these incredibly powerful occult effects. I'm quoting again the quotes were written on Adam's face. the forehead 500 years before its creation was inscribed on Moses' staff in Syriac if it had not been so there would have been no part of the sea Bismillah was inscribed in the language of Jesus when he spoke in the Cradle he used to speak it when he resurrected the Dead who came back to life arise to life through God's permission Rahim was engraved on the Ring of Solomon and for some more particular examples quote reciting it before sleeping 121 times will attract divine protection God will protect you from Satan's theft and sudden death all misfortunes will They will avoid or quote if the Bismillah is written on paper 101 times and buried in a way in which the crops will be fruitful and will be protected from pestilence and danger, as you can see, the book is quite pious in a way, it is It focuses mainly on God, his names, the Quran and the letters that compose it and everything in the book is in some way connected with this type of religious and Islamic themes, of course, as we saw, all these things receive esoteric interpretations and readings. , all aspects have connections to some concept or angelic letter or planetary sphere and that kind of thing, even when we delve into themes that are a little darker, you could say that these themes remain, since they are the glue that really makes it happen. keeps everything together throughout the book, after all the book describes how one can summon the good Jinn to do what one wants and this is done mainly by using the Bismillah or the Quranic verses to invoke these hidden forces boonie si is the author of these sections warns against doing these things carelessly without proper protection from God, as one may, for example, accidentally summon an evil Guinevere or something, as we saw in a previous episode about gems, they can be both good As bad, they are not exclusively bad as some people may think, so all of these practices are aimed at summoning good gin through the power of God, but albuni.

He also warns that one must be very careful with this because perhaps he could accidentally summon an evil gin that would bring him misfortunes and these kinds of things, so one must be very careful and protect himself against those kinds of things through the protective power. of God by saying the Bismillah or writing the names of God and all these kinds of things. There really is so much that this book contains that we cannot read here. He immerses himself in the Ring of Solomon, the powerful ring given to this Islamic Prophet. which allowed him to control jinn and many other impressive miraculous powers.

It talks about the staff of Moses and all the other topics one expects from Islamic people who call themselves tradition. You can see why it has become the most famous occult science book in the history of the Islamic world, as it covers such a wide range of topics, really any type of occult science topic you can imagine, and it does so quite complete and of course remains firmly rooted in the Vocabulary and cosmology of Islam and the Quran, this is in fact one of those things that distinguish the Shams from another more famous Islamic book, The Hakim or the pikatrix, that is, that while Raya o pikatrix is ​​primarily a text on astrology and astral magic. based on theories and traditions primarily dedicated to that and from a scientific perspective, the Sham Salma Arif is most visibly based on the Quran and Sufi concepts, some would even refer to it as more pious or overtly Islamic, although these terms are problematic, of course.

How come this book has received such an infamous reputation today as we have seen in most of history, with a few exceptions like IBN tymia and IBN khaldon? The book was notnecessarily seen as problematic in any important way. The right people studied it and used it. in various ways, so what is happening today? Why is this book so feared and infamous today? A development that appears to be one of the modern world that appeared in the last century. What's going on here? Well, there are probably multiple answers. In relation to this question in general, we have seen something of a shift in the Islamic intellectual world in the last hundred or two centuries, as well as a shift in the general scientific paradigm of the world.

Of course, we now live in a world that is much more materialistic than before. In the context in which the book was written, we have certain ideals about what is considered real, quote-unquote rational science, and we often consider anything else with terms like superstition. The concept of magic has had a particularly difficult time in this new paradigm and this has affected the In the Islamic world, of course, we also saw in the 19th and 20th centuries the rise of modernist movements within Islam that have since become very influential. One has tried to emphasize the rationality of true Islam and in the process rejected all aspects of the tradition that are considered superstitious.

It is this that has affected the role of Sufism from basically being a majority form of Islam to being relatively marginal today. Muslims have wanted to distance themselves from superstition to counter the arguments of orientalist scholars and therefore the role of many of these things in the Islamic world. They have been increasingly belittled and downplayed, so this general trend is a factor. The scholar Lyanna Seif has also argued that during the 20th century, possibly connected with what we have said, there has been a de-esoterization of the Albuni writings that the Sham Selma Arif and its contents have been stripped of their connection to cosmologies and metaphysics.

Sufis. Which, as we saw earlier, is the brief framework and threat upon which basically every aspect of the book is based. Removing Sufism from the Shams removes all its connection with spiritual and religious practice. It takes the complex, intricate cosmology where everything fits and strips it back. From its essential core grimoires and magic books written by controversial occultists in Egypt in the 20th century, whose ideas were directly connected and traced to Albuni and Shams also contributed to this general trend. For these reasons and probably many others as well, the Arif shamsalm is has become very controversial today in the Islamic world it is often seen as a book of pure black magic a cursed book that will bring you misfortune a book that promotes devil worship as I said at the beginning it is often said to be the most dangerous book in On the other hand, we have other groups that have a relationship with the book that is a little closer to that of many in history who have studied this book seeing it as a tool for spiritual development and esoteric Sufi ideas , but, of course, maintaining a Much emphasis is placed on the fact that it is necessary to study it with a suitable teacher so that there can be no misunderstandings about what the book teaches.

In other words, it's a book that evokes many different types of emotions from different types of people, regardless. It is clear that there is great interest in this book and it is growing. It seems that recently the first English translation of a major part of the book was done by Amina Inlos and JM Hamadi, published by Revolor Press, which has gained some attention and forever. For this reason it is also this translation that I have relied on for the most part in this episode, it is clear that the occult sciences have been a prominent part of the Islamic world historically and in many places we still today remember that we are using the word Islamic Kit rather than Islamic to avoid claiming that these things are part of the Islamic religion per se, it is up to Muslim scholars and theologians to make statements about the normative status of the Arif shamsalem and its content in Islam, but at least we can be sure.

That these are ideas that have been widespread and popular in parts of the world dominated by the religion of Islam, colors our understanding of history, religion and the occult, which, after all, is a good thing and, to understand history of the occult sciences, there are few texts as significant as the farces and its author Ahmed al-buni or at least its attributed author Ahmed al-buni we now hope to have a better understanding of this fascinating subject, one of talisman gin and magic words, all appropriate for the spooky month of October. See you next time abroad.