Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom: Including What the Seeker Needs and The One Alone [Paperback]

Ibn Arabi (Author), al-Jerrahi al-Halveti (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

A powerful but little known work, this volume contains three mystical texts. 'Al-tadbirat,' the largest, is a fascinating treatise on the divine design and management of the world, and the central role the human model plays in the creative and governing process. The other two are 'kitab kunh ma la budda minhu lil-murid' (or, "What the Seeker Needs"), a brief guide for those want to follow the Sufi path, and 'kitab al-ahadiyyah' (or, "The One Alone"), an esoteric essay on transcendental unity.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ibn 'Arabi, a 12th-century Spanish mystic, was considered by many to be the greatest master of Sufism.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Fons Vitae (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887752056
• ISBN-13: 978-1887752053
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #83 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Islam > Sufism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure nonduality, June 1, 2005

By 

Jerry Katz "Nonduality.com" (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom: Including What the Seeker Needs and The One Alone (Paperback)

I bought this book for the 20 page section entitled The One Alone, which is very nondual. I also read the 18 page Translator's Introduction, which tells about the life of Ibn 'Arabi. These two sections alone make the book an important addition to a library of nonduality books. The bulk of the volume, a book of wisdom on governing oneself, I have only so far scanned and therefore have not included any other mention of it in this review.

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi lived from 1165 to 1240. He "has become one of the most important expounders of Sufi wisdom." "Ibn 'Arabi all his life felt the pain of not being understood. Yet the breadth and depth of his wisdom, insight, vision, and knowledge was and is awesome to whomever catches a glimpse of it. Many of his expressions of divine mysteries have never been improved upon. Many important affairs, which he foretold centuries ago, have taken place and continue to take place."

This introduction is brief, a distillate of the life of Ibn 'Arabi. It covers his life from birth to death, describes his physical appearance, reveals extreme controversy surrounding Ibn 'Arabi, demonstrates his wisdom, tells about a meeting with an adolescent Rumi, and more. Throughout this distillate is communicated the author/translator's love and understanding of Ibn 'Arabi, the person and his works; clearly, it must be the case, otherwise how could Ibn 'Arabi's words set forth in this book cut so cleanly?

The One Alone is a work of pure nonduality. To demonstrate that, here are a few quotations, a few fragments which do not do justice to this entire work:

"Therefore, if you know yourself without being, not trying to become nothing, you will know your Lord. If you think that to know Allah depends on your ridding yourself of yourself, then you are guilty of attributing partners to Him -- the only unforgivable sin -- because you are claiming that there is another existence besides Him, the All-Existent: that there is a you and a He."

"You presume others to be other than Allah. There is nothing other than He, but you do not know this. While you are looking at Him you do not recognize Him. When the secret opens to you, you will know that you are none other than He."

"...do not think that you need to become nothing, that you need to annihilate yourself in Him. If you thought so, then you would be His veil, while a veil over Allah is other than He. How could you be a veil that hides Him? What hides Him is His being the One Alone."

"When the secret of a single atom out of all the atoms from which the elements are made becomes known, the secrets of the whole universe visible and invisible will be revealed. Then you will not see anything but Allah either in this world and in the Hereafter."

"Thus when you know yourself, your self and selfishness will leave you, and you will know that there is nothing in existence but Allah."

"...the meaning of 'The eyes cannot see Him...' is that there is no existence other than His. The Truth can only be conceived of by Itself, which has no other identity except the Truth: Allah sees Himself by Himself and by none other than Himself. His Essence sees His Essence."

Anyone who loves nondual expression will value this book and might choose to set it on a shelf alongside other books expressing the nonduality of the other major religions.

Jerry Katz

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom, Including What the, February 29, 2000

By 

Simply Lovely "Georgia Budget with New York T... (Beautiful California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom: Including What the Seeker Needs and The One Alone (Paperback)

May Allah Grant Him Peace. This book gives all of insight to the "power" that leaders in an Islamic society have. He goes over the rights, regulations, rules, limits and most importantly, desieses of the heart from many rulers, not only confined to the Islamic world, but all "rulers" in general.

He quotes only from the Quran and Sunnah, and gives his blessed insight to devine rule, based on Fiqh, and Shariah.

A wonderful text.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This should be the politician's bible, June 22, 2010

By 

Luis Padua "Flying Pig" (Monterrey MEXICO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Divine Governance of the Human Kingdom: Including What the Seeker Needs and The One Alone (Paperback)

I'm confident that contemporary civilization will be inspired by Sufism and authors such as Ibn Al Arabi to take the next step towards a new society and a new world. In the same way that Europe learned from old Greece and Rome, inventing the Renaissance and the "modern" age, today's world may be learning from mystics of Orient, especially sufi mysticism from Andalucia (XII century or so), to unleash a new spiritual, yet tolerant, age. This book is about how really should the world be governed. For, finally, it is not the human beings who are truly governing. However, we have been granted from the divine a special capacity to order the species around us, and we can't renounce to such a noble task. The "master of masters", as Al Arabi was called, wrote such a powerful statement about 'true governance", that I can only hope it will inspire from now on those men who really want to make a better world.