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Ibn Al' Arabi: The Bezels of Wisdom (Classics of Western Spirituality)

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First of all, what's a "bezel"? A bezel is the grooved interior of the setting on a ring which holds the precious stone in place: a feat of craftsmanship in the days of irregular jewels. Here it's a metaphor for the Prophets, each a unique receptacle for a unique precious stone: an aspect of Divine Wisdom revealed to one person, at one place and time.

The Qur`an has its own perspective on Prophets, different from Judaism or Christianity. Mankind perpetually strays from Divine Wisdom and God sends messengers to call us back. Thus a variety of Biblical figures are considered as Prophets: Adam, Enoch, Noah, Aaron, Jacob, Joseph, Job, John the Baptist and Jesus. There are also Arab Prophets not in the Bible: Sālih, Hūd, Shu`aib.

Formless Divine Wisdom is Infinite, so this list of Qur`anic Prophets can only be a sample of Its limitless manifestations. But it's hard for us to realise how deeply traditional Muslims were imbued with the Qur`an: those who could read learnt to read from it; it was recited constantly; it was not uncommon to know the whole text by heart. For Ibn `Arabī, the succession of Prophets was a symbolic history of the world, and so although only a sample of God's Self-Revelations, they form a symbolically complete picture, a mandala.

From the beginning this text was singled out from Ibn `Arabī's enormous output: it was more widely studied, the subject of more commentaries, than any of his other works. It is one of his most difficult, yet accessible works. Difficult because... well, read a bit and see. Accessible because it comes closest to summing up his ideas. Westerners are often baffled when they first encounter a work like this. What exactly is it? Philosophy, poetry, theology, mysticism? Complex philosophical arguments in the Neo-Platonic tradition mingle harmoniously with Scriptural commentary, poetic and metaphorical language, and mystical paradoxes.

We are told at the start of the first chapter (about Adam) that God Knows Himself directly, but it is different to know oneself through Another, so God created the Universe to be His mirror. At first it was amorphous and rough [mirrors were made of metal in those days] but gradually it was polished until it could reflect Him. With the creation of human beings, self-conscious like God Himself, the Universe reached completion. Adam was the first Prophet, the first to receive Formless Wisdom in a unique form. The task of every human being is to know God, so that He may know Himself in us.

I have written at such length to try to give some idea of what this unique and wonderful book is, what you can expect to find in it. This is the most readable translation yet of a work that has for centuries been considered a marvel.

This book is truly impressive. Arabi's deep knowledge of philosophy allowed him to describe many aspects of the experience of gnosis and prayer in a rare form that could be comprehended by the rational mind of only someone who has been there even to some small degree. This kind of reflection is beautiful and useful. Arabi is completley experienced and educated in Philosophy, but is not what we would call a philosopher in the impractical, rhetorical, or sophist sense. Rather, this work brings Philosophy back to it's primal roots as a way of mapping out mystical experience.

This is a book that, at first, shatters all your dogmas about Islam and the search for the Reality (God), and then rebuilds your faith in the most beautiful way. ibn Arabi was the first of the Sufis to write openly about a knowledge closly held by mystics of old. His book Bezels of Wisdom, therefore, broke new ground by revealing to the world the Real truths behind the Wisdom sent to each Prophet.

This book was my introduction to his writings. It is a good place to start partaking of his deep insights regardless of whether you consider yourself to be either Christian or Muslim.
This great unifier and witness to the unity of all things offers
plenty of self varifying evidence for the fact that " God is the conclusive argument.

Ignore the 'sane side of Islam' review this book has nothing to do with modern current events and should not be used as some kind of "Well some of 'them' are ok, look this book is an example". This book was orignially written several hunderd years ago and its translation decades ago long before Bin Ladins, at a time even before Afghans were seen as 'noble mujahadin fighting evil communism' and Khomeni was probably still sitting in Paris drinking coffee when this book came out.

No, this is simply the traditional side of Islam practiced by the majority. Just because the media choses to focus on the cranks and madmen (who lets face it, sell newspapers) Does not mean that they are in any way a representation of Islam.

There seems to be a modern trend to remain blissfully ignorant of Islam (in spite of daily so called 'qualified' media reports on the Muslim world) while at the same time sprout hatred against it (See the lunatics who have 'reviewed' the book 'politically incorrect guide to Islam' for proof of that) then finally come across an accurate representation of Islam and then think they are qualified to say. "Well you know I read this one book so some of them must be ok, we just need to sepparate the good ones from the bad ones."

Regarding the book itself; translated from Arabic to French by Titus Burckhard a first rate translator, author of Fez, city of Islam and several other works on art and spirituality and student of the Darqawi Sufi order and translated from French to English by Angela Culme-Seymore. The edition I have is from Beshara publications which was set up by a Turkish scholar by the name of Bulent Rauf who has also translated the comentary on the Fusus by Ismail Hakki Bursevi (out of print but realy needs to be republished, come on Beshara sort it out!)

The translation is simple and easy to understand. The book itself covers the spiritual message that each prophet brought (for those who dont know and contary to popular belief Muslims believe in all of the Biblical Prophets) ending with the Prophet Muhammad. The book is not a full translation and from here it may be a good idea to go to the translation of Austin before going on to the Bulent Rauf translation. There is also a glossery of terms used in the text which also make this a lot easier to understand.

I should point out, Ismail Hakki Bursevi was a Turkish Sheikh of the Jelveti order, a prolific writer (one of his works is a 10 volume commentary on the Quran) and founder of the Hakkiyye Jelveti Sufi order. This should give some idea of the importance of the Bulent Rauf translation. You should refer to the Kernel of the Kernel to farmiliarise youreslf with Bursevi before reading the Fusus.


An exellent translation and an exellent introduction to ibn Arabi. I would also recomened Quest for the red sulpher and Sufis of Andalusia for a biography of ibn Arabi.

Unnnecessary word translations cannot reflect the same meaning as in the original. This is not only a problem for this book, but also for the all Islamic books translations including Quran. For instance, I do not understand why all authors insist on using God instead of the word Allah. Every muslim knows they have different meaning. (eg.There is only one God who is Allah). And all people in the world know the word Allah. Another example Lord istead of RAB. When people use the words generally we see in the Bible, it make Quran or other Islamic books sound very similar to Cristianity. Since we know that one of the miracles of Quran is it is the perfect book and its verses has really deep meanings when we translate all the words in the verses, we do not reflect the miracle of Quran very well.