Pure Gold from the Words of Sayyidi Abd al-Aziz al-Dabbagh pdf download

Pure Gold from the Words of Sayyidi Abd al-Aziz al-Dabbagh – (Al-Dhabab al-Ibriz min Kalam Sayyidi Abd al-Aziz al-Dabbagh) By Ahmad b. al-Mubarak al-Lamat A Translation with Notes and an Outline by John O’Kane and Bernd Radtke

PURE GOLD FROM THE WORDS OF SAYYIDI ABD AL-AZIZ AL-DABBAGH

Book contents

• Preface ix
• Translators’ Introduction xi
• An Outline of the Ibriz 1
• Author’s Introduction: AI-Arabi aI-Fishtali’s predictions. The birth of al-Dabbagh, his illumination, his meeting with the Prophet, and reports of his miracles 113
• Chapter I: AI-Dabbagh explains difficulties in Hadiths 199
• Chapter II: AI-Dabbagh explains difficulties in Quranic verses 403
• Chapter III: On the darkness that enters men’s bodies and works 519
• Chapter IV: The Council of the godly (Diwan al-Salihin) 577
• Chapter V: On the office of spiritual guide and on being a proper disciple 611
• Chapter VI: A commentary on what the Raiyya says about the qualities of the shaykh and the disciple 681
• Chapter VII: Difficult sayings of spiritual masters explained, and the debate about al Ghazzali’s words: ‘There is not in possibility anything more wonderful than what is.’ 745
• Chapter VIII: On Adam’s being created by gradual stages 827
• Chapter IX: Light-filled and gloom-laden illumination, and the difference between the majdhub and the fool 839
• Chapter X: A description of Barzakh and the spirits that reside there 877
• Chapter XI: A description of Paradise and its different degrees 893
• Chapter XII: A description of Hell. 913
• Appendix 925
• Bibliography 933
• Indexes
• Proper Names 945
• Subjects 959

The title page of the present book straightway confronts the reader with two distinct personalities. The first is Ahmad b. al­ Mubarak al-Lamatil who is the ‘author’, that is to say, the compiler of the work. As for the contents of his compilation, it consists of the ‘words’ of Abd al-Aziz al-Dabbagh, though not, one should hasten to add, al-Dabbagh’s words alone.

Al-Lamati frequently enough adds his own digressions and ample comments. A sizeable part of Chapter Seven, for example, is taken up with a completely independent treatise by al-Lamati.2 None the less, as far as we can judge and are meant to judge on the basis of al-Lamati’s testimony, al-Dabbagh is the dominant personality, and al-Lamati is the admirer and devoted servant.

But what do we know or can we learn about our two protagonists aside from the picture that the Ibriz itself provides us with. Fortunately for us, the chronicler al-Qadir (d. 1187/1773) has left us remarkably vivid portraits of both men.

The text of his entry4 on al-Lamati runs:

‘And among those who died during the year (i.e. 1156/1743) was the most learned scholar of the time, matchless in this day and age, the cavalier of teaching and study, bearer of the banner of composition and investigation, our shaykh Abul-Abbas Sayyidi Ahmad b. Mubarak al-Lamati al-Sijilmasi.

He possessed a wide mastery and erudition in logic, eloquence, Usul, Hadith, Quranic recitation, and commentary. He studied Quranic recitation in all seven traditions of recitation under the son of his maternal aunt, the great imam, the Friend of God, and godly ascetic, Sayyidi Ahmad al-Habib.

He set out and entered the city of Fez in the year 1110/1699-1700. He then studied with Sayyidi Muhammad al-Qusantini, al-Hajj Ahmad al Jarandi and Sayyidī Muḥammad al-Masnāwī.8 And he studied grammar with Sayyidi “Abd al-Salām al-Hulwī.9 Moreover, the distinguished Sayyidi “Ali al-Hurayshī10 conferred on him an ijāza for transmitting al-Bukhārī.

Al-Lamatī had an inclination to compare the words of the religious scholars and to study [matters] with them, all the while giving them answers in accordance with the [scholarly] craft and [its] tools.

He was matchless in pronouncements he brought forth from his understanding or on the basis of individual judgment (ra’y) regarding what seemed right to him. Nor did he care whether he contradicted the great or the small who lived before him or came after him.

He attributed to himself absolute ijtihād, and he refuted the great among those who lived earlier and more recently.

 He declared that if they’d met him, they’d have profited from him. Moreover, he was abundant in his praise of the rank of our lord Muhammad, the Apostle of God—God’s blessings and peace be upon him!

And he brought people over to the intensity of his love and inculcated this love in various ways11 as no one else among those I’ve met was able to do. When he spoke of this, weeping came over him, and it would occur while he was engaged in teaching. Occasionally it persisted for quite some time.

But on other occasions, laughter and joy came over him. And this might also be while he was teaching. He’d then tell some funny stories and go on laughing a long time. I myself was present at all of this during his teaching sessions. And he derived regulations (aḥkām) from Qur’ānic verses and ḥadīths from the Prophet without anyone as an intermediary, as is established and recorded in the old well-known books of fiqh.

During his lecture in the Qarawiyyin in the year 1148/1735, I heard him recite from memory fifty ḥadīths with their isnāds as well as the defects and the answers concerning them that occurred to him. And al-Lamațī harbored great concern and love for his shaykh, Mawlāy ‘Abd al-Azīz al-D

abbāgh al-Idrīsī al-Hasanī. Indeed, he compiled a book about him. And he compiled a work about the meaning of God’s word–He is exalted: ‘And He is with you wherever you are’ (57/4). People of his time disagreed about this