The Horizons of Being - by Mukhtar H Ali (Paperback)

About the Book

The Horizons of Being is a parallel English-Arabic translation and commentary of Dawūd al-Qayṣarī's (d. 1350) Prolegomena to his commentary on Ibn al-ʿArabī's Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam.

Book Synopsis

The Horizons of Being explores the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī by examining Dāwūd al-Qayṣarī's (d. 751/1350) Prolegomena to his commentary on the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, popularly known as the Muqaddimat al-Qayṣarī. A masterpiece of Sufism, the Muqaddima is both a distillation of the Fuṣūṣ and a summary of Ibn al-ʿArabī's entire metaphysical worldview. As such, it is a foundational text that delves into the most important subjects characterizing the philosophical Sufi tradition: Being, God's attributes, divine knowledge, the universal worlds, unveiling, creation and the microcosm, the perfect human, the origin and return of the spirit, prophethood and sainthood. The present work is a complete translation of the Muqaddima and a commentary that incorporates the ideas of the main exponents of this tradition.

Review Quotes

"Bringing together years of immersion into the Akbarian tradition, Mukhtar Ali's study and translation of Qayṣarī's famous Muqaddima is erudite, poetic, and profound. It clearly demonstrates why this text has historically been seen as one of the most important expositions of the Sufi metaphysical vision of reality, and also hints at why it should be taken seriously today. The Horizons of Being is therefore nothing short of a tour de force in modern scholarship, and is essential reading for all serious mystics, theologians, and philosophers." - Mohammed Rustom, author of Inrushes of the Heart: The Mystical Theology of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt

About the Author

Mukhtar H. Ali, Ph.D. (2007) University of California, Berkeley, is currently Research Fellow at the Warburg Institute, the University of London. He specializes in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and ethics, and has published widely in various peer-reviewed venues. He has also translated several works in classical and contemporary Islamic metaphysics, which include The Principles of Correspondences (2013) and The New Creation (2018).