75. Maḥmūd Shabistarī: The Rosegarden of Mystery - Shams al-Dīn Lāhījī: Keys to the Wonderous Exposition
A Sourcebook in Global Philosophy - Mohammed Rustom
Mukhtar H. Ali [+]
University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Description
Maḥmūd Shabistarī’s (d. 1320 CE) Gulshan-i rāz (The Rosegarden of Mystery) is among the most important expositions of the doctrines of the Sufi philosopher Ibn ʿArabī. The work has been subject to numerous commentaries, the most famous being the Persian commentary by Shams al-Dīn Lāhījī (d. 1506/7 CE) entitled Mafātīḥ al-iʿjāz fī sharḥ Gulshan-i rāz (Keys to the Wondrous Exposition: A Commentary upon the Rosegarden of Mystery) written in 1473. Lāhījī’s 800-page exposition of Shabistarī’s work is perhaps the most exhaustive treatment of Ibn ʿArabī thought and a major contribution to the philosophical Sufi tradition. The present entry discusses the nature of the self: Shabistarī asserts that the “I” of selfhood is first and foremost the Ipseity of Absolute Being. When Being is individuated, It refers to Itself as an “I.” Yet multiplicity, and hence other “selves,” arise from Being in the same way light shines through the apertures of the lattice of a lamp-niche. Drawing from the Quran’s famous Light Verse, our authors then describe the microcosmic “I” vis-à-vis the inward degrees of the human spirit.