Bøker av Stephen Hirtenstein

Patterns of Contemplation is a uniquely innovative and comprehensive introduction to the sacred principles and symbolism of geometry, letters and numbers, discussed through the first in-depth analysis and English translation of a major Sufi devotional masterpiece, The Blessing-Prayer of Effusion (al-Ṣalāt al-fayḍiyya).This special type of prayer, invoking God's blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad, which is well known throughout the Islamic world, seems to have first become popular in the Maghrib (West) from the time of Ibn ʿArabi (d. 1240) onwards. Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein provide the first critical edition of the Arabic text and English/Spanish translation of The Blessing-Prayer of Effusion, along with a fully annotated commentary, transliteration and recording. Although this well-known short prayer has been attributed since the 18th century to Ibn ʿArabi, the authors argue persuasively that it was actually written by Abdullah Bosnevi (d. 1644), a major Ottoman follower of the school of Ibn ʿArabi who originated from Bosnia. Also included is a brief introduction to the genre of blessing-prayer and one of its earliest examples in Arabic and English, The Prayer of Blessing attributed to ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Mahdawi (d. 1224), Ibn ʿArabi's friend and mentor in Tunis (to whom he addressed his famous Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya).Over five substantial introductory chapters and five appendices which surround the text of The Blessing-Prayer of Effusion, Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein carefully uncover the extraordinarily rich meanings, kaleidoscopic structure, rhymes and symbolism that it contains, and show how they are interwoven in a majestically beautiful architecture of mysticism and poetry.This is not only a prayer for recitation but an embodied invitation to the most profound contemplations on the nature of the Truly Human Being (al-insān al-kāmil).

Prayers for the Week is a very special collection of daily prayers by Ibn ʿArabi and is regarded as one of the most magnificent and beautiful in the Sufi tradition. There are fourteen prayers, one for each night and day of the week, with an extra introductory prayer. They include an unparalleled depth of knowledge of Union (tawḥīd), and for the one who recites them, they are as much educational as devotional.This book is an expanded and fully revised version of The Seven Days of the Heart, which was first published in 2000. Over the intervening years we have consulted a very large number of manuscript copies of the Awrād in libraries throughout the world, and compare different readings and lines of transmission. The result is that for the first time we are able to provide an Arabic edition, based on the oldest and best manuscripts available, as well as a full transliteration of the prayers for non-Arabic speakers, and an updated translation and notes, with an accompanying recitation recording. We also decided to reflect the generally accepted title of these prayers by changing the main title to Prayers for the Week