THE REFLECTION OF IBN AL- ̒ARABĪ‘S NAṢIḤAH (COUNSEL) IN THE ADDITIONAL MATERIALS OF THE BROWNE MANUSCRIPT

Abstract

The methods of how naṣīḥah(counsel) permeates through the writing of the Islamic scholarsi the past remain unclear.This is important as they hold the responsibility to uphold it as a Warithā Kāmilah (perfect inheritance of the Prophetic knowledge)to uphold the religion of Islam and has traditionally been strongly practiced .According to a Ḥadīth Muslim, naṣīḥah is towards God, His Messenger , the Qurān , the Rulers and the Muslim community. The scholars of Tasawwuf ,in particular Ibn al-’Arabi practices naṣīḥah in the same spirit of which the methods of counsel, literary style and content of his naṣīḥah inclines unique to his conception . This was found through a textual and conceptual analysis of manuscript MS A233.4 obtained from the Browne collection in Cambridge University Library. This manuscript in particular is special as it consists of 2 main sections which consists of firstly the Risala of Ibn al-‘Arabī to Fakharuddin Ar-Razī and the second section consists of 9 parts of additional materials consisting of different poems ,historical accounts,didactic stories and allegories.The copyist most probably  served as an editor and textological study revealed that the copyist prefered the methods used by  the Sufis rather than the Mutakalimun. The existence of these additional materials strongly suggests that the method of counsel practiced by the Sufis has been well circulated and served as educational texts for learning.