Majmūʿat Thalāth Rasā'il: Collection of Three Treatises: Kitāb fī al-Ṭarīqah, Sharḥ Maḥāsin al-Majālis, and Shifāʾ al-Ṣudūr (Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection)

The first complete English translation of Majmu'at Thalath Rasa'il (Collection of Three Treatises), a compilation of three mystical works copied together in succession by the same scribe. This volume brings together texts spanning the golden age of Arabic Sufi literature, each addressing a distinct dimension of the spiritual path: practical etiquette, contemplative commentary, and the metaphysics of the Arabic letters.The first treatise, Kitab fi al-Tariqah (The Book of the Path), is attributed to the celebrated Sufi master Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili (d. 1258). Organized into sixty numbered gates, it guides the practitioner through the stations of the spiritual journey: repentance, seeking forgiveness, remembrance, intimate converse with the Divine, reliance, humility, love, gnosis, and the ultimate annihilation in the Name. Each gate presents its teaching through a combination of direct instruction, Quranic citation, and supplication, with every prayer preserved in three layers: English translation, ALA-LC transliteration, and the original Arabic script.The second treatise is the Sharh Mahasin al-Majalis (Commentary on the Beauties of Gatherings), attributed to Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Yusuf al-Mursi, known as Ibn al-Mar'ah, a commentary upon the celebrated work of the Andalusian Sufi Ibn al-Arif (d. 1141). This manuscript preserves the commentary on the ninth and tenth chapters of the original text, preceded by extensive introductory reflections on the nature of gnostic knowledge, self-vision, and the relation of acts to annihilation. The treatise concludes with a separate Risalah on the Qur'anic Order of the Praiseworthy Stations, organizing the spiritual path according to the stations enumerated in the Qur'an.The third treatise, Shifa' al-Sudur (The Healing of Breasts), is attributed to Ahmad ibn Ali al-Buni (d. 1225), the most renowned author in the Arabic occult manuscript tradition. This work addresses the metaphysics and spiritual science of the Arabic letters, their natures, their divisions into the chosen and unchosen, the simple and compound, and their correspondence to the ordering of existence. It includes a sequence of whispered prayers (munajat) attributed to al-Naqshbandi and others, covering negation, the secrets of joy, the Great Name, and the light of perpetuity. Read more