About this text: The Aphorisms

الحكم العطائية

Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī (d. 709/1309)

The whole Ḥikam: 263 aphorisms of the Shādhilī path on works and hope, tajrīd and the means, giving up self-direction, the inrushes and the states, contraction and expansion, light and inner sight, servanthood and need; the four letters; and the intimate prayers (munājāt), with Ibn ʿAbbād's commentary beside each.

In the reader

300 passages · ~60 min · commentaries · 24 Quran quotations

5,840 words

Commentaries: aligned on 300 passages
Published translation: none (the English is AI, marked as such)
Quran quotations: 24

Not yet: audio.

Read it →Grammar practice Study sheet (print)

Difficulty

familiar vocabulary

Lexical difficulty, from the words themselves: how many roots fall outside the 1,000 most frequent in the Quran, how long the words are, and how much of the vowelling had to be supplied by AI. It says how unfamiliar the vocabulary is, not how deep the ideas are.

Rare roots 8% · mean word length 4.1 letters · AI vowelling on 100% of words

Themes & resonances AI

What the text is about, and what it connects to across the history of thought. Every connection says what kind of claim it is: a documented lineage, a shared source, a resonance with no influence claimed, or a contrast. Mapped by AI; references are shown only once checked. Across the library

Themes

Giving up self-direction (isqāṭ al-tadbīr)تدبيرtadbīrroot دبر
The veil is in the one who looksحجابḥijābroot حجب
The Manifest who makes all things manifestظهورẓuhūrroot ظهر
Essential poverty and servanthoodفقرfaqrroot فقر
The inrushes (wāridāt) that tear down habitواردwāridroot ورد
Contraction and expansionبسطbasṭroot بسط
Inner sight and the mirror of the heartبصيرةbaṣīraroot بصر
The journeyer and the one who has arrivedوصولwuṣūlroot وصل

What each theme is here

Giving up self-direction (isqāṭ al-tadbīr). From the fourth aphorism ('Give yourself rest from self-direction') to the closing prayers, the servant is asked to let go of planning what God has already undertaken, and to accept the state and the means in which God has set him.
The veil is in the one who looks. The Real is not veiled; the servant is veiled by imagining an existent beside Him, and God is hidden by the intensity of His light and nearness (34, 139, 166–167, 218).
The Manifest who makes all things manifest. Created being is darkness lit only by the Real's manifestation in it; He made everything manifest because He is the Hidden, and He folded away everything because He is the Manifest (14, 16, 141, 285).
Essential poverty and servanthood. The servant's destitution belongs to his very essence; times of need are 'carpets on which the gifts are spread', and realizing one's lowliness draws God's might (100, 131, 177–179, 268).
The inrushes (wāridāt) that tear down habit. Inrushes come suddenly from the Overpowering, to free the servant from the prison of his own existence and to demolish his habits like kings entering a town (53–55, 70, 216–217).
Contraction and expansion. God expands and contracts the servant so that he belongs to neither state; the knower fears expansion more than contraction, and the night of contraction may give what the day of expansion did not (81–83, 149, 152).
Inner sight and the mirror of the heart. The ray, eye and reality of inner sight move from witnessing God's nearness to witnessing His existence alone; a heart on whose mirror the forms of created things are imprinted cannot be lit (13, 37, 206).
The journeyer and the one who has arrived. Those journeying are guided by lights and those who have arrived possess them; yet arrival is only arrival at knowledge of Him, since no distance lies between servant and Lord for travel to cross (31–32, 43, 213, 244).

Connections

Lineage 3

Documented transmission: a chain of reading, teaching, translation or citation, grounded in a verified reference or in the later text itself.

Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī and Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Mursī: the Shādhilī teaching transmitted to Ibn ʿAṭāʾ AllāhSufism · firm
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh was the disciple of al-Mursī, himself the successor of al-Shādhilī, and the Ḥikam condenses the teaching of that circle, above all on giving up self-direction, which he also treated at length in al-Tanwīr fī isqāṭ al-tadbīr and recorded in his lives of the two masters, Laṭāʾif al-minan.
Carried byتدبيرtadbīrroot دبر“self-direction”
- Paul Nwyia, Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh (m. 709/1309) et la naissance de la confrérie šāḏilite: édition critique et traduction des Ḥikam (1972): Edits the Ḥikam and studies Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh's formation under al-Mursī and his place in the founding of the Shādhiliyya.
- Victor Danner, Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh's Ṣūfī Aphorisms (Kitāb al-Ḥikam) (1973): Translation with an introduction on the author, his masters al-Shādhilī and al-Mursī, and the Shādhilī setting of the work.
Ibn ʿAbbād of Ronda, commentary on the Ḥikam (Ghayth al-mawāhib al-ʿaliyya) and his lettersSufism · firm
The fourteenth-century Andalusian Shādhilī Ibn ʿAbbād wrote the commentary printed beside each aphorism here, and his letters to disciples keep returning to the Ḥikam's teaching on need, giving up self-direction and contraction and expansion.
Carried byفقرfaqrroot فقر“need, poverty”
- Paul Nwyia, Ibn ʿAbbād de Ronda (1332–1390): un mystique prédicateur à la Qarawīyīn de Fès (1961): Monograph on Ibn ʿAbbād's life and teaching, including his commentary on the Ḥikam.
- John Renard, Ibn ʿAbbād of Ronda: Letters on the Ṣūfī Path (1986): Translation of Ibn ʿAbbād's letters, with an introduction on his reliance on Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh and the Shādhilī way.
al-Qushayrī, al-Risāla: the technical terms of the SufisSufism · probable
The Ḥikam uses without defining the vocabulary that al-Qushayrī's Epistle set out (the moment, the state and the station, contraction and expansion, the inrush, passing away), and Ibn ʿAbbād's commentary and letters read the aphorisms through the classical manuals of which al-Qushayrī's is one.
Carried byواردwāridroot ورد“inrush; contraction and expansion”
In the library:al-Risāla al-Qushayriyya ¶8 al-Risāla al-Qushayriyya ¶69 al-Risāla al-Qushayriyya ¶1 al-Risāla al-Qushayriyya ¶30
- John Renard, Ibn ʿAbbād of Ronda: Letters on the Ṣūfī Path (1986): Shows Ibn ʿAbbād reading and recommending the classical Sufi manuals, al-Qushayrī's Risāla among them, alongside the Ḥikam.

Resonance, not influence 10

Resonance, not influence: a structural or thematic likeness. No influence is claimed.

al-Ghazālī, Mishkāt al-anwār: God as the only true light, hidden by its own intensitySufism · probable
Both texts hold that God is hidden from sight because His light is too manifest, and that the veil lies in the perceiver. Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh compresses into single sentences (166–167, 218) what al-Ghazālī argues at length; we do not here claim a documented borrowing.
Carried byنورnūrroot نور“light hidden by its intensity”
In the library:Mishkāt al-anwār ¶70 Mishkāt al-anwār ¶47 Path: Light and its veils
Ibn ʿArabī: the Manifest and the Hidden, and the litany 'When He unveils, there is no other'Akbarian tradition (after Ibn Arabi) · probable
Aphorisms 16, 38 and 141 share with Ibn ʿArabī the reading of God as at once Manifest and Hidden, and the saying 'God was and nothing with Him'. The Ḥikam turns this toward the servant's conduct and need; it does not build Ibn ʿArabī's metaphysics of the names and the mirror.
Carried byالظاهر والباطنal-ẓāhir wa-l-bāṭinroot ظهر“Manifest and Hidden”
In the library:Faṣṣ Ādam ¶14 Awrād: Sunday ¶10 Awrād: Sunday ¶16
Ibn Sīnā, Risāla fī al-ʿishq: the Good always disclosing itself, veiled only by the recipientFalsafa (Arabic philosophy) · probable
Ibn Sīnā writes that the Good's essence discloses itself and is veiled only by the incapacity of what receives it; aphorism 34 says the Real is not veiled, the servant is. The philosopher's cosmos of natural love and the Sufi's call to servanthood frame the same thought differently.
Carried byتجليtajallīroot جلو“self-disclosure”
In the library:Risāla fī al-ʿishq ¶34 Risāla fī al-ʿishq ¶39
Plotinus, Ennead VI.9: the One present to all, absent only to those who turn awayNeoplatonism · probable
Plotinus says the One is not outside anyone and is present to all who do not know it; the Ḥikam says one flees from Him from whom there is no separation (42) and is veiled by His nearness (166). There is no transmission between them.
Carried byπάρεστιparesti“presence”
In the library:Ennead VI.9, ch. 7 Ennead VI.9, ch. 4
Suhrawardī, Hayākil al-nūr, and the Hymn of the Pearl: the soul as a pearl held in the shell of the worldIshraqi philosophy · probable
Aphorisms 245–247 call the human a pearl enfolded in the shells of created things and a prisoner within the 'temple' (haykal) of his own self, images that recall Suhrawardī's temples of the soul and the Syriac prince sent for a pearl. These are shared images, with no claimed descent.
Carried byهيكلhaykalroot هكل“temple; pearl”
In the library:Hayākil al-nūr ¶28 Hymn of the Pearl ¶12 Path: The fall and the return of the soul
John of the Cross, The Dark Night and The Ascent of Mount CarmelChristian mysticism (Latin West) · probable
Asín Palacios proposed that the Shādhilī teaching, through Ibn ʿAbbād, anticipated John of the Cross on the dark night, detachment and the value of aridity; aphorisms 152 and 175–177 on the night of contraction show the likeness. The claim of influence is disputed, so it is given here as a resemblance only.
Carried byقبضqabḍroot قبض“contraction; the dark night”
- Miguel Asín Palacios, Un precursor hispanomusulmán de San Juan de la Cruz (1933): Argues that Ibn ʿAbbād of Ronda's Shādhilī teaching anticipates John of the Cross.
- Luce López-Baralt, San Juan de la Cruz y el Islam: estudio sobre las filiaciones semíticas de su literatura mística (1985): Revisits the resemblances between John of the Cross and Islamic mystical literature.
Jean-Pierre de Caussade (attributed), Abandonment to Divine Providence: the sacrament of the present momentChristian mysticism (Latin West) · probable
The eighteenth-century French teaching of abandonment asks the soul to accept what each moment brings as God's will; the Ḥikam says each moment carries a fresh claim of God that cannot be made up (208) and that wanting something other than what God shows in the moment is ignorance (18). No contact between the two is claimed.
Carried byوقتwaqtroot وقت“the moment”
Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius: what is up to us, and assent to providenceStoicism · probable
The Stoic sage ceases to want events other than they are and accepts the order of providence; the Ḥikam asks the servant to rest from planning what Another has undertaken (4). The Stoic rests in his own judgement, while Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh grounds the rest in need of a personal Lord.
Carried byτὰ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖνta eph' hēmin“what is up to us”
- Pierre Hadot, La Citadelle intérieure: introduction aux Pensées de Marc Aurèle (1992): Sets out the Stoic disciplines of assent and desire, including consent to what providence brings.
Shinran, Pure Land Buddhism: other-power (tariki) and self-power (jiriki)Buddhism · suggestive
Shinran teaches that salvation comes wholly through Amida's power and that trust in one's own practice is an obstacle; the Ḥikam says no aim pursued through oneself is made easy (26), that one should not seek reward for a work one did not do (124), and that the servant arrives only when God covers his attribute (132). The two rest on very different accounts of the world.
Carried by“other-power”
Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace (La Pesanteur et la grâce): attention, emptiness and decreationModern literature · suggestive
Weil writes that grace fills only the empty places and that the self must consent to be undone; aphorism 206 says the lights depart from a heart stuffed with created forms, and 'Empty your heart of the others, and He will fill it'. A resemblance, without influence.
Carried byفراغfarāghroot فرغ“emptying”

Contrast 2

An instructive opposite: the difference teaches something about both.

Plotinus, Ennead VI.9: the One that is sought and does not seekNeoplatonism · firm
In Plotinus the soul turns and climbs toward a One that does not turn toward it. In the Ḥikam the movement starts from God: He sends the inrush so the servant may come in upon Him (53), covers the servant's attribute with His own (132), and the closing prayer asks 'seek me out by Your mercy' (296).
Carried byجذبjadhbroot جذب“divine attraction”
In the library:Ennead VI.9, ch. 9 Path: Love: the soul's longing back
Ibn Sīnā, The Recital of the Bird and The Ode on the Soul: the soul's own flight homeFalsafa (Arabic philosophy) · probable
Ibn Sīnā's birds and dove escape the snare and cross mountains to the King by their own long flight. The Ḥikam says there is no distance between the servant and God for travel to cross (244), that arrival is arrival at knowledge of Him (213), and that the journey exists only in the 'arenas of the souls'.
Carried byسلوكsulūkroot سلك“wayfaring”
In the library:Risālat al-Ṭayr ¶9 al-ʿAyniyya ¶11 Path: The fall and the return of the soul

Claude (opus) via Claude Code, headless, no web access, 2026-10-05. A reference with a check was found and checked with a web search.

Versions

17 layers, each with its licence

The original

The matn as quoted in Ibn ʿAbbād's commentary (Cairo 1319/1901)Ibn ʿAbbād al-Rundī (d. 792/1390), ʿAbd Allāh al-Sharqāwī (d. 1227/1812), Bibliotheca Alexandrina · Muḥarram 1319/May 1901Public domain

By: Ibn ʿAbbād al-Rundī (d. 792/1390) (commentator, who quotes the matn aphorism by aphorism); ʿAbd Allāh al-Sharqāwī (d. 1227/1812) (commentary in the margin (quotes the matn too)); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · Muḥarram 1319/May 1901
Source:: Kitāb Sharḥ … Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-maʿrūf bi-Ibn ʿAbbād al-Nafzī al-Rundī ʿalā matn al-Ḥikam … wa-bi-hāmishihi sharḥ … ʿAbd Allāh al-Sharqāwī (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa al-ʿĀmira al-Adabiyya, Sūq al-Khuḍār al-Qadīm, for Aḥmad ʿAlī al-Malījī, end of Muḥarram 1319), 234 pp.; title page pdf 5, colophon pdf 238 · link ↗
In the reader:: The text of every passage (our transcription), with the print page of each and a link to its page image
Licence:: Public domain (1901)
Notes: Chosen because it is the commentary of the order's first great commentator, so the matn comes with Ibn ʿAbbād's division of it and his commentary on every unit. The aphorisms are set between ornamental brackets in his main block.

The Būlāq print of the same commentaries (1290/1873)Dār al-Ṭibāʿa al-ʿĀmira, Būlāq, Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Ghaffār al-Dasūqī · Rajab 1290/1873Public domain

By: Dār al-Ṭibāʿa al-ʿĀmira, Būlāq (printer); Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Ghaffār al-Dasūqī (corrector) · Rajab 1290/1873
Source:: Ibn ʿAbbād, Sharḥ ʿalā matn al-Ḥikam, with al-Sharqāwī in the margin, 2 parts (Būlāq 1290); colophon pdf 265. The Āṣafiyya (Hyderabad) copy, catalogued as vol. 1 only though it holds both parts · link ↗
In the reader:: Not shown; every passage collated against it (work/collation/B1–B3); its better readings adopted and logged
Licence:: Public domain (1873)
Notes: Agrees with the 1901 print word for word in all but 18 places; 11 of its readings adopted (three of them resolving broken type in 1901), J agreeing in six.

The bare matn printed with Ibn ʿAjība's Īqāẓ al-himam (Cairo, n.d.)ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Aḥmad Ḥanafī, Muḥammad Muḥaysin · UNVERIFIED (undated; HathiTrust catalogues the same edition as [1906], the publisher's dated imprints run c. 1930–65)UNVERIFIED

By: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Aḥmad Ḥanafī (publisher); Muḥammad Muḥaysin (corrector) · UNVERIFIED (undated; HathiTrust catalogues the same edition as [1906], the publisher's dated imprints run c. 1930–65)
Source:: Ibn ʿAjība, Īqāẓ al-himam fī sharḥ al-Ḥikam, 2 vols in 1, al-ṭabʿa al-ūlā (Cairo: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Aḥmad Ḥanafī, n.d.), the matn alone at vol. 2 pp. 282–290 (pdf 466–474) · link ↗
In the reader:: Not shown; collated against every passage (work/collation/J.json); the common printed text, careless (120 differences, most its own slips); also the source of the 25 chapters
Licence:: Date unverified; a plain reprint of a text whose author died in 1809, with no added authorship but an errata list and a footnote: probably public domain in the US
Notes: Its typesetting is almost certainly the source of the OpenITI text (same opening and closing words page for page).
UNVERIFIED:: the date of this printing

OpenITI: Matn al-Ḥikam al-ʿAṭāʾiyya (Damascus 1986)Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, OpenITI · 1406/1986Open licence

By: Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm (editor (per the OpenITI header)); OpenITI (corpus) · 1406/1986
Source:: OpenITI 0709IbnCataAllahSikandari.HikamCataiyya.JK009323-ara1 (from al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr), ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm (Damascus: Dār al-Īmān, 1406/1986) · link ↗
In the reader:: Not shown; a typing aid for the readers only
Licence:: OpenITI corpus, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Notes: Unnumbered, run-on, with lines repeated and passages missing (e.g. the stretch around aphorisms 68–70 and 99–101, parts of the munājāt). Probably the typesetting of the Ḥanafī reprint (J).

Our edition

Our transcription and collationClaude (AI) · 2026-10-05Our work

By: Claude (AI) (22 first readers and 12 second readers on the page images; 4 collators (B, J)) · 2026-10-05
Source:: data/raw/arabic/hikam/work/{draft,proof,collation}; scripts/recitals/hikam_base.py; data/sources/hikam-corrections.json, hikam-structure.json; text record §3
In the reader:: The text, its numbering (Ibn ʿAbbād's division), the print pages, the apparatus of each passage
Licence:: Ours
Notes: Second reading: 25 corrections, 2 missed aphorisms and 3 headings found. Collation: 11 corrections adopted from B and J, 5 readings kept and listed. 71 particles set joined to the next word separated (mechanical, logged). No person has yet checked the transcription.

Published translations

Danner, Sufi Aphorisms (Kitāb al-Ḥikam) (1973) and The Book of Wisdom (1978)Victor Danner · 1973; 1978Copyrighted: cited only

By: Victor Danner (translator) · 1973; 1978
Source:: V. Danner (tr.), Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh, Sufi Aphorisms (Kitāb al-Ḥikam) (Leiden: Brill, 1973), doi:10.1163/9789004661431; Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh, The Book of Wisdom, with Kwaja Abdullah Ansari, Intimate Conversations (New York: Paulist Press, Classics of Western Spirituality, 1978) · link ↗
In the reader:: Cited only; not held, not compared
Licence:: In copyright: cited only
Notes: 262 aphorisms in 25 chapters (Danner's introduction, from previews). Not held privately, so not used in the triangulation.

Nwyia's critical edition and French (1972)Paul Nwyia · 1972Copyrighted: cited only

By: Paul Nwyia (editor and translator) · 1972
Source:: P. Nwyia, Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh (m. 709/1309) et la naissance de la confrérie šāḏilite: édition critique et traduction des Ḥikam (Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1972)
In the reader:: Cited only; not held, not compared
Licence:: In copyright: cited only
Notes: The critical edition from manuscripts; its numbering UNVERIFIED here.
UNVERIFIED:: Nwyia's count of the aphorisms

AI layers

Vowelling (all vowels supplied)Claude (AI) · 2026-10-05AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (vowelling) · 2026-10-05
In the reader:: Every vowel mark is AI (the prints are bare), shown in amber
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code; exact version not recorded by the script), 2026-10-05 (scripts/recitals/prepare.py hikam: headless Claude Code, letters verified unchanged)
Notes: Letters verified unchanged. Words with two defensible vowellings listed per passage.

English translation, aphorism by aphorismClaude (AI) · 2026-10-05AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (translator) · 2026-10-05
In the reader:: Under each passage
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code; exact version not recorded by the script), 2026-10-05 (scripts/recitals/translate.py hikam opus)
Notes: From the vowelled Arabic with the glossary in data/sources/hikam-meta.json; told not to reproduce or imitate published translations (Danner, Nwyia, Bewley, Michon …) and given none.

Word glossesClaude (AI) · 2026-10-05AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (glosses) · 2026-10-05
In the reader:: One gloss per word (word panel)
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code; exact version not recorded by the script), 2026-10-05 (scripts/recitals/translate.py hikam opus)
Notes: From the same run as the translation.

Term notesClaude (AI) · 2026-10-05AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (notes) · 2026-10-05
In the reader:: Up to six technical terms per passage
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code; exact version not recorded by the script), 2026-10-05 (scripts/recitals/translate.py hikam opus)
Notes: From the same run as the translation.

English of Ibn ʿAbbād's opening glossesClaude (AI) · 2026-10-05AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (translator) · 2026-10-05
In the reader:: Beside his gloss in the commentary panel
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code; exact version not recorded by the script), 2026-10-05 (scripts/recitals/hikam_commentary.py opus)
Notes: Told not to reproduce or imitate Renard's or Danner's translations.

Commentators and translators differ (triangulation)Claude (AI) · 2026-10-05AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (comparison by docs/PROTOCOLS.md §17) · 2026-10-05
In the reader:: Serious divergences only, as a note under the passage
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code; exact version not recorded by the script), 2026-10-05 (scripts/triangulate.py hikam)
Notes: No public-domain translation before 1931 exists and no copyrighted one is held: our English is checked against Ibn ʿAbbād's own gloss on each aphorism (lineage evidence).

Resonances: themes and connectionsClaude (AI) · 2026-10-05AIOur work

By: Claude (AI) (map of themes and connections, by docs/RESONANCES-METHOD.md) · 2026-10-05
In the reader:: For the whole text and per passage
Licence:: Ours; marked AI
Made by:: Claude (Opus, via Claude Code; exact version not recorded by the script), 2026-10-05 (scripts/resonances.py whole --only hikam; passages hikam)
Notes: Every connection states its kind; external references shown only after an agent verified them with a web search.

Automatic analysis

Word analysis (CAMeL Tools)CAMeL Tools 1.6 (NYU Abu Dhabi) · 2026-10-05Our work

By: CAMeL Tools 1.6 (NYU Abu Dhabi) (analyser: calima-msa-r13 + MLE, constrained by the text's vowelling) · 2026-10-05
Source:: scripts/fusus/analyze_ch.py → data/sources/hikam-analysis.json (8 malformed roots fixed by scripts/recitals/hikam_fix_analysis.py) · link ↗
In the reader:: Lemma, root, part of speech, clitics and pattern, in the word panel
Licence:: Our analysis layer, made offline with CAMeL Tools (code MIT; calima-msa-r13 database GPL v2, not redistributed)
Notes: 5,840 words, 578 distinct roots.

Quran quotationsscripts/quran_refs.py · 2026-10-05Our work

By: scripts/quran_refs.py (automatic skeleton match against the Tanzil text) · 2026-10-05
Source:: app/src/data/quran-refs/hikam.json
In the reader:: 24 quotations found automatically (none tagged when the text was established)
Licence:: Ours

Commentaries

Ibn ʿAbbād's commentary: his opening gloss on every passage, and the pages of the restIbn ʿAbbād al-Rundī · 8th/14th century; print 1901Public domain

By: Ibn ʿAbbād al-Rundī (commentator) · 8th/14th century; print 1901
Source:: app/public/data/commentaries/hikam.json, from the same print as the base · link ↗
In the reader:: In the commentary panel and side by side; each entry links the print's pages
Licence:: Public domain
Notes: The opening 25–60 words per passage transcribed and read twice; the rest linked, not transcribed.

✦ marks AI that no person has reviewed yet; ✧ marks AI reviewed by a named person. Copyrighted works are cited, never shown. All sources · How texts are established

Companions

Recitations, commentaries, lectures, editions and references around this text, by other people. They are linked out, not copied: the recordings belong to their reciters and platforms, and none of them is this reader's own (AI) audio. Links checked 2026-10-05.

Recitations · 2

الحكم العطائية كاملة | ابن عطاء الله السكندري (complete reading) and per-aphorism clips · YouTube (@Mohamed.Elsharkawi) ↗
Muḥammad al-Sharqāwī (reader) · the aphorisms
Rights: the owner's channel · named reader, popular (accuracy not checked): A complete reading of the matn (video ohwg6CdGbXk), followed by separate clips for aphorisms 1–16 and a themed extract (18 videos). The reader is named and the channel is his own (62K subscribers). He is not to be confused with ʿAbd Allāh al-Sharqāwī the commentator. · HTTP 200 for the playlist and the full-reading video; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed. The channel is not verified. Whether the full reading includes the letters and munājāt is not checked. Pronunciation and vowelling accuracy are not checked.
Reading of the Arabic text of al-Ḥikam, in five parts (1–45, 46–113, 114–177, 178–240, 242–264) · The Matheson Trust (library) ↗
The Matheson Trust (publisher); unnamed reader (reader) · the aphorisms
Rights: linked, not embedded · unattributed reading (accuracy not checked): Five MP3s on the publisher's own site, keyed to its 264-aphorism numbering (e.g. themathesontrust.org/papers/audio/hikam/hikam-AR-1.mp3, 17.5 MB). The ranges make per-aphorism alignment feasible later. · HTTP 200 (page; hikam-AR-1.mp3 and hikam-AR-5.mp3 checked, audio/mpeg). The reader is not named. No licence: link out only. Aphorism 241 is missing from the labels (178–240, 242–264); probably a typo, UNVERIFIED.

Commentaries & lectures · 19

Ghayth al-mawāhib al-ʿaliyya fī sharḥ al-Ḥikam al-ʿAṭāʾiyya, with al-Sharqāwī's commentary in the margin (Cairo, [1319]/1901), 300-ppi scan: our base · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn ʿAbbād al-Nafzī al-Rundī (d. 792/1390) (commentator); ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥijāzī al-Sharqāwī (d. 1227/1812) (marginal commentator); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · base print (1901): The print our text is read against. The title page (OCR) reads «كتاب شرح العالم العلامة ... ابن عباد النفزي الرندي على متن الحكم ... وبهامشه شرح ... الشرقاوي», sold by a bookseller near al-Azhar. 242 pp. · HTTP 200. The catalogue date is '1901 ]' with publisher «د.ن» (no publisher named); 1319 AH is the matching Hijri year, taken from the brief. Public domain. The Ibn ʿAbbād line (Shādhilī, Fez) is the oldest full commentary; Zarrūq (MS.ARA.208 below) praises it above all others.
Ghayth al-mawāhib al-ʿaliyya, vol. 1, with al-Sharqāwī in the margin ([Cairo], 1290/1873) · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn ʿAbbād al-Nafzī al-Rundī (commentator); ʿAbd Allāh al-Sharqāwī (marginal commentator); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · 19th-century print (uncritical): An older printing of the same pairing. The title page (OCR) has «الجزء الأول من شرح العالم العلامة ... ابن عباد النفزي الرندي على متن الحكم» and the Sharqāwī margin. Volume 1 only, 266 pp.; a low-resolution (96 ppi) scan. · HTTP 200. Date '1290 [1873]' from the catalogue metadata; place not given (Cairo assumed, UNVERIFIED). Public domain. Volume 2 not found.
Sharḥ ... Ibn ʿAbbād al-Nafzī al-Rundī ʿalā al-Ḥikam, with al-Sharqāwī (Cairo: Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1939) · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn ʿAbbād al-Nafzī al-Rundī (commentator); ʿAbd Allāh al-Sharqāwī (marginal commentator); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · reprint (Ḥalabī, re-typeset): The common mid-century Ḥalabī typeset of the same two commentaries; clearer type than the 1901 print and useful for reading doubtful words. The OCR shows al-Sharqāwī's preface in the margin and Ibn ʿAbbād's opening «الحمد لله المنفرد بالعظمة والجلال». · HTTP 200. Date '1939.' and publisher from the catalogue metadata. A 1939 Egyptian printing of pre-modern texts with no new authorial matter seen; US status is not certain (URAA), so it is marked link-out rather than open licence.
Sharḥ al-Ḥikam [Ibn ʿAbbād's al-Tanbīh / Ghayth al-mawāhib], ff. 232v–412, in BULAC MS.ARA.517 (with Laṭāʾif al-minan, ff. 12–77, and al-Tanwīr, ff. 112v–160) · Internet Archive (BULAC collection); Calames record Calames-202306121433467841 ↗
Ibn ʿAbbād al-Nafzī al-Rundī (commentator); Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir b. Belqāsim al-Zaʿmūshī (copyist); BULAC, Paris (holding library) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · manuscript witness (19th c.?): A North African (Kabyle, Ḥaddād circle) manuscript holding three lineage texts at once: Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh's Laṭāʾif al-minan and Tanwīr, and the Ḥikam with Ibn ʿAbbād's commentary. The incipit «الحمد لله المنفرد بالعظمة والجلال ... أخذنا في وضع تنبيه» identifies it as Ibn ʿAbbād's. · HTTP 200. No date in the metadata; another text in the volume (Tamhīd qawāʿid al-taṣawwuf) has a copyist's date of 25 July 1266h. Identifying the commentary as Ibn ʿAbbād's is ours, from the incipit (BULAC gives only 'Šarḥ al-Ḥikam'). BULAC marks it 'Domaine public' (CC PDM).
al-Futūḥāt al-raḥmāniyya fī ḥall alfāẓ al-Ḥikam al-ʿAṭāʾiyya (Zarrūq's 15th commentary), ff. 1–101, BULAC MS.ARA.1927 · Internet Archive (BULAC collection) ↗
Aḥmad Zarrūq (d. 899/1493) (commentator); BULAC, Paris (holding library) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · manuscript witness (incomplete): Zarrūq wrote many versions of his commentary (the catalogue says 22); BULAC identifies this copy as the 15th (cf. f. 7, l. 9). Incomplete. The volume also holds Zarrūq's commentary on al-Shādhilī's Ḥizb al-baḥr (composed 875/1470). · HTTP 200. Undated. BULAC (PD). No public-domain print of a Zarrūq commentary was found: BBib-Alex-17174 on archive.org is a modern edition (ed. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd), cited in the note but not linked.
Sharḥ al-Ḥikam al-ʿAṭāʾiyya [Zarrūq], ff. 47v–134, in BULAC MS.ARA.208 · Internet Archive (BULAC collection); Calames record Calames-201874117397331 ↗
Aḥmad Zarrūq (commentator (attribution ours)); BULAC, Paris (holding library) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · manuscript witness (18th–19th c.): A complete copy. The incipit «يقول العبد المعترف بذنبه ... أما قبل كل شيء ومعه وبعده فليس على الحقيقة إلا الله وحده» matches MS.ARA.1927 (Zarrūq). The preface says no one has commented on the book well «إلا ما لسيدنا ... أبي عبد الله محمد بن إبراهيم ... بن عباد النفزي», which is Zarrūq's known praise of Ibn ʿAbbād. · HTTP 200. Recueil date range '1785/1847' (metadata). BULAC records the text only as 'Šarḥ al-Ḥikam' without an author; the attribution to Zarrūq is ours, UNVERIFIED (which of his versions is not determined). BULAC (PD).
Īqāẓ al-himam fī sharḥ al-Ḥikam, with al-Futūḥāt al-ilāhiyya fī sharḥ al-Mabāḥith al-aṣliyya (Cairo, 'first edition', undated), 2 parts in 1 · Internet Archive ↗
Aḥmad b. ʿAjība al-Ḥasanī (d. 1224/1809) (commentator); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · printed edition (uncritical, date unknown): The Darqāwī-Shādhilī commentary that is most read today. The binding and title page show «إيقاظ الهمم في شرح الحكم» and «الفتوحات الإلهية في شرح المباحث الأصلية», marked «الطبعة الأولى», with an Azhar teacher named as corrector (name only partly legible in the OCR). · HTTP 200. The catalogue date is '19--?' (undated). Whether it is the 1331/1913 Cairo first printing is UNVERIFIED, and so is its public-domain status, so it is linked out only. The Dār al-Maʿārif 1985 edition (AAlexandrina-012942) and BBib-Alex-16733 are modern and are not linked.
al-Ḥikam al-ʿAṭāʾiyya: sharḥ wa-taḥlīl (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr; 4 vols.) · Arabic Wikipedia (bibliographic page; no publisher page found) ↗
Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī (d. 1434/2013) (commentator) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist (modern traditional scholar): The written form of his Damascus lessons (see the lecture entry). Per secondary listings it covers 259 aphorisms, four of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh's letters to companions, and his prayers (munājāt), so it is a modern witness to the three-part shape (aphorisms, letters, munājāt). · HTTP 200 (Wikipedia). In copyright: cite only. The archive.org item CHARH_HIKAM is a copy of this copyrighted book and is deliberately NOT linked. The 259-aphorism count is from a search summary, UNVERIFIED.
Sharḥ al-Ḥikam al-ʿAṭāʾiyya (lesson series, Damascus, from 15 Nov 1999) · Naseem al-Sham (al-Būṭī's official site) ↗
Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī (teacher) · the aphorisms
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist (traditional scholar): The longest and fullest modern lesson series: at least 281 lessons (one page is titled 'lesson 281, aphorism 256'), aphorism by aphorism, by a leading Damascene Shāfiʿī-Ashʿarī scholar. His four-volume book (above) came from it. · HTTP 200. This is the site his YouTube channel links to as its home. Audio and video per lesson. The series runs from 15 Nov 1999 (first page). No licence is stated: link out.
شرح الحكم العطائية للإمام البوطي (YouTube playlist, 305 videos) · YouTube (@naseemalsham1, 'الإمام الشهيد البوطي') ↗
Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī (teacher); Naseem al-Sham (channel) · the aphorisms
Rights: the owner's channel · specialist (traditional scholar): The same series as video, uploaded by Naseem al-Sham's own channel (534K subscribers; its links are naseemalsham.com and al-Būṭī's Telegram and Instagram). Videos are titled by lesson and aphorism number (e.g. 'lesson 180, aphorism 154'), which allows per-aphorism scoping later. · HTTP 200; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed. The channel is not YouTube-verified but is the official outlet of naseemalsham.com. Many re-uploads exist (e.g. 'شبكة الصوفي', private users); do not use them.
شرح الحكم العطائية | الأزهر الشريف | أ.د علي جمعة (YouTube playlist, 32 videos) · YouTube (@DrAliGomaa, verified) ↗
ʿAlī Jumʿa (teacher) · the aphorisms
Rights: the owner's channel · specialist (traditional scholar): Lessons at al-Azhar by the former Grand Mufti of Egypt, a Shādhilī shaykh (via the Ṣiddīqiyya), beginning with the introduction and aphorism 1. · HTTP 200; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed. The channel is YouTube-verified and its description reads 'This is the official channel for Dr. Ali Gomaa / القناة الرسمية الوحيدة'. The same channel also has a short TV series (Iqraa channel, 28 episodes: PLxQnfwkf6ksi5WaTGAYh1tIWX4DycLvok) and a SoundCloud set on his official account (soundcloud.com/draligomaa/sets/itwterirx5ae, 200). Many re-upload playlists exist; do not use them.
The Rawha (weekly class on the Ḥikam, Al-Maqasid) · YouTube (@AlMaqasid) ↗
Yahya Rhodus (teacher); Al-Maqasid (institution) · the aphorisms
Rights: the owner's channel · specialist (traditional teacher): A weekly English commentary going through the aphorisms in order (recent titles: 'Hikmas #218–222', '#223–226'); 152 videos, still being updated. Rhodus studied in Tarīm (Dār al-Muṣṭafā) and founded Al-Maqasid. · HTTP 200; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed (Al-Maqasid's channel, which links to almaqasid.org). Uses the Arabic numbering of his edition: map by incipit. An older 8-video set on another channel (@thepathoftruth111) is a re-upload and is not used.
The Book of Illuminations, Kitab al-Hikam, with Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl · YouTube (@TheUsuliInstitute) ↗
Khaled Abou El Fadl (teacher); The Usuli Institute (institution) · the aphorisms
Rights: the owner's channel · specialist (academic jurist and teacher): Weekly sessions (e.g. 'Wisdoms No. 68–71, 12 May 2024'; 26 videos) by a UCLA professor of Islamic law, who reads the text through ethics and jurisprudence. · HTTP 200; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed (the institute's own channel; usuli.org is 200).
شرح كتاب إرشاد البرية إلى بعض معاني الحكم العطائية (lesson series) · YouTube (@dryosrygabr) ↗
Yusrī Rushdī Jabr (teacher) · the aphorisms
Rights: the owner's channel · specialist (traditional scholar): An Azhari Shāfiʿī-Shādhilī teacher going through a short commentary (Irshād al-bariyya); 49 episodes, last updated 22 Aug 2026. · HTTP 200; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed. The channel (306K subscribers) links to yosrygabr.com and his social accounts. The author of the Irshād al-bariyya is not identified, UNVERIFIED. The archive.org item 'hikam_ataeyyah_dr_yusri_gabr' (84 tapes, uploaded by a third party with a PD mark) is NOT used.
الحكم العطائية – شرح الشيخ الشرنوبي (lesson series) · YouTube (@dr.mohammadmehanna.) ↗
Muḥammad Mahannā (teacher); ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Sharnūbī (d. 1348/1929) (commentary read) · the aphorisms
Rights: the owner's channel · traditional teacher (Azhari): 72 sittings reading al-Sharnūbī's short Azhar commentary. A second set by the same teacher, at the Sultan Ḥasan mosque (PLqHNppJ4B0Z3d6U5Ii88GWmYO2iooiieB), is on another channel ('الوابل الصيب'), so it is not counted as owned. · HTTP 200; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed. The channel describes itself as publishing Dr Mahannā's lessons and links to his Telegram and Twitter (profmehanna). It is small (3.36K) and its official status is plausible but UNVERIFIED. Date check: the commentator is ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Sharnūbī al-Azharī (d. 1929 per bibliographic snippets; 1348 AH, UNVERIFIED), not Aḥmad al-Sharnūbī (d. 994/1586, author of Tāʾiyyat al-sulūk).
شرح الحكم العطائية للشيخ علي باراس (Rawḥa sessions, Tarīm) · YouTube (@HabibOmarCom) ↗
ʿAlī Bārās (teacher); Ḥabīb ʿUmar b. Ḥafīẓ (channel) (host) · the aphorisms
Rights: the owner's channel · traditional teacher (Bā ʿAlawī): 109 sessions from the Rawḥa majlis at Dār al-Muṣṭafā, Tarīm, which ends in a khatm. The Ḥaḍramī Bā ʿAlawī reading of the text. · HTTP 200; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed. The channel is the official outlet of alhabibomar.com (251K). ʿAlī Bārās's identity and dates are UNVERIFIED.
The Book of Wisdoms (class series on Gangohī's commentary) · YouTube (@ZamZamAcademy) ↗
Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera (teacher); ZamZam Academy (institution) · the aphorisms
Rights: the owner's channel · traditional teacher (Deobandi mufti): 101 videos teaching the White Thread Press edition (Danner's translation in al-Muttaqī's order, with Gangohī), by its editor. · HTTP 200; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed. The channel was founded by Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf and links to whitethread.org. The aphorisms are in al-Muttaqī's order, not the original order.
The Book of Wisdom (Kitab al-Hikam by Ibn Ata'illah) | Shaykh Samer al-Nass (112–264) · YouTube (@MCCEastBay) ↗
Samer al-Nass (teacher); MCC East Bay (host institution) · the aphorisms (112–264, in the 264-aphorism numbering)
Rights: the owner's channel · traditional teacher (Damascene, hadith and tafsir): Second day of a weekend intensive covering all 264 aphorisms at MCC East Bay, Pleasanton (event page: mcceastbay.org/event/samer-al-nass/, 200). · HTTP 200; the owner is confirmed by oEmbed (the host institution's channel, not the teacher's own; acceptable as the recording's owner). The companion video for aphorisms 1–111 was not found: UNVERIFIED whether it was published. The course date is given only as 'January 8–9' on the event page.
Book of Wisdoms: al-Ḥikam al-ʿAṭāʾiyya (commentary on aphorism 1) · masud.co.uk ↗
Nuh Ha Mim Keller (translator and commentator) · the aphorisms (aphorism 1 only)
Rights: linked, not embedded · traditional teacher (Shādhilī shaykh): A written commentary on the first aphorism only, from Keller's unpublished work on the Ḥikam (© Nuh Ha Mim Keller 2000). Keller is a shaykh of the Shādhilī order (Hāshimī-Darqāwī line). · HTTP 200. The page says articles 'may not be used or reproduced without prior consent'. Not a lecture recording, but kept here as a teacher's commentary. No official recorded Ḥikam series by Keller was found.

Editions & translations · 17

Laṭāʾif al-minan fī manāqib al-Shaykh Abī al-ʿAbbās al-Mursī wa-shaykhihi Abī al-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī (lithograph, 1860), BULAC scan · Internet Archive (BULAC collection) ↗
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī (author); Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC), Paris (holding library) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · 19th-century lithograph: Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh's own hagiography of his master al-Mursī and of al-Shādhilī, the main source for the lineage the Ḥikam comes out of. BULAC shelfmark RES.MON.8.1179; 1 vol. (234 p.), 22 cm. · HTTP 200. The metadata gives the date as 1860, 'Lithographie', rights 'Domaine public' with a CC Public Domain Mark. Place and printer are not given; the BULAC catalogue page is behind a bot challenge. UNVERIFIED: place of printing.
Kitāb al-Tanwīr fī isqāṭ al-tadbīr (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Wahbiyya, 1290/1873) · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī (author); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · 19th-century print (uncritical): His treatise on giving up self-direction (isqāṭ al-tadbīr), which expands the theme of aphorism 4 ('Rest yourself from self-direction'). The title page reads «هذا كتاب التنوير في إسقاط التدبير». · HTTP 200. Date '1290 [1873]' and printer from the catalogue metadata; the title is confirmed in the OCR. Public domain.
Kitāb al-Tanwīr fī isqāṭ al-tadbīr (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Wahbiyya, 1300/1883) · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī (author); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · 19th-century print (uncritical): A second Wahbiyya printing of the Tanwīr. · HTTP 200. Date '1300 [1883]' from the catalogue metadata. Public domain.
Hādhā kitāb Tāj al-ʿarūs al-ḥāwī li-tahdhīb al-nufūs (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Wādī al-Nīl al-Miṣriyya, 1291/1874) · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī (author); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · 19th-century print (uncritical): His short manual of counsel for disciples; read next to the Ḥikam. · HTTP 200. Date '1291 [1874]' and printer from the catalogue metadata; the OCR confirms the title «هذا كتاب تاج العروس الحاوي لتهذيب النفوس». Public domain.
Kitāb Miftāḥ al-falāḥ wa-miṣbāḥ al-arwāḥ (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Malījiyya, 1322/1904) · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī (author); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · early 20th-century print (uncritical): His manual of dhikr. · HTTP 200. Date '1322 [1904]' and printer from the catalogue metadata; the title is confirmed in the OCR. Public domain.
Kitāb Miftāḥ al-falāḥ wa-miṣbāḥ al-arwāḥ (Cairo: Maṭbaʿat al-Saʿāda, [1913]) · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī (author); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · early 20th-century print (uncritical): A second printing of the Miftāḥ. · HTTP 200. Date '[1913]' (bracketed, so supplied by the cataloguer) and printer from the catalogue metadata. Public domain.
al-Qaṣd al-mujarrad fī maʿrifat al-ism al-mufrad (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Miṣriyya, 1930) · Internet Archive ↗
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī (author); Bibliotheca Alexandrina (scanner) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · early 20th-century print (uncritical): His treatise on the divine name Allāh (French translation: Maurice Gloton, Traité sur le nom Allāh, 1981). · HTTP 200. Date '1930.' and printer from the catalogue metadata. Published before 1931, so public domain in the US since 1 Jan 2026. An undated Ṣubayḥ printing (AAlexandrina-145736, '[19--?]') is not listed because its date cannot be checked.
Miftāḥ al-falāḥ wa-miṣbāḥ al-arwāḥ, ff. 31v–61, in a North African collective manuscript (BULAC MS.ARA.535) · Internet Archive (BULAC collection); Calames record Calames-20230918135829241 ↗
Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC), Paris (holding library) · whole text
Rights: public domain / open · manuscript witness (copyist's own note: copied from a faulty exemplar): A manuscript copy of the Miftāḥ, not of the Ḥikam. The copyist says he copied from a defective exemplar without collating it. The recueil also holds al-Sanūsī on the Divine Names, Qawāʿid al-ʿaqāʾid and the Kanz al-asrār. · HTTP 200. The archive.org date '1490/1565' is a range for the recueil as a whole, not a dated colophon of this text; the 1490 is probably al-Sanūsī's death date in the creator field. BULAC marks it 'Domaine public' (CC PDM). Provenance: the Ḥaddād family (Kabylia), entered the École des langues orientales in 1873.
Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh's Ṣūfī Aphorisms (Kitāb al-Ḥikam) · Brill ↗
Victor Danner (translator, introduction and notes); Martin Lings (foreword) · the aphorisms
Rights: linked, not embedded · scholarly (annotated translation): The first full English translation, made from a collation of several manuscripts (Danner, Encyclopedia of Religion). Reviewed in JRAS and BSOAS. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973 (xiv, 88 pp.); Brill's digital reissue DOI 10.1163/9789004661431 (Crossref gives the date of the 1984 reprint). · HTTP 200 (brill.com/display/title/6461, reached through the DOI). In copyright: cite only. The archive.org item IASAVc1973Ocr is a scan of this copyrighted book and is NOT linked.
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Illāh: The Book of Wisdom / Kwaja Abdullah Ansari: Intimate Conversations (Classics of Western Spirituality) · Paulist Press ↗
Victor Danner (translator (Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh)); Wheeler M. Thackston (translator (Anṣārī)); Annemarie Schimmel (preface) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · scholarly (translation): Danner's revised translation for a general readership (New York: Paulist Press, 1978); paperback ISBN 978-0-8091-2182-3. Danner's own encyclopedia article describes it as a collated version of several manuscripts. Whether it includes the letters and munājāt is UNVERIFIED (the scope is set to the whole text provisionally). · HTTP 200, the publisher's page (SKU 2182-4). DOI of the Bloomsbury digital edition: 10.5040/9780809171330 (Theology & Religion Online). In copyright: cite only.
Al-Ḥikam — Sufi Aphorisms (Danner's translation, edited by Juan Acevedo), with the Arabic text and a reading of the Arabic · The Matheson Trust (library) ↗
Victor Danner (translator); Juan Acevedo (editor); The Matheson Trust (publisher) · the aphorisms
Rights: linked, not embedded · scholarly (translation), edited: Danner's translation without the Brill notes, numbered 1–264, with a separate typeset Arabic PDF (31 pp.) and five audio files of the Arabic (see the recitation entry). · HTTP 200 (page); English PDF (themathesontrust.org/papers/islam/ibnataallah-hikam.pdf, 518 KB) and Arabic PDF (…/ibnataallah-hikam-AR.pdf) both 200. The PDF reads '[Translation by Victor Danner, edited by Juan Acevedo, The Matheson Trust, 2012.]'. The site says 'All content copyrighted by The Matheson Trust and the respective contributors'; no open licence, and the permission from Danner's estate is not stated. Link out. Its 264-aphorism numbering is useful for concordance.
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh (m. 709/1309) et la naissance de la confrérie šāḏilite: édition critique et traduction des Ḥikam · Brill (review in Arabica 20/2, 1973, p. 201; used as the bibliographic landing page) ↗
Paul Nwyia (editor and translator) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · scholarly (critical edition): The only critical edition of the Arabic, with a French translation, an introduction on Sufism and notes on the mystical vocabulary. Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1972 (Recherches ILOB, n.s. A, II), xv + 323 pp., 9 plates. Danner calls it 'an excellent critical edition'. · HTTP 200 (Arabica review page; DOI 10.1163/157005873x00400). Also reviewed in BSOAS (Cambridge, 200) and JAOS 95 (1975), DOI 10.2307/600353. No publisher page found (Open Library record: openlibrary.org/works/OL1602133W, 200). In copyright: cite only. The archive.org item 'paul-nwiya-ibn-ata-allah' is a copy of this copyrighted book and is deliberately NOT linked.
The Book of Wisdoms: Kitāb al-Ḥikam with Ikmāl al-shiyam · White Thread Press ↗
Victor Danner (translator); ʿAbdullāh Gangohī (commentator (Ikmāl al-shiyam)); Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera (editor); Andrew Booso (editor) · the aphorisms
Rights: linked, not embedded · translation with traditional commentary: Danner's translation of the 264 aphorisms, put into the thematic order of ʿAlī al-Muttaqī (d. 975/1567), with the 20th-century Deobandi commentary of ʿAbdullāh Gangohī (2014). This shows the Indian reception of the text. · HTTP 200. ISBN 978-1-933764-05-4 (per a bookseller listing; not on the publisher page). In copyright: cite only. Not in Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh's order: map by incipit.
The Hikam: The Wisdom of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh · Zahra Publications ↗
Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri (commentary); Ali A. Allawi (translator (per retailer listings, UNVERIFIED)) · the aphorisms
Rights: linked, not embedded · popular (translation with commentary): Translation with a contemporary spiritual commentary (2018 edition, ISBN 978-1-928329-06-0). · HTTP 200 for the publisher's home page only; no product page found. In copyright: cite only. The translator credit comes from Amazon/Kindle listings, UNVERIFIED.
El Hikam de Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh (Kitāb al-Ḥikam: El libro de la sabiduría) · VerIslam (Junta Islámica) ↗
Kamal Llopis (translator); Junta Islámica (publisher) · the aphorisms
Rights: linked, not embedded · translation (popular): A Spanish translation (1989), offered as a PDF by the publisher's own portal. The page describes it as '240 aforismos', a different count from the 264 numbering. · HTTP 200. The page says '© Junta Islámica 2018-2021 - Todos los derechos reservados'. Link out to the publisher's page only.
Ibn ʿAbbād of Ronda: Letters on the Sufi Path (Classics of Western Spirituality) · Open Library (catalogue record; Paulist Press, 1986) ↗
John Renard SJ (translator); Annemarie Schimmel (preface) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · scholarly (translation): Letters of spiritual direction by our base commentator (1365–1375). They show how Ibn ʿAbbād used the Ḥikam in direction and are a companion to the Ghayth al-mawāhib. · HTTP 200 (catalogue record). ISBN 978-0-8091-2730-6. The old Paulist product URL is dead (see dead). In copyright: cite only. Use the catalogue record, not any lending copy.
Translations of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh's other works (Fons Vitae): The Subtle Blessings (Laṭāʾif al-minan, tr. Nancy Roberts), The Book of Illumination (al-Tanwīr, tr. Scott Kugle), The Key to Salvation (Miftāḥ al-falāḥ) · Fons Vitae ↗
Fons Vitae (publisher) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · scholarly (translations): English versions of the lineage works listed above under edition: the hagiography of al-Mursī and al-Shādhilī, the treatise on giving up self-direction, and the dhikr manual. · HTTP 200 (author page); the product pages for The Subtle Blessings, The Book of Illumination and The Key to Salvation are each 200. In copyright: cite only. The translator credits for Roberts and Kugle come from search and retailer listings (the Fons Vitae pages do not name them in their text), UNVERIFIED. The translator of The Key to Salvation was not checked and is not named here.

References · 14

Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh (Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Brill Online) ↗
G. Makdisi (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: George Makdisi, historian of medieval Islamic law and institutions; the standard reference-work entry (subscription). · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page. The entry names him a disciple of Abu l-ʿAbbās al-Mursī and mentions the Laṭāʾif al-minan (per a search-index snippet of the page).
Ibn ʿAṭāʾallāh al-Iskandarī (Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (Brill Online) ↗
Ruggero Vimercati Sanseverino (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: Vimercati Sanseverino works on the Shādhilī tradition (Fès et sainteté; a Studia Islamica article on Ibn ʿAjība's Baḥr al-madīd); published online 7 June 2019 per OpenAlex. · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page.
Shādhiliyya (Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Brill Online) ↗
P. Lory (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: Pierre Lory (EPHE), specialist in Sufism and Islamic esotericism. · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page.
al-Shādhilī (Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Brill Online) ↗
P. Lory (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: Pierre Lory (EPHE); on Abu l-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī (d. 656/1258), founder of the order and the master of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh's master. · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page.
al-Mursī, Abū l-ʿAbbās (Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (Brill Online) ↗
Pierre Lory (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: On Abu l-ʿAbbās al-Mursī (d. 686/1287), al-Shādhilī's successor and Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh's own master; published online 11 May 2022 per OpenAlex. · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page. EI² has no separate al-Mursī entry that we found.
Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Mursī (Encyclopaedia Islamica) · Encyclopaedia Islamica (Brill Online; English edition of the Dāʾirat al-maʿārif-i buzurg-i islāmī) ↗
Fathollah Mojtabaʾi (author); Nacim Pak (translator) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist (general): English translation of the Persian Great Islamic Encyclopaedia entry; a solid general reference. · DOI resolves (HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/ISLO/SIM-0088.xml; the page itself is 403 to automated fetches). Author per OpenAlex. Encyclopaedia Islamica has not reached Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh or al-Shādhilī (its published letters stop early in the alphabet).
Ibn ʿAbbād [al-Rundī] (Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, vol. III, pp. 670–671) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Brill Online) ↗
P. Nwyia (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: Paul Nwyia SJ edited Ibn ʿAbbād's Rasāʾil and the critical text of the Ḥikam; the entry on the commentator whose Ghayth al-mawāhib is our base. · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page. EI² has several 'Ibn ʿAbbād' entries: SIM_3023 is credited to P. Nwiya (OpenAlex), SIM_3024 to Cahen and Pellat (the Ṣāḥib Ibn ʿAbbād). The page reference vol. III pp. 670–671 comes from a secondary bibliography, UNVERIFIED.
Ibn ʿAbbād al-Rundī (Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (Brill Online) ↗
Jillali El Adnani (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: El Adnani is a historian of Maghribi Sufism; published online 7 June 2021 per OpenAlex. A search snippet gives his birth at Ronda 730/1330 (or 732/1332) and death at Fez 792/1390. · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page.
Zarrūq, Aḥmad (Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (Brill Online) ↗
Scott Kugle (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: Scott Kugle wrote the monograph on Zarrūq (Rebel between Spirit and Law, 2006); published online 4 Aug 2014 per OpenAlex. · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page. No EI² entry on Zarrūq was found through Crossref or OpenAlex (searched 'Zarrūḳ'); UNVERIFIED whether one exists.
Ibn ʿAdjība (Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Supplement) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Brill Online) ↗
J.-L. Michon (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: Jean-Louis Michon wrote the standard study of Ibn ʿAjība (Le soufi marocain Aḥmad Ibn ʿAjība et son Miʿrāj, 1973). · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page. That it is in the Supplement is inferred from the COM_ identifier, UNVERIFIED.
Ibn ʿAjība (Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE) · Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE (Brill Online) ↗
Tayeb Chouiref (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: Chouiref works on Maghribi Sufism and the Darqāwiyya; published online 29 Aug 2016 per OpenAlex. · Brill's referenceworks.brill.com returns 403 to automated fetches; the DOI resolves (doi.org HTTP 302 to referenceworks.brill.com). Title and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex metadata, not by reading the page.
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh (Encyclopedia of Religion, 1987; reproduced on Encyclopedia.com) · Encyclopedia.com (Gale; text of the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Religion) ↗
Victor Danner (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist: By the Ḥikam's English translator; open access. Gives his dates as c. 650–709 / c. 1252–1309, calls him the first Shādhilī master to put the order's teaching into writing, and lists the editions (Nwyia 1972; his own 1978). · HTTP 200, text read. Article signed 'Victor Danner (1987)'. Bibliography points to Brockelmann GAL I 143–144, S I 145–147, and Gloton's French of al-Qaṣd al-mujarrad (Paris 1981).
Sufism (Oxford Bibliographies: Islamic Studies) · Oxford Bibliographies (OUP) ↗
Marcia Hermansen (author) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · specialist (general): An annotated bibliography of Sufism (first published 27 Dec 2010 per Crossref) with a section on specific orders, including the Shādhiliyya (per a search-index snippet). There is no separate Oxford Bibliographies article on Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh or the Shādhiliyya that we found. · OUP returns 403 to automated fetches; DOI and author verified through Crossref and OpenAlex. The Shādhiliyya section is UNVERIFIED (search snippet only).
Al-Shādhilī (Encyclopaedia Britannica) · Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗
Encyclopaedia Britannica (publisher) · whole text
Rights: linked, not embedded · general: A short general-audience biography of the founder of the order. · HTTP 403 (Cloudflare challenge) to curl and WebFetch; the URL and title are confirmed only by a search index. Contents and contributor UNVERIFIED. No Britannica article on Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh himself was found.

The text record

Our working notes on this edition: status, witnesses, the decisions taken and why, and what AI supplied. This is a working edition, not an authority.Show the notes

Work / author / dates	al-Ḥikam al-ʿAṭāʾiyya (الحكم العطائية), "The Aphorisms" · Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī (d. 709/1309), the third master of the Shādhiliyya after Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī (d. 656/1258) and his own teacher Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Mursī (d. 686/1287).
Part added	The whole work: 263 aphorisms in the 25 traditional chapters, the four letters (mukātabāt) and the intimate prayers (munājāt): 300 passages, 5,840 words. Nothing queued.
Reader route	`/read/hikam` (contents) · `/read/hikam/ch1` … `/read/hikam/ch25` · `/read/hikam/letters` · `/read/hikam/munajat` · about `/read/hikam/about` · Ibn ʿAbbād side by side `/read/hikam/commentaries`
Kind	Sufi handbooks (`sufi-manuals`), §14
Status	Transcribed from the page images of the Cairo 1319/1901 print and read twice by independent AI readers; collated against the Būlāq print of 1290/1873 and the bare matn of the Ḥanafī reprint · AI-vowelled throughout (the prints are bare) · AI English ✦ unreviewed · not yet checked by a person · reviewed by: —

Structure. The aphorisms, short rhymed or balanced maxims, without headings in the author's text; the tradition divides them into 25 chapters (Ibn ʿAjība's abwāb; Danner prints 25 too), each opening, in many copies, with «wa-qāla raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu». The reader pages them by these chapters (one page each, 6 to 17 aphorisms). The first chapter runs from works and hope (¶1, «a sign of relying on works is the loss of hope when a lapse occurs»), divestment and the means (¶2), the aspirations that cannot breach the walls of decree (¶3) and giving up self-direction (¶4, arīḥ nafsaka min al-tadbīr) to the heart's polished mirror (¶13) and the nine «how could He be veiled» (¶16). Later chapters turn on the inrushes (wāridāt) and states, contraction and expansion (qabḍ, basṭ), light and inner sight (nūr, baṣīra), obscurity and retreat (¶11 «bury your being in the earth of obscurity»), servanthood (ʿubūdiyya) and need (fāqa), the gifts and the withholding, reflection (¶261–263 on fikra). The letters (¶264–267): three letters to brethren and an answer on the ḥadīth «the coolness of my eye is in the prayer», as Ibn ʿAjība counts them («three letters and an answer»). The munājāt (¶268–300): the intimate prayers, each opening «Ilāhī» («My God, I am the poor one in my wealth …»), closing with «You are the One besides whom there is no god …» and «How could You be hidden, when You are the Manifest …».

1. Witnesses

Siglum	Witness	Kind	Vowelled?	Licence	Location
A	Ibn ʿAbbād al-Rundī (d. 792/1390), Sharḥ ʿalā matn al-Ḥikam (= Ghayth al-mawāhib al-ʿaliyya), with ʿAbd Allāh al-Sharqāwī's (d. 1227/1812) commentary in the margin. Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿa al-ʿĀmira al-Adabiyya, Sūq al-Khuḍār al-Qadīm, for Aḥmad ʿAlī al-Malījī near al-Azhar; printed at the end of Muḥarram 1319 (May 1901), per the colophon (pdf 238). 234 printed pages. The matn is quoted aphorism by aphorism between ornamental brackets ﴿ ﴾ in Ibn ʿAbbād's main block; al-Sharqāwī's margin quotes it again in round brackets.	commentary print (quotes the whole matn)	no	public domain (1901)	archive.org AAlexandrina-142434 (Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 300 ppi grey); every passage links its page image. Local: `data/raw/arabic/hikam/` (`ACQUISITIONS.md`, SHA-256 per file)
B	The same two commentaries, Būlāq: Dār al-Ṭibāʿa al-ʿĀmira, Rajab 1290 (1873), corrector Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Ghaffār al-Dasūqī (colophon, pdf 265); both parts, though catalogued as vol. 1 (Āṣafiyya library, Hyderabad, copy).	commentary print	no	public domain	archive.org AAlexandrina-148405
J	The bare matn printed at the end of Ibn ʿAjība's (d. 1224/1809) Īqāẓ al-himam fī sharḥ al-Ḥikam, 2 vols in 1, «al-ṭabʿa al-ūlā» (Cairo: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Aḥmad Ḥanafī, n.d.), vol. 2 pp. 282–290 (pdf 466–474). Date UNVERIFIED (HathiTrust catalogues the same edition as «[1906]»; the publisher's dated imprints run c. 1930–65).	edition (the common printed text)	partly	a plain reprint of a pre-modern text; date unverified	archive.org AAlexandrina-141592
O	OpenITI `0709IbnCataAllahSikandari.HikamCataiyya.JK009323-ara1`, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥīm (Damascus: Dār al-Īmān, 1406/1986), from al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr. Unnumbered, run-on, with lines repeated and stretches missing; its pages match J's typesetting page for page, so it probably derives from J.	digital	no	CC BY-NC-SA 4.0	GitHub. A typing aid only
—	Critical edition and translations (cited only, not held): P. Nwyia, Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh et la naissance de la confrérie šāḏilite (Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1972), the critical text from manuscripts with French; V. Danner, Sufi Aphorisms (Kitāb al-Ḥikam) (Leiden: Brill, 1973), doi:10.1163/9789004661431, and The Book of Wisdom (New York: Paulist, 1978).			copyrighted	not held

2. Base and why

A, the matn as Ibn ʿAbbād quotes it: a public-domain print, whole, legible at 300 ppi, and the commentary of the order's first great commentator, so that the text comes with his division of it and his commentary on every unit (§9). B is the earlier print of the same commentaries (Būlāq 1873) and was used to correct A; J is the common printed text, careless but independent of the commentators' quotation. Nwyia's critical edition is in copyright and not held. Our text is a working edition, not an authority (Protocols §12): where it differs from the critical text we do not know it.

3. Transcription and collation

First reading: 22 AI readers, ten pages each, from A's page images at ×2 or more, letter by letter, keeping the print's spelling (data/raw/arabic/hikam/work/TRANSCRIBE.md); O allowed as a typing aid, every word checked against the page; for each unit the print page, where Ibn ʿAbbād's commentary on it ends, and the opening of his commentary (§9). Drafts work/draft/c*.json.
Second reading: 12 other readers checked every page and every draft entry against the images (work/PROOF.md, work/proof/r*.json): 25 corrections (mostly in the glosses; in the matn e.g. ¶8 «اذا فتح» for a misread «افتتح», ¶243 «ولا يطلب» for «أو يطلب»), 2 aphorisms the first reading had missed (¶33 «تشوّفك إلى ما بطن فيك من العيوب …» and ¶34 «الحق ليس بمحجوب …», on a page next to a misbound leaf: A binds printed p. 29 as pdf 35), 3 headings, and the decisions on which pieces continue an aphorism.
Collation against B (whole text, three readers) and J (one reader), work/collation/: B agrees with A word for word except in 18 places; J differs in 120 (63 equal variants, 27 J's own slips, 24 where A is better, 6 where J is). 11 corrections adopted (data/sources/hikam-corrections.json, logged in hikam-base.json → changes, type "collation"):

¶	A	Adopted	Basis
6	أمد الاعطاء	أمد العطاء	B; A's own margin
37	تشهدك (doubtful)	يشهدك	B, J
100	الأسباب (damaged)	الأسباب	B
154	مدده النور	مدده من النور	B, J, O
165	شئ من أحبه	شئ ومن أحبه	B, O
170	عنايته (broken type)	عنايته	B, J
208	لايمكن (broken type) · الا والله عليك	لايمكن · الا ولله عليك	B, J · B
216	الالهية عليك هدمت	الالهية اليك هدمت	B
264	وان كانت بالله بدايته	وان من كانت بالله بدايته	B, J, A's margin
267	عنه وكرمه	بمنه وكرمه	B, J

Mechanical: the brackets removed; pieces of one aphorism quoted apart joined; 71 particles set joined to the next word (لاتخرق, لايكن, مايليق …, a typographic habit of the print) separated, each logged (forms of li- + article such as لاهله are kept).

4. Decisions and doubtful readings (kept as printed; `hikam-structure.json` → `uncertain`, shown in each passage's apparatus)

¶252 «… بوجود الجزاء عليها عاجلا»: so A and B; J (and, we think, the common text) «آجلا», which the sense wants (the fruit tasted now is good news of the reward later). Kept; the English reads with the sense and says so.
¶182 «لم يصمت اذا أساءه» (A, read twice) against B «أساء» (main block and margin). Kept; both construe.
¶161 «ومدواة» (A) for the regular «ومداواة» (J). Kept; read mudāwāt.
¶243 «عوضا ولا يطلب منه غرضا» (A) against al-Sharqāwī's margin and J «أو يطلب»: the same sense.
¶300: the closing formula «والله الموفق وبه أستعين» stands inside Ibn ʿAbbād's quotation in A and B; J has «والله الموفق» only. Not part of the last prayer; recorded in the apparatus.
Variants al-Sharqāwī reports from other copies (on ¶119, 120, 161, 172, 184, 196, 198) and Ibn ʿAbbād's own remark on ¶52 (he argues the author wrote «للقبول», a copyist «للقلوب»; the main block prints «للقلوب», his margin «للقبول»), and on ¶261 («الاعتبار» in some copies for «الاغيار»), are in the readers' notes (work/proof, work/collation/B2.json), not yet in the apparatus.

5. Quotations

No Quran quotation was tagged when the text was established; scripts/quran_refs.py finds 24 by skeleton (shown as found automatically), among them Q 6:91 «qul Allāh thumma dharhum fī khawḍihim yalʿabūn» (¶32, and twice in the letters), 65:7 (¶31), 6:18 (¶34), 22:46 (¶42), 10:58 (¶59 and the letters), 17:20 (¶69), 31:20 (¶75), 18:45 (¶198), 75:18–19 (¶215), 27:34 (¶216), 21:18 (¶217), 17:80 (the first letter). The ḥadīth «innamā al-aʿmāl bi-l-niyyāt … fa-hijratuhu ilā mā hājara ilayhi» is quoted in ¶43 and «juʿilat qurratu ʿaynī fī al-ṣalāt» is the subject of ¶266 [the collections not traced here: UNVERIFIED].

6. Vowelling

A is unvowelled, so every mark is AI (scripts/recitals/prepare.py hikam, headless Claude Opus, letters verified unchanged; cached per passage under data/raw/cache/hikam/vowel/). Words with two defensible vowellings are listed per passage (ambiguous). CAMeL disagrees with the AI vowelling on 276 words.

7. Numbering, segmentation and word IDs

Numbering: Ibn ʿAbbād's division. One number per aphorism as his commentary quotes the matn between ﴿ ﴾, pieces of one aphorism quoted apart joined (the nine «kayfa yutaṣawwaru an yaḥjubahu shayʾ» as one, ¶16; «wa-la-an taṣḥaba jāhilan» with «aṣl kull maʿṣiya», ¶36). Two brackets that each hold two maxims (pp. 112, 114) are kept as one unit, as printed. That gives 263 aphorisms. The counts in print differ: Danner 262 (in 25 chapters), al-Sharnūbī 264 (per Danner) and the Matheson Trust's 264, al-Būṭī 259 (per his commentary's numbering), Ibn ʿAjība about 267 (soufisme.org); no pre-1931 Cairo print we saw numbers them. Our numbers have not been checked aphorism by aphorism against any of these, so a number may be off by one or two from a printed translation: match by the opening words. The letters are ¶264–267 and the munājāt ¶268–300, one number per «Ilāhī» (pieces without «Ilāhī» joined to the prayer before): 33, where Ibn ʿAjība numbers 32 (his 1–2 are our 268; his 9 spans our 275–276; our 295 and 298 fall inside his 27 and 29; his 31–32 are our 300). Chapters: the 25 abwāb of Ibn ʿAjība, found on his print's pages (work/ajiba-chapters.json; he names each in his commentary, «as he said at the beginning of the eighth chapter»): 1 (¶1), 2 (18), 3 (33), 4 (39), 5 (44), 6 (49), 7 (61), 8 (70), 9 (76), 10 (90), 11 (106), 12 (113), 13 (127), 14 (133), 15 (144), 16 (150), 17 (158), 18 (168), 19 (173), 20 (180), 21 (193), 22 (205), 23 (213), 24 (223), 25 (238). A marks some of these openings with «wa-qāla raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu», not all; J marks none. Paged reader: one page per chapter, then the letters and the munājāt (parts in hikam-base.json; lib/pagedProse.ts); /read/hikam#p-N and ?w=hk:N:… are sent to the right page. Word IDs hk:<passage>:<word>.

8. Analysis layer

CAMeL Tools 1.6 via scripts/fusus/analyze_ch.py hikam.json hikam-analysis.json hk: 5,840 words, 3,463 with a root, 578 distinct roots; 8 malformed roots (a shadda or a proclitic left in the root string: لله, بالله, شتان, أيهم) fixed by scripts/recitals/hikam_fix_analysis.py.

9. Commentaries aligned

Ibn ʿAbbād (A): for every passage, the opening of his commentary (25–60 words, his paraphrase; transcribed and read twice with the matn) with an AI English (scripts/recitals/hikam_commentary.py, ✦ unreviewed), and the exact pages of the print over which his commentary on that passage runs, each linked to its page image. The rest of his commentary is linked, not transcribed: the mapping is complete (every passage → first and last pdf page of A), the transcription of the whole commentary (about 230 dense pages) is a possible later step. Ibn ʿAjība: his 25 chapters mapped to our numbers (above) with his print's pages; aphorism-level mapping not done (plan: his commentary opens each aphorism with «(qāla …)» and his own with «(qultu)», so a reader per chapter can list the pages as for A). Zarrūq: no pre-1931 print found (cited in the companions). al-Sharqāwī: in A's margin; his variant notes used in §4. al-Sharnūbī: a 1322/1904 print is in HathiTrust full view (member download only; not held). al-Būṭī: cited only (in copyright).

10. Translation

AI (Claude Opus) from the vowelled Arabic, scripts/recitals/translate.py hikam opus, told not to reproduce or imitate the published translations and given none; glossary in data/sources/hikam-meta.json (ʿamal "work", rajāʾ "hope", tawakkul "trust", tadbīr "self-direction", irāda "will; the aspirant's resolve", qabḍ/basṭ "contraction/expansion", wārid "inrush", ḥāl/maqām "state/station", nūr "light", baṣīra "inner sight", fikra "reflection", ʿubūdiyya "servanthood", ʿizza "might", fāqa "destitution", tajrīd/asbāb "divestment/the means" …). Word glosses and term notes from the same run. All ✦ unreviewed.

10b. Triangulation

scripts/triangulate.py hikam. No translation is held: none before 1931 exists (§11), and Danner (1973, 1978) and Nwyia (1972) are in copyright and not held privately. So the comparison ran on the commentator of the author's own line: for every passage our AI English was checked against Ibn ʿAbbād's opening gloss (lineage evidence, weighted as such; scripts/triangulate.py → LINEAGE, which now also names Ibn ʿAjība, Zarrūq and al-Sharqāwī). Result: no contradiction; 19 places doubtful, each decided from the Arabic and fixed in our own words (scripts/recitals/hikam_fixes.py, logged in app/src/content/ai/hikam.json → fixes): ¶8 «maʿahā» (given that, not "so long as it is with you"); ¶16 «He is the Manifest before anything existed» (a nominal sentence, not "was"); ¶20 «fīmā siwāhā» (other than it, not "beyond"); ¶24, ¶57, ¶156 al-aghyār glossed as «whatever is other than God»; ¶42 «what will not last with him»; ¶65 «has exposed himself to their vanishing»; ¶92 «what He opens upon their hearts»; ¶105 al-sarāʾir «innermost selves» (two terms, not one); ¶113 «how far above what you ask of Him is what He asks of you»; ¶149 ṭufūliyya with Ibn ʿAbbād's ṭufayliyya bracketed; ¶188, ¶206 («depart from where they alighted»), ¶219 («at once»), ¶230 («its taste»), ¶265 (shāhid), ¶273 («from You toward You»), ¶295 («the garments of Your majesty»). A person should check these. Witnesses differ (curated, scripts/recitals/hikam_differ.py; the reader's marker reads «Witnesses differ» for this text): 7 notes where the prints part or the commentators discuss a reading: ¶16 the nine «kayfa yutaṣawwaru» of Ibn ʿAbbād's prints against the seven of the common text; ¶52 li-l-qulūb (the prints) or li-l-qabūl (Ibn ʿAbbād's conjecture, al-Sharqāwī's text); ¶149 ṭufūliyya (our vowelling) or ṭufayliyya (Ibn ʿAbbād); ¶182 asāʾahu/asāʾa; ¶243 wa-lā/aw; ¶252 ʿājilan/ājilan; ¶261 al-aghyār/al-iʿtibār (some copies, per Ibn ʿAbbād). When a translation is acquired (Danner or Nwyia into (private copy)), rerun triangulate.py hikam (then hikam_differ.py): translators' divergences will be added beside these.

11. Rights and private layers

A, B: public domain (1901, 1873). J: a plain reprint of a pre-modern text, date unverified (used only to compare). O: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, used only as a typing aid. Nwyia, Danner, the Matheson Trust's edition, Bewley, Michon, al-Būṭī: in copyright, cited only; nothing of their wording is in this reader and none is held privately. No public-domain translation before 1931 was found (searched in HathiTrust full text, archive.org and Google Books: only mentions, in Ben Cheneb 1907, Depont and Coppolani 1897, Massignon 1922 and 1929; Asín Palacios's article on Ibn ʿAbbād and John of the Cross is of 1933). The one public-domain translation known is Ottoman Turkish (Kastamonulu Ahmed Mâhir, el-Muḥkem fī şerḥi'l-Ḥikem, Istanbul 1905–07, HathiTrust), not held. Audio: none made (about 5,800 Arabic and 9,000 English words: under $2 on Azure; the author approves any TTS run above $1).

12. Open questions / to review

A person should read the transcription against A, above all the doubtful places of §4, and decide ¶252 (عاجلا / آجلا).
Compare our numbering with a 264-numbered text and with Nwyia's edition (through a library), and give a concordance.
Acquire Nwyia (1972) or Danner (1973) into the private layer for the triangulation (§17), and al-Sharnūbī's 1904 print (HathiTrust).
Transcribe more of Ibn ʿAbbād's commentary, or Ibn ʿAjība's opening gloss on each aphorism, if wanted.

13. Resonances (Protocols §16)

scripts/resonances.py whole --only hikam and passages hikam (batches of 6), with the author's pointers given to the model as an editor's hint (FOCUS in the script: consider, never assert); 16 new external references verified by an agent with web search, none removed (data/raw/arabic/hikam/work/ref-verdicts.json). Whole text 15 connections (10 parallels, 3 lineages, 2 contrasts); passages 1,292 (1,121 parallels, 149 contrasts, 18 lineages, 4 shared sources). Most linked texts in the library: al-Qushayrī's Risāla (300 links: the terms the Ḥikam presupposes, waqt, ḥāl, wārid, qabḍ and basṭ, presence and absence), al-Ghazālī's Mishkāt (156: light, the veil, God hidden by the intensity of His manifestation), the Fuṣūṣ (chapters 1, 2 and 5), Plato's Republic and Plotinus VI.9, Ibn Sīnā's ʿIshq (44), the Awrād. Graded: lineage only where transmission is documented: al-Shādhilī and al-Mursī to Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh (Nwyia 1972, Danner 1973); Ibn ʿAbbād's commentary and letters (Nwyia 1961, Renard 1986); al-Qushayrī's vocabulary in the early Shādhiliyya (lineage at the level of the school; the verifier notes that Nwyia supports the general debt, not chapter-by-chapter matches); Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh's own Tanwīr fī isqāṭ al-tadbīr. Parallels ("resonance, not influence"): the Mishkāt, the Fuṣūṣ (the Shādhilīs were not Akbarians in doctrine), Ibn Sīnā's ʿIshq (the Good disclosing itself, veiled only by the recipient), Plotinus VI.9 (the One present to all; and a contrast: the One does not seek, where the Ḥikam's God makes Himself known), Stoic assent to providence (Hadot 1992), de Caussade, Simone Weil, Shinran's other-power; John of the Cross is a parallel, not a lineage: Asín Palacios (1933) proposed that the Shādhilī teaching through Ibn ʿAbbād anticipated him, and López-Baralt (1985) pursued it; influence is disputed, and the verifier could confirm only the article's general thesis (contraction and expansion beside the dark night), not its comparisons with particular chapters. Contrasts include Ibn Sīnā's recitals (the soul's own flight home, against the Ḥikam's arrival by grace).

14. Kind

Sufi handbooks (sufi-manuals), beside al-Qushayrī's Risāla and Shabistarī's Gulshan-i rāz: a work read and taught, for seven centuries, as the primer of the Shādhilī path, on the aspirant's works and hope, the means and divestment, giving up self-direction, the inrushes, states and stations, contraction and expansion, light and inner sight, servanthood and need; its commentators are the order's masters. Not "Philosophical treatises" (it argues nothing; it counsels, in the second person, «you»), not "Poetry" (balanced and rhymed prose, sajʿ, not verse), not "Prayers" (only the last part is prayer). The taxonomy's blurb for Sufi handbooks speaks of «the manuals that set out the Sufi path in its own words»; the Ḥikam is the shortest such manual in the library. One text in 27 parts (25 chapters, letters, munājāt), not three catalogue entries: one author, one transmission, one commentary tradition that comments on all three.

15. Change log

2026-10-05: sources found (A, B, J, O); transcribed (22 readers) and read again (12); collated against B and J (11 corrections); 25 chapters mapped from Ibn ʿAjība; vowelled, analysed, translated; Ibn ʿAbbād's openings translated; companions (52 items); version record; resonances; registered at /read/hikam (27 pages) under Sufi handbooks.