The Mystic’s Ka’bah
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from The Mystic’s Ka’bah , the cubic wisdom of the heart according to Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi ( q.s. ) by Shaykh Stephen Hirtenstein. The original paper is reproduced from the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society, Volume 48, 2010. Shaykh Ahmad ibn Abu al-Husayn an-Nuri ( q.s. ), one of the great early Sufis in Baghdad, and a companion of Imam Abu al-Qasim al-Junayd ibn Muhammad al-Baghdadi ( q.s. ), was known as amir al-qulub , “Prince of Hearts.” He defined Sufism as “the abandonment of everything that pleases the soul”. He was quoted in Imam Abu al-Qasim ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Huzan al-Qushayri’s ( q.s. ) Risalah as saying, “When dawn breaks, one no longer needs a lamp.” The Ka’bah must surely rank as one of the most iconic places on earth. In this paper, Shaykh Stephen Hirtenstein explores less the physical, historical and social dim...