The Mishkat al-Anwar (The Niche for Lights) & The Secret Rose Garden

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The Mishkat al-Anwar

[1924]

by Al-Ghazzali , translated by W.H.T. Gairdner

THE MISHKÂT AL-ANWAR is a work of extreme interest from the viewpoint of al-Ghazzâlî's[2] inner life and esoteric thought. The glimpses it gives of that life and thought are remarkably, perhaps uniquely, intimate. It begins where his autobiographical Al-Munqidh min al-Dalâl leaves off. Its esotericism excited the curiosity and even the suspicion of Muslim thinkers from the first, and we have deeply interesting allusions to it in Ibn Tufaill and Ibn Rushd, the celebrated philosophers of Western Islam, who flourished within the century after al-Ghazzâlî's death in 1111 --a fact which, again, increases its importance and interest for us.

The Secret Rose Garden

of c, Translated by Florence Lederer [1920]

Sa'd ud Din Mahmud Shabistari was born in Persia, in Shabistar, near Tabriz, about 1250 CE. His best known work, The Secret Rose Garden was written as a reply to questions by a Sufi doctor of Herat. This set of verses uses the rich Sufi allegorical language to explore the path to God.

The mystic verse of Shabistari, written during a period of fierce conflict between Christianity and Islam in the fourteenth century, must be considered among the greatest poetry of any time or land. Restating ibn 'Arabi's ideas in poetic form and treating such themes as the Self and the One, the Spiritual Journey, Time and This Dream-World, and the ecstasy of Divine Inebriation, Shabistari's work is a perennial witness to the capabilities and destiny of humanity. While Shabistari was deeply rooted in the Sufi mystical tradition, there are no cultural gaps which need to be bridged, for he was keenly aware of that one unique truth which all religions strive to approximate. Thus he writes: "'I' and 'you' are but the lattices, / In the niches of a lamp, / Through which the One Light shines. / 'I' and 'you' are the veil / Between heaven and earth; / Lift this veil and you will see / No longer the bonds of sects and creeds. / When 'I' and 'you' do not exist, / What is mosque, what is synagogue? / What is the Temple of Fire."
This work will be of interest to all students of Sufism. It contains a concise and very informative introduction, by the translator, to the symbolism of Sufi poetry, and is re-typeset from the first edition, published in 1920 in the Wisdom of the East series. It is estimated to have sold over 15,000 copies in English translation.