--- page_title: "Three Forbidden Treatises in the Corpus Bunianum | al-Buni" summary: "Al-Shadhili, Ibn al-Mar'ah and al-Buni in one binding: where Vol. VI of the Ahmad al-Buni manuscripts sits in the corpus Bunianum beside Shams al-Ma'arif." html_url: https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/three-forbidden-treatises-bound-together-al-buni.html text_url: https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/three-forbidden-treatises-bound-together-al-buni.md revised: 2026-05-21 publisher: John Friend Publishing --- Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection • Volume VI # Three Forbidden Treatises Bound Together — Why al-Buni’s Name Is on All of Them May 21, 2026 · 14 min read Three treatises. Three authors. One deliberate system. The mystery of why al-Shadhili, Ibn al-Mar’ah, and al-Buni were compiled into a single volume — and what the compilation order reveals. **[Majmu‘at Thalath Rasa’il](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/al-buni-manuscripts-collection/majmuat-thalath-rasail.html)** · Collection of Three Treatises · Vol. VI — Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection Formats: - [Kindle — Free with KU](https://urlgeni.us/amazon/BIwhE4) - [Read the Translation](https://urlgeni.us/amazon/fHyVis) - [Read Free Sample](https://read.amazon.com/sample/B0H2QBC9R5?clientId=share) In the world of Arabic manuscripts, books are not always what they appear. A single binding may contain multiple works by different authors, assembled by a compiler whose logic may not be immediately apparent. Some compilations are haphazard — a scribe had blank pages left and filled them with whatever was handy. Others are deliberate — carefully structured anthologies in which the arrangement of texts tells a story that no individual text could tell alone. Volume VI of the Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection is the second kind. The *Majmu’at Thalath Rasa’il* (Collection of Three Treatises) binds together three works by three different authors across 278 pages. The title page names all three: al-Shadhili, Ibn al-Mar’ah, and al-Buni (d. 622 AH / ~1225 CE). Each author contributed a distinct type of text. And the order in which they are arranged reveals a curriculum — a deliberate progression from inner purification through communal practice to therapeutic healing — that illuminates how medieval Muslim scholars understood the relationship between Sufism and operative magic. This article examines why these three treatises were bound together, what each contributes to the whole, and what the compilation tells us about the intellectual world that produced and consumed al-Buni’s works. Within the corpus Bunianum — the body of works that circulated under al-Buni’s name, with the [*Shams al-Ma’arif*](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/al-buni-manuscripts-collection/shams-al-maarif-al-kubra.html) as its best-known member — Volume VI is unusual. Al-Buni shares its title page with two other authors, and two of its three treatises are Sufi devotional texts rather than operative manuals. That makes it one of the clearest windows in the series of [Ahmad al-Buni manuscripts](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/collection.html) onto the devotional frame around his work. --- ## The Title Page as Declaration The title page of Volume VI is itself a significant document. By naming al-Shadhili, Ibn al-Mar’ah, and al-Buni together, the compiler was making a statement about the relationship between these authors and their traditions. Al-Shadhili is one of the most venerated saints in Sunni Islam, the founder of a Sufi order that spans continents. Al-Buni is the most notorious name in Arabic operative magic, a figure whose works have been [banned and burned](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/magic-book-banned-burned-al-buni.html) across the Islamic world. Ibn al-Mar’ah occupies a position between them — a scholarly commentator whose work bridges devotional practice and operative tradition. Placing all three names on a single title page was not neutral. It was an argument: these traditions belong together. The saint, the scholar, and the operative magician are not opponents in a theological debate but colleagues in a single enterprise. ## Part I: The Individual Path The *Kitab fi al-Tariqah* (Book of the Path), attributed to al-Shadhili, presents the complete Sufi spiritual journey in 60 gates. As discussed in the [companion article on this volume](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/sufi-path-60-gates-shadhili-secret-manual.html), these gates progress from foundational etiquette through spiritual waystations to the Sixtieth Gate — “On Particularity” — the station of individual spiritual election. Placed first in the compilation, this treatise establishes the prerequisite: before anything else, the seeker must travel the inner path. Without the soul-work described in these 60 gates — repentance, patience, gratitude, trust, love, annihilation of the ego — the practices described in subsequent texts are not merely ineffective but dangerous. [The popular belief that al-Buni's books drive readers mad](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/why-people-say-shams-al-maarif-will-drive-you-mad.html) may encode precisely this warning in mythological form. This is a consistent principle throughout al-Buni’s broader corpus: operative power without inner purity produces disaster. The popular fear surrounding al-Buni’s texts may reflect precisely this understanding. When people say that al-Buni’s books “choose their reader,” or that reading them without preparation courts madness, they may be expressing in mythological terms what the manuscript tradition states explicitly: these works were designed for practitioners who had completed rigorous spiritual preparation. Used by the unprepared, they were expected to produce harm. ## Part II: The Communal Dimension The *Sharh Mahasin al-Majalis* (Commentary on the Beauties of the Assemblies), attributed to Ibn al-Mar’ah, addresses what individual practice alone cannot achieve. The Sufi *majlis* (assembly) is a gathering for collective *dhikr* (remembrance of God), teaching, and communal spiritual practice. Ibn al-Mar’ah’s commentary examines the theology, the virtues, and the practical dynamics of these gatherings. In the context of the compilation, this second treatise introduces a crucial principle: the communal amplification of individual practice. A single practitioner who has traveled the inner path possesses spiritual capacity. A group of such practitioners, assembled in proper form, possesses exponentially greater capacity. The complete operative system built on this spiritual foundation is documented in [the definitive guide to the Shams al-Ma'arif](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/what-is-shams-al-maarif.html). The *majlis* is where individual spiritual accomplishment becomes communal spiritual power. This has direct implications for operative practice. Many of al-Buni’s operations — and operations throughout the Arabic magical tradition — specify that they should be performed by groups, or that the prayers of multiple practitioners should be combined. The commentary on spiritual assemblies provides the theological and practical framework for why communal operation is more powerful than individual operation — and how such gatherings should be structured to maximize their effect. ## Part III: Healing the Obstacles The *Shifa’ al-Sudur* (The Healing of Hearts), attributed to al-Buni, completes the curriculum. Its title echoes the Quranic verse that describes the Quran as “a healing for what is in the breasts” — placing al-Buni’s therapeutic work squarely within an Islamic scriptural framework. The “healing” in question is not physical but spiritual. In Sufi psychology, the heart (*qalb*) is the seat of spiritual perception, and it can be afflicted by diseases: pride (*kibr*), envy (*hasad*), attachment to the world (*hub al-dunya*), and forgetfulness of God (*ghaflah*). These diseases obstruct the seeker’s spiritual progress and, in operative terms, block the channels through which divine power flows. By placing this treatise last, the compiler addresses a problem that the first two treatises raise. If the Sufi path (Part I) requires inner purity, and the communal assembly (Part II) amplifies whatever condition the individual brings, then spiritual diseases that persist despite sincere practice must be diagnosed and treated. *Shifa’ al-Sudur* is the diagnostic and therapeutic manual for precisely these conditions. The progression is clear: travel the path (Part I), practice in community (Part II), heal what remains broken (Part III). Only then is the practitioner ready for operative work — work described in other volumes of the Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection. ## Inside the Binding: What Parts II and III Contain The table of contents shows how much each part holds beyond its title. Part II, the *Sharh Mahasin al-Majalis*, opens with “The Book of the Balance,” continues with commentaries on the ninth and tenth chapters of *Mahasin al-Majalis* — “On the States of the Ninth World” and “On the Etiquette of the Gnostic” — and ends with a *risalah* on the Qur’anic order of the praiseworthy stations and a second inquiry on the words “That is the Book.” Part III, the *Shifa’ al-Sudur*, begins on page 248, and its sections show al-Buni’s own subject entering the curriculum at last: “The Natures of the Letters,” “The Knower’s Passage Through the Letters,” “Whispered Prayers,” “The Rank Written by the Pen,” “Explanation of Existence and Spirit,” and “The Drink of the Near Ones.” In al-Buni’s treatise, the healing of the heart passes through the science of letters — the discipline he sets out at full length in [*Usul ’Ilm al-Huruf*](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/al-buni-manuscripts-collection/usul-ilm-al-huruf.html). ## The Compiler’s Intelligence Anonymous compilers in the Arabic manuscript tradition rarely receive credit for their intellectual contributions. Yet the compiler of Volume VI demonstrated sophisticated understanding of how these three traditions relate. They understood that Sufism, communal worship, and therapeutic spirituality were not three separate domains but three dimensions of a single system. The compilation also reveals something about the readership. A volume of 278 pages containing three treatises by three named authors was not a casual production. It required access to multiple source texts, literacy in the technical vocabularies of Sufi practice and operative magic, and the financial resources to commission a bound manuscript. The intended reader was educated, serious, and seeking systematic instruction — not merely dabbling in the occult. This is consistent with what we know about the historical consumers of al-Buni’s works. Despite the popular image of these texts as dangerous curiosities for the foolish, the manuscript evidence suggests a readership of scholars, practitioners, and spiritual seekers who approached the material with intellectual rigor and devotional seriousness. ## The Attribution Question Modern scholarship rightly applies the “attributed to” qualification to medieval Arabic texts. The *Kitab fi al-Tariqah* is “attributed to” al-Shadhili, and whether he personally authored every word is uncertain. The same qualification applies to Ibn al-Mar’ah’s commentary and to al-Buni’s *Shifa’ al-Sudur*. Medieval authorship functioned differently from modern authorship — attribution to a prestigious name guaranteed a text’s lineage and authority rather than its literal provenance. This is why the question of [where spiritual science ends and sorcery begins](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/difference-between-spiritual-science-sorcery-arabic.html) in these traditions is inseparable from questions of authorship and transmission. But the attribution question does not diminish the compilation’s significance. Whether or not al-Shadhili personally penned the 60 gates, the text circulated under his authority within a tradition that took that authority seriously. Whether or not al-Buni personally wrote the *Shifa’ al-Sudur*, it was received as part of his corpus by generations of practitioners. The compilation reflects how these traditions understood themselves, regardless of modern questions about individual authorship. ## What the Binding Reveals About al-Buni Volume VI transforms our understanding of al-Buni by placing him in context. His name on a title page alongside al-Shadhili’s means that the manuscript tradition understood his work as continuous with mainstream Sufi practice — an extension and application of the same spiritual principles that the great Sufi masters taught. This does not resolve the debate about al-Buni’s orthodoxy. Islamic scholars have argued about the permissibility of operative magic for centuries, and they will continue to do so. But the manuscript evidence is clear: the people who made, copied, bought, and read these texts did not see al-Buni as an opponent of the Sufi tradition. They saw him as its operative arm — a tradition whose most dramatic operative instructions include the [complete system for working with the seven kings of jinn](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/how-to-summon-seven-kings-of-jinn.html). That is also why the question many readers bring to al-Buni’s books — is this a forbidden book in Islam? — has no simple answer for Volume VI. Its first two treatises are a Sufi path in 60 gates and a commentary on gatherings for remembrance; its third is a treatise on healing the heart. The reputation belongs to the name on the title page, and how al-Buni came to be treated as the author of a [forbidden book in Islam](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/magic-book-banned-burned-al-buni.html), banned and burned for centuries, is a history of its own. Three treatises. Three authors. One system. The binding is the argument. The Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection, Volume VI is available in paperback from John Friend Publishing. **[Majmu’at Thalath Rasa’il](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/al-buni-manuscripts-collection/majmuat-thalath-rasail.html)** · Collection of Three Treatises · Vol. VI — Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection Formats: - [Read the Translation — Kindle & Paperback](https://urlgeni.us/amazon/fHyVis) ### Related Topics in This Article - [Majmu’at Thalath Rasa’il: the three treatises of al-Shadhili, Ibn al-Mar’ah and al-Buni](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/al-buni-manuscripts-collection/majmuat-thalath-rasail.html) - [Al-Buni’s science of letters in Usul ’Ilm al-Huruf](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/al-buni-manuscripts-collection/usul-ilm-al-huruf.html) - [The preparation the grimoires require before any operation](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/5-steps-every-grimoire-requires-before-magic.html) - [Who wrote the Shams al-Ma’arif: attribution and pseudepigraphy](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/what-is-shams-al-maarif.html) - [Ahmad al-Buni: a short biography](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/magic-book-banned-burned-al-buni.html) - [Al-Shadhili’s Kitab fi al-Tariqah: the Sufi path in 60 gates](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/sufi-path-60-gates-shadhili-secret-manual.html) - [The Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/collection.html) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Who compiled these three treatises together? The specific compiler is unknown, as is typical of medieval Arabic manuscript compilations. The deliberate ordering suggests a compiler who understood the three works as forming a coherent pedagogical system. The title page names three authors — al-Shadhili, Ibn al-Mar’ah, and al-Buni — but the decision to bind them together was made by a later figure in the manuscript tradition. ### What does each treatise cover? Part I covers the Sufi path in 60 gates. Part II is a commentary on spiritual assemblies. Part III addresses healing spiritual diseases that obstruct the seeker’s journey. By title, they are the *Kitab fi al-Tariqah*, running from foundational etiquette to spiritual election; the *Sharh Mahasin al-Majalis*, on the communal dimension of Sufi practice; and the *Shifa’ al-Sudur*. ### What is *Sharh Mahasin al-Majalis*? A commentary on the theology and practice of Sufi devotional gatherings, attributed to Ibn al-Mar’ah. It addresses how collective *dhikr* generates spiritual effects beyond individual practice. These assemblies were the primary social form of Sufi worship. ### What is *Shifa’ al-Sudur* about? Attributed to al-Buni, it addresses the treatment of spiritual diseases — pride, envy, attachment, forgetfulness — that obstruct spiritual progress and operative power. Its title draws on a Quranic phrase describing the Quran as healing. ### Why does the compilation order matter? The order creates a three-stage curriculum: individual spiritual formation, communal practice, then therapeutic healing. This progression mirrors the medieval understanding that operative power requires spiritual purity, communal support, and inner wholeness. ### Is Volume VI a forbidden book in Islam? Its reputation comes from al-Buni’s name more than its contents. Two of its three treatises are Sufi devotional texts — al-Shadhili’s 60-gate path and Ibn al-Mar’ah’s commentary on assemblies for remembrance — and the third is al-Buni’s treatise on healing the heart. Islamic scholars have long debated the permissibility of operative magic, but this volume reads as a Sufi curriculum rather than a grimoire. ### Where does Volume VI sit in the corpus Bunianum? It is Volume VI of the eight-volume Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection, the series of Ahmad al-Buni manuscripts in English whose first volume is the *Shams al-Ma’arif*. Where the *Shams* is al-Buni’s encyclopedic work, Volume VI shows the devotional frame his writings were read within, ending with his own treatise on the natures of the letters and the healing of the heart. ### Is the *Kitab fi al-Tariqah* the same as the ‘Awarif al-Ma’arif? No. The ‘Awarif al-Ma’arif is al-Suhrawardi’s handbook of Sufi training and is not part of this volume. The *Kitab fi al-Tariqah* is a separate manual attributed to al-Shadhili, organized into 60 gates that run from “The Etiquette of the Adjuring Practitioner” to “On Particularity.” ### Follow the Translation New volumes, articles, and research from the Arabic occult tradition. - [Subscribe on Substack](https://substack.com/@johnfriendpublishing) - [Follow on Medium](https://medium.com/@johnfriendpublishing)