Manba' Usul al-Hikma Al-Buni's Source of the Foundations of Wisdom

Manba' Usul al-Hikma: The Source of the Foundations of Wisdom

Manba' Usul al-Hikma (منبع أصول الحكمة) — also written Manba Usul al-Hikmah, or Manba Ushul Hikmah in Indonesian spelling — means “The Source of the Foundations of Wisdom.” Its introduction presents four important treatises on the sciences of letters and numbers, invocations, and oaths, by Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ali al-Buni, “who died in 622 AH, author of Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra.” It is among the Ahmad al-Buni manuscripts translated in full for this series.

Four Treatises and Seven Sciences

The book is arranged in four parts: The Sapiential Principles and Rules; a second part on the placement of wafqs, listed in the introduction as The Desire of the Yearning One for Knowledge of the Arrangement of Magic Squares; the Commentary on al-Barhatiyyah, known as the Commentary on the Ancient Covenant; and the Commentary on the Great Jaljalutiyyah. The introduction names the seven sciences on which, it says, the work of spiritual disposal turns — numbers, awfaq, letters, the four natures, composition with the zodiac signs and mansions, stellar elections, and the Names and invocations — and calls them together the science of simiya.

An Awfaq Book in Three Treatises

That second part is the dedicated manual that makes Manba' Usul al-Hikma an awfaq book. Its first treatise sets the natural magic squares, placing numbers in odd, even, and even-odd forms. The second explains the bases of awfaq and how names and verses are placed into them, by breaking and by composition. The third covers the times of writing suited to works of good and evil, the crafts of numbers and the balances of letters, and extracting the names of the angels, the incenses, and the oath. Wafq constructions then recur throughout the commentaries on the Barhatiyyah and the Great Jaljalutiyyah.

For the general method of how to make a magic square in al-Buni's system, see al-Buni's magic square construction method; for what the wafq magic square is, and is not, read Arabic Magic Squares Are Not What You Think. The name Buduh, familiar to readers of the buduh square, recurs in this volume as well: it is invoked in the Barhatiyyah oath, one square is filled by the method of Buduh Ahwat, and a later operation calls for writing the square of Baduh.

The Barhatiyyah and Surat al-Mulk

The third part is a full commentary on the Barhatiyyah — often spelled berhatiah — the oath explored in our essay What Is the Barhatiyyah. Its text weaves Qur'anic phrases into the chain of names, including the opening verse of Surat al-Mulk, also called Surah Tabarak: “blessed is He in whose hand is the kingdom, and He is powerful over every thing.” Surah al-Mulk is not reproduced in full; here the verse stands as a single line inside the oath, and the surah returns in the commentary on the Great Jaljalutiyyah, in a Formula for Dominion over Hearts by Surat al-Mulk that pairs recitation of the surah, morning and evening, with a verse-line said to hold its secret. Elsewhere the book's practices draw on al-Fatihah, Ayat al-Kursi, Surat al-Jinn, Surat al-Waqi'ah, Surat Ya Sin, and the closing verses of Surat al-Hashr.

Anyone searching for a berhatiah PDF will find the complete commentary here instead, in a Kindle edition that is free with Kindle Unlimited and a 485-page paperback.