The Radiant Sparks

The Shaykh, the Imam, the Scholar, the Practitioner, the Perfect, the Virtuous, the Tongue of the Jurists and Theologians, the Proof of the Scholars, the Exemplar of the Great, the Sea of Elegance and Virtues, the Knower of God the Exalted, my Master Abu al-Abbas Ahmad al-Buni al-Maliki Ahmad al-Buni (d. 1225) was a famous Sufi writer known for his works on the hidden properties of letters and names.—may God the Exalted be pleased with him and grant him satisfaction, and make Paradise his destination and abode—said:

Praise be to God for His beautiful success, and I ask Him for guidance to His path, the inspiration of Truth through its realization, a heart certain in its belief, a luminous intellect through the care of its refinement, a spiritual soul through its longing, a soul at peace from ignorance and its constriction, a brilliant understanding through the radiance of thought and its clarity, a secret blooming with the nectar of opening and its pure wine, a tongue expanded by the unfolding of the vast earth and its beauty, a thought elevated above the aim of the hater and his deception, an insight that witnesses the secret of existence in the setting of the cycle and its rising, and senses safe for the channels of

the spirit and its pathways, a nature safe from the "cold" of worldly temperament original: "zukam al-tab'" - a metaphor for spiritual dullness or a blockage of the senses and its application, a disposition led by the reins of the Sacred Law Shari'a: the moral and legal code of Islam and its binding, a time helpful in its gathering and its dispersing, and an eloquence that astonishes the natural disposition and its logic. And prayers be upon Muhammad, his family, and his party.

To proceed: I have sought guidance from God the Exalted in answering the call of a sincere brother who asked me about the Greatest Name The "Greatest Name of God" (al-Ism al-A'zam) is believed in Islamic mysticism to be a secret name that, if invoked, grants the user's prayers and reveals divine mysteries. and the manner of being affected Note by it, the manifestation of the witness from its ornaments, and the filling of the socket? of the word or its setting. This is a matter where one does not step forward or backward lightly, wavering between answering and refusing due to the difficulty of the path and the narrowness of the way, taking the path of caution and turning away from embarking on peril, and acknowledging the weakness of human strength.

And how could it be otherwise, when the Gnostics original: "al-'Arifun" - those possessing direct, experiential knowledge of God are unable Note to plunge into this great sea even at the shore of allusion? For the matter is not fulfilled by one of noble aim; it is difficult to attain, obscure in its perception, because it is of a perfection that no expression can encompass Note. It is the ultimate goal in which the hearts of those possessed of