A concentrated work
The Arabic introduction compares the Fusus to a crown, the Futuhat to the body, and the other writings to the limbs. The image expresses the Fusus’s concentration rather than its size: its short chapters bring together questions developed at greater length elsewhere in Ibn al-Arabi’s writings.
The source discusses Abu al-Ala Afifi’s assessment of the book and the extensive tradition of commentaries and translations. It names Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi’s al-Fukuk, Dawud al-Qaysari’s commentary, Abd al-Rahman Jami’s Naqd al-Nusus, and Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi’s Jawahir al-Nusus among the works through which readers approached it.
The account in the preface
In the introduction to the Fusus, Ibn al-Arabi describes a vision in Damascus in the last ten days of Muharram 627 AH. He says that the Prophet Muhammad gave him a book and instructed him to make it available for people’s benefit. He presents his task as transmitting what he received, rather than independently determining its content.
This account belongs to the author’s statement of the work’s spiritual provenance. It should be read alongside the textual evidence when studying the book’s composition and transmission.
Twenty-seven prophetic wisdoms
The book has twenty-seven chapters, each associating a particular wisdom with the “word” of a prophet. It begins with Adam and ends with Muhammad. Between them are chapters connected with Seth, Noah, Idris, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Joseph, Hud, Salih, Shu’ayb, Lot, Ezra, Jesus, Solomon, David, Jonah, Job, John, Zechariah, Elijah, Luqman, Aaron, Moses and Khalid.
These chapters are not conventional biographies. The prophetic names organise different dimensions of wisdom. The Arabic introduction connects this use of “words” with Qur’anic descriptions of God’s inexhaustible words, citing 4:171, 18:109 and 31:27.
Commentaries, criticism and attribution
The Arabic page also records criticism of the book and disagreement over its attribution. It links to Mahmud al-Ghurab’s objections and a response to them. A reader should distinguish the primary text, each commentator’s interpretation and the arguments made in later polemics.
Begin with the Arabic text and a clearly identified commentary. Keep the chapter title and edition reference with each quotation. The links below lead to the existing text, commentary catalogue and recordings; those resources remain in their original languages.