Studies in Fusus al-hikam: Jami’s Naqd al-nusus

Description

An Ongoing Text-Based Course

This course offers a complete guided study of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam through the prism of Naqsh al-Fuṣūṣ and Jāmī’s Naqd al-Nuṣūṣ, as presented in Inscriptions of Wisdom. Rather than being limited to a fixed number of weeks, the course unfolds gradually through the Introduction and all twenty-seven prophetic chapters.

The course begins by clarifying the meaning of faṣṣ and ḥikma. Each faṣṣ may be understood as the quintessence of knowledge received by a prophet, determined by the divine name governing that prophetic reality. The faṣṣ is also likened to the setting of a ring, inscribed in the heart of the Perfect Human.

Students will examine how Ibn al-ʿArabī presents each prophet as the bearer of a distinct wisdom and as a locus for the disclosure of a particular divine name. Through Jāmī’s commentary, the course will also show how the concise formulations of the Naqsh open onto broader questions of ontology, divine self-disclosure, prophecy, sainthood, the Perfect Human, and the structure of manifestation.

Across the course, students will study the prophetic “Words” (kalimāt) as archetypal loci of divine self-disclosure. Each prophetic wisdom expresses a distinct divine name and metaphysical principle while contributing to the unified vision of reality articulated by Ibn al-ʿArabī.

Special attention will be given to the relationship between prophetic archetypes, divine names, spiritual inheritance, and the human being’s capacity to mirror the Real. The course is designed to unfold slowly and cumulatively, allowing students to follow the symbolic architecture of the Fuṣūṣ chapter by chapter while gaining familiarity with the technical language of the Akbarian tradition.

Designed for serious students of Islamic spirituality and metaphysics, this course assumes no prior mastery of Arabic but requires careful reading and intellectual engagement. Participants will gain a structured entry into the symbolic architecture of the Fuṣūṣ and a deeper appreciation of how prophetic wisdom functions as a mirror of divine reality.