Four Pillars of Spiritual Transformation

Ibn Arabi

Paperback

9781905937042

The Adornment of the Spiritually Transformed (Hilyat al-abdal)

Ibn 'Arabi's Hilyat al-abdal is one of the great classics of Sufi literature and one of his most popular short works. It is a fundamental analysis of spiritual practice, and in the most direct and condensed manner Ibn 'Arabi describes the four principal activities of any spiritual path: silence, seclusion, hunger and vigilance, and how these are both physical actions of the body and spiritual actions of the heart.

The Four Pillars of Spiritual Transformation is the first English translation of the work and includes a full and helpful introduction to Ibn 'Arabi's ideas in the treatise, as well as a translation of a chapter from his Futuhat al-Makiyya on the same topic. The book also provides the first critical edition of the Arabic text.