al-Asrar al-Rabbaniyyah: the Divine Secrets: On Mysteries of Arabic Letters, Their Spiritual Powers, and Angelic Sciences

The first complete English translation of al-Asrar al-Rabbaniyyah (The Divine Secrets), a treatise on the spiritual science of the Arabic letters attributed to the thirteenth-century Sufi master Ahmad ibn Ali al-Buni. This work belongs to the tradition of Islamic letter mysticism ('ilm al-huruf), in which each letter of the Arabic alphabet is understood to possess a spiritual essence, a numerical value, and a correspondence to the angelic and celestial worlds. The treatise opens with a sustained meditation on the letter alif and the origin of the letters, tracing their emergence from the divine point through triangularity, ascent, and the two inventions of the intellect and the soul. Al-Buni explains the power of each letter, its formation in the angelic world, and the correspondence between the letters and the gradations of existence, from the divine throne to the sphere of the elements. The heart of the work consists of detailed expositions of eleven Arabic letters: ba, mim, ha, nun, qaf, jim, dal, ta, sad, and tha, each treated as a gateway to a particular spiritual operation. For every letter, al-Buni provides its elemental nature, its planetary association, its numerical and lettered magic squares (wafq), and the practical instructions for writing, washing, and carrying the squares for purposes ranging from spiritual protection and the subduing of tyrants to the opening of the heart and the attainment of prophetic visions. Throughout, the text preserves the three-layer format required for Islamic esoteric manuscripts: the English translation, the ALA-LC transliteration, and the original Arabic script for every prayer, invocation, and Quranic verse. Forty-seven illustrations are reproduced directly from the manuscript, including circular talismans, paired numerical and lettered squares, and composite cosmological diagrams. Every magic square is accompanied by a transcribed grid for scholarly reference.