Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Manipulation of Sufi Terms 99
al-sāʾirīn that were written by the monist ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī
(d. 690/1290).^13 In modern research this colourful character is often
listed among the mystics that transmitted Ibn ʿArabī’s teachings,
but Ibn Taymiyya estimated that his doctrine was more radical than
Ibn ʿArabī’s and that his ideas show indeed more affinity with Ibn
Sabʿīn’s (d. 669/1269) mysticism.^14 Al-Tilimsānī’s comment on the
Manāzil al-sāʾirīn betrays a strong monist conviction.^15 The author
did not dissimulate his ideas, that in this form were not only odi-
ous to legal scholars but also inacceptable for mainstream Sufis. In
his text al-Tilimsānī referred often to the works of the enigmatic
mystic al-Niffarī (d. 366/977), especially the Kitāb al-Mawāqif.^16
The Mawāqif is written in the template of dialogues with God.
Koran quotations however are near to absent and the teachings in
the text are presented as Divine speech (tanazzulāt) not unlike the
speech to prophets (tanzīl), which is reserved to advanced mys-
tics. In a way the author of this mystical work makes pretence at
reception of Divine inspiration. Al-Tilimsānī read the Mawāqif and
al-Anṣārī’s Manāzil al-sāʾirīn as a partly Divinely inspired text as
well, but in some cases also as books that provides useful pedagogic
information for the instruction of the novice (murīd) at hand of his
Shaykh. It creates of his commentary a text that is totally different
from Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s, although the latter copied freely
the parts of al-Tilimsānī’s commentary that he deemed innocent. In
13 On ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī see Krenkow, Fritz: al-Tilimsānī, in: EI^2 , vol. 10
(2000), p. 500; and Nwyia, Paul: Une cible d’Ibn Taymiya, le moniste al-Tilim-
sani, in: Bulletin d’études orientales 30 (1978), pp. 127–145.
14 Ibn Taymiyya: Majmūʿ al-rasāʾil wal-masāʾil, ed. by Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā,
Beirut 2001, vol. 2, p. 27.
15 We consulted a manuscript conserved in Dār al-Kutub in Cairo (Collection
Taṣawwuf Ḥalīm 49). There exists a text edition of the Manāzil al-sāʾirīn with
al-Tilimsānī’s commentary attached. Abū Ismaʿīl al-Anṣārī: Manāzil al-sāʾirīn
ilā al-ḥaqq al-mubīn, ed. by ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ Manṣūr, Tunis 1989.
16 On al-Niffarī see Karamustafa, Ahmet: Sufism. The Formative Period, Edin-
burgh 2007, pp. 284–301; and Knysh, Alexander: Islamic Mysticism. A Short
History, Leiden 2000, pp. 102–105. Al-Niffarī elaborated at length on the lan-
guage of the Sufis and he exerted a certain influence on Ibn ʿArabī while his
work is prominently present in al-Tilimsānī’s writings. On his unusual manip-
ulation of language Ira Lapidus said he invented “a language that condensed
human experience with its transcendent reference”. Lapidus, Ira M.: A History
of Islamic Societies, Cambridge 1988, p. 113. Al-Tilimsānī wrote a commentary
on the Mawāqif; al-Tilimsānī, ʿAfīf al-Dīn Sulaymān: Sharḥ mawāqif al-Niffarī,
ed. by Jamāl al-Marzūqī, Cairo 1997.
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