The Secret of God's Most Beautiful Names

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi
Pablo Beneito (translation)
Arabic and English
Hardback, 392 pages
9781905937837

Kashf al-maʿnā ʿan sirr asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā

The ‘naming’ of God is one of the essential pillars of the monotheistic traditions, and every Name of God has its own ‘presence’. According to ‘the greatest spiritual master’ Ibn ʿArabī (1165–1240), the 99 Names of God in Islamic devotional practice and spiritual teaching are the fundamental way of expressing the full relationship between the human being and the Divine, Unity and multiplicity, transcendence and immanence. The Divine Names are thus the ways in which the One God bestows His beauty and beneficence upon the multiplicity of the created world, and on human beings in particular.

The Secret of God’s Most Beautiful Names presents, for the first time in English, two of the most profound teachings on the 99 Names: Ibn ʿArabī’s Kashf al-maʿnā, depicting each of the Names according to three complementary perspectives; and The Summary, drawn from his Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya. A comprehensive introduction and notes are provided alongside the translation. The critical edition of the Arabic text is also included.