Insight Editions · No. 161
The Seven Days of the Heart
Prayers for the Nights and Days of the Week
Ibn 'Arabi · Translated by Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein
Ibn 'Arabi's fourteen prayers for the nights and days of the week present prayer as intimate dialogue and interpret the weekly cycle through Qur'anic allusion, sacred time, and letters.
A study guide to The Seven Days of the Heart by Ibn 'Arabi, translated by Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein. Shared free for personal reading; not for sale and not endorsed by the authors or publishers. Please read and buy the original.
About the Book
The Seven Days of the Heart: Prayers for the Nights and Days of the Week is Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein's Anqa translation of the Awrad attributed to Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240): fourteen prayers for the nights and days of the week, with a long introduction, line notes on Quranic and hadith allusions, and four appendices on time, the Soul's week, abjad, and the letters alif and waw.
In one sentence: these are not ordinary communal litanies but intimate, educational conversations in which every being asks and God answers, the week itself is a Divine Sign, and a hidden letter pattern spells the waw of the Perfect Man.
Argument Map
Chapter Map
| Edition part | Book section | Pages | Core move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | Introduction, sections 1-7 | 1-20 | Theory of prayer; worlds and persons; structure; days, letters, Muhammad; manuscripts |
| Part 2 | Opening prayer and the fourteen prayers, with their notes | 23-98 | Day by day: themes, letters, key lines |
| Part 3 | Appendices A-D | 101-123 | Three kinds of day; the Soul's week; abjad; alif and waw |
| Synthesis | Whole book | - | Takeaways, frameworks, closer look, practice inside the book's framing |
| Glossary | Terms of art | - | Arabic keys as the translators use them |
Twelve Ideas to Carry Away
- Every being is always asking, and God's "work" is to answer (Q 55:29).
- God both asks and is asked: He commands us to call, and we ask Him to respond.
- There is no time-gap between true asking and response (Fut IV:255).
- Real prayer happens in the isthmus between the visible and invisible worlds.
- Prayer turns "He" into "You": the absent God becomes the One addressed.
- The week is a sacred cycle, each day carrying the secret of one prophet.
- The night comes first: the Islamic day begins at sunset; nights belong to the saints.
- Letters are realities: each night joins two letters chosen by abjad number.
- The week spells waw: alif at the centre with six letters on each side.
- Muhammad's "day" is every day, with special links to Tuesday and Friday.
- Annihilation and subsistence run through every prayer: "my non-existence in You is my very existence".
- The goal is servanthood: richness in God that establishes complete poverty towards Him.
Reading Paths
| If you want | Read |
|---|---|
| The theory of prayer | Part 1, sections on request and on the three persons |
| The weekly cycle at a glance | Part 1 on days and prophets; Part 2 recurring images |
| The prayers themselves | Part 2, one day at a time |
| Number and letter symbolism | Part 1 on structure; Part 3 on abjad and on alif and waw |
| Time and cosmology | Part 1 on days; Part 3 on the three kinds of day |
| Practice inside the book | Synthesis: Applying It |
What the Source File Is
The running text is about 36,000 words. Titles in circulation include al-Awrad al-yawmiyya, Awrad al-usbu', and simply Wird. The Arabic root w-r-d carries arriving and the watering place; warid is what arrives in the heart.
The book makes three claims. First, these are intimate, "theophanic" conversations in which the one who prays and the One prayed to are two sides of one reality. Second, the fourteen prayers hide a deliberate structure: each day is governed by a prophet, and each night by a pair of Arabic letters, so that the whole week spells the letter waw. Third, the weekly cycle is itself sacred, a sign of Being in time, read through several overlapping kinds of "day".
Part 1. The Theory of the Prayers
Introduction, pp. 1-20. The translators explain what kind of prayer the Awrad are, how prayer works in Ibn 'Arabi's thought, and the hidden order that links the fourteen prayers to prophets, planets and letters.
What a wird is
Ibn 'Arabi, the translators write, was the author of over 350 works, read across the centuries as "a superlative exposition of Unity". His prayers, by contrast, remain little known. This collection circulates under several titles: Daily Prayers, Prayers for the Week, Prayers for the Days and Nights, or simply Wird. The Arabic root carries the sense of arriving and of being received; for desert nomads it names the watering place where travellers come to drink. In practice a wird is a private devotion at a set time, beyond the five obligatory prayers.
Famous examples by Ibn 'Arabi's North African contemporaries include the prayers of Ibn Mashish (d. 1228), Shadhili (d. 1258) and Mahdawi (d. 1224). Ibn 'Arabi's weekly prayers differ: they are neither communal nor devotional in the ordinary sense, but intimate requests that presuppose self-knowledge. The translators conclude that for the reader these prayers are "as much educational as devotional."
Request and response
The key verse is Q 55:29: "Whosoever is in the heavens and the earth is in request of Him; every day He is at work." Ibn 'Arabi reads the Divine "work" as the answering of requests. From galaxy to particle, every being is constantly asking and receiving.
Ibn 'Arabi's account of closeness is precise. When a man asks himself to do something and does it, "there is no time-gap between the asking and the response". God's closeness in answering is like that, the closeness of the jugular vein (Q 50:16). The Awrad are thus "theophanic prayer", whose primary aim is "to see things as they are from the perspective of the Real". They are also remembrance: "Remember Me, and I shall remember You" (Q 2:152).
The organ of this conversation is the heart (qalb), which "turns" (taqallub, same root) according to how God reveals Himself. Ibn 'Arabi, in the Fusus, cites the Divine saying "I sit with whosoever remembers Me." Whoever has inner sight sees his companion in prayer; whoever lacks it does not, and by this "the one who prays will know his own spiritual degree".
Three worlds and three persons
The prayers constantly contrast the seen world (creation, the Kingdom, mulk) with the unseen (Command, Kingship, malakut), which correspond to "day" and "night". Between them lies the isthmus (barzakh), the world of Compelling Power (jabarut) or Imagination, "the place where meanings take on form and forms are given meaning". "Real prayer takes place in this isthmus between the visible and invisible worlds."
Ibn 'Arabi defines the unseen as "that of you which God has concealed from you, though not from Himself, and thus it indicates Him". In Arabic the third person is literally "the absent", the second "the addressed". To pray is to step from absence into Presence, so that "He" becomes "You". Yet some aspect of "He" always eludes us, and in the mystery of Union "the "You" who listens is not other than the "I" who speaks". The Sunday Eve prayer puts it in one cry: "O You who is the Unlimited "He", while I am the limited "He"!"
The structure of the Awrad
There are fourteen prayers, one for each night and day. The translators find a deeper pattern. Ibn 'Arabi treats the weekly cycle as sacred, a Divine Sign pointing to the reality of Being. The number fourteen recalls the full moon of the lunar month, a symbol of the perfect soul fully receptive to the Spirit; in Arabic, perfect beauty is "a young maid of fourteen". It is also seven doubled: the seven verses of the Fatiha, the seven heavens and seven earths.
Seven days, seven prophets
European languages name the days after planets; Ibn 'Arabi links them also to prophets.
| Day | Planet | Prophet | Secret revealed (Mawaqi' al-nujum) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Sun | Idris | Causes of things before their effects |
| Monday | Moon | Adam | Why stations wax and wane; how God reveals Himself |
| Tuesday | Mars | Aaron or John | Benefit or harm of influences from the Unseen |
| Wednesday | Mercury | Jesus | How the stations are completed and sealed |
| Thursday | Jupiter | Moses | Religious prescriptions; intimate converse |
| Friday | Venus | Joseph | Constant ascension; the Divine decree |
| Day | Planet | Prophet | Secret revealed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday | Saturn | Abraham | Dealing with enemies; the presence of the Substitutes |
The book is Ibn 'Arabi's Mawaqi' al-nujum, written in 595/1199, within a year of his great ascension in Fez. Each day a prophet sends a secret to the heart of the seeker. "This only happens to those who possess a heart." In the 'Anqa' Mughrib he puts it more personally: "If your day is Sunday, then Idris is your Companion, so bother not with anyone!" These, he says, are the Days of the Gnostics.
The night and the letters
In Jewish and Islamic tradition the day begins at sunset, as in Genesis: "the evening and the morning were the first day." Clock time beginning at midnight has hidden this rhythm. For Ibn 'Arabi the night is the Unseen, where the soul is a moon reflecting the Spirit. Days belong to the prophets, nights to the saints, and the knowledge proper to the saints is the science of letters.
A work attributed to Ibn 'Arabi, the Tawajjuhat al-huruf, gives a prayer for each letter, on the model, the translators note, of Psalm 119. Each eve-prayer of the Awrad joins two of these letter-prayers, linked by Quranic verses. The pairs come from laying the abjad numbers on a seven-by-four grid and reading the columns as days.
| Eve of | Letters | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | ha', qaf | Together they suggest qahr, subjugation |
| Monday | waw, ra' | Suggest ruh (spirit) or rawh (joy) |
| Tuesday | shin, ghayn | Force and richness |
| Wednesday | alif, sin | The alif, letter of the Essence, at the centre |
| Thursday | ba', tha' | Causes and firmness |
| Friday | jim, kha' | Gathering, majesty, beauty |
The seventh pair, for Saturday Eve, is dal and sad. The cycle starts on Wednesday Eve with alif. Read from Sunday, alif sits at the heart of the week with six letters on either side. Six is the value of waw, so the week reads waw, alif, waw: the name of the letter waw, which for Ibn 'Arabi stands for the Perfect Man, "in whom all the preceding 27 degrees of existence are collected together". The range also runs from alif (1, the Essence) to ghayn (1,000, multiplicity).
The day of Muhammad
If each day has a prophet, what of Muhammad? Ibn 'Arabi's Ayyam al-sha'n answers that his day is "the known day", in visible effect Tuesday and in essential speciality Friday. "His subtleties permeate every day, and his realities suffuse every hour."
- The universal day. Muhammad's reality is the unit of "day" itself, at every scale.
- Tuesday, the third day: three is the first odd or "singular" number, and the Fusus links the Prophet's wisdom to singularity.
- Friday, the day of gathering: Muhammad synthesizes all earlier messages.
The seven prophets of the days can then be read as modes of the one Perfect Man that the nights spell out.
Manuscripts and translation
Osman Yahia listed almost forty manuscripts; none found so far is older than the early twelfth century of the Hegira, though one indicates a direct connection to Ibn 'Arabi. The Arabic is "extraordinarily full and poetic", rhymed in the manner of the Quran, and dense with allusion. Above all, the translators insist, these are prayers, the expression of "a heart completely given up to God", aimed at pure servanthood. A friend remarked that they teach us to talk to God in the best way, which is not something we know automatically.
Deepening: titles, warid, and contemporaries
The collection circulates as Daily Prayers, Prayers for the Week, Prayers for the Days and Nights, or simply Wird. The root names arriving and the watering place where desert travellers come to drink. In practice a wird is a private devotion at a set time, beyond the five obligatory prayers. What arrives in the heart is the warid.
| Title / term | Sense in this book |
|---|---|
| al-Awrad al-yawmiyya | Daily prayers |
| Awrad al-usbu' | Prayers of the week |
| Wird | Private set devotion; arriving / watering place |
| Warid | What arrives in the heart |
| Theophanic prayer | Aim: see from the perspective of the Real |
Deepening: closeness, dhikr, and conversion
Deepening: fourteen, twenty-eight, and the full moon
Fourteen recalls the full moon of the lunar month, symbol of the perfect soul fully receptive to the Spirit; in Arabic, perfect beauty is "a young maid of fourteen." Tarjuman XL's commentary joins 4 and 10 into 14. Twenty-eight is a perfect number; the translators also note the tetraktys. Seven doubled echoes the seven verses of the Fatiha and the seven heavens and seven earths.
| Number | What it recalls in the introduction |
|---|---|
| 7 | Fatiha verses; heavens and earths; days of the week |
| 14 | Full moon; perfect soul; "maid of fourteen"; night + day prayers |
| 28 | Perfect number; lunar mansions; letters; degrees of existence |
Deepening: Mi'raj, Mawaqi', and the Days of the Gnostics
Ibn 'Arabi's own ascension in Fez (AH 594) and four related works stand behind the weekly map. Mawaqi' al-nujum (595/1199), written within a year of that ascent, assigns each day a prophet's secret: "This only happens to those who possess a heart." 'Anqa' Mughrib puts it personally: "If your day is Sunday, then Idris is your Companion, so bother not with anyone!" These are the Days of the Gnostics. Two cycles run at once: planetary order (space, mi'raj) and weekday order (time, the star).
Deepening: letter pairs and the waw pattern
The Tawajjuhat al-huruf (attributed) gives a prayer per letter, alif through lam-alif (29), on the model of Psalm 119. Eve-prayers of the Awrad join two letter-prayers each (fourteen letters), linked by Quranic verses. The Eastern abjad on a seven-by-four grid yields columns as days. Sunday eve: ha' and qaf (suggesting qahr); Monday: waw and ra' (ruh / rawh); Tuesday: shin and ghayn; Wednesday: alif and sin (Essence at the heart); Thursday: ba' and tha'; Friday: jim and kha'; Saturday: dal and sad. The cycle starts Wednesday Eve. Read from Sunday, six letters on each side of alif spell waw + alif + waw, the name of the letter waw, the Perfect Man in whom the preceding 27 degrees are collected. Range: alif (1, Essence) to ghayn (1000, multiplicity). Minor abjad sum 45 = Adam, "45 sciences."
Deepening: Muhammad's day
Ayyam al-sha'n calls Muhammad's day "the known day": visible effect Tuesday, essential speciality Friday. "His subtleties permeate every day, and his realities suffuse every hour." Three ways: the universal unit of day at every scale; Tuesday as the third day (first singular number; Fusus fardiyya: prophet while Adam was between water and clay; jawami' al-kalim); Friday as jumu'a, synthesis (jam'). The seven prophets of the days become modalities of the one Perfect Man that the nights spell out.
Deepening: manuscripts and servanthood
Osman Yahia listed almost forty manuscripts (RG 64); none found older than the early twelfth century AH (about three hundred years after the author), though one shows a direct connection. A critical edition, the translators say, would not guarantee greater reliability. The Arabic is extraordinarily full and poetic, rhymed in the Quran's manner, dense with allusion. The prayers express "a heart completely given up to God," aimed at pure servanthood; the Fusus notes he never lifted his head to make himself master. A friend remarked that they teach us to talk to God in the best of ways, which is not something we know automatically.
Part 2. The Fourteen Prayers
The opening prayer and the prayers for each eve and morning, pp. 23-71, read with the translators' notes, pp. 73-98. For each day: the governing letters or prophet, the main themes, and lines worth carrying.
How to read the prayers
Three threads run through all fourteen. Annihilation and subsistence: the servant asks to disappear in God and to remain through Him. Poverty and richness: to be rich through God is to be completely poor towards Him. Majesty and beauty: some prayers ask for protection against enemies and for awe, others for gentleness, intimacy and forgiveness. The "enemies" are both outer oppressors and the inner self.
| Thread | Typical line |
|---|---|
| Annihilation | "My annihilation is in You; my subsistence is through You" (Sunday Morning) |
| Poverty | "a richness that establishes my complete poverty towards You" (Tuesday Eve) |
| Perspective | "Let me contemplate my essence from Your standpoint, not from mine" (Saturday Eve) |
| Union | "Union is the very secret of servanthood" (Sunday Morning) |
The opening prayer
A short litany of requests, each for a faculty set right: guidance, inspiration, "a heart certain of His Truth", "a soul at peace from ignorance", insight to witness the mystery of Being, a disposition responsive to the Divine Law, and an instant open to God's uniting and distinguishing. It closes: "The One desired is God, both in Being and in witnessing".
Sunday: the day of the One
Eve (ha' and qaf). The letters give the Name of the Ipseity, "He", and a cluster of words in qaf: subjugating, standing, power, closeness, holiness, heart. The translators count more than seventy qafs in the second half. The prayer asks for protection, for "possession of my self", and for "an eloquent tongue and truthful speech", a heart "in utter poverty", and the removal of "the blood-clot of blameworthiness from my heart", an allusion to the opening of the Prophet's breast in childhood.
Morning (Idris). Sunday is yawm al-ahad, which can mean the Day of the One; Ibn 'Arabi notes that "Some gnostics fast on Sunday specifically because it is the Day of the One". This is the longest prayer and the great hymn of Unity.
"By vision of You veil me from vision of me!"
"How am I to aspire to You when You are behind every aspiration?"
"Seeking does not reach You"
The prayer turns into a sequence of paradoxes. "How can I know You when You are the Inwardly Hidden who is not known?" And: "How can I not know You when You are the Outwardly Manifest". Only God truly realizes His own Unity: "none knows You except You." The servant asks "that I may flee from me to You", and then rejoices: "Nothing is lost to me when I have found You!"
Monday: condescension as a ladder
Eve (waw and ra'). The letters give words of embracing and exaltation, lordship, compassion and spirit. Its central paradox: "the closest we can reach in our ascension to You is condescension" on God's side, and the noblest human quality before Him is self-abasement. So the servant prays: "let Your condescension be a ladder by which I may rise to You". The notes cite Abu Yazid al-Bistami, told by God that he could draw near only by what does not belong to God: abasement and neediness. The prayer asks too for "a character by which I embrace all that is created".
Morning (Adam). Ibn 'Arabi counts Monday, not Sunday, as "the beginning of the days", since the Unique of Sunday is not a number. The prayer calls on Names in turn, Knowing, Wise, Hearing, Seeing, and asks for "a governing divine nature, and a subservient human nature". Its images are of the moon: "make my moon disappear beneath the lights of [Your] Qualities". It asks: "liberate me from all the shackles of limited belief!" And it states the doctrine plainly: "my non-existence in You is my very existence".
Tuesday: force and unveiling
Eve (shin and ghayn). This is a prayer of Divine Majesty: God "Most Forceful in assault", vanquisher of oppressors. The servant asks to share in the Name the Forceful and that his anger "in defence of You" be joined to God's. It borrows the Quranic wall "with a door in it", compassion inside and chastisement outside (Q 57:13). Then it turns inward: "Let me witness existence as a cycle and the journey as an orbit", until "the dot of the ghayn is removed from me". The notes explain: ghayn begins the word for "other"; remove its dot and it becomes 'ayn, "Essence".
Morning (Aaron and John). Two manuscripts record Ibn 'Arabi's own account: "Two men of awesome mien, dressed in white, appeared to me during a retreat", and told him to recite this prayer, the Prayer of Unveiling. Another manuscript places the vision on the Mountain of Opening in AH 610.
The prayer asks to be immersed "in the fathomless ocean of Your Uniqueness" and contains one of the book's most memorable lines: "There is no shelter or safe-hold from You except in You." And: "how can You make me despair of Your Giving when You have ordered me to ask of You?"
Wednesday: the alif at the centre
Eve (alif and sin). The first part meditates on the alif, the upright letter of the Essence. "Your Name is master of the Names." The servant asks for the station of Universal Support, to be "the qibla of every facing". Moses' burning bush appears: the Divine "I" was said three times, and three is the number of Muhammad. Then the cry: "O He who is He! He is what He is and I am not!" And: "Verily You, You are You!"
Morning (Jesus). Drawn largely from Sura 21, The Prophets, the prayer asks for "complete gnosis and universal wisdom" and addresses God as "the Lover who is Beloved, and the Seeker who is Sought!" and "O You who makes all hearts turn and turn!" It ends with the Names of forgiveness and veiling and with the words of Jonah in the whale: "indeed I have been of the oppressors."
Thursday: causes and perplexity
Eve (ba' and tha'). Thursday is the day of Moses and of the order of causes. The servant asks to see the causes ascending and descending, so that the eye of the 'ayn is not veiled by the dot of the ghayn. The "Cave of mystical knowledge" recalls the Sleepers of the Cave; the notes give Ibn 'Arabi's two kinds of seclusion, of the body and of the heart.
Morning (Moses). The densest prayer of the week. It asks "for annihilation in Your Subsistence, and for subsistence through You, not with You", and: "Sever me from all that severs me from You".
"how often do I cry out to You as one who calls, when [in truth] You are the One who calls for the caller!"
"if union is the essence of separateness, and closeness the very soul of distance"
It breaks into questions: "what is this "You" and "I"?" Its climax names the limit of all speech: "my silence is a dumbness necessitating deafness, and my speaking is a deafness necessitating dumbness! Perplexity in all, yet there is no perplexity [in You]." The notes cite the Fusus on the man of perplexity, who circles the Pole and never leaves it, while the traveller on the long road seeks elsewhere what is within him.
Friday: gathering the dispersed
Eve (jim and kha'). Jim stands for gathering, majesty and beauty. "You unite the complementary contraries, for You are the Majestic, the Beautiful." The servant asks God to "bring together for me all that is disunited of my being", to be brought "forth from the city of gross nature, whose inhabitants are oppressors", and to be a regent who keeps God's displeasure away from His servants. One verb shows Ibn 'Arabi's wordplay: "You comfort and mend the broken, and You shatter the tyrants", where mending and tyrant share a root.
Morning (Joseph). Addressed only to "Lord", it asks to "advance on and on up the steps of the sciences" and to be purified "from the stain of otherness and from stopping at the stages". The servant asks to be filled with the ink of the Universal Dot to "provide ink for the letters of created things"; the notes add that "Perfect Man is the inkwell". It asks for the secret hidden between the kaf and the nun, the two letters of the creative command kun, "Be".
Saturday: the honoured guest
Eve (dal and sad). "You invite whomsoever You wish to Yourself, and through Yourself You direct them to Yourself." The servant asks: "Let me contemplate my essence from Your standpoint, not from mine". Then a confession of creaturehood: "possibility is my true attribute, non-existence my very substance and poverty my real abode". And the balance of nearness and transcendence: "You are just as I know You and yet far beyond what I know!"
Morning (Abraham). Seven praises for the seventh day, day of Abraham, model of hospitality. The servant is received as a guest: admitted to "the garden of God's Compassion", seated "in the station of God's Love", given food and drink, clothed "in the robe of true servanthood". All of it is given "without any deserving on my part". The week ends with a lover's request: "O my Beloved, I ask You for a swift reunion".
Recurring images
Some images return across the week and are worth tracking. Robes and crowns: the servant asks to be clothed in God's Might, Beauty, Majesty and finally in "the robe of true servanthood". Forelocks: every creature is held by its forelock in God's Hand, and the servant asks to be led by his own. Light and moon: the soul is a moon whose own light must disappear in the light of God's Qualities. Letters and dots: the dot of ghayn, the silent vowel of lam, the ink of the Universal Dot, the secret between kaf and nun. The notes show that each image has a root in the Quran or hadith.
Day-by-day map (dense)
| Day | Eve letters | Morning prophet | Leading theme | Key line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | ha', qaf | Idris | Unity / Day of the One | "When He unveils, there is no other" |
| Monday | waw, ra' | Adam | Condescension as ladder | "let Your condescension be a ladder" |
| Tuesday | shin, ghayn | Aaron / John | Force and unveiling | "no shelter from You except in You" |
| Wednesday | alif, sin | Jesus | Alif at the centre | "Verily You, You are You!" |
| Thursday | ba', tha' | Moses | Causes and perplexity | "I do not ask of You other than You" |
| Friday | jim, kha' | Joseph | Gathering the dispersed | "bring together all that is disunited" |
| Saturday | dal, sad | Abraham | Honoured guest | "from Your standpoint, not from mine" |
Deepening: Sunday Eve and Morning
Sunday Eve (ha' and qaf) opens under the Light of the Face and the cry "O You who is the Unlimited 'He', while I am the limited 'He'!" The qaf cluster (subjugating, standing, power, closeness, holiness, heart) runs more than seventy times in the second half. Requests include possession of the self, an eloquent tongue and truthful speech, a heart in utter poverty, tranquillity and dignity, and removal of "the blood-clot of blameworthiness," alluding to the opening of the Prophet's breast. Notes link ha' to huwiyya and the line "there is no he except He," mirroring the shahada; Creation and Command (Fut II:575); inqalaba sharing the root of qalb; and Tarjuman XI, "My heart has become capable of all forms."
Sunday Morning is yawm al-ahad, Day of the One; some gnostics fast Sunday for that reason. Paradoxes pile: unveil / veil; Inward in Uniqueness and Outward in Oneness; Praiser and Praised; "How am I to aspire to You when You are behind every aspiration?"; "Seeking does not reach You"; "Union is the very secret of servanthood"; "none knows You except You." The servant asks "that I may flee from me to You" and rejoices "Nothing is lost to me when I have found You!" Annihilation and subsistence pair with pen and tablet, peace and war. Notes recall the hadith "God is and there is with Him no thing" and "He is now as He has [always] been"; Existence as the macrocosmic Quran (Fut IV:167); the Perfect Man "as the pupil is for the eye"; Idris chapter: "He is the Manifest to Himself and the Hidden from Himself!"
"By vision of You veil me from vision of me!"
"My annihilation is in You; my subsistence is through You"
"Union is the very secret of servanthood"
Deepening: Monday Eve and Morning
Monday Eve (waw and ra') centres on embracing knowledge and exaltation, lordship, compassion and spirit. "The closest we can reach in our ascension to You is condescension"; "the noblest of our qualities with regard to You is self-abasement"; "let Your condescension be a ladder by which I may rise to You." It asks for a character that embraces all created things, for intimacy with hope and fear, and for the cloak of satisfaction. "Your Closeness is the joy of the spirits" plays on ruh / rawh. Notes cite the hadith qudsi that the heart contains Me, and Bistami: draw near by what does not belong to God, abasement and neediness.
Monday Morning (Adam) treats Monday as "the beginning of the days," since Sunday's Unique is not a number. Names sequence: Knowing, Wise, Hearing, Seeing, Aware, Living, Willing. It asks for "a governing divine nature, and a subservient human nature," cries "as one who is distant calls out for help from one who is close," and "as a lover yearning for their beloved." Moon image: "make my moon disappear beneath the lights of [Your] Qualities." "Liberate me from all the shackles of limited belief!" "my non-existence in You is my very existence." Refuge "from myself"; blessing on Muhammad in the "white robe of eternal compassion" (shroud / ihram). Notes: no real distance, "only an imagined chasm"; hadith "I seek refuge in You from You."
Deepening: Tuesday Eve and Morning
Tuesday Eve (shin and ghayn) is Majesty: Most Forceful, vanquisher of oppressors. Anger "in defence of You" joined to God's Anger; the wall with a door (Q 57:13), compassion inside and chastisement outside; "make me rich through You"; lote-tree of the extreme limit; "Let me witness existence as a cycle and the journey as an orbit"; silent vowel of lam; "the dot of the ghayn is removed from me and the One returns to the two" (ghayn to 'ayn); "a richness that establishes my complete poverty towards You." Notes: Lot's "firm support" as himma; raqa'iq as ladders (Fut III:260); sidrat al-muntaha as furthest point of the soul.
Tuesday Morning, the Prayer of Unveiling (du'a' al-kashf), was given by "two men of awesome mien, dressed in white" in a retreat; another manuscript places it on the Mountain of Opening in AH 610 with the charge to transmit it to sincere seekers. Mosaic sea and calf imagery fill the prayer. "Immerse me in the fathomless ocean of Your Uniqueness"; robe of Might; "There is no shelter or safe-hold from You except in You"; "how can You make me despair of Your Giving when You have ordered me to ask of You?"; enemies distanced as East and West.
Deepening: Wednesday Eve and Morning
Wednesday Eve (alif and sin) meditates the upright alif: "Your Name is master of the Names"; all "he" and "I" need the Most Holy Effusion; Name uniting Creation and Command; Universal Support to still motions and be "the qibla of every facing"; Moses' firebrand and the I-ness said thrice (three of Muhammad); "O He who is He! He is what He is and I am not!"; Alif of the Unseen; unity of the multiple interiorly and multiplicity of the unit exteriorly; "Verily You, You are You!"; "Say: 'God' and then leave them to play" (Abu Madyan from Q 6:91); Alif lam mim; "You have banished my darkness with Your Light."
Wednesday Morning (Jesus), drawn largely from Sura 21, asks for "complete gnosis and universal wisdom," addresses God as "the Lover who is Beloved, and the Seeker who is Sought!" and "O You who makes all hearts turn and turn!" Names of forgiveness and veiling; Jonah's words "indeed I have been of the oppressors." Notes: Jesus as Seal of Universal Sainthood; divine/human nature confusions around Jesus; Job and Jonah as models of turning.
Deepening: Thursday Eve and Morning
Thursday Eve (ba' and tha') asks to witness causes ascending and descending "so that the eye of the 'ayn is not veiled by the [dot of the] ghayn"; key of the listening ear; Cave of mystical knowledge (Sleepers; two seclusions of body and heart in Hilyat al-abdal); Incomparable Inventor (al-Badi'); "Be" and it becomes (place of manifestation, Fut II:484); mantle of Pride; "Keep me in the lowliness of servanthood."
Thursday Morning (Moses) is the densest prayer. "Annihilation in Your Subsistence, and for subsistence through You, not with You"; "Sever me from all that severs me from You"; "You are the Truly Existent, while I am the fundamentally non-existent"; "that I may be as I was when I was not at all"; "You have desired me and You have desired through me"; primordial spirits bewildered; "Syriac" subtleties; "how often do I cry out to You as one who calls, when [in truth] You are the One who calls for the caller!"; "if union is the essence of separateness, and closeness the very soul of distance"; "rational evidence does not substantiate You, nor logical proof verify You!"; "what is this 'You' and 'I'?"; "my silence is a dumbness necessitating deafness, and my speaking is a deafness necessitating dumbness! Perplexity in all, yet there is no perplexity [in You]." Notes: Fusus Noah on the man of perplexity who circles the Pole; Moses' call versus confiding (nida' / najwa); mountain extinction (Q 7:143); Khidr's private knowledge; seven essential attributes.
"You have desired me and You have desired through me"
"acts of obedience do not profit You, nor do acts of disobedience harm You"
"I do not ask of You other than You"
Deepening: Friday Eve and Morning
Friday Eve (jim and kha'): "You unite the complementary contraries, for You are the Majestic, the Beautiful"; "bring together for me all that is disunited of my being"; robe of Beauty, diadem of Majesty; "Bring me forth from the city of gross nature, whose inhabitants are oppressors" (Q 4:75); "In my poverty towards You, make me rich"; "You comfort and mend the broken, and You shatter the tyrants" (shared root j-b-r); garden and silk; vicegerency; regent who keeps displeasure from servants. Jim also names the starless sphere, the "high fathers."
Friday Morning addresses only "Lord" (rabb). "Advance on and on up the steps of the sciences"; "turn round and round in the degrees of the mysteries"; witness all things standing through You; Alif of Holy Essence detach; Universal Dot to "provide ink for the letters of created things"; purify "from the stain of otherness and from stopping at the stages"; mirror that burns the commanding self; "Erase the appearances of created things from the tablet of my mind"; secret "hidden between the kaf and the nun." Notes: four thoughts (lordly, psychic, angelic, satanic) via al-Habashi; 70 veils; Perfect Man as inkwell; kun with waw hidden; Abu Madyan on the Command between kaf and nun; Joseph's soul that commands wrong (Q 12:53).
Deepening: Saturday Eve and Morning
Saturday Eve (dal and sad): "You invite whomsoever You wish to Yourself, and through Yourself You direct them to Yourself"; devoted to Will at each instant; "wisdom coupled with authority"; "Let me contemplate my essence from Your standpoint, not from mine"; keys of Unseen; "possibility is my true attribute, non-existence my very substance and poverty my real abode"; "You are just as I know You and yet far beyond what I know!"; "You are with every thing, and yet with You there is no thing!"; "pure Good, sheer Generosity, unlimited Perfection"; refuge from speech that sows doubt. Notes: Kursi; 28 lunar mansions as beneficial and harmful; Ansari's Manazil al-Sa'irin.
Part 3. Time, the Soul, Number and Letter
Appendices A-D, pp. 101-123. The translators set out Ibn 'Arabi's teaching on time from his Ayyam al-sha'n, the "creative week" of the Universal Soul, the two abjad systems, and his contemplations on the letters alif and waw.
The circle of time
The most evident symbol of Unity is the circle: every point on the circumference stands in the same relation to the centre. Ibn 'Arabi pictures the Divine Throne as such a circle, containing all degrees of existence. Seen as circular, time also symbolizes Unity: year, month, week and day are complete cycles, and small calendar errors do not touch the symbolism. Cycles correspond to one another: the 28 degrees of existence match the 28 mansions of the moon and the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, from the Pen or First Intellect down to the Perfect Man, who gathers the whole.
For Ibn 'Arabi each corporeal day, one turn of the sphere of the fixed stars, contains within it a spiritual day, "during which the intellect receives its knowledge, the insight its contemplation and the spirit its secrets", as the body receives its food during the physical day.
The prophets thus have two orders. In space they follow the planets, which is the order of the Prophet's ascension. In time they follow the days, along the star. The translators stress that the diagram is their own representation, never drawn by Ibn 'Arabi.
Three kinds of day
| Day | Quranic sign | How night and day relate |
|---|---|---|
| Cyclical day (yawm al-takwir) | Q 39:5, He wraps day around night | The familiar sequence: Sunday eve, then Sunday morning |
| Detached day (yawm al-salkh) | Q 36:37, We detach the day from the night | Known only to the gnostics: Sunday eve is joined to Wednesday morning, and so on |
| Interwoven day (yawm al-ilaj) | Q 31:29, night enters day and day enters night | Each hour interlocks with hours of other nights and days |
Ibn 'Arabi notes that people of the solar calendar give precedence to the day, people of the lunar calendar to the night. In the detached day, the "work" of the first night shows itself in the day-time of the fourth. He calls the day-time "the shadow of the night and according to its form". The interwoven hours, drawn on a circle of fourteen points, again trace seven-pointed stars.
The creative week of the Soul
Appendix B rebuilds a table from Ibn 'Arabi's "The Days of God's Work". On each day the spiritual realities of the seven spheres help the Universal Soul at full, half or quarter strength, according to an alchemical correspondence between planets and elements. Saturn is cold and dry, Jupiter hot and moist, Mars and the Sun hot and dry, Venus and the Moon cold and moist, Mercury mixed.
The abjad systems
Ibn 'Arabi knew two letter-number systems. The Eastern ends with ghayn, which indicates the West, and is used, he says, by the "people of lights"; the Western ends with shin, indicating the East, and is preferred by the "people of secrets". The Eastern system underlies the choice of letters for the night prayers. For Ibn 'Arabi this science is a means of contemplation, and he does not give it the prominence of writers such as al-Buni, whose letter-prayers, the translators judge, cannot match these in clarity or inspiration. A shorter form keeps only units: 'ayn is 7 in both systems, ghayn 1 or 9.
Alif and waw
Letters, for Ibn 'Arabi, are a field of Divine manifestation. The alif comes from deep in the chest, closest to the breath, a symbol of primordiality; the waw is formed at the lips, the outermost point, after the breath has passed every other point of articulation. So the waw carries the powers of all letters and is the symbol of the Perfect Man.
"The alif is silent whilst the letters speak."
"The letters are Moses and the alif is the staff."
The waw is the number six, the first perfect number, product of ba' (2, the First Intellect) and jim (3, the first odd number). It "preserves itself", since its powers always return to six, and it appears in huwa, "He". The creation (kawn) is the shadow of the Divine command kun, and in kun the waw is hidden, showing only as a vowel.
Seen from the side of the Divine Form, creation is non-existence; seen from its own essence, it is existence. "Nobody knows this", Ibn 'Arabi says, except one who knows what separates the two waws, which is the alif. He adds the hadith "God created Adam according to His Form".
Deepening: circle, Throne, and correspondences
The circle is the most evident symbol of Unity: every point on the circumference stands in the same relation to the centre. Ibn 'Arabi pictures the Divine Throne as such a circle, containing all degrees of existence. Seen as circular, time also symbolizes Unity: year, month, week and day are complete cycles; small calendar errors do not touch the symbolism. Correspondences lock: 28 degrees of existence = 28 lunar mansions = 28 letters, from the Pen or First Intellect down to the Perfect Man who gathers the whole.
| Cycle | Correspondence in Appendix A |
|---|---|
| 28 degrees of existence | From Pen to Perfect Man |
| 28 lunar mansions | Beneficial and harmful stations |
| 28 Arabic letters | Field of Divine manifestation |
| Corporeal day | One turn of the fixed stars |
| Spiritual day within it | Intellect knowledge, insight contemplation, spirit secrets |
Deepening: three kinds of day in practice
Cyclical day (yawm al-takwir, Q 39:5): the familiar wrapping of day around night; solar people give precedence to day, lunar people to night. Detached day (yawm al-salkh, Q 36:37): known only to gnostics; Sunday eve joins Wednesday morning, and so on; the day-time is "the shadow of the night and according to its form." Interwoven day (yawm al-ilaj, Q 31:29): hours interlock; drawn on a circle of fourteen points they again trace seven-pointed stars. One manuscript says the prayer for the "first night" is to be read in the first hour of Thursday eve. The translators connect the final diagram with nizam, harmony, and with Nizam of Mecca, the "maid of fourteen" of Tarjuman XL.
Deepening: the Soul's creative week
Appendix B rebuilds "The Days of God's Work." On each day the spiritual realities of the seven spheres help the Universal Soul at full, half or quarter strength by element. Madkhal correspondences: Saturn cold dry, Jupiter hot moist, Mars hot dry, Sun hot dry, Venus cold moist, Mercury mixed, Moon cold moist. Wednesday is unique: every sphere helped, "the basis of an immense knowledge," day of Light, centre of the week as the Sun among planets. The translators' completed table totals 24 "hours" and is symmetrical along its diagonal; bracketed entries are their deductions.
| Planet | Quality (Madkhal) | Role in the table |
|---|---|---|
| Saturn | Cold and dry | Helps Soul by measure of day |
| Jupiter | Hot and moist | Helps Soul by measure of day |
| Mars | Hot and dry | Helps Soul by measure of day |
| Sun | Hot and dry | Centre among planets |
| Venus | Cold and moist | Helps Soul by measure of day |
| Mercury | Mixed | Helps Soul by measure of day |
| Moon | Cold and moist | Helps Soul by measure of day |
Deepening: Eastern and Western abjad
Ibn 'Arabi knew two systems. Eastern ends with ghayn (indicating the West), used by "people of lights"; Western ends with shin (indicating the East), preferred by "people of secrets." The Eastern system underlies the night-prayer letters. For him this science is contemplation, not the prominence given by writers such as al-Buni, whose letter-prayers the translators judge cannot match these in clarity or inspiration. A shorter (minor) form keeps only units: 'ayn is 7 in both; ghayn is 1 or 9. Minor abjad sum 45 equals Adam.
Deepening: alif, waw, kun and kawn
"everything is dependent on it, while it is dependent on nothing." Mashahid: "The alif is silent whilst the letters speak"; "The letters are Moses and the alif is the staff." The world appears through horizontal movement ("ailment"); Cause of causes is critiqued when it eclipses the alif.
Waw is six, first perfect number: ba' (2, First Intellect) times jim (3). It "preserves itself" (powers of 6 return to 6); appears in huwa (ha' + waw); graphically contains ha'. Creation (kawn) is the shadow of the command kun; in kun the waw is hidden, showing only as a vowel (damma), and appears in yakunu. Five prayers = 50 (Bukhari note in the book). Ibn Qasi (d. 1151) in Khal' al-na'layn and the hadith "God created Adam according to His Form" support the reading. The letter's name is waw + alif + waw: Creator waw, alif as veil of Uniqueness, creation waw. Seen from the Divine Form, creation is non-existence; from its own essence, existence. "Nobody knows this" except one who knows what separates the two waws, the alif. Ibn Sina (980-1037) described perfect numbers in Arabic.
"The letters are Moses and the alif is the staff."
"God created Adam according to His Form."
Creation (kawn) is the shadow of kun; the waw is hidden in the command and appears in what comes to be.
Synthesis
A revision map of the Seven Days: takeaways, frameworks, closer look, Who's Who, and practice points that stay inside the book's own spiritual distinctions.
Across the book
The introduction sets out a theory of prayer: all beings ask, God answers, and both sides ask and are asked. Prayer takes place in the heart, in the isthmus between seen and unseen, where the absent "He" becomes the present "You". The week is a sacred cycle; days belong to prophets and nights to letters, and the whole spells the waw of the Perfect Man. Muhammad's day permeates every hour, with Tuesday and Friday as special signs.
The prayers apply this theory day by day: Unity on Sunday, condescension on Monday, force and unveiling on Tuesday, the alif on Wednesday, causes and perplexity on Thursday, gathering on Friday, hospitality on Saturday.
The appendices place the structure in Ibn 'Arabi's wider vision of time (three kinds of day), the Soul's creative week, number (two abjad systems) and letter (alif and waw).
Twenty-four takeaways
| # | Takeaway |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Awrad are intimate and educational, not communal ordinary devotion. |
| 2 | The Divine work is answering requests; nothing exists that is not asking (Q 55:29). |
| 3 | God asks and is asked, and the servant too is both (talib wa matlub). |
| 4 | There is no time-gap between true asking and response (Fut IV:255). |
| 5 | The aim of prayer is to see from the perspective of the Real. |
| 6 | The written prayer is half a conversation, like one side of a telephone call. |
| 7 | The heart turns with each self-revelation; its sight shows one's spiritual degree. |
| 8 | Real prayer happens in the isthmus of imagination between the two worlds. |
| 9 | "He", "You" and "I" map onto the unseen, the isthmus and the seen. |
| 10 | "O my God" and "O God" are relational and absolute modes of address. |
| 11 | The week is a Divine Sign; fourteen is the full moon and the perfect soul. |
| 12 | Each weekday carries one prophet's secret to those who possess a heart. |
| 13 | The day begins at sunset; nights belong to the saints and the science of letters. |
| 14 | The night letters are chosen by number, and the week spells waw. |
| 15 | Muhammad's day is every day, with Tuesday and Friday as special signs. |
| 16 | Annihilation and subsistence, poverty and richness, majesty and beauty run through every prayer. |
| 17 | Perplexity is a station, not a failure: the perplexed circles the Pole. |
| 18 | Time is circular and layered: cyclical, detached and interwoven days. |
| 19 | Alif is the Essence, waw the Perfect Man; creation is the shadow of "Be". |
| 20 | The end is pure servanthood: to be received as God's guest without deserving. |
| 21 | Wednesday is the centre: day of Light, alif, Jesus, all spheres helping the Soul. |
| 22 | Idris and Jesus mirror: Pole in space and Seal of Sainthood in time. |
| 23 | Ghayn to 'ayn: remove the dot of otherness and Essence remains. |
| 24 | Ask for God, not a proxy: "I do not ask of You other than You." |
Frameworks and mental models
| Framework | Elements | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Circle of request | Call, answer, no time-gap | Understanding prayer as relation |
| Three worlds | Kingdom, isthmus, Kingship | Locating where prayer happens |
| Three persons | I, You, He | Reading the shifts of address |
| Weekly map | Seven days, prophets, planets | Giving each day a quality |
| Letter pairs | Fourteen letters, abjad grid | Reading the night prayers |
| Three days | Cyclical, detached, interwoven | Seeing time as layered |
| Waw pattern | Six + alif + six | Week as Perfect Man |
| Poverty / richness | Rich through God, poor toward Him | Hearing every request for wealth |
| Annihilation / subsistence | In You / through You | Reading fana' and baqa' lines |
| Kun / kawn | Command and its shadow | Friday's secret between kaf and nun |
Five windows at a glance
| Window | What the Awrad show |
|---|---|
| Liturgical Ibn 'Arabi | Intimate educational prayers beside the great metaphysics |
| Request and response | Divine work as answering; both sides ask and are asked |
| Weekly cosmos | Prophets, planets, letters, three kinds of day |
| Letter and number | Abjad pairs; alif Essence; waw Perfect Man; kun/kawn |
| Servanthood | Annihilation, subsistence, poverty, guest without deserving |
A closer look
Reconstructed structure. The waw pattern, the seven-sphere diagram and parts of the Soul's table are the translators' constructions from clues elsewhere; they say so, and readers should weigh them as interpretation.
Translation limits. Rhyme and sound, central to the Arabic, are lost; italics and notes can only point to them.
Martial language. Requests to vanquish enemies may jar; the notes show their Quranic sources, and the prayers themselves turn them toward the self, but a reader without the notes may misread them.
Who's Who
Dates are those printed in the book; people for whom it prints none are listed without dates.
| Person | Role in the book |
|---|---|
| Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) | Author to whom the prayers are attributed |
| Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein | Translators and introducers (Anqa) |
| Ibn Mashish (d. 1228) | Contemporary author of a famous prayer |
| Shadhili (d. 1258) | Author of the Prayer of the Sea |
| Mahdawi (d. 1224) | Author of the Prayer of Blessing |
| Ibn Qasi (d. 1151) | Andalusian Sufi cited on the waw |
| Ibn Sina (980-1037) | Described the perfect numbers in Arabic |
| Abu Madyan | Invocation "Say God"; verse on kaf and nun |
| Abu Yazid al-Bistami | Drawing near through abasement and need |
| al-Buni | Letter-prayers, compared unfavourably |
| Osman Yahia | Catalogued almost forty manuscripts (RG 64) |
| Bulent Rauf | Introduced Hirtenstein to the prayers |
| Michel Valsan | Unpublished French work acknowledged |
| Chodkiewicz | Acknowledged; wider Akbari context |
| Daud Sutton | Star diagrams for the appendices |
| Nizam | The woman of Mecca, "maid of fourteen" |
| Idris, Adam, Aaron/John, Jesus, Moses, Joseph, Abraham | Prophets of the seven days |
| Muhammad | Day that permeates every day; Tue and Fri signs |
Applying It (inside the book's own distinctions)
2. Give each day a quality. Prophet and letters colour attention.
3. Begin at sunset. Night first.
4. Pray from God's standpoint. Saturday Eve's line.
5. Turn force inward. Enemies as the commanding self.
6. Ask for God alone. Thursday's refusal of proxies.
7. Receive as guest. Saturday's hospitality without deserving.
Questions for Discussion
- If God is both the One who asks and the One asked, what does that change in how you pray or hope?
- What does it mean that real prayer happens in imagination, the isthmus between seen and unseen?
- How persuasive is the hidden structure of letters and numbers, and does persuasiveness matter for prayer?
- How should modern readers take the requests against enemies, once the notes turn them toward the self?
- Can the sense of a week as a cycle of distinct qualities survive in a life ruled by clock time?
- What would it mean to see yourself "from Your standpoint, not from mine"?
- Why does the book place Wednesday, Jesus and the alif at the centre of the week?
- How does "a richness that establishes my complete poverty" differ from ordinary ideas of spiritual gain?
Sequence checklist
Glossary
Terms as the Beneito and Hirtenstein Anqa edition uses them. Short glosses only; see the chapters for argument and evidence.
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| Wird (pl. awrad) | Private devotional prayer at set times; root of arriving |
| Warid | What arrives in the heart; the gift that answers the wird |
| Dhikr | Invocation, remembrance |
| Qalb | Heart, the organ that turns |
| Taqallub | The heart's turning with each self-revelation |
| Tawhid | Unity, Union |
| Talib / matlub | The one who asks / the one asked; both God and servant |
| Du'a' | Supplication, request |
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| Mulk | Kingdom: the seen world |
| Malakut | Kingship: the unseen world |
| Jabarut | Compelling Power: the isthmus, imagination |
| Barzakh | Isthmus that joins and separates |
| Ghayb | The unseen, the absent |
| Huwiyya | Ipseity, He-ness |
| Ani'yya | I-ness of the servant in the seen world |
| Anta | "You": address of presence in the isthmus |
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| Ilahi | "O my God": relational address |
| Allahumma | "O God": absolute address |
| Abjad | Letter-number system, Eastern and Western |
| Alif | First letter; the Essence; Moses' staff |
| Waw | Letter of the Perfect Man; the number six |
| Kun / kawn | "Be" / creation, its shadow |
| Ghayn / 'ayn | Otherness / Essence; remove the dot |
| Ha' | Letter of the Essence in huwa; centre of the chest |
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| Perfect Man | The human being who gathers all degrees of existence |
| Abdal | The Substitutes, linked with Saturday |
| Fard, fardiyya | Singularity; the number three |
| Raqa'iq | Connecting threads between levels of existence |
| Sidrat al-muntaha | Lote-tree of the extreme limit |
| Sha'n | Divine work, affair (Ayyam al-sha'n) |
| Fana' / baqa' | Annihilation / subsistence |
| Faqr / ghina' | Poverty / richness toward God |
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| Yawm al-takwir | Cyclical day (ordinary sequence) |
| Yawm al-salkh | Detached day (gnostic linkages) |
| Yawm al-ilaj | Interwoven day (hours interlocking) |
| Manazil | Lunar mansions; stations of the path |
| Nizam | Harmony; the woman of Mecca, "maid of fourteen" |
| Mi'raj | Night Ascension; pattern for spiritual ascent |
| Qutb | Pole; Idris as Pole in space |
| Khatm | Seal; Jesus as Seal of Sainthood in time |
| Day / prophet | Note in this book |
|---|---|
| Sunday / Idris | Unity, Pole in space |
| Monday / Adam | Beginning, intimacy, clay |
| Tuesday / Aaron and John | Force, unveiling; Muhammadan sign |
| Wednesday / Jesus | Alif, Light, centre of the week |
| Thursday / Moses | Converse, perplexity, causes |
| Friday / Joseph | Gathering, ascent, kaf and nun |
| Saturday / Abraham | Hospitality, Substitutes, guest |
| Muhammad's day | Permeates every day; Tue and Fri special |
About this book
The Seven Days of the Heart: Prayers for the Nights and Days of the Week by Ibn 'Arabi, 2000. This is a chapter-by-chapter study of the book, with summaries, maps, tables and diagrams; short quotations keep their page references. It is shared free for personal study, is not for sale, and is not endorsed by the author or publisher. Please read and buy the original.
Insight Editions · rajeshrmahapatra.com/insight-editions