A good part of the work of René Guénon is finally available in Arabic. Nine books have been published by a Jordanian publisher, عالم الكتب الحديث (Modern Books’ World). This is major news, as previously the work of Guénon seemed to have been received with interest in the Muslim world in Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, and Bosnia—but not in the Arab world.
The translations are all by Shaykh Abdul Baqi Miftah (born 1952), an Algerian scholar and shaykh. He was born in the small town of Guemar in the province of El Oued, an agricultural area. His father was an imam and a Tijani, and he started reading Ibn Arabi as a teenager.
He studied physics at the University of Algiers, where, at the age of about 20, he discovered the work of Guénon. He later told an interviewer: "I was quite amazed by the breadth of Guénon’s outward and inward knowledge... Just as I believe that the greatest unveiler of spiritual realities after the Prophets is Ibn ʿArabi, so too do I think that the greatest spiritual figure to have come from the west is René Guénon. Indeed, his explication of metaphysical doctrines perfectly accords with Ibn ʿArabi’s perspective, which is not surprising, since there is only one Reality."
At the age of about 21 he joined the Habriyya, a branch of the Darqawiyya. He taught science and mathematics in local high schools, and on the advice of his shaykh, Sayyid Muhammad Belkaid al-Tilimisani (1911-1998), opened a zawiya of his own in Guemar in 1988. He began to write about Ibn Arabi, on whom he published his first book in 1997, followed by several more.
He started to translate Guénon at the suggestion of Guénon's son Abd al-Wahid, who was a follower of the son of his own shaykh, and the first translation was published in 2013 (see cover image above). On at least one occasion he edited his translation to remove some of Guénon’s universalist positions, which are of course problematic from most Islamic perspectives.
PDFs of the translations are all available on the Internet Archive, at https://archive.org/details/RG-Arabic/RG%20-%20Tarbiyya-Tahaqquq/mode/2up.
It would be interesting to know more about the reception of these translations in Algeria, in Jordan, and beyond.
My thanks to BJ for bringing Shaykh Abdul Baqi’s translations to my attention, and my thanks to an the reader of this blog who left the first comment below, directing me to the interview from which I quoted above. This is Hany Ibrahim and Mohammed Rustom, "An Interview with Abdel Baki Meftah,
Algerian Master of Akbarian Teachings," Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society 72, 2022, available at https://traditionalhikma.com/an-interview-with-abdel-baki-meftahalgerian-master-of-akbarian-teachings/. After reading this article, I made major revisions to this blog post.
5 comments:
"I discovered Guénon’s writings when I was a university student, so
at around the age of twenty. At that time, I endeavoured to purchase
and read all of his books. I also read the writings of those influenced
by him, particularly the distinguished authorities and scholars
Michel Valsan (d.1974), Titus Burckhardt (d.1984), Frithjof Schuon
(d.1998), Martin Lings (d. 2005), Jean-Louis Michon (d. 2013), and
their students."
https://www.academia.edu/93955578/An_Interview_with_Abdel_Baki_Meftah_Algerian_Master_of_Akbarian_Teachings_JMIAS_2022_
"...On at least one occasion he edited his translation to remove some of Guénon’s universalist positions, which are of course problematic from most Islamic perspectives..."
This type of behaviour, which is typical of such people, severely discredits them. It stands to reason that these translations are unfaithful to Guenon's work and hence don't really have much value. It would also mean that the translators haven't really understood Guenon that well. It's better to just stick to the originals in French and maybe English.
"I was quite amazed by the breadth of Guénon’s outward and
inward knowledge and his penetrating insights, the universality of
his perception, its comprehensive anchoring in metaphysics, and his
tasting (dhawq) of these realities. Just as I believe that the greatest
unveiler of spiritual realities after the Prophets is Ibn ʿArabi, so too
do I think that the greatest spiritual figure to have come from the west
is René Guénon. Indeed, his explication of metaphysical doctrines
perfectly accords with Ibn ʿArabi’s perspective, which is not surpris-
ing, since there is only one Reality.
Among Guénon’s writings, those that I found to be most beneficial
were The Crisis of the Modern World and The Reign of Quantity and
the Signs of the Times, both of which I have translated into Arabic.
I started translating Guénon’s works at the request of his son ʿAbd
al-Wahid, who lives in Cairo and who was initiated into Sufism by
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Latif Bilqaʾid, the son of my master Muhammad
Bilqaʾid."
https://www.academia.edu/93955578/An_Interview_with_Abdel_Baki_Meftah_Algerian_Master_of_Akbarian_Teachings_JMIAS_2022_
I guess Muslim supremacism may have something to do with it . Ibn Arabi himself seems to have believed that Islam was the supreme truth , and thought that the only way for Christians and Jews to be saved was either to embrace Islam or to live under Muslim rule and humbly pay the jizya . ( Ref . Gregory Lipton : ' Rethinking Ibn Arabi ' ).
Yes but according to Guenon all outward traditions are secondary and only the primordial tradition has a supremacy over them all. I'll add that it's not just Islam whose proclamations are intolerant in this aspect, but all the abrahamic forms. All 3 of them believe they are the only truth to the exclusion of everything else on an exoteric level at least. Few of their adherents are able to rise above this limitation. Anyways, since we're talking about Guenon's works, it's disrespectful and disingenuous to modify his books, or anyone else's in order to make them fit with whatever wishes one has. This makes them more distortions than translations.
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