The Author's Introduction

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Praise be to God, who gives shape to phantom bodies and light to the spirits (ʿarwāḥ), who cleaves the breaths of morning and creates the souls (anfus) of the dawn. And blessing upon our master Muḥammad, whose sending was announced in the sound books, who spoke with the most eloquent of words; who is the best opener of the gates of good, and the brightest lamp in the darkness of the night of unbelief. And upon his family and his Companions, guides upon the path of deliverance and the road of success.

And now: this weak servant says that for a long while I had a strong desire to write a book on the soul (nafs) and the spirit, gathering into it what people have said and what has been disclosed by way of unveilings (futūḥ). But what turned me away from this aim was a thing whose benefit was more general, and what turned me away from that discourse was a thing whose compiling was more pressing; for I was appointed to deliver lessons in disciplines of various kinds and charged with commenting upon books composed in the sciences and the conjectural arts — until it happened, one day, that I stood before the lord of mankind, the learned and devout sultan, the most exalted master, the warrior for the faith, who joined kingship to religion, who with the strength of his right hand crushed the foundation of the rebellious and by the light of his certainty made the manifest truth shine forth; may God raise his standing and keep his heart clear of all that is hateful. He asked me about the doctrines of men concerning souls, and to answer him was an obligation binding upon eyes and heads — for his contributions in the sciences are recited as lessons are recited, and his stands in holy war neither effacement nor erasure can hide. So I set out before him as much as his noble session could bear; and the sessions of sultans cannot bear prolixity, so for the sake of lightening I inclined to concision. Then I wrote this treatise, speaking what may be relied upon. It is less than what I had intended,