The Science of the secrets of letters

This science is now called simiya “letter magic”.

The word was transferred from talismans to this science and is used by Sufi practitioners of magic.

This science originated in Islam after some time it was created. The extremist Sufis appeared and tried to remove the veil of sense perception. They produced wonders and were active in the world of the elements.

Back then, they wrote systematic works on Sufism. They believed:

• in the gradual descent of existence from the One
• that verbal perfection is in helping the spirits of the spheres and the stars (through words).

The natures and secrets of the letters are alive in the words.

The words, in turn, are correspondingly alive in the created things.

The created things have been moving in the different stages of (creation) and telling its secrets since the first creation.

These Sufi beliefs created the science of the secrets of the letters. It is:

• a subdivision of the science of simiya’ “letter magic.”
• an unfathomable subject with innumerable problems.

Al-Buni, 807 Ibn al-‘Arabi, and others in their wake wrote numerous works on it. These authors assume that the result and fruit of letter magic is that the divine souls are active in the world of nature by means of the beautiful names of God and the divine expressions that originate from the letters comprising the secrets that are alive in the created things.

The authorities on letter magic then differed as to the secret of the (magic) activity lying in the letters. Some of them assumed that it was due to inherent temper.

They divided the letters into four groups corresponding to the elements.

Each nature (element) had its own group of letters. Through this group (of letters), it can be active actively and passively. A technical procedure, which the (authorities on letter magic) call “breaking down” (taksir), 808 classifies the letters as the elements are classified, as fiery, airy, watery, and earthy. The alif is fiery, b airy, j watery, and d earthy. Then, it starts again with the next letter, and so on, through the whole alphabet and the sequence of the elements.

Thus, 7 letters are fiery, namely, alif, h, t, m, f, s, and dh. Seven are airy, namely, b, w, y, n, d, t, and x. Seven are watery, namely, j, x, k, s, q, th, and gh. And seven are earthy, namely, d, h, l, ‘ayn, r, kh, and sh.809

The fiery letters serve to repel cold diseases and to increase the power of heat wherever desired, either in the sensual (physical) or in the astrological (sense). Thus, for instance, (one may want to) increase the power of Mars for warfare, the killing (of enemies), and aggressiveness.

In the same way, the watery letters serve to repel hot diseases, such as fevers and others, and to increase the cold powers, wherever desired, either in the sensual (physical) sense or in the astrological (sense). Thus, for instance, (one may want to) increase the power of the moon, and so on.

Other (authorities on letter magic) assumed that the secret of the (magic) activity that lies in the letters was their numerical proportion. The letters of the alphabet indicate numerical values which by convention and nature are generally accepted to be (inherent in) them.

Thus, there exists a relationship between the letters themselves as a result of the relationship of their numerical values. For instance, there is a relationship between b, k, and r, because all three of them indicate two in its different positions. (The letter) b indicates two in the units, k indicates two in the tens (20), and r indicates two in the hundreds (200). Or, there is a special relationship between the letters mentioned and d, m, and t. The (latter group of letters) indicates four, and the proportion of four to two is that of two to one.

Then, there are magic squares for words as there are for numbers. Each group of letters has its particular kind of magic square which fits it in view either of the numerical value of the figure 810 or of the numerical value of the letters. (Magic) activity based on letter magic thus merges with that based on number magic, because there exists a relationship between letters and numbers.

The real significance of the relationship existing between letters and natural humors and between letters and numbers is difficult to understand. It is not a matter of science or reasoning. According to the (authorities on letter magic), it is based on mystical experience and the removal (of the veil). Al-Buni said, “One should not think that one can get at the secret of the letters with the help of logical reasoning.

One gets to it with the help of vision and divine aid.”

The fact that it is possible to be active in the world of nature with the help of the letters and the words composed of them, and that the created things can be influenced in this way, cannot be denied. It is confirmed by continuous tradition on the authority of many (practitioners of letter magic).

It has been thought that this activity and the activity of people who work with talismans are one and the same thing. This is not so. The people who work with talismans have made it clear that the influence of a talisman actually comes from spiritual powers derived from the substance of force.

These powers exercise a powerful and forceful activity upon the things for which the (talisman) is composed, with the help of spherical secrets, numerical proportions, and vapors that attract the spirituality of the talisman and are mentally enclosed in it. The result is that the high natures come to be tied to the low ones. Talismans, they think, are like a ferment composed of and including earthy, airy, watery, and fiery (elements).

Such ferment is instrumental in transforming and changing anything into which it might get, into its own essence and in turning it into its own form. The elixir 811 for metals, likewise, is a ferment that by transformation turns the mineral in which it is alive into itself. Therefore, it has been said that the subject of alchemy is body (substance) in body (substance), because all parts of an elixir are corporeal (substances).

The subject of talismans, on the other hand, is spirit in body (substance), 812 because talismans tie the high natures to the low natures. The low natures are bodies (substances), while the high natures are spiritualities. 813

One should realize that all (magic) activity in the world of nature comes from the human soul and the human mind, because the human soul essentially encompasses and governs nature. Consequently, the real difference between the activity of people who work with talismans and people who work with words is as follows.

The activity of people who work with talismans consists in bringing down the spirituality of the spheres and tying it down with the help of pictures or numerical proportions. The result is a kind of composition that, through its nature, effects a transformation and change comparable to those effected by a ferment in the thing into which it gets. The activity of people who work with words, on the other hand, is the effect of the divine light and the support of the Lord which they obtain through exertion and the removal (of the veil). Thus, nature is forced to work (for them) and does so willingly with no attempt at disobedience.

Their activity needs no support from the spherical powers or anything else, because the support it has is of ahigher order than (all that). People who work with talismans, therefore, need (only) a little exercise to give the soul the power to bring down the spirituality of the spheres.

Devotions and exercises certainly play a very insignificant role in it. The opposite is the case with people who work with words. Their exercise is the most extensive that can be. It is not for the purpose of being active in the existing things, since that is a veil (standing between them and their real task). Such activity comes to them accidentally, as an act of divine grace.814 A person who works with words may have no knowledge of the secrets of God and the realities of divinity, which is the result of vision and the removal (of the veil).

He may restrict himself to the various relationships between words and the natures of letters and expressions, and he may become (magically) active with them in this capacity, and that is what people who practice letter magic are commonly supposed to do. But then, there is no difference between such a person and the people who work with talismans.

In fact, a person who works with talismans is more reliable than he, because he has recourse to scientific natural principles and orderly norms. A person who works with the secrets of words but is not sincere in his devotion 815 and (in addition) has no technical norms of evidence on which he may rely and, therefore, lacks the removal (of the veil) that would show him the realities of expressions and the influence of relationships, is in a weaker position (than a person who works with talismans).

The person who works with words may mingle the powers of expressions and words with the powers of the stars. He may then set certain times for mentioning the beautiful names of God or the magic squares composed of them or, indeed, any word. 816

These times must be under the propitious influence of the star 817 that is related to a particular word. That was done, for instance, by al-Buni in his book entitled al-Anmat.818 The relationship (between star and magic word) is assumed to come from the nubilous (‘amaiyah) presence, 8 19 which is the purgatory station (barzakhiyah) of verbal perfection and which particularizes itself in the realities in accordance with the relationship they have (to the magic words [?]). They think that those expressions 8 20 depend on vision to be established. If a person who works with words lacks vision but knows about that relationship through tradition, his actions correspond to those of the person who works with talismans.

The (latter) is more reliable than he.

In the same way, the person who works with talismans may mingle his actions and the powers of the stars which govern them, with the powers of prayerscomposed of special expressions indicating a relationship between those expressions and the stars.

In his case, however, the relationship of expressions is not, as in the case of people who work with words, the result of direct observation in a state of vision.

It is merely based upon the (general) basic requirement of the magic approach, namely, that the stars share in all the substances, accidents, essences, and ideas 821 existing in the world of created things. Letters and words belong to the things that exist in it.

Thus, each star has its particular share in them. On this basis (magical practitioners) construct strange and disapproved theories. Namely, they divide the sarahs and verses of the Qur’an in this manner. That was what Maslamah al-Majriti, for instance, did in the Ghayah.

It is also obvious from alBuni’s attitude in the Anmat that he takes this method into consideration. A critical study of the Anmat and of the prayers the work contains and their distribution among the hours of the seven stars, as well as a look at the Ghayah and a critical study of the prayers qiyamat of the stars contained in it - “qiyamat of the stars” is the name they give to the prayers that belong to each individual star, that is, the prayer performed (yuqdmu biha) for it - will show that this (procedure) belongs to the substance of(these works on letter magic) or that the relationship that came about in the original creation and in the purgatory (barzakh) of knowledge made all that necessary. “And you were given but little knowledge.”

One cannot deny the actual existence of all the sciences declared illegal by the religious law. It is definite that sorcery is true, although it is forbidden.

But we are satisfied with the knowledge God taught us.

Letter magic clearly is a kind of sorcery and, as such, attainable through various exercises which are legal according to the religious law.

Two kinds of human beings are active in the world of created beings.

1. Prophets

These are active with the help of the divine power which God gave them by nature.

2. Sorcerers

These are active with the help of the psychic power which is innate in them.

Saints may be active by acquiring the ability to be active through faith (al-kalimah al-imaniyah). It is a result of detachment (from the sensibilia).

They do not have it intentionally. It comes to them spontaneously. If it happens to mighty saints, they avoid it and take refuge in God against it and consider it a temptation.