Za'irajah Method: Deduction

Deductions that can be drawn with the help of letter systems as to deeply hidden thoughts.

This goes as follows: If someone asks what is the sickness of the patient, the cause of whose disease is not known, and what medicine will be appropriate for its cure, one orders the person who asks the question to name something that can be applied to the name of the unknown sickness, so that the word he names can be made the foundation of (the operation).

The word is “spelled out” (istintaq) together with the name of the ascendant, the elements, the questioner, the day, and the hour, if one wants to go thoroughly into the question. If not, one restricts oneself to the word that the questioner says, and uses it, as we shall explain.

For instance, the questioner says “horse” (faras). The numerical value of the 3 letters (f-r-s) with their rational aliquot parts is set down. The numerical value off is eighty, 943 which has the aliquot parts m (forty), k (twenty), y (ten), h (eight), and d (four).

The numerical value of r is two hundred, which has the aliquot parts q (one hundred), n (fifty), k-h (twenty-five), k (twenty), and y (ten). The numerical value of s is sixty, 944 which has the aliquot parts m (forty), l (thirty), k (twenty), y (ten), w (six), and j (three).

W is a perfect number, having (the aliquot parts) four, three, and two, and so is s, having (the aliquot parts) forty, thirty, twenty, and ten.

If one simplifies 946 the letters of the words and then finds two elements equal, one assumes that the one that has more letters has superiority over the other. Then, one adds up the number of the letters of the elements in the name of the desired object, together with its letters, without simplification.

One does the same with the name of the questioner. One assumes that the greater and stronger (number) has superiority.

Description of how to find out the powers of the elements.

FIRE hhh mm EARTH w yyyy n AIR j kkkk q WATER h l

The superiority here goes to the earth. Its nature, coldand-dryness, is the nature of the black bile. Thus, one assumes that the sick person suffers from the black bile. After one has composed an appropriate statement from the letters resulting from the breakdown into aliquot parts, it turns out that the throat is the place where the pain is located. The appropriate medicine is a clyster, and the appropriate liquid lemon juice. This results from the powers of the numbers of the letters of the word “horse.” The (preceding discussion) is a brief, appropriate example.

In order to find out the powers of the elements from proper names, one proceeds in the following way. For instance, one takes “Muhammad” and writes it with unconnected letters (m-h-m-d). Then, one writes down the names of the fourelements according to the composition of the (celestial) sphere. The result will be the letters and number of each element. For instance: FIRE EARTH AIR WATER Three kinds ’’' hh mm Three kinds bbb www nn Six kinds jj zz kkk ss qq nn Six kinds dddd hhh lll ’’' rrr hhh One will find that the strongest of the elements of the name mentioned is the element of water, because the number of its letters is twenty. Therefore, one gives it superiority over the other elements of the name mentioned. One proceeds in the same way with all names. They are then added to their chords, or to the chord attributed to the ascendant in the za’irajah, or to the chord of the verse ascribed to Malik b. Wuhayb which he made the basis for the mixture of questions and which runs:

A weighty question you have got. Keep, then, to yourself Remarkable doubts which have been raised and which can be straightened out with diligence.947

This is a famous chord for finding out unknown things. It served as the basis for Ibn ar-Raqqam 948 and his colleagues. It is a complete, self-sufficient operation (that works) in (all) arbitrary instances.

The operation with this mentioned chord is as follows 9 49 One writes it down with its letters unconnected and mixed with the word of the question according to the technique of “breaking down.” 950 The number of the letters of this chord - that is, the verse - is forty-three, because every doubled letter counts as two.

Then, the letters (of the questions), which are repeated in the mixing, are eliminated, and one letter which is similar to the letter of the question is eliminated from the basic (verse) for each remaining letter of the question.

The two remainders are set down on one line, so mixed that the first letter is taken from the remainder of the “pole,” and the second from the remainder of the question, (and so forth), until the two remainders are used up.

This yields 43 letters.

Five n’s are then added, so that there are forty-eight letters, and the musical scales are balanced through them. Then, one writes down the remainder in order. If the number of the letters that come out after the mixing, agrees with the original number before elimination, the operation is correct. Then, a table of squares is filled with the (letters) that have been mixed. The end of the first line is the beginning of the second, and so on, until the first line reoccurs. The letters in the “region” follow each other in proportion to the motion. Then, the chord of each letter is brought out, as was mentioned before. It is put opposite its letters. Then, the elemental relations of the letters of the table are found out, in order to indicate their natural power, their spiritual scales, their psychic dispositions, and their principal bases from the table that has been composed for that purpose.

The way to find out the elementary relations is to note what the nature of the first letter of the table is, and what the nature of the field in which it resides is. If the two agree, it is good. If not, a relation between the two letters must be found out.

This rule extends to all the letters of the table. Those who know the rules as theyhave been established in the musical circle can easily prove the correctness of this (procedure).

Then, 951 one takes the chord of each letter after multiplying it by the bases of the four cardines of the (celestial) sphere, as was mentioned before. One should avoid what is adjacent to the cardines, and also the sawaqit, because their relationship is confused.

The result here is the first degree of diffusion. Then, one takes the total of the elements and subtracts from it [?] the bases of the generated things. There remains the base of the world of creation after it has been exposed to the moments [?] of creation.

Then, there are transferred to it some abstractions from matter - the elements that constitute matter. The result is the middle horizon of the soul.

The first degree of diffusion is subtracted from the total of the elements. There remains the world of mediation. It has to do with the worlds of simple beings and not with (those of) composite ones.

The world of mediation is then multiplied by the middle horizon of the soul. The result is the most high horizon. To it, the first degree of diffusion is transferred. Then, the first of the elements basically constituting matter is subtracted from the fourth (degree of diffusion [?]).

There remains the third degree of diffusion. The total of the particulars of the elements is always multiplied by the fourth degree of diffusion. The result is the first world of particularization. The result of the multiplication of the second (element) with the second (degree of diffusion) is the second world of particularization.

The same is the case with the third and fourth.

The worlds of particularization are added up and subtracted from the world of totality. There remain the worlds of abstraction. They are divided by the most high horizon. The result is the first particular.

From here, the operation is continued until its completion. There are preliminary remarks to it in the books of Ibn Wahshiyah, al-B:uni, and others. The procedure follows a natural and definite 951a norm that applies to this and other metaphysical disciplines.

The construction of letter za’irajahs, as well as the divine art and philosophical magic center around it. It 952 should be known that all these operations lead only to getting an answer that corresponds to the idea of the question. They do not give information on anything supernatural.

They are a sort of witty (game), as we mentioned at the beginning of the book. 953 Likewise, they do not belong to the science of letter magic (simiya’).