The Hikmah Project is dedicated to the study of the intellectual wisdom of world traditions with a particular focus on Islamic metaphysics and mysticism.Our vision is to provide a platform for seekers of sacred knowledge to explore texts with leading experts from around the world. We aspire to do so by bringing forth podcasts, online courses and events.
By ‘intellectual’, we do not only mean the mere academic study of texts at the level of the rational mind. In the same manner with Intellectus in Latin or ʿAql and Qalb in Arabic suggests, it expresses the supra-rational faculty of intelligence and awareness, which encompasses the rational mind yet transcends it. Ibn ʿArabī reminds us of this in the introduction to the Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam that this is a book for the folk of God ( أَهْـلِ الله ) and the People of the Heart ( أَصْحاَبِ القْلوب ).
By ‘mystical’ we mean the inner aspect of teachings which can often become veiled with an exclusive focus on legalism or grammar, leading people to become “formalists” (mutarasimun) as Imam Al Ghazali calls them, being ‘shackled by the trappings of religion. It is in his Jawab-e-Shikwa that Allama Iqbal writes:
واعظ قوم کی وہ پختہ خیالی نہ رہی
فلسفہ رہ گیا، تلقین غزالی نہ رہی
Preachers of religion with depth of thought no longer remain
Philosophy remains, insights of a Ghazali no longer remain
It is precisely the purpose of The Hikmah Project to serve as a means to explore higher-order thinking, reflection and contemplation through inspired works such as the Mathnawī of Rūmī, the Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya and the Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam of Ibn ʿArabī, the Ḥikam of Ibn ʿAṭā Allāh al-Iskandarī, the Kitāb al-Mawāqif of Amīr ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jazāʾirī, and the Mishkāt al-Anwār of al-Ghazālī (Allah sanctify their secrets). Texts such as these not only offer timeless wisdom but, if read in a state of receptivity, can also be transformative. Their role may be best summed up by the words of Shaykh al-Akbar Ibn ʿArabī in his Secrets of Voyaging (Kitāb al-Isfār ʿan natāʿij al-asfār):
“These voyages are only bridges…that are placed for us upon which to ‘cross over’ to our essences and the states that are specific to us…What I have recounted to you is to remind you of what is within you…so that you will know that you are everything, in everything and part of everything”
وإنما هذه الاسفار قنطر وجسور موضعة نَعبُر عليها إلى ذوتنا و أحوالنا المختصة بنا
فيكون هذا الذي قصصته عليك يذكِّرُك بما فيك، و ما نبَّهتك عليه، فتعلم أنك كل شيء وفي كل شيءومن كل
We hope you find something here to awaken and inspire your journey in seeking Sacred knowledge.
