From Self-Knowledge to the Unity of Being: An Analysis of the Mystical Wayfaring in Majmūʿat al-ʿIrfāniyyah by Ibrāhīm Ḥaqqī Erzurūmī

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Seyyed Hossein Seyyed Mousavi

Mohammad Javad Enayati Rad

Associate Professor, Faculty of Theology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

10.22067/epk.2026.96372.1498

Abstract

This study examines the intellectual system of Ibrāhīm Ḥaqqī Erzurūmī (1703–1780) as presented in his lesser-known mystical work, Majmūʿat al-ʿIrfāniyyah. Its primary aim is to elucidate the course of mystical wayfaring from self-knowledge as its point of departure to the Unity of Being (waḥdat al-wujūd) as its ultimate goal, while highlighting Erzurūmī’s distinctive formulation of this spiritual path. The central question is how this course is structured in Majmūʿat al-ʿIrfāniyyah, what its principal stages and foundations are, and wherein the author's originality lies. The study hypothesizes that the work is not merely a compilation but a coherent instructional system of mystical wayfaring integrating three elements: an anthropology grounded in the doctrine of the microcosm (ʿālam al-ṣaghīr) and the stages of the soul, the practical discipline of the Naqshbandī order, and the Unity of Being as the ultimate contemplative station. Employing a descriptive-analytical method based on the corrected manuscript of the work (No. 15434, Ayatollah Marʿashi Library) and other library sources, the study shows that, inspired by the hadith "Whoever knows himself knows his Lord," Erzurūmī outlines a threefold journey (the journey to God, the journey in God, and the journey from God) founded upon Naqshbandī spiritual discipline, through which the wayfarer traverses the seven stages of the soul and ultimately attains the contemplative realization of the Unity of Being and the station of the Perfect Human. The principal contribution of this study lies in reconstructing and explicating the coherent pedagogical system of mystical wayfaring embedded in this work, which has not previously received scholarly attention

Keywords

Ibrāhīm Ḥaqqī Erzurūmī

Majmūʿat al-ʿIrfāniyyah

Islamic mysticism

Self-knowledge

Unity of Being

Mystical wayfaring

Subjects

• Islamic Philosophy and Kalam

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References

Qurān-i Karīm.

Dīyānat, ʿAlī Akbar. "Ibrāhīm Ḥaqqī". dar Dānishnāmih-yi Buzurg Islāmī. Zīr Naẓar Kāẓim Mūsavī Bujnūrdī, Tehran: Markaz Dāyrah al-Maʿārf Buzurg Islāmī, 2004/1383.

Hakkı Erzurumlu, İbrahim. Majmūʿah ʿIrfānīya. Nuskhih-yi Khaṭṭī no. 15433. Qum: Kitābkhānah-yi  Āyat Allāh Marʻashī Najafī, Kitābat 1760/1174.

Hakkı Erzurumlu, İbrahim. Maʿrifatnāmah. Ed. Jamil Dormosh va Kazem Kara. Istanbul: Intishārāt Arkam, 2011/1389.