[Answer to a question on a Sufi saying] Anonymous

Content

Answer to a question posed by an anonymous individual 'on the meaning of the Sufi saying "he who knows the secret of predestination has become an apostate"' (عن معنى قول الصوفية من عرف سر القدر ألحد, f. 369v, lines 14-15) falsely attributed to Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh (أبو علي الحسين بن عبد الله), known as Ibn Sīnā (ابن سينا, latinised as Avicenna, d. 1037). This short text, also known as the Epistle on the Secret of Predestination (رسالة في سر القدر) and the Meaning of the Sufi Saying (معنى قول الصوفية), is divided into three propositions (مقدمات).

Extent and format

Ff. 369v-370r

It is part of

Compendium of philosophical and scientific texts by and about Avicenna (ابن سينا)

1208 images

Ref: Add MS 16659

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript item

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Add MS 16659, ff 369v-370r

History of this record

Date(s)

1182 (AH, Hijri qamari)

Related material

Finding aids

• Cureton, William and Charles Rieu, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda, codices arabicos amplectens (London: The British Museum, 1846-71), Item 978, pp. 447-51
• Rieu, Charles, Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum , 3 vols. (London: The British Museum, 1879-83), vol. 2, pp. 438-39

Select Bibliography

• Gutas, Dimitri, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition. Introduction to Reading Avicenna’s Philosophical Works , 2nd ed., including an Inventory of Avicenna’s Authentic Works (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2014), p. 490

Subjects

Philosophy -- Early works to 1800

People & organisations

Avicenna

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[Answer to a question on a Sufi saying] Anonymous, British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Add MS 16659, ff 369v-370r, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100148048612.0x000012> [accessed 6 July 2026]

Link to this record

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