Abu Salif Ahmad Ali al-Adani (tr.): The Secrets of Asceticism.(Book review)

Abu Salif Ahmad Ali al-Adani (tr.): The Secrets of Asceticism Bristol: Amal Press, 2008, Pb, 143 pp, ISBN: 978-0-9552359-6-2

This is a partial translation of the celebrated Andalusian Qur'an commentator Abu 'Abd Allah al-Qurtubi's (d. 671/1273) manual on simple living entitled "The subduing of greed through abstinence and contentment and the repelling of the humiliation of beggary through handwritten requests and intercession" (Qam al-Hirsi bil-Zuhdi wal-Qana'a wa-Raddu Dhulli al-Su'ali bil-Kutbi wal-Shafa'a), which Maliki-trained South Africa lawyer Ahmad Ali al-Adani renders as "The curbing of covetousness by doing-without and contentment, and repelling the abasement of asking by books and intercession" (p. 3) and which has received several editions in Egypt and Lebanon since the eighties.

The subject brings back memorable reminders into our materialistic world-picture. "It does not befit a person endowed with intellect to be deceived by the World" (p. 32). Imam al-Qurtubi's clarion call reads as fresh today as the verse from the Psalms: "The Fool has said in his heart: 'There is no God.'" Of note, "doing-without" begins with sin. Asked about zuhd, Ibn 'Uyayna replied: "To do without what AllAh has proscribed" (p. 26). In this sense it is noteworthy that zuhd is a categorical personal obligation. Moreover, "zuhd is one of the actions of the heart" (p. 28), which puts it ultimately among the "invisible" good deeds, like fasting. Finally, it is not a formal object but requires constant questioning of one's spiritual state and applies to outwardly halal pursuits and possessions. "Whatever wealth or family connection distracts you away from AllAh is ill-omened for you" (p. 61).

Adani is on the whole meticulous in his transliteration of Arabic names and terms and shows an inquisitive approach to the documentation of hadith. His text is lively. His biographical notes similarly show flair and concision (although lacking sourcing). The style is sometimes turgid ("This format, pellucidly reflected in this work, is the pearlescent construction of the book ..." " ... too obvious to the percipient reader to spend further elucidatory words thereon" p. 2-3 and the whole of p. 69), even pedantic, such as the claim that the correct title of the Arabic lexicon Mukhtar al-SihAh is Mukhtar al-Sahha (p. 20, 99), and the lack of translation for certain Arabic terms ...