Qushayri's Esoteric Commentary about rural of Arabic Grammar

Abstract

Qushayri is one of the important Sufis of 11th century. He wrote a number of books about Sufism including Risolah and Lataif al-isharat, the last of which has been seen as one of the great esoteric commentaries of the Holy Qur'an. There is another treatise of his, called Nahv al-QuICth (or al-Nahv al-muawwal), in which he interprets the rules of Arabic grammar from a Sufi perspective. This interesting treatise is like a bridge between Sufism and the Arabic philology. It is a well-known fact that the basic sciences of Islam ('ulum ash-shar'iyya) including Sufism were closely knit together. However, the relationship of Sufism to Arabic philology is not very well documented by both classical and contemporary writers. This treatise, which seems to be early work in this respect, focuses on this particular subject. This paper shall analyze the content of this treatise and try to explain some of the concepts used in it.