Amr ibn Othman
Abu Abd Allah 'Amr ibn 'Othman al-Makki, a disciple of al-Jonaid, visited Esfahan and died in Baghdad in 291 (904) or 297 (910).
Amr ibn Othman-e Makki and the Book of the Treasure
It is said that one day Amr ibn Othman-e Makki had written down on a sheet of paper a translation of the Book of the Treasure. He had put it under his prayer rug and gone to purify himself. While he was at his ablutions report reached him, and he sent his servant to recover the script. When the servant turned up the prayer rug he could not find the paper. He told his mas
"They have taken it and gone," said Amr ihn Othman. "The person who has taken that Book of the Treasure, he added, "will soon have his hands and fert cut off. He will be put on the gibbet, and burned, and his ashes will be scattered to the winds. He ought to have arrived at the Treasure, whereas he has stolen the Book of the Treasure."
Now these were the contents of the Book of the Treasure.
In the time when the spirit entered the bodily frame of Adam, God commanded all the angels to prostrate
themselves. All lowered their heads to the ground. Iblis said, "I will not make prostration. I will gamble my life away, and I will see the secret, even though it may be that I shall be accursed and called rebel and sinner and hypocrite."
Iblis did not make prostration. So he saw and knew the secret of Man. Consequently none but Iblis is apprised of Man's secret, and none but Man knows the secret of Iblis. So Iblis became apprised of the secret of Man because he did not prostrate himself, so that he saw that he was preoccupied with beholding the secret. Iblis was rejected by all, for they had exposed the Treasure to his eyes.
"We committed a Treasure to the earth," they said. "The condition attached to the Treasure is this, that one person will see it, but they will cut off his head so that he may not betray it."
"In this grant me a respite, cried Iblis. "Do not slay me. But I am the Man of the Treasure. They exposed the Treasure to my eyes, and these eyes will not escape."
The Sword of 1 Care Not declared, "Thou art among the ones that are respited. We grant you respite, but We cause you to be held in suspicion. So if We do not destroy you, you will be suspect and a liat, and none will hold you to be a speaker of the truth. So they will
say, He was one of the jiun, and committed ungodliness against his Lord's command."
He is Satan. How should he speak the truth? Therefore he is accursed and rejected and abandoned and ignored.
This was the translation of the Book of the Treasure by Amr ibn Othman.
Amr ibn Othman on Love
Amr ibn 'Othman stated the following in his Book of Love.
Almighty God created the hearts seven thousand years before the souls, and He kept them in the Garden of Intimacy. He created the Secrets seven thousand years before the hearts, and kept them in the Degree of Union.
Every day God caused the souls to receive three hun dred and sixty glances of Grace and to hear three hun dred and sixty words of Love. Every day He manifest ed to the hearts three hundred and sixty delights of Intimacy. Every day He revealed Beauty three hundred and sixty times to the Secrets.
So they beheld every thing in the world of heing, and saw none more precious than themselves. A vainglory and conceit manifested amongst them.
God therefore put them to the trial. He imprisoned the Secret in the soul. He confined the soul in the heart. He detained the heart in the body. Then He com pounded in them reason.
God sent the Prophets with commandments. Then every one of them set about searching for his proper station. God commanded them to pray. So the body went into prayer, the heart attained Love, the soul achieved Propinquity; the Secret was at rest in Union.
Amr ibu Othman writes to Jonaid
When Amr ibn Othman was in Mecca, he wrote to Jonaid, Jorairi, and Shebli in Iraq. This was his letter
"Know, you who are the great ones and elders of Iraq, say to every man who yearns after the land of Hejaz and the beauty of the Kaaba, You would never reach it, excepting with great distress of spirit. And say to every man who yearns after the Carpet of Propinquity and the Court of Glory, You would never reach it, excepting with great distress of soul."
At the bottom of the letter Ame wrote: "This is a missive from Amr ibn Othman-e Makki and these elders of Hejaz who are all with Him and in Him and by Him. If there be any of you who entertains high aspiration, say to him, Come upon this road wherein are two thousand fiery mountains and two thousand stormy and perilous seas. If you are not of this rank, make no false pretension, for to false pretension noth-ing is given."
When the letter reached Jonaid, he gathered the elders of Iraq together and read it to them. Then he said, "Come, say what he meant by these mountains."
"By these mountains," they replied, "he meant naughting. Until a man is naughted a thousand times and a thousand times revived, he does not attain the Court of Glory."
"Of these two thousand fiery mountains, Jonaid remarked, "I have crossed only one."
"You are lucky to have crossed one," said Jorain. "Up to now I have gone only three steps."
Shebli burst into tears.
"You are fortunate, Jonaid, to have crossed one mountain," he cried. "And you are fortunate, Jorairi, to have gone three steps. Up to now I have not even seen the dust from afar."