Whoso knoweth himself…
Awhad al-din Balyani
This Treatise on Unity has been copied and recopied under many different titles.
And has often been attributed by copyists to Ibn ‘Arabi, who did in fact write a treatise with the title Book on Unity (Kitab al-ahadiyya).
Recent research (see M. Chodkiewicz Les Deux Océans, Paris, 1982) attributes the text to Awhad al-din Balyani who was a sufi Shaykh from the region of Persia known as Shiraz. He died in 1288.
The following story about Balyani was set down by Jami in his book Nafahat al-uns:
“One of the students of the Shaykh was in retreat on a mountain. A snake came near him and he tried to grab hold of it. The snake bit him and his limbs began to swell. The Shaykh came to know about this and sent for his student.
He then said to him, ‘Why did you grab hold of the snake, so that it bit you?´
‘Oh master,´ replied the student, ‘you yourself said that there is nothing but God. On seeing the snake, I saw only God. Plucking up courage, I grabbed hold of it!´ The Shaykh replied, ‘When God manifests himself to you under the aspect of terrifying power, run away! Don´t approach Him, otherwise the same thing will happen to you again!´ Then he sat him down and said to him, ‘Hold back from acting so boldly until you know Him perfectly.´
After that he recited some invocations and blew on him. The swelling went down and the student was healed.”
