One of the most sensitive and subtle theological and metaphysical discussions in the later Islamic intellectual tradition is the relationship between waḥdat al-wujūd and waḥdat al-shuhūd. The short monograph al-Maktūb al-Madanī, authored by Shāh Walī Allāh al-Dihlawī, addresses this question with a blend of the precision of the discursive theologians (mutakallimīn) and the deep insight of the spiritual masters, or Sufis. This monograph is written in the form of a brief epistle.

The present transcription is drawn from the edited publication of Damgh al-Bāṭil by my teacher Mawlānā ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Sawātī, a work authored by Shāh Rafīʿ al-Dīn al-Dihlawī, Shāh Walī Allah’s son. The epistle reproduced here represents a brief portion of that larger composition, which as a whole merits careful study. Given that the original text moves between Arabic and Persian, I have limited the present selection to a section that consists entirely of Arabic.

My humble role in this effort has been limited to preparing a typed version of the epistle, a task I undertook several years ago while studying the text with Shaykh Amin Kholwadia at Darul Qasim. I had intended to accompany this transcription with an English translation and selected annotations drawn from those lessons, though circumstances have not yet permitted the completion of that project.

The immediate occasion for revisiting and sharing this material was a recent discussion with a student concerning the well-known tensions among later scholars regarding the doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd, particularly in relation to the thought of Shaykh Ibn ʿArabī.

To briefly introduce the treatise, it opens with a methodological reflection: differences in expression among scholars, especially in matters of ultimate reality, sometimes arise not from contradiction in substance but from variance in perspective and maqām. This principle governs the entire discussion.

Shāh Walī Allāh proceeds to distinguish between two usages of the contested terms: waḥdat al-wujūd and waḥdat al-shuhūd. At times, they refer to spiritual states within the path of sulūk, where waḥdat al-wujūd denotes an overwhelming absorption that effaces multiplicity, while waḥdat al-shuhūd preserves a simultaneous awareness of unity and differentiation. At other times, the terms serve a function within ontological inquiry, i.e. they describe competing accounts of the relation between the contingent and the Absolute.

A central contribution of the monograph lies in its effort to reconcile these perspectives without compromising their distinctions. The author affirms that both concepts, when properly understood, reflect valid apprehensions of reality, even though they are articulated at different levels of abstraction. He critiques reductive readings that absolutize one at the expense of the other.

To be clear, this is a very brief monograph. Al-Maktūb al-Madanī does not offer an exhaustive systematic theology. The work is simply intended to provide some clarification and intervention within a heated and ongoing debate.

For those who are further interested in understanding later attempts at elucidating the concept of waḥdat al-wujūd and how it can be reconciled with orthodox theological formulations, I have attached two Urdu pieces, the first from Mawlānā Manāẓir Aḥsan Gīlānī’s al-Dīn al-Qayyim and the other from Ḥakīm al-Ummah’s Bawādir al-Nawādir, both kindly provided by my dear friend and colleague, Mufti Ehzaz Ajmeri.