The “Sacred Science” editions have just published, as part of the Sumbul collection, the work “Histories of the Prophets”, a beautiful book with an established text, translated and annotated by Touria Ikbal and Muhammad Vâlsan.
Written in Arabic and French, the 760-page book addresses and presents, as its title suggests, the stories of the prophets “in the form of edifying stories more suited to oral rather than written expression”.
According to her co-author Touria Ikbal, “Histoires des Prophètes” is an opus edited “from the consultation and comparison of six manuscripts”, and this bilingual version, she says, is accompanied by a presentation of an index Quranic terms and one of the proper names appearing in the text.
The version of “Qisas al Anbiyyae” attributed to Imam Muhammad Ibn Abdullah al-Kisâî is one of the best known. It begins with “the story of the creation of the world, the angels, the universe, the heavens and the earth by the Almighty until that of the creation of Adam who thereby receives the divine breath”, details Touria Iqbal.
“Then come, in chronological order, the actual stories of the prophets, including those mentioned in the Bible, such as Enoch, Noah and Abraham, Ismail and Hajar,” she explains.
Ultimately, notes the Sufism specialist, “al-Kisâî gives a lot of information both on Islam in general and on Prophet Sidna Muhammad in particular”.
Thus, “Stories of the Prophets” reviews the many hagiographic aspects of the prophets and the important events that marked their life, the book ends with the story of the Prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) and that of Jesus Christ.
Native of Marrakech, Touria Ikbal is an academic, poet, translator and researcher in Sufism. It has around twenty publications including collections of poems (published by Marsam), translations and studies on Sufism, including ” the Divine Names ” in a bilingual version (Arabic-French) calligraphed by Mohamed Idali and ” the Burda of the Desert ” co-written with Muhammad Vâlsan and calligraphed by Faiza Tidjani.
The 2nd co-author of “Histoires des Prophètes”, Muhammad Vâlsan, is director of the journal “Science Sacrée”. He was born in Paris where he studied theology and comparative religions.
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