(No Music Version) Ibn Arabi ~ The Prayer of Protection ~ Hizb Al-Wiqayah

Ibn Arabi’s Hizb Al-Wiqayah (The Prayer of Protection), also known as al-Dawr al-A‘la, is a powerful 33-verse Sufi invocation for spiritual safeguarding, divine protection, and elevation. The text can be found in 'A Prayer for Spiritual Elevation and Protection: Al-Dawr al-a'la (Hizb al-Wiqaya)' by Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (Author), Suha Taji-Farouki (Translator). Ibn Arabi’s Prayer of Protection isn’t really about “protection” in the ordinary sense of warding off external harm. Its essence is much deeper and more radical. For Ibn Arabi, "protection" is primarily about maintaining one's spiritual station and protecting the soul from the greatest harm of all: heedlessness (ghafala), or forgetting the Divine. At its core, the poem expresses three intertwined ideas: 1. Protection through Divine Unity (Tawhid) - The speaker seeks refuge not in barriers or defenses, but in the direct recognition that only God truly exists and acts. Harm and safety, friend and enemy, are all manifestations of the same Divine Reality. True protection comes from seeing this clearly. 2. Dissolving the Separate Self - Rather than asking “protect me from the world,” the prayer subtly dissolves the “me” that feels threatened. The ego—the sense of being a separate, vulnerable individual—is what fears harm. Ibn Arabi’s deeper move is to remove the illusion of separateness, and there is nothing left to defend. 3. Surrender to Divine Will - There is an underlying acceptance that whatever occurs is from God. Protection, then, is not controlling outcomes, but aligning so completely with the Divine that everything is experienced as ultimately safe, even if outwardly difficult. God as Both Protector and What Is Feared - A striking Sufi paradox runs through it: the Divine is not only the refuge but also appears as what we fear. So the prayer becomes a movement from duality (“save me from that”) into unity (“You are both”). Music: Uppbeat Licensed music ________________________________ 🙏 May whatever goodness arises from these readings/offerings be for the benefit of all sentient beings. 🔆 Thank you to everyone who has written to inquire about offering a donation or gift. You are welcome to do so, and all offerings will go towards supporting monastic requisites and overheads at Viveka Hermitage. There are two options to donate using this email address: [email protected] with PayPal or using this link: https://paypal.me/VivekaHermitage Alternatively, donations can also be made via 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐄 - please contact us on the email above for account details., or use this direct link if you have a WISE account: ⁠https://wise.com/pay/me/margarets448⁠ __________________________________ ❤️ A sincere thank you to all listeners and donors for your appreciative comments and offerings of generosity in support of this channel and its intention. Every day I am deeply touched by your warm support and kind messages of gratitude. Turn on the '🔔' to get notifications for new releases! 🎧 As a Buddhist nun, my intention with this channel is to offer these creative adaptations of spiritual teachings for the purpose of deepening spiritual understanding, contemplation, meditation, healing, devotion and relaxation for listeners. This channel is not monetized for profit through YouTube advertising revenue, and never will be. All the videos are strictly for educational purposes, not-for-profit and non-commercial. If ads appear on some videos it is because the music companies have the “right” to run ads for their profit if I have used copyrighted music. “All the words, music, images, and graphics used in the video belong to their respective owners and I or this channel does not claim any right over them. This video is posted for educational and spiritual purposes only. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."