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Introduction to Ibn Arabi (My Allah
shower his mercy on him)
By Mohammad A Rahman
"The only books worth our attention are
those which spring from the heart and in turn speak to the heart" is
nowhere more evident than in the books of Ibn Arabi.
Ibn Arabi is certainly the most
influential and probably the most controversial figure in the Islamic
spiritual arena. He was such an influential figure in the Islamic
esoterism that Ayatullah Mutahari says the following about him:
"Muhyi al-Din, also known by the
name Ibn al-'Arabi, is certainly the greatest mystic of Islam. No
one else has been able to reach his level, neither before nor after
him. Thus he is known by the sobriquet 'al-Shaykh al-'Akbar' (the
Greatest Shaykh)."
On the other hand Ibn Arabi was so
controversial that some of the orthodox Muslim scholars considered him a
heretic to the extent that some opined that not only Ibn Arabi was a
disbeliever but also those who consider him a believer are disbelievers
as well. This being the case, it is almost an impossible task to do an
introduction to Ibn Arabi. Considering the sublime status Ibn Arabi
holds in the Islamic mysticism, writing even a few sentences about him,
especially by a nondescript like me is like attempting to hold the great
Atlantic in a bowl. And only a saint can know a saint and I am certainly
no saint. But I only rely upon Allah to help me with proper words to
write few sentences about this Greatest Master (al-Shaykh al-akbar).
Ibn Arabi was born in the city of Murcia
in Spain on the 27th Ramadan, 560 A.H. or 1165 A.D. His full name was
Muhammad b. Ali b. Muhammad Ibn al-Arabi al-Ta'i al-Hatimi. His father
was an influential figure and seemed to have been connected with ruling
class. Ibn Arabi studied the Holy Qur'an and its commentary, Hadith
(traditions) of Prophet of Islam, Arabic grammar, and Islamic
jurisprudence. He worked as a secretary to the governor of Seville in
his young age. He married a lady of spiritual taste, named Maryam. Ibn
Arabic's own book, Sufis of Andalusia bears testimony to the fact that
he kept company with many spiritual masters from an early age. He
attained high spiritual status when he probably was in his teens as it
is evident in his own words when he met the famous philosopher Ibn Rushd
(Averroes):
"I was at the time a beardless
youth. As I entered the house the philosopher rose to greet me with
all the signs of friendliness and affection, and embraced me. Then
he said to me, "Yes!" and showed pleasure on seeing that I had
understood him. I, on the other hand, being aware of the motive for
his pleasure, replied, "No!" Upon this, Ibn Rushd drew back from me,
his color changed and he seemed to doubt what he had thought of me.
He then put to me the following question, "What solution have you
found as a result of mystical illumination and divine inspiration? I
replied, "Yes and No. Between the Yea and the Nay the spirits take
their flights beyond matter, and the necks detach themselves from
their bodies." At this Ibn Rushd became pale, and I saw him tremble
as he muttered the formula, "There is no power save from Allah."
This was because he had understood my allusion." (Al-Futuhat
al-makkiyyah, Vol 2, p. 278)
Ibn Arabi studied other disciplines like
cosmology, esoteric commentary of the Qur'an, astrology and alchemy
which is evident throughout his writings. As mentioned earlier, Ibn
Arabi had many spiritual masters some of whom were women. Probably the
most famous woman was Fatima of Cordova. He says of her as:
"I served as a disciple of one of
the lovers of Allah, a gnostic, a lady of Seville called Fatima bint
al-Muthanna who lived in Cordova. I served her for several years,
she being over ninety five years of age.....with my own hands I
built a hut for her of needs, as high as she was, in which she lived
until she died. She used to say to me, 'I am your spiritual mother
and the light of your earthly mother.'" (Sufis of Andalusia by Ibn
Arabi).
In 590/1193, at the age of thirty, Ibn
Arabi left Spain for the first time, traveling to Tunis. Seven years
later, a vision instructed him to go the East. He made the pilgrimage to
Mecca in 599/1202, and from there traveled extensively in the central
Islamic lands, staying for lengths of time in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and
Turkey, though he never went to Iran. In 620/1223 he settled in Damascus
where he lived until his death in 638/1240. He spent his life in study,
writing, and teaching. At the same time, he was involved in the social
and political life of the community. He was in good terms with at least
three local kings, one of whom became will-versed in his writings. Ibn
Arabi provides many details of his personal life in his works. In his
book, Sufis of Andalusia, Ibn Arabi provides autobiographical accounts
of his meetings with his spiritual masters where many miraculous
anecdotes are recounted. It is estimated that Ibn Arabi authored 700
books, treatises, and collection of poetry, of which 400 are extant. The
Futuhat al-Makkiyyah (Meccan Revelations) is a monumental work of his,
comprised of thousands of pages on various topics. Fusus al-Hikan
(Bezels of Wisdom) probably is his most famous, read, and commented book
which was, according to him, written by the instruction of Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) as is documented by Ibn Arabi:
"I saw the Apostle of God in a
visitation granted to me during the latter part of the month of
Muharram in the year 627, in the city Damascus. He had in his hand a
book and he said to me, 'This is the book of Bezels of Wisdom; take
it and bring it to men that they might benefit from it.' I said,
'All obedience is due to God and His Apostle; it shall be as we are
commanded.' I therefore carried out the wish, made pure my intention
and devoted my purpose to the publishing of this book, even as the
Apostle had laid down, without any addition or subtraction. I asked
of God that, both in this matter and in all conditions, He might
number me among those of His servants over whom Satan has not
authority." (Preface to Bezels of Wisdom by the author).
Ibn Arabi says that he gained all his
knowledge through his initial opening at the Holy House of Allah (Ka'ba)
and that his writings consisted of the gradual expression of that
knowledge in verbal form. This is how Ibn Arabi says it:
"When I kept knocking on God's door,
I waited mindfully, not distracted, until there appeared to the eye
the glory of His Face and a call to me, nothing else. I encompassed
Being in knowledge - nothing is in my heart but God." (Futuat
al-Makkiyyah as recounted in the Introduction of William Chittick's
Sufi Path of Knowledge).
"Everything we have mentioned after
that [vision of the glory of God's Face] in all our speech is only
the differentiation of the all-inclusive reality which was contained
in that look at the One Reality." (Futuhat al-Makkiyyah as recounted
in the Introduction of William Chittick's Sufi Path of Knowledge).
Ibn Arabi stresses that he wrote the
Futuhat (and other books) not on his own accord, but was bestowed by
God:
"The books we have composed - this
and others - do not follow the route of the ordinary compositions,
nor do we follow the route of ordinary authors. ... My heart clings
to the door of the Divine Presence, waiting mindfully for what comes
when the door is opened. My heart is poor and needy, empty of every
knowledge. ... When something appears to the heart from behind that
curtain, the heart hurries to obey and sets it down in keeping with
the commanded bounds. (Futuhat al-Makkiyyah as recounted in the
Introduction of William Chittick's Sufi Path of Knowledge)
Ibn Arabi affirms more explicitly in a
famous passage (II 456) in his Futuhat:
"I swear by God, I have not written
a single letter of this book that was not in accordance with a
divine 'dictation', a spiritual inbreathing and a 'casting by God'
in my heart!"
The doctrine, 'Wahdat al-wujud' (Oneness
of Existence) is attributed to Ibn Arabi even though the Shaykh had
never used these terms. Oneness of Existence means that there is truly
only one existence. This is a matter of perspective to look at things.
Things that are other than Allah, are viewed by Ibn Arabi as the
manifestations of Allah. In other words, the whole creation in essence
has no real existence in itself. It exists because Allah allows it to
exist and becomes nothing when it is disconnected from Allah. They can
be viewed as signs of Allah:
Whithersoever
you turn, there is Allah's Countenance (Holy Qur'an 2:115)
Some dreams of Ibn Arabi as mentioned
in his book "Epistle of Good Tidings':
- (When I was
young), before I had acquired any religious learning, a group of
my companions were strongly urging me to study the 'books of
opinions', at a time when I had no knowledge of them or of
hadith. Now in a dream I saw myself as though I were standing in
a wide open space, with a group of people all around me with
weapons in their hands who wanted to kill me; there was no place
of refuge to which I could turn. Then I saw a hill just in front
of me, and God's Messenger was standing on it. So I took refuge
with him, and he put his own armor on me and hugged me with an
extraordinary embrace, saying to me: "O my friend, stick with
me, so you will be safely in peace!" Then I looked for those
enemies, but I didn't see a single one of them on the face of
the earth. So from that time on I've busied myself with studying
hadith.
- I saw in a
dream that I was at the Sacred Shrine in Mecca, and it was as
though the Resurrection had already begun. It was as though I
was standing immediately in front of my Lord, with my head bowed
in silence and fear of His reproaching me because of my
negligence. But He was saying to me: "O My servant, don't be
afraid, for I am not asking you to do anything except to
admonish My servants. So admonish
My servants, and I will guide the
people to the straight path." Now when I had seen how rare it
was for anyone to enter the Path
of
God I had become spiritually lazy. And that night I had resolved
only to concern myself with my own soul, to forget about all the
other people and their condition. But then I had that dream, and
the very next morning I sat down among the people and began to
explain to them the clear Path and the various evils blocking
the Path for each group of them, whether the learned jurists,
the poor Sufis or the common people. So every one of them began
to oppose me and to try to destroy me, but God helped me to
overcome them and protected me with a blessing and
loving mercy from Him. (The Prophet)
said: "Religion is admonishment for God, for the leaders of the
Muslims, and for the common people among them," as is mentioned
in Muslim's Sahih.
- I entered
Seville to see the scrupulous, righteous
Shaykh Abu 'Imran b.
Musa b. 'Imran
al-Martuli, and I informed him about
a matter which made him happy and which he took as good tidings.
So he said to me: "May God give you good tidings of the Garden
(of Paradise), as you have given me good tidings!" Not many days
had gone by when I saw in a dream one of our companions, among
those who had died, and I said to him: "How are you doing?" So
he mentioned something good (regarding his own state), in the
course of saying a great deal and telling a long story. Then he
said to me: "God has already given me the good news that you are
my companion in the Garden!" So I said to him: "This is (all
taking place) in a dream. Give me a sign of (the truth of) what
you are saying!" Then he replied: "Yes, tomorrow at the noon
prayer the Sultan will send someone to look for you in order to
imprison you. So watch out for yourself!" Then I woke up, and
there was nothing at all to indicate anything like that (was
about to happen). But when I was praying at noon, suddenly the
request came from the Sultan. So I said (to myself): "The dream
was right!," and I hid out for
fifteen days, until that (royal) request was cancelled. Now this
is (an example of) the spiritual blessing (baraka)
of the petitionary prayers (du'a)
of the righteous.
- I saw while
I was sleeping as though God was calling out to me, saying to
me: "O My servant, if you want to be
close to Me, honored and enjoying delight with Me, then
constantly say 'My Lord, cause me to see, that I might look upon
You! [Rabbi arini anzur ilaik (Q 7:143)]'
Repeat that for Me many times."
Ibn Arabic's advice on benefiting from the Holy Qur'an:
And if you are among those who are literate,
then impose on yourself reading a section of the Qur'an from
the written text. (While you are) in your place of retreat,
pick up the Qur'anic text, placing your left hand under the
book, while your right hand follows the letters as you are
looking at them, raising your voice enough so you hear
yourself while you are reciting the Qur'an.
Ask and
inquire (of God), with regard to each Surah, what it is you
ought to ask about regarding that. Try to figure out for
every verse its special relevance and lesson for you.
Meditate and put into practice, for each verse, what is its
relevance and connection (to your situation), and what those
qualities and attributes are indicating (that you should now
learn or do). Reflect on those qualities and attributes you
have and on those which you are missing. Then give Him
thanks for those which you have and those which you haven't
(yet) attained! And when you read a description of (the
contrasting attributes of) the hypocrites and those who
ungratefully reject (God), then reflect as to whether there
is not also something of those attributes in you.
Some
anecdotes attributed to Ibn Arabi:
One: One
day, one of Ibn Arabi's opponents was taken sick. The shaykh went to
visit him. He knocked on the door and begged the sick man's wife to
announce that he wished to pay his respects. The woman took the
message and, returning, told the shaykh that her husband did not
wish to see him. The shaykh had no business in this house, she
informed him. The proper place for him was the church. The shaykh
thanked the woman and said that since a good man like her husband
would certainly not send him to a bad place, he would comply with
the suggestion. So after praying for the health and welfare of the
sick man, the shaykh departed for the church.
When he
arrived, he removed his shoes, entered with humble courtesy, and
slowly and silently headed toward a corner, where he sat down. The
priest was in the midst of delivering a sermon to which Ibn Arabi
listened with the utmost attention. During the sermon, the shaykh
felt that the priest had slandered Jesus by attributing to him the
claim that he was the son of God. The shaykh stood up and
courteously objected to this statement. "O the venerable priest," he
began, "Holy Jesus did not say that. On the contrary, he foretold
the good news of the arrival of the Prophet Ahmad (Muhammad, peace
and blessings be upon him)."
The priest
denied that Jesus had said this. The debate went on and on. Finally
the shaykh, pointing to the image of Jesus on the church wall, told
the priest to ask Jesus himself. He would answer and decide the
issue once and for all. The priest protested vehemently, pointing
out that a picture could not speak. This picture would, insisted the
shaykh, for God, who had made Jesus speak while a baby in the arm of
the Holy Virgin, was able to make his picture speak as well. The
congregation following the heated debate became excited at this
statement. The priest was forced to turn to the image of Jesus and
address it: "O Son of God! Show us the true path. Tell us which of
us is right in our claim." With God's Will, the picture spoke and
answered: "I am not the son of God, I am His messenger, and after me
came the last of the prophets, the Holy Ahmad; I foretold that to
you, and I repeat this good news now."
With this
miracle, the whole congregation accepted Islam and, with Ibn Arabi
leading them, marched through the streets to the mosque. As they
passed by the house of the sick man, he could be seen within, his
eyes wide open in astonishment, looking out of the window at this
curious sight. The saint stopped, and blessed and thanked the man
who had insulted him, saying that he was to be praised for the
salvation of all these people.
Two:
In recent times, there was the case of another scholar, Ibrahim
Haleri, the Imam of the Faith Mosque in Istambul, an extremely
orthodox man who opposed the religious teachings of Ibn Arabi. One
day in heated discussion with people who defended the shaykh, he
stamped his foot, saying, "If I could have been there, I would have
crushed his head like that!" In so doing, he stepped on a huge nail.
The wound never healed, causing his death. (The Faith Mosque has a
stone, not a wooden, floor.)
Three: According to an oral
tradition, one day in Damascus Ibn Arabi saw a beautiful young Jewish
boy. As he looked upon him, the boy came to him and addressed him as
"father." From that day on the boy never left him. The father of the boy
searched, found him with the shaykh, and wanted to take him away. The
boy did not recognize him and claimed that the shaykh was his father.
The father, in amazement, told the shaykh that he could bring hundreds
of witness to prove that the boy was his son. The shaykh responded, "If
the boy claims that I am his father, then I am his father." The father
went to court claiming his boy, showing hundreds of witnesses. When the
judge asked the shaykh if the boy was his, the shaykh demanded that the
boy be asked. The boy claimed the shaykh as his father. Then the shaykh
asked the witnesses if this Jewish boy had memorized the Koran. They
answered, "How could a Jewish boy memorize the Koran?" The judge asked
the boy to recite the Koran, which he did with great skill and beauty.
Then the shaykh asked the witnesses if the boy knew the traditions of
Prophet Muhammad. The answered, "How could a Jewish boy know such a
science, which does not belong to his way of life?" The judge closely
questioned the boy about Prophetic traditions. The boy answered his
every question correctly and completely. The Jews who understood this
miracle accepted Islam.
(The above three were taken from Sheikh
Muzaffer Ozak al-Jerrahi's introduction to English translation of Ibn
Arabi's JOURNEY TO THE LORD OF POWER.)
Ibn Arabi's Testament on the Mantle
of Initiation (al-Khirqah):
It is well known that spiritual masters
get their training from another master, in turn from another one and so
on, reaching the chain to the Prophet (SAW) and through Jibril (A.S) to
Allah (SWT). This is known as silsila. In other words, each master get
initiated into the knowledge of Allah by his master. It appears that Ibn
Arabi had more than one Silsila. Following is one of them, according to
Ibn Arabi's own Testament on the Mantle of Initiation (al-Khirqah):
I HEREBY INVEST YOU by my own hand
with (the Mantle of Initiation as sign] of Companionship and Moral
instruction, O my saintly Friend, Muwaffaq al-Din Ahmad B. Ali b.
Ahmad al-Absi of Seville. I myself was invested with the Mantle at
the hand of the Master, Jamal al-Din Yunus b. Yahya b. Abil Hasan
al-Abbasi al-Qassar, in the Sacred Precincts of Mecca [in 1202-03],
before the Sublime Ka'bah. Yunus had received it from the Master of
the Age, Abd al-Qadir b. Abi Salih b. Abd al-Lah al-Jili, who
received it from Abu Said al-Mubarak b. Ali al-Mukharrimi, who in
turn, had it from Abul Hasan Ali al-Hakkari, who had it from Abul
Faraj al-Tarsusi, who had it from Abul Fadl Abd al-Wahid al-Tamimi,
who had it from Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Jahdar al-Shibli, who was a
companion of Abul Qasim al-Junayd, whose moral instruction he
followed.
Al-Junayd, in turn, was the
companion of his maternal uncle, Sari al-Saqati, whose moral
instruction he followed, as Sari had been the companion of Maruf
al-Karkhi, whose moral instruction he followed. Similarly, Maruf
accompanied and followed Ali [ar-Rida], who accompanied and followed
his father, Musa [al-Kazim], who accompanied and followed his
father, Jafar [al-Sadiq], who accompanied and followed his father,
Muhammad [al-Baqir], who accompanied and followed his father, Ali
[Zayn al-Abidin], who accompanied and followed his father, al-Husayn
b. Ali, who accompanied and followed both his grandfather, Muhammad,
the Messenger of God (May God bless and keep him!) and his father,
Ali b. Abi Talib, who also accompanied and followed the Messenger of
God.
And Muhammad took from the Angel
Gabriel (Upon him be peace), and Gabriel took from God (Be He
exalted!). I asked Shaykh Yusus: "What did [Muhammad/Gabriel] take
from [Gabriel/God]?" and he replied: "I asked Shaykh Abd al-Qadir
or, it was asked of him - and he declared: 'He took from Him
Knowledge and Moral instruction (al-ilm wal adab).'"
May the loving God bestow His infinite
mercy on our Greatest Master, Muhammad b. Ali b. Muhammad Ibn al-Arabi
al-Ta'i al-Hatimi.
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Further reading on Ibn Arabi:
- S. Hirtenstein's The Unlimited
Mercifier: The Spiritual Life and Thought of Ibn 'Arabi (Oxford,
Anqa/White Cloud Press, 1999),
- C. Addas's Quest for the Red
Sulphur: The Life of Ibn 'Arabi (Cambridge, Islamic Texts
Society, 1993)
- R. Austin's Sufis of Andalusia
(London, Allen & Unwin, 1971)
- William Chittick's The Sufi Path
of Knowledge: Ibn al-'Arabi's Metaphysics of the Imagination
(Albany, SUNY, 1989)
- William Chittick's The
Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-'Arabi's Cosmology
(Albany, SUNY, 1998);
- T. Izutsu's pioneering A
Comparative Study of the Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and
Taoism: Ibn 'Arabi and Lao-Tzu, Chuang-Tzu (Tokyo, Keio
Institute, 1966)
- R. Austin's, Ibn al 'Arabi: The
Bezels of Wisdom (New York, Paulist Press, 1980)
- Michel Chodkiewicz's An Ocean
Without Shore: Ibn 'Arabi, the Book and the Law (Albany, SUNY,
1993)
- Henry Corbin's Creative
Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi
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