Students name: NurulFathonah bt Mohd Effendy (11BI03015)

Siti Nur Falah bt Zulkifli (11BI03003)

Subject: Islamic Philosophy (BIAF 3103)

Course: Bachelor of Usuluddin with Multimedia (Hons)

Year: Semester III, 2011/2012

Title: Ibn `Arabi

IBN `ARABI

INTRODUCTION

Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhammad b. `Ali Ibn `Arabi is one of the world's great
spiritual or superlative teachers. Known as Muhyiddin (the Revivifier of Religion) and the
Sheikh al-Akbar (the Greatest Master) in the East. Ibn `Arabi's spiritual attainments were evident
from an early of his age. He is given great prominence in many of the biographical and history
book, both in Arabic and Persian. Futuhat, Risalat al-Quds, the Memorandum and others were
outcome from his own works.

In this work, we will be concentrating on a Sufism, which it’s about Ibn `Arabi. The most
important about Ibn `Arabi are his bibliography, his doctrines or thought, his influences on future
Sufism and his words from his books. However, when we talk about Ibn `Arabi, here, of course,
the objective is not simply to add information about him. Besides, it should be establish a
relation between us and him, as well as the inspiration for the spiritual life of all mankind. When
people want to know Ibn `Arabi is only through the aspects of the biography, we feel that we will
not understand this mystery of his personality as it should.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ibn `Arabi was born at Murcia in 560 A.H. (1164 A.D.), in the
township of Murcia in Spain, which was ruled at the time by Muhammad
b. Mardanish. His full name was Muhammad b. Ali b. Muhammad Ibn al-
`Arabi al-Ta’I al-Hatimi, which indicates that he came of an ancient Arab
lineage.1 At the age of 38 he set forth to the East. He died in 638 A.H.
(1240 A.H.) and was buried at the foot of the Mount Qasiyun in
Damascus. His works numbered 287 in 632 A.H. (1234 A.D.) Jami says

he wrote 500 books. His commentary of the Quran ran into 95 volumes.2 Ibn `Arabi passed away
at the age of 78 years, 7 months and 9 days on 28th Rabiulakhir 638 A.H. (1240 A.D.). He died
teaching Fusus-al-Hikam.3 He says:

“Verily those people become hiders or the truth who said God is Jesus. The son of Mary.

He says:

“Do not create a partner to God. It is shirk (polytheism) for shirk is sin.”

He says shirk is division of existence into two. There can be no division. All faces or
aspects exhibit one single reality. Shirk is the identification of an aspect with reality itself or the
identification of one aspect with another.4 The Prophet said:

“God is and nothing is with him”

1
Ibn Al `Arabi the Bezels of Wisdom, R.W.J. Austin, Paulist Press, 1980. Page 1.
2
Islamic Sufism, Capt: Wahid Bakhsh Rabbani, A.S. Noordenn, Fourth Edition, 1992. Page 362.
3
Ibid, Islamic Sufism. Page 363.
4
Ibid, Islamic Sufism. Page 364.

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Kana means ‘is’ not ‘was’. Allah is Forgiving Merciful.

When Ibn `Arabi talks of mystical union with God he means a state in which an already existing
union is being realized or verified. The mystic does not become God for there is no becoming in
his theory.5

His Tauhid (Oneness) is this:

“There was no Adam and Iblis,

Nor did Solomon and Sheba exist.

All these are words,

Thou art the meaning.”

INFLUENCES OF FUTURE SUFISM

Although Ibn `Arabi was violently attacked by his adversaries for his own views which
they considered unorthodox, his teachings not only survived the attacks, but exercised the most
profound influence on the course of all future Sufism. His influence seems to show itself most
markedly in the delightful works of the mystic poets of Persia from the seventh/thirteenth to the
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ninth/fifteenth century. `Iriqi, Shabistari and Jami were all inspired by him. Their wonderful
odes are respects an echo of the ideas of the author of the Fusus and the Futuhat, cast into
magnificent poetry by the subtle genius of the Persian mind.

These are but a few of the many ideas which the mystic poets of Persia borrowed from
Ibn `Arabi and to which they gave an endless variety of poetical forms. It is said that `Iraqi wrote

5
Opcit, Islamic Sufism, Capt: Wahid Bakhsh Rabbani, A.S. Noordenn, Fourth Edition, 1992. Page 364.
6
A history of Muslim Philosophy, M. M. Sharif, Pakistan Philosophical Congress, Volume One, 1963. Page 408.

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his Lama`di after hearing Sadr al-Din Qunawi’s lecturer on the Fusus and Jami who commented
on the same book wrote his Lawa`ih in the strain. The following is an extract from `Iriqi’s
Lama`ai which sums up Ibn `Arabi’s theory of the microcosm (man)7:

“Though form.” he said, “proclaims me Adam`s son,

My true degree a higher place hath won,

When in the glass of Beauty I behold,

The Universe my image both unfold,

In Heaven`s Sun behold me manifest-

Each tiny molecule both me attest…

Ocean`s a drop from my pervading See,

Light but a flash of my vast Brilliancy:

From Throne to carpet, all hat is doth seem

Naught but a Mote that rides the sunlit Beam,

When Being`s Vell of Attributes is shed,

My splendor o`er a lustrous World is spread….”8

7
Opcit, A history of Muslim Philosophy, M. M. Sharif, Pakistan Philosophical Congress, Volume One, 1963. Page 409.
8
Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory, A. J. Arberry, Sufism, London, 1950. Page 102.

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IBN `ARABI’S DOCTRINE:

UNITY OF ALL BEINGS (WAHDAT AL-WUJUD)

Ibn `Arabi doctrine, as embodied in his two major works, al-Futuhat al-Makiyyah and
Fusus al-Hikam (The Gems of Wisdom),9 centers around the concept of the unity of being “Unity
of All Beings” (wahdat al-wujud). It is the most fundamental principle which lies at the root of
Ibn Arabi`s whole philosophy or rather theological-philosophy and mystical thought.10

Five board stages in the process of self-determination of Being are generally listed. The
Being prior to every self-determination is absolutely One (Ahad); this stage of Being is
designated as Ahadiyah, Absolute Unity.

The second stage is called Wahdah or Unity, when internal distinctions emerge in Being.
This happens when Being presents to appear in the world in future. These ideal prototypes of
things are called a‘yan thabitah; for they eternally subsist in the knowledge of Being. The next
stage of self-determination is called Wahidiyah or Unity when Being determines itself
existentially in objects on the pattern of their ideal prototypes, the a’yan thabitah. Since in the
process the a‘yan thabitah do not themselves appear in the outer world leaving the knowledge or
mind of Being. 11

The next three stages are the particularized determinations of Being I souls called ta’ayun
ruhi, spiritual determinations in symbolic forms called ta’ayun mithali, symbolic determination;
and lastly in bodies called ta’ayun jasadi, corporeal determination. The existential

9
A history of Islamic Philosophy, Majid Fakry, Columbia University Press, 1970. Page 281.
10
Opcit. A history of Muslim Philosophy, M. M. Sharif, Pakistan Philosophical Congress, Volume One, 1963. Page 409.
11
Sufism and Shari’ah, Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari, A.S. Nordeen, First Edition, 1990. Page 103.

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determinations are finite in contrast to the ideal determination which is infinite. Together the five
stages of determination are known as hadrat khams, the five presences of Being.12

Ibn 'Arabi considers that only He who possesses Being in Himself and whose Being is
His very essence (a’yan thabitah), merits the name of Being. Now only God can be like that. For
the creatures, Being is a loan, which is not part of their essence. This means that a creature does
not own its being, that it can never be independent in itself, and that it cannot for the blinking of
an eye do without Him who lends it Being. Thus for Ibn 'Arabi, the created does not deserve the
attribution of Being. Only God is Being, and all the rest is in reality a possibility (imkân), a
relative, possible non-existence.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, from the foregoing pages an attempt has been made to give a bird`s-eye
view of a tremendously vast field. We have concentrated on the most important features of Ibn
`Arabi’s bibliography, his doctrines, influences on future Sufism and his words. Ibn `Arabi has
done away with good many concepts which were so narrowly understood by Muslim jurist and
theologians, and offered in their place other concepts which are much deeper in their spirituality
and more comprehensive than those of any his Muslim predecessors. His idea about the
universality: being, love, religion. It may consider land marks in the history of human thought.

Ibn 'Arabi's thought were a decisive step in the development of Islamic spirituality, in
particular that of the Sufis who went on to organize themselves into brotherhoods. His works,
which are so rich and so dense, technical, esoteric and paradoxical at the same time, are not only
valued for their theoretical content but also because they are the expressions of a pious man's
profound mystical voyage of discovery.

12
Opcit, Sufism and Shari’ah, Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari, A.S. Nordeen, First Edition, 1990. Page 104.

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 Ibn 'Arabi's writings have been very influential chiefly among elites and Sufi tariqas.
Although his name was widely recognized, only a minority of people could have read his works
directly. But many of his ideas reached ordinary people through the Sufis, and through popular
poetry.

REFERENCES

A history of Islamic Philosophy, Majid Fakry, Columbia University Press, 1970.

A history of Muslim Philosophy, M. M. Sharif, Pakistan Philosophical Congress, Volume One,

1963.

http://kampoengsufi.wordpress.com

http://www.muslimphilosophy.com

http://plato.stanford.edu

http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/ibnarabi.html

Ibn Al `Arabi the Bezels of Wisdom, R.W.J. Austin, Paulist Press, 1980.

Islamic Sufism, Capt: Wahid Bakhsh Rabbani, A.S. Noordenn, Fourth Edition, 1992.

Jurisprudence and Constitutional Theory, A. J. Arberry, Sufism, London, 1950.

Sufism and Shari’ah, Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari, A.S. Nordeen, First Edition, 1990.