Ibn Arabi

Ibn Arabi

Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi is one of the world's great spiritual teachers. Ibn 'Arabi was born in Murcia, Al-Andalus, in 1165 and his writings had an immense impact throughout the Islamic world and beyond. The universal ideas underlying his thought are of immediate relevance today.

Known as Muhyiddin (the Reviver of Religion) and the Shaykh al-Akbar (the Greatest Master), he was born into the Moorish culture of Andalusian Spain, the centre of an extraordinary flourishing and cross-fertilization of Jewish, Christian and Islamic thought, through which the major scientific and philosophical works of antiquity were transmitted to Northern Europe. Ibn 'Arabi's spiritual attainments were evident from an early age, and he was renowned for his great visionary capacity as well as being a superlative teacher. He travelled extensively in the Islamic world and died in Damascus in 1240 AD.

He wrote over 350 works including the Fusûs al-Hikam, an exposition of the inner meaning of the wisdom of the prophets in the Judaic/ Christian/ Islamic line, and the Futûhât al-Makkiyya, a vast encyclopaedia of spiritual knowledge which unites and distinguishes the three strands of tradition, reason and mystical insight. In his Diwân and Tarjumân al-Ashwâq he also wrote some of the finest poetry in the Arabic language. These extensive writings provide a beautiful exposition of the Unity of Being, the single and indivisible reality which simultaneously transcends and is manifested in all the images of the world. Ibn 'Arabi shows how Man, in perfection, is the complete image of this reality and how those who truly know their essential self, know God.

Firmly rooted in the Quran, his work is universal, accepting that each person has a unique path to the truth, which unites all paths in itself. He has profoundly influenced the development of Islam since his time, as well as significant aspects of the philosophy and literature of the West. His wisdom has much to offer us in the modern world in terms of understanding what it means to be human.

If the believer understood the meaning of the saying 'the colour of the water is the colour of the receptacle', he would admit the validity of all beliefs and he would recognise  God in every form and every object of faith.

My heart can take on any form: 

A meadow for gazelles, 

A cloister for monks, 

For the idols, sacred ground, 

Ka'ba for the circling pilgrim, 

The tables of the Torah, 

The scrolls of the Quran. 

My creed is Love; 

Wherever its caravan turns along the way, 

That is my belief, 

My faith.

Quotes of Ibn Arabi

Do not praise your own faith exclusively so that you disbelieve all the rest. If you do this you will miss much good. Nay, you will miss the whole truth of the matter. God, the Omniscient and the Omnipresent, cannot be confined to any one creed, for He says in the Quran, wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah. Everybody praises what he knows. His God is his own creature, and in praising it, he praises himself. Which he would not do if he were just, for his dislike is based on ignorance.

How can the heart travel to God, when it is chained by its desires?

   

Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you - indeed, the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself a matter for all forms of belief, for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather than another.

I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith.

   

God sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal, and awakens in man.

   

The ignorant one does not see his ignorance as he basks in its darkness; nor does the knowledgeable one see his own knowledge, for he basks in its light

   

There was a time, when I blamed my companion if his religion did not resemble mine. Now, however, my heart accepts every form....Love alone is my religion.

 The Face of Religion

Now I am called the shepherd of the desert gazelles,

Now a Christian monk,

Now a Zoroastrian,

The Beloved is Three, yet One:

Just as the three are in reality one.

   

The Writings of Ibn 'Arabi

Ibn 'Arabi is one of the most inventive and prolific writers of the Islamic tradition, with a very large number of books and treatise attributed to him. He wrote a number of works whilst still living in Andalusia, but the majority of his writings date from the second part of his life when he was living in Mecca, Anatolia and Damascus.

Of the heritage which has come down to us, there is a core of about 85 works which we can be certain are genuine works by him. These include the encyclopaedic "Meccan Revelations" (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya) which numbers more than 2,000 pages in the printed edition, and around 15 substantial long works, including a Dīwān (collected poetry) of about 800 poems and his master work "The Ringstones of Wisdom" (Fusūs al-ḥikam). The remainder are short treatises, some just a few pages long written in response to a student’s need or request.

His best known works are:

Fusûs al-hikam ("The Ringstones of Wisdom")

Considered to be the quintessence of Ibn 'Arabi's spiritual teaching, it comprises twenty-seven chapters, each dedicated to the spiritual meaning and wisdom of a particular prophet. Over the centuries Ibn 'Arabi's students held this book in the highest esteem and wrote over one hundred commentaries on it.

Al-Futûhât al-makkiyya ("The Meccan Openings")

"This is a vast compendium of metaphysics, cosmology, spiritual anthropology, psychology, and jurisprudence. Topics include the inner meanings of the Islamic rituals, the stations of travellers on the journey to God and in God, the nature of cosmic hierarchy, the spiritual and ontological meaning of the letters of the Arabic alphabet, the sciences embraced by each of the ninety-nine names of God, and the significance of the differing messages of various prophets." This work was written over a twenty-year period as Ibn 'Arabi travelled in the Near East, and revised in a second recension during the time he lived in Damascus.

Tarjuman al-ashwaq ("The Interpreter of Yearnings")

This short collection of love poetry was inspired by his meeting during his first pilgrimage to Mecca with Nizam, the beautiful and gifted daughter of a great scholar from Isfahan. He later wrote a long commentary on the poems to prove to one of his critics that they deal with spiritual truths and not profane love. It was the first of Ibn 'Arabi's works to be translated into English.

A story told by Ibn Arabi

Study by Analogy

It is related that Ibn El-Arabi refused to talk in philosophical language with anyone, however ignorant or however learned. And yet people seemed to benefit from keeping company with him. He took people on expeditions, gave them meals, entertained them with talk on hundred topics.

Someone aked him: 'How can you teach when you never seem to speak of teaching?'

Ibn El-Arabi said: 'It is by analogy:' And he told this parable.

A man once buried some money for security under a certain tree. When he came back for it, it was gone. Someone had laid bare the roots and borne away the gold.

He went to a sage and told him his trouble, saying: 'I am sure that there is no hope of finding my treasure.' The sage told him to come back after a few days.

In the mean time the sage called upon all the physicians of town, and asked them whether they had prescribed the root of a certain tree as a medicine for anyone. One of them had, for one of his patients.

The sage called this man, and soon found out that it was he who had the money. He took possession of it and returned it to its rightful owner.

'In a similar manner,' said Ibn El-Arabi, 'I find out what is the real intent of the disciple, and how he can learn. And I teach him.'

 Some more quotes of Ibn Arabi

If you find it complicated to answer someone’s question, do not answer it, for his container is already full and does not have room for the answer

I am in love with no other than myself, and my very separation is my union... I am my beloved and my lover; I am my knight and my maiden.

  

It is He who is revealed in every face, sought in every sign, gazed upon by every eye, worshipped in every object of worship, and pursued in the unseen and the visible. Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature.

   

I follow the Way of Love,
and where Love's caravan takes its path,
there is my religion, my faith.

   

When you know yourself, your 'I'ness vanishes and you know that you and Allah are one and the same.

My heart has become capable of every form: It is a pasture for gazelles And a monastery for Christian monks, And the pilgrim's Ka'ba, And the tablets of the Torah, And the book of the Koran. I follow the religion of Love: Whatever way love's camel takes, That is my religion, my faith.

Oh, Lord, nourish me not with love, but with the desire for love.

    

My creed is LOVE; 

Wherever its caravan turns along the way, 

That is my belief, 

My faith.

   

My heart can be pasture for deer and a convent for monks, a temple for idols and a Kaaba for the pilgrims. It is both the tables of the Torah and the Koran. It professes the religion of Love wherever its caravans are heading. Love is my law. Love is my faith.

   

While you are alive, your worldly self is like a collector of benefits from Allah's bounties, which come to you from myriads of hands.

Ibn Arabi

The Three Forms of Knowledge

Ibn El-Arabi of Spain instructed his followers in this most ancient dictum:

There are three forms of knowledge. The first is intellectual knowledge, which is in fact only information and the collection of facts, and the use of these to arrive at further intellectual concepts. This is intellectualism.

Second comes the knowledge of states, which included both emotional feeling and strange states of being in which man thinks that he has perceived something supreme but cannot avail himself of it. This is emotionalism.

Third comes real knowledge, which is called the Knowledge of Reality. In this form, man can perceive what is right, what is true, beyond the boundaries of thought and sense. Scholastics and scientists concentrate upon the first form of knowledge. Emotionalists and experientialists use the second form. Others use the two combined, or either one alternatively.

But the people who attain to truth are those who know how to connect themselves with the reality which lies beyond both these forms of knowledge. These are the real Sufis, the Dervishes who have Attained.

 The Man who Knows

The Sufi who knows the Ultimate Truth acts and speaks in a manner which takes into consideration the understanding, limitations and dominant concealed prejudices of his audience.

To the Sufi, worship means knowledge. Through knowledge he attains sight.

The Sufi abandons the three 'I's. He does not say 'for me', 'with me', or 'my property'. He must not attribute anything to himself.

Something is hidden in an unworthy shell. We seek lesser objects, needless of the prize of unlimited value.

The capacity of interpretation means that one can easily read something said by a wise man in two totally opposite manners.

Few more poems by Ibn arabi ..

It is from God, so hear! 

And to God do you return! 

When you hear what I bring, learn! 

Then with understanding see

The details in the whole

And also see them as part of the whole. 

Then give it to those who seek it, and stint not. 

This is the mercy that Encompasses you; so extend it.

When my Beloved appears,

With what eye do I see Him?

With His eye, not with mine,

For none sees Him except Himself.

O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.

My heart has become capable of every form:

it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,

and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Kaa'ba,

and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran.

I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take,

that is my religion and my faith.

I marveled at an Ocean without shore,

and at a Shore that did not have an ocean;

And at a Morning Light without darkness,

and at a Night that was without daybreak;

And then a Sphere with no locality

known to either fool or learned scholar;

And at an azure Dome raised over the earth,

circulating 'round its center – Compulsion;

And at a rich Earth without o'er-arching vault

and no specific location, the Secret concealed...