A vastly prolific
writer, Ibn Arabi is generally known as the prime exponent of the idea
that would later be termed wahdat al-wujud (وحدة الوجود, "unity of
being"). His emphasis, as with any mystic, lay rather on the true
potential of the human being and the path to realising that potential,
which reaches its completion in the Perfect or Complete Man (al-insan al-kamil).
Ibn Arabi wrote at least 300 works, ranging from minor treatises to the
huge 37-volume Meccan Illuminations (al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya) and the
quintessence of his teachings, The Bezels of Wisdom (Fusus al-hikam).
Approximately 110 works are known to have survived in verifiable
manuscripts, some 18 in Ibn Arabi’s own hand. He exerted an unparalleled
influence, not only upon his immediate circle of friends and disciples,
many of whom were considered spiritual masters in their own right, but
also on succeeding generations, affecting the whole course of subsequent
spiritual thought and practice in the Arabic, Turkish and Persian-speaking
worlds. In recent years his writings have also become increasingly the
subject of interest and study in the West, leading to the establishment of
an international academic Society in his name.
Ibn Arabi’s life can
be divided into three discrete phases: born in Murcia in south-eastern
Spain in 560AH/1165AD, he spent the first thirty-five years of his life in
the Maghreb, the western lands of Islam which stretched from al-Andalus to
Tunis; then he embarked on pilgrimage and spent the next three years in or
around Mecca, where a series of dramatic experiences initiated the writing
of several works including his magnum opus, the Meccan Illuminations ; the
final phase of his life was spent in the Levant and Anatolia, where he
raised a family, and in addition to an unceasing literary output and
instruction given to numerous disciples, he became adviser to kings and
rulers. He settled in Damascus, where he lived for 17 years, dying in
638AH/1240AD, and his tomb is still an important place of pilgrimage.
Many Wahabis reject
the notion that Ibn Arabi was a Muslim, despite the fact that he openly
accepted shahadat. Reasons for Ibn Arabi being branded a heretic were some
of his statements in his books such as Fusoos Al-Hikam and Al-Ahkaam. One
example is where Ibn Arabi said, "Al-`Abdu Rabbun Warrabbu `Abdun" meaning
The slave (human) is the Lord/God and the Lord/God is the slave (human)."
Sufis claim that such statements were always considered to be the most
elevated exposition of mystical thought in Islam, and therefore unsuitable
for the untrained mind.
A profound visionary
capacity, coupled with a remarkable intellectual insight into human
experience and a thorough comprehension of all the traditional sciences,
marks out Ibn Arabi from comparable figures in Islam. It has been tempting
for scholars to characterise him as a mystical philosopher, a formulation
which is rather at odds with his own teachings on the limitations of
philosophical thinking. He was as much at home with Qur'an and Hadith
scholarship as with medieval philology and letter symbolism, philosophy,
alchemy and cosmology. He could write with equal facility in prose or
poetry, and utilised the polysemous ambiguity of the Arabic language to
great effect. The characteristic resonances of rhymed prose (saj’), which
are to be found in the Qur'an, abound in his works.
