Abstract
The dialectic in the article research is the presentation of Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī Ṣūfī semantics in (Waḥdat al-Wujūd), which forms the core of the dispute between conservatives (Ahl al-Hadith) and Ṣūfī. The statement of the Dialectic directs the render to the importance of the topic, places the issue in a specific context, and specifies relevant criteria, providing the necessary framework for reporting the expected results. The idea of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd did not appear in a complete and consistent theoretical form before Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī, some trends though appeared towards this theory from time to time in the sayings of the Sufis who preceded him. Ibn ʻArabī's doctrine of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd is summarized in his denial of the world of appearance and does not recognize the real existence except for God's Creation as a show of true existence. So, according to Ibn ʻArabī, there is only God, and through his doctrine of Waḥdat al-Wujūd, lies Ibn ʻArabī’s understanding of the interdependent relationship between God, the world, and Al-Insān. This research discusses the dialectic of this doctrine through sources and texts that have been misjudged. So, this research article will follow the methodology of analyzing the Sufi texts of Ibn ʻArabī, many subjects by Ibn ʻArabī were discussed. Still, the research will concentrate on (Waḥdat al-Wujūd), because his experience with this subject had a clear influence on the philosophical thought in the whole world and the research deals with Ibn ʻArabī’s doctrine of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) which means the solitude of existence and the difference between it and the doctrines of Solutions and Union, Through 6 basic elements as follows: The name of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd: (The perfection in the Ṣūfī concept of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) According to Ibn ʻArabī, "There’s nonexistence but Allah") Then The Dialectic of Ibn Arabi: (The language of Ibn ʻArabī) - (Similarities in Ibn ʻArabī’sbi speech) Then Ibn ʻArabī and symbolic thought Then Texts Ibn ʻArabī's literature on Waḥdat ai-Wujūd Then The Insān al-kāmil and Woman in Ibn ʻArabī’s thought Then after that Results and Discussions that the study reached from the previous elements.
Keywords
Ibn ʻArabī, Waḥdat al-Wujūd, Ṣūfī, Insān al-kāmil
1. Introduction
I’ll present one of the greatest Ṣūfī philosophers, who is known as the great Sheikh/ Muḥyī al-DīnIbn ʻArabī, the author of the famous works, which raised dialectic for some because of his ambiguous style based on symbols and indications. There are many subjects by Ibn ʻArabī which were discussed numerously. Still, the research will concentrate on (Waḥdat al-Wujūd), because of his experience with this subject and its clear influence on philosophical thought in the whole world, and the research deals with Ibn ʻArabī’s doctrine of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) which means the solitude of existence and the difference between it and the doctrines of Solutions and Union, and explaining Ibn ʻArabī’s verbal style and his symbolic language, which was misunderstood, and received significant criticism from many holders of conservative religious idea, then the perfectionism in the Ṣūfī concept, and Ibn ʻArabī’s vision of the perfect human and woman.
Waḥdat al-Wujūd in language: “He was alone, is alone, be alone, in a complete loneliness... Just by himself... God the someone, only one made him unique in his time … the monism in philosophy: is a doctrine that gets the whole universe to one concept, as the mere soul or mere nature …. “
| [1] | Majmaʻ al-lughah al-ʻArabīyah: (1985M) al-Muʻjam al-Wasīṭ (Arabic Language Academy: Intermediate Dictionary), Cairo, (3rd ed), (part. 2 /p. 1058 - 1059). |
[1]
“Wāw (W), Jīm (G), Dāl (D): refer to one origin, which is finding the thing, exactly finding the lost thing.”
| [2] | Suʻād al-Ḥakīm: (1981M) al-Muʻjam al-P. ūfī al-Ḥikmah fī ḥudūd al-Kalimah (The Sufi Dictionary Wisdom in the Limits of the Word), DanOrganizationah lil-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr, 1st ed., Lebanon, P. 1130-1153. |
[2]
Waḥdat al-Wujūd idiomatically: a philosophical doctrine of Ṣūfī sm, says that God and the world are one truth and one entity, And God is the mere existence, they consider that God is the image of this created world otherwise the overall physical appearances announce the presence of God without being existed by themselves.
Waḥdat al-Wujūd in the Quran: The origin of Wujūd (found) exists in the form of past, present, and future. However, the origin (Wujūd) (existence) isn’t mentioned in the Holy Quran, and it doesn’t have any idiomatic meaning but keeps its previous linguistic content. In the past, “Every time, Zachariah entered Al-Mihrab to visit her, he found her supplied with sustenance: (al-Raḥmān: 37) In the present: “Indeed, there will never protect me from Allah anyone (if I should disobey), nor will I find in other than him a refuge.” (Al-Jinn: 22). And in the future, “Mūsá said: if Allah will, you’ll find me patient, and I will not disobey you in aught: (Al-Kahf: 69).
| [3] | Abu Hamid Al-Ghazzālī: (2005M) Iḥyāʼ ʻulūm al-Dīn (Revival of the Religious Sciences) Published by: Ibn Ḥazm, Beirut – Lebanon, p 894. |
[3]
2. The Name of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd
Ibn ʻArabī speaks about the Waḥdat al-Wujūd in the language of Ṣūfī experience and ranks, he says about the Ṣūfī folk: they are (the people of Waḥdat al-Wujūd) or (the people of precognition and The unveiling People), he means to say that: for those who find truth in their existence, listening gets them to the feeling it isn’t truly perfect without the presence of the truth in it in an ambiguous way, and by this saying we can understand Ibn ʻArabī’s sentences.
| [2] | Suʻād al-Ḥakīm: (1981M) al-Muʻjam al-P. ūfī al-Ḥikmah fī ḥudūd al-Kalimah (The Sufi Dictionary Wisdom in the Limits of the Word), DanOrganizationah lil-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr, 1st ed., Lebanon, P. 1130-1153. |
[2]
For this name, some writers and thinkers said that Ibn Taymīyah was the first to use the name “Waḥdat al-Wujūd” to criticize these ideas and doctrines..
| [4] | Ibn Taymīyah: (ND), Majmoua Al-Rasael Wa Al-Masael (Messages and questions collection), commented by: Mohamed Rashed Reda, published by by Lajna Al-Turath Al-Arabi. Part 1 p. 68. |
[4]
Based on Waḥdat al-Wujūd, Ibn ʻArabī has inspired, lots of thoughts, real diversity, and multiplicity of reality which are one, in fact, because of Waḥdat al Wujūd manifests inside nature’s diversity and its effect and variety of lives around it.
| [5] | Umi Sumbulah, Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang: (2016M) Ibn ‘Arabi’s thought on what al wujid and Its Connection to Religious Diversity, Journal of Islamic Studies Published by Islamic Institute Mataram, p. 54 – 56. |
[5]
Therefore, nature and all inside it is an image of who has an essential, absolute, unlimited existence, the Almighty God. This agrees with the Ḥadīth Qudsī: “I was a hidden treasure, then I wanted to be known, so I created a creation to whom I made Myself known and knew Me.”
Relying on believing in Waḥdat al-Wujūd, Ibn ʻArabī inspired lots of thoughts that real diversity or realism variety looks almost lonely when it’s rooted in God with nature as a transfiguration for God, that manifests the variety of nature and the impact, but this variety is one because of Waḥdat al-Wujūd, Waḥdat al-Wujūdalso is an appearance of everything while variety exists in its entities, which doesn’t have its private existence, so God in his uniqueness is a synonym to the appearance of everything but he isn’t the meaning of everything or the diversity itself.
| [7] | William C. Chittick, Imaginal Worlds: (1994M) Ibn ʻArabī and the Problem of Religious Diversity, Albany: State University of New York Press, p32. |
[7]
The truth is, that Waḥdat al-Wujūd is an old idea and the Ṣūfī Imams revived it but differently from atheistic materialism, of these Imams: Ibn ʻArabī, Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Ibn sabʻīn, al-Tilimsānī, and many others who were influenced by Platonic and Stoics philosophy..
The idea of Waḥdat al-Wujūddid didn’t appear in the form of coordinated doctrine before Muḥyī al-DīnIbn ʻArabī and some of the ideas that rose towards this doctrine we find it occasionally in the preceded Ṣūfī s of Ibn ʻArabī, who wasn’t the first to establish a full doctrine of Waḥdat al-Wujūdonly, but he is still the great representative of it, and those who proceeded him and spoke about Waḥdat al-Wujūd were all influenced by him or reported from him.
| [8] | Aḥmad ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Qap.īr: (2003M) ʻaqīdat al-P.ūfīyah wa-waḥdat al-wujūd al-khafīyah (Sufi Doctrine and the Hidden Unity of Being), Published by: Al Rashd Library al-Rushd – Nāshirūn (Published byers), 1st ed, Riyadh - Saudi Arabia, P. 65 - 156. |
[8]
Confusion has happened among many scientists and researchers in understanding the theory of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) according to Ibn ʻArabī because they mix the ways of Solutions, unity, and truth. This is testified by what is written in his books, he denies the unity through his saying: if the unity makes the two into one, it’s impossible, because if the core of everyone exists during the unity, so they are two identities, and if one core ended and the other lasted, so the first has no limit.
| [9] | Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī: (1948M) Rasāʼil Ibn ʻArabī, (Ibn Arabi’s Letters), Ottoman Encyclopedia Society Press, HaiOrganization Ibad Deccan, 1st ed., Question No. 43, p. 29. |
[9]
And it’s known by the mind nature that existence is two kinds: a must existence for God and it can’t be void, and an existence can agree to nonexistence, which is every other thing but God, nevertheless, many writers in the past and recently tried to negate that Ibn ʻArabī believed in Waḥdat al-Wujūd, because they thought that this doctrine is an atheistic materialism..
It’s known that God doesn’t announce himself to other things, and the existence of God is absolute, so it can’t be understood or imagined because he is the one, this is also according to the philosophy of Plotinus.
| [10] | Harun Hadiwijono: (1983M) Sari Sejarah Filsafat Barat I (Yogyakarta, Kanisius, p28. |
[10]
One of the researchers looked that the Ṣūfī s believed that they were those pious, knowledgeable who understood the word, and Ibn ʻArabī’s point of view taking this meaning into account, therefore he established the division of the existence into five sections:
1. Absolute existence which is the Almighty God.
2. Abstract existence of matter which is expressed in angels.
3. Existence that accepts being in space and place, which is the bodies, the bulk, and the core of persons.
4. Existence that doesn’t accept being in place, but accepts it according to the features, such as black or white and anything similar.
5. Existences of kinship relations, which equal the ten philosophical sayings according to Ibn ʻArabī.
| [11] | Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī: (1997M) al-Shaykh al-akbar Ibn ʻArabī p. āḥib al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah (The Greatest Sheikh Ibn Arabi, the author of Al-Futuhat Al-Makkiyya), Published by: Beirut - Lebanon, p. 8 - 62. |
[11]
2.1. The Perfection in the Ṣūfī Concept of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) According to Ibn ʻArabī, (There’s no Existence but Allah):
The atheism idea of Waḥdat al-Wujūd was translated into the doctrines of Union Solutions, it’s an old idea in some Hinduism and Taoism religions old Greek philosophies, and Jewish and Christian thought, too.
| [8] | Aḥmad ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Qap.īr: (2003M) ʻaqīdat al-P.ūfīyah wa-waḥdat al-wujūd al-khafīyah (Sufi Doctrine and the Hidden Unity of Being), Published by: Al Rashd Library al-Rushd – Nāshirūn (Published byers), 1st ed, Riyadh - Saudi Arabia, P. 65 - 156. |
[8]
Its conclusion is: that its people were divided into two teams:
A team that sees God Almighty as a soul and the whole world as the body, thus if the man is purified, he transcends to stick to the soul which is God vanishes in it to reach great happiness.
Another group sees that God is everything and everything is God, which means that God is manifested in everything by himself and is as numerous as the number of images
| [12] | Ṭāhā ʻAbd al-Bāqī Surūr: (ND) Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʻArabī, Published by: Hindawi for Education and Culture, Cairo, p. 131. |
[12]
this is contradicted by what Ibn ʻArabī says, He mixed Ṣūfī and Philosophy and came up with an integrated Ṣūfī doctrine on the nature of existence. He believed in Waḥdat al-Wujūddeciding that there’s only one existence and it’s God Almighty and all the others are his creation as he said in his books.
| [13] | Naẓlah Aḥmad Nāʼil al-Jubūrī: (2009M) Falsafat Waḥdat al-wujūd up. ūluhā wftrthā al-Islāmīyah (The Philosophy of Unity of Being, Its Origins and Islamic Period), published by: Al-Masraf, Bahrain, P. 197. |
[13]
Dr. Soaad Al-Hakim commented on Ibn ʻArabī Saying:
One who has no
unique qualities
They were amazed by the wisdom they found.
And they didn’t find the merciful
This is monotheism; consider.
A one in the only one
| [14] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah (Meccan Conquests), Investigation / Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn, Manshūrāt: Muḥammad ʻAlī Bayḍūn, published by: Scientific Books, Beirut, Lebanon, 3rd part, P. 174- 435. |
[14]
She says: “Actually, Waḥdat al-Wujūd here, if it’s applied to the unity of Ibn ʻArabī, so it’s one of monotheism’s fruit according to Ibn ʻArabī. Monotheism is a comprehensive concept in Islamic thought as it’s a doctrine pillar; rather it’s the doctrine itself. Every Muslim proceeded with it as much as his ability and willingness, especially Ibn ʻArabī who proceeded with many kinds of monotheisms, specifically more than the definition and concept of monotheism during his behavioral and intellectual life, a result we can’t classify his monotheism as theoretical and philosophical but explore it as theories and thought and he didn’t fall in the panentheism or spoke under the heaviness of feeling, so we say: his monotheism is of mortals, no, he has the monotheism of the awaken looker, from here the disagreement took place among his learners”.
| [2] | Suʻād al-Ḥakīm: (1981M) al-Muʻjam al-P. ūfī al-Ḥikmah fī ḥudūd al-Kalimah (The Sufi Dictionary Wisdom in the Limits of the Word), DanOrganizationah lil-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr, 1st ed., Lebanon, P. 1130-1153. |
[2]
Ibn ʻArabī has denounced anyone who denies the existence of God or falls into polytheism, we infer from what he mentioned in verses at the beginning of chapter one hundred seventy-two “the chapter of knowing the monotheism.”
Ibn ʻArabī says: that without the presence of the truth (God) in the creation by image, there would be no world. And but for these comprehensive reasonable facts, there wouldn’t be a judgment in the kind, according to this fact, there was the lack of the universe to the truth in his presence.”
| [14] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah (Meccan Conquests), Investigation / Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn, Manshūrāt: Muḥammad ʻAlī Bayḍūn, published by: Scientific Books, Beirut, Lebanon, 3rd part, P. 174- 435. |
[14]
.
Philosophy and theology used to differ between the ancient and modern existence, but Ibn ʻArabī didn’t do that he believed in the ancient existence and negated the modern existence, there is no modern existence but modern existence. Here, he is differentiating between existence and existing, existing doesn’t exist according to a recent happening, but it exists according to the truth.
| [2] | Suʻād al-Ḥakīm: (1981M) al-Muʻjam al-P. ūfī al-Ḥikmah fī ḥudūd al-Kalimah (The Sufi Dictionary Wisdom in the Limits of the Word), DanOrganizationah lil-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr, 1st ed., Lebanon, P. 1130-1153. |
[2]
The term existence was used by Ibn ʻArabī to indicate the existence of God, the only existence of God and there is only one truth which is that God exists. However, he also uses this term to indicate any other term about God but metaphorically to assure that existence belongs only to God. Everything that has a form is a blessing from God, exactly as light only relates to the sun, God and nature were always depicted as like the relation between light and darkness because existence belongs only to God, then its absence belongs only to nature, therefore Ibn ʻArabī argues that existence is light, and its absence is darkness.
| [14] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah (Meccan Conquests), Investigation / Aḥmad Shams al-Dīn, Manshūrāt: Muḥammad ʻAlī Bayḍūn, published by: Scientific Books, Beirut, Lebanon, 3rd part, P. 174- 435. |
[14]
2.2. The Dialectic of Ibn Arabi
2.2.1. The language of Ibn ʻArabī
The Ṣūfī language before Ibn ʻArabī was based on one idea, it meant meditation and experience, together. In this period, the Ṣūfī s suffered because of their new expressions which were different from the known radical thoughts.. As a result, the Dialectic of the Ṣūfī during this period was the expression, the vocabulary was numerous in a graduated sequence in a desperate attempt to seek congruence with the experiment. The letter or the word in their writing is beside what it means. Maybe this inability is according to their attempt to express their personal experience, which is individual, in a public language wasn’t equal to the experience. But Ibn ʻArabī was one of the firsts who left the Ṣūfī with his Ṣūfī experience to analyze it and transfer it from the feelings and conditions field to Knowledge and theories.
| [2] | Suʻād al-Ḥakīm: (1981M) al-Muʻjam al-P. ūfī al-Ḥikmah fī ḥudūd al-Kalimah (The Sufi Dictionary Wisdom in the Limits of the Word), DanOrganizationah lil-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr, 1st ed., Lebanon, P. 1130-1153. |
[2]
We find that Ibn ʻArabī is away from atheistic thought., he was raised in an atmosphere full of faith and piety, his father was Ali Ibn Muḥammad one of Fiqh (jurisprudence) and Haditha (speech) Imams and one of the pioneers of asceticism, piety, and mysticism, and his grandfather was one of Andalusia judges and scientists, also his uncles were of people of asceticism and piety,
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
[15]
his thought has been clear since he was young, we can understand his spiritual upbringing through this situation which was between him and Ibn Rushd the great philosopher who asked his father to bring him, then asked him: how did you find out about revelation and divine efflux and if it was what gave him the sight?
| [16] | Asīn blāsyws: (1965M) Ibn ʻArabī ḥayātuhu wa-madhhabuhu, tarjamat (Ibn Arabi, his life and doctrine), translated by Dr. Abdul Rahman Badawi, Published by: Angelo Doctrinal Library, Cairo, pp. 6-8. |
[16]
Muḥyī al-Dīnreplied him: Yes and no, and between yes and no, the souls leave their materials and necks leave bodies
| [17] | Ibn ʻArabī: (1988M) alʼsrā ilá al-maqām al-Asrá “Kitāb al-Miʻrāj” (The Night Journey to the Station of the Night Journey “The Book of Ascension”), Investigation by: Suad Al-Hakim, Published by: DanOrganizationa for Medicine and Publishing, p. 15. |
[17]
. This situation proves that he has been inspired since his childhood, Ibn Rushd’s question was: Is the summit that philosophy reached by mind and thought, is the summit that the Ṣūfī reached by abstraction and mention? It is as if he wanted to make sure that the summit reached by philosophy is the desired one of the religions. He aimed through his philosophy to match religion and philosophy.
Therefore, we find that Ibn ʻArabī, since his childhood had a standing thought which Cordoba philosopher unable and obliged him to objective confession in his private boards which represents the dedication of his loyalty to a new stream in Ṣūfī thought.
| [18] | Al-Muqrī al-Tilimsānī: (ND) Nafḥ al-Ṭayyib min Ghup. n al-Andalus al-raṭīb (The fragrant scent of the humid Andalusian era), Investigation: Iḥsān ʻAbbās, Published by: P.ādir, p. 168. |
[18]
When we think about Ibn ʻArabī’s saying: (between yes and no, souls fly) he means a deep meaning, because the mind may lend to God, realize, and reach the secrets of the universe, but when the abstract mind reaches this summit, it descends, slips and strays among similarities.
It is important here to notify you that Ibn ʻArabī took up Waḥdat al-Wujūd in a new philosophical, eloquent way, in a more symbolic way to meanings that may be understood in a wrong way, and this explains to us the Dialectic that can be seen in Ibn ʻArabī’s style and symbolism in his words.
It’s important here to mention an important subject, which it’s the difficulty for the critics to analyze Ibn ʻArabī’s symbols because of their abundance and immensity and his symbolic behavior which hid the meaning and resulted in hiding the idea, which made some people understood what he said in undesired meaning.
2.2.2. Similarities in Ibn ʻArabī’sbi Speech
There’s no doubt that Ṣūfī has its idioms, symbols, and a language in which they are specialized, so if there’s an argument on some of its meanings, we should refer to its writers and the knowers of its secrets, for they said: “our books are not allowed for others.
An example of Ibn ʻArabī’s similarities which he explained by himself:
Oh, who sees me, and I don’t see him?
How often do I see him, and he doesn’t see me?
Some of his followers asked him, how do you say: he doesn’t see you and you see him?
At once, he said:
Oh, who sees me as a criminal?
And doesn’t see you as a punisher.
How often I see him generous.
And he doesn’t see me as a refugee.
Here, Al Muqarri, (the author of Al-Nafh Al-Tayeb) said about the previous saying: “Thus, we know that the words of Al-sheikh peace be upon him, are ambiguous and not plain. But it has inner meanings, so think well, or believe well. And the people have lots of speech in this meaning, and surrendering is preferable, and God is the knower of his righteous speech”.
| [11] | Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī: (1997M) al-Shaykh al-akbar Ibn ʻArabī p. āḥib al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah (The Greatest Sheikh Ibn Arabi, the author of Al-Futuhat Al-Makkiyya), Published by: Beirut - Lebanon, p. 8 - 62. |
[11]
So, there must be an intellectual background to enable the researcher to understand Ibn ʻArabī’s idioms and his sentences’ symbols. He has an “Ajurrūmīyah” to explain his ideas in an intellectual system, that he is in his thought and culture is a kind of “stinted on his people” therefore those who aren’t his people were confused about his sayings.
| [11] | Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Fayyūmī: (1997M) al-Shaykh al-akbar Ibn ʻArabī p. āḥib al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah (The Greatest Sheikh Ibn Arabi, the author of Al-Futuhat Al-Makkiyya), Published by: Beirut - Lebanon, p. 8 - 62. |
[11]
Thus, we don’t find it strange when we see the spread of these sayings in the Ṣūfī culture; they prevailed long ago, then appeared on the horizon of Islamic thought and formed the doctrines of emanations, radiance, knowledge, Solutions, and Unity, and unity of existence and all the components of theosophy.. Influenced by the mixed ideas of the ancient oriental Gnostic
| [19] | ʻAbd al-Qādir Maḥmūd: (1966M) al-falsafah al-P.ūfīyah fī al-Islām map.ādiruhā wa-naẓarīyātihā wa-makānihā min al-Dīn wa-al-ḥayāh, (Sufi Philosophy in Islam: Its Sources, Theories, and Place in Religion and Life), published by: Arab Thought Organization, Cairo, p. 109. |
[19]
, and if we look into the doctrine of platonic emanation – we find that God, the first mind, the whole soul, the non-pictured item, and the partial soul – all these are the ranks of existence according to Plato, and this is similar to Ibn ʻArabī’s school.
| [20] | Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd: (1983M) Falsafat al-taʼwīl fī Taʼwīl al-Qurʼān ʻinda Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʻArabī, (The Philosophy of Interpretation in the Interpretation of the Qur’an by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi), published by: Organization Al-Wahda, Beirut, 1983 AD, p. 38 -46. |
[20]
Ibn ʻArabī’s language didn’t have the chance to be studied independently of some speakers, the debaters of his ideas, so no one took from them their vocabulary or idioms for example, to demonstrate the inherited and the modern and how it was formed. And is it just an ancient language and he stamped it by his characteristic? Or did he develop it and produce a new language of his own? However, some studies investigated these important characteristics.
3. Ibn ʻArabī and Symbolic Thought
Ibn ʻArabī is specialized in symbolic thought; he may not mean the direct meaning that comes to one’s mind.
Dealing with Ibn ʻArabī’s language stopped at his ambiguous style, Abu Al Ela Afifi sees that Ṣūfī, in general, speaks symbolically and in signs, determining that the other people won’t understand them, the general language doesn’t fulfill the explanation of its meaning.
| [21] | Abū al-ʻUlā ʻAfīfī: (2009M) al-falsafah al-P.ūfīyah ʻinda Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʻArabī (The Sufi Philosophers of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi), published by: The National Center for Translation, p. 21. 73. |
[21]
If we investigate Ibn ʻArabī thought about Waḥdat al-Wujūd and rend his speech about the oldness and start of the world, we see that he deals with existence as connected with God’s will, as he sees himself as transfiguration in the mirror of the world.
Abū Zayd has written a whole chapter in his book “Interpretation Philosophy” entitled “Existence and Language” speaking about Ibn ʻArabī’s language and its parallel to existence.
| [22] | Al-Shaʻrānī: al-yawāqīt wa-al-jawāhir (Ruby and gem), p. 7. |
[22]
Ibn ʻArabī concludes that there’s no value to our question about when the world was created. Because “When” refers to time, and time is always considered a product of the virtual world by Muslim intellectuals, there’s no time sequence between the creator and the creature but there’s a logical order of mind and dimension not in time, that means that the relation between God and universe is like the relation between yesterday and today.
4. Comparing and Contrasting Ibn ʻArabī's Ideas with Those of Other Sufi Scholars
There was a great dialectic around the thought and language of Ibn ʻArabī and what was understood from his apparent saying, therefore, some people went to atone and accused him of heresy and atheism such as Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī, Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī, The judge Bder al-Dīn ibn Jamāʻat, Ibn Taymīyah, al-Dhahabī, and many others.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī defended him and wrote a book entitled (Alerting the Ignorant to the Innocence of Ibn ʻArabī) as a reply to the book of Burhan Al-Din Al Beqaai (idiot alert to atone of Ibn ʻArabī), also ʻAbd-al-Wahhāb al-Shaʻrānī wrote (the rubies and jewels in explaining the beliefs of the great ones) and (the red sulfur in explaining the sciences of the great Sheikh) and (An alert to the fools on a drop from the knowledge sea of saints)
Also, al-Fayrūz abādy replied to the subject of Ibn al-Khayyāṭ and clarified the Dialectic by saying: “I don’t know If ibn Al-Khiat found these subjects in a false book of the Sheikh or understood the speech of the Sheikh against what he meant or innovated it by himself”.
| [24] | Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd: (2002M) Hākadhā takallama Ibn ʻArabī (Thus Spoke ibn Arabi), published by: General Authority of Dar Al-Kitab, p. 24. 134. |
[24]
This is evidence that there were false speeches Needed for Ibn ʻArabī’s speech, as Al-Boti mentioned, or understood from him. Besides that, his language and idioms are full of intensification, focus, and mystery, especially in the cloves of wisdom.
| [25] | ʻAbd al-Ḥaqq Ibn sabʻīn: (1428H = 2007M) Anwār al-Nabī P. aly Allāh ʻalayhi wa-sallam, asrārhā wa-anwāʻhā, (The Lights of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, their secrets and types), Library of Al-Fuqaha’i School, p45. |
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And it was said: “Often the hearts of the knowers are blown by divine sighs, and if they utter it, those who don’t know will be ignorant of them and the people of the evidence reject it from them.” For this Ibn ʻArabī says: “Know that if the lover says: I’m the one whom I love, and the one I love is me, these words were in the tongue of adoration and love not in the tongue of science and investigation that he may not retreat what he said when he awakes his status, and love has an excusable soul because it’s forced by its status”.
| [26] | Abī Nasr al-Sarrāj al-Ṭūsī: (1960M) Al-Lumaʻ fī Taṣawwuf (Shine in Sufism), investigation: and graduation: Dr. Abdul Halim Mahmoud, published: Modern Books Authority, pp. 47 - 77. |
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Therefore, Al-Tusi signaled out in his book (brilliance in Ṣūfī sm) a book which he called “the book of explaining what is apparent of words that seem to violate the Islamic Law, and its inside is right straight”.
| [27] | Ibn ʻArabī: (1954M) ʻAnqāʼ Maghrib fī khatm al-awliyāʼ wishes al-Maghrib (Phoenix of the West in the Seal of the Saints and the Sun of the West), Investigation: Abdul-Baqi Ahmed Miftah, p. 38. |
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5. Texts Ibn ʻArabī's Literature on Waḥdat ai-WujūD
Here we can mention some of what Ibn ʻArabī said in his book (cloves of Wisdom and Meccan Conquests) and what may be understood from his apparent words:
He says: “The lowest who imagined in him – which means in every object – divinity. Without this imagination, the stone or anything else wouldn’t have been worshipped”.
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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It means that everything for him is a God and divinity, but he intended something else as a reason of symbolism in his style, he meant proving the divinity, ability, and almighty of God in creating his creatures.
And he says: “The rule of numerals s didn’t come without the existence of numerable, nothingness and existence, the thing may not here for the feeling but it’s here mindfully, so the numeral must have a numerable=, and there must be a one to create that, it’s created because of him, every level of number is a fact, one is as nine and ten (fewer or more and to the infinity), what is collected and inside them the one's collector”.
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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It represents the relation of God with his creation, as the relation of numerical number one with numbers, and we can explain that by saying if we subtract number one from one, it becomes zero, and if we find one, it becomes two, and thus forever. The origin of numbers is one, and the origin of creation for Ibn ʻArabī is God.
He says: “All that you realize is the presence of God in the eyes of his creation, whereas the identity of God, it’s his presence, while the images and its differences of him, is the eye of his creation, as the name of the show doesn’t disappear from him when the images differ, the name of the universe doesn’t disappear from him”.
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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The presence of God is the mere presence of creation because, without the presence of God, there will be no creation. Also, he meant here something else, that the proof of God’s existence is a proof of the creations’ existence.
Also, in the emulation between man and divinity truths, Ibn ʻArabī wants to say that our knowledge of God’s attributes is from the attributes that God put inside us.
So, if we didn’t know our existence, we wouldn’t know the meaning of existence and say that the creator existed.
| [28] | Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (Authentic Hadiths by Bukhari): (1422H) Sahih Al-Bukhari: (1422H) Hadith No. (6502), Investigation: Muhammad Zuhair bin Nabir Al-Nabir, Published by: Tawq Al-Najah, 1st ed. - Section 8, p. 105. |
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**And he says: “There is no near closer than his identity being the core of the strength and organs of the slave, and the slave is nothing but these organs and strength”
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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and it means that the identity of God is the core of the slave’s organs and strength. But he might mean that the almighty God is a helper of his creation in every obedience, the prophet’s speech indicates this; Abū Hurayrah the prophet quoted that God said “That who hostiles a believer of me, I start a war on him, and my slaves will never approach me by something I love, more than what I imposed, and my slave will continue to approach me by voluntary deeds, till I love him when I love him, I’ll be his hearing, sight, the hand which he uses and the foot which he walks on, and he asks me, I’ll give him, if he wanted guardianship, I’ll protect him, and the only thing I hesitate upon when he comes to die, and he hates dying, so I hate to disturb him.”
| [29] | Titus Burckhardt: (1976M) An Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, England: Thorsons, p 28 -29. |
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And he says: “Say in the universe, what you say, if you wish, say he is the creation, say he is the God (truth), or say he is the God creation”
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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. He means here that the universe is God, the relation between God and his creation isn’t separated or divided, and the presence of creation is proof of God’s presence.
He also said in the chapter of prophet wisdom in Christ's word:
If we truly worship and Allah is our sanctuary
I am his eyes that know if you say a human.
Don’t prevent a man who has your proof.
Be a truth and be a creation you’ll be with God's merciful
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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.
Here he says that the slave’s action is just the action of God. But we can explain that the slave can have the attributes of God, and as God can do severe punishment, he is also merciful and forgiveness, so the slave can have these attributes from God, the requirement here is to be on the attributes of God, don’t be away of them to get all the good and be on the path of the righteous.
In the chapter of merciful wisdom is Solomon's word: “The work is divided for eight organs of the man, and the almighty God has said that he is the identity of every organ of them”
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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, and it’s understood here that God is the identity of every organ of the human being, As I mentioned before, the meaning isn’t as.
Ibn ʻArabī mentions in his mono-message: “… there isn’t anything if it won’t perfect his specialty, besides he can’t perfect it if no one can see it whether it’s a prophet, a messenger, a guardian, or angels.
| [30] | Idries Shah, Mahkota Sufi: (2000M) Menembus Dunia Ekstra Dimensi, Translated by M. Hidayatullah and Roudlon (Surabaya: Risalah Gusti), p 192-193. |
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Here we can say that: Waḥdat al-Wujūd according to Ibn ʻArabī, is the origin that came out of it, his understanding, perception, and realization of many issues related to ethics, religions, and kinds of human knowledge, human and divine conditions, the affairs of the world and the hereafter, also other questions which.
can be noticed without effort by looking into the Meccan conquests and the cloves of wisdom.
6. The Insān Al-kĀmil and Woman in Ibn ʻArabī’s Thought
6.1. The Insān Al-kāmil in Ibn ʻArabī’s Thought
The perfect human (Insān al-kāmil) in the sight of Ibn ʻArabī is the full transfiguration of God himself, or represents God in this world, versus with the world which represents the face of creation, and when the world loses the man, it is a body without a soul..
| [31] | Sawai Makoto: (2017M) Ibn Arabi on the perfect Man (al- insan al- kamil) as spiritual Authority: Caliph, Imam, and Saint, the Bridge of clusters: potentiality of Sufism, Kenan Rifai Center for Sufi studies, Kyoto University, p. 50-52. |
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The perfect man in Islamic metaphysics (Islamic Ṣūfī sm). Specifically, Ibn ʻArabī thought that human attorney was divided between both God and Man, and Man must seek perfection to be an ideal man, so passes the existence circle and returns as the perfect one “which means the soul that moves the universe”.
| [32] | ʻAbd al-Ghanī ibn Ismāʻīl al-Nābulusī: Sharḥ Jawāhir al-nuṣūṣ fī ḥall Kalimāt al-fuṣūṣ (Explanation of the Jewels of Texts in Solving the Words of the Fusus), Investigation: Issam Ibrahim Al-Kayali, published by: Scientific Books Authority, part 1, P. 7 – 23. |
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Ibn ʻArabī sees that Allah created Muḥammad with both hands, thus he acquired honor, and he gathered the two images, the image of the world and God, this happened in considering that each hand of God was for one of his creations.
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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The first one created the spirit world and the other created the world of Waḥdat al-Wujūd, man was created by both, and because of this he became God’s caliph and has in him what is needed if spiritual or physical, so he isn’t in need to this, and he named him the perfect man.
| [33] | Raan Davids, Yusef Waghid: (2019M) Ibn al-Arabi’s Idea of Al-insan Al-kamil (the Perfect Human) and Democratic Education; Chapter1, p70 – 74. |
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Ibn ʻArabī’s idea about the ideal man (the Perfect Man): was centered on the presence of spiritual authority, he also believed that wisdom started with Muḥammad and ended with Muḥammad, and he believed that Muḥammad was created in the image of God, and he was the first perfect man, and he says: the Universe was completed by the presence of Muḥammad. Therefore, we can indicate that the presence of a man in God’s presence is a perfect or an ideal man, the ideal man is like the bridge that ties divinity with the universe.
| [34] | Patricia Crone, Martin Heinds: (2017M): God's Caliph, the religious authority in the first Islamic Ages, translated by: Ahmed Talat, revised by: Eman Abdulghany Nagm, Organization Josoor for publication and translation, Beirut- Lebanon, p. 57. |
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Ibn ʻArabī explains that man in his upbringing held everything in the divine image as the qualities and names transfiguration, as Al-Nabulsi says in his explaining to the cloves: inwardly equivalent to the divine presence and outwardly to the cosmic presence, he draws from God and provides the universe: he is the isthmus between God and the creation.
Among these metaphoric effects, is the tendency of the reality about the Muahammdian light and the term of Muḥammadian truth of guardianship idea and the prophecy which didn’t stop or end and the relation between both and the Ṣūfī dispute about the relation of the prophecy and the guardianship. The evolution of the Muḥammadian light idea or the Muḥammadian truth to the idea of the perfect man or the Divine Man.
| [20] | Naṣr Ḥāmid Abū Zayd: (1983M) Falsafat al-taʼwīl fī Taʼwīl al-Qurʼān ʻinda Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʻArabī, (The Philosophy of Interpretation in the Interpretation of the Qur’an by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi), published by: Organization Al-Wahda, Beirut, 1983 AD, p. 38 -46. |
[20]
One of Ibn ʻArabī’s pillars of thought is glorifying the holy prophet (peace be upon him), and what was said including the symbolism of the perfect man a part of the symbolism of Waḥdat al-Wujūd, which of its mechanisms, is the God’s transfiguration in the creation to be a triple (God, the world, and the man) but the perfect man represents isthmus between God and the World.
Ibn ʻArabī says: “the perfect man” (Insān al-kāmil): the divine image is fulfilled to him and isn’t being full without this rank”
| [29] | Titus Burckhardt: (1976M) An Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, England: Thorsons, p 28 -29. |
[29]
According to Ibn ʻArabī, man is divided into two parts; the first is the real man, and the other: is the perfect man. The real one is the man as he is, without any try to achieve his latent capabilities, but the perfect one is the one who could achieve his self-perfection.
We find that Man according to Ibn ʻArabī’s thought, is a perfect man on both sides (Divinity and Humanity), even though (God, Man, and the world) are all one at its core, they are three aspects under one idea, and Man is the mediator between God and the Universe. He is the God’s successor.
| [33] | Raan Davids, Yusef Waghid: (2019M) Ibn al-Arabi’s Idea of Al-insan Al-kamil (the Perfect Human) and Democratic Education; Chapter1, p70 – 74. |
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There are at least three ideas from Ibn ʻArabī’s concept about the perfection of humans and they are:
First: People are responsible for their deeds, intuitive communication with God is an appearance of the appearances of their reality and fatalism to do good things, and from here was the saying, “That who knows himself, knows his God.
Second: When people make a mistake, God isn’t responsible for that because they can choose the judgment and resist the wrong.
Third: The idea of the ideal man prevailed metaphysical thought of Ibn ʻArabī, the concepts of paradise and hell must be understood upon human deviation, which means the destiny of people can’t rely on hell’s torment for every human. In other words, even those who are in hell will be under the possibility of angels, prophets, and saint’s mediation to free them of hell and enter paradise.
| [35] | Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzīyah: (ND) Madārij al-sālikīn fī Manāzil al-sāʼilīn (The Stages of the Wayfarers in the Homes of the Arrived), published by: The Knowledge Tenders Authority, Riyadh - Saudi Arabia, Vol. 2, p. 46. |
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6.2. The Woman in Ibn ʻArabī’s Thought
Ibn ʻArabī’s speech starts upon human, ideological formats that were contemporary or preceded him without losing his creativity or particularity, among the ideas and cases that state the particularity of Muḥyī al-DīnIbn ʻArabī’s thought is the question of femininity and masculinity, and this question is in the preceded thought to Ibn ʻArabī without announcing it to be stamped in an apparent intellectual way; the conceptual pair (femininity/masculinity) is deep in Ibn ʻArabī’s thought on the ontological, cosmological, anthropological, intellectual and linguistic levels… and this thought is clear and profound to an extent that can be considered a feminine speech and an indication of the validity of this hypothesis, is what Ibn ʻArabī symbolizes when he deals with the subject of woman.
We hear a lot that Ibn ʻArabī elevates the status of “female and feminism”, and there’s a famous saying of his that says: “Everything that is not feminine is unreliable”. This desirable subject may be strongly clear in the last chapter of the Cloves book, he says in one of his texts “Since loving is the origin of the existence, God has made his prophet Mohamed loved three things: women, perfumes and prayer”
Ibn ʻArabī starts the last chapter by speaking about women and assuring the individual truth, which is the Muḥammadian Light, the most perfect creation that God appeared, she is the perfect human in whom the meaning of succession is realized in its most accurate characteristics.
This truth is a must to understand the image of woman according to Ibn ʻArabī through what he presents for the prophet’s speech: “Three things of your world have been made dear to me: women, perfume, and my dearest is the prayer”. The title of the clove is “a clove of an individual wisdom in a Muḥammadian word”, this means it was especially to speak about the Muḥammadian truth. However, all that came under this title is an explanation of this speech and this doesn’t mislead the truthfulness of the title because Ibn ʻArabī wants to state generally that the position of woman is connected existentially to human perfection, which is incarnated as the prophet peace is upon him, so there is no perfection for a man without a woman and vice versa according to each side existence’s proportion because Ibn ʻArabī’s speech is in the absolute, or about the origin of the relation between man and woman. Hence, the speech in the clove is mingled with the Muḥammadian truth; the symbol of human perfection, when he speaks about women in the way of the plural that has no singular and refers to the whole woman not just one of them.
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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As noticed, women were before perfume and prayer itself. According to Ibn ʻArabī woman has been a part of man since her first appearance, and knowing the part which is the woman, is preferred to knowing the whole which is the man as one of humans, and knowing the human is preferred over knowing God because knowing his God has resulted from knowing himself. Because of this, the Hadith says: “Those who know themselves, know their Gods.”
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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The woman wasn’t absent from Islamic Ṣūfī in general or Ibn ʻArabī, because Ibn ʻArabī was affected by old philosophies as he mentioned, it has come to the point that the orientalist Platheus mentioned that there are similarities between In Arabi and Saint Teresa in the Divine presence.
| [36] | Asīn Balāthiyūs: (ND) Ibn ʻArabī ḥayātuhu wa-madhhabat (Ibn Arabi his life and doctrines), p. 161. |
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We also found that Ibn ʻArabī appreciates the well-known mystic Rabīʻah al-ʻAdawīyah and her divine love for the Almighty God.
| [37] | Sāʻid Khamīsī: (2010M) Ibn ʻArabī al-musāfir al-ʻĀʼid (Ibn Arabi, The Returning Traveler (, published by: Arab Science Publishers, 1st ed, p. 204. |
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Existence, at its core, was based on love. Hence, love is a divine shrine, God the Almighty called himself the affectionate “Al-wadood”, and in the Quran “love” was mentioned in many ways to indicate love between God and his creation. Love is the origin of all existence as Ibn ʻArabī says, according to Ḥadīth Qudsī which is common among Ṣūfī s and is attributed to the prophet peace is upon him that the Holy God says: “I was a hidden treasure, then I loved to be known, so I created the creation, by this they knew me or by me, I was known.”
| [38] | Ibn ʻArabī: (1988M) Tanbīhāt ʻAlī ʻulūm alḥqyqh wālmḥmdyh al-ʻĀliyah (Warnings on the Sciences of Truth and the High Muhammadanism), Investigation and commentary by Abdul Rahman Hassan Mahmoud, p. 41. |
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The findings weren’t transported by force into existence but for the favor of divine love, and after getting the order whereas it was in the divine knowledge, ready for the universe: “His command, if he wants something, is to say to it, Be, and it is" Yasin /82.
Women in Ibn ʻArabī’s Ṣūfī aren’t according to their beauty or their passion for God, but because they know and on the divine way. She also cares about the possibility of reaching perfection
. | [39] | Al-Ṣādiq ʻAwaḍ Bashīr: (2014M) Sirrah qūwat al-marʼah ʻinda Ibn ʻArabī (The secret of women's strength according to Ibn Arabi), Published by: Arab Organization for Science and Technology, Beirut, Lebanon, pp. 31-39. |
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Ibn ʻArabī also admits the right of the woman to lend the prayers because according to his point of view, he didn’t find proof of this elimination in God’s words; “The Holy Quran”.
| [39] | Al-Ṣādiq ʻAwaḍ Bashīr: (2014M) Sirrah qūwat al-marʼah ʻinda Ibn ʻArabī (The secret of women's strength according to Ibn Arabi), Published by: Arab Organization for Science and Technology, Beirut, Lebanon, pp. 31-39. |
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Here, Ibn ʻArabī wants to mention that a woman can reach perfection exactly like a man, and it’s noticed that Ibn ʻArabī was brought up by two of the most virtuous Ṣūfī women, Fatima Al-Cortobia, a Ṣūfī women sheik raised him for two years and Ibn ʻArabī calls her, Tuna. The other one is in Mershana and is called Jasmine and he calls her Sun, the mother of the poor.
| [40] | Ṭālib Jāsim al-ʻAnzī: (2012M) Waḥdat al-wujūd ʻinda Ibn ʻArabī min manẓūr astshrāqy (The unity of being in Ibn Arabi from an oriental perspective), ed. 27, p. 422. |
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The writer Nuzhat Rāḍh mentioned that: womanhood is a central corner in Ibn ʻArabī’s thought, she considered that his speech reflects comprehensively the womanhood speech. The presence of womanhood in his speech penetrates his conception about existence, the universe, language, gratitude, behavior, and imagination, and their humanity mixed with their existence”
| [41] | Nuzhat rāḍh: (2008M) al-unūthah fī fikr Ibn (ʻArabī, Phenomena in the Thought of ibn Arabi), published by: Al-Saqi Authority, Beirut, Lebanon, p. 144 – 154. |
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In this situation, Ibn ʻArabī says: “Witnesses of the truth of women are the greatest witnesses and the most perfectionist”.
| [15] | Ibn ʻArabī: (ND) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm (The gems of wisdom), Investigation: Abu al-Ala Afifi – Published by: Al-Kitab al-Arabi – Beirut, Lebanon, Part1, P. 9 – 217. |
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7. Results and Discussions
1) There is always confusion about the concept of Waḥdat al-wujūd among a lot of researchers and some intellectuals who translate Waḥdat al-wujūd into the Western idiom “panentheism”, and this is wrong.
2) The study of Waḥdat al-wujūd in an integrated way needs huge and numerous efforts, and needs to be treated from different aspects since it’s one of the basics of Ṣūfī, and comparing what is said about this idea in different civilized areas makes it difficult to make sure of an objective matter far from fabrication, or saying without knowing the truth or taking the recent for preceded, or trying to treat the phenomenon in a kind of fragmentation and generalization which eliminates the essence of the matter.
3) There is an associative relationship between God and humans that can’t be understood without the doctrine of Waḥdat al-wujūd that was adopted by Ibn ʻArabī, God the creator who founded the world, wanted to see his transfiguration, which means to see himself, so the world was as his name and redundant traits image.
4) What caught my attention, is the great repetition of using the name “truth” instead of the name “God” by Ibn ʻArabī in the book Fuṣūṣ al-ḥukm – this resulted- as I think- that Truth indicates the real eternal existence, of the other side of the existence which is resulted from it, which contradicted it in its traits and divine attributes, and what is impossible and can be understood as the divine existence, and is followed by the redemption, knowledge, ascending and the right position way. All of this supports what we mentioned in our speech about the principle of Waḥdat al-wujūd and its contradicted and conductivity characteristic, only God knows.
5) The Educational Philosophy of Ibn ʻArabī was based on mere Islamic Ṣūfī criteria, and in his life, he stuck to the Islamic morals, deepened in his spiritual experience, knowing it's apparent and inside, maybe the difficulty of his books, is the reason that made the scholars differed in his matter, and think about him in numerous ways, a sect said that what he says is infidelity, and others differed from them and interpreted for him.
6) I think that Ibn ʻArabī and those who followed him as the Ṣūfī, resorted to the indicative style because they were careful not to clash with the conservative fundamentalist doctrines which was prevailing in the community at that time.
7) The nature of the environment that Ibn ʻArabī was raised in, took part in his formation, nature is the second mother for any human in this universe, and he absorbs life concepts from it to continue living, he was raised in Al-Andalus where he secretly learned the ambidextrous doctrine which is full of symbols and interpretations which were inherited of Pythagorean, Orphian and Indian Innate and there is no doubt that his innate readiness and his upbringing in a religious atmosphere, also his constant going to the symbolic schools, all of this participated in distinguishing his intellectual and spiritual side at an early age, and he began to know the secrets of the Ṣūfī life and he kept working on that till he got the greatest number of secrets.
- Ibn ʻArabī speaks about the language of wujūd in the language of experience Ṣūfī and stations.
- Ibn ʻArabī combined Ṣūfī and philosophy and came out with a complete Sufi doctrine like wujūd, and headed towards Waḥdat al-wujūd, deciding that there is one true existence, which is God Almighty, and everything else is creation.
- Ibn ʻArabī was one of the first Sufis to separate his experience Ṣūfī to analyze it and move with it from the field of ecstasies and states to the logic of science and theories.
- The language of Ibn ʻArabī has not received independent study from some of those who have spoken about him or have discussed his ideas.
8. Conclusion
1) Ibn ʻArabī knowledge in Qurṭubah of the books of the Persian and Greek philosophers and others was the reason for his passion to learn about all the degrees of asceticism in all religions and sects through their scholars, this contributed to giving him a unique form in his language, terms and his expressions and so on.
2) The relationship connecting Ibn ʻArabī with the Greek, Jewish, and Christians and the various philosophical doctrines of mystical nature and illuminating trends in knowledge is what made Ibn ʻArabī full of symbolism, but he wasn’t the first one to do that he only did as the Ṣūfī when they express their state, He and those who followed him resorted to the indication technique to avoid the conflict with the radical doctrines which prevailed the society at that time, therefore the efforts of Ibn ʻArabī in using symbolism and indication in his Waḥdat al-Wujūd doctrine.
3) Ibn ʻArabī’s philosophy was based on mere Islamic Ṣūfī pillars, and in his life, he was tied to Islamic morals and went on his spiritual experience to its extreme. Knowing it's inside out.
4) The difficulty of his books was the main reason that the scholars scattered about him, consequently, the study of Waḥdat al-Wujūd as a whole needs great, numerous efforts and be dealt with in different aspects, as it is of Ṣūfī pillars, and comparing what was said about Waḥdat al-Wujūd in different civilized circles makes it difficult to achieve an objection position away of accusation.
5) Through the doctrine of Waḥdat al-Wujūd that Ibn ʻArabī adopted, we can understand the relationship between God, the world, and man. God, the creator created the world and wanted to see his manifestation and his image, so the world was his nominative and objective image that was surplus to his entity.
6) The Insān (person) in Ibn ʻArabī’s point of view, is the perfect manifestation of God and represents God’s presence in this world, when the world loses humans, it becomes a body without a soul. We mean here the Insān al-kāmil (the perfect man).
7) Ibn ʻArabī also didn’t differ between men and women in their ability to achieve perfection, so the symbol of human perfection is for man and woman, so Ibn ʻArabī-dealt with women at a higher level.
Finally, the study suggests areas for future research such as Studying Ibn ʻArabī’s style through the Ṣūfī dictionaries with clear indications of the departure to the source structure regarding many terms that are not understood outside the Ṣūfī Akbari environment (i.e. the environment of Ibn ʻArabī’s disciples) such as the terms Ṣūfī mystical and dhikrī.
Abbreviations
W | Wāw – و |
G | Jīm - ج |
D | Dāl – د |
ND | No date |
H | Hijri date. |
M | Gregorian date. |
ED | Edition No. |
P. | Page. |
Author Contributions
Mohamed Elnakep: Conceptualization, Methodology, Resources, Software, Writing – original draft
Antonio Musarra: Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Writing – review & editing
Shalabi Elgeidi: Supervision, Writing – review & editing
Paolo Branca: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal Analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Supervision
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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Elnakep, M., Musarra, A., Elgeidi, S., Branca, P. (2024). The Ṣūfī Semantics of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) to Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society, 9(5), 227-237. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20240905.12
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Elnakep, M.; Musarra, A.; Elgeidi, S.; Branca, P. The Ṣūfī Semantics of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) to Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī. Int. J. Educ. Cult. Soc. 2024, 9(5), 227-237. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20240905.12
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Elnakep M, Musarra A, Elgeidi S, Branca P. The Ṣūfī Semantics of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) to Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī. Int J Educ Cult Soc. 2024;9(5):227-237. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20240905.12
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@article{10.11648/j.ijecs.20240905.12,
author = {Mohamed Elnakep and Antonio Musarra and Shalabi Elgeidi and Paolo Branca},
title = {The Ṣūfī Semantics of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) to Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī
},
journal = {International Journal of Education, Culture and Society},
volume = {9},
number = {5},
pages = {227-237},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijecs.20240905.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20240905.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijecs.20240905.12},
abstract = {The dialectic in the article research is the presentation of Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī Ṣūfī semantics in (Waḥdat al-Wujūd), which forms the core of the dispute between conservatives (Ahl al-Hadith) and Ṣūfī. The statement of the Dialectic directs the render to the importance of the topic, places the issue in a specific context, and specifies relevant criteria, providing the necessary framework for reporting the expected results. The idea of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd did not appear in a complete and consistent theoretical form before Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī, some trends though appeared towards this theory from time to time in the sayings of the Sufis who preceded him. Ibn ʻArabī's doctrine of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd is summarized in his denial of the world of appearance and does not recognize the real existence except for God's Creation as a show of true existence. So, according to Ibn ʻArabī, there is only God, and through his doctrine of Waḥdat al-Wujūd, lies Ibn ʻArabī’s understanding of the interdependent relationship between God, the world, and Al-Insān. This research discusses the dialectic of this doctrine through sources and texts that have been misjudged. So, this research article will follow the methodology of analyzing the Sufi texts of Ibn ʻArabī, many subjects by Ibn ʻArabī were discussed. Still, the research will concentrate on (Waḥdat al-Wujūd), because his experience with this subject had a clear influence on the philosophical thought in the whole world and the research deals with Ibn ʻArabī’s doctrine of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) which means the solitude of existence and the difference between it and the doctrines of Solutions and Union, Through 6 basic elements as follows: The name of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd: (The perfection in the Ṣūfī concept of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) According to Ibn ʻArabī, "There’s nonexistence but Allah") Then The Dialectic of Ibn Arabi: (The language of Ibn ʻArabī) - (Similarities in Ibn ʻArabī’sbi speech) Then Ibn ʻArabī and symbolic thought Then Texts Ibn ʻArabī's literature on Waḥdat ai-Wujūd Then The Insān al-kāmil and Woman in Ibn ʻArabī’s thought Then after that Results and Discussions that the study reached from the previous elements.
},
year = {2024}
}
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Ṣūfī Semantics of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) to Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī
AU - Mohamed Elnakep
AU - Antonio Musarra
AU - Shalabi Elgeidi
AU - Paolo Branca
Y1 - 2024/09/20
PY - 2024
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20240905.12
DO - 10.11648/j.ijecs.20240905.12
T2 - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JF - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JO - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
SP - 227
EP - 237
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2575-3363
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20240905.12
AB - The dialectic in the article research is the presentation of Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī Ṣūfī semantics in (Waḥdat al-Wujūd), which forms the core of the dispute between conservatives (Ahl al-Hadith) and Ṣūfī. The statement of the Dialectic directs the render to the importance of the topic, places the issue in a specific context, and specifies relevant criteria, providing the necessary framework for reporting the expected results. The idea of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd did not appear in a complete and consistent theoretical form before Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī, some trends though appeared towards this theory from time to time in the sayings of the Sufis who preceded him. Ibn ʻArabī's doctrine of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd is summarized in his denial of the world of appearance and does not recognize the real existence except for God's Creation as a show of true existence. So, according to Ibn ʻArabī, there is only God, and through his doctrine of Waḥdat al-Wujūd, lies Ibn ʻArabī’s understanding of the interdependent relationship between God, the world, and Al-Insān. This research discusses the dialectic of this doctrine through sources and texts that have been misjudged. So, this research article will follow the methodology of analyzing the Sufi texts of Ibn ʻArabī, many subjects by Ibn ʻArabī were discussed. Still, the research will concentrate on (Waḥdat al-Wujūd), because his experience with this subject had a clear influence on the philosophical thought in the whole world and the research deals with Ibn ʻArabī’s doctrine of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) which means the solitude of existence and the difference between it and the doctrines of Solutions and Union, Through 6 basic elements as follows: The name of the Waḥdat al-Wujūd: (The perfection in the Ṣūfī concept of (Waḥdat al-Wujūd) According to Ibn ʻArabī, "There’s nonexistence but Allah") Then The Dialectic of Ibn Arabi: (The language of Ibn ʻArabī) - (Similarities in Ibn ʻArabī’sbi speech) Then Ibn ʻArabī and symbolic thought Then Texts Ibn ʻArabī's literature on Waḥdat ai-Wujūd Then The Insān al-kāmil and Woman in Ibn ʻArabī’s thought Then after that Results and Discussions that the study reached from the previous elements.
VL - 9
IS - 5
ER -
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