Ibn El Arabi-Extract from Idries Shah's "The Sufis"
Lathief
To the sinful and vicious, I
may appear to be evil. But to
The good-beneficent am I.
(Mirza Khan, Ansari)
One of the most profound metaphysical influences upon both the Moslem
and Christian worlds is Ibn El Arabi the Sufi ,called in Arabic "The
greatest master". He was a descendent of Hatim el Tai, still famous
among the Arabs as the most generous man who ever lived and mentioned
in Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat-"Let Hatim tai cry 'Supper!': Heed him
not!"
Spain had been an Arab country for more than 400 years when Ibn El
Arabi the Murcian was born in 1164.among his names is "the
Andalusian",and he was undoubtedly one of the greatest Spaniards who
ever lived. It is commonly believed that there is no love poetry than
his; nor was there ever a Sufi who so profoundly impressed the orthodox
theologians with the interior meaning of his life and work.
His Sufi background, according to biographers, was that his father
was in contact with the great Abdul Qadir Jilani, sultan of the
friends(1077-1166).Ibn al arabi himself said to have been born as a
result of the spiritual influence of Abdul Qader,who predicted that he
would be a person of outstanding gifts.
His father was determined to give him the best possible education,
something which was offered in Moorish Spain at the same time to a
degree almost unparalleled elsewhere. He went to Lisbon, where he
studied law and Islamic theology.Next, while still a boy he when on to
Seville, where he learned the Quran and the traditions under the
greatest scholars of the time. At Cordoba he attended the classes of
the greatest Sheikh El Sharrat, and distinguished himself in
jurisprudence.
During the period, Ibn al Arabi showed qualities of intellect far
beyond those which distinguished his contemporaries, even though they
were drown from the scholastic elite in whose families such
intellectual capacity was proverbial in the Middle Ages. During his
adolescence, inspite of the severe discipline of the academic schools,
he spent his free time almost entirely with the Sufis, and began to
write poetry.
He lived in Seville for three decades, his poetry and eloquence
winning for him a place second to none in the highly cultivated
atmosphere of Spain ,as well as in Morocco, which was itself a center
of cultural life.
In some ways Ibn al Arabi resembled Al Ghazali(1058-1111).Like him, he
came from a Sufi family,and was to influence western thought.Again like
him he was preeminent in Islamic lore.But whereas Ghazali first
mastered Islamic scholasticism, found it insufficient,and then turned
to sufism at the height of his greateness ,ibn arabi maintained,through
association and poetry a continuous contact with the sufic
streams.Ghazali reconciled sufism with islam,making the scholastics
understand that it was not a heresy, but an inner meaning of
religion.Ibn al Arabi's mission was to create sufi literature and
cause it to be studied in order that people might thus enter into the
spirit of sufism-discover the sufis through their being and expression,
what ever their cultural background might be.
How this process worked is exemplified in a comment by the
distinguished professor R.A.Nicholson,who translated ibn arabi's
interpreter of desires:
Some of the poems,it is true, are not distinguishable from ordinary
love songs and as regards a great portion of the text ,the attitude of
the author's contemporaries, who refused to believe that it had any
esoteric sense at all, was natural and intelligible; on the other hand
there are many passages obliviously mystical and give clue to the rest
.If the sceptics lacked discernment, they deserve our gratitude for
having provoked ibn al arabi to instruct them. Assuredly without his
guidance the most sympathetic readers would seldom have hit upon the
hidden meanings which is fantastic ingenuity elicits from an Arabic
Qasida.
.A very great deal of ibn al arabi's writings remain in a like
case up to this day, as far as others than sufis are concerned. Some of
his material is addressed to those who have a grasp of ancient
mythology ,and is couched in those terms .Some,which connects with
Christianity, serves as a lead-in to people with a Christian
commitment. Other poetry serves to introduce the sufi way by means of
love poetry. No single individual can unravel all his work only by
means of scholastics, religious, romantic, or intellectual equipment.
This brings us to another hint of his mission, which is contained in
his name.
According to sufi tradition ,ibn al arabi's mission was to"
scatter"(arabic nashr,NSHR) sufi lore through out the contemporary
scene,connecting it to the existing traditions of the people.This sense
of scatter is perfectly legitimate and in accordance with sufi
thinking.As the sufic term for scatter(NSHR) not at the time used
publicly ,ibn al arabi employed an alternative word for it.He was known
in spain as ibn Saraqa,"son of a small saw".Saraqa,however,from the
root SRQ,stands for another word for saw,derived from the NSHR root.The
NSHR root when normally inflected mean "publication, spreading," as
well as "sawing ".It also means revivification. Mohiyuddin,ibn al
arabi's personal name,translates as "revival of faith".
Taking the NSHR root liteally,as most scholars were bound to do
,has caused even such a respectable historian as Ibn el Abbar to
conclude that his father was a carpenter. He could only have been a
"carpenter" in the secondary sense known to sufis who adapted guild
terms for their meetings, to account for the collections together in
any one place of a number of people who did not want to appear to be a
subversive group.
Taken on their own ,some of the statements of ibn al arabi are
starling.In Bezels of Wisdom he says that god is never to be seen in an
immaterial form."The sight of God in woman is the most perfect of
all".Love poetry,as with every thing else to Sufi, is capable of
reflecting a complete and coherent experience of divinity, while
concurrently fulfilling various other functions. Every Sufi experience
in an experience in depth and in qualitative infinity. It is only to
the ordinary man or woman that a word has only one meaning, or an
experience less than a large number of equally valid, whole
significances. This multiplicity of being is something which, although
accepted as a contention by non-Sufis, is frequently forgotten by them
when they deal with Sufi material. At best they can generally
appreciate that there is an allegory-which means to them just one
alternative meaning.
To the theologian , committed o a literal acceptance of divine
formalism, ibn al arabi bluntly says that "angels are the powers
hidden in the faculties and organs of man."It is the sufi's
objective to activate this organs.
Unmindful of the difference formulation and experience,Dante took
over ibn al arabi's literary work and crystallized it within a
currently possible framework. In so doing,he robbed ibn al arabi's
message of its sufic validity and merely left Professor Asin with an
embalmed example of what the modern mind almost amounts to
piracy.Raymomd lully,on the contrary ,tookover literary material from
ibn al aabi,but in addition emphasized the importance of sufi exercises
which are necessary to complete the sufic experiences.
Ibn al arabi,who studied under the Spanish women sufi
Fathima.B.Walliyya, was undoubtedly subject to special psychic
states,such as are cultivated by the sufis. He refers to these on
various occasions. some of his work was written in trance,and its
meaning did not become clear to him until some time after its writing
down. when he was 37,he visited Ceuta,where the renowned Ibn Sabain(who
advised the holy roman emperor Frederic )had his scool.There he had a
strange vision or dream,which was interpreted by a famous scholar.The
sage said:"Immeaserable...if this individual is in Ceuta,it can be
none other than the recently arrived young Spaniard ".
The source of his inspiration was the reverie in which the
consciousness was still active.By the exercise of this sufi faculty ,he
was able to produce from the innermost mind contact with supreme
reality-reality which he explained underlay the appearances of the
familiar world.
His teaching stressed the importance of this exercise of
faculties which are unknown to most people, and consigned to credulous
occultism by the many. "person,"he said,"must control his
thoughts in a dream.The training of this alertness will produce
awareness of the intermediate dimension. It will produce great benefit
for the individual.Every one should apply himself to the attainment of
this ability of such great value."1
It is quiet hopeless to attempt an interpretation of ibn al arabi
from a fixed position. His techings are derived from the inner
experiences, then presented within a form which itself has a
function.Where his poetry has a double meaning,and it often has,he
intents not only to convey both meaning but affirm that both are
valid.Where it is expressed in terms used by others before him,it is
not intended by him that this should be taken as evidence of outside
influence.What he is doing here is to address himself to people in
terminology which forms a part of their own cultural background.There
ar points of ibn al arabi's which can be read in a shifting sense-the
meaning starting in one theme and drifting into another.He has done
this deliberately ,in order to prevent the automatic associative
processes from carrying the reader away into ordinary enjoyment;because
ibn an arabi is a teacher,not an entertainer.
For ibn al arabi as for all sufis Mohammed represents the
perfected man. at the same time,it is necessary to know what is meant
by"Muhammed" in this context.Ibn al arabi is more explicit than
most on this point. there are two versions of Muhammad-the man who
lived in Mecca and medina, and the eternal Muhammad .It is this latter
one of whom he speaks.This muhammed is identified with all the
prophets,including jesus.This idea has caused people with a Christian
background to claim that ibn al arabi or the sufis or both were secret
Christians.The sufi claim is that all the individual who have performed
certain functions are in a sense one.This oneness they call in its
origin haqiqat-al muhammadiya,the reality of muhammed.
Jili,in his standard sufi text ,the perfect man explains the
incarnation of this reality among all peoples.He seeks to describe the
essential factor,by showing the multiplicity of what we call an
individual.Muhammed,for instance,means th praised one.Anothr name,which
is only a description of a function,is father of Al Qasim.In his name
of Abdulla,he stands for its literal meaning-servent of God.Names are
qualities or functions. Incarnation is a secondary factor:"he is
given names and in every age has a name which is appropriate to the
guise in which he appears in that age....when he is seen as muhammed,he
is muhammed,but when he is seen in another form,he is called by the
name of that form."
This is not a reincarnation theory,however much it may resemble
one.The essential reality which activates the man called muhammed or
any thing else has to be given a name in conformity with the
environment.Those who have identified this attiude with the logos
doctrine of plotinus are,according to the sufis,ascribing an historical
connection to a situation which has objective reality.The sufis did not
copy the logos doctrine,through the idea of the logos and of the
reality of the muhammed have a common source.Ultimatly the source of
sufi information on this,as on other points,is the personal experience
of the sufi,not the literary formulations which has been one of its
historical manifestations.The trap of historical thinking ,which assume
no basic interior source of knowledge and has to seek literary and
superficial inspiration,is constantly avoided by the sufi.several
western studends of sufism have ,it must be admitted ,emphasized that
similarity of appearances ,of terminology or of date do not prove
transmission of the essential idea.
Ibn EL-Arabi confused the scholars because he was what is called
in Islam a conformist in religion while remaining an esotericist in
inner life. Like all Sufis he claimed that there was a coherent,
continuous and perfectly acceptable progression between formal region
of any kind and the inner understanding of that religion, leading to a
personal enlightenment. This doctrine, naturally, could not be accepted
by theologians, whose importance depended upon more or less static
facts, historical material and the use of reasoning powers.
Although Ibn El-Arabi is loved by all Sufis, had an immense
personal following among people of all kinds,and lived an exemplary
life,he was undoubtedly a threat to formal society.Like Ghazali,his
intellectual powers were superior to those of almost all his more
conventional contemporaries.Instead of making use of these abilities to
carve a place in scholasticism, he claimed, like many another sufi,that
when one has a powerful intellect,its ultimate function is to show that
intellectuality is merely a prelude to something else.Such an attitude
seems impossible arrogance-unless one has actually met such person and
known his humility.
Many people sympathized with him,but he did not dare to support
him,because they working on a formal plane ,and he on an initiatory
one.One respected divine is on record as saying :"I have no doubt at
all that Muhiyuddin(ibn arabi) is a deliberate lier.He is a chief among
heretic and a hardened sufi."The great theologian kamaluddin
Zamalaquni ,however,exclaimed:"how ignorant are those who oppose the
sheik muhiuddin ibn al arabi! His sublime sayings and the precious
words in his writings are too advanced for their understanding."
On a famous occasion,the renowned teacher Sheik Izedin Ibn Abd
Salem presiding over a group of students of the religious law.During a
discussion the question of defining hypocritical heretics arouse.Some
one cited Ibn al Arabi as a prime example.The teacher did not challenge
the assertion.Later, when dining with the teacher, Salahuddin,who later
become a sheikh of islam,asked him who was the most eminent sage of the
age:
"he said,what is that to you? eat on.'I realized that he
knew,stopped eating and pressed him in God's name to tell me who it
was.he smiled ,then said,"the sheikh muhiuddin ibn el arabi.".for a
moment I was so amazed that I could say nothing.the sheik asked me what
was the matter.I said.'I am in wonderment because this very morning a
man has stated that he is a heretic.on that occasion you did not
contest it now you call muhiyuddin the magnetic ploe of the age,the
greatest man alive,the teacher of the world.'
"he said "but it was in meeting of scholars ,legists."
The main opposition to ibn al arabi as due to his truly
amazing collection of odes-love poetry known as the interpreter of
desires.The poetry is so sublime,has so many possible meanings, is so
full of fantastic imagery that it can exercises a magical effect upon
the reader. For the sufis it is regarded as the product of the most
advanced development of human consciousness possible to man.it is only
fair to add here that D.B.Mac Donald considers ibn al arabi's out
pourings as "a strange jumble of theosophy and metaphysical
paradoxes, all much like the theosophy of our day."
For scholars one of the important thing about the interpreter is
that there is extant a commentary on the poems ,made by author
himself,in which he explained how the imagery fit with the orthodox
Islamic religion.how this came about can only be studied against the
back ground of the book's history.
In the year 1202 ibn al arabi decided to go the piligrimage.after
spending some time in traveling through north Africa,he arrived in
Mecca and there met a group of Persian immigrants, mystics who welcomed
him into their fold in spite of the fact he had been accused of heresy
and worse and Egypt.he narrowly escaped attempt by a fanatic to murder
him.
The chief of this Persian community was named Mukinuddin.he had a
beautiful daughter,Nizam,devout and well versed in the religious
law.his spiritual experiences in mecca and his symbolical rendering of
the path of the mystic ,and expressed in love poems dedicated to her.
ibn al arabi realized that human beauty was connected with Divine
Reality; and for this reason he was able to produce poems which both
celebrated the perfection of the maiden and also ,in correct
perspective ,stood for a deeper reality.but the capacity to see the
connection was denied to the formal religionists,who professed
themselves scandalized. The poet's supporters have pointed out ,often
in vein ,that real truth may be expressed in several different ways
simultaneously.they refer to ibnareabi's use of myths and legends,and
as well as traditional history to express the esoteric truths which are
canceled within them,as well as the entertainment value which they
hav.e.such a concept of multiplicity of the meaning of one and the same
factor was as little understood during his time as it is today.the
nearest that the ordinary individual can get to this is to allow
that"a beautiful women is a divine work of art."he is not able to
perceive the beautiful women and the divinity at the same time.this is
the entire problem of sufi statement in a nutshell.
Ibn El-Arabi's Interpreter therefore reads, on the surface,as a
collection of erotic poems. When he traveled Aleppo in Syria, a
stronghold of religious orthodoxy, he found that the divines of Islam
were saying that he was a mere pretender, trying to justify his erotic
poesy by claiming a deeper meaning. He immediately set to work on a
commentary to bring the work into orthodox focus. The result was that
the scholars were entirely satisfied, because the author had helped to
support their own interpretations of the religious law by his
explanations of the meaning of his work. For the Sufi, however, there
was a third meaning to the Interpreter. Ibn El-Arabi, by using familiar
terminology ,was showing that superficialities might be true, that
human love might be completely valid;but that both of these things in
actuality veiled and inner truth,or were an extension of it.
It is this inner reality which he refers to when he accepts all
formalism, yet claims a truth behind and beyond it. Professor Nicholson
has thus transelated one of the poems which most shocked the devout
,who believed that theirs was the road to human salvation:
My heart is capable of every form:
A cloister for the monk a fane for idols,
A pasture for gazelles ,the votery's Ka'ba(temple),
The tables of the Torah, the Quran.
Love is the creed I hold: wherever turn
His camels, Love is still my creed and faith.
The romantically minded person may take this as meaning that
the familiar,quantitative kind of love with which his mind
automatically associates these words is what the greatest sheikh
means.for the sufi,it is sufism,of which the familiar"love,"is only
a part,a limited part beyond which,under ordinary circumstances,the
average person never goes.
The End
5 Quoted by ibn Shadakin