Ibn Arabi : Heir To The Prophets

161 Pages·2005·1.08 MB·English

by  William Chittick

Prelims.049 25/02/2005 10:48 AM Page i
MAKERS
of the
MUSLIM
WORLD
Ibn ‘Arabi
“This is a fine book which will make an excellent addition to the
secondary literature on Ibn ‘Arabi currently on the market.
Few authors working today can matchW illiam Chittick’s knowledge
and understanding of Ibn ‘Arabi and it is fortunate that
he has written a book that makes Ibn ‘Arabi’s complex worldview
available in a relatively short format.”
SHAHZAD BASHIR, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF RELIGION,
CARLETON COLLEGE, MINNESOTA
Prelims.049 25/02/2005 10:48 AM Page ii
SELECTION OFTITLES IN THE MAKERS OF
THE MUSLIM WORLD SERIES
Series editor:Patricia Crone,
Institute for Advanced Study,Princeton
‘Abd al-Malik,Chase F.Robinson
Abd al-Rahman III,Maribel Fierro
Abu Nuwas,Philip Kennedy
Ahmad ibn Hanbal,Christopher Melchert
Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi,Usha Sanyal
Al-Ma’mun,Michael Cooperson
Al-Mutanabbi,Margaret Larkin
Amir Khusraw,Sunil Sharma
El Hajj Beshir Agha,Jane Hathaway
Fazlallah Astarabadi and the Hurufis,Shazad Bashir
Ibn ‘Arabi,William C.Chittick
Ibn Fudi,Ahmad Dallal
Ikhwan al-Safa,Godefroid de Callatay
Shaykh Mufid,Tamima Bayhom-Daou
For current information and details of other books in the
series,please visit www.oneworld-publications.com/
subjects/makers-of-muslim-world.htm
Prelims.049 25/02/2005 10:48 AM Page iii
MAKERS
of the
MUSLIM
WORLD
Ibn ‘Arabi
Heir to the Prophets
WILLIAM C. CHITTICK
Prelims.049 03/03/2005 4:54 PM Page iv
IBN ‘ARABI
Oneworld Publications
(Sales and editorial)
185 Banbury Road
Oxford OX2 7AR
England
www.oneworld-publications.com
© William C.Chittick 2005
All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available
from the British Library
ISBN 1–85168–387–9
Typeset by Jayvee,India
Cover and text design by Design Deluxe
Printed and bound in India by Thomson Press Ltd
on acid-free paper
NL08
Prelims.049 25/02/2005 10:48 AM Page v
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
Ibn ‘Arabi’s Life 4
Abbreviations Used in the Text 9
1 THE MUHAMMADAN INHERITANCE 11
Inheritance 12
Opening 14
The Muhammadan Seal 16
Reading the Qur’an 17
Understanding God 18
Knowing Self 20
God’s Wide Earth 22
The Inheritor 23
2 THE LOVER OF GOD 27
Assuming the Traits of the Names 29
The Divine and Human Form 31
Imperfect Love 32
3 THE DIVINE ROOTS OF LOVE 35
Wujud 36
The Nonexistent Beloved 38
The Entities 40
The Genesis of Love 42
Love’s Throne 44
Human Love 45
Felicity 46
v
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vi IBN ‘ARABI
Poverty 47
Perfection 49
4 THE COSMOLOGY OF REMEMBRANCE 53
Remembrance 53
Prophecy 55
The Book of the Soul 57
The Breath of the All-Merciful 58
Knowledge of the Names 61
All-Comprehensiveness 62
Achieving the Status of Adam 63
The Perfect Servant 64
The House of God 66
5 KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION 69
Knowledge 70
Benefit 72
The Form of God 74
Reliable Knowledge 75
Following Authority 77
Realization 78
The Ambiguity of Creation 80
Giving Things their Haqq 81
The Rights of God and Man 83
The Soul’s Haqq 84
6 TIME,SPACE,ANDTHE OBJECTIVITY OF
ETHICAL NORMS 87
The Methodology of Realization 87
Time and Space 91
Location 92
Time 93
Eternity 94
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CONTENTS vii
Constant Transformation 96
Ethics 97
Lost in the Cosmos 99
7 THE IN-BETWEEN 101
Relativity 102
The Worldview of In-Betweenness 103
Cosmic Imagination 105
The Soul 108
The Soul’s Root 109
Controversies 111
The Gods of Belief 112
8 THE DISCLOSURE OFTHE INTERVENING
IMAGE 115
Self-Awareness 117
Death 118
Love 119
9 THE HERMENEUTICS OF MERCY 123
Interpreting the Qur’an 124
Good Opinions of God 126
The Return to the All-Merciful 128
The Mercy of Wujud 130
Mercy’s Precedence 131
Essential Servanthood 134
Primordial Nature 135
Sweet Torment 136
Constitutional Diversity 139
Surrender 141
Resources 145
Index 147
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Intro.049 25/02/2005 10:50 AM Page 1
INTRODUCTION
Born in Spain in 1165,Ibn ‘Arabi is at once the most influen-
tial and the most controversial Muslim thinker to appear
over the past nine hundred years.The Sufitradition looks back
upon him as “the greatest master” (ash-shaykh al-akbar), by
which is meant that he was the foremost expositor of its teach-
ings.Modern scholarship is rightly skeptical about grandiose
titles,but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that this specific
title is not out of line.On the quantitative side,Ibn ‘Arabi’s mas-
sive al-Futuhat al-makkiyya(“The Meccan Openings”) provides
more text than most prolific authors wrote in a lifetime.
Manuscripts of several hundred other works are scattered in
libraries,and scores of books and treatises have been published.
But “greatness”is not to be judged by bigness,so we clearly
need to look at the contents of all those pages.Probably no one
has ever read everything Ibn ‘Arabi wrote,and few specialists
would even claim to have read the whole Futuhat. Even so,
“reading” is one thing, “understanding” something else. Ibn
‘Arabi has always been considered one of the most difficult of
authors.This is due to many factors,not least extraordinary eru-
dition,consistently high level of discourse,constantly shifting
perspectives, and diversity of styles.Thorough analysis and
explication of a single page of the Futuhatdemands many pages
of Arabic text,and the task becomes much more challenging
when it is a question of translation into a Western language.
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