Ibn Arabî

Moheïddine Ibn' Arabî (محيالدينابنعربي), or: Mohyiddîn Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Ali 'Ibn Arabî Al-Hâtimî, more known under its only name of Ibn' Arabî , was born the 27 Ramadan 560 from Hégire (August 7th 1165, Murcie in the Pays of Al-Andalûs - 1240, Damas). Also called “Sheik Al-Akbar” (“the largest Master”, in Arabic), he is a mystic, author of 846 works. Its work would have influenced Dante and Jean of the Cross. In its poems it treats love, passion, beauty and absence.

Its life

In 1179, it meets the philosopher Averroès with Cordoue. This meeting with the old philosopher marked the young mystic (it is not then 14 years old) which, in spite of its young age, the theological weakness of the philosophy perceived immediately whose way does not lead to the Revelation. Ibn' Arabî was formed itself with theologies. It acquired a considerable science by the reading of various Masters.

In 1196 with Fès at 31 years, it with the Revelation of the seal of holiness muhammadienne . He says to have received the Gemmes of wisdom of a feature, awaked one night by Mohammed. Wisdom is represented by a stone whose form represents the Tradition; whereas the stone is the same one for all, it is cut differently according to the dictated prophetic forms with Abraham, Jesus or Mohammed.

In 1203, it begins the spiritual Conquests mecquoises. With Mecque, it writes its major metaphysical work: the Illuminations of Mecque (or: Illuminations mecquoises : " Futûhât Al Makkiyâ" ). It described there the spiritual aspects and metaphysics of the Sufism. Combining an extreme rigor in the design and a work visionary, this work is worth in Ibn' Arabî its nickname of wire of Plato .

In 1223, it settles with Damas where it dies out in 1240.

Its thought

The work of Ibn Arabi is the top of the Soufisme. It marks a date in the history of this current. Before Ibn Arabi, the Sufism is a impregnated Mystique morals as one can see it at Muhâsibi, Abû Talib Al-Makki and Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, i.e. a practical mystic (wisdom and handbooks for a better guidance of the heart) and not intellectualist. After him, it is a complex Théosophie, the most complete systematic sum of the Moslem esotericism and one of the tops of the universal esotericism. Certain Western thinkers (Guénon, Schuon) regard it as one of the privileged expressions of the " philosophia perennis ". According to Roger Deladrière, Ibn Arabi is the author of " theological, mystical work and the most considerable metaphysics that no man never has réalisé".

This immense work - 846 works ¹ indexed by O. Yahia in its “History and classification of the work of Ibn Arabi” - draft of all Islamic religious sciences; those of the Charia or exoteric Law (Coran, Sunna or Tradition of the prophet Muhammed, right), those of the Haqîqa or metaphysical and esoteric Truth, and that of the Tarîqa, i.e. the spiritual and initiatory way driving with the " réalisation" truth”. Henry Corbin regards it as “one of the largest theosophists visionaries of all times”. Work is of a difficult access, because, in spite of its immense extent, it is often written in an elliptic and very concise style which calls for the observation.

For Ibn' Arabî, the mystical way is neither rational nor irrational: the spirit escapes from the limits of the matter. Contrary to philosophy, it is located out of the field of the reason. Thus, contrary to the scission drawn by Averroès between faith and reason, the depth of Ibn' Arabî is in the meeting between the intelligence, the love and knowledge. Ibn' Arabî is located intellectually in the line of Al-Hallaj which it quotes with many recoveries: it estimates that the true bases of the faith are in the knowledge of the science of the Letters ( Ilm Al-Hurûf ). According to him, the science of Coran resides in the letters placed at the head of the sourates , a design which current doctrinal Islam, denies savagely. Also the work of Ibn' Arabî remains it marginalized, today still, by Islamic orthodoxy.

The “hidden Treasury”

This concept returns to the hadith (sentence of the prophet) according to which God said: " I was a hidden treasure and I liked wanted to be known. Then I created the creatures in order to be known by elles" ( Futuhat of Ibn 'Arabi, II, p. 322, chap. 178). In this hadith the will of God to be known is conveyed by the desire and the love: " When God knew Itself and knew the world by Itself, It created it according to Its form. The world was thus a mirror in which He contemplates His image. He liked, actually, only Him-même" ( Was . , II, p. 326). This report/ratio of oneself with oneself is understood by the fact that the entire world, known by God in His eternal science, is only epiphanic forms for Its demonstration ( tajallî ). While appearing in these forms, He knows himself and contemplates and likes the creature by liking Itself. See also: Ibn 'Arabi, Treated love , p. 60: " Thus, the object of the love, under all its aspects, is God. The True Being by knowing Oneself knows the world of Oneself which It expresses according to Its form. Therefore, the world is being a mirror for God in whom He sees His form. He thus likes only Oneself-même".

“Wahdat Al Wujûd”

The theory of Wahdat Al-Wujûd (Unicity of the To be) was systematized for the first time by its disciple and Aldine son-in-law Sadr Al-Qûnawî.

Ibn 'Arabi did not say this formula expressly, but it implied in several texts of its work, in particular " Futûhât" and " Fusûs Al-Hikam" that " reality Être is unique" ( Haqîqat Al-Wujûd wâhida ), and that God is the Being with the absolute direction, the true Being, the Being necessary (at the Philosophes) which conditions all the beings subordinates and quotas, and are conditioned by no other to be. Concept of " Wahdat Al-Wujûd" at Ibn 'Arabi is only the emphatic and hyperbolic interpretation of unicity ( Tawhîd ), a Pilier of Islam.

By saying that God is Unique ( Wâhid ) and that it is other thing only the Being in his inconditionné aspect, one wanted, wrongly or rightly, to bring this theory closer to the Panthéisme of Spinoza. However, the design of this last moves away notably from that of Ibn 'Arabi, insofar as pantheism supposes the unit of God and Nature (God is Nature), whereas in Ibn 'Arabi, God is not known in its essential Reality ( Huwa , Allah), but known by the means of Its opposed names, multiples and, which manage the universe since its creation and until its forfeiture. In addition, the divine names are reflected in creation, they are not incorporated in it. The set of themes of the mirror of the creation in which God reflects himself via His divine names is not the fruit of the chance, it intervenes to interdir any assimilation of the divine gasoline with the substance of creation. Henry Corbin speaks on this subject about theomonism . One could say that, contrary to the pantheism which naturalizes God and absorbs it in the immanence, the theomonism of Ibn Arabi divinise nature while preserving the transendance of God and his unicity.

Divine Names

Creative Imagination

The Imagination at Ibn Arabi plays a paramount role, and Henry Corbin was the first commentator of Ibn Arabi to amply speak about it in its work-reference (See will infra: Bibliography) creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi . This book represents a philosophical reading with phenomenologic vocation to explore a central theme, ever studied until there. This topic is the imagination which gave place to the invention of several related terms like " imaginal" and " the world imaginal" or mundus imaginalis .

For H. Corbin, the doctrines of Ibn Arabi, qualified Theosophy (divine wisdom) or of prophetic Hermeneutics, are based on a Concept which is the Théophanie, presence of God, or its demonstration in the world of the phenomena, and there imagination plays a decisive part of the perception of this divine face in the things. It is an imagination " créatrice" insofar as that which sees God, is seen created in him the science of this divinity incarnated in the world. All is interpreted in the light of the théophanie whose imagination represents the body of perception. H. Corbin known as: " Active imagination is primarily the body of the théophanies, because it is the body of creation and that creation is primarily théophanie" ( creative imagination , p. 148). H. Corbin places the heart in the center of this creativity, because it is the only body with being able to support the transmutation from its sudden and ceaseless change: " The heart is the hearth where concentrates creative spiritual energy, i.e. theophanic, while imagination is the organe" ( ibid . , p. 83).

From this point of view, H. Corbin places imagination in the center of any creation and reflection. There is no Connaissance, neither of Dévoilement, nor of Interprétation besides without the imagination which is, above all, creativity.

The perfect Man

The man at Ibn “Arabi is the perfect image of accomplished creation: " Who created you, then modelled and constituted harmoniously? He worked you in the form which He has voulue" (Coran, Sourate 82, verse 7-8). The image external of the man resembles to a certain extent the world and its macrocosmic dimensions. Its interior faculties (intellect, imagination, etc) have a similarity with the higher spheres. This external and interior resemblance is constantly evoked in several chapters of the Futûhât , like Mawâqi” Al-Nujûm (the Setting one of stars) and Tadbîrât Al-Ilâhiyya (divine provisions). Before Ibn 'Arabi, several philosophers, like the Brothers of the purity (Ikhwan Al-Safa) and Avicenne (Ibn Sînâ), systematized in their metaphysics the human face of the universe and the cosmological aspect of the man.

Ibn 'Arabi understands by the man a high and distinguished degree, that of the perfect man. The human perfection is related to the divine image which gets the secrecies esoteric to act on the creature. Moreover, the presence of the man in the creature contributes to perfection of its image. The perfect man is distinguished from the ordinary man (Ibn 'Arabi will say the man-animal, because of anatomical and physiological resemblance) by the appropriation of the divine Noms by having the creative will and the command of the world. In addition, the perfect man is characterized by spiritual energy or the Arabic aspiration (: himma ) which is its instrument of creation. It represents, at the animal man, the manual side in its manufacture and its provisions. In addition to the membership of the spiritual entity, the perfect man is also characterized by the succession or lieutenancy ( Khilâfa ). He is thus vicar ( khalîfa ) and successor ( nâ' ib ) by the fact that he controls totality of the names and while being a shortened copy of cosmic reality and Métaphysique. This verse teaches us this truth: " And He learned with Adam all the noms" (Coran, sourate 2, verse 31). If God described himself as " treasure caché" , it is that It is catch behind the shape of the perfect man and appears by its Théophanie in this perfect form. While being the place epiphanic, the perfect man knows oneself and knows his Lord who appears in him, contrary to the animal man who knows higher realities via cosmic evidence and of signs set up in the world. The meditation of these signs does not exceed at his place the only speculative effort. The perfect man contemplates these signs in him rather and extracts the pearls from the treasure hidden in his heart. He thus associates the Méditation and the Contemplation.

Its influence

The influence of Ibn Arabi in the history of Islamic spirituality is immense. Not only it includes/understands the school of Ibn Arabi itself, but it extends to many brotherhoods soufies such as the Chadhiliyya, the Khalwatiya, Mawlawiya (the famous Dancing dervishes), the Tchichtiya, always alive today. Beyond the Sufism, works of Ibn Arabi one meditated and commented on by many mystics and Persan theosophists of obedience Shiite. Osman Yahia listed 130 comments Persian of only the Fosûs . Later still, its influence will still extend when occurs the junction of this school with Ishraq of Sohrawardi and the theosophy Shiite from the Saints Imams (Haydar Amoli, Ibn Abi Jomhur, Molla Sadra Shirazi).

In spite of such a great number of followers and prestigious defenders as well sunnites as Shiite, it was the object of violent criticisms throughout the history, on behalf of the orthodoxe theologists (see Ibn Taymiyyah) who reproach him his design of unicity for being it that they compare to a form of pantheism. Today still, Ibn' Arabî is an author discussed in Islam. Its exegetic approaches, its design of the messianism through the emblematic figure of Mahdi cause polemics. There remains a reference for the schools soufies which see in him the spiritual heir to Mohammed.

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