Hamid Algar It is often assumed that the Naqshbandî tariqa has formed a singular case of imperviousness to the almost universal diffusion of the teachings and concepts of Ibn ‘Arabi.[1] This misapprehension rests not only on a lack of acquaintance with the relevant texts but also on a failure to understand both the perennial essence of the Naqshbandî path and the distinctive genius of ash-Shaykh al-Akbar. With its well-known insistence on sobriety and adherence to the sharî’ a and the popularity it has consistently enjoyed among the ‘ulamâ’, the Naqshbandîya is thought to be implacably hostile to theosophical speculation, to be a kind of mysticism without … Continue reading Reflections of Ibn ‘Arabi in Early Naqshbandî Tradition

Claude Addas Ahlu baytī amān li ummatī’, ‘The people of my house are a safeguard for my community’. Although it is not included in any of the canonical collections,[1] this saying attributed to the Prophet is one of the innumerable traditions [2] which in Islam are the basis of the respect which the faithful have towards the ahl al-bayt,[3] the ‘Family of the Prophet’, understood here in the broader sense and including the shurafāʾ, the direct descendants of the Prophet from his daughter Fātima. The expression ahl al-bayt appears on three occasions in the Qurʾān,[4] and one of these concerns the family – this is verse 33 of the … Continue reading The Muhammadian House: Ibn Arabi’s concept of ahl al-bayt

Claude Addas “By God, I feel so much love that it seems as though the skies would be rent asunder, the stars fall and the mountains move away if I burdened them with it: such is my experience of love.” If I attributed this quotation to Rūmī or to Ruzbehān Baqlī, no one would be surprised: they are both unanimously acknowledged to be among the most illustrious representatives of the “way of love” which is at the heart of the mystical tradition of Islam. But it is from the Futūḥāt, the work whose “impassive and icy tone” Massignon denounced, that this … Continue reading The Experience and Doctrine of Love in Ibn Arabi

On this page, there is a selection of articles from the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. Although these do not represent an analytical treatment of Ibn Arabi’s teachings, they do reflect the breadth of subjects in his writing. In what I have written, I have never had a set purpose, as other writers. Flashes of divine inspiration used to come upon me and almost overwhelm me, so that I could only put them from my mind by committing to paper what they revealed to me. If my works evince any form of composition, that form was unintentional. Some works I … Continue reading Themes in Ibn Arabi’s writings

Pablo Beneito The past and future of gnosis and sainthood in Ibn ‘Arabī’s Kitāb al-isfār [1] In his Book of the Unveiling of the Effects of Travelling [2] (or, alternatively The Revelation of the Fruits of the Holy Books), Ibn ‘Arabī refers to those who “are guided to travel in God” (lit.: “those who are made to travel in Him”), that is to say, those who do not travel by their own means, efforts and faculties, but by the grace of Divine Providence. The author says that those “who are made to travel in Him […] are the messengers, the prophets and the chosen among the close friends … Continue reading The Time of Deeds and the Time of Spiritual Knowledge