Ibn Arabi (English: Ibn Arabi, full name: ‘Shaikh Abu Bakar Moiuddin bin Ali’, born: July 28, 1165 AD; death: November 10, 1240 AD) was a famous Arabic Sufi poet, seeker and thinker. People have different beliefs regarding Ibne Arabi. According to some people, he was a Sanyasi (Wali Kamil) and had complete authority on spirituality, in which no one can have any objection. On the other hand, there was also a community which considered him an atheist. Similar contradictory beliefs are prevalent even today regarding the books of Ibn Arabi. He is also famous by the name of ‘Sheikhul Akbar’.
17 Ramadan 560 Hijri (28 July, 1165 AD) was born in Marcia, which is located in the south-east of Andalus. He belonged to an ancient tribe of Arabia called ‘Tay’. The world famous donor ‘Hatimtai’ belonged to this clan. In the year 568 Hijri, Ibne went to Arabi (Ashbiliya), which was a big center of learning and literature in those days. Here he continued to receive knowledge from the renowned scholars of that time for thirty years. At the age of 38, he went to the eastern country and never returned home from there. First of all he reached Egypt and spent some time there. Then he got busy in a long trip to the Near East and Asia Kochak (Turkey) and in this connection went to Baitul Makdis (Porshalam), Mecca, Baghdad and Haleb. Finally he started living permanently in Damascus and died there in 638 Hijri (1240 AD). He was buried in Mount Qasiun.
Nothing can be said precisely about the number of Ibn Arabi’s works and their volumes. Abdurrahman Jami, according to an old gentleman from Baghdad, has stated the number of Ibn Arabi’s books to be more than 580 and the Egyptian scholar Muhammad Rajab Hilmi has estimated their number at 284. The reliable number of his works is generally considered to be around 150 at most. The collection of works left by Ibn Arabi covers all the Islamic teachings of that time, but the subject of most of the books is Sufism (Tasabbuf). It is very difficult to sort all these books in terms of time. Among these, ‘Futuhot-Makkiya’ is very important, which is the mirror of his mature mind. His way of writing is symbolic and his explanation is very esoteric. At some places he has deliberately tried to make some things unintelligible. This is so that they can hide their theory of Bahdatulvujudi from the people. As a result, there are contradictions regarding their principles in the Islamic world.
From the philosophical point of view, his most important contribution is the refinement of the concept of universal human being. Needless to say, this concept had already gradually started appearing in the works of Sufis. This concept of the universal (Insan-e-Kamil) human being, like the new Platonic concept of Logos, represents the creative power of God and is capable of functioning as a mediating power between the world and God. Thus the Universal Man represents the universe and the original form of man. It presents a model or ideal, which man can continuously strive to conform to.
The influence of many previous important philosophers and ideological activities is visible in his works. He was especially influenced by Plato, Aristotle, Platonus and Neo Platonists. He tried to relate the superstitious theology of his time to philosophy. The components of existence described by him are forms and expressions, which bear resemblance to Aristotle’s matter and form. Man reflects God, in whom he can see himself as he is. This state of reflecting God’s nature is far from perfect for human beings who are extremely imperfect images.[1] And extends to the absolutely perfect images accomplished by other angels, saints etc. He was a person with strong faith in monism, according to which God and the universe are two co-related and complementary elements of absolute existence. Before Ibn Arabi, another great Sufi Mansur had proclaimed ‘I am the Truth (the Only)’ and he was murdered for this proclamation, because according to superstitious people his proclamation was a blasphemous statement. Ibne Abri could not agree with the views of Mansoor, because according to him those views were not propoundable. According to them, man is incomplete and limited and God is complete and unlimited and man can only be ‘one truth’, not ‘the only truth’.
In view of Dante’s description of the Ascension to Heaven, it is believed by many that Arabic poetic metaphysical Sufism influenced Dante. Needless to say, Dante’s description in which he has linked the constellational principles to Muhammad’s journey to heaven. It is an important component of belief of Muslim followers. In his pantheistic principles, he considered man to be the sprout of everyday essence, who actually exists because of God’s desire to be known. In the process of experiencing daily existence, the thinking human being reflects the structure of the universe in his own personality. Using the principle of ‘Logos’, they have accepted it as a creative element in the universe and have identified it with the soul of Muhammad.
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His works were completely neglected by superstitious theologians, however, they influenced the Persian mystic poets like Jamaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) and Nooruddin Jami (1414-1482) to a significant extent. The Sufi philosophy of Ibn Arabi is based on the principle of the oneness and omnipresence of God. This principle can be presented in a few words as follows:
Great is the power which created everyone and which is present in each and every part of them.
He wrote in Arabic, which translates as
‘O God, you have created all things. You store up all the things that You create. You create every thing whose existence never gets destroyed by merging with You and in the same way You are both narrow and wide.’
This theory is such a form of the oneness and omnipresence of God, according to which the entire universe is merely a reflection of this reality, which is hidden behind it, and the only way to experience such a thing is through Sufi meditation.
According to Ibn Arabi
Ibn Arabi says that while God is an eternal reality that is beyond the scope of our thoughts and discourses, he is also a being who can be trusted and loved. Although this point is very close to Islamic ideology, it (God) cannot be limited to any particular form, theory or religion. Whatever is worshipped, its reality is nothing more than that it is one of the innumerable images through which God reveals Himself. Limiting God to only one form and separating Him from all other forms is Kufr. Its existence has been recognized in every worshipable idol and in it the true soul of religion is hidden. This universal religion preached by Ibn Arabi is a religion which has encompassed all religions within itself, due to which all principles have become unified with each other in the same way as the true Almighty has united all things and unified them. Does it. Ibn Arabi has expressed this idea in this way-
‘My heart has become the home of every image. It is a pasture for deer, an altar of worship for Christian priests, a temple for idolaters, the Kaaba and the Torah for pilgrims. I am a believer in the religion of love in the Quran and I move in the direction where its caravan takes me, because this is my religion and this is my faith.’
According to Ibn Arabi, a complete man is a mirror in which all the things are reflected. He is the essence of the entire universe, God’s representative on this earth, and a being who is modeled after God.
