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Ibne Aarabi, RA
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( Muhammed Ali Ibne Arabi, RA, - Khawaja Moinuddin Hasan
Chishti Sanjari Ajmeri, RA, - Ghus ul Azam, Pirane Peer Sheikh
Abdul Qadir Jilani, RA - Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, RA and
Farid o ddin Attar, RA were contemporaries. )
Muhammad Ali Ibne Arabi, RA
Muhammed Ibn 'Ali Ibn 'Arabi, RA was born in southern Spain
in 1165 AD ( 560AH ). The town he was born is called Murcia,
Spain. At the time of his birth Spain was flowering of the
Hispano-Arab culture. Since the conquest of the Iberian peninsula
by the Arab, Muslims ( popularly known or deliberately made
known as Moors ) in 711 AD, the southern half of Spain had been
'arabised' under Islamic rule, and Arabic became the official
government and the common language of all educated people.
Here in 'al-Andalus' the three major traditions of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam flourished side by side in some measure of
harmony, and there were many who regarded them as different
roads to the same end. It was an immensely rich and talented
place in the world, as we can still see today in buildings like the
Alhamra palace in Granada, or the Great Mosque at Cordoba; a
world where the great classics of Greek literature, especially
Aristotle and Plato, were translated ( first into Arabic and then
into Latin ) and studied alongside the spiritual teachings of the
three Abrahamic religions.
Ibn 'Arabi grew up in an atmosphere steeped in the most
important ideas - scientific, religious and philosophical - of his
day. At a time when mass communication was non-existent, this
was an essential ingredient in the formation of one of the most
brilliant minds in the Western world. As the poem above
demonstrates, Ibn 'Arabi was not content with simply knowing
about things, nor with following a particular way. Although many
writers have characterised him as a great Sufi teacher firmly
rooted in the Islamic world, it would be wrong to limit his appeal
to a muslim audience or to see him simply as a great medieval
thinker. His sole and overriding aim was to know reality as it is,
in whatever way it is depicted. Naturally he expresses himself
within the cultural context he knew, but he takes for granted that
his readers will have the same unflinching, one-pointed attitude of
passion for the truth, and his writings have a very contemporary
ring. "All that is left to us by tradition", he writes, "is mere
words. It is up to us to find out what they mean".
This passion manifested itself at a very early age. During his teens,
like many adolescents before him and no doubt since, he used to
divide his time between being a serious student - studying the
Quran, Islamic law and so on - and having a good time with his
friends. In the middle of one of these nightly parties in Seville he
heard a voice calling to him, "O Muhammed, it was not for this
that you were created". In consternation he fled and went into
retreat for several days in a cemetery. It was here that he had his
seminal triple vision in which he met, and received instruction
from, Jesus, Moses and Muhammed - an illumination that
simultaneously started him upon the spiritual way and established
him as a master of it. This vision took place in the mundus
imaginalis, the imaginative presence where God reveals Himself
directly to the spiritual aspirant; and throughout his life Ibn
'Arabi was to receive many illuminations of this kind. From this
initiating insight he embarked upon the journey of his life; a
journey that would not only take him from one end of the
Arab-speaking world to the other, but would also reveal the full
intensity of the most remarkable spiritual life, which through his
writings has affected, shaped, transformed all who come into
contact with it.
By the time he left Spain in 1200 at the age of 35, never to return,
Ibn 'Arabi was already renowned as a spiritual master, and his
knowledge and state were of an extremely high order. The
Andalusia that he left behind was gradually engulfed by the
Christian reconquista, and even today little is understood or
appreciated of the achievements of Moorish Spain. The Middle
East into which he now travelled was struggling to consolidate the
apparent stability that Saladin had snatched out of the chaos of
the Third Crusade. Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Palestine were united
somewhat flimsily under one flag.
Ibn 'Arabi made his way via Cairo and Jerusalem to Mecca,
where he performed the pilgrimage in 1202. There he spent some
two years in the company of the most influential and learned
families in the city, studying and writing. It was here that he was
inspired to compose his famous collection of poems, the 'The
Interpreter of Desires' - love poems that give astonishing insight
into the moods and conditions of the spiritual path. Many people
were scandalised by their apparently erotic and sensuous imagery,
and he was compelled to write a commentary on them in his own
defence. It is fortunate for us that he did so, since his comments
do much to illuminate the extraordinary depth of meaning that he
brings to bear on poetic images.
Ibne Arabi's Poems:
When My Beloved Appears
When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself.
( Ibne Arabi, RA )
Turmoil in your hearts
Were it not for
the excess of your talking
and the turmoil in your hearts,
you would see what I see
and hear what I hear!
( Ibne Arabi, RA )
( From: The Mystics of Islam, translated by Reynold A Nicholson )
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
( In the name of God, the beneficient the mercifull )