A History of Islamic Philosophy

Part of the course syllabus will be focused on Ibn ‘Arabi and his mystical philosophy; Discusses the life and works of Ibn ‘Arabi and Sadr, and his mystical doctrines on wahdat al-wujud and its influences on the later development of both mysticism and philosophy.
ICAS PARAMADINA UNIVERSITY, JAKARTA, INDONESIA

Quest for Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn 'Arabi Claude Addas, Peter Kingsley

Quest for the Red Sulphur: The Life of Ibn Arabi is undoubtedly a landmark in Ibn Arabi studies. Until the publication of this book, anyone who wanted to learn about the life of Ibn Arabi has had little choice of material to work from. This major study by Claude Addas is based on a detailed analysis of a whole range of Ibn Arabis own writings as well as a vast amount of secondary literature in both Arabic and Persian. The result is the first-ever attempt to reconstruct what proves to have been a double itinerary: on the one hand, the journey that took Ibn Arabi from his native Andalusia to Damascus - and on the other hand, the Night Journey which carried him along the paths of asceticism and prayer to the ultimate stage of revelation of his mystic quest.
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Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi (Routledge Library Editions: Islam) (Volume 7) (Hardcover)

Product Description: In this volume Henry Corbin emphasizes the differences between the exoteric and esoteric forms of Islam. He also reveals that whereas in the West philosophy and religion were at odds, they were inseparably linked, at least during this period, in the Islamic world. A valuable section of notes and appendices includes original translation of numerous Sufi treatises.
Amazon.com

Beshara and Ibn 'Arabi : A Movement of Sufi Spirituality in the Modern World

 

Investigating Sufi-inspired spirituality in the modern world, this interdisciplinary text combines cultural study with solid data to provide a comprehensive study on how the teachings of Ibn 'Arabi have been adopted and adapted by Muslims and non-Muslims. This book explores Beshara's emergence and evolution, its approach to spiritual education, the origins of its spiritual teacher, its major teachings and practices, and its projection of Ibn 'Arabi. Both rigorous and very timely, this study looks to the areas of cultural exchange between East and West and highlights commonalities in the various historical changes both societies have undergone.

SOURCE

Arabic Traces In Ridges of Sand By Mustapha Marrouchi

Posted on 07 December 2009 by Sailanmuslim

For the uninitiated, the flowing of lines and seemingly idiosyncratic spattering of dots and dashes that characterize the Arabic script can appear an inscrutable enigma. That it is a cursive system with few clues as to exactly where discrete elements find their borders only adds to the puzzle. Without an overly onerous measure of study however, the mystery is breached and the tangled jungle of vines gives up its fruit, and its secrets, that the right to left procession of ascending peaks and receding troughs is regular, logical, and rigidly ruled. When one learns how to tease apart the sound sequences encoded in the script, meaning emerges, but the cracking of the code is bittersweet; what was once tantalizingly obscure devolves into the simply mundane–written words doing what they do–mere signs signifying something out there in the world, but what thing and which world? Even as the first great mystery fades, another comes into being: that ineffable quality in the arrangement and execution of these sound symbols that is more than the sum of its parts and the source of its captivating beauty.

Of all the so-called Islamic arts, al-khatt (or trace ) holds a privileged position. Combining function with perfect form, the hyper-stylized and fantastically ornate expressions retain a suppleness and a subtlety unmatched in other cultures. They are at once stirring and deeply soothing. Adapt scribes, whose masterworks can be seen adorning mosques and monuments, ancient coins and illuminated manuscripts, take the written words and weave them together not quite as poets do–into a tapestry of ideas and imagery that flood the mind–but rather into a blank canvas upon which one cannot anticipate what might emerge. The effect is a paradox. The work is in its nature one of arabesque (generally of highly spiritual matters), the form in which it is rendered allays the impulse to simply read–beginning at the beginning and ending at the end–one finds himself instead caught up in the unbounded net of loops and hooks, eyes wandering forward and backward over the field, infinitely fine in its detail, distinct, atomic; yet revealing the harmony and symmetry of the whole at a further remove. This tidal shifting of perspective transforms consciousness, offering a glimpse into what lies beneath and beyond our senses.

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Sufism. An Article

The author has named it "Sufism, the other face of Islam". Unfortunately, when we speak of Islam, many are reminded of Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, terrorism, bigotry, oppression of women. But not all of Islam is the case (not all Basques are ETA). There is a large moderate Islam, and within it, a current extremely old one, called Sufism, practiced by millions of people around the planet.

To not enter into Islamophobia (hatred of Islam), I would like you to read some words of a current Algerian Sufi master, Khaled Bentuonés, and think whether we should continue to say that Islam is carried to fanaticism.

It would be the perfect counterpoint to be showed as a reading in class.

Unfortunately today, Islam has become an ideology, a narrow religion, a limited thing (...) an instrument of mass manipulation.

The generous one gives himself a great good and creates an atmosphere of happiness around which increases their own joy of living.

Contrary to what many think, the great holy war (jihad) is not intended to spread Islam under the rule of a tyrant (...) The Prophet himself said: This is the great war that everyone should take against their own selfishness "(...) This is a war to fight the economic crisis, poverty, against new diseases ...

Doing my duty and my responsibility to assume within society, I give to my work a noble character (...) If we all did our work as if were prayer (in the form of prayer), we would perform this duty out as best as possible and we would not cheat not hustling, and it would be for us the best way forward in life.

Bentuonés Khaled Shaikh Sufism, the heart of Islam. Ediciones Obelisco, 2001

This is just the opposite of what we talked about some time discussing the movie Agora. Religion for the understanding not to hate. Something like what the great mystic of Al Andalus, Ibn Arabi, wrote in the thirteenth century


My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols, and the pilgrim's Ka'ba, and the tables of the Tora and the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of Love, whichever way his camels take. My religion and my faith is the true religion.

Article written by:
Vicente Camarasa -


Image credit: asbf48 (ANTONIO)


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Love

“You will not arrive at a satisfactory state in religion unless you treat all creations with reverence and do not disdain any being as long as God has created it.”

Ibn Al-Arabi

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New E-Book added to Pearls of Wisdom Section

DOCTRINE OF THE ONENESS OF BEING, by William C. Chittick


" Ebno'l-'Arabi [sic], known as the "Greatest Master", was the most influential of all those Sufis who employed the language of philosophy to express the teacings of Islam. Born in Murcia in Muslim Spain in 560/1165, he exhibited his outstanding spiritual gifts at an early age. In a prefquently quoted passage, he recalls his meeting with the famous philosopher Averroes when the latter was an old man. Averroes preceived in Ebno'l-'Arabi, a youth with only fuzz for a beard, the wisdom for which he had been searching all is life. The meeting is highly symbolic in that the works of Averroes -which were largely forgotten in the Islamic world itself- became one of the major factors influencing the West to move in the direction of a rationalism closed to the intermediate realms of existence, while Ebno'l-'Arabi's, writings harmonized the rational and spiritual modes of perception and helped keep the minds of Muslim intelectuals open to the luminous presence of the angels and spirits."


To continue reading this text, you can download it at the bottom section of this blog, "PEARLS OF WISDOM".


Maryam

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The paradox of the duty of perfection in the doctrine of Ibn 'Arabi

Claude Addas

'Laqad khalaqnā-l insān fī ahsanī taqwīm' (Q. 95:4). This Qur'anic verse which affirms that God created man 'with the most perfect stature' is echoed – at least in one of its meanings – in a hadīth according to which 'God created Adam according to His form ('alā sūratihi)'.[1] The affixed pronoun which determines the word sūra (his form) remains nevertheless ambiguous: the Arabic language disregards capital letters which western languages can use to signify that the subject concerned is God. Moreover, numerous controversies have arisen between the interpreters of the Qur'an and of the sunna in the many cases where a scriptural text allows an ambiguity to remain over the grammatical antecedent of a pronoun: does the latter refer to God or to man? Ibn 'Arabi's position, on this point, could not be clearer: whether it is a question of the Qur'an or of the hadīth – as is the case here – it is necessary to stick to the literality of the wording; if this literality allows several meanings, none of them must be excluded. All, from one point of view or another, are valid and legitimate. In the same way that one must not fill in the 'silences' of the Divine Word, so one must not decide on one meaning to the detriment of another when the divine grammar opens up the possibility of various, sometimes contradictory, interpretations. God knows what He wants to say and knows how to say it.

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Ode Ibn Arabi

O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Kaa'ba,
and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran.
I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take,
that is my religion and my faith.

Amina Alaoui - Ode Ibn Arabi Found at abmp3 search engine

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The Tree of Being

THE TREE OF BEING by Ibn 'Arabi interpreted by Tosun Bayra.


The Tree of Being (Shajarat al-Kawn) is a treatise written by Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), one of the greatest figures in both Islamic and universal mysticism. He wrote close to five hundred books and manuscripts. Many of them are short, but some, like Fusus al Hikam and Futuhat al Makkiyah, are books of many volumes. Ibn Arabi knew and influenced the great men of his time, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Jalaluddin Rumi, Suhrawardi, and others.
His influence spread beyond the Islamic world and entered medieval Europe. Asin Palacios and Salverda di Grave have pointed out that Dante in the Divina Comedia derived from Ibn Arabi the great design of Hell and Paradise and also the image of the beautified young woman as guide to the Divine.
The Tree of Being is an inspired description of the cosmos and the perfect man as microcosm, expressed in beautiful metaphysical and poetic imagery. Ibn Arabi's devotion to the Prophet Muhammad as the perfect man provides instruction in Islam for the ones who are interested in learning the essence of this religion.
The book has five sections. First is the translator's introduction including a biography of Ibn Arabi and a discussion of his approach
to Sufism. Second is an interpretation of Ibn Arabi's Tree of Being, a commentary on the mystical elements of the Qur'an and Islam. Third is Ibn 'Arabi's description of the character and actions of the Prophet Muhammad. The fourth section is his listing of the two hundred names and attributes of the Prophet.

The Tree of Being Book


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BOOK REVIEW: Miracle of language in Quran —by Robert B Reich

 

From: Daily Times

 

The Quran in its Historical Context; Edited by Gabriel Said Reynolds
Routledge 2008
Pp294; Price £75
Available at bookstores in Pakistan
For Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century, the Nabataeans were the native inhabitants of Mesopotamia before the Islamic conquest of Iraq. Assyrians, Babylonians and Chaldaeans are called Nabataeans. They were renowned for their magical practices
No one has studied the Arabic language better than the Arabs in history. In the field of etymology they have done immeasurably better than the Iranians with regard to Persian and Pakistanis with regard to Urdu. In Pakistan, interest in lexicography excludes any interest in the origin of Urdu words. But the Arabs always showed inquisitiveness about the origin of the words of the Quran.
The first person who focused on the foreign words in the Quran was none other than Islam’s foremost exegete, Imam Al Shafei, who came to the conclusion that no one knew exactly how many words had come in from other languages. He says: “Of all tongues, that of the Arabs is the richest and the most extensive. Knowledge of this tongue to the Arabs is like the knowledge of the sunna to the jurists. We know of no one who possesses knowledge of all the sunna without missing a portion of it. In like manner is the knowledge concerning the tongue of the Arabs by the scholars and the public. No part of it will be missed by them all, nor should it be sought from other people; for no one can learn this tongue save he who has learned it from the Arabs.” (Al-Shafei, Risala, 27-8).
Persian words were soon discovered because of the Arab-Persian contact in Iraq. For instance, ‘istabraq’ meaning ‘silk brocade’; ‘barzakh’, meaning ‘barrier’, used three times; and ‘firdaws’, meaning ‘paradise’. Other Quranic words that were deemed derived from other languages included ‘tannur’ in the sense of ‘oven’; ‘jibt’ meaning ‘idol’; and ‘rahiq’ meaning ‘wine’.
Many languages are isolated by the classical grammarians and lexicographers as sources of Arabic words. Among them is Syriac. Syriac, referred to as suryani or nabati, appears to have been well-known as a spoken language according to anecdotes found in the works of Ibn Qutayba and Ibn Durayd, both living in the tenth century. The association of Syriac with Christianity is also clear in the work of the eleventh century writer Al Biruni.
For Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century, the Nabataeans were the native inhabitants of Mesopotamia before the Islamic conquest of Iraq. Assyrians, Babylonians and Chaldaeans are called Nabataeans. They were renowned for their magical practices. Other writers make it apparent that this designation was not linguistic exclusively but rather an ancient group of people distinguished by their agricultural practice, as opposed to pastoral or military life. (p.255)
Al-Suyuti, who died in 1505, edited in several different versions lists of foreign words in the Quran. One of his works is called al-Mutawakkil fima warada fil-Quran bil-lughat. The treatise, named after the caliph al-Mutawakkill who died in 943/1536 who ordered the author to compile the work, is a list of Quranic words that are ‘to be found in the speech of the Ethiopians, the Persians or any other people other than the Arabs’. (p.256)
Another list has nineteen Hebrew words, including two from the Suryani list. The vocabulary is as follows: ‘Ran’ meaning ‘river’; ‘taha’ meaning ‘O Man’; ‘annat’ meaning vineyard and grapes. ‘Hawn’ meaning ‘wise men’ ‘layta laka’ meaning ‘come here’; ‘wa-lata’ meaning ‘and there is not’; ‘ahwan’ meaning ‘tranquil’; ‘Sujjad’ meaning ‘with uplifted heads’; ‘qayyum’ meaning ‘one who does not slumber’; ‘asfar’ meaning ‘books’; ‘qummal’ meaning ‘fly, bee’; ‘shahr’ meaning ‘month’; ‘yamm’ meaning ‘sea’; ‘salawat’ meaning ‘synagogues’; ‘qintar’ meaning ‘bull’s hide full of gold or silver’, etc.
Early references to Arabic by Christians are traced. For example, fourth-century writer Uranius notes that the place name Motho means death ‘in the speech of the Arabs’ (he arabon phone). His near contemporaries Ipiphanius of Salamis and Jerome also make reference to Arabic, the former in connection with a virgin goddess whom the inhabitants of Petra and Elusa praise in the arabike dialektos and call her in Arabic Kaabou (‘buxom maiden’). And the Jewish Talmud adduces a number of words said to be from the speech of the Arabs, and a few Arabicisms enter the Syriac language of this period. (p.54)
It is noteworthy that the Quran itself is self-conscious with respect to the language in which it is written stressing that it is an ‘arabi recitation’ (12:2), an ‘arabi decree’ (13:37), composed in the ‘arabi tongue’ (20:195), which has been made easy for Muhammad (19:97, 44:58) and is the language of his people (14:4). (p.63)
When Muhammad (PBUH) had his first revelatory experience, his wife Hazrat Khadija took him to her cousin Waraqa bin Nawfal. The passage on this event is given in the Maghazi of the historian Ibn Ishaq (d. 150/767), in the section on Muhammad’s ‘invocation to mission’ or ‘call’ (al-mab’ath), within a longer narrative on his call, translated here according to the version (transmission) of Ibn Hisham (d. 218/834), in the account of the storyteller (qass) ‘Ubayd b. Umayr b. al-Laythi (d. 68/687). (p.91)
In another report Hazrat Khadija gives to Abu Bakr RA the order to go with Muhammad (PBUH) to Waraqa, and when Waraqa hears the account of Muhammad he cries: ‘All-Perfect! All-perfect!’ (sabbuh or subbuh). These events are given as proof of contact with a person who knew languages other than Arabic.
A great part of the technical terms on the Quran as a book are also not of Arabic origin, according to the book. The word ‘quran’ is a loanword, as is ‘mushaf’ (codex). One of the supposed collectors of the Quran, Salim bin Ubayd (or: bin Ma’qil), mawla of abu Hudhayfa, is supposed to have been the first to give the name ‘mushaf’ (codex) to the Quran as a collected book, a word he learned in Ethiopia. Finally, neither ‘sura’, nor ‘aya’ are of Arabic origin (Claude Gilliot on page 94).
The Quran’s evocation of the legend of the ‘Companions of the Cave’ comes close to the beginning of Surat al-Kahf (18:9-26), where Allah addresses Muhammad PBUH with the following question: “Do you reckon that the companions of the cave (ashab al-kahf) and of the inscription are wondrously among Our signs?”
The parable is also known through Jacob of Serugh in Syriac who called the story The Youths of Ephesus (p.122). The word ‘aya’ is a keyword in Islamo-Christian revelation. One finds it 77 times in the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John, and 287 times in the Quran (however somewhat rarely in the first Meccan suras). (p.145)
It is the gnostic gospels where the echo of the Quran is felt more strikingly. 1) Jesus was not crucified; someone who looked like him was crucified in his place. 2) He is therefore not dead, but was raised up to God. 3) At the end of the world, he will return to earth, fight the Antichrist, proclaim Islam as the true religion. 4) He will proclaim the coming of the Hour of Judgement, and die. 5) He will be raised on the day of the final resurrection. The text most evocative of the Quranic passage is that of the Gnostic Judaeo-Christian Basilides, reported by Irenaeus of Lyon at the end of the second century.
Suleiman Nadwi was the Indian Muslim scholar who had enough knowledge of Arabic to write about the Sanskrit words appearing in the Quran. He thought that since these words occurred where the Quran describes Paradise, the idea of Paradise must be located in India. But the word Paradise was taken from the Persians by the Greeks, and as Muhammad Hussain Azad would confirm if he were alive today, the Aryans of Persia and the Aryans of India would agree on the very mundane Hindi word Pradesh also meaning a far-off country. But for us the word has become Firdaws, the best of the many versions of Eden described in the Quran. *

 

 

New eBooks added to the Pearls of Wisdom section

 

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Ibn Arabi / Divine Imagination

Ibn Arabi/ Spiritual Ascension

 

Ibn Arabi Wednesday Evening Prayer

Bismillah.

O my Master, peace be upon You, You are my support. For You it is the same whether I address You inwardly or outwardly, for You hear my call and answer my prayer. You have banished my darkness with Your Light. You have brought my lifeless body to life with Your Spirit. You are my Lord: my hearing, my seeing, my heart are in Your Hand. You have taken possession of all of me. You have conferred eminence upon my lowliness; You have elevated my rank; You have raised high my remembrance.

O my Sovereign Possessor, I call out to You and entreat You, secretly confiding as a broken servant, who knows that You are listening and who firmly believes that You will respond, one who stands at Your door, constrained in utter need, finding no one to put trust in, other than You.

I ask of You, my God, by that Name with which You pour forth good things, bring down blessings and confer increase upon those who are grateful, and with which You bring forth from the darkness, and with which You dismiss people of association and baseness: may You spread over me the garments of Your Lights, striking enemies blind and rendering them powerless. Grant me my portion from You, as a radiance that discloses to me every hidden matter, unveils to me every high mystery and burns up every enticing satan.

O Light of light! O Unveiler of all that is veiled! Unto You are all matters returned. Through You is all evil repelled. O Lord, O Merciful One, O Forgiving One!

Allahumma salli ala Saidina Muhammad wa ala ali Saidina Muhammad.

- Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi

 

From: Lisan al-din.blogspot.com

Ensemble Ibn Arabi

la ilaha illa Allah

Ute Lemper. Nomad

 

Nomad is the centerpiece of the new released Ute Lemper’s album “Between Yesterday and Tomorrow”. With this song Ute takes us to the Middle East with reminiscences of the XII Century Sufi poet Ibn Arabi. To listen to this song preview, visit The Press Page and scroll down the music player’s song titles. “Nomad” appears after “Wings of Desire”

 

“Wonder
Wonder,
A garden among the flames!
My heart can take on any form:
A meadow for gazelles,
A cloister for monks,
For the idols, sacred ground,
Ka'ba for the circling pilgrim,
The tables of the Torah,
The scrolls of the Quran.
My creed is Love;
Wherever its caravan turns along the way,
That is my belief,
My faith. “
- Ibn Arabi

 

The Teophany of Perfection. Ibn Arabi

“The Theophany of Perfection”

(Translated by Abraham Abadi and Aaron Cass)

Kindly sent by Vastearthorchestra

 

“Hear, O my beloved!
you are the reason for the being of the world
You are the centre-point of the sphere and its encompassing
You are its complexity and simplicity
You are the order brought [sent] down between heaven and earth
I did not create for you realizations
Except that you realize Me in them
And when you realize Me you realize your self
Do not strive to realize Me in the realization of your self
By my eye you will see Me and your self
You will not see Me, however, by[with] the eye of your self
Beloved
How often have I called you and you do not hear
How often have I [stood before you]presented myself to you and you do not witness [recognize]
How often have I embodied myself in scents and you do not inhale
And in the flavours and you do not savour the taste for My sake
What is the matter with you, that you do not feel me when you touch?
Why do you not recognize Me in the fragrances of musk?
Why do you not see Me? Why do you not hear Me?
What is the matter with you?
I am your most heady rapture beyond any delight
My craving for you is more intense than any born for an object of desire
I am better for you than any good thing
I am the Beautiful
I am the Elegant [witty, comely]
Love Me. Love Me. Love Me alone.
Desire Me, Ardently.
Be consumed in me[distressed, troubled, obsessed]not engrossed in other than Me.
Take Me in , receive Me, you will not find an intimate like me
Everything wants you for itself, but I want you for your sake,
But you, you avoid me.
Beloved!
You cannot meet me half-way in your drawing close to me
My drawing close to you outweighs a hundredfold the means by which you approach me.
I am closer to you than your self.
And your self, which performs these acts, is other than Me , created.
Beloved!
I am jealous of you from you.
I cannot bare to see you with otherness or with yourself.
Be with Me in Me,
with yourself just as you are with Me.
Then, my Beloved, you will not even feel the Union,
The Union.
Had we found a path toward separation,
we would let the separation savour separation.
Beloved!
Come, hand in hand, enter Reality that It may decide between us with the judgment of eternity
Beloved antagonist
Pleasure cannot be found in dispute between lovers,. Pleasure is in the converse.
As the poet said;
I wished her dead because of loving her
So that shed be my adversary on the Last Day
(Say; Do you have an understanding of the High Assembly when they are disputing?
Had the outcome of this severance been only appearance before the Judge, then what about the joy of and gazing upon the face of a beloved?)
O heart! O heart!

 

Ibn Arabi . XII Century

 

Thanks to Vastearthorchestra for the transcription of the text.

 

 

Visit his video on youtube

 

 

 

Alhambra and Sacred Geometry

 

Islam in Spain among others have greatly influenced Christian Mystic Thoughts. Strange as it may seem, some of the most important mystical symbols used by St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila are of Islamic origin, specially that of Spanish Sufis. Miguel Asín Palacios, Spain’s foremost Arabist, was able to trace St. John’s dark night of the soul to the Shadilite school of mysticism, as well as St. Theresa’s seven concentric castles to an anonymous 16th-century treatise called the Nawadir. What the critics have deemed extremely mysterious and “original” in Spanish mysticism is, in many ways, just the adaptation of Islamic mystical symbols. And Alhambra and other great places of Spain are witness of such influence.

 

CONTINUE READING

 

Do not praise…

 

 

“Do not praise your own faith exclusively,

so that you disbelieve all the rest.

If you do this, you will miss much good

~ nay, you will miss the whole truth of the matter.

God the omniscient and omnipresent

cannot be confined to any one creed for he says

“Wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah.”

Everybody praises what he knows.

His god is his own creature

and in praising it,

he praises himself,

which he would not do

if he were just.

His dislike is based on ignorance.”

 

 

 

XIII AD Sufi philosopher Ibn Arabi

 

Ibn Arabi - audio

 

 

 

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

 

Read by Maryam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To listen the Spanish version, click here

 

Download Mp3

 

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