Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) is perhaps the most challenging intellectual figure of later Islamic history, being at once highly celebrated and highly vilified. This book explores an interpretive and commentary tradition around his controversial ideas.
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration and Translation
Introduction
The Problems (mushkilāt) of the Fuṣūṣ: Interpretive Divergences
From the Lack of Understanding (ʿadam al-fahm): Solving the Problems of the Fuṣūṣ
The Present Study: Interpreting Ibn ʿArabī
1 “All is He, All is Not He”: The Vision of Huwa-lā Huwa
The Entities (aʿyān) are Not Made (ghayr majʿūl) and Non-Existent (maʿdūm)
The Mirror-Entities and the Color-Entities
The Pre-Existent Forms (ṣuwar) of the Entities: The Cloud, the Barzakh, the Creator-Real
2 Divine Power and Human Freedom
The Essence (Dhāt) and the Divinity (Ilāh), Determination (taqdīr) and Creation (khalq)
Freedom and Compulsion, Responsibility (taklīf) and Predestination (qadar)
3 Incomparability and Similarity
To Affirm Incomparability is to Affirm Limitation (taḥdīd) and Restriction (taqyīd)
Transcending the God of Beliefs (al-ilāh al-muʿtaqadāt)
The Divinity Clothed in Forms of Belief: Worshiping the Idols of Belief
4 “Created in his/His Form”: The All-Comprehensive Form of Man
Originated and Beginningless (ḥādith azalī), Perpetual and Endless (dāʾim abadī)
The Problem of Man’s Firstness (awwaliyya)
Creation (khalaqa) in Two Senses: Determination (taqdīr) and Existentiation (ījād)
5 Becoming a Form of God (ṣūrat al-Ḥaqq)
The False Form (ṣūra bāṭila) of the Pharaoh of Moses (Firʿawn Mūsā)
The Form of al-Kharrāz, One of the Tongues of God (lisān min alsinat al-Ḥaqq)
6 The Messenger takes his Knowledge from the Seal of the Saints
The Prophets (anbiyāʾ) in the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam
The Seal of the Saints: “the space for two bricks” (mawḍiʿ labinatayn)
7 Interpreting the Qurʾān
Between taʾwīl, ishāra, and ʿubūr: Ibn ʿArabī’s Qurʾānic Hermeneutics
Abraham’s Sacrifice (dhabḥ), God’s Deception (makr), Drowning in Knowledge
8 The Hermeneutics of Mercy
The Faith of Pharaoh (īmān Firʿawn) in Q. 10:90-92
From Torments (ʿadhāb) to the Sweetness of Torments (ʿudhūba)
Conclusion: Interpreting the Shaykh al-Akbar
“He/not He” Revisited: Ambiguity and Knowledge as Perplexity (ḥayra)
“He who does not know the status of imagination has no knowledge”
Bibliography
Index
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