Philosophical Sufism

An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-'Arabi

Mukhtar H. Ali

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000418293
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy of Religion

Analyzing the intersection between Sufism and philosophy, this volume is a sweeping examination of the mystical philosophy of Mu?y?-l-D?n Ibn al-?Arab? (d. 637/1240), one of the most influential and original thinkers of the Islamic world. This book systematically covers Ibn al-?Arab?'s ontology, theology, epistemology, teleology, spiritual anthropology and eschatology.

While philosophy uses deductive reasoning to discover the fundamental nature of existence and Sufism relies on spiritual experience, it was not until the school of Ibn al-?Arab? that philosophy and Sufism converged into a single framework by elaborating spiritual doctrines in precise philosophical language. Contextualizing the historical development of Ibn al-?Arab?'s school, the work draws from the earliest commentators of Ibn al-?Arab?'s oeuvre, ?adr al-D?n al-Q?naw? (d. 673/1274), ?Abd al-Razz?q al-K?sh?n? (d. ca. 730/1330) and Daw?d al-Qay?ar? (d. 751/1350), but also draws from the medieval heirs of his doctrines Sayyid ?aydar ?mul? (d. 787/1385), the pivotal intellectual and mystical figure of Persia who recast philosophical Sufism within the framework of Twelver Sh??ism and ?Abd al-Ra?m?n J?m? (d. 898/1492), the key figure in the dissemination of Ibn al-?Arab?'s ideas in the Persianate world as well as the Ottoman Empire, India, China and East Asia via Central Asia.

Lucidly written and comprehensive in scope, with careful treatments of the key authors, Philosophical Sufism is a highly accessible introductory text for students and researchers interested in Islam, philosophy, religion and the Middle East.

1 Ontology

The timeless question of existence forms the basis of every other inquiry: What is the nature of Being and how do we come to know it?¹ The starting point is to study Being itself before investigating the existence of God, His attributes, creation, the human being, the macrocosm and the microcosm, and so on. We must first ask what Being is, in and of itself, and why it is necessary to examine it. Let us begin by answering the second question first. Pondering the nature of Being is not only the work of philosophers and metaphysicians, but intrinsic to every human. At one time or another, we all wish to know the meaning of existence and our place within it. One might ask, how did I come to be and where am I going? What is the purpose of life and is there something beyond it? These are all existential questions that we ask ourselves, consciously or not. The questions as well as the answers are already within us and come to light in moments of reflection or inspiration. The quest to know reality is built into the very fabric of our consciousness, it underlies our humanness and separates us from the animals.

Understanding the nature of Being will also help us understand specific existents, such as language or music, or love and justice, or any other material or abstract reality. But knowledge of general Being is prior and more valuable than the knowledge of specific existents as the late philosopher Jalāl al-Dīn Ashtiyānī explains:

The nobility and value of any discipline is in proportion to its comprehensiveness. Any discipline that sets the foundation and principles of another is considered more valuable and nobler, since the subject of the lesser discipline is based on the principles and arguments set forth in the higher. That is why philosophy, which discusses the very nature of existence, is considered a nobler discipline than mathematics, which discusses quantities, which are essential accidents of existence. Similarly, the science of music is considered dependent and subsidiary to the science of mathematics.²

This type of classification of knowledge is foundational in both scholastic and spiritual traditions.³

Since the subject of Being forms the basis of every other discipline, philosophical Sufism is grounded in an ontology that also encompasses the fundamental issues concerning divine unity, God’s attributes and His relation to the world. Because the ontology of mysticism is not clearly understood, Sufi doctrines are often misrepresented as people fail to grasp complex ideas such as divine manifestations, unity within multiplicity or the concept of attainment and annihilation. Indeed, without understanding the very nature of Being, it is not possible to probe into secondary matters such as the existence of the soul and its perfection, God’s immanence and transcendence and eschatological matters. Philosophical Sufism also describes the manifestation of the divine names as it relates to the methodology and practices of wayfaring of the people of God. Thus, understanding God and His attributes is a prerequisite for understanding the method of wayfaring and its corollaries.

Let us now turn our attention to pure Being, without reference to the existence of something else. When viewed in this way, it is called absolute existence, or Being qua Being. It does not refer to creation, the universe or mental existence but Being, in and of itself. Qayṣarī writes:

Know that Being qua Being is neither external existence nor mental, since each one is a type of existence. Being itself is not conditioned nor is it restricted by either absoluteness or restriction. It is neither a universal nor a particular, nor categorized by generality or particularity. It is one, but not with a oneness superadded to its Essence, nor a multiplicity [...]

Being has neither contrary nor like. Since contrary and like are two existents that are either opposed to each other or are equal to each other. Being, on the other hand, is different from all realities, because the existence of their opposite and the realization of their like is utterly separate from it [...]

There is nothing intermediate between Being and non-being, just as there is absolutely nothing intermediate between an existent thing and a non-existent thing.⁴

Being and Reality (al-ḥagq)

For the Sufis, the concept of Being (wujūd) is inseparable from God. They use the term, al-ḥagq, which means truth and reality and is also one of God’s attributes. Philosophically, it is more convenient to speak about God as the absolute Being (wujūd) and the ultimate Reality (al-ḥagq) or the Real. This is because the name Allah.⁵ the proper name for God in Arabic, has religious connotations, especially in the context of Abrahamic monotheism. When we apply greater philosophical rigor, we come to understand that Being is a more universal concept than traditional notions about God.⁶ It enables us to speak philosophically about the nature of existence, divinity, creation, time, the human being and God’s relation to the world.

The term wujūd comes from the Arabic root letters w-j-d which denotes both “existing” and “finding.” This double meaning is significant since existence is something that is to be found, or that which if found, exists. The Arabic word conveniently links the complementary disciplines of ontology and epistemology, since one who seeks God is seeking His Being, and thus the seeker’s knowing is his becoming In other words, true knowledge, or “finding,” is the transformation of the self in “being.”

The term al-ḥagq reflects a particular orientation, and this is the aspect of reality and truth.⁷ There are numerous meanings of the term al-ḥagq that includes truth, reality, fact, rightness, the established, the necessary; its opposite is falsehood. Since it is one of the epithets of God, it expresses that He is the sole reality, the truth, the established, the necessary, and one whose existence and reality are proven to be true.⁸ It also refers to absolute Being,⁹ the divine Essence,¹⁰ or that through which all things are known, so one who obtains awareness of God distinguishes between the real, and the false and illusory.

The Prophet was asked from which thing did he come to know God. He replied, “I came to know God by God and I came to know things through God,”¹¹ or as Imam Alī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661) said, “I did not come to know God through the Prophet, but I came to know the Prophet through God.”¹² One does not know God through the contingent, since things are known through likes and opposites. Since God does not have a like or opposite, He cannot be known through them.

The real opposes the illusory and truth opposes falsehood. Since God is the real, the established and the necessary, the Sufis have used the term al-ḥaqq to prevent any attribution of contingency to the Necessary Being, who is the sole reality. Furthermore, since al-ḥagq, refers to Being, when the Sufi perceives the realities of existence, he has discovered God in those aspects.

Privative Properties of Being

Privative properties are negative propositions that cannot be posited about Being. When we conceptualize Being unconditionally, it is neither external existence nor mental, since both of these types of existence are the manifestations of Being. External existence is in contrast to mental existence, although in another sense, it is a general category that includes mental existence since it occurs in the mind of the perceiver. It is different from external existence in the specific sense since it does not possess the effects of the latter. For example, a person may conceive of the concept of fire without experiencing some of its effects such as heat.

Furthermore, we cannot apply the condition of absoluteness or restriction to Being qua Being because both absoluteness and restriction are conditions. In theological terms, Being qua Being is the unknowable Essence of God, and that which is unknowable cannot be defined. Imam All describes God in light of this transcendence:¹³

He who places conditions on Him does not posit His oneness, he who likens Him does not grasp His reality, he who compares Him is not referring to Him, he who indicates and imagines Him does not posit His perfection.¹⁴

Whoever ascribes an attribute to God, the Glorified, has associated Him [with another], and whoever associates Him [with another], has regarded Him as two, and whoever regards Him as two has divided Him, and whoever divides Him has misunderstood Him; and whoever misunderstands Him has indicated Him; and whoever indicates Him has posited limitations for Him; and whoever posits limitations for Him has numbered Him; and whoever asks “What is He in?” considered Him contained, and whoever asks “What is He upon?” deems Him isolated.¹⁵

As mentioned, this is referring to the divine Essence, which is beyond the limitation of attributes and conditions. Being transcends and precedes the existence of its own manifestations, as the Prophet said, “God was, and nothing else was with Him.”¹⁶ However, according to scripture, we do know that God possesses attributes.¹⁷ These attributes, as we will see in the next chapter, are not superadded to the divine Essence, since knowledge, power, life, and other attributes are not distinct realities from the reality of the Essence.

Essential Being has neither attachment, individuation nor name. Universality or particularity cannot be applied to Being qua Being but only to its manifestations. Only when Being is manifested does it become external, mental, universal or particular, unitary or multiple, in accordance with the respective plane of manifestation. Being qua Being is independent of all manifestations whereas the divine names necessitate their loci in order to become manifest. For example, if it were not for the things upon which divine power could be exercised, the attribute of power would be meaningless. The same is true for other attributes that derive their meaning from their referents. We will return to this point in the next chapter.

Philosophers distinguish between Being and quiddity (māhiyya). Quiddity refers to the essence or defining aspect of a thing.¹⁸ The mind distinguishes between the existence of a thing and its essence, that is, its actual existence, the defining features extrapolated from its actual existence. What is real is its existence while its quiddity is its defining limits or the shape of its existence. It is important to note that what is real is existence and not quiddity, since the defining limit of a thing is the negative predication of a thing, or what it is not. Because the mind acknowledges reality through quiddities, it perceives the “tree” rather than the existence of the tree. In fact, what is real is the existence of a thing whose quiddity is “tree-ness.” This view is a reiteration of the Peripatetic view of the fundamentality of existence, which is echoed in Mullā Ṣadrā’s concept of the primacy of Being (aṣālat al-wujūd).¹⁹ Āshtiyānī citing Sharḥ al-hidāya of Ṣadrā says:

The Sufis, among the monotheists, are of the view that there is nothing in existence except the Real Being and the world is only the theophany, manifestation and individuation of Being. They see nothing in existence except God and His manifestations, and they do not view the manif...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Epigraph
• Half Title
• Routledge
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• A Note on Names and Transliteration
• Introduction
• 1 Ontology
• 2 The Divine Names and Attributes
• 3 Divine Knowledge
• 4 The Origin of Multiplicity
• 5 The Universal Worlds
• 6 The Imaginal World
• 7 Unveiling
• 8 The Human Vicegerency
• 9 The Existential Circle
• 10 The Supreme Spirit in the Microcosm
• 11 Prophethood and Sainthood
• 12 Resurrection
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index