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Alone with the Alone

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One of the best books on esoteric Persian thought I've ever read; immensely scholarly and yet largely readable, though very rich and thick with insight in places you'll want to slow down and really absorb. (A newcomer to Ibn 'Arabi's writings, I'm reviewing this book from a depth-psychological point of view.)

If you've read my other reviews you know I'm a relentless critic of unreadable writing, much of which is symptomatic of a narcissistic unavailability better dealt with in therapy than through a publisher or fan club. Corbin is not easy to follow in places, but it's the concentration of the material that makes for more careful study--and makes more careful study worthwhile.

I was particularly moved by the image of the saddened God breathing out a sigh at being unknown, a sigh that made space for humans to reflect God back to God and thereby become the "secret treasure." Corbin's criticism of "becoming one with God" mirrors Buber's of "doctrines of absorption": both praise a dialog between person and the Divine rather than a reduction of one to the other.

Note to students of James Hillman: while many of Hillman's ideas can be found here (the heart as an organ of soulful perception, for instance), Ibn 'Arabi makes a clear, non-Hillmanic distinction between Forms (Images) of God and the ineffable true God that shines through the Forms like light through stained glass. This distinction does not exist for archetypal psychology, which collapses the archetypal image into the archetype itself and regards extra-psychic activities as outside its purview.

This is an important study of imagination in Ibn Arabi by a significant philosopher-Orientalist. Corbin differentiates imagination from mere "fantasy," an "exercise of thought without foundation in nature." Thus what he has in mind when speaking of imagination is quite different from what we usually associate with the term. Cosmic Imagination is the creative power that gives birth to the sensory world: God imagines the cosmos and brings it into being. Imagining is a creative act which at the Divine level is a form of genesis where God draws out existence from Himself. This view stands in contrast to creation ex nihilo, a theological view partly responsible, in Corbin's view, for the degeneration of imagination into fantasy. But it is not only God who creates through Imagination, but man as well. The God that man creates is a theophony of man's active imagination, which is merely an organ of "absolute theopanic Imagination" (takhayyl mutlaq). This is another way of saying that God imagines Himself or rather creates an image of Himself through man, and that this imagining is a part of a larger Divine Imagination. No two images of God created by mortal imagination are exactly alike.

Most of the work is based on Ibn Arabi's Fusus al-Hikam, but as Chittick has noted, determining where Ibn Arabi ends and Corbin begins is not a simple task.

I have noticed that there are a few Sunni/wahabi types who are reviewing this book and giving it low ratings. Since they have already condemned Arabi, and sufism before they have understood either, I fail to see what value their reviews could be. Instead of a critique of this book, or Arabi on their own merits, these individuals merely compare it to Shi'a Islam. Let me tell you this: if you are looking for a book to re-confirm your fundamentalist beliefs in any religion, this book, sufism and mysticism as a whole are not for you, so don't waste your time reading or reviewing these books. On the other hand, if you're the sort of individual who wishes to experience God directly, through the heart, and without the idolatrous worship of scriptural dogma and the snares of the intellect, then this book, Arabi and the works of other great sufi writers and poets are meant for you. I say this to all people, regardless of what religion they are, or if they even have a religion at all.

The only thing which might be better than reading this book, is reading Arabi himself. This is a useful introduction to a vast field, that gives a careful analysis to his ideas and therefore it is a must. I will have to re-read it, to get everything out of it and at that time I may change my rating.

After reading "The seal of saints" by Mr. Chodkiewickz, I got curious about Mr. Corbin's books in general and this one, Alone with the Alone" in particular. In the book " The seal of saints" Chodkiewickz is highly critical of Corbin in assesing a "Shia" core for Suif's in general and great Shiekh in particular. I am no expert in these matters but from my studies of suffism and Shiism, I see about a 80% overlap between the two. Suffism has much more in common with Shia beliefs than it has with our Sunni beliefs. I always wondered why Shiism has added " I bear witness that Ali is Wali of God" to the call for prayer, I didn't get the significance of this addition until I read Mr.Chodkiewickz's fine book on Ibne' Ul-Arabi's doctorine of Sainthood. Not that I agree with the Sufi or Shia assertion in this regard, it violates my Sunni beliefs, but at least I have an appreciation for the concept. I respect Sufis, though I am not an advocate , well at leats not yet. I tend to agree with Corbin that Shiism and Suffism seem to be twins, or at least distant causins. Reading some of Sheikh's work in Arabic, I came across passages that had strong Shia tone, one wonders if these passages were added to the book or was written by Sheikh himself. If written by Shiekh himself, then knowingly or unknowngly, Sheikh must have been influneced by Shii thoughts. Whatever the case maybe, this is an excellent book, I recommend Mr.Chodkiewickz's book as well. I think everyone should read about all point of views and arrive at their own conclusion.

Henry Corbin, one of the very few western scholars of Islamic Mysticism, and particularly of the Andalusian "Shaikh al-Akbar". L'"immagination créatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn Arabi" is without doubt an intelligent penetration into the mysteries of Ibn Arabi's doctrines on theophanism, the doctrine of the "Fedeli d'amore" of Islam, and on the creative capacity of the soufi's heart. Of particular interest is the chapter on Divine Love represented allegorically in his "Tarjuman al-ashwaq" and its correspondance with the Convivio of Dante Alighieri. Corbin compares Ibn Arabi's beloved "Nizàm" with Dante's Beatrice. The parallel between the "Alchemy of Happiness" and the "Divine Comedy" of the Florentine poet is surely the key of this excellent book.

In the beautiful world of harmonious thoughts, is sad to find persons with medieval closed minds. The core and essence of all faiths has been love, passion and truth as the search for the absolute truth continues. Corbin showed a way to a different system of gathering information through complicated signs and scared words of the Men of Lights. And no wonder, all the masters of this school of truly gifted believers were either burned, hanged or being on the run. To name a few; Hallaj, Suhrawardi, Ghazali, Ein-oi Quzat, Mevlana, Hafiz and many others. Strangely most of them from old Persia, where after welcoming Islam, they had found it's core, the esoteric and mysticism way of vision. Time and history shows that the true believers of Moslem Prophet teachings, systematically become under exploitation by the power hungry rulers of new world of Islam (after 30 years of Hijrat). New rulers has vengeances based on pre-Islamic believes, started to suppress the new belief, and calling themselves the Sunnis (with all of its four major variations) Beside Persia plateau ,Syria and Spain just look what they have brought for human thoughts, art & civilization in the last 12 centuries. Dear unnamed friends, please read more Holy Quran and try finding the meanings of the scripts and its soulful messages.

Ibn `Arabī was one of the greatest and (still) most controversial figures in the history of Islam. Familiar categories don't fit him. Philosopher, theologian, saint, mystic, Kabbalist: he was a bit like all of these but not exactly any of them. William Blake is his only close Western counterpart, but Blake was a changeling, a one-off, while Ibn `Arabī was a devout Muslim: strictly observant, given to fasting, prayer, solitary retreats, pilgrimage, immersion in the Qur`an.

He moved in a radiant atmosphere unknown to most of us; he saw visions the way other people sneeze; Qur`anic verses became spirits who protected him. His writings are poetic, recondite, startling, naļve, uncategorisable, full of Qur`anic references and dream-images (no-one had ever told his unconscious mind it was supposed to be unconscious.)

Despite his vast influence on Islam, his prodigious output is only beginning to be translated. This book is the best introduction, but requires caution. It is one of the most wonderful and exasperating books in existence: it presents ideas so exciting they make your ears pop, but in a turbid professorial style that makes reading like swimming backwards through treacle.

Corbin also approaches his subject through his own preoccupations, derived from the crisis of Western philosophy in the early 20th century: Islamic concepts of non-empirical knowledge showed him the way out of the impasse. Thus the book has been criticised as one-sided; as half Ibn `Arabī, half Corbin. Yet William Chittick's model study ("The Sufi Path of Knowledge") seems trimmed and academic beside Corbin's passionate engagement.

Here you can read of prayer that creates its object; of the mutual discovery of the Infinite and the finite; of realms of Imagination more real than material things; of angels who exist because we speak with them. This is the door to a world of wonders; prepare to be turned upside-down.

If anyone wants to read a great book and learn how a true scholar approaches and analyses a theme, this book by Henry Corbin is a good guide. He penetrates deep into the subject and never looses his objectivity and is not, unlike most of the so called scholars, a voice for a particular politics or religion. He takes us where ever the facts may lead. As for Mr. Ibn' Arabi's personal taste for religion ( shia or Sunni), it seems to me that Corbin is going beyond the tabloids. If he considers Arabi, or any other Sufi for that matter, a "Shia" he is referring to the " spirit" of the religion and is not, like many others, too worried about nominalism.

Join Henry Corbin as he takes you to meet a wonderous mystic from the twelfth century, Ibn Arabi. It's a remarkable journey into the realms of esoteric thought. You'll discover the heart as a subtile organ, the active imagination and where it lives, and maybe even something of the personal affinity each of us has to experience the Divine. Before you begin, I'd encourage you to shake off the labels applied by so many to this type of work and take an unencumbered look at the exquisite material provided by this careful author. If you're an open minded enquiring occidental like me, I'm sure you'll emerge from this book invigorating and desperate for more, as I was.

I was so taken with the "Creative Imagination in The Sufism of Ibn Arabi" that I was ready to buy a copy of "Alone with the Alone". Thank goodness amazon let's you "look inside", turn's out it's a re-titling of the same book.
Fantastic by any name.
I am someone immersed in non-dual Eastern traditions, yet I am also guided in my life by a sense of devotion and the experience of grace felt as presence: mysteriously "other" yet non-separate.
I deeply appreciated the vision in this book which unifies all the opposites. Profound in it's honoring of Love as what we are and clearly describing how this so, it also maintains a clear recognition of the un-manifest source which that love reveals and in which that love arises: it's a breathtaking picture. It melts divisions while honoring them.

The language may be dense at times, but it's worth the effort.