Renowned expert William Chittick covers the life and works of this legendary Sufi writer.
Ibn Arabi (Makers of the Muslim World)
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William Chittick is Professor of Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
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30 of 33 people found the following review helpful
By Alan Godlas
Format:Hardcover
William Chittick has just written what I believe will soon be regarded as the best book on Ibn 'Arabi that has yet been published in English. This is quite a feat, given the numbers of books that have been written about Ibn 'Arabi, especially in recent years. Having studied Ibn 'Arabi for the last 30 years, Chittick boils down Ibn 'Arabi's viewpoint in this new book, titled, *Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets.*
Written in a clear crisp style that will appeal to the interested public, aspiring Sufis, and scholars alike, *Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets* is a small 150 page book that can act as an introduction to Chittick's more weightier tomes on "al-Shaykh al-akbar" (the greatest shaykh).
After a few pages giving a synopsis of Ibn 'Arabi's life, Prof. Chittick divides his book into nine chapters: The Muhammadan Inheritance (dealing with topics such as reading the Qur'an, understanding God, and knowing he self); the Lover of God; the Divine Roots of Love; the Cosmology of Remembrance; Knowledge and Realization; Time, Space, and the Objectivity of Ethical Norms; the In-Between (dealing with the soul); the Disclosure of the Intervening Image (regarding self-awarenes, death, and love); and the Hermeneutics of Mercy (focusing on topics such as the inherent mercy in "being," diversity, and surrender).
This year, if you are going to buy one book on Sufism either as a gift for yourself or a friend, *Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets* (Oneworld Press) should be that book.
Written in a clear crisp style that will appeal to the interested public, aspiring Sufis, and scholars alike, *Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets* is a small 150 page book that can act as an introduction to Chittick's more weightier tomes on "al-Shaykh al-akbar" (the greatest shaykh).
After a few pages giving a synopsis of Ibn 'Arabi's life, Prof. Chittick divides his book into nine chapters: The Muhammadan Inheritance (dealing with topics such as reading the Qur'an, understanding God, and knowing he self); the Lover of God; the Divine Roots of Love; the Cosmology of Remembrance; Knowledge and Realization; Time, Space, and the Objectivity of Ethical Norms; the In-Between (dealing with the soul); the Disclosure of the Intervening Image (regarding self-awarenes, death, and love); and the Hermeneutics of Mercy (focusing on topics such as the inherent mercy in "being," diversity, and surrender).
This year, if you are going to buy one book on Sufism either as a gift for yourself or a friend, *Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets* (Oneworld Press) should be that book.
2 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By QM
Format:Paperback
There have been a number of books on Mr. Ibn ul-Arabi by western scholars, all seemingly mesmerized by his intelligence and writing. However, as it is the often the case with books of this nature, "scholars" seem to filter many unwanted aspect of their subject either through personal bias, a particular agenda they might want to pursue, or just plain misrepresentation. So the best way to come to a conclusion about Ibn ul-Arabi is to just pick up his books and read them for yourself. I would like to share a few of my own personal observations regarding the great Sheikh.
1- Ibn ul-arabi is all about ibn ul-arabi; he does not seem to be promoting anything other than himself. Reading his books, and not just Futuhat, he never tires to remind his reader how great he is and how irrelevant and stupid everybody else is. His ego is so inflated that would put the dot.com market to shame.
His ego seems to reach a peak when he unilateraly promotes himself to the highest level of mystical accomplishment, becoming the "Seal of the saints". He declares himself to be above all other mystics. This is natural for someone of his ego, it is not good enough that he was above the "average" but he had to be far above every other Sufi as well, otherwise he would simply be remembered as just another Sufi. He states that he came to realize his greatness in a "dream" in which he is told, by himslef of course, that he was "the best of the best". From a psychology point of view, this dream is very much in line with his ego and his totally self-absrobed attitude.
2- Although he tries very hard to convince his readers that the universe is his backyard and he knows all about Cosmos, he fails to offer any tangible evidence of such superb "out of this world" intelligence. His books are filled with old cosmology and statements that we know now they are false. Most of his claims are not scinetific in nature and hence non-verifiable, but almost of all those statements that can be verified, we know he offers nothing new, and they are well aligned with the ancient views regarding the universe.
3- Based on his own testimony in futuhat, for over a decade he had a very low opinion of women, he did not like them nor did he want to have much to do with them. In this respect ibn ul-arabi would have made a perfect ideologue for "Taleban" in Afghanistan, as we all have witnessed their treatment of women. Apparently he had a change of heart after he came across a saying from Prophet Mohammad in which he admires women. Apparently this saying must have had a lasting affect on his mind since many years later he chooses this same saying from Prophet in his book Fusus ul-Hekam. He must have felt very ashamed to have ever had such sub human opinion of women, after all he must have had some respect for his own mother and wife. What seems amazing to me is that all his mysticism and "extra terrestrial" encounter did not provide him the maturity he needed to comprehend the low and cheap attitude he had towards women until he came across a simple statement from prophet to change his mind. Should this not tell you something about the credibility and authenticity of his experiences and claims?
4- It has been said that religion is the opium of masses, it is a tool to control the mind of people. This is certainly the case for Ibn ul-arabi. His entire work offers nothing of value to the troubled Islamic world, neither then nor now. Rather than creating social and political awareness among people of his time, he keeps them busy with the "heavens" so the corrupt rulers of his time can peacefully rule the earth. With all his claims on having manopoly on greatness, he is totally oblivious and blind to the need of his society both short term and long term. If he was trully as insighful and forward looking as he claims to have been, then one would have seen some concerns regarding the socio-political realities of his world, the reality that would bring Islamic world to a total collapse and bankrupcy, including his own mystical sufi movements. There is nothing in his writings which indicates he was even remotely aware of the socio-political realities of his time and the dangerious direction that his world is headed. So the charge that his writings are indeed opium of the masses is one that would hold up in any fair trial.
5- Lastly I would like to add a few words regarding his intellectual integrity. Although I am not an expert on the topic, but it seems to me that Mr. Ibn ul-Arabi is very clever in taking his core ideas from other branches of Islam and, by the virtue of being a creative writer, marketing them as his "own" without giving any credit to those who deserve it.
One of the core concepts in his system of thinking is the idea of "perfect man". This idea is almost a clone of what Shiism had developed earlier, i.e the notion of "Immamah". I had to investigate this a bit to see who plagiarized from whom and soon it became apparent that the Shia (be it seveners or twelvers) had pretty much developed the idea a few hundred years before Ibn ul-Arabi.
A second core idea, and closely related to the notion of perfect man, is the idea of "willayah". This too is almost a cloning of the idea of "willayah" which permeates the teaching of their "Imams", so much so that one can safely state that without the notion of "willayah" Shiism would not exist just as without a "Christ" Christianity would have no meaning.
The third central theme in Ibn ul-Arabi is the idea of "Names" of God and how it related to the Cosmos. This idea too plays a central and key role in the Shiism. What amazed me about Ibn ul-Arabi is that he feels very comfortable with the "copy and paste" method as if plagiarism and intellectual integrity had no meaning. To avoid such charges, all that Ibn ul-arabi had to do was to add a foot note, that these ideas have been developed by others and has played a central role in the development of their school of thought and I am using them here and adopting as an integral part of my own philosophy. But he decided not to go that route. As a student, try Mr. Arabi's approach at school and you will face plagiarism charges and disgrace.
6) Finally a comment on Pope Benedict'c comment regarding Islam. I was asked by a fellow Catholic of what I thought of his comment about Islam lacking suffistication and depth. My answer: It just depends what kind of theology his majesty had in mind. Would it be the same theology he had to discuss behind closed door with rape victims when he visited United States? I refer to that as "butt" theology implementing "no child left behind" policy. If that is the kind of spirituality he is talking about, then he is correct, no one can top that off. For some reason I don't think my friend Catholic friend would ever ask me questions like that lol. Fanatics! You can't live with them, you can't ship them to another planet either.
1- Ibn ul-arabi is all about ibn ul-arabi; he does not seem to be promoting anything other than himself. Reading his books, and not just Futuhat, he never tires to remind his reader how great he is and how irrelevant and stupid everybody else is. His ego is so inflated that would put the dot.com market to shame.
His ego seems to reach a peak when he unilateraly promotes himself to the highest level of mystical accomplishment, becoming the "Seal of the saints". He declares himself to be above all other mystics. This is natural for someone of his ego, it is not good enough that he was above the "average" but he had to be far above every other Sufi as well, otherwise he would simply be remembered as just another Sufi. He states that he came to realize his greatness in a "dream" in which he is told, by himslef of course, that he was "the best of the best". From a psychology point of view, this dream is very much in line with his ego and his totally self-absrobed attitude.
2- Although he tries very hard to convince his readers that the universe is his backyard and he knows all about Cosmos, he fails to offer any tangible evidence of such superb "out of this world" intelligence. His books are filled with old cosmology and statements that we know now they are false. Most of his claims are not scinetific in nature and hence non-verifiable, but almost of all those statements that can be verified, we know he offers nothing new, and they are well aligned with the ancient views regarding the universe.
3- Based on his own testimony in futuhat, for over a decade he had a very low opinion of women, he did not like them nor did he want to have much to do with them. In this respect ibn ul-arabi would have made a perfect ideologue for "Taleban" in Afghanistan, as we all have witnessed their treatment of women. Apparently he had a change of heart after he came across a saying from Prophet Mohammad in which he admires women. Apparently this saying must have had a lasting affect on his mind since many years later he chooses this same saying from Prophet in his book Fusus ul-Hekam. He must have felt very ashamed to have ever had such sub human opinion of women, after all he must have had some respect for his own mother and wife. What seems amazing to me is that all his mysticism and "extra terrestrial" encounter did not provide him the maturity he needed to comprehend the low and cheap attitude he had towards women until he came across a simple statement from prophet to change his mind. Should this not tell you something about the credibility and authenticity of his experiences and claims?
4- It has been said that religion is the opium of masses, it is a tool to control the mind of people. This is certainly the case for Ibn ul-arabi. His entire work offers nothing of value to the troubled Islamic world, neither then nor now. Rather than creating social and political awareness among people of his time, he keeps them busy with the "heavens" so the corrupt rulers of his time can peacefully rule the earth. With all his claims on having manopoly on greatness, he is totally oblivious and blind to the need of his society both short term and long term. If he was trully as insighful and forward looking as he claims to have been, then one would have seen some concerns regarding the socio-political realities of his world, the reality that would bring Islamic world to a total collapse and bankrupcy, including his own mystical sufi movements. There is nothing in his writings which indicates he was even remotely aware of the socio-political realities of his time and the dangerious direction that his world is headed. So the charge that his writings are indeed opium of the masses is one that would hold up in any fair trial.
5- Lastly I would like to add a few words regarding his intellectual integrity. Although I am not an expert on the topic, but it seems to me that Mr. Ibn ul-Arabi is very clever in taking his core ideas from other branches of Islam and, by the virtue of being a creative writer, marketing them as his "own" without giving any credit to those who deserve it.
One of the core concepts in his system of thinking is the idea of "perfect man". This idea is almost a clone of what Shiism had developed earlier, i.e the notion of "Immamah". I had to investigate this a bit to see who plagiarized from whom and soon it became apparent that the Shia (be it seveners or twelvers) had pretty much developed the idea a few hundred years before Ibn ul-Arabi.
A second core idea, and closely related to the notion of perfect man, is the idea of "willayah". This too is almost a cloning of the idea of "willayah" which permeates the teaching of their "Imams", so much so that one can safely state that without the notion of "willayah" Shiism would not exist just as without a "Christ" Christianity would have no meaning.
The third central theme in Ibn ul-Arabi is the idea of "Names" of God and how it related to the Cosmos. This idea too plays a central and key role in the Shiism. What amazed me about Ibn ul-Arabi is that he feels very comfortable with the "copy and paste" method as if plagiarism and intellectual integrity had no meaning. To avoid such charges, all that Ibn ul-arabi had to do was to add a foot note, that these ideas have been developed by others and has played a central role in the development of their school of thought and I am using them here and adopting as an integral part of my own philosophy. But he decided not to go that route. As a student, try Mr. Arabi's approach at school and you will face plagiarism charges and disgrace.
6) Finally a comment on Pope Benedict'c comment regarding Islam. I was asked by a fellow Catholic of what I thought of his comment about Islam lacking suffistication and depth. My answer: It just depends what kind of theology his majesty had in mind. Would it be the same theology he had to discuss behind closed door with rape victims when he visited United States? I refer to that as "butt" theology implementing "no child left behind" policy. If that is the kind of spirituality he is talking about, then he is correct, no one can top that off. For some reason I don't think my friend Catholic friend would ever ask me questions like that lol. Fanatics! You can't live with them, you can't ship them to another planet either.
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