Customer Reviews

The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn Al-Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ibn Arabi is not easy reading. By far the best and most comprehensive book to date is this one -- perhaps Chittick's most important work yet. SPK is primarily a collection of translations from various sections of Ibn Arabi's greatest work, the Meccan Revelations, and is structured more as an anthology. Chittick puts in his own commentary here and there which helps decode the complexity of some of the passages. But for the most part, he allows Ibn Arabi to speak for himself.

Although the book is long, you don't have to read all of it. Chittick is not arguing a thesis, but presenting Ibn Arabi's view on a variety of subjects which are fundamentally rooted in a non-dualistic cosmology where only Allah 'is'. You can read just the introduction of the work (where Chittick gives a bare-bones sketch of the Shaikh's worldview) and then start plugging away from the various passages at your own convenience.

In my opinion, SPK is better than Chittick's more recent THE SELF DISCLOSURE OF GOD which is too technical and requires quite a bit of familiarity with Ibn Arabi in particular and sufism in general.

One of the difficulties with having such a unified, unique and untouchably elevated God is in reconiciling Him with the nitty-gritty intimacy of life and creation.

Allah is way up there...yet He still dictates stuff way down here.

Allah is so transcendent..yet religious experience demands an intimate spiritual connection.

How do these things happen?


well you see, it's quite simple really :)

It's mostly to do with this concept called 'barzakh' - loosely translated as 'phased intermediation' such that the cosmological make-up of the world consists of several layers, each of which denotes an element of the divine attribute made manifest. This whole system culminates in describing the universe as a "Theatre of Manifestation" of God's attributes (illustrated through the 99 names of Allah). This means that the divine essence permeates through every atomistic fibre of matter in every infinitessimal stitch of time.

Similarly, the consciousness of man is a barzakh - bridging the gap between the terrestial base form of clay and the ultimate climax of spiritual experience, 'fana' - a cosmic consciousness of unity with the Divine.

This book, with neat chapters, concepts and illustrations explains each of the steps of the divine governance of the universe and the methods of Godly consciousness as espoused by the great master of Shaykhs - Ibn Al Arabi. The first few chapters very lucidly run through the groundwork of the concept of the 'divine names' and some basic ontological and metaphysical concepts. This sets the field for a stunning climax where Professor Chttick weaves together the epistemic nature of prayer and spiritual discipline - so that the consciousness of Man mirrors and chimes in a unified beat with the inner harmonies of the universe. Everything is ONE....Everything resides in the ONE.

I have to admit, things get a little spooky and hazy towards the end and I struggled to form a coherent sense of what the whole things was about - in total....but maybe that's something you can't learn from a book.

To cut things short, this is a stunningly awesome book. A little hard going and tedious to begin with but definitely well worth the effort.

The author has written a number of balanced, penetrating books revealing the world of the religious masters of the Near East of 700 years ago. Willaim Chittick, Professor of Islamic Studys at SUNY Stoney Brook is unique in the English speaking world in his training in these topics; and in the synthesis and scope he provides. The Sufi Path of Knowledge is an expertly and lovingly considered condensation of a work that in it's Arabic original runs over 10,000 pages. Ibn Arabi, along with Al Ghazali and Rumi, was the greatest mystic of the Islamic religion. This book provides more insight on man's nature, the nature of his relationship to the world and his creator, the world of angels and dreams and deep awakening, and the nature of being than any other book I know. Overwhelming

Ibn Al-Arabi, known affectionately as 'The Master' by many Muslims, is one of the leading mystics and philosophers the world of Islam has ever produced.

Ibn Arabi was an enigmatic, many-faceted genius. A visionary poet, philosopher, mystic, theologian, and great writer in one, he combined a great and penetrating intellect with a profound mystical insight into the mysteries of the Islamic faith.

Unfortunately as with many key Islamic philosophers, good English translations of this thinker's works were unavailable for Western scholarship until fairly recently. Chittick, an expert on Persian literature (and who lived in Iran until the revolution) translates many sections of Arabi's key texts and expounds his vision of God, the universe, and man.

Ibn Arabi's work is immense in scope and range. Essentially his philosophy is an attempt to work out how the divine One, changless, eternal, and perfect, relates metaphysically to the created universe. Essentially Arabi takes up the classic philosophical problem of the One and the Many, and offers a grand solution based on Islamic theology, mysticism, and philosophy.

Central to Arabi's system of Being is the idea of God having 99 names. In the Quran, God is said to have 99 'most beautiful names' which are his attributes. In Sufi thought, these attributes are also reflected in the universe and in all creatures, though only in human beings (the most complete of God's creations) are all the 99 names encompassed.

Also important in Ibn Arabi's thought is the human quest to find God. Using the hadith 'I was a hidden treasure, so I made the universe to be known', Arabi constructs an elaborate mysticism of love, based on the search for the human lover for his hidden beloved, which is God. Translated from poetic and mythical terms to philosophical terms, the meaning of human existence is to find God, the Absolute who underlies all, who is present in all but also entirely incomprehensible and hidden. Ibn Arabi's metaphysics also includes a comprehensive system of theophanies, manifestations of the hidden One in the universe (which include the cosmos itself as the highest theophany, along with man).

The other main aspect of Arabi's system is the detailed study of man, the microcosm. Because man is the perfect mirror of God (in the sense all 99 names are in man) the best path to understand God is to know the Self. In Arabi's system there is the realm of ordinary conciousness and the realms of the imagination, and of mystical conciousness, which are treated as being as ontologically 'real' as our experienced, sense world is.

While Chittick sometimes offers some odd conclusions, his explanation of Arabi's key ideas and his translations of his texts are very good. Unfortunately they only tend to whet the appetite, and they only represent a small fraction of Arabi's complete works, the majority of which is as yet untranslated into English.

Chittick allows Ibn Arabi to speak for himself without attemptiong to fit him within a philosophical paradigm like other authors (Nicholson, Affifi). This itself is a landmark step in oriental studies.

I am highly impressed with this book. The author has deep knowledge on the works of Ibn al-Arabi, Islam and Arabic. This book is invaluable for those who are interested in any aspect of the subject matter.

This book is one of the best I've ever come across. Subject matter is not at all easy to grasp even with background in Islamic studies. After all 17000 pages of "Meccan Openings" or as Ibn al-Arabi named it, "Futuhaat al-Makkiyah" cannot be condensed in a volume of 500 or so pages.

This is a great book for any one who is interested in true no nonsense spiritualism. Ibne Arabi as always proves himself a true master of this path. I would like to mention a couple of points which has left me confused as to the real position of this great master. He puts a great deal of emphasis on the fact that a true "traveler" is always mindful of the " Sacred Laws" of Islam and never for a moment undermines them. One might ask the question as to what is "Sacred Laws" and what are the sources of them. Quran rarely mentions anything about the Laws in a detailed fashion and those hadiths left from Prophet are uncertain , and more importantly there has never been much agreement about what the Sacred Laws are among the jurisprudence. Four canonical schools among the jurisprudence were established , at the expense of other schools, due to the fact that there was almost a chaos due to many schools of Law each with their own version of "Sacred Laws". So it seems that "Sacred Law" is more or less in the eye of the beholder and very much " relative". Moreover it is very confusing that Ibne Arabi should accept the very notion of " four cannonical" schools of law randomly picked by the ruler of the time. An indication that Ibne Arabi perhaps avoided any topic which would have brought him face to face with the political powers of his time. The second confusing aspect of Ibne Arabi is his almost total silence in regards to socio-political aspect of Islam and Islamic society. He never touches upon the early history of Islam and the shortcoming of the "Companions" of the Prophet as though he either sees no problem with that history at all or he is afraid of a backlash. It is unlikely that a man like Ibne Arabi would give a blank check and a money back guaranty entry to heaven to Mohammad's companions irrespective of their socio-political behavior. Why is it so important that we put the companions of the prophet under a microscope? It is because their behavior is particularly relevant to all moslems since according to a hadith attributed to Muhammad " my companion are like stars, any which one one follows is lead to truth". Does Ibne Arabi accept this hadith? How does he , or better yet Prophet Muhammad himself, justify the turmoil and killings and political injustice which was exercised by companions after Mohammed's death? Moslems rarely touch upon this aspect of their history and almost never discuss it and Ibne Arabi, unfortunatly, seems to fall under the same category.