Philosophy of Ibn Arabi

Ibn Arabi: Between Existence and Non-Existence

Maysara Kamal

Ibn Arabi takes us on a journey to explore the mysterious relationship between existence, non-existence, God, and creation in his fascinating and controversial theory of reality, the ‘Unity of Being’.

Through the Unity of Being theory, Ibn Arabi presents us with a complete reformation of our ordinary perception of reality, knowledge, ontology, and much more. The heart of Ibn Arabi’s worldview lies in the aforementioned theory, which consists in a very profound answer to our first question regarding what it means to say that God is one. In this article, we will start our journey by exploring Ibn Arabi’s vision of God’s unity.

Ibn Arabi is perhaps the most controversial figure in the history of Islamic thought. On one hand, he is revered as ‘the Greatest Master’ (Al-Shaykh Al-akbar) and is considered the prime spokesman of esoteric Islam. On the other hand, he is severely condemned by many with charges of heresy, unbelief, blasphemy, pantheism, and even atheism. His name remains very controversial to this day. How can one person trigger responses that contradict on such an extreme level? The answer lies in his Unity of Being theory (Wehdet al-Wujud).
 
Surprisingly, the term that became almost synonymous with Ibn Arabi’s name was never even mentioned by him in any of his works...

Ibn Arabi: Between Existence and Non-Existence

Maysara Kamal

That's an interesting link you posted, Sciborg. God as unity of being -- being in itself. The author has a memorable metaphor with light which I find appealing. I think he's right about quiddity, which we so often attach to apparent perceptions. It's the way we think -- attaching labels to "things" and then investing the labels with reality as if they actually existed as we conceptualised them -- but they're only representations of small aspects of the potential within the unity of being.

There's more -- he goes on to discuss 3 other islamic thinkers and I'll read that too. Thanks for the heads up.