Tina Cressman
Muhammed Ibn Ali Ibn’Arabi was born into a family of pure Arabian blood in Mucia in the Andulusian region of Southern Spain in 1165AD (the Islamic year 560). He grew up experiencing a cross section of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in his every day world. He was apparently a serious student in his youth in Seville, and had many teachers in his study of traditional sciences.
When he was approximately fifteen he had his first vision of Jesus, Moses, and Muhammed. As a result, he considered all prophets and saints to have a part in explaining religion: "There is no knowledge except that taken from God, for He alone is the Knower…the prophets, in spite of their great number and the long period of time which separate them, had no disagreement in knowledge of God, since they took it from God." (1) Al ‘Arabi experienced his vision without any formal religious training. As of result of this vision he became more spiritual and devoted himself to Sufism. He continued to have visions throughout his life, a circumstance which influenced his beliefs and works.
In his first vision, he realized that all religion comes from God, despite any differences in the message, prophet, or time frame. He wrote: "All the divine names refer to one and the same Named One. But each one of them refers to an essential determination, different from all the rest; it is by the individualization that each Name refers to the God who reveals himself…" (2) This monotheistic belief of Islam and other religions was expressed in each of his writings. Al ‘Arabi believed all things were looking to return to being one with God.
Al’Arabi, while still young, met the chief judge and philosopher Ibn Rushd (also know as Averroes). Descriptions of their meeting indicate that Averroes was shaken by his encounter with such a teacher. While one was a young mystic and the other an older philosopher, they understood the same knowledge, each through his own means. Philosophy and law were very much entwined in religion as it was becoming formulated in the tenth century. Al’Arabi was regarded as having a great deal of insight into both.
He left Spain at 35, and went on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1202 where he spent two years studying and writing with some of the most highly educated families in the city. During this time al ‘Arabi wrote a collection of spiritual love poems that were highly misinterpreted by other people. He was forced to write a commentary on them, which explained many things that would have otherwise been lost in translation.
His major work, the ‘Futuhat a’Makkiyah’ was written over thirty years, and is made up of 560 chapters, with some 17,000 pages. It details every aspect of spiritual life, including the Prophet, the Hadith, law, politics, the human physical experience, as well as the ideal human spiritual experience. In the Futuhat, he wrote about fleeing to God, not as fleeing away from one thing to another, but as leaving ignorance for knowledge. This theme is expressed in all of his writings.
Al’Arabi is credited with between 300 and 350 works, including what is considered to be some of the finest poetry in the Arabic language. In Diwan and Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, he expresses the Unity of Being. These poems illustrate how man, in perfection, completes reality when he knows his essential being. Most prior Sufi religious authors wrote practical guides to everyday life, or revelations of mystical visions. Al ‘Arabi wrote concrete works on subjects that previously had only been implicitly expressed.
After having traveled for nearly twenty years, al’Arabi settled in Damascus in 1223 and made it his home. Here he taught and wrote until his death. His students included people from all walks of life. This differs from the original Islamic guidelines, where only the educators were educated.
Al’Arabi died in Damascus in 1240AD (Islamic year 638) at seventy-six. Almost all of his life was spent writing and teaching others to surrender to the will of God. He influenced most of the writings on Sufism by later theologians and philosophers. The writings of al’ Arabi are not only popular in the Islamic world, but due to the quality of his works, they are admired by modern day scholars as well.