Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love

and the Human Form in Ibn’

Arabi and ‘Iraqi
Perception according to Ibn’Arabi – Chapter 1
Cyrus Ali Zargar

Presented by: Fatima Siraj

Content
• About the author
• Who was Ibn’Arabi?
• The importance of witnessing to Ibn’Arabi’s thought
• Mushahadah and shuhud
• Imagination and inlets of perception
• Practical considerations in Monitoring Imagination
• Tanzih and Tashbih
• Conclusion
About the author
• Completed a doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, in
Near Eastern Studies in 2008
• Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida.
• Primary research interest is the literature of medieval Sufism in Arabic
and Persian.
• Books: The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in
Islamic Philosophy and Sufism (2017) and Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love
and the Human Form in the Writings of Ibn’ Arabi and Ibn’ Iraqi
(2011)
Key terms
• Shuhud – witnessing
• Mushahadah - witnessing
• Wahdat al wujud – the Oneness of Being
• Ru’yah - vision
EBN AL-ʿARABĪ
Life, Views, Terminology
• Sufi Poet
• Ibn al-'Arabi was born in south-eastern Spain, in Murcia, on the 17th
Ramadan 569/28th July 1165.
• Strongly influenced in his formative years by Ibn Masarrah's school of
Almeria (Corbin 2014).
• His most famous masterpiece is Kitab al-futuha tal-Makkiya.
• He died in Damascus, on the 28th Rabi' II 638/16th November 1240.
Setting the context
• Tasawwur - Imagination
• Taqlid derives from aql (intelligence)
• Tahqiq which is derived from haq (the truth)
“True light beings about perception but is not perceived.”
- Ibn’ Arabi
The importance of witnessing to Ibn’Arabi’s
thought
• Wahdat al waujud – the Oneness of Being
• Vision is the first and foremost way of perceiving things
• “seeing” or “witnessing” is for Ibn’ Arabi the primary purpose of
creation.
• Witnessing is the first sign of being a gnostic.
• Reaction produced by Ibn’ Taimya who called this shirk
Mushahadah and Shuhud
• They both correspond to witnessing
• Mushahadah is the ability to see things as they really are, not as they
appear to be
• Mushahadah refers to a specific grade of esoteric knowledge
• Shuhud refers to general experience of witnessing
(pg. 15)
Imagination and Inlets of Perception
The universe is composed of three parts
• Body
• Spirit
• Imagination
Practical Consideration in Monitoring
Imagination
• Mu’ayyid al-Din Jandi (d. ca. 700/1300) provides a detailed account of
man’s main organs of perception and actions.
• Muraqabah (self-surveillance)
• Muhasabah (self-reckoning)
• Jandi’s description of the organs over which the wayfarer must be
watchful, especially the eye and the ear, emphasize the extent to
which realizing the Oneness of Being affects the gnostic’s perception.
Tanzih and Tashbih
• Tashbih (immanence or similitude) and
• Tanzih (transcendence)
Conclusion
• From this point of view, the challenge for each new generation is to
come to know God, by knowing themselves, in the new form of
revelation that each era and indeed, each moment, brings.
 Bibliography

1. Corbin, Henry. "History of Islamic Philosophy." In History of Islamic Philosophy, by Henry Corbin, 291-293. Routledge, 2014.

2. Zargar, Cyrus Ali, “Perception According to Ibn’ Arabi.” In Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in Ibn ʿArabi and
ʿIraq, by
Cyrus Ali Zargar, 11-30. University of South Carolina Press. 2011.