ISLAMIC  MYSTICISM  AND  IBN  ARABI                                                                                                        IN  RELATION  TO                                                  THE  CONVERGENCE  OF  COGNITIVE  DOMAINS                                                                                                                    On  Buying                                                                                        Islamic  Mystical  Poetry                                                      Sufi  Verse  from  the  Early  Mystics  to  Rumi                                                                                                                                                                              selected  with  explanatory  notes  by                                                                                                                              by                                                                                                                        Mahmood  Jamal                                                                                Oluwatoyin  Vincent  Adepoju      I   bought   this   book   because   it   contains,   with   rich   and   lucid   explanatory   notes,  selections   from     the   poetry   of   Ibn   Arabi,   described   by   some   as   the   greatest  thinker   in   the   Abrahamic   traditions   of   Judaism,   Christianity   and   Islam,   if   I  remember  well.  This   is   a   very   large   claim   in   a   field     that   contains   such   figures  who  have  shaped  history  as   the  Christians      St.  Augustine  of  Hippo,  St.  Thomas  Aquinas   and   Dante   Alighieri,     Jews   such   as   Moses   de   Leon,   described   as   the  writer  of  the  monumental  Zohar,  Nahman  of  Bratslasv,  Hillel  and  Rashi  and  the  luminaries  of   the   Islamic   tradition,     such  as  Al  Ghazali   and  Rumi,  described  by  one  source  as   the  greatest  poet  of  all   time,  whose   famous  poetry   is  also   in   this  book,  and  other  Islamic  lights,  some    being  polymaths  who    combined  genius  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  such  as  Ibn  Sina.      Ibn  Arabi's  magnum  opus,  Futuhat  Al-­‐Makkiyya, translated   into  English   as  The  Meccan  Revelations,   is  described  as  so  profound,  that  even  among  devotees  and  scholars,    humanity  has  not  reached  such  a  level  as  to  adequately  appreciate  it,  if  I  am  not  exaggerating  the  point  made  in  an  Amazon  review  of  the  work.   I  have  looked   into   the   English   translation   of   the   book,   representing   only   a   part   of   its  totality,     and   it   is   clearly   rich   with   a     dense   tapestry   of     ideas,   some   of   them  dizzying  in  their  strangeness  and  yet  communicated  simply  and  directly.      To  help  me  gain  entry  into  Arabi,  I  have  decided  to  begin  with  his  poetry,  which  demonstrates   an   elevation   both   ethereal   and   imagistically   gripping   in   its  concreteness,  such  as  the  image  of  “an  ocean  without  shore,  and  a  shore  without  ocean”  or  Arabi’s   description  of   the   youth  he   ran   into  while   circumambulating  the  Kaaba,  the  holy  stone  in  Mecca  at  the  symbolic  centre  of  Islamic  geography,  and  who,  when   Ibn  Arabi   asked   to  be   informed  of   the  nature  of   the  youth,   the  

youth  asked  Arabi  to  read  the  letters  engraved  on  his,  the  youth's    body,  to  be  so  informed.      My   very   limited   exposure   to   Islamic   mysticism,   to   conceptions   of   perceiving,  experiencing  or  understanding  directly  the  source  of  existence  as  demonstrated  by  Islam,  suggests  that  its  classical  form    might  be  different  in  significant    ways,  beyond   the   differences   of   doctrine,     from   the   related   school   of   Christian  mysticism  in  its  classical  sense,  being  perhaps  generally  more  rooted  in  everyday  imagery,  such  as  the  story  of  birds  on  a  journey  to  meet  the  king  of  birds  (?)  in    the  famous  Conference  of  the  Birds  of  Attar  and    another    mystic    describing    an  encounter  with  the  Ultimate  experienced  as        a  veiled  woman,  lovely  and  tender    in  her  concealed  yet  immediate    presence.      Henry  Corbin    has    a  famous  book  on  Arabi,    Creative  Imagination  in  the  Sufism  of  Ibn  Arabi,   dealing  with     Arabi   's   understanding   of   imagination   as   a   realm   that  enables  entry  into  a  unique  form  of  knowledge.  William  Chittick  has  published  at  least  two  fat  books,  richly  embedded  with  ideas,  about  him,  and  there  exists  an  industry  of   scholarship  on    Arabi,   including   the   rich   fare  on   the   site  of   the   Ibn  Arabi  society  (www.ibnarabisociety.org)  ,  based  in  Oxford.      Chittck   presents   Arabi   as   a   thinker   who   demonstrates   the   significance   of   the  individual  locating  themselves  within  a  cosmological  framework.  Arabi's  poetry  is  one  sure  way  of  understanding  his  ability,  digging  deep  into  the  illumination  of  his  religion,  to  anchor  himself  in  perennial    human  themes  in  a  manner  that  may  resonate  with  one    regardless  of  one's  religious    faith,  or  lack  of  one.      A  helpful    scholar      to  read  in  relation  to  such  poetry  is  Karen  Armstrong,  in  any  of  her  books  and  essays,  but   ideally   taking   in   the   full   range  of  her  works,   from  her   autobiographical    The  Spiral  Stair   and  Through  the  Narrow  Gate,   to  history  and  philosophy  of  religion,    as  in  A  History  of  God  and  The  Case  for  God,  because  they   are   all   linked   in   terms   of   her   journey   from   Christian   nun,   to   student   of  literature,  and  eventually  to  former  nun  and  scholar  of  religion  who  has  moved  beyond  her  earlier  approach   to  religious   faith  as  an   interpretation  of   facts   to  a  conception   of   faith   as   imaginative     framework   through   which   the   otherwise  inaccessible   is  brought  within   the  courtyard  of   the  mind,   to  be  at   least  roughly  accurate  about  her  understanding  of  religious  knowledge  and  action.      In  this  she  is   in  agreement  with   the  epistemology  of   the  Hermetic  occultist    Dion  Fortune,  who,  as  she  argues     in  her  Mystical  Qabalah,  Sane  Occultism   and  Applied  Magic,    understands  occult  symbols  as  an  imaginative  shorthand,  a    cognitive  ladder  for  thinking  about  modes  of  being  not  otherwise  conceivable.      These   perspectives   about   imagination   as   a   bridge   between   otherwise  incompatible   cognitive  domains  may  also  be  compared  with    modern  scientific  efforts  to  answer  the  question  "What  is  the  ultimate    origin  of  the  universe?"  .  "    If  it  was   the  explosion  and  expansion  known  as   the    Big  Bang,  what  came  before    the  Big  Bang?".   In  response   to   these  questions,    one  may  answer  "nothing",    as  eloquently   argued   by   philosopher   of   science   Tian   Yu   Cao   in   "Ontology   and  Scientific  Explanation,"  in  Explanations.  Ed.  John  Conwell,  Oxford    UP,  2004.    173-­‐196.  

   When   all   casual   chains   break   down,   when   the   quest   for   ultimate   beginning  regresses    infinitely,  what  do  you  do?  You  may  posit,  like  Cao,  does,    developing  a  trend  very  visible  in  the  scientific  theory  of  quantum    mechanics,    that  "nothing"  is  the  beginning  of  everything.  Even  though  one,   like  the  scientists  who  answer  that  way,  could  have  arrived  at  that  point  from  a  different  epistemological  route  than   the  mystics,   one    would   therefore   share   a  platform  with   the  mystics  who  make  a  similar  cognitive   leap,   through   intuition  rather  than  primarily  or  not  at  all  through  the  intellect,    and  claiming  direct  engagement  with  that  reality  rather  than  addressing  it  only    theoretically  as  the  scientific  construction  of  truth  does.      Also  posted  at    comprosyt.blogspot.co.uk                                                                        

   Dialogue    with  Ade  Lohenragrin  Lawal  on  Facebook  in  response  to  this  post  on  23  March  2012  

Ade  Lohenragrin  Lawal    

It   is  open           to  debate   if  we  can  with  effrontery  consider  Ibn   Arabi   the   greatest  thinker   in   the   Abrahamic  traditions   per   se.   Arabi's  Magnum   Opus   *Futuhat   Al-­‐Makkiyya*   (The   Meccan  Openings/Illuminations)   is  more   of   a   cornucopia   on  Sufsm  than  Islamic  theology.  Rumi   is   the   greatest   in   my  opinion...  

   

Toyin Adepoju

Thanks. Very interesting. This will spur me to read Rumi. Are you assessing Rumi in relation to Sufism alone or to all Islam, except the Prophet perhaps, or in relation to all of the Abrahamic religions? I hope you are doing well. Its been a long time.

 

Ade Lohenragrin Lawal

Rumi's theosophic message reaches [across] all religious divide[s]. Arabi is great-no doubt...there is this element of elitism in his philosophical and mystical thoughts...I'm well Kindred Spirit...