were construed by others, outraged literal-minded
ulama such as ibn taymiyya (d. 1328) and even
some leading Sufis. His main insight concerned
the “oneness of being” (wahdat al-wujud): the
belief that all created things were tangible reflec-
tions of God’s hidden essence, al-Haqq (truth,
reality), which filled the universe. This idea was
inspired by a hadith qudsi (holy hadith) favored
by Sufis, wherein God said, “I was a hidden trea-
sure who wished to be known, so I created the
universe so that I would be known.” Ibn al-Arabi,
like mystics before him, understood creation as
a mirror wherein God, the Truth, sought to know
himself. His opponents accused him of panthe-
ism (equating God with creation)—an affront
to the doctrine that God was transcendent and
independent of creation. Ibn al-Arabi recognized,
however, that God was both present in the world
and beyond it.
Moreover, he maintained that God’s desire to
know himself through creation was matched by
man’s yearning to know himself through God and
nature. Although man was a servant of God, he
also had been created with God’s spirit. God and
man, therefore, longed to be with each other, a
longing that Ibn al-Arabi and his followers associ-
ated with love (mahabba). A form of this love was
reflected in the mutual attraction between a man
and a woman. Indeed, Ibn al-Arabi even taught
in The Bezels of Wisdom that man’s knowledge of
God was completed and perfected in contemplat-
ing how a woman reflected God’s transcendent
reality. He recognized, nonetheless, that humans
often became too attached to worldly concerns
and desires, so they had to strive to sever these
attachments and return to the source. Drawing on
anecdotes from his own life experience, he often
talked about detachment from the world and
seeking God as an ascent or spiritual journey to
the world of the unseen.
In addition to the themes of the unity of being,
desire for reunion, and the spiritual journey, a
fourth major theme found in Ibn al-Arabi’s writ-
ings is that of the perFect man (al-insan al-kamil).
He saw the world, both physical and spiritual, as
organized into hierarchies, such as those between
the one and the many, the invisible and the visible,
God and servant, man and woman. As humans
were superior in rank to other creatures in the
visible world, there were qualitative differences
among human beings, too. The highest rank-
ings among them were the prophets and saints,
or “friends of God.” Unlike ordinary men, these
were the ones who were most taken with spiritual
ascents and mystical journeys. In this, they, and
Muhammad being the foremost among them,
came closest to the ideal of the Perfect Man, the
image and reflection of God through whom the
known universe came into being.
Although he never founded a Sufi order
(tariqa), Ibn al-Arabi’s teachings and those of his
disciples were widely embraced by Sufis in tUrkey,
Persia, india, and indonesia. Sufis in Egypt and
yemen also found them attractive, but to a lesser
extent than elsewhere. Translations and interpreta-
tions of Ibn al-Arabi’s work by modern scholars in
Europe and the United states have helped spread
his influence in the West. In 1977, the Muhyidin
Ibn Arabi Society was founded in London to pro-
mote better understanding of his work and that of
his disciples. Aside from Ibn Taymiyya, his many
critics have included the historian ibn khaldUn
(d. 1406), Sufi shaykh ahmad sirhindi (d. 1624),
members of the Wahhabi sect of saUdi arabia and
beyond, and an array of modern Muslim revivalists
and modernists. Controversy over his teachings
flared again in 1979 when the Egyptian parliament
attempted to ban the republication of the print edi-
tion of The Meccan Revelations. The attempt failed
due to public outcry.
See also allah; haqiqa; prophets and prophecy;
sUFism; Wahhabism; wa l aya.Further reading: Claude Addas, Quest for the Red Sul-
phur: The Life of Ibn Arabi (Cambridge: Islamic Texts
Society, 1993); William C. Chittick, Ibn Arabi: Heir to
the Prophets (Oxford: Oneworld Publishers, 2005); Th.
Emil Homerin, “Ibn Arabi in the People’s Assembly:Ibn al-Arabi, Muhyi al-Din 327 J