Soteriology of the Qu’ran according to Ibn al-Arabi

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One is to accept the Quran based on faith. Unveiling adds nothing but fills in the details- We cannot be sure that unveiling is from God and there is no satanic intervention; rationality is important, but cannot override God’s word- the friend is always a follower of the prophet and never independent. Knowledge is of two kinds- reports and rulings. Reports deal with faith, i.e. God, the angels, the last day; rulings embrace the sharia proper, i.e. information concerning all dimensions of life and practice. Unveiling adds clarity to reports but add nothing to rulings. The practitioner should listen to the authorities of hadith and not accept it from anyone else. The law and the reality are directly related. Thus Ibn al-Arabi- in contrast to many Sufis- denies a distinction between sharia and haqiqa. Some people suppose with divine presence, multiplicity is overcome and no more distinctions can be drawn. Ibn al-Arabi overcomes this by affirming manyness at the level of divinity. To reinforce the law, al-Arabi mentions the angels which are known as the casters. The prophets received the law through the angels, with Muhammed, this revelation came to an end. “States” include the experiences that accompany the wayfarer in the science of tasting; they are ephemeral but can be permanent; states are bestowals while stations are earnings; al-Arabi frequently also uses state to mean breaking of habit. States are rarely positive and represent trials to undergo. In the rest of the chapter, al-Aarabi discusses deceptions that can affect the spiritual seeker. The relationship between shaykh and disciple is complex since the path is only possible through guidance; sometimes the disciple can impart knowledge to the master.1  

Names and Stations

Man is created in the form of God’s names. All humans contain the divine names, but some names remain latent. People are ranked according to degree- some possessing more names than others; but to possess more is not necessarily better.  To be human is to be made up of the form of God; but few people are in fact human. Man is judged in his relationship to the God; but we cannot actually know this relationship since we cannot know God. Man contains the names as a possibility; but he must bring these attributes into reality.  This is the Path of Sufism- in which man gradually assumes the divine traits; however, nothing can prevent him from falling astray. The stages of the path are called stations. In perfect man the divine form is manifest while in animal man it is not; thus, perfect man is more than just a rational animal. The divine form is better translated as the form of Allah; thus, perfect men recognize God’s incomparability while imperfect men adhere to forced meanings. . . .

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Hermeneutics of the Qur’an according to Ibn Al-Arabi

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     Although Wujud can also be interpreted as being/existence, the Sufis use the term wujud to stand for the opening up to the inrushes of knowledge and awareness. Thus, wujud means an ecstatic discovering of the truth. Ibn al-Arabi sees the two senses of wujud (being/existence and “listening”) as essentially identical; in short, we find the existence of God through listening to the divine speech. Gods reveals himself as light, to which he assigns whomsoever he wills. Like wujud, light is both ontological and epistemological. the receiving of light by the individual is called by many names, self-disclosure being the most common one. Since knowledge is intrinsic to light, God gives knowledge through light. Self-disclosure is of many types such as that from light with rays and light without rays. Ibn al-Arabi uses a number of terms to refer to perception of gods self-disclosure, the most general being “unveiling” (kashf). One of the words that is used as a virtual synonym for unveiling is “tasting” (dhawq). Unveiling usually means something that one sees outside of himself, while tasting usually means something one sees inside oneself. That which comes from God is always colored by the receptacle that receives it which is important from ibn al-Arabi’s perspective since this explains the diversity of views found within Islam and religions in general. This explains why every gnostic has a different description of Islam- i.e. each person that has travelled the path to God speaks from his own viewpoint and recalls his own experience. The forms in which the Real shows Himself are not the real Himself but the veils that hide the essence.

     The ideal rational faculty is used to accept unveiling and not to try to go beyond its limitations by reflection. Hence the virtue of reason is to accept unveiling and revelation. The only goal of rational reflection is to recognize the existence and unity of God. This is important because if one fails to use reason, he can risk associating other gods with God. The Arabic word qur’an means to gather together everything in an all comprehensive way. The Qur’an thus gathers together all other scriptures that were sent down before it and therefore all knowledge of God. Muhammad is seen as the perfect and all comprehensive prophet. Ibn al-Arabi gives long and frequent commentaries to show his superiority over all other messengers, prophets, and friends of God. Muhammad was a prophet even when Adam had not yet been created.  the law of the qur’an has been set down through him. Many commentators will describes ibn al-Arabi’s interpretation of the Qur’an as out of context given that modern scholars interpret the Qur’an through historical and literary contexts and traditional Muslims interpret it as the speech of God, escaping all attempts to delimit and define it. However contemporary rational faculties cannot be described as sound since they are the products of a materialistic age. A sound rational faculty would at least have faith in the divine origin of the Qur’an. Once the divine origin is accepted, there it is a question of debate what god meant by certain passages. 

    Ibn al-Arabi sees major differences between the tasfir performed by the folk of Allah and the ta’wil of the men of reason.  Since the philosophers and theologians do not have unveiling, they try to pass from the inward esoteric sense to the outward exoteric sense. But in this crossover, they let go of the inward sense. God created no one more troublesome for the folk of Allah than the exoteric scholar. Yet the folk of Allah are the gnostics.  Every verse has a sense from within and a sense from without. The sense from within is called an “allusion,” by which they can defend themselves against the jurists and exoteric scholars with their unbelief. The exoteric scholars should take things into account when they interpret a verse with an outward sense. Some of these interpretations are better than others yet all of them walk the same path. Although the denounce the folk of Allah, the folk of Allah are the inheritors of the truth. The exoteric scholar believes he is one of the folk of Allah because of that which they know that surpasses the common people. However what god intends in his book is a type of mystical understanding. He is ignorant of those who say “god has given for me to understand.” Thus, a special place is reserved for the exoteric scholar along side the community where they can perform their calculations. He does not disrupt the folk of Allah but he can inform them from time to time.