Ibn ‘Arabi: al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, Ch. 372
Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi
Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165–1240) was one of the world’s great spiritual teachers.
Ibn Arabi was born in Murcia in Arab al-Andalus, and his writings had an immense impact throughout the Islamic world and beyond. The universal ideas underlying his thought are of immediate relevance today.
The Society
The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society (MIAS) was founded in 1977 to promote a greater understanding of the work of Ibn Arabi and his followers.
It is an international association with its headquarters in Oxford England and a branch in Berkeley California. The Society is funded by the annual subscriptions of its members. It collaborates with affiliated societies in Spain and Australia.
Activities
» Publications: The Society has published a Journal since 1982, which is now peer-reviewed and appears twice a year. It has published books, particularly a translation into English of the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. Its website provides over 200 articles, mainly from the Journal.
» Events: The Society has organised conferences in the UK and the USA since 1984. Podcasts and videos of more than 100 talks from Society events are available on this website.
» Historic manuscript project: Since 2002 the Society has been engaged in collecting copies of historic manuscripts of the works of Ibn Arabi. A version of the catalogue is available on this website.
Society Membership
If you are interested in Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, his work and his teachings, you are welcome to join the Society. Among other benefits, Members receive the Society Journal, have discounted entry to Society events, and free admission to live online talks.
Recently Added Quotation
Futūḥāt Translation Project
11 January 2022
The ignorant ones on our path speak of the nobility of the ḥāl (state, moment, emotion, trance) over knowledge, because of their ignorance of what the ḥāl is. States – the greatest of the Men in this land seek refuge from them! They are some of the thickest veils. This is why the Tribe take states to be gifts and the stations to be earnings (things acquired, not gifted). This world, according to the greatest ones, is an abode of earning, not an abode of state. What you earn will raise you up a step, but the temporary state will make you lose your time, and you will not rise with it; no, the state is one of the results of your station, and it rushes you to things of this world. Because of this, the states are gifts; and if they were earned, rising with them would occur.
Book 7, Chapter 69 (p. 56)
Go to the Quotations page
Featured Article
Jaume Flaquer
The Akbarian Jesus
That Jesus is a spirit and being “the word proceeding from God” makes him the paradigm of another quality: that of the pilgrim of God, of the spiritual traveller who comes from God and returns to God without ever having left the presence of God. This spiritual journey is the reflection of a cosmic movement of a creation which is constantly leaving God and returning to Him…
List of all articles
Featured Podcast
Angela Jaffrey
“Watered with One Water” – Ibn Arabi on the One and the Many
Though God is one, the vision that dominates human existence is of a world of graded hierarchies, levels, specific faces, veils, and Names. A cosmos of dualities, oppositions, complementarities, contraries, rivals, counter-forces, and tensions. Tawhid does not begin with unity, since that needs to be established. Rather, it begins with the recognition of diversity and difference. Water as a symbol holds a powerful clue to explaining Ibn Arabi’s notions of the one and the many.
List of all podcasts
Featured Video
Yousef Casewit
Tilimsani’s Commentary on the Divine Name al-Muqsiṭ
This talk explores the notion of Qisṭ, or equitability and balance in the divine names commentary of ‘Afif al-Din al-Tilimsani. In his discussion, which centers on the Qur’anic verse “God loves the equitable,” he insists that the upholders of balance gain divine love by realizing their relationship to the name the Equitable, for God loves none other than His own quality.
Latest News
December 2021
Society Journal, Volume 70
Volume 70 of the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society is now available. It includes articles by Mukhtar H. Ali, Stephen Hirtenstein, Omar Benaissa and Elif Emirahmetoglu.
See the list of contents
November 2021 – February 2022
“I fled from myself to Him”
The ‘Ocean 1′ course “I fled from myself to Him” is now full. It is possible somebody may drop out in the next week – so if you are still interested please put your name on the Waiting List through the link on the Eventbrite booking page. Alternatively there is another course on offer, “Embark therein: from Noah’s ark to Adam’s fall’, starting in February 2022.
Go to the Course calendar
Added to the Blog page, 1 July 2021
Critical Edition of Ibn ‘Arabi’s Diwān
A critical edition of the text of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Diwān, produced by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sulṭān al-Manṣūb, has been published by Ninawa, Damascus, Syria, in five hardback volumes. The printed Diwāns available up till now have been reproductions of the “Bulaq edition” (1855), containing about 25% of the total.
September 2021
Translation Prize Competition
The Society has announced an MIAS Translation Prize competition. For this first competition, submissions For this first competition, submissions are invited for original translations of prose texts by Ibn ‘Arabi.Entries are due by 1 September 2022.
The Prize of US$ 3,000 is being sponsored by the Ibn ‘Arabi Societies in the UK and the USA, by MIAS AP (Asia Pacific), the Monash University Ibn Arabi Interreligious Research Initiative (IAI), and by private donors.
June 2021
Futūḥāt Translation Project
Dr Eric Winkel is engaged in a translation into English of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah, from beginning to end. It is being published progressively by the Pir Press, and Volume 3 (comprising Books 5 and 6) has just been launched.
Social Media
The Society in the USA maintains a Facebook Page, and the Society in the UK maintains a Facebook Group. Both provide news about Society events, and the Facebook Group can be a good place to ask questions.
Contact
The Society is administered from two centres: Oxford (UK) and Berkeley (USA). The Society in the UK is responsible for everywhere outside North America.
Making a Donation
As a non-profit organisation, the Society welcomes donations of any size. Donations help underwrite the many activities of the Society.
Donate to the Society in the UK
Donate to the Society in the USA