Upcoming Worldwide Events and Symposiums

16 November 2024 | Online event

Monthly lectures for Arabic speakers

Muhyiddin Ibn Al Arabi and Sheikh Ahmad bin Qusy:
A Reading of the Book Commentary on Removing the Sandals by Ibn Al Arabi

The series of lectures in Arabic which began in November 2022 continues with a talk by Dr. Mohammed Mrani from Morocco, at 12 noon Morocco local time, on Saturday the 16th of November 2024. The title of his lecture is, “Muhyiddin Ibn Al Arabi and Sheikh Ahmad bin Qusy: A Reading of the Book Commentary on Removing the Sandals by Ibn Al Arabi.”

Dr. Mohammed Mrani is a retired professor specializing in philosophy, Islamic thought, and educational sciences. He has held several significant positions throughout his career, including:
– Former Head of the Philosophy, Sociology, and Psychology Department at the Faculty of Arts, Marrakech.
– Former Director of the Research Group on Training, Employment, and Community Psychological Integration (RAEFCTI) at the Faculty of Arts, Marrakech.
– Former member of a research group supervised by the Center for the History of Arab and Medieval Sciences and Philosophies in Paris, France, as well as the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, and Psychology in Marrakech, focusing on “Philosophy and Sciences in Marrakech during the 6th and 7th Hijri centuries.”
– Contributed to research at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris during seminars organized by the center in 2003.
– Former member of the Editorial Board of the “Faculty of Arts and Humanities” Journal, Marrakech.
– Former member of the Advisory Board of the “Awarif” Journal.
– Former member of the Evaluation Committees for the “World of Thought” Journal published by the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters in Kuwait.
– Founding member of the Wisdom Forum for Thinkers and Researchers, chaired by Professor Dr. Taha Abdul Rahman (Rabat, March 9, 2002).
Dr. Mrani has published several notable works, including:
– Adaptation au Maroc d’un test de Scolaptitude (co-authored with Professor Albert Roberge).
– Al-Rawd Al-‘Atir fi Nuzhat Al-Khater.
– Khala’ Al-N’alayn wa Iqtibas Al-Nour min Mawdi’ Al-Qadamayn – Ahmad bin Qusy (study and verification).
– Questions of Duty and Human Existence.
– Research paper entitled “The Problem of the Connection between Jurisprudence and Sufism: An Integrative Vision, Al-Ghazali and his Sufi School in Morocco as a Model.”
– Commentary on Removing the Sandals by Muhyiddin Ibn Al Arabi.
– The Pursuit of Some Issues in Jurisprudence, Philosophy, and Sufism.
In addition, he has published numerous articles in both national and international journals.

Dr. Mrani’s interest in Ibn Qusy (d. 546 AH/1151 AD) and his manuscript Khala Al Na‘layn wa Iqtibas Al Nur min Mawdi‘ Al Qadamayn – “Removing the Sandals and Attuning to the Light from the Place of the Feet” dates back to the late 1990s. At that time, Dr. Mrani studied, verified, and published the manuscript for the first time within the Islamic Arabic library in 1997. Dr. Mrani recognized the significant importance of Muhyiddin Ibn Al Arabi’s commentary on this manuscript.
Dr. Mrani later studied and verified Ibn Al Arabi’s “Commentary on Removing the Sandals” and made it available to the Islamic Arabic library for the first time in 2013.
Dr. Mrani’s lecture will focus on two main themes:
1. The importance of Ibn Qusy’s “Removing the Sandals and Attuning to the Light from the Place of the Feet.” and its place in Andalusian Sufi thought.
2. Ibn Al Arabi’s “Commentary on Removing the Sandals”: methodology and vision.

People who would like to attend the lecture can use this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83484657052?pwd=M3NSTFhINVl2c1k2ME1JVzRnd092QT09 [/]
Meeting ID: 834 8465 7052 | Passcode: 000000 | Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kb23I9qIRQ [/]For more details of the series of lectures, please see the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/arabicibnarabi [/]

For further information please e-mail mias-as@nokshee.com.

November 28-29 – Online symposium

The Second International Symposium on Islamic Mysticism

Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

II Simpósio Internacional De Mística Islâmica Da PUC MG – Mística Islâmica: diálogos, interações e contemporaneidade

The symposium will be held over 28-29 November, and the first day includes discussion of Ibn ‘Arabi and the importance of his thought in the contemporary world, and a presentation on Ibn ‘Arabi e Nacer Khemir, “A cinematography of a spiritual and mystical nature”.

For the full programme follow this link: https://www.even3.com.br/ii-simposio-de-mistica-islamica-pucmg/

It will be available online, but for that it may be necessary to register.

Saturday November 30 – London

Jesus Across Space and Time

On Saturday November 3oth, 2024, from 2-5 pm GMT, there will be an interactive seminar under the auspices of the Beshara Trust at The October Gallery, London, under the title, “Jesus Across Space and Time”.

The afternoon will be devoted to the question: what is the knowledge we can attain if we contemplate the person of Jesus and his function and role in the world of humanity?

In the year 2000, the Lebanese scholar Souad Hakim delivered a remarkable paper on this topic at the Ibn ‘Arabi Society Symposium at Chisholme House, Scotland. This paper is available online here, under the title The Spirit and the Son of the Spirit – A Reading of Jesus according to Ibn ‘Arabi. This paper will be used as the foundation of the conversation.

How to Book
Entry by ticket from Eventbrite: Click to book
Cost: £10 + £1.63 registration fee.

Enquiries: Michael Cohen at london@beshara.org

December 7 – Online presentation

The Secret of God’s Most Beautiful Names

The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society and Anqa Publishing invite you to an online conversation with Pablo Beneito on his translation into English of the book by Ibn ‘Arabi, The Secret of God’s Most Beautiful Names (Kashf al-ma’nā ‘an sirr asmā’ Allāh al-ḥusnā). It will take place on Saturday, 7th December 2024 at 5:00 PM (London time).

This book is the first English translation of two key works by Ibn ‘Arabi on the 99 Divine Names: Kashf al-ma’nā and an excerpt from Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya. With an introduction and notes, it presents Ibn ‘Arabi’s comprehensive understanding of the Divine Names, which underpin the very fabric of existence, and how he focuses on three aspects of the Names: our dependence on each Name, the reality of the Name in relation to God, and the servant’s being characterised by the Name. It is an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the real mystical significance of the Divine Names and Ibn ‘Arabi’s vision of the divine-human relationship.

Pablo Beneito, Professor in the Department of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Murcia, Spain, is a translator and commentator on Ibn ‘Arabi’s works. He also serves as the editor of El Azufre Rojo: Revista de Estudios sobre Ibn Arabi and coordinates activities for the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society–Latina.

Admission is free but people wishing to attend must register. Registration closes 24 hours prior, and Zoom links are emailed to registrants one day before the event.

To register, please follow this link to Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-secret-of-gods-most-beautiful-names-registration-1073548114309? aff=ebdssbdestsearch&keep_tld=1   [/]

For queries and help, email: publishing@anqa.co.uk

April 12,2025 – Online seminar

The Ultimate Vision of Life: Ibn ‘Arabi and the Anthropocosmic Self

It will take place on April 12th, 2025 at 4:00 PM UK time.

More details to come.

July 25 – 26, 2025   London

Mirrors of the Transcendent in the Cosmos of Ibn Arabi: The Body as Metaphor of Divine Self-Revelation

There will be up to eight speakers over the two day event. These will include: Mukhtar Ali, author of Philosophical Sufism: An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-‘Arabi and whose new book, Inscriptions of Wisdom: The Sufism of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Mirror of Jāmī, will shortly be published. Gregory Vandamme, whose presentation will be entitled, The Body of the Caliph: Corporeal Governance of the Human Kingdom in Ibn ʿArabi’s al-Tadbīrāt al-ilāhiyya. Dunja Rašić who will present her paper titled: Conquest of the Great City – a Metaphorical Story of a Wicked Queen, Her Subjects, and a Talisman by Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī, and Faris Abdel-hadi whose recently published book is entitled Ibn ‘Arabī’s Religious Pluralism – Levels of Inclusivity.

The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London. A member of the School of Advanced Study, the Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for the study of global cultural history and the role of images in society, exploring how memories of the past shape the present. Its building in Woburn Square, London has recently reopened having been extensively refurbished and extended to create a welcoming space for visitors.

March 2024

Young Writer Award 2023 – Prize winner

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2023 MIAS Young Writers Award is Nur Ahmad, currently a PhD candidate at the University of Leiden. This is the fifth time that the Society has run this competition, which gives an award (this year $1500) for the best essay written by a young scholar under the age of 35 on a theme related to Ibn ‘Arabi or his legacy.

The award was judged by three prominent Ibn ‘Arabi scholars – Professor Michael Sells of the University of Chicago; Dr Aydogan Kars of Monash University, Australia; and Dr Angela Jaffray, who will be best-known to members of the Society for her translations of Ibn ‘Arabi’s works, The Universal Tree and the Four Birds (Anqa Publishing, 2007) and The Secrets of Voyaging (Anqa Publishing, 2015). Many thanks to them for the time and attention they devoted to task of choosing a winner out the eight excellent entries that we received.

The winning essay is entitled ‘Akbarian Hermeneutics in pre-Modern Javanese Literature’. As the title suggests, this is an exploration of Sufi Quranic exegesis in Javanese culture for which, as Ahmad explains, Ibn ‘Arabi’s ideas formed the predominant framework. The judges felt that this is a ground-breaking piece of work, exploring a previously little-known area of study and exhibiting excellent scholarship based on hitherto unstudied sources.

Other entries are also thought worthy of mention. ‘Highly Commended’ are Elif Emirahmetoglu for her essay: ‘The Human Self and Personhood in Akbarīan Sufism and Chinese Buddhism’, which again, breaks new ground in its detailed comparison between these two highly sophisticated traditions; and Sophie Tyser for her essay ‘The World, Man and Ritual Prayer according to Ibn al-ʿArabī’ for its thorough and comprehensive exposition on Ibn ‘Arabi’s understanding of prayer. ‘Commended’ is Farah Akhtar for ‘Cosmos as Revelation: Reason, Imagination, and the Foundations of Ibn ‘Arabī’s Scriptural Hermeneutics’. All four of these essays will be submitted to the Society journal for consideration for publication.

Many thanks to all those who sent in submissions to the award. The hard work and thought that went into all the essays is much appreciated, and it is great to know that there are such excellent young scholars working on Ibn ‘Arabi’s heritage. It bodes very well for the future of Akbarian studies.

Jane Clark

About the young writers

Nur Ahmad is currently a PhD student of Islamic philosophy at Leiden University. His PhD research is a study of Fayḍ al-Raḥmān fī Tarjama Tafsīr Kalām Mālik al-Dayyān (“The Grace of the Merciful in the Interpretative Translation of the Words of the King and the Judge”), a Javanese Ṣūfī tafsīr by Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ al-Samārānī (c. 1820-1903). He argues that this tafsīr points to the shift in the intellectual world of Java at the end of the nineteenth century. He has had a lifelong interest in Ṣūfi thought in Javanese traditional literature and its popular expressions in lived traditions of Sufism in Java. Ahmad’s academic pursuits in the field of Sufism in Java are also motivated by the teaching position he has at Walisongo’s State Islamic University (UIN Walisongo), Semarang, Indonesia. As the chairman (2024-2026) of the Netherlands Branch Nahdlatul Ulama, an Islamic traditional organization, he makes an effort to manifest his interest in Javanese thought and poetry in popular forms, such as working together with Javanese traditional artists in the adaptation of Javanese Ṣūfī poetry into sacred dances and songs.

Elif Emirahmetoğlu is a research assistant at the Berlin Institute of Islamic Theology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Recently, she submitted her PhD thesis, which compared the concept of human beings in Ibn al-‘Arabī (d. 1240) and Shinran Shōnin (d. 1263). Her research interests include Sufism, Islamic philosophy, Buddhism, comparative philosophy, and comparative mysticism. She is currently preparing for her postdoctoral project to explore various dimensions of human subjectivity in classical and post-classical Islamic anthropologies, and aims to reinterpret these perspectives with philosophical discussions on human subjectivity in the 20th and 21st centuries which have taken recourse to German idealism.

Sophie Tyser obtained her doctorate in Islamic studies in 2022 from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris) in France. Her doctoral thesis, entitled ‘In The Horizons and Within Themselves’ : Man, The World and The Revelation in The Teaching of Ibn al-ʿArabī, focuses on the micro-macrocosmic imbrications in the work of the shaykh al-akbar. Since 2022 she has taught Arabic language and literature at the University of Turin in Italy.

Farah Akhtar is a graduate of the M.Div program at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School where she focused on Qur’anic hermeneutics and constructive Islamic theology. Her research interests include examining the literary form and exegetical function of metaphysical literature in the post-classical period and their significance to understanding the life of the Qur’an in Muslim societies. She is also interested in conceptions and interpretations of scripture in Indo-Persian mystical and philosophical poetry, with specific reference to the cosmos and existence. Prior to graduate study, Farah lived in Amman, New York and Lahore, studying Arabic, Persian and various Islamic texts in informal settings, including writings of Said Nursi. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago.