Podcasts and Videos

A Living Legacy: Ibn Arabi in Today’s World

UK Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society Symposium, Oxford 2015

Akbarian Aphorisms for the 21st Century   41:16

Mohammed Rustom

Mohammed Rustom is Professor of Islamic Thought at Carleton University. An internationally recognized scholar whose works have been translated into over ten languages, he specializes in Islamic philosophy, Sufism, Quranic exegesis, and cross-cultural philosophy. Professor Rustom is author of the award-winning book The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in Mulla Sadra (2012), co-editor of The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary (2015), author of Inrushes of the Heart: The Sufi Philosophy of ‘Ayn al-Qudat (2022), and editor of Global Philosophy: A Sourcebook (forthcoming).

http://www.mohammedrustom.com/ [/]

 

Articles by Mohammed Rustom

A Letter to Imam al-Razi

Ibn Arabi on Proximity and Distance – Chapters 260 and 261 of the Futuhat

 

Podcasts and Videos by Mohammed Rustom

Sanctity and the Song of Life

On Aspiration and Poverty

Akbarian Aphorisms for the 21st Century

If You See Ibn Arabi in Damascus…   51:07

Mahmud Erol Kiliç

Mahmud Erol Kiliç, Ph.D., a graduate of the University of Istanbul, did postgraduate studies and taught at the Department of Islamic Philosophy at Marmara University where he published his M.A. thesis Hermes and Hermetic Sciences According to Muslim Thinkers and completed his Ph.D. thesis Ibn Arabi’s Ontology (2010). Professor Kiliç has contributed many articles to journals and encyclopedias and attended many international conferences on Sufism and inter-religious dialogues. His recent book, Sufi and Poetry: Poetics of Ottoman Sufi Poetry, was chosen as the book of the year by the Association of Turkish Writers. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society in Oxford.

Together with Dr. Abdurrahim Alkış Dr Kiliç published Muhyiddin İbn Arabi, Fusûsu’l-hikem, Tahkik ve Tıpkıbasım in 2016 (Litera Yay., İstanbul), a critical edition of the Fusus al-Hikam, based on the manuscript copied by Saduddin Qunawi, which is the oldest known manuscript of the Fusus, including a sama' by Ibn 'Arabi. The book also has a facsimile copy of that manuscript.

 

Podcasts and Videos by Mahmud Erol Kiliç

“We Sucked Milk From Two Mothers” – Ibn Arabi and Rumi as Co-founders of Ottoman Sufi Thought

If You See Ibn Arabi in Damascus...

Refreshing Repose and a Reviving Scent   43:09

Cecilia Twinch

Cecilia Twinch first came across Ibn Arabi and Rumi when she was studying Modern and Medieval Languages (Spanish and French) at Cambridge University. Books donated by the Ibn Arabi and Rumi scholar R.A. Nicholson and his student A.J. Arberry, complete with handwritten annotations in the margins, were then on display on the open shelves in the University Library. At the same time, she also became involved with what became known as Beshara and benefited from the advice and wisdom of Bulent Rauf, who was the co-founder of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society.

She now lives in Oxford and is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. Besides working as a teacher, translator and editor, she has written numerous articles and has lectured on Ibn Arabi and mysticism worldwide. She is particularly interested in bringing alive the universal relevance of Ibn Arabi’s ideas in the world today.

In addition to Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries, her publications include Know Yourself: An explanation of the oneness of being (translated from Arabic manuscripts attributed to Ibn Arabi and to Awhad al-din Balyani).

 

Articles by Cecilia Twinch

Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi: The Beauty of Oneness Witnessed in the Emptiness of the Heart

The Circle of Inclusion

Created for Compassion: Ibn Arabi’s Work on Dhu-l-Nun the Egyptian

 

Podcasts and Videos by Cecilia Twinch

Arriving at the Point of Departure

Refreshing Repose and a Reviving Scent

You Are My Mirror

Intimate Echoes of Self: Gender & Sexuality in Ibn Arabi’s Cosmology   36:32

Sa’diyya Shaikh

Sa’diyya Shaikh is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research is situated at the intersection of Islamic Studies and Gender Studies. She has a special interest in Sufism and its implications for Islamic feminism and feminist theory. Her book Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn Arabi, Gender and Sexuality was published by the University of North Carolina Press (2012); and co-published again in 2013 by both University of Cape Town Press and Munshiram Manoharl Publishers (New Delhi). Her areas of research include gender-sensitive readings of hadith, Quranic exegesis and Sufi texts; theoretical and political debates on Islam and feminism; religion and gender-based violence; contemporary Muslim women’s embodied, experiential and everyday modes of understanding Quranic teachings (“tafsir of praxis”). Shaikh has also completed an empirical project focussed on sexuality, marriage, and reproductive choices amongst South African Muslim women.

http://www.religion.uct.ac.za/religion/staff/academicstaff/sadiyyashaikh [/]

 

Podcasts and Videos by Sa’diyya Shaikh

Ibn Arabi and Reimagining Gender

Intimate Echoes of Self: Gender & Sexuality in Ibn Arabi’s Cosmology

Waking to the Embrace: Applying Ibn Arabi’s Teachings on Embodiment   39:17

Robert Darr

Robert Abdul Hayy Darr has been a student of the spiritual culture of Islam for 45 years. In the late 1960s, he studied North Indian classical music at the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music in California. By the early 1980s, Darr began studying Persian literature where he first encountered the teachings of Ibn 'Arabi in the works of Abdurrahman Jami of Herat. This began a life-long interest in the Shaykh’s profound teachings. In 1987 Darr met Afghanistan’s poet laureate in exile Ustad Khalilullah Khalili, and this friendship led to his English translation of the poet’s quatrains in 1989. From 1988–2007, Darr was tutored in Persian miniature painting by Ustad Homayon Etemadi, Afghanistan’s last court painter and royal librarian. Darr was the disciple of the Afghan Sufi poet Raz Mohammed Zaray from 1992 until the poet’s death in 2010.

https://www.barakainstitute.org/tag/robert-darr/

 

Podcasts and Videos by Robert Darr

Waking to the Embrace: Applying Ibn Arabi’s Teachings on Embodiment

James Winston Morris

James W. Morris (Boston College) has taught and published widely on Islamic and religious studies over the past 40 years at the Universities of Exeter, Princeton, Oberlin, and the Institute of Ismaili Studies in Paris and London, serving recently as visiting professor in Istanbul, Paris, and Jogjakarta. He has lived and studied in regions from Morocco to Indonesia, and he lectures and leads workshops in many countries on Islamic philosophy and theology, Sufism, the Islamic humanities (poetry, music, and visual arts), the Quran and hadith, and esoteric Shiism. Recently he has led interfaith study-abroad programs centering on sacred sites, pilgrimage, sainthood, and related arts and architecture in Turkey and France.

His publications include: Openings:From the Qur’an to the Islamic Humanities (forthcoming); Approaching Ibn ‘Arabi : Foundations, Contexts, Interpretations (forthcoming); Ma‘rifat ar-Rūh in Nur Ali Elahi's Knowing the Spirit (2007), and The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intelligence in Ibn ‘Arabī’s "Meccan Illuminations"(2005).

 

Articles by James W. Morris

Introduction to The Meccan Revelations

Ibn ‘Arabi’s “Short Course” on Love

How to Study the Futuhat: Ibn Arabi’s Own Advice

Hur Man Studerar Futuhat: Ibn Arabis Egna Råd (Swedish)

Ibn Arabi: Spiritual Practice and Other Translations – Overview of the ten following articles:

Some Dreams of Ibn Arabi (PDF)

Body of Light (PDF)

Introducing Ibn Arabi’s “Book of Spiritual Advice” (PDF)

“Book of the Quintessence of What is Indispensable for the Spiritual Seeker” (PDF)

Ibn Arabi on the Barzakh – Chapter 63 of the Futuhat (PDF)

The Spiritual Ascension: Ibn Arabi and the miraj – Chapter 367 of the Futuhat (PDF)

The Mahdi and His Helpers – Chapter 366 of the Futuhat (PDF)

Ibn Arabi’s ‘Esotericism’: The Problem of Spiritual Authority (PDF)

Communication and Spiritual Pedagogy: Methods of Investigation (tahqiq) (PDF)

Rhetoric & Realisation in Ibn Arabi: How Can We Communicate Meanings Today? (PDF)

Listening for God: Prayer and the Heart in the Futuhat | Part 1

Listening for God: Prayer and the Heart in the Futuhat | Part 2

Listening for God: Prayer and the Heart in the Futuhat | Part 3

Listening for God: Prayer and the Heart in the Futuhat | Part 4

Divine Calling, Human Response – Scripture and Realization in the Meccan Illuminations | Part 1

Divine Calling, Human Response – Scripture and Realization in the Meccan Illuminations | Part 2

Opening the Heart: Ibn Arabi on Suffering, Compassion and Atonement

Ibn Arabi and his Interpreters – Overview of 28 articles and reviews in this section

Ibn ‘Arabi and his Interpreters I – Four overviews, description of the following:

Ibn Arabi; in the “Far West” (PDF)

Except His Face: The Political and Aesthetic Dimensions of Ibn Arabi’s Legacy (PDF)

Situating Islamic ‘Mysticism’ (PDF)

Ibn Arabi and His Interpreters — Introduction:
Historical Contexts and Contemporary Perspectives (overview of 28 articles and reviews in this collection)

Ibn Arabi and His Interpreters — Grouping I:
Overviews

Ibn Arabi; in the “Far West” (PDF)

Except His Face: The Political and Aesthetic Dimensions of Ibn Arabi’s Legacy (PDF)

Situating Islamic ‘Mysticism’ (PDF)

“Ibn Arabi and His Interpreters”, JAOS article 1986 (PDF) | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 1 (HTML)

Ibn Arabi and His Interpreters — Grouping II:
Influences in the Pre-Modern Islamic World (all the following 7 articles in one PDF)

Theophany or “Pantheism” – The Importance of Balyani’s Risalat al-Ahadiya

The Continuing Relevance of Qaysari’s Thought: Divine Imagination and the Foundation of Natural Spirituality

Review: La destinée de l’homme selon Avicenne: Le retour à Dieu (maad) et l’imagination by Jean Michot

Review: Kitab al-inbah ‘ala Tariq Allah de ‘Abdallah Badr al-Habashi

Review: La Risala de Safi al-Din ibn Abi l-Mansur ibn Zafir

Review: Manjhan, Madhumalati: An Indian Sufi Romance

Review: Mirror of the Intellect: Essays on Traditional Science and Sacred Art

Ibn Arabi and His Interpreters — Grouping III:
Later Muslim Critics and Polemics (all the following 4 articles in one PDF)

An Arab “Machiavelli”? – Rhetoric, Philosophy and Politics in Ibn Khaldun’s Critique of “Sufism”

Review: Islamic Mysticism Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics

Review: Ibn Arabi and the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam

Review: Theodicy in Islamic Thought: The Dispute over al-Ghazali’s “Best of All Possible Worlds”

Ibn Arabi and His Interpreters — Grouping IV:
Reviews of More Recent Works by and about Ibn Arabi (1985–2002)

Ibn Masarra: A Reconsideration of the Primary Sources (PDF)

 

Podcasts and Videos by James W. Morris

Beyond Belief: Ibn ‘Arabi on the Perennial Challenges of Realization

Inspiration and Discernment: Ibn Arabi’s Introduction to the Challenges of Spiritual Sensitivity and Judgement

“As for your Lord’s blessings, recount them!”: Ibn ‘Arabi’s Storytelling and Spiritual Communication

Becoming Real: Realization and Revelation in Rumi and Ibn Arabi

Whose calling, whose response? Ibn 'Arabi on Divine and Human Responsiveness

Opening the heart in the Futuhat

The “Instruments of Divine Mercy”

“Whoever knows himself...” in the Futuhat

William C. Chittick

William C. Chittick is a philosoper, writer, translator and interpreter of classical Islamic philosophical and mystical texts. He is best known for his work on Rumi and Ibn Arabi, and he has written extensively on the school of Ibn Arabi, Islamic philosophy and Islamic cosmology.

Born in Milford, Connecticut, Chittick finished his BA at the College of Wooster in Ohio, and then went on to complete a PhD in Persian literature at University of Tehran under the supervision of Seyyed Hossein Nasr in 1974. He taught comparative religion at Tehran’s Aryamehr Technical University and left Iran before the revolution. Chittick is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Stony Brook University. He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for his academic contributions in 2014.

To pick out a few books from the 22 listed on his website, the following have been hugely important contributions to modern studies of Ibn 'Arabi: Imaginal Worlds: Ibn al-‛Arabī and the Problem of Religious Diversity (1994, translated into German, Indonesian, Persian, Spanish, Turkish); The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-‛Arabī’s Metaphysics of Imagination (1989, translated into Persian, Turkish, and partially into Indonesian); The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-‛Arabī’s Cosmology (1998); Ibn ‛Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (2005, translated into Albanian, Arabic, German, Persian, Turkish). The Sage Learning of Liu Zhi: Islamic Thought in Confucian Terms (2009, with Sachiko Murata and Tu Weiming);

https://www.williamcchittick.com/ [/]

 

Articles by William C. Chittick

Ibn Arabi’s own Summary of the Fusus (PDF)

The Chapter Headings of the Fusus (PDF)

Two Chapters from the Futuhat (PDF)

The Last Will and Testament of Sadr al-Din Qunawi – Translation

The Central Point – Qunawi’s Role in the School of Ibn Arabi

Jami on Divine Love and the Image of Wine

The Divine Roots of Human Love

Presence with God

The Wisdom of Animals

Death and the Afterlife (PDF, Arabic)

The Anthropology of Compassion

The Religion of Love Revisited

Ibn Arabi: The Doorway to an Intellectual Tradition

Qunawi on the One wujud

Commentary on a Hadith by Sadr al-Din Qunawi

 

Podcasts by William C. Chittick

Ibn Arabi: The Doorway into an Intellectual Tradition

The Religion of Love Revisited

The Anthropology of Compassion in Ibn Arabi’s Futuhat

Interview of 2009 on the Radio Show “Science, Health and Healing”

The Wisdom of Animals