An Ocean Without Shore: Ibn Arabi, The Book, And The Law

The works of the great Andalucian theosopher Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) have an exceptional value. This does not mean that they are well-known. Despite translations, their immensity discourages the efforts, and it is necessary to refer back, sometimes, to those who dedicated their lives to read Ibn Arabi exhaustively to grasp, in a nutshell, the ultimate spirituality deployed in these thousands of pages. Michel Chodkiewicz has again, in his latest book, put forward a question concerning the integral interpretation of Ibn Arabi, by multiplying tiring readings of precision and knowledge. Let's dig in further: In this [latest] meditation he explores further meanings of the spiritual conquests of Mecca, this "ocean with no limits" of the gnosis which corresponds to the unlimited ocean of Quranic scripture. Michel Chodkiewicz proposes, for those who know how to read it, a thesis on Islam and the destiny of its Community. Thence we have at our hands a guide to access the writings of Ibn Arabi, and command a most instructed, authoritative, judgement on the essence of "submission" or "obedience" to God, the ultimate attitude of whoever wants to be a Muslim.It is astounding that of the numerous authors who commented on Ibn Arabi, and those who cited him, and those who praised him, in Sunni Islam and in Shi'i Islam, never conceived the project to elucidate, publically, the scheme of Ibn Arabi's major work. Michel Chodkiewicz discovers that this [the absence of such a general review] is neither due to ignorance, nor is the consequence of some amateurism, but is due to an esoteric reading [of Islam] guarded in secrecy. One must note that this dangerous word has a very precise meaning: Reading Ibn Arabi is not throwing words haphazard with an arbitrary meaning which might mean love. This is a manifestation of hidden and complex relations [with the One] which consider [in their expressions] the veiled structures of the Book and thought.Here is what Michel Chodkiewicz proves in detail: The structure of thought is always governed by the rigourous structures, infinite in power, of the Quranic text. Put in other words, there exists a conscious homology, a munitious correspondence between the order of the Surahs, cut into verses, the pauses in the reading of such verses, sometimes even between isolated words in the Quran and the order of the chapters, their themes, the intention that guides them or the inspiration that they yield. The structure of these spiritual Conquests (Futuhat) is the same as thatof the Holy Quran.What are then the results? First, we have to renounce the claim that "Ibn Arabi's method, the method of this grand Sufi, is equivalent in the Sunnite understanding to the exegesis of extremist Shiites: The Ta'wil (interpretation)." If the Ismailites of Alamout, for exemple, conceived that exegetic understanding of the holy book amounts to transgression and an abrogation of the letter of the faith [the french text here is very confusing] the same does not hold in Ibn Arabi's understanding. In fact,Ismailite Shiites value the letter of the faith by easing the symbol of the haqiqa, essential reality of the divine expression. [This understanding] makes it necessary [for Ismailites] to effect a metamorphosis of the [original meanings of the Quranic text], and bring about, under the guise of apparent meanings, a series of hidden understandings, sometimes out of touch with the spirit of the original text. In such a view, the haqiqa is no longer Law (the Sharia) itself, it is not even the legal body of the religion ordaining private and public obligations. [Haqiqa] is then the antithesis: the abolition of this same religious legal binding.The [Quranic] text identifies LawThe view of Ibn Arabi is then the complete opposite: Text, mystical inspiration, and "devoilement" (Kashf - "Divine Unveiling") are rigourously put to the ultimate judgement of the Quranic text. The text is the norm in this quest. The letter of the book governs the order of the symbols (thence the sequence of theophanies is dictated by the verses of the second surah). [sic -- actually third]. In the final analysis, it is the letter, identified with the law, that formulates the essential truth of the verbium, "Law is not the symbol of the haqiqa, it is the haqiqa." Let's stress here that Michel Chodkiewicz includes a remarkable critique of allegorism, targetting Philon of Alexandria, paralleling the works of Benny Levy, a Jewish scholar, in his "le Logos et la Lettre". This yieldsa second consequence, namely that the gnosis of Ibn Arabi is a call to a "state of childhood" which is the condition for a testing of litteral interpretation, to a practice that is based on the verses [of the Quran].This richness of Parole yields a realisation of the whole architecture of the spiritual states of prayer, or the [complete] submission of the faithful to his Lord, expressing the eternal state of mankind.More than a legalism, reverting to Law (Shari'a) is a discovery of the ontological status, the 'Ubudiyyah, which constitutes as such the state of the servant ('abd). We will read [in "Oceans with no limits"] vibrant pages where Michel Chodkiewicz relates the silence of free-will, the silence of intelligence, and the silence of the being. Such will be the authentic mystical experience, where the beings join the "unique being" (Ittihad). Law (Sharia) is then the vehicle. Michel Chodkiewicz proposes, in Ibn Arabi, a modal of the Islamic conscience, between two perils of pseudo--litteralism of exoterist doctors of the faith ([official] Saudi Islam ?) and messianic Shiite exigesis. In this understanding, Ibn Arabi is viewed at the origin of an irenic [conducive to or operating toward peace or conciliation] legality. Is it true that the whole debate [in Islam] revolves around this [central] theme: The spiritual realization of Islam. Does is essentially pass through Law (Sharia) or does it suppose the antithesis of the Law (the Imam for Shi'ites for example) ?

Clearly the first two reviewers not only did not read this book, but they lack scholarly sophistication which makes there contributions saddening. Shiism is a jewish conspiracy? This seems to be the case with everything that the fundamentalist-bent Muslims don't like. Shias, Ahmadis, you name it, they are all jewish conspiracies. Please. Moreover, Ibn Arabi was not a Shia and had no affiliation with Shias at all. He was, in fact, an orthodox Sunni. The hidden agenda behind such reviewers is that they wish to disqualify Ibn Arabi because so much of what he says go directly against the narrow-minded and impoverished views of the "ulama" of today. This has been an effort on their part since Ibn Arabi's time and the principle reason why only Western scholars have delved into studying Ibn Arabi.Although the Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi and Maliki schools of thought are well known, many do not realize that Ibn Arabi could very well be the 5th. His level of scholarship on Islam, both before and after him, is unsurpassed, him having produced the densest and deepest works of all the great Sufis and legal scholars. Scholars like Chodkiewicz do humanity a great service by increasing accessibility to Ibn Arabi and showing the relevance of his writings. Thank you.

(Sorry but English it is not my mother-tongue) Althought there have been a lot of works wrtten in this last 15 years (thanks to Chittick, Morris, Gril and many more) this remains, with Seal of the Saints, an incredible book: academic in its precision and schoolarship, but inspiring and aweful in its meaning and kowledge. I thinks these are two "must" lectures for anyone who want to plunge himself in Ibn 'Arabi's lessons, in sufism in general, and in the meanings of the Qur'an. "Sidi" Chodkiewizc, in his discrection, is still an outstanding figure in Ibn 'Arabi's studies, and a helpful hand to enter in the meaning of Islam and sufism.