Ibn Arabi -- part 2

This is the second instalment of three part series on Ibn Arabi. To be honest, I don't have that much interest in him as a person or to any of his ideas. Like I said before, Ibn Arabi is a controversial personality and has interesting links to the Zahiri school of thought and Sufism. I haven't written much about Zahiris and almost nothing about Sufism. So why not write about a person whom depending on who you ask, is either thought of very highly as a spiritual master or as a charlatan, who deserve to be condemned.

In part 1 of this topic, the origin and religious background of Ibn Arabi was presented. We also saw a character review done by Ignaz Goldziher, the Hungarian Orientalist.

Ibn Arabi is not an obscure personality. We have a lot of information about him from his writing and from his students. He has written/transcribed between 100-200 books (we don't know the exact number of books, numbers higher than 200 are also sometimes quoted), many which survived until today. Among his famous works are Fusus al-Hikma and Al-Futuhat al-Makkiya.

The following Sufi doctrines/ideas are attributed to ibn Arabi
Unity of Being (Wahdat al-Wujud)
Perfect Man (al-Insan al-Kamil)

Henry Corbin had written extensively on Ibn Arabi. His book, Alone with the Alone, is described as and I quote; bringing a penetrating analysis of Ibn 'Arabi's life and doctrines. I did not read every single pages in this book but just enough to satisfy my curiosity. Perhaps a lot of people have benefited from Ibn Arabi's teaching but I personally find a lot of his ideas imaginary and unbelievable.

After reading some part of Henry Corbin's book, I learned a whole lot about Ibn Arabi spiritual journey; scholarship, his teachers and his insight into Allah swt and Islamic teaching.

Yesterday, we came across Ibn Arabi's dream where he saw Ibn Hazm being flanked by the Prophet of Islam. In Henry Corbin's book, you are again presented with a narration from another dream he had, where he (Ibn Arabi) saw himself being given a valuable treasure by another Prophet (either the staff by Moses or something by Jesus). His interpretation of this dream strike me as someone who is suffering from delusion of grandeur.

to be continued.....

Reference
Henry Corbin (1998). Alone with the Alone. Princeton University Press 978-0691058344