European Philosophies and the Ideas of Ibn-ul-Arabi in 19th-Century Sufi Context of Punjab

یورپی فلسفے اور ابن عربی کے نظریات – انیسویں صدی کے پنجابی صوفی تناظر میں

Authors

  • Hussain Ahmad Khan Institute of History, Government College University, Lahore

Keywords:

Chishtiyya Sufis, Ibn-ul-Arabi, positivism, utilitarianism and naturalist

Abstract

In the Punjab, Ibn Arabi’s wajudi ideas remained a point of reverence among the Chishtiyya Sufi circles throughout the 19th-Century. One of the important reasons of their interest in Ibn Arabi was that he was considered in Sufi traditions as “the seal of the sainthood” and inheritor of prophet Muhammad’s heritage. The path of Ibn Arabi equipped the 19th-Century Chishti Sufis with necessary tools to confront the onslaught of western ideas. At least for the Punjabi Sufis and for their disciples as well, Ibn Arabi provided satisfactory answers to the European ideas like positivism, utilitarianism, and naturalism, in defence of the Sufi tradition.

References

Ian Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947 (New Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1988), p.25.

Haji Najmuddin Sulemani, Munaqbatul mah’bubeen, p. 123.

Ian Talbot, Punjab and the Raj, 1849-1947, p.25. Also see MZ Siddiqi, “The Resurgence of the Chishti Silsila in 18th-Century Punjab”, The Punjab Past and Present, V, 11 (1971), p. 259

Khalil Ahmad Nizami, tareekh-e-mushaikh-e-Chisht, p. 705.

See various definitions of unity of being from the perspective of various Sufi, Javad Nurbakhsh, Sufi Symbolism, The Nubakhshi Encyclopedia of Sufi Terminology (Farhang-e Nurbakhshi), Vol.III (London & NY: Khaniqahi-Nimatullahi Publications, 1987), pp.53-55.

Quoted in Michel Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without Shore: Ibn Arabi, The Book, and the Law (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), p.2.

Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of ibn Arabi, translated from French by Ralph Manheim (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969)

Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimension of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975), p.357. Also see Annemarie Schimmel, Islam and the Indian Subcontinent (Leiden, 1980).

See Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India: From Sixteenth Century to Modern Century, Vol. II (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 2004)

Qazi Javed, Punjab key sufi danishwer (Lahore: Fiction House, 2010)

Clement Huart, Litterature arabe (Paris, 1932), p.275, quoted in Michel Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without Shore: Ibn Arabi, The Book, and the Law (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), p.1.

AJ Aberry, Sufism: An Account of the Mystics of Islam (London, 1950), p.99.

Rom Landau, The Philosophy of Ibn Arabi (London, 1959), pp. 24-25.

Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p.120.

Qazi Javed, Punjab key sufi danishwer (Lahore: Fiction House, 2010), pp. 214-15.

Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p.114.

Niccola Abbagnano, “Positivism”, p.414.

Markham (ed.) Henri Comte de Saint-Simon 1760-1825, Selected Writings (Oxford: Blackwell Oxford, 1952).

Auguste Comte, General View of Positivism (1830-42) from A General View of Positivism, translated by J H Bridges, (Robert Speller and Sons, 1957).

Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to Principles of Morals and Legislation. Also see Of Laws in General.

Peter Coates, Ibn Arabi and Modern Thought: The History of Taking Metaphysics Seriously (Oxford: Anqa Publishing, 2002), p.66.

“We live with the present moment. With reason we deny what reason denies, since then our present moment is reason, but we do not deny it by unveiling or the Law. With the Law we deny what the Law denies, since our present moment is the Law, but we do not deny it by unveiling or by reason. As for unveiling, it denies nothing. On the contrary, it establishes each thing in its proper level. He whose present moment is unveiling will be denied, but he will deny no one. He whose present moment is reason will deny and be denied, and he whose present moment is the Law will deny and be denied”. Richard K Khuri, Freedom, Modernity and Islam: Towards a Creative Synthesis (USA: Richard K Khuri, 1998), p. 201.

Peter Coates, Ibn Arabi and Modern Thought: The History of Taking Metaphysics Seriously (Oxford: Anqa Publishing, 2002), p.67.

Ibn Arabi, Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries, translated by Cecilia Twinch and Pablo Beneito, (Oxford: Anqa Publishing, 2008), p.102.

Jeremy Bentham, Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789)

Geoffrey Scarre, Utilitarianism: The Problems of Philosophy (London & New York: Routledge, 1996), p.5.

John Stuart Mills, Utilitarianism, ii, 1863.

Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without a Shore, p. 24.

Robert J Dobie, Logos and Revelation: Ibn Arabi, Meister Eckhart, and Mystical Hermeneutics (USA: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), p.28.

Ibn Arabi, The Four Pillars of Spiritual Transformation, translated by Stephen Hirtenstein (Oxford: Anqa Publishing, 2008), p. 28.

Lilian R Furst and Peter N Skrine, Naturalism: The Critical Idiom (London: Cox & Wyman, 1971), p.2.

Ibid, p.3.

Ibid

Ibid, p.4.

Michael Anthony Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp.105-106

Ibid, p.106.

(Quran, 50: 15)

Ibn Arabi quoted in Michael Anthony Sells, Mystical Languages of Unsaying (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), p.106.

Ibn Arabi, Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries, translated by Cecilia Twinch and Pablo Beneito, (Oxford: Anqa Publishing, 2008), p.102. In the same work, Ibn Arabi criticizes materialists. According to him:

“Then came the call, “Where are the materialists (al-dahriyya)?”

They were brought and they were told, “You are those who profess: ‘And only Time (dahr) can destroy us’. Didn’t your innermost feelings tell you that you would arrive in this place”?

They replied, “No, our Lord”.

He said, “Didn’t the envoys bring you indisputable evidence?”

They denied it and said, “God did not reveal anything”. Away with you for you have no excuse!” They were thrown headlong into the fire of Hell”.

Ibn Arabi, Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries, translated by Cecilia Twinch and Pablo Beneito, (Oxford: Anqa Publishing, 2008), pp. 102-3.

Samer Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Pre-modern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005), p.45.

Samer Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Pre-modern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005), p.45.

Quran, Sura 42:11.

“If a geometer (muhandis) , who is also a carpenter, is not skilful in practice, he may reveal the knowledge he has in the form of words to the hearing of one who is skilful in carpentry. This revelation causes a marriage relationship. The speech of the geometer is a father and the receptivity of the listener is a mother. The knowledge of the listener then becomes a father, and the organs of his body become a mother. And if you wish you may say that the geometer is father, and the craftsman, who is the carpenter, in that he listens to what the geometer tells him, is a mother. Now if the geometer’s speech causes an effect in the carpenter, the geometer has imprinted that which is revealed to the carpenter and occurred clearly in his imagination by what the geometer has told him, is as the child to whom his understanding has given birth. Then the carpenter’s work is a father with regard to timber, which is the mother of carpentry; and by means of the instrument the marriage and ejaculation of sperms occur, which is the effect of every hit by the hammer or cut by the saw, and every cut, separation, and union of the articulated pieces in order to compose forms”. Quoted in Samer Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Pre-modern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005), pp.47-48.

Ghazali explains it as “There is no doubt that the most excellent of things known, and the most glorious, and the highest of them, and the most honoured, is God the maker (sani), the creator, the truth, the one. For knowledge of him, which is knowledge of divine unity, is the most excellent branch of knowledge, the most glorious and most perfect. This knowledge is necessary and must be acquired by all rational beings;;; But this science, though it is excellent in essence and perfect in itself, does not do away with other sciences; indeed, it is not attained except by means of many antecedents, and those antecedents cannot be ordered aright except through various sciences, such as the science of the heavenly bodies and the spheres and the science of all made things. And from the science of divine unity derives other branches of science”. Quoted in Samer Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Pre-modern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005), p.48.

“There is no doubt that the most excellent of things known, and the most glorious, and the highest of them, and the most honoured, is God the maker (sani), the creator, the truth, the one. For knowledge of him, which is knowledge of divine unity, is the most excellent branch of knowledge, the most glorious and most perfect. This knowledge is necessary and must be acquired by all rational beings; But this science, though it is excellent in essence and perfect in itself, does not do away with other sciences; indeed, it is not attained except by means of many antecedents, and those antecedents cannot be ordered aright except through various sciences, such as the science of the heavenly bodies and the spheres and the science of all made things. And from the science of divine unity derives other branches of science”

Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p.82.

For Wajud, Ibn Arabi uses ahl al-kashf wa’l-wajud (“the folk of unveiling and finding”), and ahl ash-shuhud wa’l-wajud (“the folk of witnessing and finding”), using wajud in a sense of search and consciousness. William C Chittick, Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2005), pp.36-37.

William C Chittick, Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2005), p.71. For the first time, Sa’id ad-Din Farghani, a disciple of Sadr ad-Din Qunawi used the term wahdat al-wajud to describe Ibn Arabi’s concept of wajud. Qunawi was close disciple of Ibn Arabi.

Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p.83.

“The knowledge that God has of Himself is identical to the knowledge He has of the universe, for the universe is eternally known by Him, even when it is non-existent. On the other hand, the universe, at that moment, does not know itself because it does not exist […] He never ceases to be and , consequently, His knowledge of Himself is His knowledge of the universe; thus, He never ceases knowing the universe. Consequently, He knows the universe in its state of non existence: He existentiated it according to what it was in His knowledge”. Ibn Arabi quoted in Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p.86.

William C Chittick, Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2005), p.40.

To quote Ibn Arabi, the “possible (entity) does not know itself until after being existentiated by the fait; it is then that it discovers itself, that it knows and that it contemplates its entity”. In Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p.88.

The “possible (entity) does not know itself until after being existentiated by the fait; it is then that it discovers itself, that it knows and that it contemplates its entity”.

Quoted in Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p.62.

Ibn Arabi terms Adam as “abridgment of the macrocosm (mukhtasar al-alam al-kabir)”, Michel Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without Shore: Ibn Arabi, The Book, and the Law (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), p.38.

“Abridgment of the macrocosm (mukhtasar al-alam al-kabir)”,

Quoted in Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p. 23.

William C Chittick, Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2005), p. 51.

In chapter 337 of Futuhat, Ibn Arabi writes: “The Prophet received specific privileges that have never been giben to any other prophet before; but no prophet has received a privilege that was not given in equal measure to Muhammad, since he received the “Sum of Words.’ He said, ‘I was a prophet when Adam was between clay and water’, while the other prophets became prophets only at the time of their historical manifestation. […] It is because of this that he is the one who assists every Perfect Man, whether he is the beneficiary of a revealed Law or the beneficiary of inspired knowledge […] when he appeared, he was like the sun in which all light is lost […]. His rank in wisdom encompasses the knowledge of all those who know God among the first and among the last […]. His Law includes all men without exception, and his mercy, by virtue of which he was sent, embraces the whole universe […]. His community (umma) encompasses all beings, as he was sent to them all; whether they believe in him or not , all beings are included…”. Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p.22.

For a brief commentary on the tabqat al-awliya (classes of saints) in Ibn Arabi’s Futuhat, see Michel Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without Shore: Ibn Arabi, The Book, and the Law (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), pp.46-54.

Quoted in Samer Akkach, Cosmology and Architecture in Pre-modern Islam: An Architectural Reading of Mystical Ideas (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005), p.49.

Michel Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without Shore: Ibn Arabi, The Book, and the Law (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), p.31.

Examples of ummi Sufis are Abu Yaza (a Berber Sufi who could not read and write but was able to correct the recitation of Quran), Abu Jaffar al-Uryabi (farmer by profession and spiritual guide of Ibn Arabi), and Abu Yazid Al-Bistami (who spiritually initiated his master, Abu Ali al-Sindi) can be quoted here.

Michel Chodkiewicz, An Ocean without Shore: Ibn Arabi, The Book, and the Law (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), p.32.

Life is the prerequisite of knowledge. Ibn Arabi refers to four divine names, living, knowing, desiring and powerful through which we can make sense of basic principles of this universe. Wajud knows everything, this knowing leads his desires which manifest in his use of power and the creative process in the universe. In other words, Oneness of God has complete awareness and control of everything emanating from his existence or essence. Thus Ibn Arabi and his followers believe that life is precondition of knowledge and everything in this universe is meaningful, ignoring every possibility of accidents. Amir Abd al-Qadir Algerian anti-colonial Sufi, writes in his Book of Stations, “In everything His act and His choice are according to what the essence of that thing demands. Infact, the universal predispositions are not extrinsic to the things. His acts are determined by His knowledge and His knowledge, in its turn, is determined by its objects”. Michel Chodkiewicz, The Spiritual Writings of Amir Abd al-Kader (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), p.119.

Quoted in Claude Addas, Ibn Arabi: The Voyage of No Return, translated from the French by David Streight (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 2000), p. 93.

William C Chittick, Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2005), p.71.

William C Chittick, Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2005), p.72.

“Prophecy is the proclamation of divine truths, involving gnosis of the divine essence, names, attributes, and commandments”. Javad Nurbakhsh, Sufi Symbolism, The Nubakhshi Encyclopedia of Sufi Terminology (Farhang-e Nurbakhshi), Vol.II (London & NY: Khaniqahi-Nimatullahi Publications, 1987), p.61, also see p.62.

“The intelligent person should not partake of any knowledge save that which is touched by imperative need. He should struggle to acquire what is transferred along with him when he is transferred This is none other than two knowledges specifically – knowledge of God, and knowledge of the homesteads of the after world and what is required by its stations, so that he may walk there as he walks in his own home and not deny anything whatsoever”. William C Chittick, In search of the lost heart Explorations in Islamic thought (Albany: State University of Ney York Press, 2012), p. 103.

William C Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-Arabi’s Cosmology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), p.3.

Javad Nurbakhsh, Sufi Symbolism, The Nubakhshi Encyclopaedia of Sufi Terminology (Farhang-e Nurbakhshi), Vol.IV (London & NY: Khaniqahi-Nimatullahi Publications, 1990), p.105.

Hafez.

William C Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), p.167.

William C Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn Arabi’s Metaphysics of Imagination (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), p.xii. A medieval Indian Chishti Sufi, Diya al-Din Nakhshabi (d.1350), describes the importance of the purity of heart for acquiring true perspective of knowledge as: “Iblis the Tempter opened the mouth of Adam, which was the passage through which his life [as breath] arose. Iblis rushed quickly down this passageway. He made his way to every body part and each organ and declared, ‘this is simple!’ When Iblis arrived at the heart, every secret visible from the vast cosmic Throne of God was visible there within that small, pinecone-shaped lumped of flesh. The Throne of God is the place of God’s sitting firmly and ruling in the macrocosmic world, and can be described as merciful intentionality (rahmaniyya). Similarly, in the microcosmic world, the heart is like the Throne, the place where God’s presence abides, and can be described as subtle spirituality (ruhanniya). However, the heart only lives up to his description once its potential has been actualized through purifying refinements and progressive developments…My dear brothers and sisters, do you know why Iblis failed to grasp the heart of Adam on that fateful day? It was because, from the eternity before time, Iblis was destined to be rejected by all hearts. From this first moment when one heart, that of Adam, rejected him and repulsed him, until the day of judgment, no true heart will accept the tempter. Talking about the acceptance of heart is a discourse that should transpire from one heart directly to another heart. Although I am helpless in mastering my own heart, I still cannot be separated, even for a moment, from the innate nature that runs through my blood. So let me speak from the heart about the heart! If you have a heart, listen well and take heart”. Quoted in Scott Kugle, Sufi and Saints’ Bodoies: Mysticism, Corporeality, & Sacred Power in Islam (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2007), pp.293-4.

William C Chittick, Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2005), p.78.

William C Chittick, “Ibn al-Arabi on Participating in the Mystery”, in Jorge Noguera Ferrer, Jacob H. Sherman (eds.), The Paticipatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008), p. 249.

Ibn Arabi writes, “One condition for the owner of this station is that the Real should be his hearing, his eyesight, his hand, his leg, and all the faculties that he puts to use. He acts in things only through a haqq, in a haqq. This description belongs only to a beloved. He is not beloved until he is given nearness…God shows the realizer all affairs as established by the divine wisdom. He who has been given this knowledge has been given what is necessary for each of God’s creatures…Wheat is desired from realization is knowledge of what is rightly demanded by each affair, whether it be nonexistent or existent. The realizer even gives the unreal [batil] its haqq and does not take it outside its proper place”. Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, p.97.

Quran 2:115.

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Published

2022-03-31

How to Cite

Hussain Ahmad Khan. (2022). European Philosophies and the Ideas of Ibn-ul-Arabi in 19th-Century Sufi Context of Punjab: یورپی فلسفے اور ابن عربی کے نظریات – انیسویں صدی کے پنجابی صوفی تناظر میں. Al Khadim Research Journal of Islamic Culture and Civilization, 3(1), 110–127. Retrieved from http://arjicc.com/index.php/arjicc/article/view/171