Meccan Revelations
The Meccan Revelations (Arabic: كِتَابُ الفُتُوحَاتِ المَكِّيَّة, romanized: Kitâb Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya)[1] is the major work of the philosopher and Sufi Ibn Arabi, written between 1203 and 1240.
Original title | الفُتُوحَات المكّيّة |
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The Andalusi thinker exposes his spiritual journey, his theology, his metaphysics and his mysticism, using sometimes prose, sometimes poetry. The book contains autobiographical elements: encounters, events, and spiritual illuminations.
Structure
The Revelations is a book of 37 volumes, divided into 560 chapters.[2]
Content
The book takes its title from the holy city of Mecca, to which Ibn Arabi travelled on pilgrimage in 1202, and in which he received a number of revelations of divine origin.
In the Illuminations Ibn Arabi develops a theory of the imagination and the imaginary world explained by Henry Corbin.[3] There is also a psychological and religious description of the effects of Allah's Love (in both the subjective and objective sense of expression).
According to Michel Chodkiewicz, this book occupies a particularly important place in Ibn Arabi's work because it represents "the ultimate state of his teaching in its most complete form".[4]
Women, poetry, religious love
Women are prominently featured in the book, particularly in Chapter 178 on love. Ibn Arabi is initiated into religious experience by a spiritual woman called Nizham, a young Iranian woman whose name means "Harmony". He quotes the poems of the writer Rabia of Basra, who according to him is "the most prestigious interpreter" of love.[5] Ibn Arabi also recounts his encounter and service to mystic Fatima bint al-Muthanna, with whom he recites Al Fātiḥah (the first surah of the Quran) and whose degree of spiritual elevation he admires.[6]
Legacy
The Illuminations are a classic of Sufism, theology and Islamic philosophy. They influenced the "Spiritual Writings" of the emir Abd el-Kader, who published the book in 1857, and perhaps Dante.[7]. Henry Corbin compared Dante's Béatrice, which leads the poet to paradise in the Divine Comedy and awakens him to love in the Vita Nuova, to Ibn Arabi's Nizhâm, a mystical woman who initiates the Andalusian philosopher to the experience of God's love.[8]
References
- Introduction to The Meccan Revelations on Ibnarabisociety
- Constant Hamès, Ibn Arabî, Les Illuminations de La Mecque (compte rendu), Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 1990, Vol. 72, N°1, p. 266-267.
- Henry Corbin, L'imagination créatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn Arabi.
- Michel Chodkiewicz (1997). Avant-propos in Les Illuminations de La Mecque (in French). Paris: Albin Michel. p. 10..
- Treaty of Love, p. 247.
- Traité de l'amour, p. 188-190.
- The hypothesis of Ibn Arabi's influence on Dante comes from Miguel Asin Palacios See « After Ibn Arabi ».
- Florian Besson, "Ibn Arabî", Les Clés du Moyen Orient, 1 April 2013.
Bibliography
- Partial editions
- Anthology: Les Illuminations de La Mecque, Paris, Éditions Albin Michel, 2008 (1988), Spiritualités vivantes , trans. Michel Chodkiewicz.
- Anthology: Les Révélations de La Mecque, Paris, Entrelacs, 2009, trans. Abdallah Penot.
- Two chapters in: Par-delà le miroir, Paris, Entrelacs, 2012, "Hikma", trans. Abdallah Penot.
- Chapters 61 to 65: De la mort à la résurrection, Paris, Albouraq, 2009, trans. Maurice Gloton.
- Chapter 167: L'Alchimie du Bonheur parfait, Paris, Berg International, 1981, trans. Stéphane Ruspoli.
- Chapitre 178 : Traité de l'amour, Paris, Albin Michel, 1986, "Spiritualités vivantes", trans. Maurice Gloton.
- Studies
- Claude Addas, Expérience et doctrine de l'amour chez Ibn Arabî, in Mystique musulmane (collective work), Paris, Cariscript, 2002.
- Henry Corbin, L'imagination créatrice dans le soufisme d'Ibn Arabi, Paris, Flammarion, 1958, reprint Flammarion-Aubier, 1993.
- George Grigore, Le concept d’amour chez Ibn 'Arabi, "Romano-Arabica", II, Bucharest: Center for Arab Studies. 2002; p. 119-134.