Murcia, Al-Andalus (modern Spain)·1165 – 1240
ابن عربی
Ibn Arabi
Al-Shaykh al-Akbar — The Greatest Master
He saw one Being wearing ten thousand masks.
“My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks, a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Ka’ba, the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran. I follow the religion of Love.”
Life
Muhyiddin Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Arabi was born in 1165 in Murcia, in the waning days of Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain). He received a classical Islamic education and, at a young age, had a series of visionary experiences that set him on the mystical path. He traveled extensively across the Islamic world — North Africa, Mecca, Anatolia, Syria — encountering hundreds of teachers and producing an output of staggering volume.
His magnum opus, Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Revelations), runs to over 17,000 pages in the Arabic original and constitutes perhaps the largest single work of metaphysics ever written. His shorter Fusus al-Hikam (The Bezels of Wisdom) distills his teaching into twenty-seven chapters, each centered on a prophet as the bearer of a particular divine attribute.
He settled in Damascus in 1223 and remained there until his death on 16 November 1240. He is buried at the foot of Mount Qasiyun. He was given the title al-Shaykh al-Akbar (the Greatest Master), and his influence on Islamic mysticism, philosophy, and theology is immeasurable.
One Heart
“My heart has become capable of every form: a pasture for gazelles, a convent for Christian monks, a temple for idols, the Ka’ba for the pilgrim, the tablets of the Torah, the pages of the Quran. I follow the religion of Love.”
Teachings
Wahdat al-Wujud — The Unity of Being
There is only one Being: God. Everything that appears to exist is a manifestation, a self-disclosure (tajalli), of this one Reality. The world is not illusion but theophany — God showing Himself to Himself through infinite forms.
The Perfect Human (Al-Insan al-Kamil)
The human being is the mirror in which God sees Himself. The “Perfect Human” is one who has fully realized this: every divine name and attribute is reflected in their being. This is not a distant ideal but the latent reality of every soul.
The Religion of Love
Ibn Arabi transcends all sectarian boundaries. His heart is “capable of every form” — mosque, temple, church, Ka’ba. The ultimate religion is love, which recognizes the divine in every form of worship.
Works & Publications
Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Revelations)
Over 17,000 pages of visionary metaphysics, cosmology, and spiritual psychology — the largest single work of Sufi literature.
Fusus al-Hikam (The Bezels of Wisdom)
Twenty-seven chapters on the prophets, each embodying a particular facet of divine wisdom. His most studied and debated work.
Tarjuman al-Ashwaq (The Interpreter of Desires)
Love poems inspired by his encounter with a young woman in Mecca, read simultaneously as human love poetry and mystical theology.
An Inspiration
Ibn Arabi’s Wahdat al-Wujud is the Sufi expression of Advaita. His “Unity of Being” parallels Shankara’s “Brahman alone is real”; his “religion of Love” dissolves the very boundaries between the traditions Ananta draws from.