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Ibn 'Arabi and Aspects of Spiritual Universality

23 October 2024

Athanasia Safitri

One of the few Sufi scholars who is both controversial and contradictory is Ibn ʿArabī. His writings are both admired and despised, and he is both mystical and logical. In collaboration with Boston College, an American theologian on Islamic and religious studies, Professor James Morris, gave his insights from Ibn ʿArabī to reveal the conflict between religion and religious studies, also the relation between personal experience and spiritual universality.

Prof. Morris started with the question on how scholars can understand and study the phenomenology of religious experience, which is the most universal dimension. Spiritual universality is a pivotal point to all religious traditions and could stand as a modern discipline for all practitioners. Realization, which combines intellectual and spiritual knowledge, helped to develop potential solutions for the problem caused by viewing religious studies solely from one perspective.

Dilemmas on religious studies

Theologians mostly ask if particular teachings are true, but those taking a religious study approach will ask whether it's real or not. Techniques, methods, and approaches have been developed in the Islamic tradition in combined critical and phenomenal approaches. Until now, most studies are seen from either a social, political, or anthropological approach rather than from a religious point of view itself since the experience which is studied must be religious.

The study of religion, Prof. Morris states, grows mainly out of the essential questions of where people are from, where do they go in the afterlife, and what do they need to do to keep going. Most people in general can only get the answers when they reach college or higher education so most theologians dedicate their time to help the undergraduates understand more. The dilemma is how scholars can discuss religious experience without being taken as the experts from that particular group . However, avoiding sharing personal religious experience is not a sustainable solution. A notable difference between scholars on the graduate level and undergraduate level is that graduate scholars tend to talk about universality in terms of social, political, and historical views, whereas undergraduates tend to focus on classical topics in religious traditions.

Ibn ʿArabī and religious studies

Ibn ʿArabī has been a reference for Muslim scholars to study their own faith, communicate among their experience, and consider the same reality experienced by people of other religions. The political dimension of Islamic studies is now being connected with many Islamic movements. ʿArabī’s ideas were influenced by the spiritual experiences of people from different religious traditions. His characteristic approach of realization, or “tahqiq”, combined spiritual and intellectual understanding, and bridged the gap between the two. 

ʿArabī, as explained by Prof. Morris, highlighted the problems of spiritual discernment and the importance of situations since it connects with methods, religious conducts, the intersection of theology and actual experiences, and how it is both practiced and shared. Not to mention how it could be interpreted by other people and turned into part of religious traditions. Spiritual experiences of religious figures are looked upon by religious people in terms of discernment to improve their religiosity.

During his talk, Prof. Morris emphasized ʿArabī's distinctive spiritual philosophy, which stresses the divine and all beings' interconnectivity. He emphasized that 'Arabi's teachings inspire people to see past their religious connections and acknowledge the universal human experiences that unite every human being. This viewpoint is especially important in the modern world since religious disagreements frequently lead to conflicts and even war. Acknowledging these universal characteristics could promote friendship and collaboration, resolving disputes brought on by misinterpretations of religion.