International Society for Iranian Studies

An Ocean without Shore: Ibn Arabi, the Book, and the Law by Michel Chodkiewicz Review by: Eric Winkel Iranian Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1/4, Religion and Society in Islamic Iran during the Pre-Modern Era (1994), pp. 221-223 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society for Iranian Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4310911 . Accessed: 30/08/2013 14:00
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Reviews 221 An Ocean Without Shore: Ibn Arabi, the Book, and the Law, Michel Chodkiewicz, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1993, 184 pp. book includes presentationsof Michel Chodkiewicz given in This remarkable Moscow and Murcia,Parisand Princeton, a fact which alone is enough to suggest the universality and wide diffusion of interest in Ibn 'Arabi. As much as the universality of Ibn 'Arabi's vision, it is previous scholars have appreciated Michel Chodkiewicz who has actually mappedout the diffusion of the akbarian legacy. William Chittick's The Sufi Path of Knowledge (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1989) demonstratesthat due to many factors, not least the difficulty of the Futiuhit, scholars have concentrated on an "Eastem"Ibn 'Arabi. But the bulk of Chittick's materialis from the Futuhat, and there one finds a "Western," particularly Arab, Ibn 'Arabi. The great contemporaryscholarshipof Corbin, Nasr, Isutzu, and the "early"Chittick gave us a thorough unof the Ibn 'Arabithatcame throughcenturiesof commentaryand disderstanding cussion, throughthe greatthinkerslike HaydarAmoli and Mulla Sadra-a tradition alive to this day in Iranand among Shi'i thinkers. The traditionseemingly moves as a chain througha steady procession of links of great literature,moving inexorablyto a vision like Corbin's, where the essence of Sufism and Shi'ism is one. But a readingof the FutuThat, such as that providedby Chittick in Sufi Path of Knowledge, convinces one that that dimension is not the whole of Ibn 'Arabi. And if it is not the whole of Ibn 'Arabi-if one can perceive an Arab Ibn 'Arabi,an Ibn 'Arabi concernedwith exotericism and legal discourse(fiqh), an Ibn 'Arabi who insists that the haqiqah (truth)is the shari'ah-then the question becomes: what happenedto this Ibn 'Arabi? Chodkiewiczremindsus thatIbn Hajaral-'Asqalaniremarked perplexedlythat at first Ibn 'Arabi was received quite enthusiastically among the Sunnis (ahl alsunnah). Vilification of Ibn 'Arabi was a later phenomenon, and one which repeateditself recently in the Egyptian parliament, where the vilifiers, without readinghim themselves, attackedconcepts like unity of being (wahdat al-wuj4d) which are not found in Ibn 'Arabi's own writings.' They were, and are, in effect, Ibn 'Arabi. But althoughChodkiewicz demonstratesthat attackingthe "Eastern" Ibn 'Arabiis possibly the most literal interpreter of the "plaintext" (nass) of the Qur'anand the sunnah, and thatIbn 'Arabi'sfiqh is integral to his entire vision, he does not suggest that conventional ulama will love him for this. Where is Ibn 'Arabi? Chodkiewicz'sansweris thatIbn 'Arabi'sideas are very much alive and well in Sunni circles. Insteadof looking for the "greatliterature" left by the great Shi'i
1. Chittick explains that Ibn 'Arabi never employed the term wahdatal-wujuid, but that "By the seventeenth century, there was a received wisdom concerning what he had said, and it was this that became the object of debate" (TheSufi Pathof Knowledge, 226).

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222 Reviews scholars, one must look for the diffusion of basic concepts of Ibn 'Arabi's works. Employing their own pious dissimulation (taqiyah), the Sunni ulama tendedto revile or ignore Ibn 'Arabi in broadlypublic spheres, while teaching him in privatecircles. Foundersof the Sufi paths Quruq)were able to pass on complete systems of spiritualjourneying by relying on the articulatefoundation laid by Ibn 'Arabi. And local shaykhs, Sufis and imams gained access to Ibn 'Arabi'sworks through his popularizers,like Sha'rani. Chodkiewicz'sdescription of this diffusion is fascinating, as he takes the readerthrough some Sufi lodge (zawiyah) libraryto the stories of some local saint, finding resonancesof Ibn 'Arabi's thoughtthroughout. of Ibn But beyond the importanceof establishinga more complete understanding 'Arabi,Chodkiewicz accomplishes two other things. First, he shows how Ibn 'Arabi's works are an extendedcommentaryof the Qur'an. Previous readers the Futuhdt as "a disorganized characterized encyclopediaof bookish knowledge [or] a heteroclitecollection of sequences whose juxtapositionmight be explained by surprisesof inspiration"(p. 64), and it is no coincidencethat the "haphazard" in the Qur'anis paralleledin the Futuhat. The basic key to the ararrangement rangementis given by Chodkiewicz, who shows that for Ibn 'Arabi "if Revelation descends from God towardhumanity, the route for the viator is symmetrically an ascending routethat,contraryto the usual orderof the Qur'anicVulgate, leads the muridfrom the last suraof the Qur'an,suraal-nds, to the first one, alfdtiha, 'the one that opens,' the one in which the person is given the 'ultimate fath, definitive illumination. In other terms, it becomes a question of climbing back from the extreme point of Universal Manifestation(which the last word of the Qur'an,al-na-s [humanity], symbolizes) to its Divine Principle (which is symbolized by the first sura, ummal-kitab (the Motherof the Book), and, more exactly, the point of the ba in the basmala). The inexplicable succession of the then becomes perfectly coherent"(p. chapters[in this section of the FuturhdtJ 67). Second, Chodkiewicz demonstratesthe importance of the sharl'ah in lbn 'Arabi's vision. "Charisma,sciences, epiphanies, all the signs and all the ac(obligations), and thus to the Law" (p. complishmentsare attachedto thefarad'id 116). As he quotes Ibn 'Arabi,"If that [thatGod becomes the hearing, the sight of the servant-in the hadith qudsi] is the fruit of supererogatory acts, just-think about the fruit of obligatoryacts!" (ibid.). Insteadof dichotomy, "Thus appears anothercase of the coincidenceof zahir (outwardness)and batin (inwardness). The spiritualquest is completed throughthatby which it was started:observance of the sharl'a" (ibid.). Finally, Chodkiewicz gives the flavor of Ibn 'Arabi's fresh approachto the Qur'an. Especially for someone familiar with the Qur'an and Arabic, Ibn 'Arabi'sclose and literalreadingsof verses are startling. It becomes impossible not to be struck by Ibn 'Arabi's readingof "laysa ka-mithlihi shay'un" which Chodkiewicz describes on page 37. Suffice it to say that both readingsare comcorrect(with one making the "ka"merely an intensifying pletely grammatically particleand the other giving it its full semantic weight) and yet the readingwill

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Reviews 223 drive one reader to rage against Ibn 'Arabi and another to delve deeper still in wondermentinto the Qur'an and Ibn 'Arabi's extended commentary in the Fututhat-hence the fact that no one is able to be neutraltowardhim. I am delighted to have this book. Chodkiewiczis an essential and indispensableinterpreterof Ibn 'Arabi. Eric Winkel

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