Sophianic Feminine

Andi Herawati

THE SOPHIANIC FEMININE IN THE WORK OF IBN ARABI AND RUMI

Introduction
"Woman synthesizing virgin nature, the sanctuary and spiritual company, is for man what is
most lovable; in a certain respect she represents the projection of merciful inwardness in
barren outwardness, and in this regard she assumes a sacramental or quasi-Divine
function." (Frithjof Schuon)
The word Sophia is Greek for wisdom. It is the root of words such as philosophy (love of
wisdom), theosophy (Gods wisdom), and sophist (literally, wise man, although generally
used to mean one who uses specious reasoning). The Christian notion of wisdom is
androgynous, but because the Greek word is feminine, Sophia came to be associated with
the female aspect of God and with Female Wisdom. In Western culture, Wisdom is nearly
always allegorized in a female figure. Sometimes called the Mother of All or Lady Wisdom,
Sophia fused with Eve or Mary in Judeo-Christian iconography. The Greek Hagia Sophia,
meaning Divine or Holy Wisdom, was translated into Spanish and other Romance languages
as Saint Sophia (Santa Sofa), thereby personifying the abstract figure.[1]
Sophia is a complex allegory. She is Gods Wisdom. She is spiritual illumination or
enlightenment achieved through Gods blessing. She can also be human learning that leads
to a greater appreciation of God and creation, as well as an understanding of self. Sophia is
always depicted as a feminine presence. Sometimes she is represented as a rose,
symbolizing the spiritual whole.
The Sophianic Feminine addresses as by Henry Corbin, its primary meaning, relates to the
notion of the Feminine as a manifestation of divine Wisdom or Sophia and the relationshiporiented quest that feminine images and symbols seem to play natural a part to that
Sophianic nature of the spiritual/divine.[2] On the special importance with regard to the
mediating principle of divine-human relationship in a profound and principal way which
placing the Feminine in the scheme of things, both sensual and spiritual.
Basically, Sophia means to craft, to design, to be skillful, which is parallel to concept and
image in Hindu Tantrism, that of the feminine Shakti, the root of which is shak , to make, to
do, to empower. The function of divine Shakti is to provide the divine Subject/Person with
the inspiration for and the content of his creative Self-knowing and revelation. For more,
Sophianic Feminine is the essential instigator of the primordial division of the divine Being

into the creative relationship of Subject and Object, of own/Self and other/non-Self, both in
terms of Gods discovery by created cosmos and of his Selfhood in the Spirit. Thus God
must make Himself other in order to relate to Himself, to know Himself, to love Himself, but
also to be none other, to be Himself.
A. The Feminine Element in Sufism
A pious woman is better than a thousand bad men
-SanaiIbn Arabi points out that in Arabic all terms that indicate origin or cause are feminine. And the
Prophet suggested that the Feminine is the origin of all things. This principle terms are : dhat
(Essence, Self), dhat ilahiya ( Divine Essence), origin and source of being; illa,cause ;qudra,
the power that manifests being; sifa,divine qualification, the Attribute that which is
manifested.[3]
The women in stories both in classical Sufism and medieval Christianity remains the
tendency to equate the world with a woman. Rumi says He who seeks the world is female.
The nafs, the lower soul which can say the individual representative of the world and its
temptation is also sometimes compared to woman, who by her ruses, tries to ensure the
pure spirit and bring him down into the trap of worldly life. [4] But the ascetic doesnt care for
this woman world. What the Sufis well aware and care is the positive aspect of
womenhood. Many stories tell us how women completely lost in their love, like zulaykha who
became symbol of soul, purified by ceaseless longing in the path of poverty and love.
Many Sufi poets have sung the praises of the divine Beauty using images of feminine
beauty. As a very fact that the first sufi saint of Islam was a woman-the great lover Rabia al
adawiyya who helped to shape the image of the ideal pious woman, with introducing to the
world the concept of pure love into the ascetic outlook in early Sufism. She had been
praising in many expressions until today, such as a great lover, a pious women or a virtuous
woman. And there were other saint women are Maryam of Basra and Rihana, the enthuistic
(al-waliha) and also some descendants of the Prophet, like Fatimah, Sayyida Nafisa,
Sayyida Zainab, who excelled by their virtue and piety. In the formative period of Islam, there
are most impressive figure among the married Sufi women, Fatimah of Nishapur (d.849 )
who consorted with Dhun Nun Misri and Bayezid Bistami, the pious women Rabia the
Syrian, wife of Ahmad Ibn Abil Hawari (N 617) who was noted for her constantly changing
mystical states, and expressed in lovely verses.
As Sufism emphasizes on the beauty, Divine Beauty then stirs the divine creative force to
the becoming of the cosmos through man to rediscover the Divine Selfhood. In other words,
the Sophianic Feminine is the mistress who presides over all the possible tensions and
harmonies of the relationship itself whether manifest within the divine, human or cosmic
context, which mystery is very much reflected in Marys title of theotokos or God-bearer and
similar to the traditions of Fatimah as Umm abiha[5]. And this sophianic intuition is perfectly
keeping in shiite ismaili tradition, Fatimah considered as Virgin Mother giving birth to the

line of the Holy Imam, or attach her name in the masculine term Fatima-Creator.[6]
Generally, there are two kinds of Sophianic manifestation may be discerned, that are a
mysterious aptitude combine to create a particular manifestation both mythical and cultural
implications, and the second type is the situation in which a particular woman or girl evokes
in a man as especially powerful vision of the creative beauty which leaves changes and new
creative forces, both intellectual and physical. In these both types, the human bearers of the
revelation of Sophianic Beauty and Wisdom certainly have powerful enabling and creative
effects.
B. Sophia Feminine according To Ibn Arabi
"The contemplation of God in women is the most intense
and the most perfect"
(Ibn Arab)
It is noted that the image of Sophianic Feminine of Ibn Arabi is most clearly and
unambiguously delineated and most directly linked to mystery of creation and revelation. The
Sophianic implications could be drawn principally according to the teachings of Ibn Arabi as
in Fusus al-hikam has three aspects.[7] Firstly, the Sophianic implications of his
interpretation of the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad on his love for women, perfume and
prayer, Thus Ibn Arabi could defend the idea that love of women belongs to the perfections
of the Gnostics, for it is inherited from the Prophet and is a divine love. Then God drew forth
from him a being in his own image, called woman and because she appears in his own
image, the man feels a deep longing for her, as something yearns for itself, while she feels
longing for him as one longs for that place to which one belongs. Thus there is a ternary
God, man and woman, the man yearning for his Lord Who is his origin, as woman yearns for
man. His Lord made women dear to him, just as God loves that which he has his being,
which is the Reality.[8]
Secondly, the deeply influential meeting at Mecca between the Syakh and the young lady
whose beauty and wisdom inspired him to a fine collection of poems, the Interpreter of
Desires, wherein Lady Nizam evoked in Ibn Arabi a new and singular awareness and vision
of the divine Feminine. A first and decisive meeting with this woman who radiated divine
beauty as if she were transparent, may have prepared the ground for Ibn Arabis inclination
to perceive the divine through the medium of female beauty and to see the female as the
true revelation of Gods mercy and creativity. Besides Lady Nizam, whom for Ibn Arabi took
apart to holiness and specialness of the Feminine, he also speaks about Sufi Andalusia,
Fatimah who has a profound spiritual influence upon him. He says that when he met her she
was in her nineties, although so old and ate so little, he was almost ashamed to look at her
face, when he sat with her, it was so rosy and soft. She was indeed a mercy to the world.[9]
For Ibn Arabi, this Gnostic lady is all a syaikh. Ibn 'Arab, the murid, acknowledged the role
of the Sevillean gnostic in his rebirth, and accepted his spiritual descent from her, which he
never did with any of the shaykhs he accompanied and served during his lifetime. She was

the only one he called "my mother". And she used to tell him: "I am your divine mother, and
the light of your earthly mother."The influence on the rebirth of Ibn 'Arab appears in the few
passages he relates in the Futuhat which include her contemplations and the gifts of
sainthood that were granted to her. She used to say to Ibn 'Arab for example, "I wonder at
him who says he loves God and yet is not rejoiced by Him, for He is the one witnessed by
him, His eye observes him in every eye, and He is not hidden from him, not for one
moment."[10]
It was Ibn Arabi who the first recognized the feminine terms in his poem, like friendly
girls(poem XIX) as forms of divine wisdom, which make the heart of the gnostic rejoice;
beautiful women can also be the helping Names of God(poems CLIV2, XXVII), whereas
the charming women (XXXIXI) are meant to be understand as divine ideas [11]
Lastly, to see his teachings on the creation of the cosmos and in particular his concept of the
Nafas al-rahman or the Breath of the Merciful. It is considered with the Universal Naturerepresented symbolically by woman on earth, and the associations of the word Rahman
Mercy with the word womb Rahim.
Dealing with the significance and role of the Feminine is divided into four parts[12]. First, Ibn
Arabi discusses the way in which God created women from Adam to form a human polarity
in which Adam loves Eve as being made in His image, while man loves God as being the
source of his own being. He also speaks of the ternary of God-man-woman, illustrating the
Chain of Love, as he says Love arises only for that from which one has ones being.
Second, he then described a physical union which man has with woman as a total
annihilation in her, deriving from a desire which pervades all his parts. In this reason thus,
God has ordered the major ablution after sexual intercourse so that the purification may
match the totality of the consummation and so that he might once again behold Him (God)
in the one in whom he was annihilated, since it is none other than He Whom he sees in her.
As he argues when man contemplates the Real in himself as being that from which woman
is created he contemplates God in active mode. If, however, he contemplates God in himself
without reference to woman he contemplates the Real in passive mode. In woman, he may
contemplate God in both passive and active roles.
Third, he plays on the meanings and origins of Arabic verbal roots, associated the word of
women, nisa, with the root nasa which means delay or postponement. By this meaning,
he try to show the subordinate and derivative nature of woman as the passive creation
brought forth from man as a symbolizing the relationship of the Universal Nature to God as
He revealed cosmic forms. Mans love for woman also related to her inferior status as a
passive being. The createdness and passivity of women are stressed. Last, he
demonstrated that the Feminine is a subtle and pervasive way superior and prior to man
according to the tradition of the Prophet, that in the three words (women, perfume and
prayer) which are things he loved is the feminine form, and he interpreted that this prophets
saying suggest the governance of the Feminine.

In Fushus Hikam, Ibn Arabi also alluding the great mysteries of the Sophianic Feminine,
namely her primordial creativity and createdness united in the same being, which is the
mystery of Mary as Theotokos and Fatimah as umm abiha. The most important of the
Sophianic Feminine aspect that he try to discover is the reconciling and linking function as
between spirit and matter, God and humankind, man and cosmos.[13] Women revelas for
Ibn Arabi, is the secret of the compassionate God. The Grammatical fact that the word dhat,
essence, is feminine offers Ibn Arabi different methods to discover this feminine element in
God.
He thinks :
God can not be seen apart from matter, and He is seen more perfectly in the human
materia than in any other, and more perfectly in woman than in man. For He is seen either in
the aspect of agens or in that of patiens or as both simultaneously. Therefore when a man
contemplates God in his own person in regard to the fact that woman is produced from man,
he contemplates God in the aspect of agens, and when he pays no regard to the production
of women from himself he contemplates God in the aspect of patiens, because as Gods
creature he is absolutely patiens in relation to God, but when he contemplates God in
woman he contemplates Him both as agens and patiens. God manifested in the form of
woman is agens in virtue of exercising complete sway over mans soul and causing man to
become submissive and devoted to Himself, and He is also patiens because inasmuch as
He appears in the form of women He is under the mans control and subject to his orders
hence to see God in woman is to see Him both these aspects, and such vision is more
perfect than seeing Him in all the forms in which He manifests Himself[14]
C. Sophia Feminine according to Jalaluddin Rumi
Quite difference from Ibn Arabi, Rumi considered the supreme beloved object on a man, who
is Shams al-Din Tabrizi. This may be considered that in respect to sanctifying and redeeming
love and aspiration, the human gender of the beloved doesnt really matter. In the words of
Rumi, it is higher than female and male.[15] However, when traditionally Feminine has been
associated with the whole phenomenon of love, beauty and passion, so that while the
beloved Shams is accidentally man, the modality of experience and expression essentially
associated with the Feminine. For both Rumi and Ibn Arabi, the whole matter of the
experience and expression of love and passion is not simply based on theories or intellectual
sentiment, but also is realized in living forms.
Another aspect of the Sophianic Feminine is the eternally mutual sympathy of God-man , as
in Rumis concept of Ham-dami (blowing together), what henry Corbin has termed it as the
conspiration of heaven and earth. For only this con-spiration, makes possible the spiritual
vision of the sensible or sensible vision of the spiritual, a vision of the invisible in a concrete
form apprehended not by one of the sensory faculties, but by the Active Imagination, which
is the organ of theophanic vision[16].

This cosmic cooperation and mutuality or interdependencies well expressed by Rumi and
more specifically of the Sophianic Feminine in some lines about Mary in his poetry The
speech of Jesus is derived form the spiritual beauty of Mary, the speech of Adam is a ray of
the divine Breath.
In Mastnawi which proclaim the Sophianic message more directly compare with Ibn Arabis
words in Fushus Hikam as an exposition of the symbolic mystery. He says: The prophet said
that woman prevails exceedingly over the wise and intelligent man, While ignorant men
prevail over them; for in them the fierceness of the animal is immanent. Love and
tenderness are human qualities; anger and lust are animal qualities. She is a ray of God;
she is not that earthly beloved. She is creative; you might say she is not created[17].
The Prophet once said, Women all control intelligent men, those who have a soul, But
stupid men rule women, for theyre crude and hold a simple, bullish attitude. They lack all
tenderness and cant be kind- Their animal soul still controls their mind: Tenderness is a
human quality, while lust and rage show animality, A ray from God is that one whom you
love, Creative, uncreated, from above.[18]
Rumi seems to be confirming not only he wholeness of the feminine image as a revelation of
the divine pre-eminently for holy contemplation- but also that ineluctable polarity and hamdami of the male and female as the synthetic and perennial image of the divine Self love and
knowledge. More, Rumi attested in Mastnawi that the creative activity of God reveals itself
best in women and that one might even say that she is not created but creator [19]
It was Ibn Arabi and Rumi with their rich legacy of spiritual vision and insight, whom they
have major role to explain the feminine element of God, which is the form which God can
best be recognized.

REFERENCES :
Annemarie Schimel, Mystical Dimension of Islam, The University of North Carolina Press,
1975
Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in Sufism of Ibn Arabi,
Leonard Lewisohn, The Heritage of Sufism volume II,
Rumi, Mastanawi I,
----------------------[1] www.fritjhof-schuon.com
[2] Leonard Lewisohn, the heritage of Sufism volume II, p. 234

[3] Henry Corbin, Creative imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, notes.p.342-343
[4] Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimension of Islam, appendix 2 p.428
[5] Ibid, p.236
[6] Henry Corbin, Creative imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, p.160
[7] Ibid , p. 238
[8] Ibn AlArabi, Bezels of Wisdom, trans R.J.W Austin, p. 274
[9] Opcit, p.421
[10] www.Ibn arabi society.org/ Ibn 'Arab's Twofold Perception of Woman. Woman as
Human Being and Cosmic Principle, by Souad Hakim
[11] Annemarie Schimmel, My Soul is Woman:the Feminine in Islam, p.102
[12] Leonard Lewisohn, the heritage of Sufism volume II, p. 239
[13] Ibid, p. 240
[14] Mystical Dimension of islam, Annemarie Schimmel, p. 431.
[15] Leonard Lewisohn, the heritage of Sufism volume II, p. 242
[16] Henry Corbin, Creative imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi, p.144-145
[17] Ibid, p.244
[18] Rumi, The Mastnawi I, 2445
[19] Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimension of islam, p. 431.