IBNAL ARABI (THE GREAT IBNAL ARABI ) HISTORY OF ABOU ABDULLAH MUHAMMAD IBNE ALI IBNE MUHAMMAD IBNE ARABI |Y|

 |Y| Biography |Y|

'Abū 'Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn `Arabī al-Ḥātimī aṭ-Ṭāʾī (أبو عبد الله محمد ابن علي ابن محمد ابن عربي الحاتمي الطائي) was a Sufi mystic, poet, and philosopher Arab from the Tayy tribe born in Murcia, Spain on the th of Ramaḍān 

Ibn Arabi was Sunni, although his writings on the Twelve Imams were also popularly received among Shia. It is debated whether or not he ascribed to the Zahiri madhab which was later merged with the Hanbali school.

After his death, Ibn Arabi's teachings quickly spread throughout the Islamic world. His writings were not limited to the Muslim elites, but made their way into other ranks of society through the widespread reach of the Sufi orders. Arabi's work also popularly spread through works in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu. Many popular poets were trained in the Sufi orders and were inspired by Arabi's concepts.

Others scholars in his time like al-Munawi, Ibn 'Imad al-Hanbali and al-Fayruzabadi all praised Ibn Arabi as ''A righteous friend of Allah and faithful scholar of knowledge'', ''the absolute mujtahid without doubt'' and ''the imam of the people of shari'a both in knowledge and in legacy, the educator of the people of the way in practice and in knowledge, and the shaykh of the shaykhs of the people of truth though spiritual experience (dhawq) and understanding''. 

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Ibn Arabi's paternal ancestry was from the South Arabian tribe of Tayy, and his maternal ancestry was North African Berber. Al-Arabi writes of a deceased maternal uncle, Yahya ibn Yughan al-Sanhaji, a prince of Tlemcen, who abandoned wealth for an ascetic life after encountering a Sufi mystic. His father, ‘Ali ibn Muḥammad, served in the Army of Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ibn Mardanīsh, the ruler of Murcia. When Ibn Mardanīš died in  AD, his father shifted allegiance to the Almohad Sultan, Abū Ya’qūb Yūsuf I, and returned to government service. His family then relocated from Murcia to Seville. Ibn Arabi grew up at the ruling court and received military training.

As a young man Ibn Arabi became secretary to the governor of Seville. He married Maryam, a woman from an influential family.

|Y| Education |Y|

Seville, where Ibn Arabi spent most of his life and education

Ibn Arabi writes that as a child he preferred playing with his friends to spending time on religious education. He had his first vision of God in his teens and later wrote of the experience as "the differentiation of the universal reality comprised by that look". Later he had several more visions of Jesus and called him his "first guide to the path of God".[citation needed] His father, on noticing a change in him, had mentioned this to philosopher and judge, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), who asked to meet Ibn Arabi. Ibn Arabi said that from this first meeting, he had learned to perceive a distinction between formal knowledge of rational thought and the unveiling insights into the nature of things. He then adopted Sufism and dedicated his life to the spiritual path. When he later moved to Fez, in Morocco, where Mohammed ibn Qasim al-Tamimi became his spiritual mentor. In  he took final leave from his master Yūsuf al-Kūmī, then living in the town of Salé.[citation needed]

|Y| Pilgrimage to Mecca |Y|

Opening pages of the Konya manuscript of the Meccan Revelations, handwritten by Ibn Arabi.

Ibn Arabi left Andalusia for the first time at age  and arrived at Tunis in . After a year in Tunisia, he returned to Andalusia in . His father died soon after Ibn Arabi arrived at Seville. When his mother died some months later he left Andalusia for the second time and travelled with his two sisters to Fez, Morocco in . He returned to Córdoba, Andalusia in , and left Andalusia crossing from Gibraltar for the last time in . While there, he received a vision instructing him to journey east. After visiting some places in the Maghreb, he left Tunisia in  and arrived for the Hajj in . He lived in Mecca for three years, and there began writing his work Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (الفتوحات المكية) – 'The Meccan Illuminations'.

|Y| Journeys north |Y|

Medieval list of Ibn Arabi's books.

After spending time in Mecca, he traveled throughout Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Anatolia.

In , Ibn Arabi met Shaykh Majduddīn Isḥāq ibn Yūsuf (شيخ مجد الدين إسحاق بن يوسف), a native of Malatya and a man of great standing at the Seljuk court. This time Ibn Arabi was travelling north; first they visited Medina and in  they entered Baghdad. This visit offered him a chance to meet the direct disciples of Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir Jīlānī. Ibn Arabi stayed there only for  days because he wanted to visit Mosul to see his friend ‘Alī ibn ‘Abdallāh ibn Jāmi’, a disciple of the mystic Qaḍīb al-Bān ; قضيب البان). There he spent the month of Ramaḍan and composed Tanazzulāt al-Mawṣiliyya (تنزلات الموصلية), Kitāb al-Jalāl wa’l-Jamāl (كتاب الجلال والجمال, "The Book of Majesty and Beauty") and Kunh mā lā Budda lil-MurīdMinhu.:  

|Y| Return south |Y|

In the year  Ibn Arabi visited Jerusalem, Mecca and Egypt. It was his first time that he passed through Syria, visiting Aleppo and Damascus.

Later in  he returned to Mecca where he continued to study and write, spending his time with his friend Abū Shujā bin Rustem and family, including Niẓām.:  

The next four to five years of Ibn Arabi's life were spent in these lands and he also kept travelling and holding the reading sessions of his works in his own presence.

|Y| Death |Y|

Ibn Arabi's tomb in Damascus

On  Rabī‘ al-Thānī  AH ( November ) at the age of seventy-five, Ibn Arabi died in Damascus.