2.3.11 - Retiring in Tombs and Accompanying the Dead (586/1190)

The attraction that happened to Shaykh Muhiddin, when he entered the cemetery, as mentioned above, showed him another world that is usually abandoned and neglected by people, and even most people fear to approach it, and that’s the world of the dead and spirits. We do not doubt that death is a transition from the physical realm to the realm of the spirit, from the prison of the witnessed world and the kingdom to the capacity of the world of the unseen and the dominion. But our inability to communicate with this world and our ignorance of it have made us stand against it with hostility and caution. However, after Shaykh Muhyiddin had tasted living in that world and contacted with its people, he used to resort to them at various times, and even socialize and talk to them and give them lessons and spend hours and days, and even months, to discuss with them, while isolating himself from other people who engage themselves in conversations of passion.

Muayyad al-Din al-Jundi (died roughly 700/1300), one of the disciples of Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi (died 672/1274), who was adopted by Ibn al-’Arabi, as we will mention in Chapters V and VII, stated that the Greatest Shaykh remained nine months in seclusion where he entered the retreat in Muharram and were authorized to exit for Eid al-Fitr (in Dhul-Hijjah). It seems that this retreat was in 586, not long after he entered the Way of mysticism [Quest for Red Sulfur: p. 38]. Perhaps this is the same retreat that the Greatest Shaykh mentioned in the Meccan Revelations, when he was told that his Shaykh Yusuf Ibn Yakhluf al-Kumi said that Ibn al-Arabi left the living and began sitting with the dead. At that, he sent to him saying: why don’t visit me to see with whom I am sitting! The, Shaykh Yusuf prayed the forenoon and came to him alone, to find him sitting among the graves, talking to the spirits who were present. He sat beside him quietly, and when he looked at him, the Greatest Shaykh saw his face color has changed, constrained, and not able to lift his head from the tension that he felt, while Ibn al-Arabi looked at him and smiling. When Ibn al-Arabi completed his speech and the state of the Shaykh eased and he rested and relaxed, he stood up and kissed him between his eyes. Then, Shaykh Muhyiddin said to him exclaiming: “Who is sitting with the dead, me or you!” He said: No, by God, I am sitting with the dead, and by God, if my state was not eased I would have been killed. Then Shaykh Yusuf left Ibn al-Arabi in his retreat with the living-dead in the graves. After that, Shaykh Yusuf used to say, “Whoever wants to retire from the people, let him retire like Ibn al-Arabi.” [Futuhat: III.45].