4.1.1 - Meeting with Khader for the Third Time (southwest Andalusia)

Assuming, then, that Shaykh Muhyiddin had left Andalusia by sea, the likely place for that is Sidonia or Shreish, because he was in Rota where he met with Khader for the third time. Although we do not know exactly when that was, but it must have been well after he returned from Tunisia in 590, and it is unlikely to be during the years when he visited in Fez, as we described in chapter III. Therefore, if this did not happen during his short visits to Morocco, there is a good possibility that this happened after the year 595, and thus close to the end of the 596 before leaving Andalusia permanently, since he was in this region.

We have stated before that the Shaykh Muhyiddin met with Khader for the first time in Seville, as we mentioned in section

ef(khader1 of Chapter II, and again in Tunisia as we mentioned in section

ef(khader2 of Chapter III; so this would be the third encounter.

In the same chapter 25 of the Meccan Revelations, that we quoted in the previous two encounters with Khader, Shaykh Muhyiddin describes how he met him for the third time, apparently after they met in Tunisia in 590, so he says that after that date he went touring by the surrounding sea (the Atlantic Ocean). Accompanied with a man who denies breaching the habits for the saints, they entered a remote and ruined mosque to pray with the noon prayer, when a group of tourists who entered and also want to pray in the mosque. Among them was the same person who talked with Ibn al-Arabi in Tunisia, and whom he was told that he is al-Khader, including also a big man who is even higher than him in status, and whom Ibn al-Arabi also knew before and they have some friendship and affection.

Shaykh Muhyiddin then adds that he went out to greet his old friend, who was happy to meet them and he lead the prayer, and when they finished they came out to the door of the mosque, which was on the west side overlooking the ocean, in place called Bekka. Then, as Ibn al-Arabi was talking to his friend by the door of the mosque, he saw the man whom he was told that he is Khader, he saw him taking a small reed mat from the mosque and spreading it in the air as high as seven cubits from the ground, and he stood on the mat in the air performing the supererogatory prayer. Surprised by what he saw, Shaykh Muhyiddin asked his companion exclaiming: Do you see, why he is doing that! He said to him: Why don’t you go to him and ask him. The Shaykh then left his friend standing and came to Khader, and when he finished his prayer he greeted him and said some verse of his own poetry:

The lover overlooked the air, with his mystery, in the love of the One Who created the air and subjugated it.

Those who know, their minds are reasonable, and they are purified above every being that they satisfy.

Because they are honored by Him amongst the people, but their states are unknown and hidden.

At that, al-Khader replied to Ibn al-Arabi: I only did that for your companion who denies the breaching of habits, and pointed to him in the courtyard of the mosque looking at them, just to let him know that Allah does whatever He wants (of things beyond the usual laws, such as gravity) with whomever He wants (of His saints). Then Shaykh Muhyiddin asked his denying friend: What do you say? He said: After seeing, nothing can be said.

Then Shaykh Muhyiddin returned to his old friend, who has a high status, and asked him, without mentioning to him his previous encounter in Tunisia: who is this man who prayed in the air? He said to him: This is Khader.

Shaykh Muhyiddin then concludes by saying that they then departed towards Rota, to a place usually sought by the righteous, in the vicinity of Pishkinsar on the Ocean coast [Futuhat: I.186, III.69].

Al-Himiary says in Describing Andalusia that Rota is a town on the southern shore west of Seville, and southern of the city of Shureish, wherein a famous place for the righteous seeking it from all over the country [Sifat Jazirat al-Andalus, Muhammad Ibn Abdul-Munaim, p. 37].