5.1.1 - The Divine Command for Counseling

As was the case in Andalusia, when the Greatest Shaykh wrote his famous book: the Positions of Stars, as we mentioned in Chapter III, after he saw the Real in a dream saying to him: “advise my servants”, so was the case in Mecca, as well as later in Damascus as we shall see in Chapter VI, where the Shaykh mentioned in Chapter 71 of the Meccan Revelations, when he was talking about the night prayers in the month of Ramadan, that Allah Almighty ordered him first in general through the prophet, peace be upon him, to give advice in the way of Allah, and His Messenger, to all the Muslims, including their leaders and their common people, as stated in the hadith: “religion is in counseling.” [Kanz: 7197, 7201, 8774-8776]. Then Ibn al-Arabi stated that Allah ordered him directly on many occasions in Mecca and Damascus, without a mediator, in a promising vision, saying: “counsel My servants”; thus he says that this has become now obligatory for him, as he was determined more than others, thus he asked God to make this an honor for him and not by way of trial and scrutiny [The Meccan Revelations: c. 1, p. 658].

Perhaps this was the main reason for his many trips between the Levant and the Rum (Turkey), Egypt and Mecca as we will see in this chapter below. The Greatest Master Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi began these journeys with a friend whom he met in Mecca, Shaykh Majduddin Ishaq Ibn Yusuf al-Rumi, the father of Sadruddin al-Qunawi, who would be his closest disciple, and later become his step-son when he marries his mother after the death of her husband Majduddin, as we shall discuss further in section

efishaq-al-rumi-death below. He went north to the Seljuk state, which was ruled by king Kaykhusraw I, of whom Majduddin was one of his teachers and had a prestigious status with him.