6.6 - His Passing Away (Damascus, Friday 22 Rabii II, 638/1240)

After about seventy-eight (Hijri) years of worshiping, teaching, and authoring, and having traveled more than twenty-five thousand miles, the equivalent of one cycle around the globe, and after he completed the invaluable message in demonstrating his unique spiritual experience that will be an example for the generations of women and men; the pure spirit of the Greatest Master Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi retreated to the Originator, and his body returned to soil and water. But his name is still spreading as a fragrant commemoration amongst the seekers, and his sciences are the expansive oceans in which the minds are still wandering and delving into the depths of their waters, reviving the hearts and mysteries, as Allah the Almighty said: (As for the foam, it vanishes; but that which benefits the people remains on the earth. Thus does Allah present examples.) [Quran, 13:17].

On the night of Friday, the twenty-secondfootnoteAccording to al-Muqri in Nafhul-Teeb (c. 2, p. 162), the date when Shaykh Muhyiddin died was on the night of Friday, 28 Rabii II 638 AH, but many other references mention the date that we stated above. of Rabii II of the year 638 AH, corresponding to the ninth of November 1240 AD,footnoteSome scholars decide the date of the death of Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi on the Gregorian calendar as 10/11/1240, as William Chittik says in the Iranian encyclopedia, or 8/11/1240 as Stephen Hirtenstein says in the Absolute Mercifier, p. 218, but we chose above the 9th because it is a Friday, as all the sources agree. Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi al-Hatmiy al-Taiy died at the age of seventy-eight lunar years (or exactly: seventy-seven years and seven months and five days), which is more than seventy-five solar years (or exactly: seventy-five years and three months and twelve days), and his death was in the house of the Chief Judge Muhyiddin Ibn al-Zakiy, and he washed by al-Jamal Ibn Abdul-Khaliq and Muhyiddin, while Imaduddin Ibn al-Nahhas poured the water, and he was carried to the soil of Banul-Zakiy, to be buried at the foot of mountain Kassioun.

The present mosque, called after his name, was built by the Ottoman Sultan Selim when he entered Damascus in 922/1516, and the area where his mausoleum lies is now named after as the district of Shaykh Muhyiddin.

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[The Dome above Ibn al-Arabi’s Tomb in Damascus]The dome of the room in which the tomb of Shaykh Muhyiddin in Damascus.