2.3.1 - The Motives

In any case, it is also difficult to determine exactly what happened to Ibn al-Arabi, which led him to enter the Way of Sufism, because he himself did not speak about this issue explicitly and directly, although he usually mentions what happens to him of important things in good detail. However, there is a narrative that al-Baghdadi recalls in his book “Manaqib Ibn al-Arabi”, which he devoted to explaining his biography and defending his doctrine and words [Qari al-Baghdadi, the virtues of Ibn al-Arabi, p. 22]. However, Baghdadi may not have been accurate enough that he could not be trusted even though he was trying the goodwill to convince the opponents of Ibn Arabi at any cost. For this we must take the following story that he tells with great caution, especially as it seems well knitted according to the conditions of many flags of Sufism such as the Ibn al-Adham and others, but since it is the only source so far, it is good to mention.

Al-Baghdadi states that on one occasion, Ibn al-Arabi’s father was invited to a party at one of his friends with the princes, ministers and their children, and Ibn al-Arabi was with them. After they ate until the glut and the turn of the drink and poured wine and turned the cups, when he came to Mohammed and filled the cup to him and he held it to drink, only to hear a voice calling: “O Muhammad, you were not created for this!” He threw the cup out of his hand and went out of the house and went out of the city and there he met a shepherd, and exchanged his clothes with the shepherd’s clothing and went out to one of the graves that has been devastated and became a cave, and entered it contemplating and commemorating Allah, only coming out at the time of prayer. Ibn al-’Arabi said, as al-Baghdadi recounts, that he stayed in that cemetery for four days and then came out with all this science, some of which was later written in his books [The Quest for Red Sulfur: p. 36].

In another account of Ismail Ibn Sawdakin al-Nuri (d. 646/1248), one of his closest disciples, who accompanied him on many of his travels in the Levant, as we shall mention in sections5.1.13.5, 6.3.2 and2.1.2 in Chapters V, VI and VII respectively, he states in kitab al-Wasail that Ibn al-Arabi said that he entered the retreat before the first light at dawn and received the opening before sunrise, but he adds that he remained in this retreat for fourteen months, and that during this period he received all the sciences he spoke out later. He also said that his opening was a result of attraction at that moment [The Quest for Red Sulfur: p. 36].

However, all these stories, if true, are not necessarily evidence of the time when Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi entered the Way of Sufism and does not clarify the real motives for this; but it seems from all of the above mentioned that he had such tendencies since his early life and did not happen suddenly.

But before proceeding with the biography of Shaykh Muhyiddin and in-depth analysis of his life and science, we must clarify some of these terms that have been mentioned above such as: attraction, opening, seeker and sought, which will also be discussed in subsequent chapters, as we will try to explain other terms when needed.