Akbariyya

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Ibn Arabi (Murcia July 28, 1165 - Damascus November 10, 1240) Ibn Arabi.jpg
Ibn Arabi (Murcia July 28, 1165 – Damascus November 10, 1240)
Diagram of "Plain of Assembly" (Ard al-Hashr) on the Day of Judgment, from autograph manuscript of Futuhat al-Makkiyya, ca. 1238 (photo: after Futuhat al-Makkiyya, Cairo edition, 1911) Ibn-al-Arabi-Plain-of-Assembly.jpg
Diagram of "Plain of Assembly" (Ard al-Hashr) on the Day of Judgment, from autograph manuscript of Futuhat al-Makkiyya, ca. 1238 (photo: after Futuhat al-Makkiyya, Cairo edition, 1911)

Akbariyya is a branch of Sufi metaphysics based on the teachings of Ibn Arabi, an Andalusian Sufi who was a gnostic and philosopher. The word is derived from Ibn Arabi's nickname, "Shaykh al-Akbar," meaning "the greatest master." Akbariyya has never been used to indicate a specific Sufi group or society. It is now used to refer to all historical or contemporary Sufi metaphysicians and Sufis influenced by Ibn Arabi's doctrine of Wahdat al-Wujud . It is not to be confused with Al Akbariyya, a secret Sufi society founded by Swedish Sufi 'Abdu l-Hadi Aguéli.

Contents

Wahdat al-Wujud

Wahdat al-Wajud (Arabic: وحدة الوجود Persian: وحدت وجود) meaning the "unity of being" is a Sufi philosophy emphasizing that "there is no true existence except the Ultimate Truth (God)", that is, that the only truth within the universe is God, and that all things exist within God only.

Ibn Arabi is most often characterized in Islamic texts as the originator of this doctrine. However, it is not found in his works. The first to employ this term was Ibn Sabin.

Ibn Arabi's disciple and stepson Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi used this term in his own works and explained it using philosophical terms.

Academic study

Europe and United States

In the 20th century there has been a focus on the Akbariyya School in academic circles and universities. Viewed in a historical context, increased government support for the study of the Muslim world and Islamic languages emerged in the United States after the Second World War where many students were attracted to Islam and religious studies during the 1970s.

The greatest growth in American scholarship on Sufism took place during the 1970s. Alexander Knysh notes that, "In the decades after World War Two the majority of Western experts in Sufism were no longer based in Europe, but in North America."[ citation needed ] Henri Corbin (d. 1978) and Fritz Meier (d. 1998), who were prominent among these experts, made important contributions to the study of Islamic mysticism. Other important names were Miguel Asín Palacios (d. 1944) and Louis Massignon (d. 1962), who made contributions to Ibn Arabi studies. Palacios discovered some Akbarian elements in Dante's Divine Comedy . Massignon studied the famous Sufi Al-Hallaj saying "Ana l-Haq" (I am the Truth).

Seyyed Hossein Nasr and his students and academic disciples have come to play an important role in certain subfields of Sufi studies. The influence of Nasr and other Traditionalist writers like Rene Guenon and Frithjof Schuon on Sufi studies can be seen in the interpretation of the works of Ibn Arabi and the Akbarian school by such scholars as Titus Burckhardt, Martin Lings, James Morris, William Chittick, Sachiko Murata, and others. These names are both mostly practitioners of Sufism and scholars studying Sufism. [1]

Turkey

Turkey is situated where Ibn Arabi's most prominent disciple, successor and stepson Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, and other important commentators on Arabi's works lived in the past. Dawūd al-Qayṣarī, who was invited to Iznik by Orhan Ghazi to be the director and teacher for the first Ottoman university (madrasa), was the disciple of Kamāl al-Dīn al-Qāshānī, himself a disciple of Sadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī. This means that the official teaching itself was set in motion by a great master of the Akbarian school. Not only Sufis but also Ottoman sultans, politicians and intellectuals had been deeply impressed by Ibn Arabi and his disciples and interpreters. [2] Seyyed Muhammad Nur al-Arabi was also impressed by Ibn Arabi's doctrine, though that continued to decrease until the Modern Era. In the 20th century the last important commentator of Fusûs was Ahmed Avni Konuk (d. 1938). He was a mawlawî and composer of Turkish music.

Studies on Sufism, especially Akbarian works, were not very common until the first Ph.D. thesis was written by Mahmud Erol Kılıc in Marmara University's Faculty of Theology titled "Ibn 'Arabi's Ontology" (in Turkish, "Muhyiddin İbn Arabi'de Varlık ve Varlık Mertebeleri") in 1995. Academic studies on Akbarian metaphysics and philosophy began to rise after studies on this topic were conducted by Turkish scholars such as Mustafa Tahralı and Mahmud Erol Kılıc.

In terms of Akbarian studies, the most important event to take place was the translation of Ibn Arabi's magnum opus,"Futuhat-ı Makkiyya", to Turkish. Turkish scholar Ekrem Demirli translated the work in 18 volumes between 2006 and 2012. This particular translation was the first complete translation to another language. Demirli's work also includes translating Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi's corpus to Turkish and writing a PhD thesis on him in 2004, writing a commentary on Fusus al-Hikam by Ibn Arabi, and writing a book titled İslam Metafiziğinde Tanrı ve İnsan (God and Human in Islamic Metaphysics), [Istanbul: Kabalcı, 2009 ( ISBN   9759971623)].

There are many Akbarian works in Ottoman Turkish that are yet to be studied by scholars.

List of some Akbarian Sufis

There have been many Akbarian Sufis, metaphysicians and philosophers. Ibn Arabi never founded a Tarikah, [3] but he created the philosophy of Wahdat al-Wujud. The Sufis listed below were members of different orders, but following the concept of Wahdat al-Wujud.

  1. Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi (d. 1274) - student and stepson of Ibn ‘Arabī. Lived in Konya the same time as Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Rumi
  2. Fakhr al-Din Iraqi (1213–1289)
  3. Sa'id al-Din Farghani (d. 1300)
  4. Mahmud Shabistari (1288–1340)
  5. Dawūd al-Qayṣarī (d. 1351)
  6. Ḥaydar Āmūlī (d. 1385)
  7. Abd-al-karim Jili (d. 1428)
  8. Mulla Shams ad-Din al-Fanari (1350–1431)
  9. Shah Ni'matullah Wali (1330–1431)
  10. Abdurrahman Jami (1414–1492)
  11. Idris Bitlisi (d. 1520)
  12. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Aḥmad al-Shaʿrānī(1493–1565)
  13. Mulla Sadra (1571–1641)
  14. Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi (1641–1731)
  15. Ismail Hakki Bursevi (1652–1725)
  16. Ahmad ibn Ajiba (1747–1809)
  17. Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri (1808–1883)
  18. Ahmad al-Alawi (1869–1934)
  19. Abd al-Wahid Yahya (René Guénon) (1886–1951)
  20. Mustafa 'Abd al-'Aziz (1911–1974)
  21. Abdel-Halim Mahmoud (1910–1978)
  22. Javad Nurbakhsh (1926–2008)

Related Research Articles

Ibn Arabi Sufi scholar and philosopher (1165–1240)

Ibn ʿArabī, nicknamed al-Qushayrī and Sulṭān al-ʿĀrifīn, was an Arab Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influential within Islamic thought. Out of the 850 works attributed to him, some 700 are authentic while over 400 are still extant. His cosmological teachings became the dominant worldview in many parts of the Muslim world.

Fakhr al-Din Iraqi Persian philosopher and writer

Fakhr al-Din Iraqi was a Persian Sufi poet of the 13th-century. He is principally known for his mixed prose and poetry work, the Lama'at, as well as his divan, which is mostly written in the form of a ghazal.

Ahmad Sirhindi Indian Sufi philosopher (1564–1624)

Ahmad al-Fārūqī al-Sirhindī (1564-1624) was an Indian Islamic scholar, Hanafi jurist, and member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He has been described by some followers as a Mujaddid, meaning a “reviver", for his work in rejuvenating Islam and opposing the newly made religion of Din-i Ilahi and other problematic opinions of Mughal emperor Akbar. While early South Asian scholarship credited him for contributing to conservative trends in Indian Islam, more recent works, notably by ter Haar, Friedman, and Buehler, have pointed to Sirhindi's significant contributions to Sufi epistemology and practices.

William Chittick American philosopher, writer and translator

William C. Chittick is an American philosopher, writer, translator and interpreter of classical Islamic philosophical and mystical texts. He is best known for his work on Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi, and has written extensively on the school of Ibn 'Arabi, Islamic philosophy, and Islamic cosmology.

History of Sufism Aspect of Islamic history

Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam. A Sufi is a Muslim who seeks annihilation of the ego in God.

Sufi philosophy Philosophy in Sufism

Sufi philosophy includes the schools of thought unique to Sufism, the mystical tradition within Islam, also termed as Tasawwuf or Faqr according to its adherents. Sufism and its philosophical tradition may be associated with both Sunni and Shia branches of Islam. It has been suggested that Sufi thought emerged from the Middle East in the eighth century CE, but adherents are now found around the world.

Sufi metaphysics Part of Sufi philosophies

Sufi metaphysics is centered on the concept of وحدة waḥdah "unity" or توحيد tawhid. Two main Sufi philosophies prevail on this topic. Waḥdat al-wujūd literally means "the Unity of Existence" or "the Unity of Being." Wujūd "existence, presence" here refers to God. On the other hand, waḥdat ash-shuhūd, meaning "Apparentism" or "Monotheism of Witness", holds that God and his creation are entirely separate.

God in Islam Islamic conception of God

God in Islam is the eternal being who originated the creation, preserves all things and then will resurrect all the humans. In Islam, God is conceived as absolutely one, unique, and perfect, free from all faults, deficiencies, and defects, and further held to be omnipotent, omniscient, and completely infinite in all of his attributes, having no partner or equal, and being the sole creator of everything in existence. Islam emphasizes that God is strictly singular, all-merciful and all-compassionate, whose mercy embraces everything; who neither slumbers nor sleeps, and is not vulnerable to decay or death.

Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani Iranian Kubrawiya Sufi saint (c.1312–1384)

Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani was an Iranian scholar, poet and a Sufi Muslim saint of the Kubrawiya order. He was born in Hamadan, Iran and preached Islam in Central Asia and Kashmir as he travelled to practice Sufism. He died in Kashmir and was buried in Khatlan, Tajikistan in 1384 CE, aged 71–72. Hamadani was also addressed honorifically throughout his life as the Shāh-e-Hamadān, Amīr-i Kabīr, and Ali Sani.

Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghani ibn Isma′il al-Nabulsi (an-Nabalusi), was an eminent Sunni Muslim scholar, poet, and author on works about Sufism, ethnography and agriculture.

<i>Al-Insān al-Kāmil</i> Honorific title of the prophet Muhammad

In Islamic theology, al-Insān al-Kāmil, also rendered as Insān-i Kāmil and İnsan-ı Kâmil (Turkish), is an honorific title to describe the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The phrase means "the person who has reached perfection", literally "the complete person". It is an important concept in Islamic culture of the prototype human being, pure consciousness, one's true identity, to be contrasted with the material human who is bound by their senses and materialism. The term was originally used by Sunni Sufis and is still used by them, but it is also used by Alawis and Alevis. This idea is based upon a hadith, which was used by Ibn Arabi, that states about Muhammad: "I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay."

Dawūd al-Qayṣarī (c.1260-c.1350) was an early Ottoman Sufi scholar, philosopher and mystic. He was born in Kayseri, in central Anatolia and was the student of the Iranian scholar, Abd al-Razzaq Kāshānī.

Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi Persian mystical or Sufi philosopher (1207-1274)

Ṣadr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūnus Qūnawī [alternatively, Qūnavī, Qūnyawī],, was a Persian philosopher, and one of the most influential thinkers in mystical or Sufi philosophy. He played a pivotal role in the study of knowledge—or epistemology, which in his context referred specifically to the theoretical elaboration of mystical/intellectual insight. He combined a highly original mystic-thinker, Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn 'Arabī, whose arcane teachings Qūnavī codified and helped incorporate into the burgeoning pre-Ottoman intellectual tradition, on the one hand, with the logical/philosophical innovations of Ibn Sīnā, on the other. Though relatively unfamiliar to Westerners, the spiritual and systematic character of Qūnawī's approach to reasoning, in the broadest sense of the term, have found fertile soil in modern-day Turkey, North Africa and Iran not to mention India, China, the Balkans and elsewhere over the centuries.

Abdullah Bosnevi (1584–1644) was a Bosnian Malamati Sufi who lived in the Ottoman period.

Ismail Haqqi Bursevi 17th-century Ottoman Muslim scholar and mystic

İsmail Hakkı Bursevî was a 17th-century Ottoman Turkish Muslim scholar, a Jelveti Sufi author on mystical experience and the esoteric interpretation of the Quran; also a poet and musical composer. İsmail Hakkı Bursevî influenced many parts the Ottoman Empire but primarily Turkey. To this day he is revered as one of the Büyükler, the great saints of Anatolia.

Muhibullah Allahabadi Sufi poet and scholar

Shaykh Muhibullah Allahabadi, or Muhibb ullah Ilahabadi was a Sufi scholar who was active in Allahabad in northern India during the reign of the Mughul emperor Shah Jahan. He is noted as a leading proponent of the Sufi doctrine of Wahdat al-Wujud, sometimes called "Oneness of Being". Some Sufis consider that he was a saint.

The concept of the logos also exists in Islam, where it was definitively articulated primarily in the writings of the classical Sunni mystics and Islamic philosophers, as well as by certain Shi'a thinkers, during the Islamic Golden Age. In Sunni Islam, the concept of the logos has been given many different names by the denomination's metaphysicians, mystics, and philosophers, including ʿaql ("Intellect"), al-insān al-kāmil, kalimat Allāh, haqīqa muḥammadiyya, and nūr muḥammadī. Throughout Islamic history, there have existed several different metaphysical concepts that have been understood to correspond "in many respects" to the logos Christology of Christianity and to the use of the term logos in late Greek philosophy.

Michel Chodkiewicz French author and Sufi scholar (1929–2020)

Michel Chodkiewicz was a French author and a scholar of Sufism, especially Akbarian teaching.

Sa'id al-Din Farghani was a Persian Sufi mystic and scholar, who is known to have composed three works.

References

  1. "The Academic Study of Sufism at American Universities" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-15. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
  2. "Ibn Arabi and the Ottoman Era".
  3. Michel Chodkiewicz , The Diffusion of Ibn 'Arabi's Doctrine.

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