An Ocean without Shore: Ibn Arabi, the Book and the Law by Michel Chodkiewicz; David Streight Review

by: H. T. Norris Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 58, No. 1 (1995), pp. 125-126 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/620013 . Accessed: 24/08/2013 13:48
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REVIEWS works, Musira'at al-falisifa and Nihayat al-kalam) that Shahrastani had al-aqdim ft'Wilm a favourable view of the kind of 'wisdom' which was compatible with revealed truth and a negative view of extreme philosophical speculation, a fact which is also reflected in his use of the two terms hakTm 'sage' and faylasif 'philosopher' to distinguish different ranks of philosophers. In addressing the question of why the Muslim Ibn Sind and his group are classified in the second part among the holders of arbitrary doctrines, Jolivet suggests that this was due to Shahrastani's view of them as Aristotelians who had preferred the teachings of a pagan to those of the Islamic revelation. The difficult problem (common in Islamic sources) of the erroneous attribution to many of the Greek philosophers of theories and apophthegms is dealt with by Jolivet in his notes. The annotation, generally, is of a high standard. It covers a wide range of references and is meticulous in its elucidation of the text. The whole work is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of Shahrastdni and Islamic heresiography and history of religions.
TAMIMA BAYHOM DAOU

125
'The analogy that Ibn 'Arabi calls to mind (between the abrupt breaks in meaning in the text of the Qur'an and those of his own book) paradoxically constitutes a first indication in this regard, for ... the disorder in the Holy Book is only an appearance: "There is [between consecutive verses seemingly without relationship to one another] a relationship of affinity, but it is extremely secret." "If you join each verse with the one that precedes and the one that follows, the force of the Divine Word will make you see that this verse requires that which accompanies it, and does not attain its perfection but through that which surrounds it. Such is the vision of the perfect among spiritual men." This profound unity in the Qur'dn ... is nevertheless perceived by the gnostic ('dirif bi-Lldh). One can thus suspect that, for Ibn 'Arabi, it also exists-and that it is to some extent discoverable-in those Futahat where there is nothing " that does not proceed from an insufflation of the divine Spirit"...'.

The intention here is made plain on page 63:

An ocean withMICHEL CHODKIEWICZ:

out shore: Ibn Arabi, the Book and the Law. Translated from the French by David Streight. xiii, 184 pp. Albany, NY: State University of (paper).

New York Press, 1993, $12.95

Michel Chodkiewicz is a leading authority on the writing and thought of Ibn 'Arabi. The titles of his books might suggest that he is principally a specialist, yet this is not the case since his interests cover every aspect of Suifism and, as this book rapidly reveals, of the relation of Siifi thought to the history of the turuq on the one hand, and to Qur'anic ta'wil on the other. This is of wide interest and it will draw many readers to the publication. The contents include five closely argued and well annotated chapters. In a sense these expand on a number of points made by the author during the conference of the Legacy of Medieval Persian Silfism which was held in SOAS in 1990. His paper, entitled 'The Futihit Makkiya and its commentators: some unresolved enigmas', was subsequently published in The legacy of mediaeval Persian Sufism (London, 1992). Commenting on the specific contribution of Chodkiewicz to the discussion, the editor Dr. Leonard Lewisohn remarked,' M. Chodkiewicz charts a skilful course through the labyrinth of enigmas in the Futihat al-Makkiya, citing the remarkable correlations between the chapter sequences of the Futahat and the structure of the Koran, demonstrating that the former's structure was precisely modelled upon the latter.' This book may also be viewed as a gloss, so to speak on the astonishing work of scholarship by William C. Chittick, The Sufi path of knowledge (Albany, NY, 1989; reviewed in BSOAS, LIII,1990, 520).

The five chapters are an investigation of selected verses from saras 31: 6, 36: 41 and 70. The discussion is developed from chosen works of Ibn 'Arabi; Fusas al-hikam, al-Futahat al-Makkiyya (especially fasl al-mandzil), Kitab Manzil al-manazil, Kitab al-Tajalliyat and Ibn 'Arabi's Rasa 'il. An index of Qur'dniccitations follows an index of names and technical terms. This is, in short, a convincing study which demonstrates how Sifft thought is formed within both the content and structure (with mathematical precision) of Holy Writ. Chodkiewicz remarks (p. 95): 'The Qur'an's ubiquity in Ibn 'Arabi's work, the permanent role that it plays in his work's development and architecture are of exceptional character. Ibn 'Arabi's doctrine is not simply a meditation on the Qur'in. It is so organically linked to him that the two are really inseparable. For Ibn 'Arabi, the Word of God is " the Way, the Truth, and the Life." It is in the Qur'an that the voyage is made that leads man back to his original status, to his divine similitude.' While these chapters are of a special interest to those who are enamoured of the thought of Ibn 'Arabi, the introduction is of general appeal. In a condensed manner it attempts to highlight the influence of Ibn 'Arabi on the writings of eminent SiOfs and on the individual paths that are followed by respective turuq. This will surely be further expanded (perhaps on the lines of the second volume, 'Survival' in Louis Massignon's The Passion of al-Hallaj). Attention is drawn to the Khalwatiyya, the Tijaniyya, the Rahminiyya, the 'Ayniyya, and to the writings of al-Hlijj 'Umar and Ibn Idris. Not only are the thoughts of Ibn 'Arabi, the Shaykh al-Akbar, including those which are expressed in his verse, clearly discernable, but likewise in the Naqshabandiyya which, hitherto, has been regarded as an order essentially unfavourable to him. Chronologically, this brings the book almost to the present day. The

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126

REVIEWS
them are Sfuf Shaykhs; ch. vii is a letter addressed to 'Ali b. Mujaththal, the ruler of 'Asir), and all are printed in full here. The collection involved journeys between Bergen and Khartoum. The Arabic texts are clearly printed and edited, occasionally vocalized, and are presented with a facing-page translation. The translation is close to the original and flows with admirable fluency. Despite a multinational translating team, there is a unity of style which helps to bind the chapters together. The book ends with a bibliography and an index of proper names and Arabic terms. Footnotes and introductions provide comment where needed and full biographical information. The topics which are raised here are sometimes unusual and almost naive. Several examples are listed on page 12. They are included in the correspondence with Makki b. 'Abd al-'Aziz; topics such as the lawfulness of amputating an otiose finger (polydactylism), or the lawfulness and usefulness of eating burnt date stones, or the lawfulness of leaning a lawh upon which verses from the Qur'finare written against a wall. On occasions, the criteria for status and office in the saintly hierarchy seem, in our eyes, somewhat bizarre. Between pages 65 and 67, for example, the sanad of the chain of initiation of the master of Ahmad b. Idris, Shaykh Muhammad al-Mujaydri (Limjayderi, in Hassdniyya) al-Ya'qfibi_ (from the Tashumsha of Mauritania, the Idayqub) makes b. Idris met him in strange reading. Alhmad Morocco, although the latter had stayed for some time in the Middle East, Egypt in particular. In a letter to Muhammad 'Uthmqin al-Mirghaini, concerned especially with the dangers of becoming absorbed with matters 'of the world', Ahmad b. Idris remarks that from 'the Limjayderi'received the Way (tarTq)' pole of the jinns' (qutbal-jinn), who is specific(vocalizaally named as Muhammad al-QaqawT tion uncertain). this nisba defies attempts at identification. It looks vaguely Maghribi or Sahelian and one thinks of such nisbas as al-Qalqami, or al-(Tin) Wajiwi (both from the area of the Hodh), or looking further to the east, to Gao, Kawkaw, etc. The pole (qutb or badal) of the inn is puzzling. Was Muhammad human or not? If one turns to the pages of Ahmad b. al-Amin's Kitsb al-WasTt ft tar5jim udabe' (Cairo, 1958), one observes that a Scifismwas preoccupation of several amongst Shinq.it the Idayqub. One great poet, al-'Atiq b. Muhammad (p. 221) would have earned a poet's prize amongst his peers had his preoccupations with Sfifism been less time-consuming. According to Ahmad b. al-Amin (pp. 214-16), Limjayderi was one of four who were unsurpassed; namely, 'Abdalldh b. Muhammad al-'Alawi, known as Ibn Rdzga, Sidi 'Abdallih b. al-Hajj Ibrahim al-'Alawi, and Muhammad al-Yaddli al-Daymdni, that is, 'two 'Abdallahs and two Muhammads'. This group of four, was preceded by another, similarly named (Muhammads and 'Abdallihs) if Ahmad b. al-Amin is correct (pp. 578-9). There is some lineal linkage (see my 'Sanhaja scholars of Mauritania', in John Ralph Willis (ed.), The cultivators of Islam: studies in West African Islamic history, London, 1979, 148-9). They were taught by a mystic qutb, seemingly

author himself (p. 17) can only provide a partial explanation for Ibn 'Arabil'simpact: 'Obviously no one can claim to have a historically provable global response to a question of this type. Certainly there are precise factors that help answer the question; for example, the patronage that the Ottoman dynasty accorded the Shaykh al-Akbar. Ibn 'Arabi is said to have predicted ... the coming of the Ottomans and, more specifically, their conquest of Syria. The prediction brought him particular veneration by numerous sovereigns and a status that undoubtedly considerably limited the effect of attacks against his doctrine.... However, one must not overestimate the importance of this imperial protection; it is not sufficient to explain Ibn 'Arabi's influence on Indian, Malaysian, or Chinese sufism, for example.'
H. T. NORRIS

ALBRECHT HOFHEINzand others.(ed.

and tr.): The letters of Ahmad Ibn IdrTs, Rasid'il b. IdrYs. General editors Einar Thomassen and Bernd Radtke. viii, 184 pp. London: Hurst and Company, 1993. ?35.

This book marks a significant step forward in the format for the publication of documents which shed light on the life, literary style and method of teaching of eminent Stfis, their disciples and their contemporaries. The letters, with great clarity, reveal the exchanges that took place in the past (and to a degree it is still true of the present time) between members of conflicting, competing, allied or interrelated turuq.All of this may be observed in the rulings which were given within the Siff orders for the resolution of pressing practical issues (for example, legal or medical). We are here remote indeed from an exchange over such issues as 'Oneness of Being '. Yet this is in all probability only a half-truth. Earthly problems have a habit of surfacing, whatever may be the spiritual level of attainment of the greatest Siffi minds. How rare it is that quite mundane issues are resolved satisfactorily and simply in strictly legalistic, literalistic or spiritually intuitive terms. The joint translators (five in all, of various nationalities) point out at the start of this short book that it will provide 'primary materials that further illustrate themes dealt with' in other works (namely, R. S. O'Fahey's Enigmatic saint: Ahmad Ibn Idris and the Idrisi tradition, London, 1990, reviewed in BSOAS, LVI, 1, 1993, 151; and A. S. Karrar's The Sufi brotherhoods in the Sudan, London, 1992). This statement is certainly true, but the content of these letters ought to be recommended to an extended readership who take a keen interest in Islamic reform in the nineteenth century and the history of Islam in Africa and not merely Stifism there. The eight chapters cover the correspondence between Ahmad b. Idris and eminent men of faith in the Sudan and in Arabia (not all of

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