Ibn 'Arabi- The Meccan Revelations

About the Book Perhaps no Mystic in the history of the world has delved as deeply into the inner knowledge that informs our being as did Ibn 'Arabi. He was born into the cultural and religious crucible of Andalusian Spain in 1165, a place and time in which Muslim, Jewish and Christian Scholars learned from each other and from the Greek classics that were then being translated and circulated. Drawing from the most advanced philosophical and metaphysical thinking of his time and from his extensive Knowledge of the religion of Islam, Ibn 'Arabi created an extraordinary mystical theology that essentially Sprang from his own spiritual realization. Because of the advance nature of his teachings he has been known for 800 years as the Sheikh al-Akbar, or the Greatest Masters.

Because of the subtlety of his language and complexity of his thought, access to Ibn 'Arabi has always been difficult and translation daunting. Previously only short extracts were available in English. This volume, the first of two, contains 22 key chapters of this Sufi "summa mystica," on such issues as Ibn 'Arabi's doctrine of the Divine Names, the nature of spiritual experience, the end of time, the resurrection and the stages of the path that lead the sanctity, successfully edited and translated by three of the most accomplished scholars of our age.

This great book soars beyond time, culture and any particular from the religion. Described what is fundamental to our humanity, it is astonishingly universal. Finally readers in the West have an entree into one of the most important, profound works of world literature.

"Suddenly one of the most....inaccessible of the great Sufis has emerged into the limelight of Islamic history with amazing swiftness and an impact no one was prepared to experience...in these days, when the image of Islam provided by modernist and fundamentalist Muslims seem so superficial and uninspiring it is good to hear from such great traditional authorities as Ibn 'Arabi, whose ideas seem always fresh and deep."

About the Author Michel Chodkiewiez has been the Director of Studies at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. For many years he was Director of the well-known Paris publishing house, Editions de Seuil. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Islamic spirituality, including a translation Of Awhad al-Din Balyani's Risalah al-Ahdiyyah as Epitre sur I'Unicite Absolute (1982), Spirotual Teachings of Amir 'Abdul Qadir (1993) and two books on Ibn 'Arabi -An Ocean without Shore (1993) and Seal of the Saints.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages