Ibn 'Arabi Society

The statement attributed to Ibn al-ʿArabī, “kunnā ḥurūfan ʿāliyāt” — “We were exalted letters” — offers a profound affirmation of the pre-existent and sacred nature of all beings as articulations of Divine Speech. This is not merely poetic imagery, but a metaphysical vision: each created being is a singular word of God, a letter inscribed in the unfolding Book of Existence.

In this course, we will begin to explore the science of letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) in the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī and consider the metaphysical significance of Arabic letters (al-ḥurūf) as primordial structures of existence and keys to Divine self-disclosure. For Ibn al-ʿArabī, letters are not merely linguistic signs but living realities through which creation is articulated, ordered, and unveiled. Through the study of selected letters such as al-Alif, the axis of Divine Oneness; al-Bāʾ, the womb of emergence; al-Lām-Alif, the interplay of affirmation and negation; and al-Nūn, the arc of containment and return, the course opens a symbolic cosmos in which the Arabic alphabet maps the unseen scaffolding of the universe, revealing how the Real speaks through creation—letter by letter, word by word, and form by form.

Dr. Hany T. Ibrahim is an interdisciplinary scholar working across Religious Studies, Islamic thought, Sufism, Arabic philology, and Islamic art and architecture. His scholarship is dedicated to the study of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings, teachings, and metaphysics. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary, an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Lethbridge, an MPhil in the Built Environment from London South Bank University, and a BArch from Helwan University. His work explores Islamic metaphysics, love, beauty, language, symbolism, sacred aesthetics, and the contemporary relevance of classical Islamic thought. He is the author of Love in the Teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī (Equinox, 2023).

The statement attributed to Ibn al-ʿArabī, “kunnā ḥurūfan ʿāliyāt” — “We were exalted letters” — offers a profound affirmation of the pre-existent and sacred nature of all beings as articulations of Divine Speech. This is not merely poetic imagery, but a metaphysical vision: each created being is a singular word of God, a letter inscribed in the unfolding Book of Existence.

In this course, we will begin to explore the science of letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) in the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī and consider the metaphysical significance of Arabic letters (al-ḥurūf) as primordial structures of existence and keys to Divine self-disclosure. For Ibn al-ʿArabī, letters are not merely linguistic signs but living realities through which creation is articulated, ordered, and unveiled. Through the study of selected letters such as al-Alif, the axis of Divine Oneness; al-Bāʾ, the womb of emergence; al-Lām-Alif, the interplay of affirmation and negation; and al-Nūn, the arc of containment and return, the course opens a symbolic cosmos in which the Arabic alphabet maps the unseen scaffolding of the universe, revealing how the Real speaks through creation—letter by letter, word by word, and form by form.

Dr. Hany T. Ibrahim is an interdisciplinary scholar working across Religious Studies, Islamic thought, Sufism, Arabic philology, and Islamic art and architecture. His scholarship is dedicated to the study of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings, teachings, and metaphysics. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary, an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Lethbridge, an MPhil in the Built Environment from London South Bank University, and a BArch from Helwan University. His work explores Islamic metaphysics, love, beauty, language, symbolism, sacred aesthetics, and the contemporary relevance of classical Islamic thought. He is the author of Love in the Teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī (Equinox, 2023).

The statement attributed to Ibn al-ʿArabī, “kunnā ḥurūfan ʿāliyāt” — “We were exalted letters” — offers a profound affirmation of the pre-existent and sacred nature of all beings as articulations of Divine Speech. This is not merely poetic imagery, but a metaphysical vision: each created being is a singular word of God, a letter inscribed in the unfolding Book of Existence.

In this course, we will begin to explore the science of letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) in the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī and consider the metaphysical significance of Arabic letters (al-ḥurūf) as primordial structures of existence and keys to Divine self-disclosure. For Ibn al-ʿArabī, letters are not merely linguistic signs but living realities through which creation is articulated, ordered, and unveiled. Through the study of selected letters such as al-Alif, the axis of Divine Oneness; al-Bāʾ, the womb of emergence; al-Lām-Alif, the interplay of affirmation and negation; and al-Nūn, the arc of containment and return, the course opens a symbolic cosmos in which the Arabic alphabet maps the unseen scaffolding of the universe, revealing how the Real speaks through creation—letter by letter, word by word, and form by form.

Dr. Hany T. Ibrahim is an interdisciplinary scholar working across Religious Studies, Islamic thought, Sufism, Arabic philology, and Islamic art and architecture. His scholarship is dedicated to the study of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings, teachings, and metaphysics. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary, an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Lethbridge, an MPhil in the Built Environment from London South Bank University, and a BArch from Helwan University. His work explores Islamic metaphysics, love, beauty, language, symbolism, sacred aesthetics, and the contemporary relevance of classical Islamic thought. He is the author of Love in the Teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī (Equinox, 2023).

"Different Aesthetics" – A New Approach to Sufi Texts?

The topic of the MIAS-Warburg Symposium was inspired by an interdisciplinary

research project on Premodern Aesthetics spearheaded by the University of

Tuebingen. It approaches aesthetic acts and artifacts not as objects sufficient unto

themselves and hence to be viewed with 'disinterested pleasure' (Kant), but as

agents endowed with an aesthetic energy in which their true purpose resides, and

which explains the dynamic impact they can have on socio-cultural and

psychological processes. The aesthetic acts and artifacts studied by the project also

include Christian mystical texts whose aesthetic energy aims to engender in the

recipient a state of consciousness akin to the beatific vision. A collection of papers

produced by contributors to the Tuebingen project has just appeared in English

translation (Different Aesthetics: Principles, Questions, Perspectives, edited by A.

Gerock-Reiter et al., De Gruyter, 2025). The presentation will introduce the scope of

the project, discuss recent examples of its application to Christian and Muslim texts,

and conclude with remarks on its relevance for the study of the Akbarian tradition.

Stefan Sperl graduated from Oxford (Arabic) and SOAS (PhD 1977), and spent ten

years working for UNHCR in Egypt, Sudan and Geneva. He joined SOAS in 1988

and retired in 2018 as Emeritus Professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. His

publications include articles on Arabic, Islamic and Refugee Studies, as well as

Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts (1989), Qasida

Poetry in Islamic Africa and Asia (with C. Shackle, 1996) and The Cosmic Script:

Sacred Geometry and the Science of Arabic Penmanship (with A. Moustafa, 2014)

which won the Iran Book of the Year Award (2016). His recent publications are 'The

Qur’an and Arabic Poetry' (The Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies, 2020), the

volume Faces of the Infinite, Neoplatonism and Poetry at the Confluence of Africa,

Asia and Europe with the accompanying website lyrics-of-ascent.net (with Y. Dedes,

2022), and 'Islamic Spirituality and the Visual Arts' (The Wiley Blackwell Companion

to Islamic Spirituality, 2023). He continues to be actively engaged in research and

since 2023 has been teaching Arabic literature courses at the University of

Cambridge.

Recorded by Warburg Institute

The Body of the Caliph: Corporeal Governance of the Human Kingdom in Ibn 'Arabi's al-Tadbirat al-ilahiyya and its Commentaries

In his Book of the Divine Governances for the Restoration of the Human Kingdom (K. al-Tadbirat al-ilahiyya fi islah al-mamlaka al-insaniyya), Ibn 'Arabi describes how the flourishing of the individual depends on a spiritual policy ensuring harmony in the human microcosm. This governance of the individual is centred on the caliphal authority of the spirit and its vizier, the intellect. But where does that leave the body? Is it merely reduced to passive obedience to this authority, or does it too play an active role in this internal politics? In this presentation, we shall revisit the Tadbirat from the vantage point of the body, while also examining two later commentaries by Husayn b. Tu'ma al-Baytimani (d. 1175/1761) and Muhammad al-Damuni (d. ca. 1208/1794).

GREGORY VANDAMME is a scholar specialising in classical Sufi thought, particularly the works of Ibn 'Arabi and his commentators. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from UCLouvain, where his dissertation focused on the concept of hayra (perplexity) in Ibn 'Arabi’s thought, exploring its implications in epistemology, metaphysics, and Qur'anic hermeneutics. Currently, Gregory is a post doctoral research associate at the University of Chester, following his roles as a research fellow at F.R.S.–FNRS and UCLouvain in Belgium, and as guest lecturer at SciencesPo Paris. His research primarily delves into the doctrines of speculative mysticism, Qur'anic hermeneutics, and spiritual education in Sufism.

Recorded by Warburg Institute

This paper explores the pivotal role of the Adamic fass in unlocking the profound metaphysical framework of Ibn al-'Arabi's Fusus al-Hikam. Centering on the concept of the comprehensive Being (al-kawn al-jami'), a term mentioned in the opening paragraph of the Fusus, the Adamic fass emerges as the key to understanding the divine necessity of human existence as a mirror of God's names and attributes. By elucidating the unique ontological position of Adam as the khalifa (vicegerent) and the synthesis of all divine manifestations, this study demonstrates how the Adamic 'fass' provides the interpretive lens through which the overarching unity and wisdom of each fass of the Fusus al-Hikam can be accessed. Ultimately, the paper argues that Adam represents not only the archetype of perfected humanity but also the means through which the divine self-disclosure (tajalli) achieves its fullest realization, making the Adamic fass the cornerstone for comprehending Ibn al-Arabi's vision of existence.

Mukhtar Ali is Professor of Islamic Studies, specializing in Sufsm, Islamic philosophy and ethics. His areas of interest include Arabic and Persian literature, Qur'anic studies, theology, traditional medicine and comparative religion. He is the author of Philosophical Sufsm: An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-'Arabi (Routledge, 2021) and The Horizons of Being: The Metaphysics of Ibn al-'Arabi in the Muqaddimat al-Qaysari (Brill, 2020) and his forthcoming work, Inscriptions of Wisdom: The Sufism of Ibn al-'Arabi in the Mirror of Jami, is a study on Ibn al-'Arabi's masterpiece, Fusus al-hikam through the lens of Jami's Naqd al-nusus fi sharh Naqsh al-Fusus.

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Recorded by Warburg Institute

Ibn 'Arabi states in Futuhat that 'the breath of the creatures comes from the divine breath' or that 'the human breath has the same form as that of the Merciful.' Parting from this idea, a whole set of implications related with the articulation of language, the act of praising, the continuous creation, the esoteric-exoteric dialectic or even with love, unfolds itself. From the reading of some of Ibn Arabi's cosmological texts, it can be deduced that there is a correlation between the cycle of breath exhalation/inhalation and the rhythm of creation/annihilation in the Universe.

Gracia López Anguita is a lecturer in the Dept. of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Seville. She obtained her European PhD with a thesis on Ibn Arabi's treatise 'Uqlat al-mustawfiz awarded with the Doctorate Prize. She focuses her research on the thought of this Master and his school. She has been a visiting researcher at Allameh Tabatabai University and at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and is currently part of the team of the research project funded by the Spanish Government and European funds: "Cultural and Religious Identity in Sufism in Morocco and Senegal: Hagiographies, Gender and Symbology."

Recorded by Warburg Institute

Muhammad writes: This lecture explores the concept of the anthropocosmic self in Ibn 'Arabi's thought, presenting his vision of life as a dynamic interplay between the human being, the cosmos, and the divine. Ibn ʿArabi, a seminal figure in Sufism, offers a profound framework for understanding selfhood - not as an isolated entity but as a microcosm deeply interwoven with the macrocosm and the divine. This anthropocosmic perspective reorients the purpose of human existence from self-centred individuality to a participatory role in the unfolding of divine realities within creation. It argues that the ultimate vision of life, according to Ibn 'Arabi, is a journey of spiritual realization, wherein the human being transcends dualities and becomes a living bridge between the physical and the transcendent realms. The talk concludes by reflecting on the contemporary relevance of Ibn 'Arabi’s anthropocosmic vision, particularly in addressing modern existential and ecological crises, offering a model of selfhood that harmonizes personal flourishing with cosmic and spiritual interconnectedness.

Muhammad U. Faruque is Associate Professor of Islamic Philosophy and Environmental Studies at the University of Cincinnati. A scholar of Islamic Studies and global philosopher, he has lectured widely across North America, Europe, and Asia. His work, translated into multiple languages, has been recognized by major U.S. funding bodies, including the Templeton Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. His first book, Sculpting the Self (University of Michigan Press, 2021), won the World Prize for Book of the Year from the President of Iran. His forthcoming book, The Interconnected Universe: Sufism, Climate Change, and Ecological Living, explores how Sufi contemplative practices foster an ecologically sustainable way of life through an "anthropocosmic" vision of the self.

This is an online book launch in December 2024 in conjunction with Anqa Books (Stephen Hirtenstein) and the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society (Kris Ramlan).

Professor Michael Sells gives an appraisal, followed by a Q&A.

This book is the first English translation of two key works by Ibn 'Arabi on the 99 Divine Names: Kashf al-ma'nā and an excerpt from Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya. With an introduction and insightful notes, it presents Ibn 'Arabi's comprehensive understanding of the Divine Names, which underpin the very fabric of existence, and how he focuses on three aspects of the Names: our dependence on each Name, the reality of the Name in relation to God, and the servant's being characterised by the Name. It is an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the real mystical significance of the Divine Names and Ibn 'Arabi's vision of the divine-human relationship.

Pablo Beneito, Professor in the Department of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Murcia, Spain, is a renowned translator and commentator on Ibn 'Arabi's works. He also serves as the editor of El Azufre Rojo: Revista de Estudios sobre Ibn Arabi and coordinates activities for the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society–Latina.

To help bring Ibn 'Arabi's timeless teachings to life for people today, Dickson, in his new book, explores key themes from the Fusus al-Hikam (The Gemstones of Wisdom), a work that conveys the essential wisdom of the prophets on being, reality and human capacity. Dickson addresses many of the challenging aspects of Ibn 'Arabi's thought, showing how multiple interpretations allow it to engage modern audiences and contribute to philosophical and ecumenical discussions. This conversation will focus on how complex metaphysical ideas and theological debates can be accessible and relevant for both spiritual seekers and intellectuals. Join us for a gathering featuring an insightful contemporary engagement with Ibn 'Arabi’s ideas.

Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, William Rory Dickson was drawn to Islam and Sufism in his late teens. He pursued the study of Sufism in graduate degrees in Waterloo, Ontario, while maintaining a broad interest in various contemplative traditions. His first book, Living Sufism in North America: Between Tradition and Transformation (SUNY 2015), was the first academic monograph on North American Sufi groups. He has co-authored an introduction to Sufism with Meena Sharify-Funk, Unveiling Sufism: From Manhattan to Mecca (Equinox 2017), as well as an overview of Sufism in the modern period, Contemporary Sufism: Piety, Politics, and Popular Culture (Routledge 2018), with Sharify-Funk and Merin Shobhana Xavier. His latest work, Dissolving into Being: The Wisdom of Sufi Philosophy (Anqa 2024) offers an introduction to Sufi philosophy, providing a modern commentary on chapters of Ibn 'Arabi’s Gemstones of Wisdom. Dickson is Associate Professor and Chair of the Religion and Culture Department at the University of Winnipeg.