Ibn 'Arabi Society

By Selected speakers

Society & Culture Philosophy Religion & Spirituality Spirituality Islam

What's Ibn 'Arabi Society about?

This podcast offers a sampling of talks given by researchers, teachers, translators, and lovers of Ibn Arabi, given at the annual symposia, and in online seminars.

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Ibn 'Arabi Society episodes:

04.16.2024
The Sufi Path of Extraordinary Ordinariness in the Ottoman Novel "The Depths of Imagination"
Dr. Amer Latif is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing in comparative religion and Islamic studies. Broadly speaking, his research revolves around issues involved in the translation of cultures. Having grown up in Pakistan and with an undergraduate degree in Physics, Dr....
03.28.2024
Ibn al-ʿArabī in Peripatetic guise? From ʿiyān to burhān and the epistemological problematic
Rosabel Ansari's areas of Specialization include Classical and post-classical Islamic philosophy; Graeco-Arabic Studies.Her research involves the transmission of Ancient Greek philosophy into Arabic, Arabic and Islamic metaphysics in both the classical and post-classical periods, the philosophy of language, and the...
02.27.2024
Keys to Decipher Ibn ʻArabī’s Manzil al-manāzil. Ibn ʻArabī's unique Quranic journey in Kitāb Manzil: A mystical correlation of 114 suras with the science of numbers and symbolic ascent
Pablo writes: This presentation analyses the content of Ibn ʻArabī’s lesser-known work, Kitāb Manzil al-manāzil al-fahwāniyya (“The Mansion that Gathers [the Keys to All] the Mansions in Which Direct Speech Descends”), which is devoted to Quranic hermeneutics and structured on...
02.04.2024
Ibn al-ʿArabī on Translation
Mohammed Rustom is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Carleton University. He is the author of the award-winning book The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in Mulla Sadra and Assistant Editor of The Study Quran: A New Translation with...
01.04.2024
The Covenant of Alast: When Love Shared its Promise
Marlene DuBois is Professor of English at the State University of New York at Suffolk County Community College. Her research interests are in comparative religion, Sufism, and mythic narratives.
12.11.2023
Ta’wīl and Ishāra: The Meaning of these Terms in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Approach to the Qur’an
Dr. Dakake researches and publishes on Islamic intellectual history, Quranic studies, Shi`ite and Sufi traditions, and women's spirituality and religious experience. She is one of the general editors and contributing authors of the The Study Quran (HarperOne, 2015), which comprises...
10.28.2023
Ibn Arabi's Pluralistic Vision in a World of Exclusivism
The philosophical concepts at the heart of this presentation include Wujud, the Plural, and Ambiguity. I begin by examining Ibn Arabi's notion of belief as 'tying knots in the heart,' parallel to his understanding of the nature of Wujud and...
08.23.2023
Spiritual Education and the "Imaginary Master" in Ibn ʿArabī's Kitāb al-Ajwiba al-ʿarabiyya
Although Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) is known as “the greatest master” (al-shaykh al-akbar), little is known about his practical teachings and his approach to the master-disciple relationship. Apart from scattered accounts of his own companionship with various masters, Ibn ʿArabī...
08.15.2023
'Those who believe are more intense in love': Ibn al-'Arabi and the Paradoxes of Love - Part 2
Love is mysterious and many splendored—the source of our greatest joys and deepest sorrows; easy to talk and sing about, but impossible to define. "One who defines love has not known it, and one who has not tasted it by...
07.05.2023
'Those who believe are more intense in love': Ibn al-'Arabi and the Paradoxes of Love
Love is mysterious and many splendored—the source of our greatest joys and deepest sorrows; easy to talk and sing about, but impossible to define. "One who defines love has not known it, and one who has not tasted it by...
06.08.2023
Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam and Akbarian Sufism
"Ghouls, ifrits and a panoply of other jinn have long haunted Muslim cultures and societies. These also include demonic doubles (qarīn, pl. quranā'): the little-studied and much-feared denizens of the hearts and blood of humans. Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn 'Arabī (d....
05.08.2023
Ahmad Avni Bey's Understanding of Ibn 'Arabi
Mahmud Erol Kılıç is a Professor of Sufi Studies. His numerous books, articles and translations have focused on Ibn 'Arabi and the Ibn 'Arabi school of thought as well as Sufism in Anatolia. He has been the ambassador of the...
05.01.2023
'Ibn 'Arabi in Spiritual Fiqh and Gnostic Knowledge
Laila Khalifa (Ph.D) began her studies in social sciences and history at the University of Jordan in Amman. Later she pursued postgraduate research in Social Psychology at the University of Nottingham, UK in 1985. She was awarded her MA in...
04.01.2023
Dawud al-Qaysari's Muqaddima: The Essential Introduction to Ibn 'Arabi
Mukhtar Ali (Ph.D) (2007) University of California, Berkeley, is a Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and ethics, but his areas of interest also include Arabic and Persian literature, Qur'anic studies and...
02.28.2023
Receptivity, activity and gender in Ibn Arabi's work
Jane Clark is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society and has worked particularly on the Society's Archiving Project as well as looking after the library. She has been studying Ibn Arabi for more than forty years, and...
02.22.2023
Divine 'writing' and the feminine in Ibn 'Arabi
Gracia Lopez Anguita obtained her degree in Arabic Philosophy at the University of Cordoba. In 2005 she joined the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Seville, where she is currently Assistant Professor. Among other publications, her...
02.15.2023
The half-door and Salma's house: the architecture of love
At Haverford College (BA), then the University of Pennsylvania (MA), then the University of South Carolina (PhD), Eric Winkel undertook eclectic studies, mostly religion at first, focusing on spiritual matters, then later including political science, and numerous languages to enable...
01.27.2023
Julian of Norwich: All manner of things shall be well
Cecilia Twinch is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society, Oxford. Besides working as a teacher, translator and editor, she has written numerous articles and has lectured on Ibn 'Arabi and mysticism worldwide. She has studied at...
01.06.2023
Love in the teachings of Ibn 'Arabī
Hany Talaat Ibrahim completed his PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. He is currently teaching at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University, Canada. He specializes in pre-modern Islamic thought, Arabic Sufi literature, and Islamic art...
12.21.2022
Language Acts and Worldmaking
Ibn Arabi's Creative Imagination: Crossing Borders to Discover the Meaning of Being Human. Collaborative presentation between Language Acts and Worldmaking and the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. This event, originally an online seminar via Zoom, explores how Ibn Arabi's creative...
12.13.2022
Language Acts and Worldmaking
Ibn Arabi's Creative Imagination: Crossing Borders to Discover the Meaning of Being Human. Collaborative presentation between Language Acts and Worldmaking and the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society. This event, originally an online seminar via Zoom, explores how Ibn Arabi's creative...
11.09.2022
Embodying the In-Between: Comparative Reflections on the walī and the Bodhisattva
Hina Khalid has completed an MPhil in Theology at the University of Cambridge. Her work has previously examined the theological discourse of the Muslim mystic and philosopher ‘Ibn Arabi, in dialogue with selected aspects of the Buddhist philosophical tradition. Her...
10.31.2022
Ibn ‘Arabi's alphabet of prophets: the spirit and form of the Fuṣūṣ
Todd Lawson is Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Dept. of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. He has published widely on Quran commentary (tafsir), the Quran as literature, Sufism, Shi'i Islam and the Babi and Bahai traditions. His book Jesus...
10.18.2022
"A Noble Letter with Multiple Aspects" - The letter wāw according to Ibn ‘Arabi, in poetry and prose
Stephen Hirtenstein has been editor of the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society since its inception in 1982, and is a co-founder of Anqa Publishing. He read History at King's College, Cambridge, and then studied at the Beshara School of...
10.05.2022
The Three Great Books: Letters, Elements and Prime Matter in Ibn ‘Arabi's Cosmogony
Dunja Rašić (PhD Free University Berlin) is a lecturer at the University of Belgrade. Her academic interests include philosophy of language, Akbarian cosmology and the philosophical and theological thought of the early Islamic Middle Ages. She is currently working on...
09.26.2022
Thus Spoke Adam
Luca Patrizi is part of the University of Turin, Italy, and research fellow at Exeter University, UK.
09.19.2022
A Fresh Look at Ibn Sabʿīn: The Circular Scale of Transcendence and Mediation
Carlos Berbil is the Alexander von Humboldt Kolleg for Islamicate Intellectual History at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
08.18.2022
The Ambiguities of Union: Fana & Baqa
Cyrus Ali Zargar is Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Central Florida. His first book, Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in Ibn ʿArabi and ʿIraqi, was published in 2011 by the University of...
08.09.2022
The Structure of the Universe as a Network
Gracia Lopez Anguita obtained her degree in Arabic Philosophy at the University of Cordoba. In 2005 she joined the Department of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Seville, where she is currently Assistant Professor. Among other publications, her...
07.20.2022
'Tasting, Drinking and Quenching Thirst'
Alexander Knysh is professor of Islamic Studies and former chair (1998–2004) of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Institute for Oriental Studies (Leningrad Branch) of the Soviet...
07.13.2022
The Dot and the Line: Akbarian views on time and the instant
Michele Petrone is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Universite catholique de Louvain
07.06.2022
The Alif – the One, the Many and the Beautiful
Rim Feriani is Educational Director at The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society, UK. She had previously lectured in Arabic language at King's College, London and taught Arabic language and cultural studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures at the...
07.01.2022
The Perplexing Geometry of Being
Gregory Vandamme is a PhD candidate (FNRS-FRESH) working on classical Sufism, with a particular interest in the works of Ibn 'Arabi and his school. His research pays attention on transmission and transformation of doctrines from Early Sufism to Akbarian thought....
06.22.2022
The Geometry of Causality and the Unfolding of Destiny
Dr Samer Akkach is Associate Professor of Architecture and Founding Director of the Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture (CAMEA) at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He was born and educated in Damascus before moving to Australia to complete his...
06.16.2022
The Symbolism of the Two Arcs: some reflections
Paolo Urizzi is the director of Perennia Verba, Italy. The interest in Perennial Wisdom has led him to deepen the metaphysical doctrines of Vedanta and Sufism, and his research has focused in particular on the notion of the "Seal of...
06.01.2022
The Encircling Alighting Places of the Qur'an
At Haverford College (BA), then the University of Pennsylvania (MA), then the University of South Carolina (PhD), Eric Winkel undertook eclectic studies, mostly religion at first, focusing on spiritual matters, then later including political science, and numerous languages to enable...
05.25.2022
The Structure of Two-Ness
Jane Clark is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society and has worked particularly on the Society's Archiving Project as well as looking after the library. She has been studying Ibn Arabi for more than forty years, and...
05.18.2022
The Point of the Compass
Jane Carroll is a Senior Research Fellow of the Ibn Arabi Society and is Secretary of the Society in the US. She first studied the works of Ibn Arabi at the Beshara School in Scotland in the 1970s while concurrently...
05.11.2022
The Blessing-Prayer of Effusion
Pablo Beneito is currently Professor at the Department of Translation and Interpreting in the Faculty of Letters, University of Murcia, Spain. He has been studying the works of Ibn Arabi since he chose to do his doctorate in Arabic philology...
05.04.2022
The Circle and the Compass
Stephen Hirtenstein has been editor of the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society since its inception in 1982, and is a co-founder of Anqa Publishing. He read History at King's College, Cambridge, and then studied at the Beshara School...
03.10.2020
Qurrat al-'Ayn, the Maiden of the Ka'ba
Pablo Beneito is currently Professor of the Translation and Interpretation Department in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Murcia. He has published editions and translations of several works of Ibn 'Arabi including Mashahid al-Asrar - Las contemplaciones de...
02.25.2020
'One understands that a journey entails weariness and difficulty': circularity, duality and compassion in the Footstool
Eric Winkel is working full-time on a translation of the entire al-Futuhat al-Makkiyah (The Openings Revealed in Makkah) based on the 2011 critical edition of Dr. Abd al-Aziz al-Mansoub, published in the Yemen. While at the Institute of Advanced Islamic...
01.13.2020
Ibn 'Arabi Counsels His Own Soul: Guidance and deception in the Ruh al-Quds
Jane Clark is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society, and has workedparticularly on the Society's Archiving Project as well looking after the library. She has been studying Ibn 'Arabi for more than forty years, and...
12.01.2019
Beyond Belief: Ibn 'Arabi on the Perennial Challenges of Realization
James Morris (Boston College) has taught and published widely on Islamic and religious studies over the past 40 years at the Universities of Exeter, Princeton, Oberlin, and the Institute of Ismaili Studies in Paris and London, serving recently as visiting...
11.04.2019
Better Living Through Alchemy – Some Secrets of Spiritual Medicine
Angela Jaffray (PhD Harvard University) is an independent scholar, specializing in the translation of and commentary on the short works of Ibn 'Arabi. Her translation of Ibn 'Arabi's al-Ittihad al-kawni (The Universal Tree and the Four Birds) was published by...
10.04.2019
Love and Happiness, Suffering and Bewilderment: One of Ibn al-‘Arabi's anti-systematic treatments of the human condition
Oludamini Ogunnaike is an assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He teaches courses on African and African Diasporic Religions as well as Islam, Islamic Philosophy, Spirituality, and Art. He holds a PhD in African Studies and...
09.25.2018
Ibn Arabi's 'Doves of the Arak Tree' and its Arabian, Qur'anic and Plotinian Antecedents
Stefan Sperl is Professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, at SOAS University of London. He was born in Stuttgart and brought up in Luxembourg. He studied Arabic at Oxford and the American University...
08.17.2018
Bewildered – a new translation of Ibn 'Arabi's Tarjuman poems
Michael Sells is the professor of Islamic Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago. His publications on Arabic poetry, Sufism, and mystical language include Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes (1989); Mystical Languages of Unsaying (1994); Stations of...
07.14.2018
The Healer of Wounds: interpreting human existence in the light of alchemy and ascension
Stephen Hirtenstein has been editor of the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society since its inception in 1982, and is a co-founder of Anqa Publishing. He read History at King's College, Cambridge, and then studied at the Beshara School...
01.29.2018
A Journey Through Wasl and Fasl: Women and Sexual Relations in Ibn Arabi's Thought
Heba Youssry is currently the Director of Manor House International School in Egypt. She holds a double BA in the fields of Business Administration and Philosophy and a double MA in Arabic Literature and Philosophy all of which were attained...

What's Ibn 'Arabi Society about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Ibn 'Arabi Society episodes:

The Sufi Path of Extraordinary Ordinariness in the Ottoman Novel "The Depths of Imagination"

Ibn al-ʿArabī in Peripatetic guise? From ʿiyān to burhān and the epistemological problematic

Keys to Decipher Ibn ʻArabī’s Manzil al-manāzil. Ibn ʻArabī's unique Quranic journey in Kitāb Manzil: A mystical correlation of 114 suras with the science of numbers and symbolic ascent

Ibn al-ʿArabī on Translation

The Covenant of Alast: When Love Shared its Promise

Ta’wīl and Ishāra: The Meaning of these Terms in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Approach to the Qur’an

Ibn Arabi's Pluralistic Vision in a World of Exclusivism

Spiritual Education and the "Imaginary Master" in Ibn ʿArabī's Kitāb al-Ajwiba al-ʿarabiyya

'Those who believe are more intense in love': Ibn al-'Arabi and the Paradoxes of Love - Part 2

'Those who believe are more intense in love': Ibn al-'Arabi and the Paradoxes of Love

Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam and Akbarian Sufism

Ahmad Avni Bey's Understanding of Ibn 'Arabi

'Ibn 'Arabi in Spiritual Fiqh and Gnostic Knowledge

Dawud al-Qaysari's Muqaddima: The Essential Introduction to Ibn 'Arabi

Receptivity, activity and gender in Ibn Arabi's work

Divine 'writing' and the feminine in Ibn 'Arabi

The half-door and Salma's house: the architecture of love

Julian of Norwich: All manner of things shall be well

Love in the teachings of Ibn 'Arabī

Language Acts and Worldmaking

Language Acts and Worldmaking

Embodying the In-Between: Comparative Reflections on the walī and the Bodhisattva

Ibn ‘Arabi's alphabet of prophets: the spirit and form of the Fuṣūṣ

"A Noble Letter with Multiple Aspects" - The letter wāw according to Ibn ‘Arabi, in poetry and prose

The Three Great Books: Letters, Elements and Prime Matter in Ibn ‘Arabi's Cosmogony

Thus Spoke Adam

A Fresh Look at Ibn Sabʿīn: The Circular Scale of Transcendence and Mediation

The Ambiguities of Union: Fana & Baqa

The Structure of the Universe as a Network

'Tasting, Drinking and Quenching Thirst'

The Dot and the Line: Akbarian views on time and the instant

The Alif – the One, the Many and the Beautiful

The Perplexing Geometry of Being

The Geometry of Causality and the Unfolding of Destiny

The Symbolism of the Two Arcs: some reflections

The Encircling Alighting Places of the Qur'an

The Structure of Two-Ness

The Point of the Compass

The Blessing-Prayer of Effusion

The Circle and the Compass

Qurrat al-'Ayn, the Maiden of the Ka'ba

'One understands that a journey entails weariness and difficulty': circularity, duality and compassion in the Footstool

Ibn 'Arabi Counsels His Own Soul: Guidance and deception in the Ruh al-Quds

Beyond Belief: Ibn 'Arabi on the Perennial Challenges of Realization

Better Living Through Alchemy – Some Secrets of Spiritual Medicine

Love and Happiness, Suffering and Bewilderment: One of Ibn al-‘Arabi's anti-systematic treatments of the human condition

Ibn Arabi's 'Doves of the Arak Tree' and its Arabian, Qur'anic and Plotinian Antecedents

Bewildered – a new translation of Ibn 'Arabi's Tarjuman poems

The Healer of Wounds: interpreting human existence in the light of alchemy and ascension

A Journey Through Wasl and Fasl: Women and Sexual Relations in Ibn Arabi's Thought