WINKEL reviews michel chodkiewicz

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International Society for Iranian Studies

An Ocean without Shore: Ibn Arabi, the Book, and the Law by Michel ChodkiewiczReview by: Eric WinkelIranian Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1/4, Religion and Society in Islamic Iran during the Pre-ModernEra (1994), pp. 221-223Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society for Iranian Studies

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Reviews 221An Ocean Without Shore: Ibn Arabi, the Book, and the Law,Michel Chodkiewicz,Albany,N.Y.: StateUniversityof New York Press, 1993,184 pp.

This remarkable ook includes presentationsof Michel Chodkiewicz given inMoscow and Murcia,Parisand Princeton,a fact which alone is enough to sug-gest the universalityand wide diffusion of interest in Ibn 'Arabi. As much asprevious scholarshave appreciatedhe universalityof Ibn 'Arabi'svision, it isMichel Chodkiewiczwho has actuallymappedout the diffusion of the akbarianlegacy.William Chittick's The Sufi Path of Knowledge (Albany, N.Y.: State Univer-sity of New York Press, 1989) demonstrates hat due to many factors,not leastthe difficulty of the Futiuhit, scholars have concentrated n an "Eastem"Ibn'Arabi. But the bulk of Chittick's material s from the Futuhat, and there onefindsa "Western," articularlyArab,Ibn 'Arabi. The great contemporary chol-arshipof Corbin, Nasr, Isutzu, andthe "early"Chittick gave us a thorough un-derstanding f the Ibn 'Arabithat camethroughcenturiesof commentaryand dis-cussion, through he great thinkers ike HaydarAmoli and Mulla Sadra-a tradi-tion alive to this day in Iranandamong Shi'i thinkers. The traditionseeminglymoves as a chainthrougha steady processionof links of greatliterature,movinginexorablyto a vision like Corbin's, wherethe essence of Sufism andShi'ism isone. But a readingof the FutuThat,uch as that providedby Chittick in SufiPath of Knowledge,convinces one that that dimension is not the whole of Ibn'Arabi. And if it is not the whole of Ibn 'Arabi-if one can perceivean ArabIbn 'Arabi,an Ibn 'Arabiconcernedwith exotericism andlegal discourse (fiqh),an Ibn 'Arabiwho insists that the haqiqah(truth) s the shari'ah-then the ques-tion becomes:whathappened o this Ibn 'Arabi?Chodkiewicz remindsus thatIbnHajaral-'Asqalaniremarked erplexedly hat atfirst Ibn 'Arabi was receivedquite enthusiastically among the Sunnis (ahl al-sunnah). Vilificationof Ibn 'Arabiwas a laterphenomenon,andone which re-peated tself recently in the Egyptian parliament,where the vilifiers, withoutreadinghim themselves,attackedconceptslike unity of being (wahdat al-wuj4d)which arenot found in Ibn 'Arabi's own writings.' They were, and are, in effect,attacking he "Eastern"bn 'Arabi. But althoughChodkiewiczdemonstrates hatIbn 'Arabi is possibly the most literalinterpreter f the "plaintext"(nass) of theQur'anand the sunnah,andthatIbn 'Arabi'sfiqhis integralto his entirevision,he does not suggest that conventionalulama will love him for this. Where isIbn 'Arabi?Chodkiewicz's answer s thatIbn 'Arabi's deas arevery much alive andwell inSunni circles. Insteadof looking for the "great iterature"eft by the great Shi'i

1. Chittick explains that Ibn 'Arabinever employed the term wahdatal-wujuid,butthat "By the seventeenth century, there was a received wisdom concerning what hehadsaid, and it was this that became the object of debate"(TheSufiPathof Knowl-edge, 226).

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222 Reviewsscholars, one must look for the diffusion of basic concepts of Ibn 'Arabi'sworks. Employing their own pious dissimulation (taqiyah), the Sunni ulamatended o revile or ignore Ibn 'Arabiin broadlypublic spheres, while teachinghim in privatecircles. Foundersof the Sufi paths Quruq)were able to pass oncomplete systems of spiritual ourneying by relying on the articulate oundationlaid by Ibn 'Arabi. And local shaykhs, Sufis and imams gained access to Ibn'Arabi's works through his popularizers, ike Sha'rani. Chodkiewicz'sdescrip-tion of this diffusion is fascinating, as he takes the reader hrough some Sufilodge (zawiyah)library o the storiesof some local saint, finding resonancesofIbn 'Arabi's thoughtthroughout.Butbeyondthe importanceof establishinga more complete understanding f Ibn'Arabi,Chodkiewicz accomplishestwo other things. First, he shows how Ibn'Arabi's works are an extendedcommentaryof the Qur'an. Previous readerscharacterizedhe Futuhdt as "a disorganized ncyclopediaof bookish knowledge[or]a heteroclitecollection of sequenceswhose juxtapositionmight be explainedby surprisesof inspiration" p. 64), andit is no coincidence hat the "haphazard"arrangementn the Qur'an s paralleled n the Futuhat. The basic key to the ar-rangement s given by Chodkiewicz, who shows that for Ibn 'Arabi"if Revela-tiondescendsfrom God towardhumanity, the routefor the viatoris symmetri-cally an ascendingroutethat,contrary o the usualorderof theQur'anic Vulgate,leads the murid fromthe last suraof the Qur'an,suraal-nds, to the first one, al-fdtiha, 'the one that opens,' the one in which the personis given the'ultimatefath, definitive illumination. In otherterms, it becomes a questionof climbingbackfromthe extremepoint of Universal Manifestation which the last word ofthe Qur'an,al-na-s[humanity], symbolizes) to its Divine Principle (which issymbolized by the first sura,ummal-kitab (the Mother of the Book), and, moreexactly, the pointof the ba in the basmala). The inexplicablesuccession of thechapters[in this section of the FuturhdtJhen becomes perfectlycoherent" p.67).Second, Chodkiewicz demonstratesthe importance of the sharl'ah in lbn'Arabi's vision. "Charisma, ciences, epiphanies,all the signs and all the ac-complishmentsare attached o the arad'id obligations),andthusto the Law" (p.116). As he quotesIbn 'Arabi,"If that[thatGod becomesthe hearing,the sightof the servant-in the hadithqudsi] is the fruit of supererogatory cts,just-thinkaboutthe fruitof obligatoryacts!"(ibid.). Insteadof dichotomy, "Thusappearsanothercase of the coincidenceof zahir (outwardness)and batin (inwardness).The spiritualquestis completedthrough hatby which it was started:observanceof the sharl'a"(ibid.).Finally, Chodkiewicz gives the flavor of Ibn 'Arabi's fresh approachto theQur'an. Especially for someone familiar with the Qur'an and Arabic, Ibn'Arabi'sclose andliteralreadingsof versesare startling. It becomes impossiblenot to be struck by Ibn 'Arabi'sreadingof "laysaka-mithlihi shay'un"whichChodkiewicz describeson page 37. Suffice it to say thatboth readingsarecom-pletely grammatically orrect(withone making the "ka"merely an intensifyingparticleand the othergiving it its full semantic weight) andyet the readingwill



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Reviews 223drive one reader o rage againstIbn 'Arabi andanotherto delve deeperstill inwonderment into the Qur'an and Ibn 'Arabi's extended commentary in theFututhat-hence the fact that no one is able to be neutraltowardhim. I am de-lighted to have this book. Chodkiewiczis an essential andindispensable nter-preterof Ibn 'Arabi.Eric Winkel


WINKEL reviews michel chodkiewicz

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