Ibn 'Arabi's metaphysics of love: a textual study of chapter 178 of al-Futuhat al-Makkiya

Abstract

This study examines the concept of Divine love and its various metaphysical articulations as enshrined in the thought of the Andalusian Sufi Ibn ‘Arabī (d. 1240 CE). In order to understand the concept of Divine love from the so-called “Akbarian” perspective, a thorough textual analysis of chapter 178, “On Knowing the Station of Love,” from Ibn ‘Arabī’s magnum opus, The Meccan Openings (al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya), will be carried out. This chapter, which is arguably the richest and most complex text on the topic of Divine love in the Sufi tradition, has not received detailed treatment in Western scholarship. The present study therefore aims to fill this lacunae, offering a complete reading and analysis of this work’s sophisticated cosmology, ontology, and psychology with reference to the development of love theory in the Sufi tradition which preceded Ibn ‘Arabī, and his own metaphysical worldview.