The title for this talk is drawn from the final mysterious book-title mentioned by Ibn 'Arabi in his listing of his own writings in the Fihrist ('Catalogue'). It would be impossible to appreciate Ibn 'Arabi's writings without encountering the notion of al-insān al-kāmil explicitly or implicitly, but how and where does Ibn 'Arabi actually use the te…

Angela writes: Overshadowed by his younger brother Moses, known primarily for his negative role in the Golden Calf saga, the Prophet Aaron’s importance may seem to some negligible, his status auxiliary, his effect doubtful. A close reading of the Shaykh al-Akbar’s various treatments of this seemingly minor prophet, however, allows us to take a seco…

William C. Chittick is an internationally renowned scholar on Islamic civilization as well as Comparative Philosophy and Religious Studies. He is author, editor and translator of 30 books and monographs, and nearly 200 articles on Islamic thought, Shi’ism and Sufism. His works have been translated into a dozen languages used in the Middle East, Eas…

Dr Sachiko Murata’s research has included the interrelationships between Islamic and Far Eastern thought, especially in the writings of the Huiru, “the Muslim Confucianists,” who wrote numerous tracts in Chinese from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. She has published many scholarly articles and a number of books. These include Isur…

Shankar Nair specializes in Muslim-Hindu interactions in South Asia, Sufism and Islamic philosophy, Qur'anic exegesis, Hindu philosophy and theology, and South Asian religious literatures, primarily in the context of the early modern period, but also including the medieval periodAf Shankar Nair

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 the Study of Religion from Harvard University, and spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at…

Atif Khalil is on the faculty of Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge. Khalil's primary area of research lies in Sufism, with secondary interests in Islamic philosophy and theology, comparative mysticism, interfaith relations, Jewish-Muslim relations, medieval philosophy, non-duality, and more recently, mysticism and the Near Death Exp…

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. Latif thrives on studying and creating containers that are capacious enou…

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 relationship between rational and…

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 symbolic principles derived from the science of numbers and the abjad al…

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 Notes and Commentary (Editor-in-Chief, Seyyed Hossein Nasr)…

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.Af Marlene Dubois

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 a translation and verse-by-verse commentary on the Qur'anic text th…

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 Barzakh. The aim is a fresh thinking about pluralism, grounded in Sufi metaphysics — a metaphysics focused on…

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 dedicates very few books or chapters to the rules of spiritual education…

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 drinking it down, has not known it," writes Ibn al-'Arabi.While Rumi is more associated with love in the contemporary imagination,…

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 drinking it down, has not known it," writes Ibn al-'Arabi.While Rumi is more associated with love in the contemporary imagination,…

"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. 1240) wrote on jinn in substantial detail, uncovering the physiognomy, culture and behaviour …

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 Republic of Turkey to the Republic of Indonesia, and was the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member S…

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 Classical and Modern Islamic Thought at the Sorbonne in 1988. She has subsequently dedicated her research to t…

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 comparative religion. He is the author of Philosophical Su…

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 is engaged in teaching courses and lecturing on his thought both in the UK (including Oxford University and Temen…

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 book Ibn 'Arabi y su epoca was published in 2018.…

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 study of religious and spiritual texts (Sanskrit, Greek, Coptic, T…

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 Cambridge University and the Beshara School. Her publications include an English translation of Ibn …