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Part III (pdf) - Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society

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17but as its very raison d’être. Jîlî, like <strong>Ibn</strong> ‘Arabî and unlike so many of the Shaykh’s othercommentators, is careful here to raise questions of ‘theory’ or intellectual explanation as theynaturally arise within the context and ultimate aim of spiritual realization—not as they aregenerated by extraneous apologetic concerns, or by an internal intellectual dialectic taken as anend in itself. The result of that approach, aided by his frequent references from appropriatepassages of the Fut ûhât and other works of <strong>Ibn</strong> ‘Arabî, is a truly Sufi commentary (not so mucha philosophic or theological one), grounded in terms accessible to any reader willing to followthe spiritual progression underlying <strong>Ibn</strong> ‘Arabî’s exposition in this work. (The same distinctivequalities are likewise evident in the translations from the more recent figure of ‘Abd al-Qâdir al-Jazâ'irî discussed at the end of this essay below.)V. Although ‘Abd al-Rahmân al-Jâmî (d. 898/1492) could quite justifiably be considered amajor figure in the ‘school’ of <strong>Ibn</strong> ‘Arabî and Qûnawî discussed in the preceding section, simplyon the basis of his Sufi commentaries and more philosophical writings, he is certainly far betterknown today as one of the greatest classical Persian poets. Professor Yann Richard’s translation(and new edition, with facing Persian text) of his famous Lawâ’ih [Les Jaillissements deLumière. Pp. 179. Paris: Les Deux Oceans. 1982.], whose thirty-six ‘Illuminations’ are amasterful combination of powerful, immediately accessible Sufi poetry and complexmetaphysical analysis (almost entirely based on <strong>Ibn</strong> ‘Arabî and his earlier commentators), thusillustrates the inner connection between these two equally essential aspects of Jâmî’s life andwork. At the same time, among all the translations discussed here, this work (along with ‘Abdal-Qâdir’s K. al-Mawâqif, discussed below) is especially suitable as an introduction to thiscurrent of later Islamic thought for students without any previous background, precisely becauseJâmî—whose intentions are ably conveyed in Professor Richard’s careful translation—hasconstructed the work as a sort of dialogue in which the poetry (although occasionally didactic)most often directs the reader to the immediate and indispensable experiential insights (the‘illuminations’ or ‘flashes’ of the title) whose metaphysical and theological implications are thenclarified and elaborated in the accompanying prose, often by contrasting the approach of the Sufi‘knowers’ (as exemplified here by <strong>Ibn</strong> ‘Arabî and Qûnawî) with the limited methods of the

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