Ibn Tamiyyah’s Praise for Ibn Arabi’s Futuhat

Bismillah,

I was shocked when I read it. But anyway, Ibn Taymiyyah said, “In the very beginning, I was very much impressed by Ibn Arabi and held him in great esteem as I had found many of his discussions in the Futuhat, Al Kunh, Al Muhkam al Marbut, Ad Durrat al Fakhirah, Matali an Nujum and others such works very illuminating and useful. I was not aware at the time of his esoteric ideas as I hard not read the Fusus and other like works.” (Majmu at At Rasa’il Wal al Masail 1:171-183)

 My Thoughts: I know Ibn Taymiyyah considered Ibn Arabi a Kafir, but he did not consider him a kafir because of what was written in the Futuhat, it is interesting that he considered this book to be “very illuminating and useful.” It seems what turned Ibn Taymiyyah against Ibn Arabi is what has been written in Fusus. So what this says is that Ibn Taymiyyah considered some of Ibn Arabi’s works acceptable and within the parameters of Islam, while he consider Ibn Arabi’s other books to be outside the parameters of Islam. So he was not against Sufism, because the Futuhat is a book of Sufism par excellence. Shaykh Abdur Rahman Ash Shaghouri use to read this book, The Futuhat, to his mureeds. And Shaykh Abdur Rahman also did not consider the Fusus al Hikam to be an Authentic book of Ibn Arabi. It is interesting similiarities between the two.

Ponder on that.