Ibn al-ʿArabī [1165-1240] is the shaykh al-akbar (Greatest Teacher), known to the West as the Doctor Maximus. Without founding a school or a system, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s vision is nevertheless found implicit and enfolded into all spiritual traditions, and is absolutely central to mystic Islam. The 10,000 manuscript pages of the Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah are the description, in his own hand-writing or that of his friends in whose presence he dictated it, of the vision of the Youth he met circling the Kaʿbah in Makkah, who showed him etched in light throughout his body the 560 chapters that would make up the Openings in Makkah. The work is an intimate and urgent depiction of this vision, not a philosophical or theological treatise. As such, it speaks directly to the audience; it is a work of grace which he hopes will—in his words—“cast you onto the path.”
“Read what has been deposited in...