He tried to reconcile these doctrines with the doctrines of Islam. If he is
accepted as the
shaykh al-akbar
of the Sufis, then Sufism requires seeing
with both eyes (
‘aynan
), the eye of traditional religiosity and the eye of
spiritual practice. Looking at the world with one eye only would yield a
distorted image of reality.
Ibn al-Arabi is considered the greatest Arabic speaking mystic that Islam
ever produced. Having said that, his brand of Sufism is not accessible to
everyone, and he acknowledges this point by calling himself the “seal of the
Muhammadan friends of God”. For Ibn ‘Arabi, Sufism is the ultimate and
the best way of reaching God. However, he was accused of being a pantheist
who tried to reconcile his pantheistic doctrine with Islam.
The important thing to remember while studying sufism is the fact
that the Sufi approach to God is considerably different from the approaches
offered by the philosopher or the theologians. While the philosophers
approach the idea of God in a rational manner, the theologians approach it
in a discursive manner, trying to find formal arguments for the Quranic
doctrine on God, Sufism turns to spiritual experience. It considers the
experience of oneness with God, an inner feeling of
tawhid
, as its main
objective.
There were some Sufis like Hasan al Basri whose thought was rational,
although strongly influenced by deep piety; there were others like Al-
Hallaj who formulated totally new ideas of oneness with God (eg.Al-Hallaj’s
statement, “I am the truth” avowing his oneness with God, the Truth);
there were yet other Sufis who did not challenge the usual conclusions of
Ash’arite like al Ghazali, a theologian turned Sufi, who stood firm on
theological ground, while at the same time acknowledging the fact that
