Ulumuna Vol.
No.
1, 2019, p.
Journal of Islamic Studies Published by State Islamic University Mataram p-ISSN 1411-3457, e-ISSN 2355-7648, available online at https://ulumuna.
ABD AL-KARM AL-JL.
WADAT AL-WUJD,
AND RECONFIGURING EPISTEMOLOGY
Rydiger Lohlker University of Vienna (Austri.
Email: ruediger.
lohlker@univie.
Abstract: This study introduces some new ideas into the study of ideas in Sufism.
Taking al-Jl and, esp.
, his al-InsAn al-kAmil as a starting point this study argues a holistic worldview following the concepts of the oneness of being .
audat al-wuj.
will be able to integrate Ae and to be integrated Ae into contemporary scientific concepts like chemical fluctuation, the new synthesis, and This will lead to creating a general philosophy of being beyond the Western biases.
Keywords: al-Jl, al-InsAn al-KAmil.
Waudat al-Wujd.
Rhizome.
New Synthesis.
Holobionts.
Symbiosis Introduction M ETHODOLOGICALLY S PEAKING, this article is written in a rhizomatic style intentionally using longer citations as nodes sending out roots and sprouts of ideas to describe the network of the development of our ideas.
As such the text follows a nonhierarchical allowing for a mulitiplicity of thought, interconnected and diverse, an all-encompassing diversity in unity.
conventional, linear academic narrative would cut up the rhizome of ideas unfolded here and close up the flow of ideas.
Talking about Sufism and writings of Sufis several distinctions have to be made:
textual situated in the intertextual web of relations of the history of Sufi literature through many centuries 1 Evide ntly, thus, we are following an approach inspire d by De le uze and Guattari, but more inclusive since we are inte grating Islamic ide as.
2 Anothe r aspect of this rhizomatic me thodology is a pe dagogical one .
Due to the actual compartme ntalization of knowle dge , we do not e xpe ct e very reade r to have the ne cessary research lite rature at hand.
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Sufi experience as located at specific places, i.
, graves, shrines, etc.
, connected with .
Sufi experience, as a collective experience, i.
, in dhikr and other forms of practice, connected with .
Sufi experience, as an individual existential and transformative experience, confronting a reality beyond everyday reality.
These three dimensions and the textual one are part of .
the epistemological and reflective dimensions, also part of Sufism understood as an all-encompassing practice.
Our aim in this paper is to look into the the epistemological and dimensions of Sufism of the waudat al-wujd way of thought as systematized by al-Jl and to build upon this analysis a new epistemological approach consonant with recent insights from sciences, esp.
, microbiology that emphasize the need to develop a holistic epistemology moving beyond the confines of modern.
Western binary thought.
Thus, this paper is to be understood as an exercise in the critique of modern epistemology, not as a reinstalment of New Age-inspired ideas about the relations of AuEasternAo traditions and 4 We intend to combine the rigorous study of texts with the study of cutting edge biology and conceptual work.
Our remarks are to understood as epistemological and not as Thus, these remarks are to be understood as philosophical in the sense of Deleuze and Guattari saying that the attitude toward chaos marks the first difference between science and philosophy.
A long citation may be allowed to clarify the 3 Due to the limits of space we have to leave out the individual and collective e xpe rie nce and its re lation to waudat al-wujd and al-insAn al-kAmil.
For the sake of bre vity, we re fe r to articles like Se.
McLoughlin and Muzamil Khan.
AoAmbiguous Traditions and Mode rn Transformations of Islam: The Waxing and Waning of an AoIntoxicate dAo Sufi Cult in Mirpur,Au Contemporary South Asia 15, no.
(Se pte mbe r 1, 2.
: 289Ae307, https://doi.
org/10.
1080/09584930601098042, es p.
, 292
for a compre hensive contextualization.
4 The approach of William C.
Chittick.
Science of the Cosmos.
Science of the Soul:
The Pertinence of Islamic Cosmology in the Modern World (Oxford: One world, 2.
is a diffe re nt one although re ferring to e pistemological alte rnatives to Weste rn mode rnity.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA Rydiger Lohlker.
Abd a l-Ka rm a l-Jl.
W audat a l-WujdA ideas of these two authors and not to distort their ideas by putting them in another framework and to present some of the ideas we present in this article:
AoChaos is de fine d not so much by its disorde r as by the infinite spee d with which e ve ry form taking shape in it vanishes.
It is a void that is not a nothingness but a virtual, containing all possible particles and drawing out all possible forms, which spring up only to disappear imme diate ly, without consiste ncy or refe re nce , without conse que nce .
Chaos is an infinite spee d of birth and disappearance .
Now philosophy wants to know how to re tain infinite spee ds while gaining consiste ncy, by giving the virtual a consistency specific to it.
The philosophical sie ve , as plane of immane nce that cuts through the chaos, se lects infinite moveme nts of thought and is fille d with conce pts forme d like consiste nt particles going as fast as thought.
Scie nce approaches chaos in a comple te ly differe nt, almost opposite way: it re linquishes the infinite , infinite spee d, in order to gain a re fere nceable to actualize the virtual.
By re taining the infinite , philosophy gives consistency to the virtual through conce pts.
by re linquishing the infinite , scie nce gives a re fe re nce to the virtual, which actualizes it through functions.
Philosophy procee ds with a plane of immanence or consistency.
scie nce with a plane of re fe re nce .
In the case of scie nce, it is like a freeze-frame .
It is a fantastic slowing down, and it is by slowing down that matter, as we ll as the scie ntific thought able to pe ne trate it with propositions, is actualize d.
A function is a Slow-motion.
Of course, scie nce constantly advances acce lerations, not only in catalysis but in particle acce le rators and e xpansions that move galaxies Howeve r, the primordial slowing down is not for these phe nome na a zero-instant with which the y break but rather a condition coe xte nsive with the ir whole de ve lopme nt.
To slow down is to se t a limit in chaos to which all spee ds are subject, so that the y form a variable de termine d as abscissa, at the same time as the limit forms a universal constant that cannot be gone be yond .
or e xample , a maximum degree of contractio.
The first functives are there fore the limit and the variable , and re fe rence is a re lationship be twee n values of the variable or, more profoundly, the re lationship of the variable , as abscissa of spe eds, with the limit.
Ao 5 Taking the limit as a first functive6 of science makes al-Jl and waudat al-wujd a tremendously important tool to stop over to the plane of immanence.
Auretaining the infiniteAo.
Leaving the 5 Gilles De le uze and Fy lix Guattari.
What Is Philosophy? (Ne w York:
Columbia Unive rsity Pre ss, 1.
, 117Ae119.
6 Not a function nor a functional.
It is a more basic functional e ntity: AoThe object of scie nce is not conce pts but rathe r functions that are prese nte d as propositions in discursive systems.
The e leme nts of functions are calle d Ao Ibid.
, 117.
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dominant power of science aside, we will be able to show that there are approaches in the history of Islamic thought enabling us to offset limits.
But, at first, let us turn to the author we will discuss here! Al-Jl: Biographical Remarks The author we are talking about is AoAbd al-Karm Qutb al-Dn bin IbrAhm al-Jl was born according to one of his works, the long poem al-NAdirat al-ayniyya 7 , in 767/1365 in present-day Iraq.
There are several attempts to attribute his name to geographical regions or the Qadiriyya and its eponym al-Jlan, shortened to al- Jl.
The problem is the lack of information about al-Jl leading to many speculations He was, however, a disciple of Shaykh Sharaf al-DunyA wa alDn IsmAl bin IbrAhm bin Abd al-amad al-Jabart .
806/14.
, from Zabd, in present-day Yemen.
Al-Jabart was al-JlAos true master, the object by him of much praise.
8 The majority of the Akbarian circle around al-Jabart came from Persia.
9 Thus, al-Jl was part of a larger group of Persian origin.
Al-Jabart, for his part, had been a follower of the doctrines of Ibn Arab and a disciple of Ab Bakr Muuammad al-HaqqAq, himself a member of the Qadiriyya.
There are further speculations about links of al-Jl to Southeast Asia.
There is information about some other contemporary Sufi masters who influenced al-Jl, namely JamAl al-Dn bin Muuammad al-Makdash.
Ibn Jaml, most importantly the aforementioned al-Jabart and Aumad Al-RadAd.
This was one of the main disciples of al-Jabart, who, being also YemenAos Chief Justice in 802/1399, when al-Jabart was still alive, took the leadership of the local Sufi tariqa in Zabd, where al-Jl was 7 Abd al-Karm bin IbrAhm al-Jl.
MarAtib al-Wujd wa -aqqat Kull Mawjd (Cairo: MuntadA Sr al-Azbakiyya, 1.
, 328Ae330.
8 See , e .
Abd al-Karm bin IbrAhm al-Jl, al-AsfAr al-Gharb.
Natjat al-Safar al-Qarb (Cairo: al-RisAla, s.
), 11.
9 Miche l Chodkie wicz and Le onard Le wisohn.
AoThe FutuAt Makkiya and Its Comme ntators: Some Unresolve d Enigmas,Au The Heritage of Sufism Vol.
2: Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism .
(Oxford: One world, 1.
, 219Ae232.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA Rydiger Lohlker.
Abd a l-Ka rm a l-Jl.
W audat a l-WujdA Al-Jl has been associated with some other Persian masters, but there are no conclusive proofs yet.
In 803/1400-1 he traveled to Cairo, then to Gaza in Palestine and to Yemen again in 805/1402-3.
There he gathered al-JabartAos disciples founded a school and finished al-InsAn al-kAmil .
He was then in Mecca and Medina in 812/1409, and finally back to Yemen, where he died.
The date of his death has been discussed as has been his name.
In a footnote to an article Valerie J.
Hoffman refers to a letter from Michel Chodkiewicz that there is a manuscript saying that al-Jl died in JumAda II 811 (November 1408 A.
She mentions further evidence that the tomb of al-Jl is to be located in Zabd.
Al-Jl is credited with having written around thirty works, but still, there is no comprehensive list and due to publishing activity during the last decades the existing lists have to be reworked.
Polito12 gives an overview of the situation but is already outdated.
As mentioned before the best-known work of al-Jl is al-InsAn al-kAmil, a systematic presentation of the ideas of waudat al-wujd, the oneness of being.
13 A prime example is his AuCommentary on the Problematic Passages in the Meccan OpeningsAo (Sharu mushkilAt al-FutuuAt al-Makkiyy.
of Ibn al-Arab.
I am following the biographical remarks in Nicholas Lo Polito.
AoAbd AlKarm Al-Jl: Tawud.
Transce nde nce and Immane nce Au (Disse rtation Phil.
Unive rsity of Birmingham, 2.
without discussing the de tails and speculations of the secondary lite rature .
Ange lika Al-Massri.
Gyttliche Vollkommenheit Und Die Stellung Des Menschen: Die Sichtweise Abd Al-Karm Al-ls Auf Der Grundlage Des "aru MukilAt Al-FutuuAt Al-Makkya.
Ao (Stuttgart: Franz Ste iner i.
Komm.
, 1.
is re pe ating the standard, outdated vie w on the biography of al-Jl.
11 Vale rie J.
Hoffman.
AoAnnihilation in the Messe nger of God: The De ve lopme nt of a Sufi Practice ,Au International Journal of Middle East Studies 31 .
: 366.
12 Lo Polito.
AoAbd Al-Karim Al-Jili,Au 25Ae26.
13 See Martin van Bruinesse n.
AoPesantren and Kitab Kuning: Mainte nance and Continuation of a Tradition of Re ligious Learning,Au in Texts from the Islands.
Oral and Written Traditions of Indonesia and the Malay World, e d.
Wolfgang Marschall (Berne : Unive rsity of Be rne , 1.
, 121Ae145 for situating the work in the conte xt of the tradition of learning in Indo nesia.
For an overvie w of al-JlAos thought see Reynold A.
Nicholson.
Studies in Islamic Mysticism (London: Taylor & Francis, 2.
14 Abd al-Karm bin IbrAhm al-Jl.
Sharu MushkilAt al-FutuuAt al-Makkiyya.
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The total .
l-insAn al-kAmi.
Still, there is no complete translation of al-JlAos al-InsAn al-kAmil in Western European languages.
The most prominent translation of an extract of the work has been presented by Titus Burckhardt.
A complete translation of a work of al-Jl, al-Kahf al-raqm16 , has been part of the doctoral thesis of Nicholas Lo Polito17 .
Ernst Bannerth published a translation of MarAtib al-wujd.
There are many ways to render the Arabic expression al-insAn al-kAmil in other languages.
We will find in English, e.
, the perfect man, the perfect individual, complete man, universal man.
Taking into account the idea of Ibn al-AoArabi that al-insAn alkAmil denotes man/human in his/her totality, we will opt in this article for the Autotal .
manAo.
A similar point of view may be found in Ali: AuThe operative concept among the Sufis is Divine effusion and the ontological comprehensiveness of the HumanDivine Reality, i.
al-insAn al-kAmil .
Ao19 e d.
Ysuf ZaydAn (Cairo: DAr al-Amn, 1.
For one of the fe w translations and inte rpre tations in the research lite rature on this work of al-Jl see Al-Massri.
Gyttliche Vollkommenheit .
Chodkie wicz and Le wisohn.
AoThe FutuAt Makkiya,Au 222 notes that al-Jl shares the sile nce on the bAb al-asrAr of the FutuAt with othe r comme ntators.
For an adaptation of the methodology of al-Jl see Miche l Chodkie wicz.
Le Sceau Des Saints: Prophytie et Saintety Dans La Doctrine dAoIbn Arab (Paris: Gallimard, 1.
, 184.
15 Abd al-Karm bin IbrAhm al-Jl.
Univce rsal Man, trans.
Titus Burckhardt (Che lte nham: Be shara Publications, 1.
A thorough study by the author of this article of al-Jl is in pre paration.
16 See now the e dition Abd al-Karm bin IbrAhm al-Jl, al-Kahf wa al-Raqm fi al-Sharu biAosmillAh al-RaumAn al-Raum, e d.
Asim bin IbrAhm al-KayAl (Be irut:
DAr al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 2.
17 Lo Polito.
AoAbd Al-Karim Al-Jili.
Au 18 Ernst Banne rth.
Das Buch Der Vierzig Stufen von Abd Al-Karm Al-l (Vie nna: ynsterre ichische Akademie de r Wisse nschafte n, 1.
A lesse r-known translation of anothe r Work of al-Jl is Dagmar Mann.
AoDie RisAla Arban MawAin De s Abdalkarm Al-lAu (Disse rtation Phil.
Saarbrycke n, 1.
Dagmar Mann.
Die RisAla arban mawAin des Abdalkarm al-l (Diss.
Phil.
Saarbrycke n, 1.
having the ve ry true word that Aothere is a great diffe rence of opinion among the Sufis on the de finition of the situation .
and station .
Ao Ibid.
, 2.
19 Mukhtar H.
Ali.
AoThe Conce pt of Spiritual Perfection according to Ibn Sina and Sadr Al-Din Al-Qunawi,Au Journal of ShiAoa Islamic Studies 2, no.
: 142.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA Rydiger Lohlker.
Abd a l-Ka rm a l-Jl.
W audat a l-WujdA Talking about al-Jl and focussing on his seminal work alInsAn al-kAmil it will be apt for a thorough understanding to discuss the literary genre of the works using the concept al-insAn al-kAmil.
Broadly speaking, this concept is to be situated at the intersection of Sufism, kalAm, and falsafa in post-formative/early modern 21 Islam (Dagli 2.
22 So it is part of the field of speculative Sufism, to use the category of Toby Mayer.
Following the thought of Hamid Dabashi saints and spiritual sages can be understood as a living embodiment of the highest standards of a given society.
These sages are the personification of the highest forms of spiritual perfection.
Their status in the hierarchical order is measured according to their ethical perfection The core concept is al-insAn al-kAmil.
Unlike Dabashi we will claim that waudat al-wujd in the synthesis and conceptualization of al-JlAos al-InsAn al-kAmil will help to overcome hierarchical orders inside and outside the Islamic community.
Following Dabashi again 26 , we may identify the first traces of the concept of al-insAn al-kAmil at the time of BAyazd al-BisAm .
874 CE).
27 Nevertheless, we will easily find further traces of the Re fe rring to dime nsion .
, mentioned in the be ginning.
The first cate gory refe rs to the inne r-Islamic history of Islamic thought, the se cond one to the time line dominated by Europe an thought.
22 For debates be tween philosophe rs and Sufis of the waudat al-wujd see William C.
Chittick.
AoMysticism versus Philosophy in Earlie r Islamic History: The Al-s.
Al-Qnaw Corre spondence,Au Religious Studies 17 .
: 87Ae104.
23 Toby Maye r.
AoThe ology and Sufism,Au in The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology, e d.
Winte r (Cambridge : Cambridge Unive rsity Press, 2.
, 258Ae287.
24 Hamid Dabashi.
AoThe Sufi Doctrine of AoThe Pe rfect Man Ao and a Vie w of the Hie rarchical Structure of Islamic Culture ,Au Islamic Quarterly 30 .
: 118.
25 These fe w re marks do not inte nd to discuss the conce pt of al-insAn al-kAmil in its totality, just to give some insights into the ide as we are following he re .
26 Dabashi.
AoThe Sufi Doctrine .
Au 27 A slightly diffe re nt chronology may be found in Mohammad Fanae i Eshkevari.
AoThe Perfect Man in Islamic Mysticism,Au in On Being Human, e d.
Harry Hubne r and Hajj Muhammad Le ge nhausen (Winnipe g: CMU, 2.
, 60Ae73.
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concept of al-insAn al-kAmil in the history of falsafa .
28 On al-FArAbAos thought me may say:
AoThe pe rfect human be ing .
l-insAn al-kAmi.
, thought Al-FArAb29 , is the one who has obtaine d theore tical virtue Ae thus comple ting his inte lle ctual knowle dge Ae and has acquire d practical moral virtues Ae thus becoming pe rfe ct in his moral be haviour.
Ao 30 This perfection is not only personal but also social perfection the cornerstone of the Auvirtuous cityAo, al-FArAbAos philosophical We are, however, in a more fundamental dimension of this concept: the ontological one.
Following Ibn al-Arab, we may distinguish in Islamic literature between several levels of al-insAn.
The most relevant for our discussion is insAn as an allcomprehensive .
Another feature of Ibn al-ArabAos hermeneutics is important for our discussion.
Almond remarks that the way Ibn al-Arab in the Fu and the FutuAt talks about God, al-insAn al-kAmil, and the QurAoan in a way beyond the distinction of author, text, and reader, thus, talking about the three separate ideas of God, al-insAn alkAmil, and the QurAoan with similar terms and attitudes.
Almond describes as a parallel to the modern collapsing of author, text, and And in othe r discipline s of Islamic thought.
See for al-Brn, e .
Samian.
AoPluralism and the Study of Re ligion: A Comparative Pe rspective ,Au Agathos: An International Review of the Humanities and Social Sciences 1 .
: 39Ae 29 The transcription is adopte d as in all othe r citations to the re st of the te xt.
30 Anar Tanabayeva e t al.
AoAl-FarabiAos Humanistic Principle s and AoVirtuous City,AoAu in The European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences, 2015, 126.
31 Muy al-Dn Ibn al-Arab.
Rama Min Al-RamAn: F Tafsr Wa Al-IsharAt Al-QurAoAn Min KalAm Al-Shaykh Al-Akbar Muhy Al-Dn Ibn Al-Arab, e d.
Mamd GhurAb (Damascus: Maktabah al-Nadr, 1.
, 94.
32 Ian Almond.
AoThe Meaning of Infinity in Sufi and Deconstructive He rme ne utics: Whe n Is an Empty Te xt an Infinite One?,Au Journal of the American Academy of Religion 72 .
: 106.
For the immane nt mode rnity of the structure of non-mode rn Islamic thought see Rydige r Lohlke r.
AoIslamische Te xte Ae Be wegunge n de r De territorialisie rung und Umordnung de r Dinge ,Au in Religion in Europa Heute: Sozialwissenschaftliche.
Rechtswissenschaftliche.
HermeneutischReligionsphilosophische Perspektiven, e d.
Kurt Appe l e t al.
(Gyttinge n: Vie nna Unive rsity Pre ss, 2.
, 193Ae208.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA Rydiger Lohlker.
Abd a l-Ka rm a l-Jl.
W audat a l-WujdA We make take the idea of Almond as the first indicator of a possibility to rethink Ibn al-Arab and waudat al-wujd in .
modern terms.
We will follow this idea later.
The concept of AuThe Perfect ManAo can be found in many works of the Islamic intellectual tradition.
We will restrict ourselves to a small sample.
The first one Ae a modern one Ae are the ideas of Abd al-QAdir al-JazAir .
1883 CE), famous as an anti-colonial fighter, but also a luminary of the Islamic intellectual world of his time.
AoThe Pe rfect Man holds a unique position within the ge neral frame work of the quasi-mutual re lationship be twee n God and His creation, as both an inte rme diary and a comprehe nsive be ing.
The pe rfection of man among all creatures.
Abd al-QAdir write s, lies in his integration of the Divine names aleAhir .
he outwar.
and al-bAin .
he inwar.
Thus, at the cosmic le ve l, alinsAn al-kAmil is the microcosm .
l-kawn al-jAmi') of the Divine and the worldly realities.
His situation is e lucidate d through the Qur'anic ve rse Aulaysa ka-mithlihi shayAo (Q.
, which is ge nerally inte rprete d as "The re is nothing which is His similar".
Following in the footste ps of Ibn Arab.
Abd al-QAdir points out that in vie w of the seemingly supe rfluous "ka" it may also be inte rprete d as "There is nothing like His similar", which admits the e xiste nce of a be ing similar to God, to which no othe r creature resembles.
This be ing is the Pe rfect Man, who faces, and mirrors.
God the e te rnal but not create d, on the one hand, and the world, the create d but not e te rnal, on the other.
Man alone is both ete rnal and create d, both Lord and se rvant.
was create d as God's vice gere nt .
on earth while the e ntire world is a particularization of what e xists in him.
The world was thus create d through man and for man, e ven though in the visible world man appeare d the last.
The Pe rfect Man is mithl, similar to God, and mathal, the e xample in whose form God was de te rmined.
Ao34 A similar concept of viceregency is to be found in ShihAb alDn al-Suhraward35 to point to a non-akbarian tradition.
There are many traces of al-Jl to be found in the history of Islamic intellectual discussions, but for the moment being we will have to 33 For his writings cf.
Miche l Chodkie wicz.
The Spiritual Writings of Amir Abd Al-Kader (Albany: State Unive rsity of Ne w York Pre ss, 1.
34 Itzchak We ismann.
AoGod and the Perfect Man in the Expe rie nce of AoAbd Al-QAdir Al-JazaAoiri,Au Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn AoArabi Society 30 .
: 63Ae64.
August http://w.
ibnarabisocie ty.
org/articles/we ismann.
35 Cf.
, e .
Ernita De wi.
AoKonse p Manusia Ideal Dalam Pe rspe ktif Suhrawardi Al-Maqtul,Au Substantia .
41Ae54, http://substantiajurnal.
org/inde x.
php/subs/article/vie w/128.
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turn to a broader perspective to understand the potential of al-JlAos work for .
ost-)modern thought.
To trace some other rhizomatic connections we may refer to aluaqqa al-muuammadiyya complementary to al-insAn al-kAmil as used by Ibn al-Arab in his Fu36 saying that the properly meaning of this term is Authe human having effectively realized his original theomorphismAo, being the Auconfluence of the two seasAo .
ajma albauray.
, uniting the Auhigher and lower realities.
Ao37 Thus, we find another trace leading to an annihilation of the distinction between transcendence and immanence or the binaries of modern.
Westernstyle thought overcome by recent developments in the sciences.
Sciences Generally speaking, discussions in the humanities or social sciences tend to be based on an understanding of the natural sciences going back to the 19th century CE.
Losing all the insights from former research in the fields of natural philosophy and not acquiring a decent knowledge of the sciences of the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century CE is the crucial problem of modern humanities or social sciences.
The clear-cut boundaries dominant, esp.
, in contemporary politico-theological thought are a pertinent case for the gaps opening up if we do not overcome our gap of knowledge in the sciences.
Fluid Systems One set of ideas in sciences important for our reflections has been called fluctuation.
Developed by the Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry.
Ilya Prigogine, it is still virtually unknown outside the Thus, it may be allowed to present it in a summarized form in a lengthy quotation:
AoOnce again, only a statistical description is possible .
The e xistence of an instability may be vie we d as the result of a fluctuation that is first localize d in a small part of the system and the n spreads and leads to a ne w macroscopic state .
This situation alte rs the traditional vie w of the re lation be twee n the microscopic leve l as describe d by mole cules or atoms and the Chodkie wicz.
Le Sceau Des Saints, 90.
Ibid.
, 91.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA Rydiger Lohlker.
Abd a l-Ka rm a l-Jl.
W audat a l-WujdA macroscopic le ve l describe d in terms of global variables such as conce ntration.
In many situations fluctuations correspond only to small *< Howe ve r, in none quilibrium processes we may find just the opposite situation.
Fluctuations de te rmine the global outcome .
We could say that instead of be ing corrections in the ave rage values, fluctuations now modify those averages .
This is a ne w situation.
For this reason we would like to introduce a neologism and call situations resulting from fluctuation "orde r through fluctuation.
*< Randomness remains essential on the macroscopic le ve l as we ll.
It is inte resting to note anothe r analogy with quantum the ory, which assigns a wave be havior to all e leme ntary particles.
As we have see n, chemical systems far from e quilibrium may also lead to cohe rent wave behavior.
"38
Contrary to the dominant Western scientific views originating in the 19th century struggling with the integration of micro- and macrocosmic levels, a new epistemology laying the foundations for a new approach to an understanding of uncertainty, fluctuation and the possible creation of order through a process of These bifurcations may lead through a complex process of fluctuations to a new synthesis, a new Aoorder through Ao Although Prigogine/Stengers may be read as a description of the world falling into chaos, for them, there is also hope, since the fluctuations mentioned above Ae even small ones Ae may lead to a change of the overall structure.
The radical uncertainty has been conceptualized recently as living in Aocapitalist ruinsAo39 or on a Aodamaged planet.
Ao40 The persistence of living may be thought of as a sign of hope.
This kind of living is possible if we accept being .
as an all-encompassing concept including every in-being .
as significant as any aspect of being, uncertain or not, being dynamic.
This is the moment we should be reminded of al-JlAos ideas commented upon before.
In another of his treatises he defines the 38 Ilya Prigogine and Isabe lle Ste ngers.
Order out of Chaos: ManAos Dialogue with Nature (Ne w York: Bantam Books, 1.
, 177Ae179.
39 Anna Lowe nhaupt Tsing.
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (Prince ton: Prince ton Unive rsity Pre ss, 2.
40 Scott F.
Gilbe rt.
AoHolobiont by Birth: Multilineage Individuals as the Concre tion of Cooperative Processes,Au in Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene, e d.
Anna Lowe nhaupt Tsing e t al.
(Minne apolis/London: Unive rsity of Minne apolis Pre ss, 2.
M74AeM89.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA 12 Ulumuna.
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way to true knowledge as dynamically passing through different AoHe *man is trave lling from the mine ral dime nsion .
to the vege tal .
to the animal .
to the human .
nsAniyy.
to the carnal soul .
to reason .
to spirit .
to the inner secret .
to the truth of truth .
aqqat al-uaqq.
and to the absolute totality .
ulliyya mulaq.
Ao41 The next station on this travel is the annihilation of the self .
anA) .
: .
The travel described is to be understood as an inner travel .
: .
This means the ultimate transgression of borders achieved by fluctuations leading from one dimension to the other.
But let us turn to al-Jl and his al-InsAn al-kAmil and his other important work on Ibn Arab, called MarAtib al-wujd! Al-Jl, al-InsAn al-KAmil and MarAtib al-Wujd To understand the worldview of al-Jl we have to bear in mind his complex way of thinking.
42 As al-Jl wrote in his last treatise on MarAtib al-wujd we read: AoKnow, that this being consists of elements of the inner truth .
and elements of created things .
and it consists of elements all-encompassing .
Ao .
l-Jl 1999: 14-.
Al-Jl states that the levels of existence can be divided into 40 stages .
arAti.
allowing him to develop a creative view of being.
We will start our reflections on al-Jl with his well-known work MarAtib al-wujd, stages of being.
There are several editions.
For our purpose, we will try to present the worldview of al-Jl as to be found in this work.
Then we will turn to al-InsAn al-kAmil.
Turning to MarAtib al-wujd we will follow the stages al-Jl The first stage44 is called Aothe absolute concealmentAo .
lghayb al-mula.
or the Aoconcealment of concealmentAo .
hayb alghay.
set apart from being .
The second stage is called Aothe absolute beingAo .
l-wujd al-mula.
45 This is the first emanation al-Jl, al-AsfAr al-Gharb, 9Ae10.
Ernst Bannerth is wrong whe n he attributes waudat al-shuhd to al-Jl eve n whe n he re fe rs to an e mine nt authority like Banne rth.
Das Buch, 96.
43 Se e the translation in Banne rth.
Das Buch.
44 al-Jl.
MarAtib al-Wujd, 16Ae17.
45 Ibid.
, 17Ae18.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA Rydiger Lohlker.
Abd a l-Ka rm a l-Jl.
W audat a l-WujdA .
springing up from the original oneness .
46 This stage is to be understood as the barrier between the inner part of being .
and the outer part .
The third stage is called unity .
Auidiyy.
, the stage where the names .
smA) and attributes .
This stage is also called the stage if the immutable entity .
yn thAbi.
For the sake of brevity, we are leaving some stages out.
The thirteenth stage is the first intellect .
l-aql al-awwa.
49 This includes the speech .
, the highest pen .
l-qalam al-alA), i.
, the Muhammadan spirit .
u muuamma.
The fourteenth stage is the highest spirit .
u aAoea.
50 It is also called the all-encompassing spirit .
l-nafs al-kul.
, i.
, the preserved tablet .
awu mauf.
The fifteenth stage is called the throne .
, i.
, the total body .
ism The twenty-third stage Ae we have skipped some other stages Ae is the starless heaven .
alak ala.
,52 the sphere below the throne .
and above all other celestial spheres.
Then al-Jl move through other celestial and planetary spheres until moving to the The thirty-eighth stage is called the plants .
l-nabA.
53 This stage is defined as the stage of the growing body .
ism nA.
emerging from the mineral sphere .
The thirty-ninth stage is called the animals .
54 This is defined as the stage of the growing body moved by the will .
rAd.
The last stage, the fortieth one, is the stage of the human.
We see a sequence of stages including every aspect of being down 55 to the mineral sphere and up to the stage of absolute This sequence of stages in MarAtib al-wujd demonstrates the progression from what is usually called al-Jl me ntione d one book he wrote about this concept Ibid.
, 17.
Al-Jl is re fe rring to the barzakh, a concept we can not discuss he re.
48 al-Jl.
MarAtib al-Wujd, 18Ae19.
49 Ibid.
, 27Ae28.
In this paragraph al-Jl re fe rs to a paralle l in his al-InsAn alkAmil, se e page 28.
50 Ibid.
, 28Ae29.
51 Ibid.
, 29Ae30.
52 Ibid.
, 42Ae43.
53 Ibid.
, 50Ae51.
54 al-Jl.
MarAtib al-Wujd, 51Ae53.
55 If this is an ade quate de notation of dire ction in this conte xt.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA 14 Ulumuna.
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transcendent stages to immanent stages, in fact, annihilating the distinction between transcendence and immanence.
We may read this movement from one stage to the other Looking into al-InsAn al-kAmil, we will easily stumble upon many of the stages already mentioned.
The book starts from the absolute essence .
ulaq al-dhA.
56 moving to the name .
in its absolute form, several emanations .
Following the groundbreaking presentation of Nicholson57 we can analyze these AoJl distinguishes three phases of mystical illumination or re ve lation .
, which run paralle l, as it we re , to the three stages Ae One ness.
He-ness, and Iness Ae trave rse d by the Absolute in its desce nt to consciousness.
In the first phase , calle d the Illumination of the Names, the Pe rfect Man rece ives the myste ry that is conveye d by each of the names of God, and he becomes one with the name in such sort that he answers the prayer of any pe rson who invokes God by the name in question.
Similarly, in the second phase he re ce ives the Illumination of the Attributes and becomes one with the m, i.
with the Divine Esse nce as qualifie d by its various attributes: life , knowle dge , powe r, will, and so forth.
For e xample .
God re veals Himse lf to some mystics through the attribute of life .
Such a man, says Jl, is the life of the whole unive rse .
he fee ls that his life pe rmeates all things se nsible and ide al, that all words, dee ds, bodies, and spirits de rive the ir e xiste nce from If he be e ndue d with the attribute of knowle dge , he knows the entire conte nt of past, prese nt, and future existe nce , how e verything came to be or is coming or will come to be, and why the non-e xiste nt does not e xist: all this he knows both synthe tically and analytically.
The Divine attributes are classifie d by the author unde r four heads: .
attribute s of the Esse nce , .
attributes of Beauty, .
attributes of Majesty, .
attributes of Perfection.
says that all create d things are mirrors in which Absolute Beauty is re flecte d.
What is ugly has its due place in the orde r of e xiste nce no le ss than what is beautiful, and e qually be longs to the Divine pe rfection: e vil, the refore, is only re lative.
As was state d above , the Pe rfect Man re flects all the Divine attributes, including e ve n the Esse ntial ones, such as unity and e ternity, which he shares with no othe r be ing in this world or the ne xt.
The third and last phase is the Illumination of the Esse nce .
He re the Perfect Man becomes absolute ly pe rfect.
Eve ry attribute has vanishe d, the Absolute has re turne d into itse lf.
In the theory thus outline d we can recognize a monistic form of the myth which re prese nts the Primal Man, the first-born of 56 Abd al-Karm bin IbrAhm al-Jl.
Al-InsAn al-KAmil fi Marifat al-AwAkhir wa al-AwAAoil, e d.
Asim bin IbrAhm al-KayAl (Be irut: DAr al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 2.
, 48.
57 Nicholson.
Studies in Islamic Mysticism, 63.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA Rydiger Lohlker.
Abd a l-Ka rm a l-Jl.
W audat a l-WujdA God, as sinking into matte r, working there as a creative principle , longing for de liverance , and, at last finding the way back to his source .
Jl calls the Perfect Man the prese rve r of the unive rse, the Qub or Pole on which all the sphe res of e xistence revolve .
He is the final cause of creation, i.
, the means by which God sees Himse lf, for the Divine names and attributes cannot be se e n, as a whole , e xcept in the Pe rfect Man.
Ao We will not discuss certain problems of the interpretation of Nicholson, esp.
, his acceptance for the binary transcendence and immanence divide.
We may stress the part of is interpretation focussing on the ides of the Perfect Man allowing to think creation as a whole.
In other words, a holistic worldview is an essential part of al-JlAos concept.
We will follow our analysis of the MarAtib by turning to the last chapter of al-InsAn al-kAmil.
It is chapter 63 AoOn the other religions and ways of worshipping *god .
Ao58 This chapter begins with the lines AoKnow that Allah, he is the most e xalte d, create d all be ings to worship him.
The y are naturally attracte d to it and from its origin de dicate d to it.
The re is nothing in be ing not revering God *< Eve rything in be ing .
is obe die nt towards God.
Ao 59 Al-Jl ends his discussion of religious difference and the divine spark in any practice of worship AoWith the following stateme nt: Te n sects are the sources for all of the re ligious diffe re nces .
hich are too numerous to coun.
, and all diffe re nces re volve around the se te n.
The y are : Polythe ists.
Naturalists.
Philosophers.
Dualists.
Magians.
Materialists, "Barhamites".
Je ws.
Christians, and Muslims.
For e very one of these sects.
God has create d people whose destiny is He ave n and pe ople whose destiny is the Fire .
Have you not seen how the polythe ists of past ages who live d in re gions not reache d by the prophe t of that time are divide d into those who do good, whom God re wards, and those who do e vil, whom God recompe nses with fire? Each of these sects worships God, as God desires to be worshippe d, for He create d them for Himse lf, not for the mse lves.
Thus, the y e xist just as they were fashione d.
*God may He be glorifie d and e xalte d, manifests His names and attributes to these sects by means of His esse nce and all of the sects worship Him *in the ir own way .
Ao60 al-Jl, al-InsAn al-KAmil, 321Ae335.
Ibid.
, 321.
60 Vince nt Corne ll.
AoPractical Sufism: An Akbarian Foundation for a Libe ral The ology of Diffe re nce ,Au The Muhyiddin Ibn AoArabi Society, last modifie d 2004.
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The hermeneutics al-Jl seems to deny religious differences, but it is a justifiable interpretation of QurAoanic verses according to the method of Ab Amid al-GhazAlAos qAnn al-ta'wl.
AoAlthough Jl's e xegesis of the Qur'an was innovative , it was fully valid according to the rules of he rme ne utics propose d by GhazAl.
Jl began his analysis by taking the sacre d te xt at its lite ral word.
Starting from the lite ral meaning .
Ahi.
of the Qur'anic ve rses, he employe d the me thod of qAnn alta'wl on the conce ptual and inte llectual le ve ls of meaning, without resorting to me taphor.
The n he took another Qur'anic verse.
AuGod does whateve r He wishes"Ao .
: .
, and applie d the the ological notion of divine voluntarism to the empirical fact of re ligious dive rsity.
The conclusions that Jl draws in alInsAn al-kAmil Ae that the e xiste nce of re ligious diffe re nces is God's will, and that all human be ings, e ven unbe lie vers, practice re ligion as God inte nde d them to do Ae follo w logically from this process of interpre tation.
Howe ver, this is not to say that Jl's inte rpretation is the Autrue Ao meaning of these Qur'anic ve rses.
It is only to say that his inte rpre tation is as valid as any othe r interpre tation de rive d from the lite ral meaning of the se three verses.
Eve n more .
Jl affirms that Islam is the quintessential re ligion of God.
Later on in the te xt, whe n he discusses how Aueach sect finds pleasure in its te netsAo (Qur'an, 30: .
he does not absolve the unbe lie vers of the ir errors.
For Jl, re ligions are not equal in value .
Howeve r, whe n the Qur'an commands.
AuThere is no compulsion in re ligionAo .
: .
, this means that e ven false re ligions should be respecte d by Muslims because all re ligions, including those that are in e rror, exist by God's will.
Ao 62 Thus, al-Jl is Ae seemingly Ae inserting again the transcendent position, but at the same time subverting the renewed binary of transcendence and immanence by introducing the divine essence even in circumstances far away from conventional Islamic According to his holistic worldview.
But at the same time, he is upholding his Islamic identity.
To take up our former remarks: Upholding his stability in a situation of fluctuance and At the end of our analysis, we see that for al-Jl being is to be called ontologically an expression of univocity.
63 Thus, moving April http://w.
ibnarabisocie ty.
org/articles/cornellpracticalsufism.
61 For al-GhazAlAos qAnn al-tawl see Frank Griffe l.
Al-GhazAlAos Philosophical Theology (Oxford: Oxford Unive rsity Pre ss, 2.
, 111sqq.
62 Corne ll.
AoPractical Sufism.
Au 63 We are not re ferring to the distinction of univocity and equivocity to be found, e .
, in the se nse of NAsir al-dn al-T see Gudrun Schube rt.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA Rydiger Lohlker.
Abd a l-Ka rm a l-Jl.
W audat a l-WujdA along the fluctuating stages this univocity is annihilating the distinction between transcendence and immanence.
64 Leaving this distinction Ae annihilating the borders Ae allows for another excursus into .
modern thought.
Symbiosis and the Annihilation of Borders Let me introduce now a concept not often heard about in studies on Sufism! This concept is the holobiont .
nd the co.
AoWhe n you think of a cow, you probably e nvision an animal grazing, eating grass, and pe rhaps producing me thane at her othe r e nd.
Howeve r, cows cannot do this.
The ir bovine ge nome does not e ncode prote ins with the e nzymatic activity nee de d to digest ce llulose .
What the cow does is che w the grass and maintain a symbiotic community of microorganisms in her gut.
is this population of gut symbionts that digest the grass and makes the cow The cow is an obvious e xample of what is calle d a holobiont, an organism plus its pe rsiste nt communities of symbionts.
The notion of the holobiont is important both within and be yond biology because it shows a radically ne w way of conce ptualizing Aoindiv iduals.
Au Re cognizing the holobiont as a critical unit of life highlights process and re ciprocal inte ractions, while challe nging notions of ge nomic purity.
Ao 65 The concept of holobiont has emerged in the study symbiosis in the life of plants and other non-animal beings in the last decades of the 20th century CE.
Esp.
, the study of the microbial world and the discovery of horizontal gene transfer66 helped to formulate the postmodern synthesis in biology.
If we see plants as composite Annyherungen: Der Mystisch-Philosophische Briefwechsel Zwischen adr Al-Dn-I Qnaw Nar Al-Dn-I Al-s (Be irut: Franz Ste ine r i.
Komm.
, 1.
, 24Ae25.
64 So it is not about Aothe transce nde nt unity of e xiste nceAo as printe d mistake nly in Rydige r Lohlke r.
AoNaturrecht Ae Islamische Perspe ktive ,Au Ancilla Iuris .
August https://w.
ch/articles/461.
For this conte xtualization of Duns Scotus.
Baruch Spinoza.
Gilles De le uze , and al-Jl cf.
in a comparative vie w Christoph Dittrich.
Weder Herr Noch Knecht: Deleuzes Spinoza-Lektyren (Wie n/Be rlin:
Turia Kant, 2.
, 37 Ae42.
For anothe r approach to univocity and Duns Scotus see Philipp Tonne r.
Heidegger.
Metaphysics, and the Univocit y of Being (London:
Continuum, 2.
65 Gilbe rt.
AoHolobiont by Birth,Au M73.
66 Margare t McFall-Ngai.
AoNoticing Microbial Worlds: The Postmode rn Synthesis in Biology,Au in Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene, e d.
Anna Lowe nhaupt Tsing e t al.
(Minneapolis/London:
Unive rsity of Minne apolis Pre ss, 2.
M52AeM72.
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA 18 Ulumuna.
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organisms like any other organism, we may be able to generalize the idea of symbiosis.
Following studies on the critical role of symbionts for the host, we may stress the obligatory nature of symbiosis for the life of all organisms.
This may be indicated by the term holobiont67 , an ecological unit formed by assemblages of different species.
68 To give another example in this very shortened exposition of a new idea for religious studies:
AoSymbioses are e qually important for the te rmite Mastotermes darwinie nsis, one of the poster organisms for holobionts.
The termite eats wood.
It eats It eats houses.
It is a major agricultural pest.
Only, it cannot eat wood.
It does not have a ge nome that allows it to eat wood.
What it has inside its gut is a symbiotic protist.
Mixotricha paradoxica, that eats the wood.
Only, it doesnAot.
Mixotricha is a composite organism containing a protist and at least four diffe rent types of bacteria.
Termites are thus composite organisms all the way down.
Bacte ria and protists act togethe r to make M.
which is esse ntial to the functioning of the gut of a te rmite , which itse lf lives in a termite community.
So what is the individual? A so-calle d individual worke r termite cannot live without its symbionts or its colony.
Clearly individuality is be ing que stioned he re at many le vels.
Ao 69 If we are able to add to these new findings at a microbiological level and at the macro-level of systems the idea of man and woman as composite beings stretching from the mineral level to absolute totality and being dynamic all the time, problems of Western binary worldviews vanish.
Thinking individuals as nondelimited beings is possible, being individual and collective at the same time, having limits and borders and transgressing or annihilating them, leaving the idea of a monad-individual behind.
Some people may argue that the old ideas of microcosm and macrocosm70 do not lend itself to this kind of approach, but we may answer that we are not talking about a short-cut to identifying the findings of .
ost-)modern sciences and religion tafsr-ilmstyle.
If we are arguing for a symbiotic view, a holistic view Gilbe rt.
AoHolobiont by Birth,Au M74.
The te rm holobiont was first coine d by Lynn Margulis.
Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation: Speciation and Morphogenesis, e d.
Lynn Margulis and Re ny Fe ster (Cambridge .
Massachusetts: MIT Pre ss, 1.
69 Gilbe rt.
AoHolobiont by Birth,Au M75.
70 Eve n assuming the possibility of diffe re nt vie ws of al-Jl and Ibn al-AoArabi, se e Al-Massri.
Gyttliche Vollkommenheit .
Copyright A 2019_Ulumuna_this publication is licensed under a CC BY-SA Rydiger Lohlker.
Abd a l-Ka rm a l-Jl.
W audat a l-WujdA starting from the concept of holobionts we can integrate .
modern thoughts in biology with the immanent view developed by al-Jl and moving beyond the binaries of Westerndominated modernity.
As a closing remark, we may remind our readers that our thoughts present a proposal for a new style of thinking not raising the claim to be absolutely true following once again al-Jl application of al-GhazaliAos qAnn al-tawl.
Conclusion A thorough analysis of waudat al-wujd as presented by al-Jl demonstrates the possibility to integrate a holistic world view and new approaches in the sciences.
This paves the way for an integrated theory avoiding the pitfalls of Western thought.
References