Ibn Arabi
Islamic · Middle East · 1165 to 1240
Andalusian mystic and writer who held that all being shows one divine reality, known directly by the heart.
What it is
Ibn Arabi (1165 to 1240) was a Muslim mystic and thinker, born in Murcia in al-Andalus, the Muslim-ruled part of Spain, who died in Damascus. He wrote a very large number of books and is among the most influential writers on the mystical side of Islamic thought.
His central concern was the relation between the One that cannot be defined and the world that shows it. He wrote within the mystical current of Islam and gave it a full philosophical voice.
The main ideas
- The One and its showing. He distinguished the absolute One, which cannot be defined, from its self-manifestation, the world of creation. The world, in his account, is never fixed. It is renewed at each instant, and the showing never repeats itself.
- A mystic who wrote philosophy. He is remembered for giving the mystical side of Islamic thought a full philosophical expression.
- A disputed name. He is often said to be the founder of the doctrine called the unity of being. Some accounts treat it as the centre of his thought. Others say that the label can mislead. Which description is fairer is argued over.
What it looks like in practice
Picture someone sitting by a river at the end of a day, noticing that the water they see now is never the water they saw a minute ago. For a reader of Ibn Arabi, this is a small image of how the world is always being renewed, and a prompt to look past the surface to what keeps showing itself. This is an illustration of the idea, not a passage from his writing.
Books and moments
- The Meccan Revelations (also called the Meccan Openings) is his huge, wide-ranging work.
- The Bezels of Wisdom (also called the Ringstones of Wisdom) is a shorter book, long read and commented on.
- Mecca and Damascus. He spent time in Mecca, and he died in Damascus.
Questions and criticism
- Heresy or insight. His bold way of speaking drew criticism from orthodox Muslims, and some jurists treated him as a heretic. Others have given him close and lasting attention.
- Which Ibn Arabi? Readers today come to him through lenses of their own. It is fair to ask how far those lenses fit the man and his time.
- Is it one reality? If all being shows one reality, it is fair to ask how the difference between creator and creation, and between right and wrong, is kept. This is an open question of our own.
Close neighbours
The pages on Rumi and Mulla Sadra sit close to Ibn Arabi, as other thinkers who joined mystical experience to philosophy in the Islamic world. Ibn Sina and Averroes show the more philosophical tradition of the same world.
Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 29 October 2026. The sources are listed below.
Who they connect to
Influenced
- Mulla Sadra · He built his thought on the mystical view of being that Ibn Arabi had set out.
Other Islamic thinkers
- Al-Kindi · 801 to 873
- Al-Razi · 865 to 925
- Al-Farabi · 872 to 950
- Ibn Miskawayh · 932 to 1030
- Ibn Sina (Avicenna) · 980 to 1037
- Al-Ghazali · 1058 to 1111
- Ibn Tufayl · 1105 to 1185
- Averroes (Ibn Rushd) · 1126 to 1198
- Suhrawardi · 1154 to 1191
- Nasir al-Din al-Tusi · 1201 to 1274
Sources we used
- Ibn 'Arabi · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, read on 29 October 2026
- Ibn al-'Arabi · Encyclopaedia Britannica, read on 29 October 2026
- Ibn Arabi · Wikipedia, read on 29 October 2026