This book is an attempt to shed some light on the aspects of the life of a great Muslim scholar who devoted himself to knowledge and wisdom, and Allah has granted him an ample portion and a prodigious magnitude, and he in turn broadcasted this in his boundless numerous books, to enlighten the whole world, east and west. By studying the biography of this great knower, we want to explore some of these sciences and knowledge bequeathed to us by Allah on his hands, that made scientists and philosophers sometimes astounded and sometimes pondering and often unable to dive into the seas of his words to extract the jewels and pearls therein. Muhammad Ibn al-Arabi dedicated his entire life to learning and knowledge, but he did not follow the ordinary way of thought and consideration, such as other scientists do, rather, he followed the path of piety that is the only obligation imposed by Allah the Almighty to take care of educating His servants, because the Almighty said: (fear Allah and Allah teaches you [2:2282]), and He said: (O ye who believe! if ye fear Allah, He will grant you a criterion [8:28]), to judge between right and wrong. Thus those who accomplished piousness they obtained the great divine knowledge which is the true guiding light. This knowledge obtained by the appropriate pious is the divine unveiling knowledge of taste (ilm al-zawq) attained through the spirits of prophets and angels who irrigate from the sea of eternal knowledge, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, a knowledge of certainty realized by insight and vitiated by no doubt ever, unlike other theoretical knowledge based on reasoning that can be true but is often erroneous. The span between these two kinds of knowledge is like the span between tasting honey and reading about it in books or hearing its description from someone who has tasted; the latter may probably approach the truth after great effort and trouble, yet he may never be sure, but that who tastes receives his necessary knowledge with uttering certainty, just by tasting and without any effort or fatigue, yet with delight and ecstasy, providing the prosperity of perception; for one might take honey in his sick mouth and he would not like its taste. Although he was attached with many of master counselors in his early life, and he was raised up on their hands, the true repentance of the Greatest Sheikh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, may Allah be pleased with him, was on the hands of Jesus son of Mary, peace be upon him, who guided him to the right path at the beginning of his youth and he took care of all his affairs. After that, he used to connect with other prophets and messenger, including the Messenger of Allah Muhammad, peace be upon them all. In fact, he wrote his many books by direct inspiration from Allah brought down to him by those high spirits, and the last one of his many hundreds of such books is the unique book of the bezels of wisdom (Fusus al-Hikam), that was handed down to him by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in a promising vision he saw in Damascus in the last ten days of the month of Muharram in the year 627 Hijri, so he conveyed the book out to the world exactly as it was given to him, no more and no less; that book that spread like fire amongst the scholars with now hundreds of annotations and it was translated into many languages, despite its highly symbolic language and the many equivocal phrases that can be accessed only by those with enlightened heart and sharp hearing.
About the Author: Mohamed Haj Yousef, PhD, studied physics in Syria and at Cambridge and had an academic career teaching the subject, but has had a second career as a scholar of Ibn 'Arabi and has written several books including: Ibn 'Arabi: Time and Cosmology and Shams al-Magreb (in Arabic). In addition he runs a website about Ibn 'Arabi (www.ibnalarabi.com), and teaches at United Arab Emirates University.