Ibn al-'Arabi's Barzakh: The Concept of the Limit and the Relationship between God and the World

Contents

Acknowledgments xi List of Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1. Ibn al->Arab•’s Liminal (Barzakh•) Theory of Representation: An Outlook from the Present Situation 11 Presentation and Representation: Complementary Elements in the Mystical Experience 11 Carter’s View 15 Rorty’s Antirepresentational Stand 19 Ibn al->Arab•’s Stand 22 Wasserstrom’s Criticism of Mystocentrism 25 2. Creation ex nihilo, Creation in Time, and Eternal Creation: Ibn S•nå versus the Theologians 29 Creation ex nihilo in the Qur’ån 29 Creation ex nihilo, Creation in Time, and Islamic Theologians 31 Ibn S•nå’s Answers to the Theologians’Arguments 36 Ibn S•nå on the Possible- and the Necessary-of-Existence 38 Ibn S•nå’s Distinction between Essence and Existence 40 3. Ibn Rushd versus al-Ghazål• on the Eternity of the World 43 Between The Incoherence of the Philosophers and The Incoherence of the Incoherence 43 Contents The First Proof 45 The Second Proof 49 The Third Proof 51 Ibn Rushd’s Doctrine of Eternal Creation: The Emergence of the Problem of the Limit 52 4. Mysticism versus Philosophy: The Encounter between Ibn al->Arab• and Ibn Rushd 59 Mysticism between Theology and Philosophy 59 An Interpretation of the Encounter between Kha∂ir and Moses from Ibn al->Arab•’s Perspective 60 The Encounter between Ibn Rushd and Ibn al->Arab• 66 5. The Barzakh 75 The Intermediate State (Barzakh) in the Qur’ån and in the Canonical Tradition 75 The Barzakh in the Exegesis of the Qur’ån and in Scholastic Theology 80 Plato’s Theory of the Forms 83 Ibn al->Arab•’s Definition of the Barzakh 86 Ibn al->Arab• versus Ibn S•nå: Two Conceptions of the Relative 92 6. The Third Entity: The Supreme Barzakh 97 Plato’s Form, The Mu>tazilites’ Nonexistent, and Ibn al->Arab•’s Fixed Entity 97 Plato’s Introduction of the Receptacle 99 Ibn al->Arab•’s Introduction of the Third Thing 102 The Problem of the Creation of the World Revisited 106 7. The Perfect Man: The Epistemological Aspect of the Third Thing 113 The Perfect Man as the Conclusion of Divine Love 113 The Perfect Man as the Possessor of Divine Knowledge 117 The Logic of the Knowledge of Perfection 122 8. The Limit Situation 129 On Knowing the Waystation of “In The Articulations is the Knowledge of the Stairs” 129 viii Contents The Paradox of Infinity 132 The Limit Situation 134 Conclusions 143 Notes 149 Bibliography 187 Index 197 Contents ix ...