Sufi Narratives of Intimacy: Ibn 'Arabī, Gender, and Sexuality

Chapter 2. Charting Ibn ʿArabī’s Religious Anthropology

ChapterTwo Charting Ibn ʿArabī’s Religious Anthropology It is a beautiful starlit night. Ibn ʿArabī, a Sufi teacher revered throughout Muslim lands, is within the sacred precincts of the Kaʾba, the cubelike focal point of Muslim prayers in Mecca.1 This evening, the house of worship is characterized by a feeling of almost intense quiet despite the large number of devotees. Savoring the gentle breeze caressing his face, Ibn ʿArabī experiences a profound state of tranquility. Circling the outer perimeter of the holy sanctuary, he becomes increasingly oblivious of his surroundings, his state of contemplation simultaneously expanding and intensifying. Suddenly , a few lines of poetry leap to his lips from within the hidden recesses of his being, reflecting an unexpectedly deep inner perplexity. If only I were aware whether they knew what heart they possessed! How my heart would like to know what mountain paths they have taken! Do you deem them safe and sound, or do you suppose that they have perished? Lovers remain perplexed in love, exposed to every peril!2 Hardlyhavethewordslefthislipswhenahandsofterthansilktoucheshis shoulder. He turns. A young woman of breathtaking beauty gazes intently at him. As if omniscient, she responds to his poetic rumination with a depth of spiritual discernment, subjecting each line of his poem to careful scrutiny, culminating in a reprimand: How can “the great mystic of the time” possibly question God’s knowledge of his state? A true lover is content with the desires of the Beloved even when they entail absence and separation. Tenderly, she informs him that a sincere devotee cannot preserve even “a residue of perplexity and hesitation, since the very condition of adoration is 62 Charting Ibn ʿArabī’s Religious Anthropology that it fills the soul entirely”; a real love “puts the senses to sleep, ravishes the intelligences, does away with thoughts, and carries away its slave in the stream of those who vanish.” “Where then is there room for perplexity?” demands the young maiden, Niẓām, again admonishing the older male sage with a final, “It is unworthy of you to say such things!”3 In castigating Ibn ʿArabī for his ratiocentric ruminations about God’s knowledge of his spiritual state, Niẓām invokes a central teaching that lies at the heart of the mystical tradition—true knowledge and its attendant, sincere love, necessitate that one resist the intrusive anxieties of the mind. Knowledge and love are inextricably entwined and should leave no room for uncertainty in one’s devotion. In this encounter, Niẓām represents divine wisdom, illuminating the ways of love and the momentary doubts that may arise in its pursuit.4 Instructing Ibn ʿArabī about the subtleties of the inner path, Niẓām epitomizes the spiritual master who alerts the disciple to his failings and directs him to the correct path. This encounter, reported by Ibn ʿArabī, embodies an important Sufi principle—depth of mystical insight is not contingent on outer markers of identity, be they social status and reputation, age and life experience, or gender. The narrative represents a young, relatively inexperienced woman who confidently instructs the older, well-­ known male sage about the appropriate existential mode for a seeker in the quest for the divine. In addition to the essential mystical teaching that Niẓām elucidates for Ibn ʿArabī, this story presents a unique depiction of female subjectivity and gender dynamics within normative structures of patriarchy. Listening to such a compelling narrative, contemporary readers might legitimately wonder whether the woman at the center of Ibn ʿArabī’s narrative is an actual historical figure or merely reflects a deeply entrenched literary trope of men representing women as purveyors and teachers of wisdom. Elizabeth Clark, a feminist historian of Christianity, notes that representations of women as teachers of wisdom can be found in a variety of male-­ authored works, among them Diotima in Plato’s Symposium and a number of early Christian female ascetics, such as Macrina in Gregory of Nyssa’s Vita Macrinae.5 Such images of women, Clark writes, are less (if at all) concerned with the subjectivity of actual women than with creating narrative tropes of women that enable men to communicate a particular set of ideas.6 According to Clark feminist readers examining these enduring motifs of women as teachers of wisdom will find value in the ways in which the text reflects a particular “social logic”—that is, how specific construc- Charting Ibn ʿArabī’s Religious Anthropology 63 tions...