The Relationship between God and Man in Ibn 'Arabi's School

Subject Areas : Islamic Mysticism

Amir hossin Abdollahi ¹ , Mohammad Ali Abbassian Chaleshtori ² , Reza Rasouli Sharabiani ³ , Abdolreza Safari ⁴

1 - Instructor of Islamic Education, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Branch
2 - دانشیارگروه فلسفه و کلام اسلامی دانشگاه پیام نور[e-mail]
3 - استادیار گروه فلسفه و کلام اسلامی دانشگاه پیام نور.
4 - استادیار گروه فلسفه و کلام اسلامی دانشگاه پیام نور.

Received: 2021-06-20 Accepted : 2021-06-20 Published : 2021-06-22

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Abstract :

In Ibn 'Arabi's view, the relationship of the Supreme God with man is not based on Divine essence (divine unity), because it is required that God's essence be one, and it cannot be summed up by relation, connection and duality. Therefore, God's essence is superior to that of establishing a relationship with man. On the other hand, man cannot communicate with the God's essence; because, first, communication is posterior to knowledge; secondly, man is incapable of knowing his own substance of essence and self; thirdly: the essence of self has a tendency to return to God's essence; thus, man's essential connection with God is impossible. However, the inner knowledge of the soul in divine names and qualities is possible, and this makes it possible to establish a nominal connection with the supreme truth. In fact, the existential philosophy of human creation is the nominal interaction of God with man. Also, these are those divine names that call for effects in the universe and the universe needs them to survive, and man, as the vicegerent of God, has a mission to manifest them on the earth, according to his freedom and authority. In Ibn Arabi's view, the nominally mutual relationship between man and God is inward and it consists of two kinds of "mutual resemblance" and "identical" relationships. The mutual resemblance relationship is considered for the general human being, and the identical relationship is considered for God's saints and perfect men. This identical relationship can reach to the point where God has become closer to  the human being than his own perfect human self, and ultimately leads to the nominal monotheism and the nominal identical relationship between the perfect man and God