Divine Love and the Meaning of Life according to Ibn ‘Arabi’s Worldview
Subject Areas : Christianity
مهدیه سادات کساییزاده
1
(ندارد)
Keywords: the meaning of life, the value of life, Naturalism, supernaturalism, Love, monāzilah (descent of Divinity, Divine
, 
, love,
Abstract :
The meaning of life has been perpetually the subject of humancontemplaion and due to current spiritual crisis, recently has beenpsychologically, philosophically and theologically analyzed. "Thevalue of life" is one of the three concepts which could be extractedfrom this subject, and as the other two concepts, it could bephilosophically analyzed either from naturalistic or supernaturalisticpoints of view. In a theocentric viewpoint, which is considered assupernaturalistic, the relation between the value of human life and Godcould be studied from different angles including the Divine Love. Thepresent article firstly attempts to study the relation between God andthe value of human life by focusing on Divine love and following thisissue in mystical works of Ibn Arabi, and secondly tries to compare theviewpoints of this well-known mystic on the value of human life withthat of western scholars. Ibn Arabi, who believes that the creation ofhuman being has been indebted to God’s love, defines the amorousrelation of God and humans in two levels: a general level and a specificlevel. The first level proves the life value and the second levelstrengthens the sense of meaningfulness of life by using value-basedinterpretation. Through this analysis it will be understood that love hasdifferent aspects and God is the only origin of them. Each of theseaspects could play a significant role in making the life meaningful.