Genius of Ibn Arabi in Defense of the Existence of Allah SWT: A Thought-Provoking Tactic Against Materialistic Narratives

By, Md Maruf Hasan

21^st century onwards, it seems quite challenging to survive ideologically in Academia for any religious narrative be it Islam, Christianity, Judaism or Hinduism and others due to the dominance of the scientific enlightenment and Max Weberian disenchantment process.

It is a very simple and open question. Do you think Allah never exists? I will try to engage with this type of Muslim mindset that exists in Muslim society nowadays due to the influence of the scientific worldview. I am not saying alone. Haimila(2023, p.10) states:

“Scholars  of  nonreligion  have  noted that belief in science may function as a  worldview,  or  a  worldview  belief, for individuals who do not believe in God (Coleman et al., 2019; Farias,2013)…However,   considering  the    widespread   nature    of   science-based education  and  other  authority  of  scientific  institutions  around  the  world    (Qadir    &  Syväterä,  2021; Wellcome, 2018), it seems likely that also   religious   individuals   rely   on science in their beliefs and worldviews…much  of  prior  work  in the  study of  religion  has  approached ‘belief  in  science’  as  belief  in  the epistemological superiority of science  that  has  been  expected  to exclude religious and other supernatural belief.”

 Ibn Arabi, the genius mystic, met Ibn Rushd, the most celebrated philosopher in Islamic civilization after Ghazali. He critiqued Ghazali in defense of philosophy. In Western literature, when modernity came in, scholars tried to look for solution from the literature of mysticism. What does it mean? The fall of Aristotelian logic happens due to the scientific enlightenment in Europe. In other words, organized religion like Christianity was usually defended by using Aristotelian or platonic logics since the time of Saint Agustie. The allegorical meanings were used to defend Christianity. So, scientific enlightenment like heliocentric worldview of Copernicus challenged the authority of biblical narratives. The skepticism was very simple is bible actually written by human minds only. Is divinity just a delusion?

Now I can show you how Ibn Arabi’s works is relevant to Muslim academics and youths. As you are fond of secular education, you are diagnosed with doubt canon like Mustafa Kamal Ataturk.  The secular mind can be very dangerous to Muslim countries, and these secular minds can develop islamophobia. It is not Western people; rather eastern people too develop hatred towards religions. 

Why  is Ibn Arabi important? Firstly , what comes to your mind when I utter the name of Ibn Arabi? Wahdatul Wujud(Unity of Existence) and Wahdatul Shuhud (Witness of existence). The conflict is there among Muslims . Today it is not about these two discourses. We do not know which position is right since the Quran explicitly did not mention about this topic in details apart from ambiguous statement. Let’s negate both  of these arguments. We need Ibn Arabi’s thought for different reasons today. As you read secular scientific literature, you tend to develop mindset thinking Allah never exists. Remember I said western academics used mystical literature as an alternative to modern literature when western academics develop cynical worldview thinking the God of Jesus is actually a fictional God. 

If you read Islamic literature of Rumi and Ibn Arabi, they are somehow not interested in philosophy and science narratives during their times. Now philosophy and science have advanced with the help of technology in the 21^st century. Then, how is it possible that Ibn Arabi’s thought can be releventazied in the 21^st century. Even non-Muslim scholars use Islamic Sufism and refer Ibn Arabi to relevantize the more ancient thought like Taoism. For example, Japanese academician Toshihiko Izutsu wrote a book titled, “ Sufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts”. In that book , he talked about Ibn Arabi’s thought. In undergraduate level, students are taught arguments to defend the existence of God. Kalam argument is famous in that case. Also, Ibn Sina or Aristotelian logic defend the necessary existence after the contingency argument. These arguments in philosophy are famous in every corner of the world and it is not about Islam or Christianity alone, rather any religion that believe in supernatural deity, they can use these arguments. 

But as a student of knowledge, you may have experience of debating like IIUM debate club. Hence, you realized the lawyers can use arguments and turn false case into probable truth to release the criminals in exchange of money like Greek Sophists. Hence, after studying for years you lost faith in philosophy and logic. Hence, to prove the existence of Allah by using logic means you can disprove also as you can find advanced philosophical book written by Western scholars on this particular topic. For example,  Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (2010) wrote a book, “36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction”.

Now you go into science, and you find the problem of induction and limitation of science despite you have more inclination and hope towards science literature. The epistemology that is made by human minds have flaws and will have flaws no matter which one is coming in near future. I have one question now. Do you think nuclear fusion is invented or discovered? It is silly question but yes, it is discovered very recently like century ago perhaps. Another question is since our solar system is approximately 4.7 billion years, do you think nuclear fusion was going on before that? The answer is yes because trillions of solar systems like our exist in our universe. That means the knowledge you seem it is new it is actually discovered and it was there whether human minds do realize or not. 

Ibn Arabi met Ibn Rushd and it was well known meeting and Ibn Rushd came to learn that Ibn Arabi was a genius. In other words, he read the literature of philosophy and science during his time. He was well versed of all sort of knowledge . That’s why his works are very complex, and he defended Islam in such a way that can be relevantized in any century. Why so? Remember I mentioned necessary existence argument, but this argument can be flawed and easily refuted . If you remove necessary existence, then there is eternal regression. The argument itself is designed in such a way so that you can see the defects. 

If you look at the sky, you can see the matters and it is about 5% and 95% are made up of dark matter and energy that we can not see or detect but we can see the effect based on the movements of the stars at the edge of galaxies or from the expansion of the universe. This 5% matter was mentioned by Carl Sagan in comparison to empty space like the white bubbles of the waves in seabeach. The vast universe is empty mostly and sometimes we see these bubbles and these are considered as existence in empty space from our human perspectives. In Sufism, the existence of everything got different interpretation using Wahatul Wujud, but it is really appreciative in thought. Again, today’s point is not about defending wahdatul Wujud or Shuhud.

 Malaysian  Scholar  Haji  Muhammad  Bukhari  Lubis in his book, “The  Ocean  of  Unity:  Waḥdat  al-Wujūd  in  Persian,  Turkish  and  Malay  poetry” (1994)  gave the example of sea and wave to elaborate about the unity of existence from Islamic mystic literature. By the way, this old man lost his wife during his PhD journey, and his book is part of his  PhD  dissertation that he did at  University  of  California ,Berkley  in  1989. That’s how Muslim academicians silently contribute to the body of knowledge for future generation. Lubis quoted, “The sea is always the same, when it heaves, then it becomes waves. People call it ‘waves,’ but in reality it is the sea….For sea and waves are not separate.”

The sea can be referred to as mystery of mysteries or the absolute (Nobody knows about this) and the Waves are the planes of existences from the Vast and Unknown existential Sea. To discuss Taoism and Sufism , Toshihiko Izutsu  uses two English term or phrases. 1. Absolute 2. Mystery of Mysteries. These are not same as necessary existence argument rather these thoughts are somewhat like Quantum nothingness and quantum fluctuation but more advanced in thought than scientific discourse. Yes , it is invalid from materialistic perspective, but I think to defend Islamic discourse on the existence of Allah in modern thought, Ibn Arabi’s thought on Mystery of mysteries or Absolute is quite relevant , especially for those Muslim academics or youths who find absurdity in philosophy and scientific discourse in defense of the existence of Allah SWT. 

Another important point should be noted that the planes of existence that Toshihiko Izutsu   discussed referring to Ibn Arabi actually indicates the evolutionary process step by step which may be relevant and thought provoking when we read scientific literature about the evolutionary universe. Let’s think about a cup of coffee which is overflowing continuously due to the existential addition from Absolute. Hence, the evolution of our universe is like overflowing the coffee. Again, this essay is to show that Ibn Arabi’s thought on Absolute and Planes of existence can be utilized to think about our universe from different point of view. Our early Muslim scholars got different intellectual contribution that non-Muslims use to relevantize their literature. For example, the works of Rumi are appreciated in the West and East. Similarly, it seems to me that the thought of Ibn Arabi can be relativized by expertise to produce some intellectual response against the materialistic narratives, and it will ultimately help and inspire future Muslim youths to work hard intellectually to defend Islam.***