Revelation and Reason: Ibn ‘Arabi’s Sufism and G.W. Leibniz’s Idealism

Abstract

In this chapter, I analyze the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi using the rational idealism of G. W. Leibniz as a comparative backdrop. After a brief overview of the history of Sufism and Ibn ‘Arabi’s biography, I expose the tenets of the Ibn ‘Arabi’s version of Sufism and analyze his method in espousing those precepts. I will illustrate Ibn ‘Arabi’s articulation of the meta-material reality followed by an explanation of how to approach that reality and how to receive its approach. Leibniz agrees with ‘Arabi’s claim that, ultimately, reality is unseen and meta-material, while, their approaches differ. However, if rationalists, friendly to Leibniz’s method, take heed of the Sufi way, they might create conditions favorable to the experience of revealed truth. This capacity might curtail their dualistic tendencies that separate their philosophic and worldly endeavors. Leibniz’s and of Ibn ‘Arabi’s philosophy both have an ethical purpose, and this marks their convergence in philosophical significance.