The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1050 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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(1165–1240 (AH 560–638)).
A great
S
f
mystic and original thinker, called
al-shaikh al-akbar
(the Great Teacher,
Shaykh
) by his followers. He profoundly influenced the development of Islamic mysticism and philosophy. He was generally well received, though in Egypt the ‘ulam
denounced him as a heretic, and there was a movement to assassinate him.
Ibn al-‘Arab
synthesized Hellenic, Persian, and Indian systems of thought into his own particular system, emphasizing monistically
wahdat-al-wuj
d
(Unity of Existence) and
al-Ins
n al-K
mil
(The Perfect Man). For him, Being is essentially one, and all phenomenal existence is a manifestation of the divine substance. For that reason he was suspected of pantheism.
More than 800 works have been attributed to him, and it is claimed by some that about 400 have survived. His major works are
al-Fut
t al-Makk
ya
(The Meccan Revelations, a complete system of mystical knowledge in 560 chapters),
Fu
al-Hik
m

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