Ibn Arabi

Considered the second face of Illumination philosophy after the Shaykh al-Ishraq Suhrawardi (1154-1191), Muhammad Ibn Mahmud Shams al-Din al-Shahrazuri (d. after 1288), in most part, hold fast to Suhrawardi’s illuminationist doctrines. As a case study on celestial bodies, the allegiance may well be at question level.The nine celestial spheres and sublunary world held managed by ten separated intelligences. Suhrawardi depicted the celestial spheres in his allegorical works. Suhrawardi usually speaks of eleven symbols, for instance, eleven mountains in “The Red Intellect” and the eleven layers of a basin in “The Sound of Gabriel’s Wing”. But the eleven celestial bodies, including ether and zamharir rule out Divine Pedestal (al-kursi) and Divine Throne (al ’arsh) of Muhyiddin al-Andalusi. Surprisingly, in his mystic work called Kitab al-Rumuz wa-l-Amthal al-Lahutiyya fil-Anwar al-Mujarradat al-Malakutiyya, Shams al-Din al-Shahrazuri nor except in passing has considered the celestial bodies. In al-Rumuz of Shahrazuri, the number of celestial beings has not been mentioned. Speaking of Divine Pedestal (al-kursi) and Divine Throne (al ’arsh) of Ibn Arabi, Shahrazuri does not consider zamharir and ether.

The manifestation of the Essence of God in the point of view of Ibn Arabi and Meister Eckhart is considered one of the most important and fundamental ideas on which the other mystical questions depend on. Ibn Arabi regards this matter in the way that it represents the Essence of God, namely the manifestation of the Essence of God and other worlds is because of His hiddenness in these worlds which is resulted from the Breath of the Merciful (the complete divine manifestation). Meister Eckhart also regards this matter as the truth of everything and originates from the divine perception of Himself, and this perception flows to all things by which the Essence of God manifested in the whole things including human, soul and the light. The Essence of God is the Love who penetrates the whole attracting things to Him. So the manifestation and hiddenness in the two mystics' views is the proof of the two verses (He is the First, the Last, the Manifest, and the Unseen and He knows all things), and We are closer to him than even his jugular vein. This manifestation and hiddenness don’t just concern  the worlds and beings, but includes the visible world, the world of unveiling matters relating to the unseen, the stations, and states. Mystics and holy travellers stated the secret of this manifestation and hiddenness of the Essence of God, namely, the full orientation towards the Essence of God, this approach gives an expansion of readiness to the mystic and holy traveller to enable him to receive and reflect the divine perfection more and more; for that they recommend the importance to protect this hiddenness and continuing its manifestation.

Considering the fact that the words in the intra-religious attitude are considered in two ways, the first is towards jurisprudential words and the second is a rational and conceptual view focusing on their meanings. we have tried to deal with one of the most important issues of intra-religious attitude with a rational approach by descriptive and analytical method, which is the category of "hermeneutic interpretation" of words, especially the most influential idea of interpretation & that is the view of the "spirit of meaning" of Ghazali. After Ghazali, Ibn Arabi used this theory of Ghazali regarding the development of meaning in creating his new idea, and by re-reading Ghazali's idea with a mystical approach, he presented his own theory regarding the expansion of meaning. While accepting the argument of the focal point of the theory of the spirit of meaning, he removes it from the exclusivity to the "linear", and for this purpose, he brought up arguments as well as the Conditions of Hermeneutic Interpretation in this regard. Ibn Arabi's arguments on transversal interpretation include new formulations in the argument, which after him, this theory was favored and accepted by Mulla Sadra, and then it was accepted by his students.