Al-Shaʿrānī’s Defence of Ibn ʿArabī in Context: Interpreting ‘the Oneness of Existence’ (waḥdat al-wujūd) as Experiential Oneness

Abstract

Abstract The sixteenth-century Egyptian scholar ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī was a prominent Shāfiʿī jurist of his time as well as an ardent supporter of Ibn ʿArabī; he played an important role in popularising Ibn ʿArabī’s teaching, which were then considered highly controversial. However, in current scholarship, al-Shaʿrānī’s defence of Ibn ʿArabī’s work is often dismissed as arbitrary and inconsistent. The present study seeks to challenge this negative, albeit unanimous, view of al-Shaʿrānī’s work, by demonstrating that his reading of Ibn ʿArabī is in fact founded upon a carefully thought-out methodology. By detailing the views of both pro- and anti-Ibn ʿArabī scholars, I first shed light on the classification of mystics that these scholars shared in common: heretical proponents of the oneness of existence (waḥdat al-wujūd) and legitimate advocates of the oneness of witnessing (waḥdat al-shuhūd) – which I describe in the study as ‘experiential oneness’. Secondly, by referring to al-Shaʿrānī’s hitherto unstudied texts, I discuss how he adapted the same framework of categorising the mystics with the aim of defending Ibn ʿArabī. I demonstrate how al-Shaʿrānī interpreted the ontological doctrine of the oneness of existence as a psychological, perceptual state of experiential oneness, thereby promoting Ibn ʿArabī as an exponent of experiential oneness. Furthermore, I argue that by building upon this reading method of experiential oneness, al-Shaʿrānī recontextualised some of Ibn ʿArabī’s famous tenets, such as divine self-manifestation (tajallī) and anthropomorphism (tashbīh). By doing so, al-Shaʿrānī combined Ibn ʿArabī’s teachings with his own mystical worldview, which is based on experiential oneness. I conclude that al-Shaʿrānī’s approach to Ibn ʿArabī was fittingly formulated against the intellectual trends of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Egypt, and that al-Shaʿrānī was an innovative and unique defender of Ibn ʿArabī’s thought.