Ibn 'Arabi's "Esotericism": The Problem of Spiritual Authority

Abstract

for their books, but rather through oral sayings and teachings handed down trough many generations of disciples. And even the much later (and often apologetic) compilations of the classical Sufi literature (Makki, Kalfbidhi, Qushayri, Sulami, etc.) are unanimous in their insistence that the knowledge underlying the mystical path is a science of experiential states, of forms of awareness that can only be attained through the combination of divine grace, individual practice and intention, and suhba, the companionship and guidance of a true master-not through their reflection in words, concepts and formal teachings. Hence in the case of Ibn 'Arabi the contrast is all the more striking between his monumental, virtually superhuman literary production(1) (with the vast culture and learning it presupposes) and the lives of many of