If you've read my other reviews you know I'm a relentless critic of unreadable writing, much of which is symptomatic of a narcissistic unavailability better dealt with in therapy than through a publisher or fan club. Corbin is not easy to follow in places, but it's the concentration of the material that makes for more careful study--and makes more careful study worthwhile.

I was particularly moved by the image of the saddened God breathing out a sigh at being unknown, a sigh that made space for humans to reflect God back to God and thereby become the "secret treasure." Corbin's criticism of "becoming one with God" mirrors Buber's of "doctrines of absorption": both praise a dialog between person and the Divine rather than a reduction of one to the other.

Note to students of James Hillman: while many of Hillman's ideas can be found here (the heart as an organ of soulful perception, for instance), Ibn 'Arabi makes a clear, non-Hillmanic distinction between Forms (Images) of God and the ineffable true God that shines through the Forms like light through stained glass. This distinction does not exist for archetypal psychology, which collapses the archetypal image into the archetype itself and regards extra-psychic activities as outside its purview.


Ibne' Al-Arabi and Christ   August 18, 2001
 12 out of 37 found this review helpful

I wish o propose an interpretation of Mr. Arabi's choice of person for Seal of Saints which will undoubtedly be controversial and draw disagreement from many people. Given the fact that Mr. Ibne' Al_Arabi was originally from Spain; he must have had many encounter with Christians and their spiritual tradition. He must of have struggled with the notion of Islam vs. Christianity and in my view he made a final choice by declaring Jesus Christ as the Seal of all Saints over anyone else. He must have often wondered about the spirituality of Muhammad as compared to that of Jesus, or even other Prophets for that matter. According to Moslem history, Muhammad underwent a self-doubt after his encounter with the angel. This behavior is almost unprecedented even by Moslem's own holy book accounts. While Jesus declares his Holiness in a cradle, Muhammad is confused about his own spiritual ability, as is well indicated by the story of Muhammad's first encounter with Angel in which Muhammad rushes to his wife filled with agony and self-doubt as to whether he really saw an Angel or was he possessed by a Demon. In the story of Moses, too, we see that Moses had no doubt as to his encounter with his God in the Mount. In fact according to Quran, as far as I know, no Prophet had ever experienced the same kind of self-doubt as it has been attributed to Muhammad. This historical fact, written by Moslems themselves, indicates that Muhammad's spiritual capacity was at best a mediocre one. This indeed must have caught Ibne' Al-Arabi's attention.

Yet in another story we read that Muhammad underwent a heavenly operation to his "chest" to purify him and make him ready for his future mission. While Muhammad needed a direct intervention to be purified, Jesus had no such a need and was born pure. All these accounts and many more, must have made Ibne' Al-Arabi wonder about his religion and its truthfulness. Mr. Arabi makes a clear choice by announcing Jesus as the Seal of Saint, clearly making Jesus the most spiritual man in the world, and by doing so, in an indirect manner, invites Moslems to Christianity. He declares himself as the seal of saints among Moslem spirituals, knowing all too well, that he and only he alone had enough courage to declare the truthfulness of Christianity and superiority of Jesus over all, specially over Muhammad, in the heart of Islamic empire. I do not think of Ibne' Al-Arabi as a Moslem saint but rather an apostle of Christianity, a messenger of Jesus Christ to Moslems who happen to follow a man who, according to their own account, could not distinguish between an angel and a demon, even after going through a purification attempt by angels earlier at his childhood.


An excellent book   July 4, 2001
 15 out of 16 found this review helpful

After reading "The seal of saints" by Mr. Chodkiewickz, I got curious about Mr. Corbin's books in general and this one, Alone with the Alone" in particular. In the book " The seal of saints" Chodkiewickz is highly critical of Corbin in assesing a "Shia" core for Suif's in general and great Shiekh in particular. I am no expert in these matters but from my studies of suffism and Shiism, I see about a 80% overlap between the two. Suffism has much more in common with Shia beliefs than it has with our Sunni beliefs. I always wondered why Shiism has added " I bear witness that Ali is Wali of God" to the call for prayer, I didn't get the significance of this addition until I read Mr.Chodkiewickz's fine book on Ibne' Ul-Arabi's doctorine of Sainthood. Not that I agree with the Sufi or Shia assertion in this regard, it violates my Sunni beliefs, but at least I have an appreciation for the concept. I respect Sufis, though I am not an advocate , well at leats not yet. I tend to agree with Corbin that Shiism and Suffism seem to be twins, or at least distant causins. Reading some of Sheikh's work in Arabic, I came across passages that had strong Shia tone, one wonders if these passages were added to the book or was written by Sheikh himself. If written by Shiekh himself, then knowingly or unknowngly, Sheikh must have been influneced by Shii thoughts. Whatever the case maybe, this is an excellent book, I recommend Mr.Chodkiewickz's book as well. I think everyone should read about all point of views and arrive at their own conclusion.


Amazed by the two unnamed reviewers from Ca & NY   June 9, 2001
 12 out of 13 found this review helpful

In the beautiful world of harmonious thoughts, is sad to find persons with medieval closed minds. The core and essence of all faiths has been love, passion and truth as the search for the absolute truth continues. Corbin showed a way to a different system of gathering information through complicated signs and scared words of the Men of Lights. And no wonder, all the masters of this school of truly gifted believers were either burned, hanged or being on the run. To name a few; Hallaj, Suhrawardi, Ghazali, Ein-oi Quzat, Mevlana, Hafiz and many others. Strangely most of them from old Persia, where after welcoming Islam, they had found it's core, the esoteric and mysticism way of vision. Time and history shows that the true believers of Moslem Prophet teachings, systematically become under exploitation by the power hungry rulers of new world of Islam (after 30 years of Hijrat). New rulers has vengeances based on pre-Islamic believes, started to suppress the new belief, and calling themselves the Sunnis (with all of its four major variations) Beside Persia plateau ,Syria and Spain just look what they have brought for human thoughts, art & civilization in the last 12 centuries. Dear unnamed friends, please read more Holy Quran and try finding the meanings of the scripts and its soulful messages.


A few facts about Ibne-ul Arabi   February 25, 2001
 2 out of 36 found this review helpful

I am against Sufism in general and against the Ibne `ul-Arabism in particular. Sufism is nothing more than a philosophy based on hallucination, either self-induced or drug induced. A greater danger of Sufism is their smooth approach in leading people towards shiism and this man, ibne ul-arabi is champion at that. I have read his main book, futuhat, which I consider his master non-sense, and time after time I was amazed how his argument was pointing towards shiism. Don't be fooled by his few sentences here and there which he makes against "shias", look at the essence of what he is telling people. Does ibne ularabi really think that people are that naive? If I were a shia, I would have known no better book to use as a shia propaganda than this person's book. Corbin, without knowing perhaps, has done Moslems, especially the one who live in the west and are not very familiar with their religion, a great service by exposing Arabi as who he was, a shia or shia sympathetic. I look at him a very smooth and clever shai. That is why many Sunni scholars have written so many books against this man and his evil teachings. I just see it my religious duty to warn my brothers about the danger of this most famous hypocrite n the Islamic world.