Sh. Muhyiddin Ibn al-ʿArabī

27a The Importance of the Prophets as the Source of Guidance for Realization

Ibn al-ʿArabī’s stress on the importance of the prophets as the source of guidance in the path of realization cannot be overestimated.

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One of the many places where this can be seen is in the manner in which he distances himself from the Muslim philosophers. I began by saying that philosophers and Sufis share the goal of achieving intellectual knowledge. Both groups are striving for knowledge of the Real along with insight into how to put this knowledge into practice. In other words, both philosophers and Sufis set themselves the task of understanding the absolute Haqq, the Real, and learning how to give each thing its own relative haqq, its own ‘rightful due.’