THE MECCAN REVELATIONS (Part-I & II) – Selected Texts of al-Futuhat al-Makkiya

Perhaps no mystic in the history of the world has delved as deeply into the inner knowledge that informs our being as did Ibn ‘Arabi. He was born into the cultural and religious crucible of Andalusian Spain in 1165, a place and time in which Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars learned from each other and’ from the Greek classics that were then being translated and circulated. Drawing from the most advanced philosophical and metaphysical thinking of his time and from his extensive knowledge of the religion of Islam, Ibn ‘Arabi created an extraordinary mystical theology that essentially sprang from his own spiritual realization. Because of the advance natute of his teachings he has been known for 800 yeats as the Sheikh al-Akbar, or the Greatest Master. Because of the subtlety of his language and complexity of his thought, access to Ibn ‘Arabi has always been difficult and translation daunting. Previously only short extracts wete available in English. The first volume contains twenty- two key chapters of this Sufi “summa mystica,’ on such issues as Ibn ‘Arabi’s doctrine of the Divine Names, the nature of spiritual experience, the end of tite, the resurrection and the stages of the path that lead to sanctity, successfully edited and translated by three of the most accomplished scholars of our age. This great book soars beyond time, culture and any particular form of religion. Describing what is fundamental to our humanity, it is astonishingly universal. Finally readers in the West have an enirée into one of the most important, profound works of world literature. Second volume contains key chapters of this Sufi “summa mystica,’ on such topics as the gnostic and the sacred law, the mystic properties of the Qur’anic letters, the secrets of Forgiveness and the attainment of Divine Nearness, successfully edited and translated by some of the most accomplished scholars of out age.

“Suddenly one of the most….inaccessible of the great Sufis has emerged into the limelight of Islamic history with amazing swiftness and an impact no one was prepared to experience… In these days, when the image of Islam provided by modernist and fundamentalist Muslims seem so superficial and uninspiring it is good to from such great traditional authorities as Ibn ‘Arabi, whose ideas seem always fresh and deep.”