The Epistemic Status of Mystical Experience in Ibn ʻArabī’s Legal Reasoning

Abstract

Arguably the most influential Sufi thinker in Islam, Muḥyī l-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī (d. 638/1240), views revelatory knowledge and mystical experience, what he terms ‘spiritual unveiling’ (kashf), as a form of continuing divine revelation that is bequeathed to the spiritual elite or saints (awliyā’). As the self-proclaimed ‘Seal of Saints’ (Khātam al-awliyā’), who is the mystical heir to the wisdom of Muḥammad, the ‘Seal of Prophets’ (Khātam al-anbiyā’), Ibn ʻArabī has a unique method of deriving legal rulings. Not only does he emphasise the inner aspect (bāṭin) of all rituals and forms of worship, like many of his sufi counterparts; he, rather uniquely, extracts legal rulings from mystical experience. This study investigates the importance of revelatory experience and spiritual unveiling in the thought of Ibn ʻArabī and his followers. It then looks at what role these play in Ibn ʻArabī’s jurisprudence and, specifically, how he determines that hands should be raised (rafʻ al-yadayn) during formal prayer (ṣalāt) because he was commanded to by the Prophet Muḥammad in a mystical vision. By considering this issue, the deeper question of the epistemic status of mystical experience for Ibn ʻArabī, and the intricate interplay between mystical experience and textual evidence in his thought is explored.

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