Previous studies examining the thoughts of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240) have seldom considered his intellectual relationship with earlier Sufis when emphasizing his impact on posterity by initiating “Akbarian tradition.” His most well-known theory of “God’s self-disclosure” (tajallī) states that God is a non-limited being lacking a specific form and revealing Himself in various limited forms. Researchers have primarily understood this theory as the metaphysical theory discussing the existential world’s ranking structure regarded as being some level of God’s self-disclosure process, by applying the framework of later, more sophisticated theories. However, the fact that the concept of the heart (qalb)—central to the psychology or doctrine of the self-discipline of experiential mysticism before Ibn ʿArabī—is established in this theory as recognizing God’s self-disclosure is less appreciated. In this paper, I analyze Ibn ʿArabī’s doctrine of the human heart and God’s self-disclosure by referring to earlier Sufi texts and reexamine his theory of “God’s self-disclosure” in line with earlier Sufi thoughts based on its relationship with experiences of the heart.
Ibn ʿArabī refers to the cosmos surrounding humanity as the locus of God’s self-disclosure to the human heart, adopting an ontological viewpoint that was lacking in previous thoughts. However, he does this with the primary aim of describing and evaluating the inner states of mystics who recognize God’s self-disclosure. Further, he often describes God’s self-disclosure based on the conception of the heart developed in earlier mystical tradition; thus, the relationship with the heart determines the orientation of this theory. Therefore, the theory vividly presents the experiential elements of earlier psychology or the doctrine of self-discipline affected by the notions or representations accumulated within them. This differs from the later theoretical modes of his intellectual inheritors.
