Exaltation of Women in the Chapter on Muḥammad in Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam

Abstract

ABSTRACT Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) is arguably the most influential Ṣūfī in Islam. Of his vast oeuvre, no work has attracted more attention than Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. In the most important chapter of this work – on Muḥammad – Ibn ʿArabī writes of the true significance of women, showing the exceptionally high regard in which he holds them. Ibn ʿArabī is keen to underscore that it is the metaphysical significance of women, and not their physical form, that was made beloved to Muḥammad. This was due to the complementarity of their respective essences, which are the passive receptacles of the divine creative breath. This passivity is then transformed into activity when both actively transmit the divine breath in their own creative capacities and their manifestation of the divine Names. It is this amalgamation of feminine passivity and activity – reflected in Muḥammad’s own passivity and activity – that establishes an ontological connection between them. This study explores these aspects of women’s metaphysical significance in the chapter on Muḥammad as presented by Ibn ʿArabī and promulgated by the most prominent exegetes of the Fuṣūṣ.