“It is He who is revealed in every face, sought in every sign, gazed upon by every eye, worshipped in every object of worship, and pursued in the unseen and the visible. Not a single one of His creatures can fail to find Him in its primordial and original nature.”

Ibn ‘Arabi: al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, Ch. 372

Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi

Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165–1240) was one of the world’s great spiritual teachers.

Ibn Arabi was born in Murcia in Arab al-Andalus, and his writings had an immense impact throughout the Islamic world and beyond. The universal ideas underlying his thought are of immediate relevance today.

The Society

The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society (MIAS) was founded in 1977 to promote a greater understanding of the work of Ibn Arabi and his followers.

It is represented by non-profit organisations in Oxford, England and in Berkeley, California. The Society is funded by the annual subscriptions of its members. It collaborates with affiliated societies in Spain and Australia.

Activities

» Publications: The Society has published a Journal since 1982, which is now peer-reviewed and appears twice a year. It has published books, particularly a translation into English of the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. Its website provides over 200 articles, mainly from the Journal.

» Events: The Society has organised conferences in the UK and the USA since 1984. Podcasts and videos of more than 100 talks from Society events are available on this website.

» Historic manuscript project: Since 2002 the Society has been engaged in collecting copies of historic manuscripts of the works of Ibn Arabi.​ A version of the catalogue is available on this website.

Society Membership

If you are interested in Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, his work and his teachings, you are welcome to join the Society. Among other benefits, Members receive the Society Journal, have discounted entry to Society events, and free admission to live online talks.

Supporting the Society

For information about some of the Society’s planned developments over the next three years, and how it makes use of regular donations, one-off gifts and bequests, please see the page on supporting the Society.

Recently Added Quotation

Futūḥāt Translation Project

27 February 2024

God is the one who inspires.

Book 11, Chapter 73

28 February 2024

He ﷺ‎ said, ‘The “ones who know” are inheritors of the prophets.’ Our teacher Abū Madyan used to say about this station: ‘One of the signs of the sincerity of the aspiration of the one who aspires (the murīd, the student) is your fleeing from creation; and one of the signs of the sincerity of your fleeing from creation is when your being belongs to the True; and one of the signs of the sincerity of your being belonging to the True is your return to creation.’ This is the condition of inheriting the Prophet ﷺ‎ had.

Book 11, Chapter 73

Go to the Quotations page

Featured Article

William C Chittick

The Religion of Love Revisited”

“Ibn al-ʿArabī and Rūmī – not to mention countless other teachers, Muslim and non-Muslim – looked at human beings as works in progress. Many of them would have been happy to call the path of becoming fully human ‘the religion of love.’” This article reviews ‘the religion of love’ in Ibn ʿArabī and three other authors, and relates it finally to what Ibn ‘Arabi says about the “Station of No Station”.

List of all articles

Featured Podcast

Éric Geoffroy

Spiritual Realization (al-tahqiq) through Daily Awakening

This is a meditation on the meaning of al-tahqiq (verification or realisation) which is central to the writing of Ibn ‘Arabi, and drawing on the writings of Sufis before Ibn ‘Arabi, such as Junayd (d. 911 AD, the “Leader of the Sufis”, sayyid al-ta’ifa), and others after him, such as Shaykh al-‘Alawi. Junayd said, “I have achieved al-tahqiq by staying in the presence of God for thirty years under these stairs”, by which he meant the stairs of his house. The paper later published in the Journal of the Society can be found here.

List of all podcasts

Latest News

Some MIAS online events

Looking forward in 2024

  • Stephen Hirtenstein – April 13, 2024
    The Perfect Human and the Greatest Name (al-insān al-kāmil wa-l-ism
    al-aʿẓam)
  • Angela Jaffray –  June 22, 2024

More information

April – July 2024

MIAS Latina events

April 21, at 19 h. Spanish time, Cecilia Twinch will speak on “Más allá de las estaciones: el ave que bebe del océano”.
Get Zoom links

On 13th July, 2024 there will be a symposium in Torino, Italy, with (provisional) title, “Ibn ‘Arabi and St Francis of Assisi”. Features two talks and an exhibition of art works by Antonella Leoni.

31 December 2023

Young Writer Award

The Young Writer competition for 2023 has a prize of US$ 1,500 for an essay by an author under the age of 36. The entries received are now with the judges.

More information

Expected out January 2024

Society Journal, Volume 74

Volume 74 of the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society is expected out in January. It includes articles by Pablo Beneito and Stephen Hirtenstein, Mukhtar H. Ali, Faris Abdel-hadi, Tareq Moqbel.

See the list of contents

December 2023

The Futuhat Foundation

Dr Eric Winkel is engaged in a translation into English of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah, from beginning to end. It is being published progressively by the Pir Press, and Volume 4 was published in 2022 and further volumes are expected in 2023.
More information

Social Media

The Society in the USA maintains a Facebook Page, and the Society in the UK maintains a Facebook Group. Both provide news about Society events, and the Facebook Group can be a good place to ask questions.

Facebook Page [/] | Facebook Group [/]

Contact

The Society is administered from two centres: Oxford (UK) and Berkeley (USA). The Society in the UK is responsible for everywhere outside North America.

Contact details here

 

Making a Donation

As a non-profit organisation, the Society welcomes donations of any size. Donations help underwrite the many activities of the Society.

Donate to the Society in the UK
Donate to the Society in the USA