Understanding Ibn ‘Arabi Autumn online seminars November 2021
Presented by the Institute for Ibn ‘Arabi Studies (based at the Kerim Foundation) and the Institute for Sufi Studies at Üsküdar University, in collaboration with the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society.
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13th November, 2021, 20.00 (İstanbul), 17.00 GMT (Londra)
Laila Khalifa: ‘Ibn ‘Arabi in Spiritual Fiqh and Gnostic Knowledge’
Moderator: Hasan Kerim Güç
Link: https://bit.ly/3sAiADX
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Laila Khalifa (Ph.D) began her studies in social sciences and history at the University of Jordan in Amman. Later she pursued postgraduate research in Social Psychology at the University of Nottingham, UK in 1985. She was awarded her MA in Classical and Modern Islamic Thought at the Sorbonne in 1988. She has subsequently dedicated her research to the study of Ibn ‘Arabi’s doctrine and received her Ph.D. in 2000, in History and Civilisation at the L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
Here, under the supervision of Prof. Michel Chodkiewicz, she completed her dissertation: “Conquêtes, Illuminations, Tassawuf et Prophétie: La Futuwwa chez le Sheikh al- Akbar Muhammad Muhyi a-Din Ibn ’Arabi (1165-1240)”. (Conquest, Illumination, Sufism and Prophecy: The Futuwwa in Ibn ‘Arabi (1165-1240.) She continues her research into Ibn ‘Arabi’s metaphysical doctrine and participates in international symposiums. Laila Khalifa has published books and articles.
Laila Khalifa writes: ‘The writings of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi are among the most important to have been written in the gnostic knowledge. Ibn ‘Arabi’s writings connect human civilization extending from Adam – peace be upon him – to Prophet Muhammad – may God bless him and grant him peace; in other words from the beginning of creation standing in the day of the covenant before God, to the day of return and finally standing before God, Glorious and Most High, and asking for intercession. Ibn ‘Arabi divulges the divine, spiritual, and legal secrets in the rulings in fiqh and shari’a that came with canonical language, supported by openings (fath), discoveries (kashf), and divine self-manifestation (al-tajalli al-ilahi). Specialists in this field agree on the importance of these books, as well as on the difficulty of reading them. In this seminar, I will elucidate some of the problematic issues as well as the essential points that need to be understood when it comes to the study of Ibn ‘Arabi’s school of thought, in the realm of gnostic knowledge and spiritual fiqh.’
Hasan Kerim Güç is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute for Sufi Studies, Üsküdar University, Istanbul. His studies include Sufism and the thought, history and Islamic literature of the Ottoman period. He worked in Virginia, USA, in software engineering between 1999-2010. He is currently the Managing Director of Nefes Publishing (Nefes specialises in books on Islamic texts and Sufi studies. It also includes the Tuti imprint, which specialises in popular science).
He is a founding and board member of the Kerim Foundation and is the author of Ken’an Rifai’nin Dervişlik Anlayışı (Kenan Rifai’s Understanding of Dervish) (Nefes, 2020) and The Birds of Attar (Nefes, 2021). He has also published translations of philosophical classics.
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