Ādam and Muḥammad in the Correlative Prophetology of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240)
(2018) 5th Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS) — Location: University of Exeter (9.April.2018)
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- The figures of Ādam and Muḥammad share a number of common traits in Ibn ʿArabī's thought, starting by the preexistence of their respective natures, before the coming into being of humanity. Moreover, the two figures appear clearly intertwingled in his K. al-Isfār: "Each of them is respectively father and son one another". Nevertheless, we find also precious indications on their differentiation throughout the Futūḥāt Makkiyya and the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, especially the qualification of Ādam's nature as fundamentally "dual", while Muḥammad's nature is described as "triple". To understand Ibn ʿArabī's peculiar prophetology, we must start from the « correlative ontology » from which he draws his original epistemological principle, that considers the real as composed of always-moving relations in constant redefinition, rather than defined and stable beings. The prophets are indeed included in that ontological definition: from Ādam to Muḥammad, every prophet is defined in relation to its predecessors and successors, and above all to the "ḥaqīqa muḥammadiyya". This paper aims at analyzing the different correlations that define the figures of Ādam and Muḥammad as they appear in Ibn ʿArabī's works. By approaching these two figures in a dynamic and interrelational manner, we intend to provide a more precise definition of these two prophetic figures in his thought, as well as a new perspective on his prophetology.
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Vandamme, G. (2018). Ādam and Muḥammad in the Correlative Prophetology of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240). 5th Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS), University of Exeter. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/234273