Review
At this juncture of human evolution, we are in desperate need of clear heart-guidance. We need knowledge that will help to guide us out of the dream labyrinth in which we are wandering - a labyrinth of materialism, of clinging to separate identities and nationalities, addicted to conflict, sickened by the lack of deep meaning in our life and the terror of being adrift in an uncaring universe. The only guidance that can lead us out of this haunted condition is the knowledge of the human heart which comes through the great hearts of humanity. These Masters of the heart rest in deep God-consciousness. Their light shines beyond the borders of separate religions and nations and transcends the changes of time. This is the guidance we need to urgently attend to for the survival of life on Earth and for peace and mutual understanding in our human family. It is the light that will awaken our own heart, where Truth dwells. The subtle science of human nature and Divine Reality presented by the Master Ibn al-Arabi is this rare and precious knowledge, far beyond what empirical science can provide but also complementing it and grounding it in a spiritual universe. May we drink from the wells of the Master of the heart, Ibn al-Arabi , and be spiritually revived. --Fariha Fatima Friedrich, Shaykh of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order
This translation will undoubtedly be looked at as a great historical achievement by future generations, long after we are all gone. Dr. Eric Winkel s task of translating the entirety of the Futuhat is a remarkable and commendable feat, and is nothing short of being monumental. I have enjoyed reading Dr. Winkel s fine translation as much as I have reading the original Arabic text, and I have no doubt that a work such as this conveys the flavor and sense of the grand vision of Ibn Arabi, which was given to him as a gift from God. That Dr. Winkel has been able to do so in a translation that is not encumbered by extensive footnotes speaks to the merits and accessibility of the translation itself. This volume accounts for the second installment of Dr. Winkle s translation, and it is hoped that he will continue to have the tawfiq to complete the translations of the other 35 books of the Futuhat. Amin! --Hany Talaat Ahmed Ibrahim, University of Calgary
I believe this translation to be one of the most relevant intellectual and spiritual events happening in our time. I am sure that this volume, which is mainly concerned with the view of cosmology and creation of Ibn Arabi, will be a source of inspiration and fundamental research in our time for scientists, spiritual seekers, artists and people of all kinds, whether they consider themselves Muslims or not, religious or not, intellectual or not, since the teaching of Ibn Arab, offered as the fruit of direct tasting, beyond their Islamic inspiration and foundation, remain a universal expression of the human experience of essential Reality. Through Winkel s linguistic skills, English appears as the very rich and creative language it is, suitable for rendering, as far as it is possible to do so in the case of such a genuinely Arabic thought, which so deeply and intensively explores all the nuances and interconnections of the lexical roots in the language of the Quran and the intricacies and delicacies of the al-Futuhat. This highly lucid version demonstrates a rigorous fidelity to the original on every page, coherent from beginning to end and fully readable, and I trust that it will provide a solid basis for the many future studies and developments that this remarkable work surely demands. Of particular use are the much needed and knowledgeable notes which Winkel provides on many of the most difficult dimensions of the text, proving a solid scientific training in different domains as well as a penetrating intuition in affinity with the nature of this measure- less writing. However, this is not the place to comment on the content of these 40 dense chapters, their connection to Quranic suras or similar matters. All I would like to do here in conclusion, since everything is shifting, is to encourage the reader to begin their voyage of discovery through this incomparable book, with the attentiveness, spiritual courtesy and receptivity which it requires and which Ibn Arabi recommends to us, in the company of the invaluable help provided by a most inspiring translation. --Pablo Beneito, Universidad de Murcia
About the Author
Dr. Eric Winkel has studied Ibn al-Arabi and the Futuhat al-Makkiyah for twenty-five years. At Haverford College (BA), then the University of Pennsylvania (MA), then the University of South Carolina (PhD), he undertook eclectic studies, mostly religion at first, focusing on spiritual matters, then later including political science, and numerous languages to enable study of religious and spiritual texts (Sanskrit, Greek, Coptic, Tamil, Arabic, others, besides French and German). An Ibn al-Arabi scholar, Dr. Winkel taught at the International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and was Senior Fulbright Scholar in Islamabad, Pakistan. He was also Dean of Students at the International Institute of Chinese Medicine in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies in Malaysia, Dr. Winkel explored how the concepts of the new sciences opened obscure and difficult passages of the Futuhat al-Makkiyah. He explored connections between the vision of Ibn al-Arabi and mathematics and physics developed after the 19th century. The mystical, strange world Ibn al-Arabi describes may be read as also the strange realm of quantum physics and higher-dimensional, and fractal dimensional, topographies. Since 2012, Dr. Winkel has been translating the Futuhat al-Makkiyah, intended to be the first complete, as well as most accurate and contemporary, translation into English of this masterwork. Author of books and monographs on Ibn al-Arabi, Islamic law, and the new sciences, and articles examining the vision of Ibn al-Arabi in light of contemporary mathematical physics, Dr. Eric Winkel is uniquely poised to connect these worlds. He continues to work on his translation project of the Futuhat and presently makes his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
