Tolerance And Compassion in Ibn 'Arabi's Thought

A seminar exploring how respect for people of different beliefs is necessarily entailed by the thought of Ibn 'Arabi.

Tolerance and compassion are self-evident virtues for anyone engaged on a spiritual path. But all too often they are represented as moral imperatives – ways in which we should be – rather than fundamental or intrinsic elements of religious life. This seminar will show how respect for people who have different beliefs or cultures from our own is necessarily entailed by the metaphysics/cosmology of Ibn ʿArabī and his school, and how tolerance is therefore understood to be an essential human quality. Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) is now widely regarded as one of the great mystical thinkers of all time, whise thought transcends the Islamic milieu in which he lived.

The format of the event will be presentation followed by group work and discussion.

Jane Clark (BSc, MPhil) has been a student of the Beshara School for more than thirty years and now works as a teacher and independent researcher. Her main area of interest is the work of the Andalusian philosopher/mystic Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi because of his very clear articulation of the principles of unity. Originally trained as a scientist, she remains interested in the relationship between modern scientific understandings and the insights of the mystical traditions; she was a founder editor of Beshara Magazine and The Journal of Consciousness Studies, and is now a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhiyddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society in Oxford.

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