Divination as Divine Revelation: Some thoughts on Ibn’ Arabi’s understanding of imagination by Angela Voss

Tarosophist International Journal, vol. 7 (pages not known)

In the Platonic and Sufi traditions, self-knowledge is the key to spiritual knowledge, thus self knowledge leads to a mode of being in the world in which practical action stems from a profound understanding of its own underlying principles. All forms of divination reveal ways in which the ‘path of good fortune’ may be followed through the choice of ‘right’ action, which appears to be already known on some hidden, inner, unconscious or divine level, but which is continually up for negotiation as the querent refers to the symbolic image, text or spiritual authority for guidance. In this article I want to explore the question of divinatory interpretation in relation to the crucial role given to the imagination by the Sufi master Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi (1165-1240), drawing on the insightful commentaries of William Chittick on the Shaykh’s extensive treatise the Futuhat al-Makkiya and the pioneering comparative studies of the 20th century French Islamicist Henry Corbin.

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