Ibn al-'Arabi's Barzakh: The Concept of the Limit and the Relationship between God and the World

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SUNY Press, Oct 14, 2004 - Religion - 206 pages
This book explores how Ibn al->Arabi? (1165 1240) used the concept of barzakh (the Limit) to deal with the philosophical problem of the relationship between God and the world, a major concept disputed in ancient and medieval Islamic thought. The term barzakh indicates the activity or actor that differentiates between things and that, paradoxically, then provides the context of their unity. Author Salman H. Bashier looks at early thinkers and shows how the synthetic solutions they developed provided the groundwork for Ibn al->Arabi? s unique concept of barzakh. Bashier discusses Ibn al->Arabi? s development of the concept of barzakh ontologically through the notion of the Third Thing and epistemologically through the notion of the Perfect Man, and compares Ibn al->Arabi? s vision with Plato s.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
The Encounter
59
52
70
The Supreme Barzakh
97
The Problem of the Creation of the World Revisited
106
The Epistemological Aspect
113
The Limit Situation
129
Conclusions
143
11
153
Ibn Rushd versus alGhazālī on the Eternity of the World
161
Bibliography
187
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About the author (2004)

Salman H. Bashier is Visiting Lecturer at Ben Gurion University and Haifa University.

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