Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Abstract
Ibn Arabī's views on caliphate and leadership after the decease of the Apostle of God (God bless him and his household), are of special quality. He first discusses these issues in a way that makes the reader think he is talking about gnostic caliphate and leadership and not the theological views of the Shi'ites and the Sunnites. However, a closer scrutiny of his views reveals that in his own particular fashion, Ibn Arabī has in fact focused on the theological views of the Sunnites; he has amazingly substantiated the caliphate of the first and the second caliphs by relying on the consensus of the Companions of the Prophet and by assigning originality to it. He has ignored all texts and rulings on caliphate and leadership which are attributed to the holy Prophet (PBUH); he then quotes some traditions of multiple attestation like Hadīth al-Thaqalayn and Hadīth al-Ghadīr with distortion. In the next part he deals with ijtihād (interpretive reasoning) of the religious scholars, justifies all their mistakes and errors and exonerates them all. The present study has explored, within the scope of a paper, the views of Ibn Arabī from different angles and has then criticized them one by one.
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