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עמוד:10
The Sufis’ and Ibn al - ‘Arabī’s Attitudes Towards the Pillars of Islam 10 perspectives Sometimes the mystical considerations are absent and instead our author interweaves perceptions of the cosmos in his examination of certain pillars of Islam In all the chapters, I did not follow Ibn al - ‘Arabī’s sequence of the sections, because he did not always arrange them in keeping with logical order, as one would expect For example, one would naturally expect to find the order of the Ḥajj’s rites as they actually take place in the Ḥajj . But Ibn al - ‘Arabī abandons this order . Hence, I decided not to follow his order and to discuss the various items in each pillar according to their significance as perceived by our author As for the sequence of this book’s chapters, I followed Ibn al - ‘Arabī’s order with one exception : I prioritized the chapter on ritual purity, placing it first, although Ibn al - ‘Arabī ordered this chapter ( ch 68 in the Futūḥāt ) after chapter 67 on the witness of faith ( shahāda ) In so doing, our author seems to emphasize the position of belief as the root of all the other precepts Put differently, belief essentially precedes ritual purity without attention as noted previously ) to the fact that ritual purity is a necessary ( condition for performing some pillars of Islam Another important aspect of Ibn al - ‘Arabī’s discussion of the pillars of Islam is the fact that there is no common denominator among them in relation to the use of mystical, theological, philosophical and ethical 1 perspectives In a specific pillar theology is conspicuous, while in another mysticism is prevalent 2 In the following sections I survey the ideas of the Sufi authors, but mainly Ibn al - ‘Arabī’s thoughts on ablution and the five pillars of Islam Already in the discussion on ritual purity we find elements requiring later mention in the exposition of the pillars of Islam Ethics is a part of Sufism, but of course not exclusively 1 An anonymous reviewer of my article “Ibn al - ‘Arabī on Divine Love,” was 2 surprised to see theological notions of our author appearing in his treatment of this issue . Thus, also here, Ibn al - ‘Arabī appears as a theologian, and not only as one who espouses mystical philosophy
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