Ibn 'Arabi Society

The statement attributed to Ibn al-ʿArabī, “kunnā ḥurūfan ʿāliyāt” — “We were exalted letters” — offers a profound affirmation of the pre-existent and sacred nature of all beings as articulations of Divine Speech. This is not merely poetic imagery, but a metaphysical vision: each created being is a singular word of God, a letter inscribed in the unfolding Book of Existence.

In this course, we will begin to explore the science of letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) in the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī and consider the metaphysical significance of Arabic letters (al-ḥurūf) as primordial structures of existence and keys to Divine self-disclosure. For Ibn al-ʿArabī, letters are not merely linguistic signs but living realities through which creation is articulated, ordered, and unveiled. Through the study of selected letters such as al-Alif, the axis of Divine Oneness; al-Bāʾ, the womb of emergence; al-Lām-Alif, the interplay of affirmation and negation; and al-Nūn, the arc of containment and return, the course opens a symbolic cosmos in which the Arabic alphabet maps the unseen scaffolding of the universe, revealing how the Real speaks through creation—letter by letter, word by word, and form by form.

Dr. Hany T. Ibrahim is an interdisciplinary scholar working across Religious Studies, Islamic thought, Sufism, Arabic philology, and Islamic art and architecture. His scholarship is dedicated to the study of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings, teachings, and metaphysics. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary, an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Lethbridge, an MPhil in the Built Environment from London South Bank University, and a BArch from Helwan University. His work explores Islamic metaphysics, love, beauty, language, symbolism, sacred aesthetics, and the contemporary relevance of classical Islamic thought. He is the author of Love in the Teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī (Equinox, 2023).

The statement attributed to Ibn al-ʿArabī, “kunnā ḥurūfan ʿāliyāt” — “We were exalted letters” — offers a profound affirmation of the pre-existent and sacred nature of all beings as articulations of Divine Speech. This is not merely poetic imagery, but a metaphysical vision: each created being is a singular word of God, a letter inscribed in the unfolding Book of Existence.

In this course, we will begin to explore the science of letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) in the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī and consider the metaphysical significance of Arabic letters (al-ḥurūf) as primordial structures of existence and keys to Divine self-disclosure. For Ibn al-ʿArabī, letters are not merely linguistic signs but living realities through which creation is articulated, ordered, and unveiled. Through the study of selected letters such as al-Alif, the axis of Divine Oneness; al-Bāʾ, the womb of emergence; al-Lām-Alif, the interplay of affirmation and negation; and al-Nūn, the arc of containment and return, the course opens a symbolic cosmos in which the Arabic alphabet maps the unseen scaffolding of the universe, revealing how the Real speaks through creation—letter by letter, word by word, and form by form.

Dr. Hany T. Ibrahim is an interdisciplinary scholar working across Religious Studies, Islamic thought, Sufism, Arabic philology, and Islamic art and architecture. His scholarship is dedicated to the study of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings, teachings, and metaphysics. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary, an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Lethbridge, an MPhil in the Built Environment from London South Bank University, and a BArch from Helwan University. His work explores Islamic metaphysics, love, beauty, language, symbolism, sacred aesthetics, and the contemporary relevance of classical Islamic thought. He is the author of Love in the Teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī (Equinox, 2023).

The statement attributed to Ibn al-ʿArabī, “kunnā ḥurūfan ʿāliyāt” — “We were exalted letters” — offers a profound affirmation of the pre-existent and sacred nature of all beings as articulations of Divine Speech. This is not merely poetic imagery, but a metaphysical vision: each created being is a singular word of God, a letter inscribed in the unfolding Book of Existence.

In this course, we will begin to explore the science of letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) in the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī and consider the metaphysical significance of Arabic letters (al-ḥurūf) as primordial structures of existence and keys to Divine self-disclosure. For Ibn al-ʿArabī, letters are not merely linguistic signs but living realities through which creation is articulated, ordered, and unveiled. Through the study of selected letters such as al-Alif, the axis of Divine Oneness; al-Bāʾ, the womb of emergence; al-Lām-Alif, the interplay of affirmation and negation; and al-Nūn, the arc of containment and return, the course opens a symbolic cosmos in which the Arabic alphabet maps the unseen scaffolding of the universe, revealing how the Real speaks through creation—letter by letter, word by word, and form by form.

Dr. Hany T. Ibrahim is an interdisciplinary scholar working across Religious Studies, Islamic thought, Sufism, Arabic philology, and Islamic art and architecture. His scholarship is dedicated to the study of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings, teachings, and metaphysics. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary, an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Lethbridge, an MPhil in the Built Environment from London South Bank University, and a BArch from Helwan University. His work explores Islamic metaphysics, love, beauty, language, symbolism, sacred aesthetics, and the contemporary relevance of classical Islamic thought. He is the author of Love in the Teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī (Equinox, 2023).

"Different Aesthetics" – A New Approach to Sufi Texts?
The topic of the MIAS-Warburg Symposium was inspired by an interdisciplinary
research project on Premodern Aesthetics spearheaded by the University of
Tuebingen. It approaches aesthetic acts and artifacts not as objects sufficient unto
themselves and hence to be viewed with 'disinterested pleasure' (Kant), but as
agents endowed with an aesthetic energy in which their true purpose resides, and
which explains the dynamic impact they can have on socio-cultural and
psychological processes. The aesthetic acts and artifacts studied by the project also
include Christian mystical texts whose aesthetic energy aims to engender in the
recipient a state of consciousness akin to the beatific vision. A collection of papers
produced by contributors to the Tuebingen project has just appeared in English
translation (Different Aesthetics: Principles, Questions, Perspectives, edited by A.
Gerock-Reiter et al., De Gruyter, 2025). The presentation will introduce the scope of
the project, discuss recent examples of its application to Christian and Muslim texts,
and conclude with remarks on its relevance for the study of the Akbarian tradition.

Stefan Sperl graduated from Oxford (Arabic) and SOAS (PhD 1977), and spent ten
years working for UNHCR in Egypt, Sudan and Geneva. He joined SOAS in 1988
and retired in 2018 as Emeritus Professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. His
publications include articles on Arabic, Islamic and Refugee Studies, as well as
Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts (1989), Qasida
Poetry in Islamic Africa and Asia (with C. Shackle, 1996) and The Cosmic Script:
Sacred Geometry and the Science of Arabic Penmanship (with A. Moustafa, 2014)
which won the Iran Book of the Year Award (2016). His recent publications are 'The
Qur’an and Arabic Poetry' (The Oxford Handbook of Qur’anic Studies, 2020), the
volume Faces of the Infinite, Neoplatonism and Poetry at the Confluence of Africa,
Asia and Europe with the accompanying website lyrics-of-ascent.net (with Y. Dedes,
2022), and 'Islamic Spirituality and the Visual Arts' (The Wiley Blackwell Companion
to Islamic Spirituality, 2023). He continues to be actively engaged in research and
since 2023 has been teaching Arabic literature courses at the University of
Cambridge.


Recorded by Warburg Institute

The Body of the Caliph: Corporeal Governance of the Human Kingdom in Ibn 'Arabi's al-Tadbirat al-ilahiyya and its Commentaries

In his Book of the Divine Governances for the Restoration of the Human Kingdom (K. al-Tadbirat al-ilahiyya fi islah al-mamlaka al-insaniyya), Ibn 'Arabi describes how the flourishing of the individual depends on a spiritual policy ensuring harmony in the human microcosm. This governance of the individual is centred on the caliphal authority of the spirit and its vizier, the intellect. But where does that leave the body? Is it merely reduced to passive obedience to this authority, or does it too play an active role in this internal politics? In this presentation, we shall revisit the Tadbirat from the vantage point of the body, while also examining two later commentaries by Husayn b. Tu'ma al-Baytimani (d. 1175/1761) and Muhammad al-Damuni (d. ca. 1208/1794).

GREGORY VANDAMME is a scholar specialising in classical Sufi thought, particularly the works of Ibn 'Arabi and his commentators. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from UCLouvain, where his dissertation focused on the concept of hayra (perplexity) in Ibn 'Arabi’s thought, exploring its implications in epistemology, metaphysics, and Qur'anic hermeneutics. Currently, Gregory is a post doctoral research associate at the University of Chester, following his roles as a research fellow at F.R.S.–FNRS and UCLouvain in Belgium, and as guest lecturer at SciencesPo Paris. His research primarily delves into the doctrines of speculative mysticism, Qur'anic hermeneutics, and spiritual education in Sufism.

Recorded by Warburg Institute