The Religion of Abraham: Sufi Perspectives on the Abrahamic Reality

Abstract

This essay examines the Qur’ānic narratives of Abraham as interpreted by Ibn al-ʿArabī and his followers. Ibn al-ʿArabī was keen to identify the essential reality of the prophets in his famouswork Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. While in the Fuṣūṣ, Ibn al-ʿArabī focuses on his epithet al-khalīl (intimate friend) and his relation to the affirmative attributes of God, the Abrahamic reality is further gleaned from the ways in which the Qur’ān describes his spiritual trajectory. This central prophet of the three major world religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islām is at once an iconoclast and the paragon of divine unity (tawḥīd), but also represents true religion, life, light, the divine names of origination and the intellect.

Keywords

• prophet abraham
• ibn al-ʿarabī
• fuṣuṣu’l-ḥikem
• divine unity (tawḥīd)
• abrahamic reality