Endless Voyaging; Spiritual Journeying in ‛Attar and Ibn ‛Arabi

Description

The metaphor of the journey is found in all religions and spiritual traditions, and it has generated some of the great works of literature – from Homer’s Odyssey to Dante’s Divine Comedy and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Islam is no exception, and in its mystical writings there are numerous examples of how the idea is imaginatively deployed to give a framework for spiritual progress – the seeker travelling from a starting point of ignorance to an end point of union and knowledge.

This illustrated talk will look at the work of two writers famous for their treatment of the subject: Farīd al-dīn ‛Attar (d. 1222), whose epic poem The Conference of the Birds is a classic allegory of the Sufi path, and Muhyiddin Ibn ‛Arabi (d. 1240), who radically extends the metaphor in several places, including his masterwork, The Meccan Revelations and a mid-life treatise on the journeys of the prophets, The Secrets of Voyaging. It will look at three aspects of spiritual journeying: the journey to God; the journey from God, and the journey in God.

Jane Clark is a teacher and independent researcher who lives in Oxford. She has been studying the Islamic mystical tradition for more than forty years and has given many lectures and courses both in the UK and internationally for organisations such as The Beshara Trust, Oxford University Department for Continuous Education and Temenos Academy. She is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society, and also the editor of Beshara Magazine, in which capacity she is able to pursue her particular interest in the relevance of the perennial traditions of wisdom to contemporary life.