JOURNAL OF THE

MUHYIDDIN IBN
ʿARABI SOCIETY

VOLUME 70, 2021

 Published by the
Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society CIO
PO Box 892, Oxford OX2 7XL, UK
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ISSN 0266-2183 (Print)

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The Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society (MIAS) was founded in 1977 to promote
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 Contents

About the Contributors iv

A Hayati Poem by Ibn ʿArabī v

Translated by Denis McAuley

Prophetic Archetypes in Sufi Hermeneutics:

The Allegories of Abraham, Joseph and Moses 1
Mukhtar H. Ali

The Healer of Wounds: Interpreting human existence

in the light of alchemy and ascension 23
Stephen Hirtenstein

Ibn ʿArabī and Averroes: Some remarks and reflections 51

Omar Benaissa

Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran Shonin on Invocation

and Realization 71
Elif Emirahmetoglu

Recent publications 103

Book Review
Sufism and the Perfect Human 107

Society Notices and Notes for Prospective Contributors 111

 Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran Shonin
on Invocation and Realization
Elif Emirahmetoglu

OPENING REMARKS

Almost five decades ago, Toshihiko Izutsu (d. 1993), a brilliant

Japanese expert on Islamic thought and a seminal scholar in the
fields of comparative philosophy and mysticism, presented his
pioneering work Sufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study of Key
Philosophical Concepts. By providing a rigorous examination of the
key concepts central to the thoughts of Ibn al-ʿArabī and of the two
great Taoist thinkers, Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, and then bringing
those concepts into comparative inquiry, Izutsu opened up an
entirely new perspective for comparative studies between Islamic
and Far Eastern philosophies. His primary scholarly motivation was
the construction of a ‘meta-philosophy of Oriental philosophies’1 or
a ‘comprehensive structural framework of the Eastern philosophies’2
that also, at its heart, would contribute to a fruitful philosophical
exchange between the East and West. In pursuit of this aim, Izutsu
undertook further studies dedicated to the investigation of some
of the central concepts and teachings of Eastern philosophies.
Toward a Philosophy of Zen Buddhism, a collection of several of
his English essays on Zen Buddhism, presented Izutsu’s reflections
on various aspects of the Zen experience of reality and dealt with
the problem of the semantic and ontological articulation of reality
from his very distinctive point of view. In addition, Izutsu, in
several of these English texts, highlighted some striking similarities

1. Toshihiko Izutsu, ‘An Analysis of Waḥdat al-Wujūd: Toward a Metaphi-

losophy of Oriental Philosophies,’ in The Concept and Reality of Existence (Kuala
Lumpur, 2007), 57.
2. Toshihiko Izutsu, ‘The Basic Structure of Metaphysical Thinking in Islam,’
in Collected Papers in Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism, eds. M. Mohaghegh and
H. Landolt (Tehran, 1971), 42–3.
72 Elif Emirahmetoglu
between the fundamental ideas of Islamic mysticism and certain
central concepts of various Eastern philosophies, even though he
did not enter into any systematic analysis of them. For example,
Izutsu drew our attention to the conception of ultimate reality
and its relationship to the phenomenal world of the Advaita
Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy as represented in the works
of Shankara (c. 8th century ce), who was the founder of this non-
dualistic school of Vedānta philosophy. This comparison revealed
interesting structural similarities with the perception of existence
in the waḥdat al-wujūd school of Islamic tradition.3 On the other
hand, he perspicaciously pointed out various parallels in the
teachings of Mahāyāna Buddhism and Islamic mysticism, especially
regarding the enlightening experience of reality and the existential
conditions of human beings during and after this experience.4 The
path to fruitful comparative conversations between Islamic thought
and various Eastern philosophical traditions that Izutsu established
has, gladly, been expanded by further studies in contemporary
Islamic scholarship.5

3. Izutsu, ‘An Analysis of Waḥdat al-Wujūd,’ 63–4, 71; Izutsu, ‘The Basic
Structure,’ 49, 61, 64, 69. In fact, Izutsu believed that the basic assumptions of the
tradition of waḥdat al-wujūd regarding the perception of ultimate reality and its
relations to the external reality are reflected in many ways in other Eastern phil-
osophical traditions such as in Advaita Vedānta, Taoism, Mahāyāna Buddhism
and Confucianism. ‘The structure of the philosophy of waḥdat al-wujūd would
in this perspective be seen to represent one typical pattern – an archetypal form,
we might say – of philosophical thinking which one finds developed variously in
more or less different forms by outstanding thinkers belonging to different cul-
tural traditions in the East.’ Izutsu, ‘An Analysis of Waḥdat al-Wujūd,’ 59–60.
4. For instance, Izutsu stated that the consciousness of fanāʾ ‘finds its exact
counterpart in the Mahayana Buddhist conception of shūnyatā or nothingness.’
Izutsu, ‘The Basic Structure,’ 51. Furthermore, he regarded the fanāʾ-baqāʾ
experience worth comparing to the concepts of shin jin datsu raku (the mind-and-
body-dropping-off) and datsu raku shin jin (the dropped-off-mind-and-body)
which were employed by a well-known Japanese Zen master, Dōgen, in order to
imply two successive existential states of human beings in the experience of attain-
ing enlightenment. Izutsu, ‘The Basic Structure,’ 52.
5. Until now, the major contribution to comparative studies between Islamic
mysticism and Eastern religions has been provided by Reza Shah-Kazemi’s fol-
lowing two pioneering studies: Paths to Transcendence According to Shankara, Ibn
Arabi, and Meister Eckhart (Bloomington, 2006) and Common Ground between
Islam and Buddhism (Louisville, 2010). Hina Khalid’s article ‘Spiritual Death as
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 73

Very much in line with Izutsu’s method for uncovering points for
comparison between the thought of Ibn al-ʿArabī and certain key
concepts of Far Eastern philosophies, the present paper offers some
new perspectives to this fledgling field of comparative studies by
bringing Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240 ce) and his contemporary Shinran
Shonin (d. 1263 ce), the founder of Shin Buddhism (Jōdo Shinshū)
in Japan,6 into a comparative conversation. The main focus of the
paper, which unites these two names who explored their thoughts
in vastly differing historical contexts, is the act of repeating the
divine name that constitutes a means of cultivating awareness of the
Absolute in many religious traditions. Remembrance of God (dhikr)
and invocation (literally also remembrance/smṛti) of Amida Buddha
(nembutsu) is considered to be the essential practice that leads to
attaining religious awakening according to both Ibn al-ʿArabī
and Shinran. After analyzing the approaches of Ibn al-ʿArabī and
Shinran to the role of invocation in religious awakening, this
article suggests that there are some striking similarities in their
conception of reality and understanding of the human acquisition
of the highest knowledge, despite differences in certain respects.
Drawing attention to the similarities in their teachings identifies a
remarkable common ground for reciprocal appreciation and gives
both traditions an opportunity to reinterpret the practices and
beliefs of their own religion in the light of a new perspective.

Reorientation and Revival’ offers comparative reflections on the Mahāyāna con-

cept of śūnyatā and the Sufi concept of fanāʾ and undertakes an examination of the
existential modalities of the transfigured individual in Mahāyāna Buddhism and
Sufism. Hina Khalid, ‘Spiritual Death as Reorientation and Revival: Comparative
Reflections on Śūnyatā in Mahāyāna Buddhism and Fanāʾ in Sufism,’ Journal of
the Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi Society 68 (2020), 43–74. A special issue of the journal
The Muslim World edited by Imtiyaz Yusuf, a prominent expert in Muslim–
Buddhist dialogue, also includes further articles on the doctrinal aspects of the
interchange between Islam and Buddhism: The Muslim World: A Special Issue on
Islam and Buddhism 100 (April/July 2010). His recent paper conveys some reflec-
tions on the Lotus Sutra from an Islamic point of view: Imtiyaz Yusuf, ‘A Muslim’s
Reflection on Saddharamapundariksutra – The Lotus Sutra,’ Buddhist–Christian
Studies 40 (2020), 79–104.
6. Shin Buddhism (Jōdo Shinshū) or the True Pure Land school of Japanese
Buddhism, which grew out of Shinran’s teachings, is deemed the most widely
practiced form of Buddhism in Japan today.
74 Elif Emirahmetoglu
In what follows, the thoughts of Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran will,
first, be explored individually so that their viewpoints may be
outlined in full from their own perspectives. The sections dedicated
to the views of the two will each contain three parallel subsections,
that is, the conception of the Absolute, the role of invocation in
religious awakening and the realization of non-duality. Due to the
centrality of the doctrinal presuppositions including the non-dual
view of reality and the idea of the self-manifestation of absolute
reality in the phenomenal world which form the framework in
which Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran develop their epistemological and
anthropological teachings, each section will start with an outline
of how they understand reality. Their approaches to reality will
then be related to the question of how human beings may obtain
the highest knowledge of reality, knowledge that eradicates human
ignorance and leads man to a spiritual enlightenment. Afterwards,
it is briefly clarified what a person with a transformed consciousness
is thought to be like after attaining enlightenment, which, in turn,
is understood by both thinkers as a state of being aware of the
essential non-duality. With this background in place, the last part
of the article brings the elaborated-upon teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī
and Shinran into a comparative conversation through which some
similarities and parallels in their visions become apparent.

IBN AL-ʿARABĪ’S THOUGHT

Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Conception of the Absolute

The concept of waḥdat al-wujūd, which is translated into English
as ‘oneness of being’ or ‘unity of existence,’ is the most prominent
idea that is traced back to Ibn al-ʿArabī’s teachings, even though he
never employed this term in his writings himself.7 Part of the reason
why this concept is ascribed to Ibn al-ʿArabī is that his works con-
tain numerous passages which express the conviction that there is
no real wujūd (being or existence) in the universe except the one
Absolute Being, and all other existent things are unreal (iʿtibārī) in

7. William C. Chittick, Imaginal Worlds: Ibn al-ʿArabī and the Problem of Reli-
gious Diversity (Albany, 1994), 15.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 75

themselves.8 Wujūd in itself is denoted by Ibn al-ʿArabī using vari-

ous terms including the One (al-wāḥid/al-aḥad), One Entity (ʿayn
wāḥida), the non-delimited/Absolute Being (al-wujūd al-muṭlaq),
the Real (al-ḥaqq) or the Essence (dhāt), and is, as such, considered
beyond the boundaries of all relations, limitations and human con-
ceptualization. In this state of ‘unconditional transcendence,’9 the
Real is utterly unknowable, ineffable and undifferentiated. How-
ever, according to Ibn al-ʿArabī, Absolute Being manifests itself
as a delimited being (al-wujūd al-muqayyad) in the spiritual and
corporeal worlds through various names and attributes, whereas
the Absolute in itself remains always unrecognizable and inef-
fable.10 Tajallī, which literally means ‘the self-unveiling of a luminous
object,’11 refers, in this sense, to the self-disclosure of Absolute Being
in relative forms.
Ibn al-ʿArabī distinguishes between two phases of the divine self-
manifestation; one occurs in the unseen world (ʿālam al-ghayb)
and the other in the visible world (ʿālam al-shahāda).12 The holiest
effusion (al-fayḍ al-aqdas) is the first degree of the divine self-
disclosure in which the Absolute manifests itself, through itself to
itself. This is the first determination (taʿayyun) and delimitation
(taḥdīd) of Absolute Being in itself and from this stage on the Absolute
is qualified as God, as divinity,13 as in this stage the Absolute reveals
itself through innumerable names or attributes that, as ontological
categories, constitute the correlations between the Absolute and the
phenomenal world. The first act of the self-manifestation of Absolute
Being also gives rise to the origination of the immutable entities in the

8. See, William C. Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Meta-
physics of Imagination (Albany, 1989), 41; William C. Chittick, In Search of the
Lost Heart: Explorations in Islamic Thought (Albany, 2012), 73.
9. Toshihiko Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study of Key Philo-
sophical Concepts (Berkeley, 1984), 23.
10. Chittick, The Sufi Path, 91–6.
11. Abdul Haq Ansari, ‘Ibn ʿArabī: The Doctrine of Waḥdat al-Wujūd,’
Islamic Studies 38/2 (Summer 1999), 154.
12. Ibn al-ʿArabī, The Bezels of Wisdom, trans. and intro. R.W.J. Austin (New
York, 1980), 149; Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, 154–6.
13. Ibid. 43–4. Ibn al-ʿArabī applies the name Allāh (God), when he speaks of
Absolute Being in relation to creatures, whereas he denotes the Absolute in itself
by the terms the Essence, the Real, the One, etc. Chittick, The Sufi Path, 66.
76 Elif Emirahmetoglu
knowledge of the Absolute, that is, the non-temporal potentialities of
phenomenal things before their appearance in the external world.14
In the next degree of the divine self-disclosure, that is the ‘holy
effusion’ (al-fayḍ al-muqaddas), Absolute Being manifests itself in
the whole universe. Things of the phenomenal world which do not
possess an existence other than as temporary appearances of Absolute
Being are, correspondingly, the manifest forms of transcendent
reality or, in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s terminology, the loci of manifestation
(maẓāhir) of the Absolute. They are deprived of a self-subsistent
existence and merely reflect the light of sheer Being. In that sense,
Ibn al-ʿArabī considers everything other than the Real to be a shadow
that has no separate existence without the divine light.15 The stages
of the divine self-manifestation briefly described here delineate three
different ontological modes of wujūd in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s thought: (1)
the Absolute Being in itself or divine Essence, (2) God as divinity
through the names and attributes, and (3) the entire world as the
manifestation of the Absolute, that is, as the acts of God.
The theory of tajallī brings us further to another essential aspect
of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s conception of wujūd. His approach to the inward
(bāṭin) and outward (ẓāhir) dimensions of Absolute Being exhibits
two complementary aspects of wujūd, that is its transcendence
(tanzīh) and immanence (tashbīh) at the same time.16 The unity
(aḥadiyya) depicts wujūd in respect to its complete absoluteness
and transcendence.17 In this undifferentiated state of oneness, the
Absolute is in itself beyond all relations and limitations. Yet, from
the standpoint of the divine self-manifestation, wujūd also possesses
the property of relationship to the creatures based on the divine
names and attributes that disclose the transcendent reality in the
external world. Each being in the world is seen by Ibn al-ʿArabī as
the locus of a divine name that reveals the Absolute in transitory
14. Ibn al-ʿArabī’s well-known concept of al-aʿyān al-thābita (the immutable
entities or the permanent archetypes) denotes the latent properties of the
phenomenal things in the knowledge of the Absolute, before their appearances
in the universe. They enter from the state of immutability in the knowledge of the
Absolute into the transitory state of existence through the second degree of the
divine self-manifestation.
15. Chittick, The Sufi Path, 204.
16. Chittick, In Search, 76.
17. Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, 23.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 77

forms. In this sense, the divine names represent the immanent

aspect of Absolute Being by establishing a relationship between God
and creatures.

Remembrance of God
Ibn al-ʿArabī speaks of various ways to attain religious awaken-
ing such as invocation (dhikr), revelation/inspiration (waḥy) or
rational inquiry (naẓar).18 However, he attributes a different degree
of efficacy to each of these instruments of knowledge or processes
for spiritual realization. Although Ibn al-ʿArabī appreciates the role
of reason/intellect (ʿaql) in obtaining knowledge of God, he never-
theless places the intellectual knowledge beneath the experiential
knowledge that is the vision of divine self-disclosure.19 According
to Ibn al-ʿArabī, the divine vision and the highest degree of reali-
zation is obtained through the practice of dhikr, which he defines
as ‘presence with the One Remembered.’20 The notion of dhikr,
literally meaning recollection or remembrance, refers to the act of
invocation in which the divine names are repeated to annihilate
one’s own self in God. The role of dhikr in attaining religious awak-
ening is described by Ibn al-ʿArabī in the following way:
For if the properly prepared person persists in dhikr (‘remembering’
God) and spiritual retreat, emptying the place (of the heart) from
thinking, and sitting like a poor beggar who has nothing at the door-
step of their Lord. … And He said: So be mindful of God, and God will
teach you [Q.2:282]; and If you are aware of God, He will give you a Cri-
terion (of spiritual discernment); and He will give you a light by which
you will walk [Q.57:28].21

18. Ibn al-ʿArabī, The Meccan Revelations, ed. Michel Chodkiewicz, trans.
William C. Chittick and James W. Morris (New York, 2002), vol. I, 72–91;
Chittick, The Sufi Path, 159–70.
19. For a comprehensive overview of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s conception of knowledge,
see Binyamin Abrahamov, ‘Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Theory of Knowledge: Part I,’ JMIAS
41 (2007) 1–29; Binyamin Abrahamov, ‘Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Theory of Knowledge: Part
II,’ JMIAS 42 (2007), 1–22.
20. William C. Chittick, ‘On the Cosmology of Dhikr,’ in Paths to the Hearts:
Sufism and the Christian East, ed. James S. Cutsinger (Bloomington, 2002), 49.
21. The Meccan Revelations I, 14.
78 Elif Emirahmetoglu
The act of invocation – or the act of worship in general – depicted
above implies at first glance the existence of two different realities,
that is man and God, or the worshipper (al-ʿābid) and the wor-
shipped (al-maʿbūd). In his devotion and submission to God, the
worshipper/practitioner of dhikr experiences himself as utterly pow-
erless and in need of God, whereas God – the invoked reality – is
seen as mighty and a bestower of spiritual insight. However, Ibn
al-ʿArabī assumes that during the same invocation the heart of the
human being may become emptied of everything other than God.
The person of dhikr thereby enters into the presence of God and once
the veil of ignorance is lifted from the eye and heart of the person,
they become fully aware of their inherent identity within God. Ibn
al-ʿArabī denotes the essential unity of the worshipper and the wor-
shipped during the act of worship with the following statements:
In the same way He is identical with the worshipper in the case of every
worshipper … Hence nothing becomes manifest in the worshipper and
the worshipped except His He-ness (huwiyya). Therefore the wisdom,
occasion, and cause are nothing but He, while the result and that
which is occasioned are nothing but He. So He alone worships and is
worshipped.22

The passage quoted above clearly portrays how Ibn al-ʿArabī’s

concept of the self-disclosure of Absolute Being shapes his
epistemological considerations. In addition to the ontological
significance, the theory of tajallī also functions as an epistemological
link between God and man in the experience of awakening. The
understanding of tajallī as the radiation of the light of Absolute
Being that dispels all the darkness from the heart of the believer
enables human beings to receive an insight into the true nature of
their own self, which is but an unreal, a transitory and shadowy
being. The essential property of such a spiritual realization in
which the illusory duality between God and man, the worshipped
and worshipper or the Lord and servant has been eliminated is
characterized by Ibn al-ʿArabī as an immediate comprehension
of things as they really are: ‘knowledge is the heart’s perception
of a certain thing according to the real state of this thing in itself,

22. Ibid. 196.

 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 79

whether it is nonexistent or existent.’23 To gain further insight into

the true nature of things means awakening to the truth that in the
entire act of invocation there is only One Being which appears both
as the worshipped and worshipper.

Realization of Unity
In the Sufi literature, a famous ḥadīth qudsī, known as the ḥadīth
of the hidden treasure, is often used to explain the reason for the
existence of creatures. The most common form of this ḥadīth reads
as follows: ‘I was a hidden treasure, and I loved to be known. Thus
I created the creatures so that I might be known.’24 According to
this divine utterance, the creative movement of God is initiated
by the principle of Love. He loved to be known and breathed His
own breath into man/creature. In this respect, the whole being is
considered, by Ibn al-ʿArabī, to be the breath of the All-Merciful
(nafas al-raḥmān): ‘Through the Breath the whole world is breathed
(mutanaffas), the Breath making it manifest. The Breath is non-
manifest (bātin) in God and manifest (zāhir) in creation.’25 The
permeation of God’s merciful breath (nafas raḥmānī) throughout
all of creation has an essential aspect which plays an important
role in the spiritual perfection of human existence. Since people
carry the immanent divine nature of the merciful breath within
themselves, realizing this nature leads man to the knowledge of
God. By recognizing and becoming aware of their true nature,
human beings can attain an immediate vision of absolute reality.
According to Ibn al-ʿArabī, ‘inhaling Mercy … seeks to resolve
thingness in Identity and Uniqueness.’26

23. Abrahamov, ‘Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Theory of Knowledge: Part I,’ 10. Arabic
words are omitted in the quotation.
24. Even though the so-called ḥadīth of the hidden treasure is not recorded
in any canonical ḥadīth collections, it often appears in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings.
Elsewhere, Ibn al-ʿArabī writes that this ḥadīth ‘is sound on the basis of unveiling,
but not established by way of transmission (naql).’ Quoted in Chittick, The Sufi
Path, 391, n. 14.
25. The Meccan Revelations I, 54. For the relationship between the divine
Mercy and engendering the universe, see also the chapters of Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam on
Solomon and Zakariah.
26. Translated by Austin, The Bezels of Wisdom, 223.
80 Elif Emirahmetoglu
Upon the vision of the essential unity between God and man, one
obtains a deep insight into two essential matters. On the one hand,
they recognize themselves as a pure servant (ʿabd maḥḍ) whose
attachments are entirely dissolved and whose heart is prostrated in
the face of their Lord. When God takes away the contingent dimen-
sion of human being and thereby lifts the veil of ignorance, the
servant understands what it means to see things as they really are:
… and through that [inspiration] God removed from me my contin-
gent dimension. Thus I attained in this nocturnal journey the inner
realities (maʿānī) of all the Names, and I saw them all returning to One
Subject and One Entity … through this I came to know that I was a
pure ‘servant,’ without a trace of lordship in me at all.27

On the other hand, going beyond duality and recognition of the

essential unity does not remove the dichotomy between man and
God completely. The condition of human being remains forever
the same, a contingent and dependent existence, despite the lifting
of the veil of ignorance and the transformation of consciousness.
Because of this contingent dimension, the existence of a human
being is necessarily different from the existence of the Absolute
and non-delimited Being. In the following statements recorded in
his Kitāb al-Isrāʾ, Ibn al-ʿArabī clearly expresses ‘the paradoxical
“non-dualistic” (and equally “non-monistic”) inner nature of Man
and divine reality:’28
Then next He divided me into two halves, and He made the (whole)
thing into two things (that is, ‘Lord’ and ‘servant,’ or ‘Name’ and
‘named’). And then He brought me (back) to Life and made me see, (so
that) nothing veiled me from Him or distracted me (from Him). So I
said: ‘This is I and not other-than-me!’
Thus the half was filled with love and longing for the (other) half, so
I said: ‘O my God, why this shadow?’29

Since a transformed man possesses forever a shadowy nature in

between the sheer light/sheer Being and darkness/nothingness, it is
27. The Meccan Revelations I, 229.
28. James Winston Morris, ‘The Spiritual Ascension: Ibn ʿArabī and the Miʿrāj
(Part II),’ Journal of the American Oriental Society 108 (1988), 76.
29. Morris, ‘The Spiritual Ascension II,’ 76.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 81

both identical with God and other than Him. The human being is
‘huwa lā huwa’ (He, not He) as Ibn al-ʿArabī frequently reiterates.
This paradoxical character of the servant’s relationship to God as
both identical and other causes in himself an utter bewilderment
(ḥayra) that is impossible to remove.30 According to Ibn al-ʿArabī,
an utter bewilderment corresponds to the highest state of realiza-
tion in which the heart of the servant becomes aware of the con-
tradictory identity between God and man. The person who attains
such a realization is referred to by Ibn al-ʿArabī as the Perfect Man
(al-insān al-kāmil) who is the ‘possessor of two eyes:’
The Perfect Man has two visions [naẓar] of the Real, which is why God
appointed for him two eyes. With one eye he looks upon Him in respect
of the fact that He is Independent of the worlds [Q.3:97]. So he sees Him
neither in any thing nor in himself. With the other eye he looks upon
Him in respect of His name All-Merciful [al-raḥmān], which seeks the
cosmos and is sought by the cosmos. He sees His wujūd permeating all
things.31

SHINRAN’S THOUGHT

Shinran’s Conception of the Absolute

The ontological framework within which Shinran develops his
teachings exhibits a non-dual relationship between the absolute
reality/suchness and the saṃsāric world. The non-dual view of reality
that shapes Shinran’s teachings goes back to an Indian philosopher,
Nāgārjuna (2nd–3rd century ce), who was regarded as the founder of
the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. In the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā,
Nāgārjuna teaches that there is no distinction between nirvāṇa and
saṃsāra.32 The non-duality of nirvāṇa as the unconditioned reality
and saṃsāra as the conditioned reality of dependent-origination
is held by Nāgārjuna in the sense that through the cessation of
conceptualization and dichotomous thinking, the domain of

30. James Winston Morris, The Reflective Heart: Discovering Spiritual Intel-
ligence in Ibn ʿArabi’s Meccan Illuminations (Louisville, 2005), 79–82.
31. Quoted in Chittick, In Search, 76–7.
32. Trans. and intro. Mark Siderits and Shōryū Katsura, Nāgārjuna’s Middle
Way: Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Boston, 2013), 302.
82 Elif Emirahmetoglu
conditioned reality becomes characteristically similar to the absolute
reality, which is inconceivable, indescribable and ineffable.33 When
someone gains insight into the fact that everything is inherently
empty and all conceptual understanding is illusory, then they also
realize that no description can be applied to the intrinsic natures of
worldly things.34
Further, Shinran denotes the absolute reality, which has vari-
ous definitions within the Buddhist tradition, using different terms
including nirvāṇa, Tathāgata, emptiness, true reality, suchness,
eternal bliss, dharma-body and jīnen. He then defines it in two
ways. On the one hand, he depicts nirvāṇa as formless, uncreated,
non-arising, undefiled oneness.35 However, Shinran believes that
this uncreated true reality is not only transcendent and ineffable
suchness but that it reveals itself in the realm of saṃsāra. Thus,
on the other hand, Shinran writes in Notes on ‘Essentials of Faith
Alone’ that Tathāgata pervades the countless worlds and is found in
the hearts and minds of all sentient beings:
Nirvana is called extinction of passions, the uncreated, peaceful
happiness, eternal bliss, true reality, dharma-body, dharma-nature,
suchness, oneness, and Buddha-nature. Buddha-nature is none other
than Tathagata. This Tathagata pervades the countless worlds; it fills
the hearts and minds of the ocean of all beings.36

Shinran’s twofold reading of nirvāṇa – as both ineffable,

inconceivable suchness and an unfolding, self-revelatory reality
– is based on a modified reading of a traditional theory of the
Mahāyāna school of Buddhism, that is, the theory of the three
bodies of the Buddha (tri-kāya). The doctrine of the buddha-body
states that a buddha has three kinds of body which correlate with
the three modes or forms of reality: dharma-kāya (dharma-body/
truth body), saṃbhoga-kāya (fulfilled body/enjoyment body) and
nirmāṇa-kāya (transformation body). The term ‘Buddha’ literally
means ‘an awakened/enlightened one’ and refers primarily to the

33. Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Understanding Buddhism (Edinburgh, 2006), 121.

34. Siderits and Katsura, Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way, 202.
35. The Collected Works of Shinran, vol. I: The Writings [henceforth CWS I],
head trans. Dennis Hirota (Kyoto, 1997), 187.
36. CWS I, 461.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 83

historical figure Gautama Śākyamuni. However, as the result of

conceptual development over time, the term has come to refer to the
Buddha Śākyamuni, the ‘superhumanized’ or ‘divinized’ Buddha,
and gained a further meaning that is identical with ‘truth/reality’
(Skrt: dharma) as taught by him.37 In this context, the concept of
dharma-kāya corresponds to the ‘Buddha’s real essence’38 in the
sense that is one with the Absolute and refers to the highest reality,
which is eternal, undifferentiated and ineffable. In that sense, the
dharma-body of the buddha is beyond all human understanding
and conceptualization, in contrast to the two other ‘form’ bodies
of the buddha which exist as beings in the conditioned-form as
supra-mundane and mundane buddhas, who represent the levels
of saṃbhoga-kāya and nirmāṇa-kāya respectively. The saṃbhoga-
kāya denotes then the celestial buddhas, believed to appear in a
supra-mundane realm, and are endowed with several supernatural
qualities that enable them to teach bodhisattvas through mystical
visions and meditations. The nirmāṇa-kāya further indicates the
buddha in the form of an earthly transitory being with a human
body. Buddha Śākyamuni and all other historical buddhas are
assumed to exist on this level of the threefold mode of reality.
The Chinese scholar T’an-luan (d. 542 ce) had a significant
influence on Shinran’s conception of reality, as significant as that
of the Indian Mahāyāna philosophers Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu.
T’an-luan further develops the Mahāyāna theory of the three
buddha-bodies by distinguishing between two aspects of the concept
of dharma-kāya: dharma-body as suchness and dharma-body as
compassionate means.39 Accordingly, dharma-body as suchness refers
to the absolute reality itself, whereas dharma-body as compassionate
means is thought to arise from dharma-body as suchness and
manifests in the inconceivable and ineffable reality as beings of
conceivable form on the levels of saṃbhoga-kāya and nirmāṇa-kāya.
All celestial and historical buddhas and bodhisattvas are then seen

37. Gadjin Nagao, ‘On the Theory of Buddha-Body (Buddha-kāya),’ The East-
ern Buddhist 6/1 (May 1973), 25–6.
38. Ibid. 32.
39. Perry Schmidt-Leukel, ‘Buddha and Christ as Mediators of the Transcend-
ent: A Christian Perspective,’ in Buddhism and Christianity in Dialogue, ed. Perry
Schmidt-Leukel (Norwich, 2005), 160.
84 Elif Emirahmetoglu
as various manifestations of formless reality or dharma-body as
suchness. These two aspects of reality – (1) formless, inconceivable
suchness and (2) self-revelatory, unfolding reality – are described by
T’an-luan as different but inseparable, one but not the same.40
Having adopted the Mahāyāna theory of buddha-bodies and
T’an-luan’s concept of two types of dharma-body, Shinran holds
that the true reality beyond human comprehension manifests itself
in the realm of saṃsāra in order to make itself known and acces-
sible to sentient beings.41 Accordingly, dharma-kāya as suchness
manifests itself in the form of Amida Buddha who represents one of
the supra-mundane manifestations of formless reality and is iden-
tified, by Shinran, with dharma-body as compassionate means.42
Shinran also assumes that Amida Buddha, as dharma-kāya as com-
passionate means, reveals himself in various historical figures, for
example, in the Buddha Śākyamuni.43
According to Shinran, Amida Buddha, the Buddha of Immeas-
urable Light and Life,44 comes forth from true reality in order to
bring sentient beings to enlightenment. Shinran conceives the
essential characteristics of Amida Buddha, such as Light, Life and
Name, as various compassionate means that reveal formless real-
ity, which remains otherwise far beyond all human comprehen-

40. CWS I, 165.

41. David Matsumoto, ‘Wisdom and Compassion, Exposure and Embrace:
A Shin Buddhist Sense of Transcendent Immanence,’ Journal of World Buddhist
Cultures 4 (2021), 43–72.
42. CWS I, 486.
43. The story of how Amida Buddha, the former bodhisattva Dharmākara,
accomplished the bodhisattva path and attained enlightenment is depicted in
the Larger and Smaller Pure Land Sūtras. Accordingly, by practicing meritorious
virtues over several decades, the bodhisattva Dharmākara attained buddhahood,
fulfilled his forty-eight vows and became Amida Buddha. He now dwells in his
Pure Land Sukhāvāti, located in the western quarter of the world, and carries out
his compassionate activities in order to save all sentient beings from suffering and
ignorance. Kōtatsu Fujita, ‘Pure Land Buddhism in India,’ in The Pure Land Tra-
dition: History and Development, eds. James Foard, Michael Solomon and Richard
K. Payne (Berkeley, 1996), 25.
44. The Japanese pronunciation ‘Amida’ is derived from the Chinese translit-
eration of the Sanskrit words Amitābha (Infinite Light) and Amitāyus (Infinite
Life). Yoshifumi Ueda and Dennis Hirota, Shinran: An Introduction to His
Thought (Kyoto, 1989), 105.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 85

sion. The ‘unlimited and immeasurable Light’ and ‘unlimited and

infinite Life’ are symbols for the great ‘wisdom’ and ‘compassion’
of Amida Buddha, who encompasses all beings without any kind
of discrimination and limitation.45 The Light of Amida Buddha
removes the defilements of sentient beings and dispels the ‘darkness
of ignorance.’46 For Shinran, Amida Buddha further represents the
compassionate activity of ultimate reality through the Name and the
Primal Vow. Amida Buddha declares in his eighteenth vow, which
Shinran refers to as the Primal Vow, that he guarantees the salvation
for those who sincerely entrust themselves to him (Amida Buddha),
desire to be born in his Pure Land and call his Name even ten times.47

Invocation of the Name

Shinran considers the invocation of the Name of Amida Buddha the
essential practice for religious awakening, that is, for attaining the
state of non-retrogression and the subsequent rebirth in the Pure
Land. The recitation of his Name, called the nembutsu practice, is
carried out by repetition of the Japanese formula ‘Namu-amida-
butsu,’ which literally means ‘I take refuge in the Buddha Amida,’
and the Japanese term ‘nembutsu,’ in Chinese ‘nianfo,’ is the trans-
lation of the Sanskrit phrase buddhānusmṛti (recollection of the
Buddha). In the Pure Land tradition before Shinran, the invocation
of the Name of Amida Buddha was understood as a means through
which the practitioners sought to gain a vision of Amida at the end
of their life and so that they might be reborn in his Pure Land.
However, according to Shinran, the significance of Amida’s
‘Name’ does not merely stem from its function as being an instru-
ment for calling and paying him homage. To him, the Name refers
both to the Name of ‘Amida Buddha’ as a manifestation of his great
compassion and wisdom, and to the practice of saying of this Name,

45. Ueda and Hirota, Shinran, 105.

46. The Larger Sūtra states that ‘they feel tenderness, joy, and pleasure; and
good thoughts arise. If sentient beings in the three realms of suffering see his light
they will all be relieved and freed from affliction.’ Hisao Inagaki (trans.), The
Three Pure Land Sutras (Berkeley, 2003), 25.
47. Inagaki, The Three Pure Land Sutras, 16.
86 Elif Emirahmetoglu
‘Namu-amida-butsu’ (nembutsu).48 In this sense, not only the Name
of ‘Amida Buddha,’ but the entire statement of taking refuge is under-
stood as emerging from true reality. Thus, the nembutsu is, for Shin-
ran, not merely an expression of the practitioner’s dedication and
endeavor through their recitation of the Name of Amida Buddha but
rather, the practice emanates from true reality and manifests in the
transformational action of Amida Buddha – dharma-kāya as com-
passionate means – through the practitioner’s act of invocation. This
means that when the Name is said, or nembutsu is practiced, ‘one is
called to entrust oneself completely to the Primal Vow of Amida that
was brought to fulfillment for one’s own sake.’49
Shinran’s perception of the Name as a product of formless reality
itself, implies that the Name of Amida Buddha is both transcendent
and immanent at the same time. Amida Buddha, as dharma-kāya
as compassionate means, reveals himself, by his Name, as full of
compassion for the liberation of sentient beings. In this regard,
the Name is a worldly concept and a form or manifestation of
inconceivable reality through which Amida makes the transcendent
known to human beings. However, at the same time, the Name
of Amida Buddha participates in the inner reality of the named
thing. In this second sense, the Name is identical with the absolute
reality or the dharma-body as suchness. Ueda and Hirota formulate
this notion in their introductory work to Shinran’s thought in
the following way: ‘The Name, then, is meaningful as a term in
the language of human beings, but it is above all, in the genuine
hearing and pronouncing of it, the Buddha’s presence.’50
The twofold aspect of the Name, that is both transcendent and
immanent at the same time, combined with its dynamic charac-
ter and engagement in a continuous relationship with sentient
being, further shape Shinran’s view on the operation and function
of the nembutsu practice. The ‘transformative’ or ‘salvific’ work-
ing of the Primal Vow in the act of invocation is called by Shin-
ran the ‘Other Power’ (tariki). The opposite to this is the mind of
‘self-power’ (jiriki), which refers to people who seek liberation by
48. The Collected Works of Shinran, vol. II: Introductions, Glossaries, and
Reading Aids [henceforth, CWS II], head trans. Dennis Hirota (Kyoto, 1997), 195.
49. Ibid. 195.
50. Ueda and Hirota, Shinran, 118.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 87

doing righteous deeds, fulfilling several ritual and ethical obliga-

tions and performing various practices such as meditation, invoca-
tion or worship. According to Shinran, people of self-power believe
that this is the way to accumulate the merits and virtues necessary
for attaining liberation. Shinran himself describes people of self-
power in the following way: ‘“Self-power” characterizes those who
have full confidence in themselves, trusting in their own hearts
and minds, striving with their own powers, and relying on their
own various roots of good.’51 However, he holds that human beings
cannot accomplish good acts and attain enlightenment through
self-power practices and activities which, counterproductively,
ultimately end up glorifying one’s own self as a self-efficient agent.

Realization of Non-Duality
In Shinran’s thought, shinjin is the fundamental concept that ‘signifies
the central religious awakening or experience.’52 The first component
of the word ‘shin-jin,’ namely ‘shin,’ means as an adjective ‘true,
real and sincere,’ and as a verb ‘to entrust oneself.’53 The latter, ‘jin,’
means ‘mind.’ The concept of shinjin literally means then ‘sincere
mind/heart’ and refers to the ‘mind of Amida Buddha given to and
realized in a person.’54 For Shinran, sentient beings are ‘utterly evil
and defiled and completely lack the mind of purity.’55 Consequently,
humans are not able to cultivate shinjin by themselves. Whereas
the three tenets – sincere mind, entrusting and aspiration for birth
– declared in the Primal Vow are understood in the Pure Land
tradition prior to Shinran as the necessary conditions for the rebirth
in the Pure Land and subsequent awakening, Shinran conceives of
them as given to the practitioners of nembutsu by Amida Buddha. In
this sense, shinjin indicates the true and sincere mind and heart of
Amida Buddha as manifested in the person of shinjin by the Other
Power.

51. CWS I, 484.

52. Ueda and Hirota, Shinran, 146.
53. CWS II, 206.
54. Yoshifumi Ueda, ‘The Mahayana Structure of Shinran’s Thought (Part I),’
The Eastern Buddhist 17/1 (Spring 1984), 70.
55. CWS I, 311.
88 Elif Emirahmetoglu
Shinran teaches that beings who have received the mind of Amida
Buddha and realized shinjin are immediately grasped by Amida
Buddha and attain the stage of non-retrogression/truly settled, in
which the supreme enlightenment is guaranteed:
When one realizes true and real shinjin, one is immediately grasped
and held within the heart of the Buddha of unhindered life. … When
we are grasped by Amida, immediately – without a moment or a day
elapsing – we ascend to and become established in the stage of the truly
settled; this is the meaning of attain birth.56

Receiving shinjin and attaining the state of non-retrogres-

sion equates to the realization of non-discriminative wisdom
(prajñāpāramitā), which is at the heart of Buddhist enlightenment.57
Through insight into the true nature of reality, one transcends all
discursive and dichotomous thinking caused by the deluded self
and realizes the emptiness of things. At the moment of realiza-
tion, the person also comprehends the identity of nirvāṇa and
saṃsāra. They grasp that ‘birth-and-death is itself great nirvana’58
and ‘blind passions and enlightenment are not two in substance.’59
The following quotations provide several examples of how Shinran
expresses the transformation of human’s perception in such a way
that the duality between emptiness and form, Amida Buddha and
the person of shinjin, is eliminated:

When the waters – the minds, good and evil, of foolish beings –
Have returned to and entered the vast ocean
Of Amida’s Vow of wisdom, they are immediately
Transformed into the mind of great compassion.60
Through the benefit bestowed by unhindered light,
One realizes the shinjin of vast transcendent virtues:
Unfailingly the ice of blind passions melts
And immediately becomes the water of enlightenment.61

56. CWS I, 475.

57. Ueda, ‘The Mahayana Structure (Part I),’ 70.
58. CWS I, 628.
59. Ibid. 369.
60. Ibid. 408.
61. Ibid. 371.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 89

Elsewhere, the people of shinjin are further depicted by Shinran

as the same as Tathāgata, since ‘even though they themselves are
always impure and creating karmic evil, their hearts and minds are
already equal to Tathagata’s.’62 This characterization is of particular
importance. According to Shinran the heart of the person of shinjin
already and always dwells in the Pure Land, whereas he himself
abides in the defiled world. This means that his existence in the
world distinguishes, on the one hand, the person of shinjin from
the group of ordinary beings, since he has already realized the
eternal bliss of trust, which is the nature of true reality. Yet, on
the other hand, he lives even further within those conditions of the
defiled world which human beings cannot be free of as long as they
possess a bodily saṃsāric existence. This twofold form of abiding in
saṃsāra after religious awakening is clearly portrayed in Shinran’s
work, Notes on the Inscriptions on Sacred Scrolls, in which he
describes the paradoxical characteristics of the person of shinjin.

When the one thought-moment of joy arises,

Nirvana is attained without severing blind passions;
…
The light of compassion that grasps us illumines and protects us
always,
And the darkness of our ignorance is already broken through;
Still the clouds and mists of greed, desire, anger, and hatred
Cover as always the sky of true and real shinjin.
But though the light of the sun is veiled by clouds and mists,
Beneath the clouds and mists there is brightness, not dark.63

COMPARATIVE REFLECTIONS

After investigating some of the doctrinal and epistemological

teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran, I now offer a comparative
analysis of their approaches to reality and the liberating experience
of human beings. Ibn al-ʿArabī’s conception of wujūd, and its
essential connection to man’s vision of the divine reality, has some

62. Ibid. 528.

63. Ibid. 517–18.
90 Elif Emirahmetoglu
obvious parallels with Shinran’s views on true reality and its relation
to human enlightenment. Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran develop their
teachings within a doctrinal framework that postulates a non-
dual relationship between the absolute reality and the conditioned
world. Thus, Ibn al-ʿArabī characterizes wujūd as ‘absolute unity’64
and, in a similar way, Shinran calls reality ‘non-dual suchness.’65
The concept of ‘oneness’ that they employ to denote wujūd/reality
refers, in both thinkers, to the essential or true nature of reality in
its undifferentiated wholeness. They regard the phenomenal world
in accordance with their non-dual way of thinking as a non-real
and intrinsically empty reality erroneously perceived by the minds
of ordinary/unenlightened beings as a self-subsistent existence
and a result of the superimposition of the categories of mind and
language on worldly things.
In Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings, relative existence is denoted by various
terms such as maẓhar (locus of the manifestation), barzakh (isthmus)
or khayāl (imagination), each of which points toward an entity that is
deprived of a real and independent existence. Things of the world
are viewed, in this context, as a locus within which the Absolute
Being becomes manifest through various names and attributes. In
terms of being a locus for the divine self-manifestation, the relative
existence has an ambiguous nature in its relation to the Absolute.
The paradoxical character of the existent things in question is
phrased by Ibn al-ʿArabī using the phrase ‘huwa lā huwa,’ which
means ‘He, not He.’ Furthermore, Ibn al-ʿArabī calls everything
apart from the Real ‘imagination,’ but the whole imagination is seen
at the same time as the Real. As soon as the illusory perception of
the distinction between subject and object, or knower and known
is dispelled, the essential oneness will be recognized and, as Ibn
al-ʿArabī states in Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam:

All becoming is an imagination,

And in truth also a reality,
Who truly comprehends this,
Has attained the mysteries of the Way.66

64. Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, 23–4.

65. CWS II, 197.
66. The Bezels of Wisdom, 197.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 91

A similar contradictorily identical relationship between the

conditioned world and the unconditioned reality can be ascertained
in Shinran’s writings. On the one hand, nirvāṇa as the uncreated
true reality differs from the world of saṃsāra, since it is not created
through causal conditions as saṃsāra is.67 On the other hand,
nirvāṇa does not exist separately, apart from the world of saṃsāra,
since it permeates the hearts and minds of all beings without losing
its primary character, thus Shinran writes: ‘Tathagata pervades
the countless worlds; it fills the hearts and minds of the ocean of
all beings. Thus, plants, trees, and land all attain Buddhahood.’68
Yet, the essential unity of true reality and the transitory realm
can only be realized through ‘non-discriminative wisdom,’ which
implies transcending of all kinds of dualities and conceptual
differentiations. Through attaining birth, says Shinran, the person
of shinjin grasps that ‘birth-and-death is itself great nirvana’69 and
‘blind passions and enlightenment are not two in substance.’70

When shinjin unfolds in the foolish being possessed of all blind

passions,
He immediately attains insight into the nonorigination of all
existence
And comes to realize that birth-and-death is itself nirvana.71

The relative existence – that is, saṃsāra in Shinran and creature

in Ibn al-ʿArabī – is conceived by them as a flow within which
things appear, transform and disappear perpetually. Whereas Ibn
al-ʿArabī explains the idea of continuous transformation with the
concept of unceasing divine self-manifestation that takes place
in each moment anew, Shinran adopts the common Buddhist
notion of dependent-origination to describe the empty nature
of things. However, it is worth underlining here that neither Ibn
al-ʿArabī nor Shinran assumes that the phenomenal world is a pure
nothingness, even though it has, for both, a dreamlike or illusory

67. Yoshifumi Ueda, ‘The Mahayana Structure of Shinran’s Thought (Part II),’
The Eastern Buddhist 17/1 (Autumn 1984), 36.
68. CWS I, 461.
69. Ibid. 628.
70. Ibid. 369.
71. Ibid. 307–8.
92 Elif Emirahmetoglu
nature. Rather, the phenomenal things are said to be lacking a self-
subsistent existence or an inherent essence while being, at the same
time, a locus for the divine self-manifestation, a reality filled with
Tathāgata itself, which is identical to the Buddha-nature, and makes
the liberation from suffering and the concomitant enlightenment
possible for human beings. To say it with another metaphor of Ibn
al-ʿArabī: things of the world as multiple differentiated forms are
a kind of ‘veil’ that conceals the undifferentiated oneness behind
itself, behind the curtain of their conditioned forms.72 ‘Hence
unveiling,’ says Ibn al-ʿArabī, ‘is the cause of knowledge of the Real
in the things. The things are like curtains over the Real. When they
are raised, unveiling takes place.’73
Another remarkable similarity between Ibn al-ʿArabī and
Shinran relates to the twofold perception of the absolute reality as
both ineffable suchness and unfolding, self-revelatory reality. Ibn
al-ʿArabī employs the terms ‘bāṭin’ and ‘ẓāhir’ to indicate the non-
manifest/undifferentiated and manifest/differentiated aspects of
the Absolute, whereas Shinran adopts the theory of two buddha-
bodies to refer to the two sides of true reality, that is, dharma-kāya
as suchness and dharma-kāya as compassionate means. The self-
revealing aspect of reality that links the Absolute with the relative
existence is further constructed by Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran by
means of the theories of tajallī and tri-kāya, which indicate the
manifesting acts of the absolute reality in various realms of being.
According to Ibn al-ʿArabī, the Real first manifests itself in itself
through various names and attributes and this constitutes the
first degree of the divine self-manifestation in which it is called
God as divinity. In the next degree, the Real reveals itself in the
whole creation. In parallel with the two forms of the divine self-
manifestation in Ibn al-ʿArabī, Shinran also teaches that there
are two modes of the unfolding of dharma-kāya as suchness; they
are the levels of saṃbhoga-kāya and nirmāṇa-kāya respectively.
Shinran considers these two form bodies of the buddha dharma-
kāya as compassionate means.74
72. Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, 32–3.
73. Quoted in Chittick, The Sufi Path, 225.
74. Ibn al-ʿArabī’s theory of tajallī provides some significant aspects for com-
parison with Shinran’s interpretation of the Mahāyāna theory of the three bodies
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 93

In this regard, the concepts of tajallī and tri-kāya convey the idea
that the absolute reality reveals itself out of compassion in different
modes of being – supra-mundane and mundane – in order to enable
the person of faith to attain awakening, whereas the Absolute in
itself always remains as pure unity and ineffable suchness. Thus,
it can be said that there is a functional similarity between Ibn
al-ʿArabī’s concept of God as divinity, which corresponds to the
first determination of Absolute Being in itself through innumerable
divine names, and Shinran’s concept of saṃbhoga-kāya, which
refers to the supra-mundane manifestation of formless reality
as dharma-body as compassionate means. According to Ibn
al-ʿArabī, the Absolute One that is, in itself, beyond all human
considerations, enters into a saving and enlightening relationship
with creatures through the manifestation of the divine names and
attributes that are the signs of God’s mercy and proximity to His
creatures. Whereas because Shinran shares the common Buddhist
definition of true reality as uncreated, unoriginated, unformed
and ineffable suchness, following the Chinese scholar T’an-luan,
he pays particular attention to the effectiveness and availability
of dharma-kāya – as compassionate means – in the life of the
individuals through various forms of formless reality. The Primal
Vow, Light and Name of Amida Buddha are considered various
forms of true reality that naturally and incessantly work for the
benefits of all beings. In this connection, the names of God and the
Name of Amida Buddha imply that the trans-categorial ultimate
reveals itself as mercy/compassion/love when it enters the sphere of
human concepts and categories, and actively takes part in the life of
humans in order to dispel the darkness of ignorance.
Whereas the ‘name,’ as the immanent aspect of reality, reveals
the divine mercy as well as the wisdom and compassion of true
reality for the benefits of human beings, it further constitutes the
key epistemological medium for both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran,
through whose utterance an awareness of the Absolute might be
cultivated. For Ibn al-ʿArabī, the essential property of the spiritual
of the Buddha (tri-kāya). In my ongoing dissertation, I undertake among others
a comprehensive comparison of similarities and dissimilarities between these two
theories. Elif Emirahmetoglu, A Comparative Analysis of the Concept of Human
Being according to Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran Shonin (forthcoming).
94 Elif Emirahmetoglu
realization is an immediate comprehension of things as they really
are. This true knowledge of things can be obtained by raising the
veil between God and man, a process called kashf (unveiling).
The raising of the veil of ignorance and the purification of the self
occurs through the practice of invocation (dhikr) and an immediate
experience (dhawq). Through invocation, the heart of the human
being is emptied and thus they come to perceive the true knowledge
of their essential oneness with the divine reality. For Shinran, the
transformative and liberating power of the Name is a result of the
Primal Vow which aims to save all sentient beings. By means of
hearing and saying the Name that embodies the power and effec-
tiveness of the Primal Vow, human beings encounter and experi-
ence transcendent wisdom. They become aware of shinjin and joy
that are directed towards them, to their hearts and minds, from the
mind of Amida Buddha.
The twofold perception of the name(s) of the Absolute – both
transcendent and immanent at the same time – shapes the views of
Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran further in relation to the operation and
function of the practice of invocation. This means that the remem-
brance of God (dhikr) and saying of the Name of Amida Buddha
(nembutsu) are understood by Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran respec-
tively as more than a means to attain enlightenment. Rather, the
act of invocation itself is seen as emanating from the absolute real-
ity. In al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, Ibn al-ʿArabī formulates that when
God is invoked, the invoker’s invocation is actually accomplished
by none other than God Himself.
The servant is silent and listening perpetually, in all of his states,
whether moving or still, standing or sitting. For the servant has been
granted the hearing of the Real’s speech. … So, when you hear the
servant speaking, that is the Real’s bringing to be within Him. The
servant remains in his root, silent, standing before Him – high indeed
is He! So, nothing is ever heard but the Real’s acts of bringing to be.
Understand this, for it pertains to the core of true knowledge.75

In Ibn al-ʿArabī’s thought, it is precisely the nature and actions

of the divine names that make dhikr possible for human beings,

75. Quoted in Chittick, ‘On the Cosmology of Dhikr,’ 54–5.

 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 95

that is, as Chittick aptly formulates it: ‘in the creative act of the
eternal now, God voices the names, and these names appear as the
creatures in the All-Merciful Breath.’76 In each moment of unceas-
ing creation, the breath of the Merciful permeates all existence and
encompasses all things in the universe. As such, the divine names
are, on the one hand, various aspects of the Absolute in its self-
manifestation and identical in this sense with the Essence.77 On the
other hand, the divine names are the relations or modes through
which the Absolute discloses itself in differentiated forms. Put
another way, the acts of human beings are seen by Ibn al-ʿArabī
as the effects of the divine names in the form-being.78 That is why
he assumes that when God is invoked, He is, in reality, invoked
through Himself. The twofold nature of the divine names in Ibn
al-ʿArabī’s thought and their agency in one’s realization reverber-
ate in the words of Titus Burkhardt when he writes: ‘the Divine
Name, revealed by God Himself, implies a Divine Presence which
becomes operative to the extent that the Name takes possession of
the mind of him who invokes It. Man cannot concentrate directly
on the Infinite, but, by concentrating on the symbol of the Infinite,
attains to the Infinite Itself.’79
Similar to Ibn al-ʿArabī, Shinran also conceives of the act of invo-
cation as bestowed upon the practitioners, but never acquired. For
Shinran, nembutsu is neither a practice in the sense of being one’s
own work or effort, nor a good act which is fulfilled in order to
achieve a goal such as attaining enlightenment; rather it rises from
the ‘treasure ocean’ that is none other than true reality or such-
ness. In this sense, Shinran ‘removes the nenbutsu from the realm
of human practice and reformulates it as the expression of tathatā,
suchness itself.’80 Whereas the self-effort practices or the nembutsu

76. Chittick, ‘On the Cosmology of Dhikr,’ 56.

77. Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, 99.
78. In al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, Ibn al-ʿArabī states that ‘there is no act of wor-
ship or devotion (ʿibāda) that God has prescribed for His servants that does not
have a special connection with a divine Name, or a divine Reality implicit in that
Name, which gives to (the person carrying out) that devotion what it gives to the
heart in this world.’ Quoted in James Winston Morris, The Reflective Heart, 77.
79. Titus Burkhardt, Introduction to Sufi Doctrine (Bloomington, 2008), 90.
80. Lisa Grumbach, ‘Nenbutsu and Meditation: Problems with the Categories
of Contemplation, Devotion, Meditation, and Faith,’ The Pacific World: Journal
96 Elif Emirahmetoglu
of self-power are motivated by the prospect of gaining emancipa-
tion, or the aspiration for rebirth; the nembutsu of Other Power
is considered to be, on the part of the practitioner, an expression
of the feeling of gratefulness for having been liberated/saved by
Amida Buddha: ‘I praise Amida’s wisdom and virtue … Let those
who have already realized shinjin / Constantly respond in gratitude
to the Buddha’s benevolence.’81
Accordingly, humankind’s attainment of enlightenment, that is,
the abandoning of self, is viewed by both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran
as only possible through the effectiveness and active working of the
Absolute in the life of human beings, as both assume the annihilation
or dissolution of one’s own self is impossible through self-effort alone
as self-effort creates each time a counterproductive attachment to the
self. In other words, the mind and heart of the person who attains
awakening are none other than the Absolute, actively revealed
through the purification of the defiled minds of corporeal beings.
In this sense, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s reference to the concept of wujūd
implies an inner connection with the self-transformation of the
practitioners. Although the expression wujūd is usually translated
as ‘being’ or ‘existence,’ the Real is not only Absolute Being but also
the absolute ‘finding’ and absolute ‘awareness’ in accordance with
the literal meaning of the word wujūd, which is ‘finding’ or ‘being
aware.’82 A further implication of this is that Ibn al-ʿArabī’s views
of the Absolute manifest themselves in two different senses: ‘in an
ontological mode, that is, the existence of all the phenomena; and
in a cognitive mode, that is, the knowledge He implants in human
beings.’83 Shinran conjoins two aspects of reality in a similar way
as the concept of jīnen implies the ‘dynamic/active’ operation of
suchness by itself. The Light of Amida Buddha is said to penetrate
different areas of human beings, eradicate human ignorance
and fulfill the aspirations of sentient beings: ‘The Radiant Light,
unhindered and inconceivable, eradicates suffering and brings
realization of joy; the excellent Name, perfectly embodying all

of Institute of Buddhist Studies 7 (2005), 98.

81. CWS I, 337.
82. Chittick, The Sufi Path, 212.
83. Abrahamov, ‘Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Theory of Knowledge: Part I,’ 18.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 97

practices, eliminates obstacles and dispels doubt.’84 Shinran’s usage

of the metaphor of ‘light’ aligns nicely with Ibn al-ʿArabī’s reference
to the divine name ‘light’ (al-nūr) that irradiates the heart of the
believer and ‘dispels the darkness of ignorance from the soul.’85
Accordingly, the light of God and Amida Buddha is identical with
wujūd/true reality itself and also reflects its dynamic nature as an
illuminating act that forms the epistemological foundation or the
source of human perfection.
A further implication of these considerations is that the Perfect
Man and the person of shinjin perceive existent things of the world
as well as their own selves as they are, namely as beings that have
been deprived/emptied of real existence. This idea is reflected in the
following words by Ibn al-ʿArabī: ‘the Real made me contemplate
the light of existence [nūr al-wujūd] as the star of direct vision
rose, and He asked me, “Who are you?” I replied, “Apparent, non-
existence.”’86 In this sense, the proper human condition during the
experience of religious awakening is referred to by Ibn al-ʿArabī
using the term ‘servant’ which means lowly (dhalīl) and ‘an existence
without a property.’87 Becoming a servant implies, in his view, the
purification of the self from any traces of self-centeredness and the
eradication of the deceptive perception of one’s own existence as
a real entity or an agent who performs spiritual exertion. What
Ibn al-ʿArabī calls becoming a ‘servant’ in the face of their ‘Lord’
is, in many ways, equivalent to what Shinran calls the dissolution
of ‘self-power’ in the ‘Other Power’ of Amida Buddha. Once the
discursive and dichotomous thinking of the practitioner that causes
the reification of both their own self and true reality has been
broken through jīnen – the spontaneous working of true reality –
humans receive the mind of Amida Buddha which carries them to
the ‘vast ocean of wisdom’ that is none other than the field of non-
discriminative wisdom. This new state of existence and perception
differs from ‘ordinary modes of understanding characterized by

84. CWS I, 295.

85. Chittick, The Sufi Path, 196.
86. Ibn al-ʿArabī, Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries, trans. Cecilia Twinch
and Pablo Beneito (Oxford, 2014), 23.
87. The Meccan Revelations I, 139.
98 Elif Emirahmetoglu
self-power.’88 The person who realizes the one thought-moment of
shinjin and receives the mind of non-discrimination, says Shinran,
becomes equal to the Tathāgata.89 This means that he transcends
the distinction between the seeing and seen when looking at
worldly things. Similarly, in relation to understanding the religious
experience, there is no longer a distinction between the worshipper
subject and the worshipped object. In other words, the practitioner
becomes aware that Amida Buddha, as a manifestation of nirvāṇa,
is at one with the person of shinjin who belongs to saṃsāric beings:
‘When foolish beings of delusion and defilement awaken shinjin, /
They realize that birth-and-death is itself nirvana.’90
Before concluding this comparative investigation between Ibn
al-ʿArabī and Shinran, one last point regarding the human condition
after attaining awakening deserves consideration. In Ibn al-ʿArabī’s
thought, at the moment of the liberating experience of unveiling,
the I-consciousness or the individuality of the person is completely
dissolved in the divine reality. Having experienced annihilation from
his own self in the divine reality (fanāʾ), the servant enters into the
next spiritual state of subsistence (baqāʾ) in which God encompasses
the whole existence of the person and He alone exists. From that
moment on, man perceives everything with ‘God’s eye, that is, the
eye of the Heart,’91 which endows him with the knowledge of relative
existence in its essential state of non-existence and the knowledge
of the absolute reality in its wholeness and oneness. Nevertheless,
living in a state of (or with) consciousness of one’s subsistence within
God does not completely remove the veil of being an engendered
existence from the Perfect Man, the illusion that distinguishes him
in this respect from God. For this reason, the shadowy existence of
human beings always stands in between the Real that is the sheer
light and the absolute nothingness that is the sheer darkness. In
other words, throughout his existence in the world, the Perfect Man
always remains both one with God and other than Him at the same
time.

88. Dennis Hirota, ‘Shinran’s View of Language: A Buddhist Hermeneutics of

Faith (Part I),’ The Eastern Buddhist 26/1 (Spring 1993), 61.
89. CWS I, 351.
90. Ibid. 72.
91. The Meccan Revelations I, 271, n. 114.
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 99

In a similar way, the paradoxical twofold existence of an

enlightened man – one, but not identical with true reality as such –
is also found in Shinran’s writings, especially in his depiction of the
existential conditions of the person of shinjin from the moment of
religious awakening. At the moment they realize their non-duality,
the mind and existential conditions of human beings undergo
a transformation. The human obstructions and passions are
disentangled, ignorance of the people of shinjin is broken through
and their minds are transformed into the mind of great compassion
and wisdom. In other words, saṃsāric beings transform into the
nature of nirvāṇa by emptying all of delusions, attachments and
discriminations. This transformation brings about ‘the oneness of
the mind of Buddha and the mind of the foolish being (busshin to
bonshin no ittai),’92 in which all kind of dualities that belong to the
unenlightened viewpoint including Buddha and sentient beings,
saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, or even self-power and Other Power, are
exterminated. However, even though the darkness of ignorance is
broken through and the person is forever illuminated and protected
by the compassionate light of Amida Buddha, human defilements
cannot be completely swept away. Even the person of shinjin
continues to feel greed, desire and anger, which are regarded as the
root of unwholesome actions and all other karmic evils according
to Buddhist tradition. These twofold depictions of the human state
after religious awakening – that is, being transformed into the nature
of nirvāṇa through the release of all defilements and evils on the one
hand, while, nonetheless, remaining an impure being who continues
to create karmic evil on the other hand – are clarified by Ueda, who
interprets the nature of shinjin in the light of the structure of non-
discriminative wisdom.93 For him, the contradictory depictions of
the human situation precisely reflect the Mahāyāna understanding
of non-duality in which saṃsāra and nirvāṇa remain both identical
and nevertheless distinct in a logically contradictory structure.
This implies that the great virtues of Amida Buddha, the karmic
hindrances, good and evil, the brightness of enlightenment and the
clouds of blind passions go hand in hand in the person of shinjin.

92. Ueda, ‘The Mahayana Structure (Part II),’ 42.

93. Ibid. 45–7.
100 Elif Emirahmetoglu

CONCLUDING REMARKS
The approaches that Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran have taken to the
practice of invocation, the foundation of religious awakening, are
embedded in their non-dual perception of wujūd and truth/reality/
suchness respectively. Obtaining true insight into the essential
nature of reality in its undifferentiated wholeness/oneness might
only be possible, for these two, through an immediate experience
of reality in which the human self does not take any active part. The
practices of dhikr and nembutsu are, accordingly, held to emanate
directly from the Absolute, which dynamically and immanently
reveals itself in the action of the practitioner. For both Ibn al-ʿArabī
and Shinran, saying the divine name further brings about a
radical change in two primary matters. First, it produces a new
consciousness in which the ego-consciousness of the practitioner,
who objectifies his own self as a self-sufficient agent and the divine
being as the object of invocation, is nullified in the realization of
oneness. What the practitioner of nembutsu has undergone in
attaining shinjin is, in this sense, very much in line with what the
practitioner of dhikr has experienced in the annihilation of his own
self. This deepening insight into his own nature, into the emptiness
of his own self, continues to transform the ongoing existence of
the individual in the world of experience. From that point on, the
person whose self-awareness has been transformed maintains, so
to speak, a twofold existence which brings together the aspects of
(still) being a saṃsāric existence, that is a contingent being, and
of simultaneously being an existence pervaded by the wisdom and
compassion of true reality itself.
Ultimately, it is crucial to underline that there are various
dimensions to the approaches Ibn al-ʿArabī and Shinran take to
religious awakening. The present paper has primarily focused
on the ‘personal’ existential and spiritual conditions of the
person of dhikr and nembutsu during and after the experience of
attaining awakening. In addition, receiving enlightenment also
has significant ethical and social implications for humaḌn beings.
To say it in Ibn al-ʿArabī’s terms, a spiritually awakened person
has been then qualified with divine attributes that make him
responsible for acting in the world as a representative of God, or as
 Ibn al-ʿArabī & Shinran on Invocation & Realization 101

James Morris puts it succinctly: ‘it is precisely the mystic’s “return”

to those bodily “graves” … that completes his spiritual knowledge
and certainty, while at the same time fully revealing man’s unique
position and responsibility (amāna), as God’s “deputy” with
regard to all the realms of being.’94 In a similar way, the idea of
a compassionate and responsible return to one’s fellow creatures
after obtaining a transformed consciousness occupies an important
place in Shinran’s writings. As Grumbach stresses that ‘Shinran’s
idea of entrusting-mind (shinjin) is after all not simply a devotional
faith in Amida but a recognition of Amida as suchness (tathatā)
working in the world and the individual.’95 In this sense, shinjin,
the Buddha-mind of compassion in human beings, generates an
altruistic turning towards one’s fellow beings that is similar to the
compassionate working of Amida Buddha for the benefits of all
beings. In the doctrinal language, the implications of awakening
the Buddha-mind are expressed through the notion of Amida’s
directing of virtue (ekō) to sentient beings in going aspect and
Amida’s directing of virtue in returning aspect. Whereas the notion
of going into the Pure Land (ōsō ekō) in Shinran’s writings signifies
the conviction that all components of the path to enlightenment
– practice, shinjin and even enlightenment itself – are given to
human beings by Amida Buddha, the notion of returning (gensō
ekō) denotes acting in the world of saṃsāra as an awakened
being who works compassionately for the benefit of others after
attaining awakening.96 A closer look at the effects of enlightenment
on ‘interpersonal relations’ according to both Ibn al-ʿArabī and
Shinran would provide, in this sense, further interesting points of
comparison between Islam and Buddhism from an anthropological
point of view.

94. The Meccan Revelations I, 109.

95. Grumbach, ‘Nenbutsu and Meditation,’ 101.
96. CWS I, 158.