Wahdat al-Wujud
The doctrine most associated with Ibn Arabi — though he never used the exact phrase wahdat al-wujud (Unity of Being) himself — is the metaphysical position that Being (wujud) is one: God is the only being, and everything else participates in Being only insofar as God manifests through it.
The implication: the world is neither illusory nor independent — it is the self-disclosure (tajalli) of God through the names and attributes. Every created thing is a mirror in which God sees Himself.
This position has been interpreted as:
- Strict pantheism (God and the world are one substance) — the heresy reading
- A carefully qualified doctrine of “integral non-dualism” — the orthodox Sufi defense
- A phenomenological description of the mystic’s experience of unity — the experientialist reading
The Perfect Human (al-Insan al-Kamil)
Ibn Arabi’s doctrine of al-insan al-kamil (the Perfect Human): the cosmos requires a human being who fully manifests all of God’s names and attributes — serving as the comprehensive mirror and the barzakh (isthmus) between the divine and created realms. This is the station of the Prophets and, after them, the awliya’ (saints/friends of God).
In Ismaili reading, this maps onto the role of the Imam — the necessary presence who actualizes the divine plan in each age.
Fusus al-Hikam
Each of the 27 chapters of the Fusus takes a Prophet (Adam, Idris, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, etc.) and identifies the particular divine hakma (wisdom) or mystery that was uniquely manifested through that Prophet’s existence. Muhammad’s chapter: the wisdom of uniqueness (fardiyya) — he is the seal through whom all earlier prophetic realities are comprehended.
See also: Tasawwuf, Sufi Stations Maqamat, Seerah Al Qushayri, Seerah Al Junayd Al Baghdadi, Tawhid Sifat, Nubuwwa Prophethood