This humble summarization of Shaikh ul Akbar Ibn Arabi Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi’s ideas on the nature gender being a contingent subject matter is based upon two seminal thoughts in the shape of an article and a talk by two genius acclaimed scholars, interelia, Souad Hakim and Sa’diyyah Shaikh. These two thought provoking pieces of enlightenment, namely, Ibn ‘Arabi’s Twofold Perception of Woman as Human Being and Cosmic Principle (an article by Souad Hakim) and Intimate Echoes of Self: Gender & Sexuality in Ibn Arabi’s Cosmology (a talk by Sa’diyyah Shaikh).
Since the female fraternityis still a debatable phrase to represent Sorority sisters, the new prism of expressions is taking a shape to construct a cosmic view of gender rather than engaging in a binary which are least associative and far more negative in connotation. There is no denial of the biological differentiation at all, but whether such differentiation has anything to do with creative or cosmic creation of the universal thought and process is so brittle to stand the philosophic underpinnings of thinkers across the civilizations.
Since our childhood, we hear that Rabia al-Adawiyya (famously known as Rabia of Basra) was a half qalandar (Adh qalandar). They project the women being a half of degree in attestation of the facts or intellect (or whatsoever), the two qalandars are accompanied by a one woman (half qalandar), namely, Rabia.
This is a sheer product of social imaginary which is derived from often misplaced societal values, indecent social norms, fractured symbolization of a woman imagining a social whole.
Ibn Arabi has sought to redefine the foundations of social imagination.He explicitly rejected the commonly found fallacy of understanding. The associative nature of two biological shapes accruing from a single source and breathing a single a spirit, actually combines a two-fold determination of a f emininity. He says,
“Eve was created from Adam, and so she has two determinations (hukm), that of male by virtue of origin and that of female by virtue of contingency.” [Ibn ‘Arabî, Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, vol. IV, p. 84.]
This is an exact statement of the nature of single soul producing wonders in a modified bodily existence. What seems to bewitch Ibn Arabi is the potentiality of a humankind. This seeks to eliminate any iota of debate that the one is a half degree less in potentiality.
If quoting Souad Hakim to bring up a point of reference, Ibn Arabi interprets,
[that] the “degree” which was given to man over woman [1] as an ontological matter, abolishing singular male images of the universe in favour of a binary conjugal conception, where male and female are coupled together in a necessary cosmic unity on the level of both Creation and Gnosis.
Similarly, while listening to Sa’diyyah Shaikh, a Professor of Religious Studies at University of Cape Town, one comes across an interesting reference about the corporeality of earth and gendered positioning in Ibn Arabi’s work. She refers,
‘ Ibn Arabi describes the earth as an al-Saboor (the patient one), which is one of the ninety-nine names or attributes of almighty Allah.’
This reference offers a myriad of imagination to ponder over the sickness that encompasses a human world. Being a humble student, I was drawn towards a modern perspective on the carrying capacity and anthropocentric onslaught. One could never have grasped the meaning in such an enunciated manner as today if one couldn’t have come across such a brilliant mention of earth being a patient one (al-Saboor). Dr Sa’diyyah further goes on to explain that earth embodies the divine abundantly manifesting God’s qualities, represents a powerful shift in the dominant symbolic economy.
The important argument which arises before a female fraternity or sorority sisters, that conceiving woman in a lesser degree is tantamount to disbelieve in a symbolic economy of the universe.
Though, Dr Sa’diyyah talks about two binaries earth and sky as gendered concepts within the parameters of the perspectives in the light of French feminist Luce Irrigaray, who sees a combining of the sexual orientation (per say differentiation) to embrace a meaning. This is a generative nature of an understanding where union unto each and shifting of the binaries upside down necessitates a meaning of gendered earth and sky.
Apparently, this is an innocuousargument, but offer an explanation to creatively woven gendered opinion that differentiation can transcend physical representation of a thing.
Prof. Sa’diyyah has relied upon French feminism as a medium to introspect the nature of knowledge through female bodies and illustrates a meaning for fairer understanding of the nature of neutrality or symbiotic unity through an approach which is known as ‘anatamo-epistemology’. She quotes Ibn Arabi;
“Humanity unites male and female, and in it maleness and femaleness are contingencies, not a human reality.” [Ibn ‘Arabî, Al-Insan al-Kulli, Zahiriyya MS. 4865, fol. 2b]
Al-Insan al-Kulli (Human in its entirety) transcends social imaginaries imposed by the society. This has been a thesis of Beauvoir, Butler or Irrigaray lately. Long before these prominent feminist theorists, Ibn Arabi held a headstrong view. The maleness and femaleness are contingencies, not a human reality.
