Mohiuddin Ibn Arabi

And as for the unique work we mean, it is this book which we present with this brief word "Muhayiddin Ibn Arabi: His Jurisprudential and Fundamentalist Opinions," and it was originally a scientific thesis through which Dr. Osama, may Allah have mercy on him, obtained his master's degree in 2003 AD. And there is no doubt that this book—in light of what we have previously mentioned about the lack of attention by both the ancient and modern scholars to the jurisprudential and fundamentalist aspects of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi—will fill a clear gap in the Arab library, which is filled with hundreds of books and studies about the Sheikh’s Sufism and creed, and at the same time lacks a book like this that is concerned with studying his opinions in jurisprudence and addressing his theory in fundamentals. And the truth is that uncovering the veil from Ibn Arabi’s jurisprudential and fundamentalist opinions was not an easy task, but rather very difficult, arduous, and strenuous; because his statements on jurisprudence and fundamentals are scattered throughout his words in "Al-Futuhat al-Kubra," mixed with his statements on creed and Sufism in a way that may lead to some confusion or disorder in understanding their aims, not to mention the richness and conciseness of the Sheikh’s expressions to the point of sometimes being cryptic; this obliged Dr. Osama to carefully examine this encyclopedic book and to read it thoroughly to extract what can be described as scattered fragments in jurisprudence and fundamentals. Moreover, Ibn Arabi often presented his statements without evidence and conveyed opinions without clarifying the proof on which they are based, so Dr. Osama had to guide his methodology by extracting the evidence on which his statements were built according to the accepted principles, and then compare his jurisprudential and fundamentalist opinions with those of other jurists and fundamentalists, especially Ibn Hazm, who is widely known to follow the Hanbali school or to adhere to the Zahiri approach in general. Dr. Osama undertook this complex work in the best possible manner; he collected Ibn Arabi’s statements, derived his branches according to his principles, and compared his statements with those of other scholars of jurisprudence and fundamentals. Thus, he composed four well-structured chapters, aside from the introduction and conclusion. In the first chapter, he studied Ibn Arabi’s sources of legislation; in the second, he discussed his legal rulings and matters of obligation; in the third, he presented his opinions on ijtihad and taqlid; and in the fourth, he analyzed the issues of jurisprudential branches that he encountered in "Al-Futuhat al-Kubra."