Ibn al-‘Arab？’s Approach Towards Understand？ng the Qur’an

On the basis of the philosophy of knowledge of Ibn al- ‘Arab？ (d. 1165/1240), there is spiritual experience and divine teaching. He divides knowledge into two: one is what God has taught man, and the other is what man learned himself. Thus, Ibn al-’Arab？ divides the text reading methods into two: the first is reading the text itself directly, and the second is reading the text through the owner of it. Unlike the first, in the second form of reading, the reader has the opportunity to ask his questions about the text to its owner. In this way, the author’s aims in the text are clearly understood. Ibn al-’Arab？, who applied this method to the Qur’an, claimed that there is the opportunity to read the Qur’an through its owner even after the death of the Prophet Muhammad and that it is a virtue belonging to the saints (wal？, pl. awliya) only. God is revealing the meanings of the Qur’an to the saints over and over again. In this case, the perfect man (insan al-kamil) and the saints are responsible for conveying the meanings of the Qur’an to the people