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6 - Love

from PART I - THE SHAPES OF CULTURE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2012

By
Michael Sells
Edited by
María Rosa Menocal ,
Raymond P. Scheindlin  and
Michael Sells
María Rosa Menocal
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Raymond P. Scheindlin
Affiliation:
Haverford College, Pennsylvania
Michael Sells
Affiliation:
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
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Summary

One day during his pilgrimage to Mecca and while circling the Kaaba, the Murcian Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240) recited the following verses:

I wish I knew if they knew

whose heart they’ve taken

Or that my heart knew

which high-ridge track they follow

Do you think they’re safe

or do you think they’re perished

The lords of love are bewildered

in it, ensnared.

Ibn ʿArabī, who went on to become known as the grand master (al-shaykh alakbar) of Sufi thought, recounts that a young woman appeared and objected to each verse in turn, asking how such a famous and respected sheikh could have so badly misunderstood the workings of love. With the final verse, she lost all patience:

Amazing! How could it be that the one pierced through the heart by love had any remainder of self left to be bewildered? Love’s character is to be all consuming. It numbs the senses, drives away intellect, astonishes thoughts, and sends off the one in love with the others who are gone. Where is bewilderment and who is left to be bewildered?

(Ibn ʿArabī 11–12)
Type
Chapter
Information
The Literature of Al-Andalus , pp. 126 - 158
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

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