william chittick

The present paper seeks to investigate the key concept of innate nature based on the ontological, anthropological and theological principles of Ibn Arabi's mysticism. From this perspective, all the realities are manifestations of the one simple being and thus, being is present in all the worlds in which we dwell, although it may not emerge with all its attributes in all of them. However, man is a reality different from all the other realities. Based on religious thinking, man is created from the image of God. Accordingly, he is able to manifest the being completely and since being is the essence of knowledge and awareness, man can experience it with all its attributes as well. This undifferentiated being and awareness, which is firmly present in all human beings, is called innate nature. The purpose of man’s creation is to actualize this undifferentiated being as much as possible. From the perspective of the author, this goal is accomplished only through servitude and complete submission to the divine will which means annihilation in the non- Truth and permanence in the Truth. This Truth is exactly the being that has manifested itself in the servant to Allah.

Few people who have heard of Rumi are unfamiliar with the name Shamas-i Tabrizi. Little is known about him for certain. The only thing that completely clear is that his arrival in Konya marked a decisive turning point in Rumi''s life and led to his prodigious output of inspired poetry. Given the importance of Rumi''s poetry for persianate Islam, one can easily conclude that Shams played a providential role in Islamic history.
The accounts of Shams in the popular literature on Rumi in the West have tended to emphasize the dramatic sides to the Shams legend. We are given the picture of a wild lover of god who was utterly unconcerned with societal and religious conventions