A Critical Study of the Asceticism of Ethics in Ibn al-Arabi's Thought

Abstract:


Explaining the position of asceticism among moral virtues is one of the issues that, despite its importance in introducing Islamic heritage and reviving moral theories in Islamic tradition, has received less attention in moral research. This article attempts to critically examine the relationship between asceticism and morality in the thought of one of the ascetic writers using an analytical method. The findings of the research show that Ibn al-Arabi, as one of the ascetic writers of the third century AH, considered asceticism as the whole of morality and by writing a book titled "Al-Zuhd", he sought to write a book on morality in a way that could fully cover the theory of moral values and virtues. At the same time, he gave an incomplete explanation of ethics and did not address some of the key components of asceticism, such as wisdom (which underlies the components of certainty and sincerity), justice (which underlies the components of self-balance and humility, etc.), sacrifice (which underlies the components of patience, trust, contentment, etc.), and chastity (which underlies the components of contentment, piety, generosity, etc.), despite their centrality in his explanation of ethics. For this reason, Ibn al-Arabi was unable to explain ethics as a coherent network of virtues and vices in the context of describing asceticism as the whole of ethics.