Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Ibn al-'Arabi's Liminal (Barzakhi) Theory of Representation: An Outlook from the Present Situation

Presentation and Representation: Complementary Elements in the Mystical Experience
Carter's View
Rorty's Antirepresentational Stand
Ibn al-'Arabi's Stand
Wasserstrom's Criticism of Mystocentrism

2. Creation ex nihilo, Creation in Time, and Eternal Creation: Ibn Sina versus the Theologians

Creation ex nihilo in the Qur'an
Creation ex nihilo, Creation in Time, and Islamic Theologians
Ibn Sina's Answers to the Theologians' Arguments
Ibn Sina on the Possible- and the Necessary-of-Existence
Ibn Sina's Distinction between Essence and Existence

3. Ibn Rushd versus al-Ghazali on the Eternity of the World

Between The Incoherence of the Philosophers and The Incoherence of the Incoherence
The First Proof
The Second Proof
The Third Proof
Ibn Rushd's Doctrine of Eternal Creation:
The Emergence of the Problem of the Limit

4. Mysticism versus Philosophy: The Encounter between Ibn al-'Arabi and Ibn Rushd

Mysticism between Theology and Philosophy
An Interpretation of the Encounter between Khadir and Moses from Ibn al-'Arabi's Perspective
The Encounter between Ibn Rushd and Ibn al-'Arabi

5. The Barzakh

The Intermediate State (Barzakh) in the Qur'an and in the Canonical Tradition
The Barzakh in the Exegesis of the Qur'an and in Scholastic Theology
Plato's Theory of the Forms
Ibn al-'Arabi's Definition of the Barzakh
Ibn al-Arabi versus Ibn Sina: Two Conceptions of the Relative

6. The Third Entity: The Supreme Barzakh

Plato's Form, The Mutazilites' Nonexistent, and Ibn al-Arabi's Fixed Entity
Plato's Introduction of the Receptacle
Ibn al-'Arabi's Introduction of the Third Thing
The Problem of the Creation of the World Revisited

7. The Perfect Man: The Epistemological Aspect of the Third Thing

The Perfect Man as the Conclusion of Divine Love
The Perfect Man as the Possessor of Divine Knowledge
The Logic of the Knowledge of Perfection

8. The Limit Situation

On Knowing the Waystation of "In the Articulations is the Knowledge of the Stairs."
The Paradox of Infinity
The Limit Situation

Conclusions

Notes

Bibliography

Index