Chittick is refining the art of translating Ibn Arabi. Unlike other classical Arabic texts which are more or less straight-forward -- and hence translatable -- Ibn Arabi is an exception. The elliptical nature of his thought compounded by its deep interconnectedness with the Arabic language makes translations almost impossible.
The Shaikh's hermeneutics of the cosmos and Islamic scripture (the Quran and Prophetic sayings) is at once both mystical and linguistic. Mystical through kashf (unveiling, a type of spiritual intuition), and linguisitic through tracing words back to their roots. To a reader unfamiliar with both mysticism and Arabic, understanding Ibn Arabi can be difficult. "From WHERE is this man deriving his ideas?" is a natural response.
Taking these factors into consideration, Chittick should be commended in undertaking a task so academically daunting. He is meticulous in his translations and tries to be loyal to both the literal and implied meanings of technical Arabic words. He introduces each translated passage with a brief description or summary to acquaint the reader what he or she is about encounter "simplifying" the complexity of the passage.
Finally, it should be pointed out that Chittick's other work, the SUFI PATH OF KNOWLEDGDE: IBN AL'ARABI'S METAPHYSICS OF IMAGINATION makes an excellent introduction to this work. SDG is not easy reading, so preliminary works might be usefull before jumping full-fledge into Ibn Al-Arabi's shore-less ocean of mystico-metaphysics. In strange and unfamiliar waters, the weight of ignorance can drown. But the ultimate ignorance, as Ibn Arabi would say, is not that of books written by the dead, but of the Living who reveals Himself through the cosmos around us -- through His Self-Disclosure. |
