Toshihiko Izutsu Sufism And Taoism 0 Contents Preface Introduction

Toshihiko Izutsu 

Sufism And Taoism
Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts


"Professor Izutsu's work is a pioneering attempt to bring into focus the
shareable philosophical concerns of two seemingly unrelated landmarks
in religious thought. His method is suggestive, interpretation new and
bold, and material used important for further research. His book is
useful to students of comparative religion, philosophy of religion, cul-
tural anthropology, Asian thought and religion, and Islamic and Taoist
studies." 

— Tu Wei-ming

"[This book] carries out a comparison in depth between Islamic and
Chinese thought for the first time in modern scholarship. . . .Since this
book appeared it has influenced every work on Ibn Arab! and meta-
physical Sufism . . . [and] any cursory study of Sufism during the last
fifteen years will reveal the extent of Izutsu's influence.
— Seyyed Hossein Nasr


SUFISM AND TAOISM: A Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Concepts
by Toshihiko Izutsu 1983

First published 1983 by Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, Tokyo
This edition is published by The University of California Press, 1984,
Rev. ed. of: A comparative study of the key philosophical concepts in Sufism and Taoism. 1966-67.

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Contents

Preface by T. Izutsu

Introduction

Part I - Ibn 'Arabi

1 Dream and Reality

II The Absolute in its Absoluteness

III The Self-knowledge of Man

IV Metaphysical Unification and Phenomenal Dispersion

V Metaphysical Perplexity

VI The Shadow of the Absolute

VII The Divine Nam es

VIII Allah and the Lord

IX Ontological Mercy

X The Water of Life

XI The Self-manifestation of the Absolute

XII Permanent Archetypes

XIII Creation

XIV Man as Microcosm

XV The Perfect Man as an Individual

XVI Apostle, Prophet, and Saint

XVII The Magical Power of the Perfect Man

Part II - Lao-Tzii & Chuang-Tzu

I Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu

II From Mythopoiesis to Metaphysics

III Dream and Reality

IV Beyond This and That

V The Birth of a New Ego

VI Against Essentialism

VII The Way

VIII The Gateway of Myriad Wonders

IX Determinism and Freedom

X Absolute Reversai of Values

XI The Perfect Man

XII Homo Politicus

Part III - A Comparative Reftection 

I Methodological Preliminaries

II The Inner Transformation of Man

III The Multistratified Structure of Reality

IV Essence and Existence

V The Self-evolvement of Existence

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Preface

This is originally a book which I wrote more than fifteen years ago,

when I was teaching Islamic philosophy at the Institute of Islamic

Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

At that time I was becoming conscious of myself gradually getting

into a new phase of my intellectual life, groping my way towards a

new type of Oriental philosophy based on a series of rigorously

philological, comparative studies of the key terms of various

philosophical traditions in the Near, Middle, and Far East. The

present work was the very first product of my endeavour in this

direction.

The book was subsequently published in Japan in two separate

volumes in 1966-1967, under the title A Comparative Study of Key

Philosophical Concepts in Sufism and Taoism (with the subtitle 'Ibn

'Arabi and Lao-tzu - Chuang-tzu') as a publication of the Institute

of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, Keio University, Tokyo, under

the directorship of the late Professor Nobuhiro Matsumoto.

A growing demand for a new, revised edition made me decide to

republish the book while I was in Iran. Printed in England, it had

been scheduled to corne out in Tehran towards the end of the year

1978, when the sudden outbreak of the Khomeini 'revolution'

rendered its publication impossible. Thus it was that, by a strange

working of fate, the book - completely revised, but still in the form

of galle y proofs - came back with its a uthor once again to J a pan, the

place where it had first seen the light of day.

In the process of revising the book in its entirety, I did my best to

eliminate ail the defects and imperfections that had corne to my

notice in the meantime. But, of course, there are natural limits to

such work of correction and amendment.

I only hope that this old book of mine in a new form, despite many

mistakes and shortcomings that must still be there, might at least

make a modest contribution towards the development of 'meta-

historical dialogues' among representatives of the various

philosophical traditions in the East and West, a special kind of

philosophical dialogue of which the world today seems to be in

urgent need.

lt is my pleasant duty to express my deep gratitude to the Iwanami

Shoten, Publishers, for having undertaken the publication of this

book. My thanks go in particular to Mr Atsushi Aiba (of the same

publishing bouse) who has spared no effort in smoothing the way for

the realization of this project. 1 take this occasion to thank also the

authorities of my alma mater, Keio University, from whom, as 1

recall now, 1 derived inestimable encouragement while 1 was

engaged in writing this book in its original form.

T.Izutsu

October 4, 1981

Kamakura, J a pan

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Introduction

As indicated by the title and the subtitle, the main purpose of the

present work in its entirety is to attempt a structural comparison

between the world-view of Sufism as represented by Ibn' Arabi and

the world-view of Taoism as represented by Lao-tzu and Chuang-

tzu. 1 am aware of the fact that this kind of study has a number of

pitfalls. A comparison made in a casual way between two thought-

, systems which have no historical connection may become superfi-

cial observations of resemblances and differences lacking in

scientific rigor. In order to avoid falling into this error, an effort will

· be made to lay bare the fondamental structure of each of the two

world-views independently and as rigorously as possible before

proceeding to any comparative considerations.

With this in view, the First Part will be entirely devoted to an

attempt at isolating and analyzing the major ontological concepts

which underlie the philosophical world-view of Ibn 'Arabi, while in

the second part exactly the same kind of analytic study will be made

concerning the world-view of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, in such a way

that both parts may constitute two entirely independent studies, one

of Ibn' Arabi and the other of ancient Taoism. Only in the third part

will an attempt be made to compare, and co-ordinate, the key-

concepts of these two world-views which have been previously

analyzed without any regard to similarities and differences between

them.

However this may be, the dominant motive running through the

entire work is the desire to open a new vista in the domain of

comparative philosophy and mysticism. A good starting point for

such a comparison is provided by the fact that both world-views are

based on two pivots, the Absolu te and the Perfect Man, 1 a whole

system of ontological thought being developed in each case between

these two poles.

It is to be noted that as an ontological structure this is nothing

peculiar to Sufism and Taoism. The opposition of the Absolute and

the Perfect Man in various forms as the two pivots of a world-view is

a basic pattern common to many types of mysticism that have

developed in the world in widely different places and ages. And a

comparative consideration of a number of systems sharing the same

broad pattern and differing from each other in details both of origin

and historical circumstance would seem to prove very fruitful in

preparing the ground for that which Professor Henry Corbin has

aptly called 'un dialogue dans la métahistoire', meta-historical or

transhistorical dialogue, and which is so urgently needed in the

present situation of the world.

Referring to the fact that Ibn 'Arabi has evoked so much discus-

sion and controversy, unprecedented in the history of Islamic

thought, and attributing this fact to the nature of Islam itself which

combines two Truths: IJ,aqïqah 'the truth based on Intellection' and

sharï'ah 'the truth based on Revelation', Dr Osman Yahya makes

the following interesting remark2 : le cas d'Ibn 'Arabi ne se poserait

pas avec autant d'acuité dans une tradition de pure métaphysique

comme le taoism ou le védanta où la personalité du Maître ... eut

pu s'épanouir librement, ni non plus dans une tradition de pure loi

positive où son cas n'eut même pas pu être posé puisqu'il eut été

refusé par la communauté tout entière, irrémédiablement. Mais le

destin a voulu placer Ibn 'Arabi à la croisée des chemins pour

dégager, en sa personne, la véritable vocation de l'Islam.

There can be no _denying that Lao-tzü's metaphysics of Tao

presents in its abysmal depth of thought a number of striking

similarities to Ibn' Arabï's conception of Being. This is the more

interesting because, as 1 shall indicate in the Second Part, Lao-tzü

and represent a culmination point of a spiritual tradi-

tion which 's historically quite different from Sufism.

We must>as 1 have remarked above, guard ourselves against

making too easy comparisons, but we must also admit, 1 believe,

that a comparative study of this kind, if conducted carefully, will at

least furnish us with a common ground upon which an intercultural

dialogue may fruitfully be opened.

In accordance with the general plan above outlined, the first half

of the present book will be concerned exclusively with an analytic

study of the key-concepts which constitute the ontological basis of

Ibn 'Arabï's world-view. This world-view, as 1 have said, turns

round two pivots, the Absolute and the Perfect Man, in the form of

an ontological Descent and Ascent. In describing this cosmic pro-

cess Ibn 'Arabi develops at every stage a number of concepts of

decisive importance. It is these concepts that the present work

in tends to analyze. It purports to analyze methodically the ontologi-

cal aspect of Ibn 'Arabï's mystical philosophy regarding it as a

system of key-concepts that relate te 'being' and existence'.

Ontology, we must admit, is but one aspect of the thought of this

extraordinary man. It has other no less important aspects such as

psychology, epistemology, symbolism, etc., which, together, consti-

tute an original and profound world-view. But the concept of Being,

as we shall see, is the very basis of his philosophical thinking, and his

theory of Being is doubtless of such originality and of such a far-

reaching historical importance that it calls for separate treatment.

At the very outset 1 would like to make it clear that this is not a

philologically exhaustive study of Ibn 'Arabi. On the contrary, the

present study is based, as far as concerns Ibn' Arabi himself, almost

exclusively on only one of his works: 'The Bezels of Wisdom' or

al-lf ikam. It is essentially an analysis of the major ontological

concepts which Ibn' Arabi develops in this celebrated book that has

often been described as his opus magnum, and has been studied and

commented upon by so many people throughout the centuries.3 So

on the material side, the present work does not daim to offer

anything new.

From the beginning it was not my intention to be exhaustive. My

intention was rather to penetrate the 'life-breath' itself, the vivify-

ing spirit and the very existential source of the philosophizing drive

of this great thinker, and to pursue from that depth the formation of

the whole ontological system step by step as he himself develops it.

In order to understand the thought of a man like Ibn 'Arabi, one

must grasp the very spirit which pervades and vivifies the whole

structure; otherwise everything will be lost. All considerations from

outside are sure to go wide of the mark. Even on an intellectual and

philosophical level, one must try to understand the thought from

inside and reconstruct it in one's self by what might be called an

existential empathy. For such a purpose, to be exhaustive, though of

course desirable, is not the first requirement.

Ibn 'Arabi was not merely a profound thinker; he was an unusu-

ally prolific writer, too. The authorities differ among themselves on

the exact number. Al-Sha'râni, to give an example, notes that the

Master wrote about 400 works.4 The répertoire général of the

above-mentioned bibliographical work by Dr Osman Yahya lists as

many as 856 works, although the nu,mber includes doubtful works

and those that are evidently spurious.

In a situation like this, and for purposes like ours, it is not only

irrelevant but, even more, positively dangerous to try to note every-

thing the author has said and written on each subject over a period

of many years, For one might easily drown oneself in the vast ocean

of concepts, images and symbols that are scattered about in utter

disorder throughout the hundreds of his works, and lose sight of the

main line or lines of thought and the guiding spirit that underlies

the whole structure. For the purpose of isolating the latter from the

disorderly (as it looks at first sight) mass of symbols and images, it

will be more wise and perhaps, more profitable to concentrate on a

work in which he presents bis thought in its maturest form. 5

In any case, the present work consists exclusively of an analysis of

the 'Bezels of Wisdom' except in a few places where 1 shall refer to

one of bis smaller works for elucidation of some of the important

points. 6 As remarked above, FWiW/ al-lfikam bas been studied in

the past by many people in many different forms. And yet 1 hope

that my own analysis of the same book bas something to contribute

toward a better understanding of the great Master who bas been

considered by many people one of the profoundest, but at the same

time, obscurest thinkers Islam bas ever produced.

Notes

1. In Ibn 'Arabi's system, the Absolute is called haqq (Truth or Reality) and the

Perfect Man is called insân kâmil meaning literally 'perfect man'. In Taoism, the

Absolute is tao and the Perfect Man is shêng jên (Sacred Man or Saint), chên jên

(True Man), etc. 1 have dealt with the relationship between the Absolute and the

Perfect Man in Taoism in particular in my Eranos lecture for 1967: 'The Absolute

and the Perfect Man in Taoism', Eranos-Jahrbuch, XXXVI, Zürich, 1968.

2. Histoire et classification de /' œuvre d' Ibn 'Arabi, 2 vols. 1964, Damas, avant-

propos, pp. 18-19.

3. Dr Osman Yahya lists more than 100 commentaries on al-}fikam, cf. op.

cit., 1, p. 17, pp. 241-257.

4. al-Sha'râni, al-Yawâqït wa-al-Jawâhir, Cairo, 1305 A.H., vol. 1., p. 10.

5. Ibn 'Arabi (born in Spain in 1165 A.D.) died in Damascus in al-lfikam was written in 1229, ten years before his death. As regards his life ancNtis

works the best introduction, to my knowledge, is found in Seyyed Hossein Nasr's

Three Muslim Sages, Cambridge, Mass., 1964, pp. 84-121.

6. As a concrete illustration of the oft-repeated attempt at bringing philosophical

coherence and order into the world-view of the Master, 1 shall in most cases give

al-Qâshâni's comments side by side with Ibn 'Arabi's words. 'Abd al-Razzâq al-

Qâshâni ( d. 1330) is one of the greatest figures in the school of Ibn 'Arabi. The

edition used in the present book is Sharh al-Qâshânï 'alà al-/:likam, Cairo,

1321 A.H. For the interpretation of difficult passages of the text 1 have also used

and Jâmi.