The wife of Ibn Arabi and the five steps to Sufi path

It is written that the great Sufi mystic ibn Arabi was a studious and talented young man, already infused with mysticism through his father, and also through his uncles on both sides of his family. It is also related in al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, that he married a saintly woman named Maryam, the daughter of Muhammad b. Abdun, a man of great standing and influence.

Maryam also shared with ibn Arabi his aspiration to follow the Way (Sufi path). From the Futuhat:

“My saintly wife, Maryam bint Muhammad b. Abdun, said, ‘I have seen in my sleep someone whom I have never seen in the flesh, but who appears to me in my moments of (spiritual) ecstaty. He ask em whether I was aspiring to the Way, to I replied that I was, but that I did not know by what means to arrive at it. He then told me that I would come to it through five things, trust, certainty, patience, resolution and varacity.’ Thus she offered her vision to me (for my consideration) and I told her that was indeed the methor of the Folk (Sufis). I myself have never seen one with that degree of mystical experience.”

- From Sufi of Andalusia: The Ruh al-Quds and al-Durrat al-Fakhirah of ibn Arabi. Translated by R.W.J. Austin

Ya Haqq