Each year the Society (The Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society)organizes Symposia in the UK and the USA on an aspect of Ibn ‘Arabi’s work.

These international gatherings bring together people from many different fields and traditions, and include scholars, students, and anyone interested in what Ibn ‘Arabi has to say. These events provide a unique opportunity for both speakers and listeners, specialists and non-specialists, to enrich their understanding of the Shaykh’s teachings and their relevance today. The Society also encourages public seminars and lectures and can provide speakers on request.

This symposium is jointly organized by the Society and Professor Stefan Sperl of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. It will be held on May 6th, 2017, at the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS, London WC1H 0XG.
Ibn ‘Arabi, in reporting meetings with Ibn Rushd (Averroes) on two occasions – once as a ‘beardless youth’ and once at the great Aristotelian philosopher’s funeral – highlighted the differences between their ways of thinking. Philosophical knowledge, he declared, is based on reason (aql) and revelatory knowledge is based on insight (kashf) and inner certainty (yaqin). In some cases they are the same and in others they differ.

However, a difference between points of view is not an essential separation. The Shaykh al-Akbar would surely have agreed with the last recorded words of the great Neo-platonist Plotinus “Strive to give back the Divine in yourselves to the Divine in the All.” Greek philosophical texts, first translated in Baghdad in the 8th and 9th centuries, were widely available in Muslim Spain. Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi, who is sometimes called Ibn Aflatun ‘The Son of Plato’, would have had access to these, both directly and indirectly through the Islamic philosophical schools. This symposium aims at delving into these roots by exploring Ibn Arabi’s engagement with the philosophical heritage of his time.

more information  :Ibn ‘Arabi Society Symposium – Conferences worldwide