To weave the forms of Mystery: Travel, mystical and metaphysical in Sufi poetry

Abstract

Mystery is not just an enigma but a force, an impulse that gives emphasis to the real. And the ways in which this mystery unfolds are probably endless. In Sufism, travel literature is established as the quintessential poetic mysticism, where the description of incessant movement throughout the world invariably takes the value of metaphysical experience, freedom of spirit, understanding of the presence of the divine in every aspect and at every step of the journey. A mystic is a “nomadic metaphysics”, able to describe the man, the cosmos and God himself as travelers. Among the Sufi mystic poets, stands the figure of Ibn ‘Arabi, Andalusian born in Murcia in 1165 and died in Damascus in 1240. His particular metaphysics, Neoplatonist undeniable base, conceived not as a system but as a poetic movement, is a unique interface between East and West philosophies. This is observable in his works The Seals of Wisdom (Fusus al-Hikam) and, especially, The splendor of the fruits of the trip (Kitab al-Isfar ‘an al-asfar nata’iy), which we will study in this work.