Spiritual Poverty – Heavenly Riches: Some Reflections On faqr in the Teachings of Ibn ʿArabī and Rūmī

Abstract

This paper is an examination of the notion of faqr (poverty, neediness) in the writings of two of the greatest exponents of Sufism as realisation of Truth (tahqīq), Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) and Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672/1273). It draws on a story told by Ismail Hakkı Bursevi regarding a meeting between Ibn ʿArabī’s stepson and heir, Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī (d. 672/1274), and Rumi in Konya, and contrasts the spiritual principles of voluntary poverty with the true poverty of spirit, which all beings participate in and which is fully known and experienced in the perfect human being. It also looks at the way essential poverty is described as the fundamental underpinning of praise and the celebration of Divine bounty.