An Interview with Abdel Baki Meftah,

Algerian Master of Akbarian Teachings

Hany Ibrahim and Mohammed Rustom

This interview seeks to introduce English-speaking audiences to the life

and work of Abdel Baki Meftah, a major contemporary interpreter of
Ibn ʿArabi and his school. To date, he has published nearly thirty books
in Arabic on Ibn ʿArabi, which include expositions of his life, in-depth
studies of particular themes and concepts in Ibn ʿArabi’s writings, com-
mentaries upon some of Ibn ʿArabi’s key works, and a four-volume
compilation and discussion of Ibn ʿArabi’s Sufi readings of verses from
the Quran. In addition to writing more than ten other books on Sufi
concepts, important Sufi orders and practices, and the thought of Amir
ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Jazaʾiri, Meftah has also translated into Arabic ten of
René Guénon’s writings and compiled two collections of his essays. The
interview, which is presented here in condensed form, was conducted in
Arabic by Hany Ibrahim and Mohammed Rustom in August 2021 and
translated into English by Omar Edaibat.

  

Could you please tell us about your early life, your studies, and the
teachers who influenced you? Also, when and where did you come
to discover Ibn ʿArabi?
This faqir was born on April 9, 1952 in Guemar, a small town located
in the province of Wadi Souf which is in the south-eastern desert of
Algeria. It is there that I received my early training in the Quran in
addition to completing my elementary and middle school educa-
tion. My secondary schooling was at the Teachers’ Training College
in Constantine. My university education was at the University of
Algiers, where I majored in physics, graduating in 1975, and was
then enlisted with the national military service for two years. I subse-
quently taught physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the Algerian
Petroleum Institute in the town of Hassi Messaoud for six years. For
102 Hany Ibrahim and Mohammed Rustom

the following twenty years, I served as a secondary school teacher in

Guemar, and then took early retirement.
With respect to Sufism, my family’s ancestors were historically
affiliated with the Qadiri Order/Path (tariqa). However, my great-
great-grandfather took the Sufi Path from Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani
(d.1815)1 in 1806. He was one of his earliest disciples in addition to
nine others from our hometown, and the shaykh authorized them to
construct a Sufi lodge (zawiya) there, which was built in 1809. This
was the first known Tijani Sufi lodge in the world. This Sufi lodge
has remained a centre of daily circles of dhikr, in addition to hosting
other spiritual, scholarly, and social activities. Thus, since the time
of my great-great-grandfather, my family has inherited the Tijani
rites, and all my family today are actively engaged in and committed
to its litanies and practices. I continue to live next to the Tijani Sufi
lodge, where I attend its gatherings of dhikr.
As a young boy, I was able to explore the most important works
of the Tijani Path, especially the Jawahir al-maʿani, al-Jamiʿ, and
al-Rimah. I found frequent quotations by Ibn ʿArabi in Mizab al-
rahma, and my father, himself an imam and a man of knowledge,
was an admirer of the shaykh and was well-read in his al-Futuhat al-
Makkiyya. One day he told me that the library of the Tijani Sufi lodge
next to our home contained one of the earliest published copies of
the Futuhat in four large volumes. Upon hearing this, I borrowed it
and read it, one volume at a time. I must have been around fourteen
or fifteen years old at that time. Around then, I also read the Kitab
al-Mawaqif (The Book of Haltings) by Amir ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Jazaʾiri
(d.1883) and found it to be an extension of Ibn ʿArabi’s knowledge as
laid out in the Futuhat and the Fusus al-hikam. Among other works
in Sufism, I also read the writings of the ʿAlawi-Darqawi Order.
As I continued my secondary school education in Constantine and
then undergraduate studies in Algiers, I read many other Sufi works,
such as the writings of al-Ghazali, al-Shaʿrani, and ʿAbd al-Karim
al-Jili. I also read many other classics of the tradition, including other
texts by Ibn ʿArabi, Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, and the major figures of
the school of Ibn ʿArabi. In fact, I still keep abreast of any new studies

1. Death dates in this interview are only provided for individuals who lived
between the 19th and 21st centuries.
 An Interview with Abdel Baki Meftah 103

that come out which relate to members of this school, as well as new
editions of their writings.

When and how did you come to take the Sufi Path, and what role
did Ibn ʿArabi play in your spiritual journey?
On account of my upbringing and being raised in a family immersed
in Sufism, I knew that the first step to being engaged in the more
practical dimension of spiritual wayfaring, which can never be satis-
fied by merely tending to the theoretical domain and reading books,
is to be initiated into the Sufi Path by a living master (shaykh), an
authorized spiritual educator who has obtained a clear and forth-
right sanction from the Muhammadan Presence to guide disciples.
Thus, from my childhood, I searched for such a master in all the
local Sufi orders that were known to us in Algeria (and whose Sufi
lodges are quite abundant). I was able to find the object of my desire
in Shaykh Muhammad Bilqaʾid al-Tilimsani (d.1998), who was the
master of the Hibriyya-Darqawiyya-Shadhiliyya Order. He was also
the one who reinforced my earlier connection with Ibn ʿArabi. I
took the Path from Shaykh Muhammad Bilqaʾid in 1973 when I was
still an undergraduate student. He was initiated into the Sufi Path
by Muhammad al-Hibri (d.1939), who received the Path from his
father al-Hajj Muhammad al-Hibri (d.1899).
Shaykh Muhammad Bilqaʾid was also the master of the famous
Egyptian scholar Muhammad Mitwalli al-Shaʿrawi (d.1998), who
headed al-Azhar’s Egyptian delegation in Algeria during the sixties
and early seventies. Having been initiated into Sufism by Shaykh
Bilqaʾid in the late 1960s, he entered into spiritual retreat (khalwa)
in 1972, invoking the Divine Name Allah.

The Sufi Path of course necessitates that there be an authentic

chain of transmission (sanad) that connects travellers on the Path
back to the Path’s founding master, and which ultimately goes back
to the Prophet himself. Is there such a chain of transmission that
leads back to Ibn ʿArabi? And if such a lineage exists, what is it?
In a sense, yes. There are in fact numerous chains of transmission,
which some of the following scholars have noted:
1. Shaykh Abu l-Wafaʾ al-Taftazani (d.1984): in his study entitled
‘al-Tariqa al-Akbariyya’, published in al-Kitab al-tadhkari (ed. Ibrahim
104 Hany Ibrahim and Mohammed Rustom
Madkur), he mentions some of the notable masters of the Akbarian
lineage and its chains of transmission.
2. The famous Moroccan Shaykh ʿAbd al-Hayy al-Kattani (d.1962): in his
rich work entitled Fahras al-faharis, he cites chains of transmission from
the ʿUqud al-asanid of Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad Amin al-Safarjalani
al-Dimashqi, and the Bayt al-siddiq by Shaykh Muhammad Tawfiq
al-Bakri, who was Chief Master of Sufi Orders in Egypt in the early
1890s.2
3. Osman Yahia (d.1997): in the introduction to his Histoire et classification
de l’œuvre d’Ibn ʿArabi.
4. Sayyid Ayman Hamdi, one of the Akbarian masters in Egypt today: in
his book on the topic entitled al-Tariqa al-akbariyya, published several
years ago.
I believe that these chains of transmission primarily pertain to
works that are ascribed to Ibn ʿArabi, the most significant being the
Futuhat, while other chains of transmission pertain to Ibn ʿArabi’s
well-known litanies, supplications, and prayers upon the Prophet,
such as al-Dawr al-aʿla, Awrad ayyam wa-layali al-usbuʿ, Tawajju-
hat al-huruf, and al-Salat al-akbariyya, among others. However, the
accuracy of each of these works and their ascription to the shaykh
need to be authenticated, for it is known that hundreds of treatises
and texts that are published or in manuscript form have been wrongly
ascribed to him.
What I see is that Ibn ʿArabi’s spiritual path and method of train-
ing cannot be restricted to the usual Sufi lineages (silsilas), even if
their chains of transmission are authenticated. This is because Ibn
ʿArabi’s provisions that come from the Presence of Ahmad are far too
expansive to be restricted to a particular Sufi Path. Indeed, his reach
is much more universal. Among those who belong to a living Sufi
Path, he chooses those who, in the presence of their living masters,
have the preparedness for spiritual knowledge. In some instances,
this selection may even apply to those outside the conventional Sufi
Paths. Specifically, this selection pertains to those whose spiritual
training consists of invoking the Supreme Name Allah, since Ibn

2. The Chief Master of Sufi Orders (Shaykh mashayikh al-turuq al-sufiyya) is

a state-sanctioned position designating the chief overseer of organized Sufism in
Egypt.
 An Interview with Abdel Baki Meftah 105

ʿArabi’s method of spiritual training revolves around this Name, as

can be gleaned from his numerous writings.

When it comes to expounding the profound meanings to be found

in Ibn ʿArabi’s writings, your books have been most beneficial for
contemporary readers. Which of your publications would you con-
sider to be the most important for students and researchers of Ibn
ʿArabi?
I think that the first work I would recommend is the one entitled
Khatm al-Qurʾan: Muhyi l-Din Ibn ʿArabi (The Seal of the Quran: Ibn
ʿArabi), which is now under the title Sirat al-Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyi
l-Din Ibn ʿArabi (A Biography of Ibn ʿArabi). This work is helpful in
acquainting the reader with his biography and clarifying that he was
not, as many believe to be the case, the architect of the philosophical
doctrine of the ‘oneness of being’ (wahdat al-wujud) or of any other
intellectual theory; rather, he was a complete (kamil) Muhammadan
inheritor, and his every living breath was drawn from the Quran.
God elected him for the rank of the Seal of Muhammadan Friend-
ship (walaya), as he explains in a couplet that is written on the wall of
the entrance to his noble shrine in Damascus:
For every age, there is one who takes up the Seal,
And for the rest of the ages, I am that one.
Indeed, Ibn ʿArabi was the only person to have replied to al-Hakim
al-Tirmidhi’s challenge when he exhaustively responded in Chap-
ter 73 of the Futuhat to all of Tirmidhi’s questions posed in his Khatm
al-awliyaʾ (The Seal of the Friends of God), leaving no more to be
said. The annals of Sufism are witness to the fact that no other person
came after Ibn ʿArabi who could offer explications of spiritual reali-
ties that surpass the bounties bestowed upon him, although some of
the sages have helped to further articulate and outline aspects of his
more general statements. After familiarizing oneself with the biog-
raphy, it would be preferable to read the works in which I attempt
to clarify the hidden Quranic keys to Ibn ʿArabi’s writings, such as
al-Marajiʿ al-Qurʾaniyya li-abwab al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya (The
Quranic Sources for the Chapters of the Futuhat).
106 Hany Ibrahim and Mohammed Rustom
Those familiar with your writings have noted your strong focus
and preoccupation with numerology. Given your background as a
teacher of mathematics and Sufi metaphysics, could you comment
on the importance and significance of numbers for the compre-
hension and appreciation of Ibn ʿArabi’s teachings?
The Quranic bases for the science of numerology are verses such
as ‘And He keeps a numbered count of all things’ (Q.72:28), and
‘Naught is there, but that its treasuries lie with Us, and We do not
send it down, save in a known measure’ (Q.15:21).3 Indeed, all the
acts and rites of the sacred law are ruled numerically due to the
wisdom and the mysteries associated with them, and Ibn ʿArabi has
shared some glimpses of these in the chapters on the acts of wor-
ship in the first section of the Futuhat (Chapters 68–72), in addition
to other books. At the same time, throughout Ibn ʿArabi’s literary
corpus there are hundreds of instances in which he applies numbers
and their relationships to the letters and the Divine Names, artic-
ulating their mysteries and symbolic significance. He also devoted
specific works to this topic, as well as a large and profound chap-
ter of the Futuhat, namely Chapter 2. Ibn ʿArabi deliberately placed
this chapter close to the beginning of the Futuhat to ensure the vital
necessity of assimilating these teachings for whoever seeks to access
Akbarian wisdom.
In addition to citing the view of al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi to the effect
that the knowledge of numerology is reserved for a select number
of God’s Friends, Ibn ʿArabi articulates the importance of this
knowledge in Chapters 20, 26, and 198 of the Futuhat, as well as in
some of his answers to al-Tirmidhi’s questions in Chapter 73 (ques-
tions 39–42). In Chapter 109, for example, he states that the number
of stations and mysteries of every Divine Name are proportionate to
the sum of the numerical value of its letters. The shaykh states this in
Chapter 109 because the number 109 itself has a basic and far-reach-
ing significance in the world of letters and their numerical values,
some of which has been explained in my book al-Sharh al-Qurʾani
li-Kitab al-Tajalliyyat li-Ibn ʿArabi (A Quranic Explanation of Ibn
ʿArabi’s Kitab al-Tajalliyyat).

3. Translations from the Quran are taken from Seyyed Hossein Nasr et al.
(eds.), The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary (New York: 2015).
 An Interview with Abdel Baki Meftah 107

As for the claim in the question that there is a ‘strong focus’ on

numerology in my writings, it is a bit of an exaggeration, for I have
only highlighted a few aspects of Ibn ʿArabi’s knowledge of this
science, particularly in my most recent book, Mafatih ʿilm asrar al-
huruf ʿinda Ibn ʿArabi wa-aʿlam al-sufiyya (Keys to the Mysteries of
Letterism in Ibn ʿArabi and the Luminaries of Sufism), and in the final
section of my book, al-Mafatih al-wujudiyya wa l-Qurʾaniyya li-
Fusus al-hikam (Ontological and Quranic Keys to the Fusus al-hikam).

Many years ago, you pointed out to us that to properly compre-

hend the Futuhat one must be very intimate with the Quran. Could
you explain this point further?
This statement applies to the majority of the shaykh’s works, indeed,
to all of them, as he himself has explicitly stated in many of his writ-
ings. In Chapter 366 of the Futuhat (which is related to Surat al-Kahf,
the eighteenth sura of the Quran), he famously stated that everything
he has written comes from the sacred presence of the Quran and its
infinite treasuries. To be sure, my books on Ibn ʿArabi amount to
nothing more than expositions of the Quranic roots underlying his
worldview.

Among your valuable writings is a work in four volumes that

contains expositions of and helpful insights into Ibn ʿArabi’s Sufi
commentaries upon verses from the Quran. Could you describe
the structure and arrangement of this book?
In this work I attempted to put together an exposition of the shaykh’s
explanations of Quranic verses as culled from his writings, particu-
larly the Futuhat, and especially Sections 4–6, which relate to esoteric
exegeses of the Quran. I organized the book following Ibn ʿArabi’s
arrangement of the chapters in the fourth section of the Futuhat,
wherein each chapter is dedicated to a specific Quranic sura, begin-
ning with the Quran’s last sura and ending with its first. It should
here be noted that in the first printed edition of this book there are
numerous typographical errors (the same is true of my other works).
108 Hany Ibrahim and Mohammed Rustom
Among your publications are several valuable works on René
Guénon (d.1951), including translations of many of his books into
Arabic. Could you discuss Guénon’s significance for contemporary
readers of Ibn ʿArabi in particular, and the Sufi tradition in general?
I discovered Guénon’s writings when I was a university student, so
at around the age of twenty. At that time, I endeavoured to purchase
and read all of his books. I also read the writings of those influenced
by him, particularly the distinguished authorities and scholars
Michel Valsan (d.1974), Titus Burckhardt (d.1984), Frithjof Schuon
(d.1998), Martin Lings (d. 2005), Jean-Louis Michon (d. 2013), and
their students.
I was quite amazed by the breadth of Guénon’s outward and
inward knowledge and his penetrating insights, the universality of
his perception, its comprehensive anchoring in metaphysics, and his
tasting (dhawq) of these realities. Just as I believe that the greatest
unveiler of spiritual realities after the Prophets is Ibn ʿArabi, so too
do I think that the greatest spiritual figure to have come from the west
is René Guénon. Indeed, his explication of metaphysical doctrines
perfectly accords with Ibn ʿArabi’s perspective, which is not surpris-
ing, since there is only one Reality.
Among Guénon’s writings, those that I found to be most beneficial
were The Crisis of the Modern World and The Reign of Quantity and
the Signs of the Times, both of which I have translated into Arabic.
I started translating Guénon’s works at the request of his son ʿAbd
al-Wahid, who lives in Cairo and who was initiated into Sufism by
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Latif Bilqaʾid, the son of my master Muhammad
Bilqaʾid.
I also authored a concise book on Guénon that was published in
Algeria several years ago: Shahid al-haqiqa: al-Shaykh ʿAbd al-Wahid
Yahya, René Guénon (Witness to Reality: Shaykh ʿAbd al-Wahid
Yahya, René Guénon). In addition to providing very brief synopses
of each of his works, in this book I communicate what three highly
influential scholars and authorities in both traditional Islamic
knowledge and the modern sciences have written about him. These
authorities are the Egyptian Grand Mufti ʿAbd al-Halim Mahmud
(d.1978), the encyclopaedic scholar and luminary of Afghan origin
Najm Oud Dine Bammate (d.1985), and the contemporary Iranian
scholar and Sufi philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
 An Interview with Abdel Baki Meftah 109

As I explain in my book, anyone who carefully investigates the

major intellectual movements and diverse spiritual orientations in
the modern western world will find that Guénon has exercised a
most profound influence upon the major cultural circles and elites
of the 20th and 21st centuries, including sincere seekers after the
truth. Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration on my part to state
that Guénon is a pivotal figure for the spiritual and intellectual devel-
opment of the western world in the 20th century. His writings and
their influence upon the spiritual and intellectual scene in the west-
ern world led to a tremendous shift, allowing it to rise beyond the
darkness of its materialism, scientism, and pettiness and into the
light of greater openness towards the universal spiritual heritage of
the world’s diverse nations and religions. Needless to say, many have
followed Guénon in his embrace of Islam and adoption of a Sunni
Sufi spiritual Path; and those who did not have nevertheless been
influenced by him in returning to belief in God, His Messengers, the
revelations that were sent to them, and the need to uphold their reli-
gious heritage, all the while viewing Islam in a reverential light.

You have written valuable expositions of some very well-known

prayers upon the Prophet. What compelled you to write on this
topic?
I have authored two works concerning the Muhammadan Presence.
The first of these is a book entitled al-Kawkab al-durri fi sharh al-
salat ʿala al-Nabi al-ummi (The Shining Star: An Explanation of the
Prayer upon the Prophet), and the second is al-Kamalat al-Muham-
madiyya wa l-insan al-kamil fi ruʾyat Ibn ʿArabi (Muhammadan
Perfection and the Perfect Man in the Vision of Ibn ʿArabi). What
compelled me to write these works is the simple fact that travelling
the spiritual Path in Islam is centred around becoming fully realized
in the Muhammadan Presence, and the differences in degree that
are found among the Friends of God relate directly to their different
shares of this realization. In Chapter 540 of the Futuhat, Ibn ʿArabi
says that his vision of God had come to him through the Muham-
madan form, which is the most complete kind of vision that a person
can obtain. He then encourages people to seek this vision through
investigating the Futuhat and through oral transmission.
110 Hany Ibrahim and Mohammed Rustom
As we reach the end of this interview, could you please offer words
of counsel for lovers of Ibn ʿArabi?
There are certain conditions in terms of knowledge and spiritual
maturity that must be met before one can step into Ibn ʿArabi’s world.
And, while the theoretical domain of Sufism is certainly important
for the shaykh and many of the realized Sufi masters, an exclusive
focus on it may well veil a seeker from the Goal. This is because ben-
eficial knowledge, according to the masters, entails action. Without
action, one does not have true knowledge.4 In the beginning, prac-
tical realization can only be obtained through spiritual wayfaring
under the guidance of a living master firmly rooted on the Path. The
upshot of this discussion is to be found in Ibn ʿArabi’s own words,
where he says that people will be brought before God on the Day of
Resurrection not in accordance with their theoretical knowledge of
God and the spiritual Path, but rather in accordance with their real-
ized knowledge of Him.

4. For a lucid exposition of this point with respect to Ibn ʿArabi’s writings, see
William Chittick, In Search of the Lost Heart: Explorations in Islamic Thought, eds.
Mohammed Rustom, Atif Khalil, and Kazuyo Murata (Albany: 2012), Chapter 10.