Ibn ʿArabi’s Reverence for Jesus and Eschatological Expectations

Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi (1165–1240) held Jesus in exceptional esteem, regarding him as a pivotal spiritual guide and walī (friend of God). In his writings Ibn ʿArabi recounts a visionary conversion “at the hands of Jesus” which opened his soul to the spiritual path plato.stanford.edu. He even described Jesus as “my first master” who turned him towards God maypoleofwisdom.com. This personal reverence fostered Ibn ʿArabi’s deep interest in Jesus’s role at the End of Time. Notably, Ibn ʿArabi settled in Damascus for his final years, explicitly hoping to witness Jesus’s prophesied return – since Islamic tradition says Jesus will descend to earth in Damascus in the last days sufipathoflove.com. In a vision at the Kaʿba, the Prophet Muḥammad informed Ibn ʿArabi that as Muḥammad’s spiritual “son” he shared in Jesus’s eschatological function as “Seal of Sainthood”, solidifying Ibn ʿArabi’s spiritual bond with Jesus sufipathoflove.com. This context underlies Ibn ʿArabi’s many writings on Jesus’s second coming.

Jesus’s Second Coming in al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya

In al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (“Meccan Openings”), Ibn ʿArabi affirms the orthodox Islamic view of Jesus’s bodily ascension and eventual return. He cites without hesitation the well-known prophecy that Jesus is alive in heaven and will descend at the end of time to establish justice. For example, Ibn ʿArabi writes:

“For there is no dispute that Jesus, peace be upon him, is a prophet and a messenger, and there is no dispute that he will come down at the end of time, a just ruler by our law, not by his [own] law, by which the Children of Israel worshipped Allah.” ahmadiyyafactcheckblog.com

Here Ibn ʿArabi emphasizes that Jesus’s second coming will not bring a new gospel or abrogate Muḥammad’s Sharīʿa; rather, Jesus will govern “by our [Islamic] law” as a righteous leader. This reflects the ḥadīth that the returning Jesus will “break the cross and rule with justice” under Islam. Ibn ʿArabi accepts this literally – he notes that Jesus was taken bodily to heaven without dying and remains there until the ordained time of descent ahmadiyyafactcheckblog.com. In his miʿrāj vision recounted in the Futūḥāt, Ibn ʿArabi even encounters Jesus in the second heaven “with his own body, for he had not died until now, but God raised him up to this heaven” ahmadiyyafactcheckblog.com. Such passages demonstrate Ibn ʿArabi’s belief in Jesus’s physical ascension and continued life, in line with Qur’ān 4:158.

Importantly, Ibn ʿArabi situates Jesus’s return within a grand spiritual cycle. He writes that Jesus’s earthly mission was “sealed” not by death but by ascension, leaving him in a suspended state until the end-times. In one poetic excerpt (from Futūḥāt or the Fuṣūṣ), Ibn ʿArabi describes Jesus thus:

“The Spirit came into existence in an essence / Purged of nature’s taint… Because of this, his sojourn was prolonged, enduring, by decree, more than a thousand years.” en.wikipedia.org

This evocative passage alludes to Jesus’s miraculous conception by the “breath of Gabriel” and explains that his earthly sojourn was divinely extended beyond a millennium – a clear reference to Jesus living on until his future descent. Ibn ʿArabi understood Jesus’s prolonged life and deferred return as part of God’s plan to culminate history with Jesus’s testimony to Islamic truth. Thus in the Futūḥāt, Jesus is explicitly identified as the eschatological heir: “the sole messenger destined to return at the end of time as the Messiah” deepblue.lib.umich.edu.

Jesus in the Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam: “Seal of Sainthood” and Final Witness

Ibn ʿArabi’s Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam (“Bezels of Wisdom”) devotes Chapter 15 to the wisdom (ḥikma) of prophethood in the Word of Jesus. While this chapter delves into Jesus’s spiritual significance as God’s “Word” and “Spirit,” it also reinforces his eschatological role. Ibn ʿArabi reiterates that Jesus did not taste death and remains alive, awaiting his mission to return. He notes that Jesus was born over five centuries before Muḥammad “and is still alive, waiting to descend” at the end of days sufi.irsufi.ir.

In the Fuṣūṣ, Ibn ʿArabi portrays Jesus as the “Seal of Universal Sainthood” (khatm al-wilāya al-ʿāmma) – the final perfected saint who will appear before the Resurrection. Jesus’s unique status stems from his dual nature: he was a prophet who brought a revealed law in the past, but when he returns he will come as a saint and follower of Muḥammad deepblue.lib.umich.edu. Ibn ʿArabi draws a sharp distinction between Jesus’s two missions: initially nabī rasūl (prophet-messenger with a new law to the Israelites) and finally a walī muḥammadī (a saintly follower of the Muḥammadan dispensation) deepblue.lib.umich.edu deepblue.lib.umich.edu. He will thus judge by the Qur’ān rather than the Gospel. By depicting Jesus as “non-legislating” in his second coming, Ibn ʿArabi upholds the finality of Muḥammad’s prophethood while still granting Jesus a paramount spiritual rank at the End Time deepblue.lib.umich.edu.

Ibn ʿArabi’s famous doctrine of the “Three Seals” crystallizes this idea. He regarded Muhammad as the Seal of Prophets, Jesus as the Seal of Universal Sainthood, and himself – Ibn ʿArabi – as the Seal of Muhammadan Sainthood (the last saint within the Islamic umma) deepblue.lib.umich.edusufipathoflove.com. He writes of himself: “I am – without any doubt – the Seal of Muḥammadan Sainthood, in my capacity as heir to the Hāshimite (Muḥammad) and the Messiah.”maypoleofwisdom.com. In claiming this, Ibn ʿArabi acknowledges Jesus’s ongoing spiritual influence: Jesus, as a living saint in heaven, is the patron of later saints and will literally return to close the era of sanctity. The Fuṣūṣ hints at this in mystical terms – for example, describing how divine wisdom manifests through Jesus’s spirit to “bring life” – but always within the framework that Jesus’s return confirms Muḥammad’s truth rather than competing with itdeepblue.lib.umich.edu.

Scholarly Interpretations of Ibn ʿArabi’s View

Modern scholars of Ibn ʿArabi have shed light on how he understood Jesus’s second coming in both a literal and symbolic sense. William Chittick notes that Ibn ʿArabi, despite his theosophical approach, fully affirmed the orthodox eschatology: Jesus will physically return as a just ruler under Islamic lawahmadiyyafactcheckblog.com. This reflects Ibn ʿArabi’s general principle that outward religious truths and mystical insights must harmonize. Thus, far from allegorizing away the Second Coming, Ibn ʿArabi integrated it into his spiritual cosmology. Reza Shah-Kazemi, examining Ibn ʿArabi’s writings on Jesus, emphasizes that the Shaykh al-Akbar saw Jesus as a perfect symbol of divine mercy and spiritual “engendering,” yet always within the Qur’ānic perspectiveibnarabisociety.org. In other words, Ibn ʿArabi’s mystical veneration of Jesus never led him to reject the Prophet’s teachings about Jesus’s role in the end times. On the contrary, it gave those teachings deeper meaning.

Michel Chodkiewicz has highlighted Ibn ʿArabi’s doctrine of the “Seal” (khatm), which is crucial to understanding his eschatology of Jesus. According to Chodkiewicz, Ibn ʿArabi saw Jesus as the Seal of Universal Holiness (Sainthood), the final heir to all prophets and saints who will “close” the spiritual cycle of historyen.wikipedia.orgdeepblue.lib.umich.edu. Jesus’s return thus represents the culmination of sanctity: he comes as al-Insān al-Kāmil (the Perfect Man) one more time to exemplify the fullest human realization of God’s worden.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org. Chodkiewicz notes that Ibn ʿArabi rigorously distinguishes Jesus’s two roles to uphold doctrinal truth – when Jesus comes again it will be as a Walī, not as a Nabīdeepblue.lib.umich.edu. This interpretation is echoed by James W. Morris, who explains that Ibn ʿArabi uses Jesus’s unique case to illustrate the relationship between prophecy and sainthood. Morris writes that Jesus’s “twin roles” – as a former Messenger and future Saint – allowed Ibn ʿArabi to discuss the hierarchy of spiritual authority: prophets bring new laws, whereas saints inherit and elucidate existing lawsdeepblue.lib.umich.edu. By making Jesus the paramount end-time saint, Ibn ʿArabi reinforces the supremacy of Muḥammad’s revelation (since Jesus returns as its follower) while also asserting the continued unfolding of divine guidance through saintsdeepblue.lib.umich.edu.

In summary, Ibn ʿArabi’s major works leave no doubt that he accepted and expounded upon the second coming of ʿĪsā (Jesus). He provides exact affirmations of the doctrine – that Jesus is alive in heaven and will descend to earth to vindicate God’s truthahmadiyyafactcheckblog.com – and surrounds it with a rich spiritual context. Jesus’s return is for him not only a future event but a profound symbol: the return of ultimate sanctity and mercy at the end of time. As one scholar observes, “Jesus follows a path from God, and returns to God, without ever having been away from God; his descent into this world is followed by his ascent … waiting to descend again to the great mosque of Damascus, before making the final ascent to Paradise.”sufipathoflove.com In Ibn ʿArabi’s eyes, the Second Coming of Jesus completes the circle of prophecy and sanctity – a final testimony to the Oneness of God and the triumph of divine justice and mercy in the worldsufipathoflove.comdeepblue.lib.umich.edu.

Sources:

• Ibn ʿArabi, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, Vol. 3, ch. 73 (Eric Winkel trans.), on the prophecy of Jesus’s returnahmadiyyafactcheckblog.com.
• Ibn ʿArabi, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, “Wisdom of Prophethood in the Word of ʿĪsā,” on Jesus’s spirit and prolonged sojournen.wikipedia.orgsufi.ir.
• Jaume Flaquer, “The Akbarian Jesus: The Paradigm of a Pilgrim in God,” JMIAS 57 (2015), for Ibn ʿArabi’s personal connection to Jesus and his Damascus expectationsufipathoflove.comsufipathoflove.com.
• Michel Chodkiewicz, Seal of the Saints, and James W. Morris, analysis in Sainthood between the Ineffable and the Social (2019), on Jesus as Seal of Sainthood and Ibn ʿArabi’s eschatologydeepblue.lib.umich.edudeepblue.lib.umich.edu.
• Reza Shah-Kazemi, “Jesus in the Quran: An Akbari Perspective,” JMIAS 52 & 53 (2012), on the metaphysical significance of Jesus in Ibn ʿArabi’s thoughtibnarabisociety.org.
• William C. Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God (1998) and Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets (2005), for contextual explanations of Ibn ʿArabi’s adherence to prophetic tradition regarding Jesus’s returnahmadiyyafactcheckblog.comen.wikipedia.org.