Ṣūfī Travel as Ontological and Ethical Journey: Ibn ʿArabī, Abū Madyan, and the Architecture of the Soul

Abstract

This article explores the spiritual and philosophical dimensions of safar (travel) in Islamic mysticism through a comparative study of two foundational Ṣūfī figures: Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī and Abū Madyan Shuʿayb. While both affirm the transformative role of travel in the seeker’s journey toward the Divine, they articulate it through different registers—one cosmological and metaphysical, the other ethical and ascetical. The study adopts a thematic-comparative framework grounded in five axes: source and transmission, conceptual vocabulary, metaphysical language, ethical orientation, and symbolic structure. Through this framework, it analyzes how Ibn ʿArabī’s model of spiritual ascent, rooted in concepts such as barzakh, fanāʾ, and waḥdat al-wujūd, contrasts with Abū Madyan’s emphasis on zuhd, faqr, and adab. The article situates these teachings within prophetic models of journeying, broader intercultural traditions of sacred travel, and classical Ṣūfī conceptions of the soul’s path. Ultimately, it argues that for both mystics, safar is not merely movement but meaning—a method of transformation through which the human being becomes a vessel of divine nearness.