Divine Love and the Meaning of Life according to Ibn  Arabi s Worldview

The meaning of life has been perpetually the subject of human contemplaion and due to current spiritual crisis, recently has been psychologically, philosophically and theologically analyzed. "The value of life" is one of the three concepts which could be extracted from this subject, and as the other two concepts, it could be philosophically analyzed either from naturalistic or supernaturalistic points of view. In a theocentric viewpoint, which is considered as supernaturalistic, the relation between the value of human life and God could be studied from different angles including the Divine Love. The present article firstly attempts to study the relation between God and the value of human life by focusing on Divine love and following this issue in mystical works of Ibn Arabi, and secondly tries to compare the viewpoints of this well-known mystic on the value of human life with that of western scholars. Ibn Arabi, who believes that the creation of human being has been indebted to God’s love, defines the amorous relation of God and humans in two levels: a general level and a specific level. The first level proves the life value and the second level strengthens the sense of meaningfulness of life by using value-based interpretation. Through this analysis it will be understood that love has different aspects and God is the only origin of them. Each of these aspects could play a significant role in making the life meaningful.