Knowledge by Heart in the Perspectives of Sharia and Ibn Arabi

In the scheme of Quranic revelations and Islamic hadiths the locus of knowledge is heart and true science is identified with knowledge by heart. The most important characteristics of intuitive knowledge dealt with in revelations and hadiths are: God-gifted, extraordinary, immediacy and purity of any means of thought, cognitive, enjoyment of truth and reality, oriented to the Unseen immaterial domain and obtained through piety and spiritual internal and external exercises. Likewise and in following the pure Sharia mystics hold mystical knowledge as obtained by heart. To Ibn Arabi, true knowledge is immediate, gifted and God-bestowed knowledge of heart that is gained out of spiritual capacity through devotion, practical conduct and spiritual exercises. Clearly the correspondence of mystics’ views with holy Sharia of Islam is clue to their commitments to Islamic commandments and principles