The world as a Dream, a Comparative Study in Ibn Arabi’s Thought and the Film Inception

Among movies that considered «dream», "Inception" got a notable fortune. The film, written and directed by Christopher Nolan, has been the source of many academic discussions around the world as well as having won many credible film awards. On the other side, Ibn Arabi, who has referred to him as the designer and theorist of theoretical mysticism, systematically has explained this subject based on challenging ideas. Is there any significant link between the film and the Ibn Arabi’s thought? This study tries to identify the mutual points in the movie and Ibn Arabi’s ideas. Superficial similarities have been less considered in this paper and we try to focus only on deeper correspondences. Accordingly, based on descriptive -comparative method, three main axes have been considered, and the film has been interpreted based on them. Ibn Arabi and Nolan, ignore the conventional difference between dream and reality in their works, and present a new definition for these two concepts. In their view, merely knowing the science of interpretation is not enough to properly understand a dream, but recognizing the real state of dream and reality is determiner. They also show that the dream has a degree of creativity that can lead to creation in the world. What is ultimately found in this article is the triple relationship that leads us to the result that Ibn Arabi’s thoughts and «Inception» have serious points of correspondence on the subject of dream. And this is more considerable due to the time and cultural difference between Ibn Arabi and the film’s author.