Discourse Analysis of Ibn Arabi’s Interpretation of Quranic Verses in Proving the ‎Hypothesis of the ‘End of Punishment’‎

Ibn Arabi, in a different approach from the general commentators, denies the immortality of the torment of the Hereafter and considers it finite. The present study seeks to address what mechanisms and discourse techniques he used in his reading of the verses of the Holy Qur'an to make his hypothesis believable and compatible with the verses as well as  examining his method and the validity of his citations based on discourse critique. The study was done using a descriptive-analytical method and a discourse approach. The results of the study showed that Ibn Arabi, using theological strategies and discourse techniques in his different readings of verses with new content and language formulations of the teachings related to the immortality of torment in the Holy Qur'an, seeks to promote the discourse of ‘religious tolerance’ and to weaken the discourse of ‘intensification of religious discipline’. The most important tricks of Ibn Arabi in his reading of Quranic verses in accordance with this discourse system are: reducing and blocking the meaning of concepts and propositions, reproducing new meanings for them, highlighting the signs and consistent and marginal propositions incompatible with the author’s point of view, using monologues, inversing concepts and teachings, and naturalizing the author’s claims. It was also found that Ibn Arabi's skillful use of such tricks has led to the deconstruction of concepts and signs, the distortion of teachings, and the breaking of the bond between propositions and fragmentary discourses in a rival discourse so that he can read his preferred reading.