Hermeneutic Analysis of Ibn Arabi’s Theory of “Continuous Revelation” and Its Comparison with Roland Barthes’ Theory of “Open-Closed Texts”

Hermeneutic analysis (Hermeneutics) of texts is a new branch of Islamic studies that seeks to discover the messages, signs and hidden meanings of revelation and Quranic verses. The mystical views of Mohy al-Din Ibn Arabi, one of the greatest mystics of the Islamic world, are mostly based on the meta-textual hermeneutics assigned to him and interpretations far from the appearance of Quranic verses Hermeneutical views of Ibn Arabi of revelation and Quranic verses can be assayed and studied in his works including Futuhat Al Makkyyah, Fusus Al Hikam as well as the Quranic exegeses which are attributed to him. In present essay, we first study Ibn Arabi’s general perspective of “Revelation” and then continue to discuss the hermeneutic analysis of his theory of “Continuous Revelation” and finally we compare Ibn Arabi’s theory with Roland Barthes’ theory of “Open-Closed Texts”. The results of the present study show that the manifestation and emergence of the mystical theory of “Continuous Revelation” is of a literary and artistic nature and despite certain differences, one can find considerable similarities and compatibilities with the theory of “Closed-Open Texts”. To put it otherwise, this essay explains the considerable similarity of Ibn Arabi’s mystical theory of “continuous revelation” and Roland Barthes’ “closed-open texts” from the point of view of the emergence and infusion of hermeneutical meanings in/ into the reader’s mind and demonstrates that regardless of the mystical nature of the theory of “continuous revelation” its objective appearance and emergence has taken form based on the literary and artistic dimensions.

Keywords:

Ibn Arabi , Continuous Revelation , Roland Barthes , hermeneutics , Open-Closed Text