6.3.2 - Shamsuddin Ismail Ibn Sawdakin al-Nuri

One of the first students to accompany Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi to Damascus, after the death of Bader al-Habashi, is Shamsuddin Ismail Ibn Sawdakin al-Nuri, whom he met in Egypt and lived with him in Aleppo as we’ve seen in section

efibn-sawdakin-cairo of Chapter V before, and we shall mention a brief biography of him in section

efibn-sawdakin of Chapter VII when we talk about his role in spreading his master’s teachings after he passed away.

Ibn Sawdakin tells us in the “Book of Means (al-Wasail)” that Shaykh Muhyiddin advised him once in 620 AH and warned him not to occupy himself with other than Allah, and told him that you may witness manifesting things and you may believe that you see nothing but the face of Allah in them, but all this is deception and luring, because it is not permissible to be occupied with other than Allah. If He manifested to you in something, take it from that face, but don’t remain with it [The Book of Means, p. 27].

We do not know whether this advice was given in Damascus or Aleppo, or perhaps on the way to Damascus, where it is not unlikely that Ibn Sawdakin accompanied Shaykh Muhyiddin, who apparently arrived in Damascus earlier this year or possibly in late 619 AH. In any case, we find that his son Muhammad at the beginning of this year was attending classes and hearings in the house of Shaykh Muhyiddin in Damascus, including the book of Manifestations as we will see in the following section.

In addition to that, Shaykh Muhyiddin states in the Grand Diwan that he saw Shams al-Din Ismail Ibn Sawdakin al-Nuri, in a dream on Monday night, 18 Jumada I in 620 in Damascus, and he chanted in his dream two verses of what he had heard from him and others:

I’m in a world where I don’t see you, feeling strange like the Christ amongst the Jews.

And when I see you in front on my eyes, by Allah I am in the Garden of Immortality.

[Diwan, p. 90]

These verses are a clear expression of the extent of Ibn Sawdakin’s attachment to the Greatest Shaykh and his followers, but it may also indicate that he followed his Shaykh later and was not with him at the time when he arrived in Damascus.