2.4.2.5 - Hiding His Love to Him and Showing Some Intensity

Nevertheless, and despite the fact that Shaykh Yusuf al-Kumi knew the statues of Ibn al-Arabi and that he is already honored with high knowledge and delicate spiritual states, Shaykh Muhyiddin confirms that although his Shaykh loved him very much, but he did not show it to him. On the contrary, he often show that he preferred others while expelling him, and he often criticizes his words and accepts others, and he reprimanded him in the forums and councils and kept insulting him until his companions attributed him to lack of concern, while the fact was that he is the best one of them and he was the only that excelled from that group, as Shaykh al-Kumi, may Allah be pleased with him, stated that at a later stage.

However, sometimes Shaykh al-Kumi tried to delight Ibn al-Arabi, who nevertheless was extremely respectful to the shaykhs, to the point that if he sat between the hands of his shaykh or other shaykhs, he used to tremble like a paper on the day of strong wind, and utterance of words and pronunciation becomes terrible with a feeling of numbness in his organs. We have also seen at the top how at the beginning of his career he could not read through the treatise of al-Qushayri in front of Shaykh Yusuf al-Kumi, while the Shaykh was trying to humanize him, but that did only increased his respect and reverence.