reappraisal of the phrase “aqrab al-nās ilayha ‘alī b. abī ṭālib (the nearest of the people to him is ‘alī b. abī ṭālib) on the sixth chapter of futūḥāt

in this article, while bringing up the phrase ‘aqrab al-nās ilayha ‘alī b. abī ṭālib, we would touch upon the important controversy concerning the rest of the phrase and would examine the viewpoints of both the proponents and opponents; then, we would draw a conclusion of this debate and explain that various phrases have been quoted from ibn ‘arabī and it is most likely that this difference is due to the fact that the first copy of futūḥāt had been robbed by the highway-robbers or transcribed by the copiers and its being rewritten by ibn ‘arabī in minor asia. furthermore, the predicates of the phrases are the same, because in all the quotations the first part of that which is ‘aqrab al-nās ilayha ‘alī b. abī ṭālib, is unanimous. either the phrase is in the form of imām al-‘ālam and sir al-anbiyā or in the form of asrār al-anbiyā ajma‘īn or imām al-‘ālam and sir al-anbiyā ajma‘īn, does not impair the original use and denotation of ibn ‘arabī’s phrase; the utmost feature of the term imām al-‘ālam is its emphasis on the essential proximity and competences of ‘alī (a.s.) that neither ibn ‘arabī nor any of the impartial sunnī scholars would deny.