Creativity Ibn al-‘Arabi and the Traditional Islamic Philosophy of Education

Traditional Muslim philosophy of education aims to develop the highest human potential known as khalīfatullah in Arabic. This term means ‘the representative of God on earth.’ The Islamic sapiential tradition considers ‘creativity’ to be of paramount importance for attaining this status. Although there have been a few studies highlighting the importance of inculcating creativity within the educa­tional philosophy of the Muslim World in the last few decades, very little work has been conducted to actually understand the concept of ‘creativity’ from the point of view of the Islamic Intellectual Tradition. One of the major conclusions of this work is that the method for actualizing creativity includes the inculcation of the masculine/majestic characteristics of the ‘Spirit’ and the feminine/beautiful characteristics of the ‘soul.’ These two characteristics need to be interacting in perfect balance so that human beings can be creative and strive towards perfection.