Muhammad Ibn Masarra is said to be responsible for the first structuring of Andalusian Spanish Muslim philosophy. The thrust of his philosophy was to show the agreement between reason and revelation. The two paths taken by honest philosophers and prophets lead to the same goal of reaching the knowledge of the oneness of God. We can only know that God exists but not what his nature is. Ibn Masarra held that the divine attributes of knowledge, will and power, are a distinct aspect of the simple and ineffable essence of God, and the Neoplatonic theory that all beings have emanated from him through the First Intellect and are either invisible or apparent. Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Masarra was born in Cordoba, Spain, in 883 ( 269 higri ) and died in 931 ( 319 higri). In a hermitage he had founded for his friends and disciples in the Sierra of Cordoba, Ibn Masarra undertook to instruct them in his doctrines, to initiate them into the use of esoteric knowledge and to practice zuhd (asceticism) through acts of penance and devotion. There are two sciences, one of the invisible, transcendental world, the other apparent and sensible world. The inner meanings in the sciences can be learned through the science of letters. By studying the enigmatic letters at the beginning of the Qur'anic surahs, one can decipher the secret knowledge of the truth symbolized by them. His success came from a Socratic style of pedagogy as well as a charismatic personality and skill in communication. After his death the jurists carried out a veritable persecution of his disciples; who had formed themselves into an ascetic order, the Masarriya, in Cordoba and later in Almeria. Two of Ibn Masarra's four works, Kitab al-i'tibar (On Reflection) and Kitab khawass al-huruf (Characteristics of Letters), were published in 1982. Both are short tracts which have provided a better understanding of his thought, but because of their conciseness they raise new questions. It is still not possible to reconstruct his philosophical system until the two remaining works are found. M. Asin Palacios, the Spanish scholar who first reconstructed an integral account of Ibn Masarra's life and thought, concluded that he was the first Andalusian to structure Spanish Islamic philosophy (hikma) and that he conveyed his doctrines in a series of batini (inward) esoteric images and symbols (Asin Palacios 1972). The centrepiece of Asin's thesis, however, was the elaboration of a whole theory of Ibn Masarra's inspiration from a pseudo-Empedocles, who had developed a peculiar form of Plotinian ideas on the One and the five eternal substances of Primal Matter, Intellect, Soul, Nature and Secondary Matter. According to Asin, Ibn Masarra was the founder of a philosophical-mystical school which influenced Jewish, Christian and Muslim medieval philosophers. Andalusian Sufism from Isma'il Al Ru'ayni (died 1268, 555 higri) to Ibn Al 'Arabi by way of Ibn Al 'Arif (died 1141,536 higri) sprang from the Masarri school. The thrust of Ibn Masarra's philosophy is to demonstrate the agreement of reason and revelation. Each takes a different path leading to the same goal, al-tawhid, the knowledge of the oneness of God. By using 'aql, the intellect with which God endowed human beings, they reflect on God's signs and rise step by step to the knowledge of the Truth. In fact, the Qur'an invites us to reflect on the signs of his creation. Reflection (i'tibar) only confirms prophecy; what is learned by authority (sama') is confirmed by investigation. Ibn Masarra admits, however, that the philosophers and the ancients had attained the knowledge of the true One well before the age of prophecy and without its mediation, a position not acceptable to the religious scholars. Ibn Masarra conceives of two sciences both created by God. One, the science of the invisible and intelligible reality ('ilm al-ghayb), which cannot be grasped by the senses, is created whole, entire and at once. The other is the science of the apparent and sensible reality ('ilm al-shahada) (Surah 6: 73). In making the distinction between God's essence and his action, Ibn Masarra established three hierarchical attributes, the highest of which is connected to God's essence and the other two to his actions. These are divinity (aluhiya), royalty (mulk) and grace (ni'ma) or creation (khalq), through which God the Artificer (al-sani') is manifested. This hierarchy is reflected in the way human society is organized. All beings are divided into four categories. First, there is the Being, or essence of God (zhat), separate, unique, ineffable, infinite and motionless. Second is the Universal Intellect (al-'aql al-kulli), which is the conception or idea of things. It is spiritual by nature and permanent. Third is the Great Soul (al-nafs al-kubra) that carries the body of the universe. Through this Soul, immersed in materiality, Royalty (mulk) is constituted and the celestial spheres are held. Finally, lower than the Great Soul is the Physical Soul (al-nafs al-tabi'iya), which is completely immersed in corporeality and is the efficient cause of corporeal beings. The Throne encloses the invisible world ('alam al-ghayb) and the Great Soul encloses the visible ('alam al-shahada). The origination of the cosmos has been achieved in time by the command 'Be' (kun), expressing the volition and will according to knowledge. When the One wants to do something, he causes it to appear in the Preserved Tablet. This in itself is the command (amr) to set the idea into action by his willing. The principles from which all creatures have come are fourteen in number, ten of which are in the sublunar world: chaos (al-'ama'), primordial dust (al-habba), which is considered by some as the materia prima, air, wind, atmosphere, water, fire, light, darkness and clay. The remaining four, the Pen (qalam), the Tablet, the Command and the Spiritual locus (makan) exist in the world above. From the fourteen are made the Throne, paradise, hell, seven heavens, earth, the angels, jinn, human beings, animals and vegetation. In his work Kitab khawass al-Huruf (Book of the Characteristics of Letters), Ibn Masarra appears as an esoteric (batini) philosopher investigating the esoteric meanings of the nuraniya, the fourteen separate letters which introduce certain surahs of the Qur'an, basically following the tradition of Islamic gnosis. The mysterious letters, according to the Batini school, represented the universe so that its entirety is a book whose letters are God's words. Reflection's (i'tibar) basic idea is to show that the different degrees that constitute beings in general correspond to the surah's fawatih (opening letters) as well as to the order of being. The twenty-eight letters are equal to the length of the lunar phases. Fourteen are exoteric and the remaining fourteen are esoteric. The steps leading to paradise and salvation are equal in number to the Qur'anic verses and to the number of God's beautiful names, excepting the great name of Allah. There is a tradition in Andalusian literature to the effect that Ibn Masarra enjoyed great respect and veneration in spite of the fact that his teachings were criticized and refuted. On the other hand, his disciples were persecuted. Transformed into an ascetic society, his disciples first in Cordova and later in Almeria put into practice his Sufi and esoteric teachings. He is certainly one of the first mystical-philosophical Andalusians. His Sufi teachings as well as his works continued to circulate and to be studied for centuries. His influence on Ibn Al 'Arabi is attested by the many references to him in the latter's works and by similarity in a number of ideas, especially in the continuous use of similes of light and illumination to describe the essence of God.
