Eternal Love and Spiritual Pursuit: An Interpretation of Sufi Thought in “A Small Death”

Saudi writer Mohammed Hassan Alwan’s A Small Death won the 2017 International Arab Prize for Fiction. Based on the life of Sufi master Ibn Arabi, the novel combines historical materials and imagination to restore Ibn Arabi’s journey of seeking knowledge and purifying his soul, and shows his rich ideological connotation and unique insights and conveys his respect for the core Sufi teachings of love, reason and tolerance through his words and deeds. The novel mentions about important ideas in Sufi such as divine love, pantheism, and oneness of Allah, many of which have significant reference value for the Arab world today.