IBN AL ARABI THE BEZELS OF WISDOM

PREFACE

It may well be asked why anyone should enter a magic web to

follow the train of thought which, since it is both mystical in nature
and Arabic in style, will always remain very foreign to our own. Why
not let the experts take the trouble to analyze this work which was
considered abstruse even by some of the author’s contemporaries? To
all of that, the reply may be given: because “truth is one” and it is
spiritually comforting to discover it hidden under the most diverse
appearances. Obviously we are speaking here of spiritual and eternal
truth and not of that wholly external truth which can be measured
by science. We recognize eternal, universal truth because we find it
in the very depths of our own being, in our heart.

“The only books worth our attention are those which spring
from the heart and in turn speak to the heart,” the Sufis tell us, and
by the word ‘heart’ they do not mean the source of psychological feel¬
ings but something much more profound. ‘Heart’ can be understood
as the very center of our psycho-physical being, as the meeting-place
of soul and mind or, more precisely, as the focal point where the
mind, which in itself is all knowledge or light, is reflected in the mir¬
ror of the soul. We have anticipated, then, one of the principal themes
of the book of Ibn ‘ArabI, a work concerned essentially with the role
of various prophets in revelation. Ibn ‘Arab! names some prophets,
all of whom are mentioned in the Koran ; each one is as a vessel of di¬
vine Wisdom which, owing to this fact, takes on human nature with
its limitations, all the while remaining one and indivisible in itself.
“Water derives its color from the vessel that holds it,” Sufi al-Junaid
maintains. This law which places in opposition the light of revelation
and a plan which reflects and confines it, is repeated on every level
of the macrocosm and microcosm, of the world and of man. Now we
begin to surmise the importance of this theory for prophetic revela¬
tion.

We should point out here that the words ‘prophet’ and ‘Proph¬
ecy’ do not convey precisely the same ideas in the three monotheistic
religions. In Christianity especially, a prophet is one who foretells the
future and, more exactly, announces the coming of Christ. Now, ac¬
cording to the Koran , each prophet, including Christ, is a messenger
sent by God to a particular people. This view depends on a certain
elitism and presumes that the prophet has reached the spiritual
heights of human nature and that he is, like Adam, “God’s represen¬
tative on earth.”

The Koran places the prophets outside history, within the frame¬
work of the Unitarian message of Islam; it speaks in both general and
universal terms, as it were. Its prophets run the gamut from Adam
to Mohammed and include not only the prophets and patriarchs of
the Old Testament, but also an indefinite number of messengers sent
by God to ancient Arabic and non-Arabic nations. The Bible stories
linked to various prophets reappear in part in the Koran , but reduced
to their essential features and, as it were, crystallized into symbolic
accounts.

Ibn ‘Arab! relies on these facts from the Koran to compose what
could be called a study of the prophets. This is a central theme in the
Koran which gives first place to the stories of the prophets. It is of
equal importance to Sufic spirituality in which different prophets
correspond to various spiritual types and, consequently, to different
avenues of approach to God. The theme’s centrality together with the
spiritual scope of the author justifies Ibn ‘Arabfs contention that the
Prophet had ordered him in a dream to produce the book Bezels of
Wisdom.

It is not altogether outside the scope of our discussion to draw

a comparison between Ibn ‘Arabfs study of the prophets and the rep¬
resentations done by Christian sculptors on the portals of the Gothic
cathedrals, notably the northern doorway of Chartres which dates
from the same period as Bezels of Wisdom. The sacred dimension of the
characters is comparable in both traditions. They differ, however,
since on the Christian side, the statues look to the central figure of
Christ. Moreover, they are all located on the North side of the sanc¬
tuary so as to recall that their place is in the shadow of the Old Tes¬
tament, before the rising of the spiritual Sun who is Christ.

Ibn ‘Arabfs study of the prophets goes beyond the official the¬
ology of Islam and does not hesitate to shatter it with such ideas as
absolute divinity, which is unattainable, on the one hand, and relative
divinity on the other, which does not exist—since it is not of God
outside the polarity between Creator and creature. His study also
contains his theory of prototypes or unchanging essences, which have
no existence in pure Being but nevertheless refract it in the form of
innumerable possibilities.

Ibn ‘Arabis thinking is fundamentally Platonic; thus it is not

surprising that in his day he was given the surname “Son of Plato”
[Ibn Aflatun), apart from his title “supreme master” [ash-Sheikh al-ak-
bar\ His thought has a special stamp and lacks a certain cohesion be¬
cause it is a blending of intellectual speculation, in the true sense of
the word speculare : to reflect on intellectual reality beyond the reach
of the senses; this reflection is accompanied by ecstatic visions. Now
speculation is answerable to objective knowledge, while ecstatic vi¬
sion derives from subjective and mystical inspiration. Such inspira¬
tion is not, however, in any sense unreal.

Sometimes the two sources of knowledge coincide and bring to

the text an extraordinary spiritual depth. This is true of the first
chapter, dealing with Adam, in which the first sentence—very long
with many interjections—summarizes the entire Sufic theory on
God’s manifestation in the world. The text begins with a paraphrase
of a divine utterance, well known in Moslem esoterism, that can be
translated as: “I was a hidden treasure who longed to be known;
therefore I created the world.” Ibn ‘ArabI continues with a para¬
phrase of his own: “When God wished to consider the essences of His
titles of perfection whose number is inexhaustible—and if you prefer,
you can also say: when He wished to consider His own essence—in
a global object which, being brought into existence, sums up the
whole divine order, in order thereby to manifest His mystery to Him¬
self. . .” Ibn ‘Arab! comments: “for Being’s vision of itself within it¬
self is different from that obtained from another reality which Being
uses like a mirror. Being is made known to itself in the form resulting
from the ‘place’ of the vision; this form exists with the plan of reflec-
tion and the light which is reflected in it.” Using this principle as a
starting point, the author, still writing in the same sentence, speaks
of the creation of Adam and his receiving the breath of the divine
Spirit. Then he says: “And this is simply the realization of the capac¬
ity that such a form possesses; having been previously disposed, it re¬
ceives the inexhaustible pouring out of the essential revelation. . .”
He ends the cycle with these words: Outside the divine Reality, there
is only one pure receiver; but this receiver himself springs from the
outpouring of the Most High, for the whole of reality, from begin¬
ning to end, comes from God alone, and it is to Him that it returns
as well. . .”

Applied to prophetic revelation, this consideration indicates that

divine Wisdom is made known according to the recipient who takes
on the human form of this or that prophet. The receiving prophet
himself is of divine origin inasmuch as he is identified essentially and
in an unfathomable way with the prototype of the prophet.

This law of reciprocity between divine revelation and its human

recipient also explains the diversity as well as the transcendent unity
of religions. In this case, the receptive form which invites and com¬
pels the divine light to reveal itself in one way and not another, is the
predisposition inherent in a certain sector of humanity.

In order to avoid all misunderstanding we should point out that

the works written by Muhyl al-DTn Ibn al ‘Arabi do not have the un¬
qualified approval of all Sufis or Moslem contemplatives; we are not
speaking here of “outsiders” who totally reject Sufism in its meta¬
physical dimension. In the books of Ibn ‘Arab! and particularly in his
Revelations Received at Mecca [al-futuhat al-mekkiyah \, which is an ac¬
count of miraculous experiences, there is a quality much like heady
wine and certain Sufic masters are afraid of its effect on novices.

I should like to mention a personal recollection along these lines.

When I was and living in Fez, in the old quarter where traditional
style and clothing were still in evidence, I counted among my friends
several members of the Sufic classes. They were recruited mainly
from among skilled workers but also included among their adherents
men who were learned in the sciences which were taught at the an¬
cient Moslem university Al-Qarawiyin. Both groups frequently spoke
with great veneration of the writings of Ibn ‘Arab! whom they called
ash-Sheikh al-akbar [the supreme master]. At that time the old city was
full of souvenirs of the great Sufi who had visited it on several occa-
sions and met there some of the greatest and most mysterious spiri¬
tual men of his time. I came to know the place to which Ibn ‘Arab!
would often withdraw to pray and meditate; it was a small mosque
situated not far from the central bazaar and had within it a fountain
called ‘ain al-kheil, “the fountain of the horses,” water from which
filled a large pond. The mosque is on two levels, for Summer and
Winter, and its eight-sided minaret is built over the adjacent narrow
lane. In Fez, there are also enclosed gardens, surrounded by high
walls, like the one where Ibn ‘Arab! used to meet his friends.

One day while browsing among the bookshops opposite the great
mosque and university, I discovered a copy of the seven-volume
work, Futuhat al-Alekkiyah [Revelations Received at Mecca], the greatest
and most elaborate of the writings of Sheikh al-akbar. While paging
through, my eyes fell on a list of titles promising a description of all
the spiritual stages leading to the highest union. I bought the work
and, carrying my heavy load, found my way back through the narrow
streets of the ancient city. On the way I chanced to meet my friend
Mohammed ben Makhluf, a dervish with the profile of a hawk and
a searching glance. He immediately guessed what I was carrying.

“What are you going to do with that?” he asked me. “It is much
too advanced for you. What you need is a primer [of the spiritual
life].”

“In that case, the book shall remain on my shelf until I am wise
enough to study it.”

“When you are wise, you will no longer need the book.”

“Whom was it written for then?”

“For men who can see through walls but do not do so, nor even
wish to.”

Titus Burckhardt

FOREWORD

The Fusus al-hikam or Bezels of Wisdom , written in the later years

of Ibn al-‘Arabrs life, was clearly intended to serve as a summing up
of the Andalusian master’s mystical teachings and, as such, it is un¬
doubtedly one of his most important works, dealing, as it does, with
all the major themes of his highly original and enormously influential
thought. The work was probably composed largely in Damascus
where Ibn al-‘ArabT spent most of the last ten years of his life. For¬
tunately, a manuscript copy of the work exists which bears his sig¬
nature of approval. Being a synoptic work, the style is very
concentrated and condensed, making it a peculiarly difficult work to
translate into another language in a way which makes some sort of
sense to the non-Arabic speaking and non-Muslim reader. While it is
by no means as comprehensive as his monumental Meccan Revelations ,
which still exists in an autograph manuscript in volumes, it pro¬
vides more immediate access to an understanding of the overall
scheme and pattern of his doctrine and thus, more than others of his
works, provides the student with a unique opportunity to come to
grips with his teachings as a whole. In doing so, the student is aware
that, in grappling with the complexities of Ibn al-‘ArabFs thought, he
is dealing with an intellectual and spiritual phenomenon which, more
than any other in the world of Islam, brings together in a wonderful
synthesis a multitude of spiritual traditions and esoteric lore, both Is-
lamic and non-lslamic, and the influences of which have permeated
deeply, not only into all subsequent Sufi thinking, but also into the
fabric of Christian mysticism. Indeed, as an expression of profound
insights into the very fundamentals of our human spiritual experi¬
ence, the Bezels of Wisdom can have few equals in the spiritual liter¬
ature of the wwld.

INTRODUCTION
THE LIFE AND WORK OF
MUHYI AL-D'IN IBN AL- ARABI

The author of the Fusus al-hikam or The Bezels of Wisdom was born
on the twenty-seventh of Ramadan in A H. , or the seventh of Au¬
gust, A.D. , in the township of Murcia in Spain , which was ruled
at the time by Muhammad b. Mardanlsh. His full name was Muham¬
mad b. ‘AIT b. Muhammad Ibn al-‘ArabT al-Ta’I al-Hatiml, which
indicates that he came of an ancient Arab lineage. His father, who
may have been chief minister to Ibn Mardanlsh, was clearly a well-
known and influential figure in the fields of politics and learning.
The family seems also to have been a strongly religious one, since
three of his uncles became followers of the Sufi Way.

With the defeat of Ibn Mardanlsh at the hands of the Almohads,

Ibn al-‘ArabI’s family took the precaution of moving to Seville where,
thanks to the magnanimity of the ruler, his father very soon estab¬
lished a prominent position in the society of that city. When all this
happened, Ibn al-‘ArabT was only eight years old. It was in Seville
that he began his formal education, being sent to sit at the feet of the
contemporary masters of traditional learning. Among the subjects he
studied at this time were the Qur’an and its exegesis, the Traditions
of the Prophet, Arabic grammar and composition, and Islamic Law.
Ibn al-‘ArabT has left us quite a detailed account of his masters and the
subjects he studied. His education must have been successful, since
he later obtained employment as a secretary to the governor of Se¬
ville. At about this time he married a girl of a good family, called
Maryam. Fortunately, this new wife was also well acquainted with
men of great piety and clearly shared with her husband his aspiration
to follow the Sufi path .

Although Ibn aPArabl did not become formally initiated into

the Sufi Way until he was twenty years of age, it seems clear, especial¬
ly from the account he himself gives us of his spiritual masters, that
he had kept frequent company with the Sufis and studied their teach¬
ings from an early age . One might also deduce from his writings that
the youthful Ibn aPArabl had attained to considerable spiritual in¬
sight while still in his teens. This is shown most strikingly in Ibn al-
‘Arabl’s own account of a meeting, arranged by his father, between
him and the celebrated philosopher Averroes .

I spent a good day in Cordova at the house of Abu al-Walld

Ibn Rushd [Averroes]. He had expressed a desire to meet
with me in person, since he had heard of certain revelations
I had received while in retreat, and had shown considerable
astonishment concerning them. In consequence, my father,
who was one of his close friends, took me with him on the
pretext of business, in order to give Ibn Rushd the opportu¬
nity of making my acquaintance. I was at the time a beard¬
less youth. As I entered the house the philosopher rose to
greet me with all the signs of friendliness and affection, and
embraced me. Then he said to me, “Yes!” and showed plea¬
sure on seeing that I had understood him. I, on the other
hand, being aware of the motive for his pleasure, replied,
“No!” Upon this, Ibn Rushd drew back from me, his color
changed and he seemed to doubt what he had thought of me.

He then put to me the following question, “What solution

have you found as a result of mystical illumination and di¬
vine inspiration? Does it agree with what is arrived at by
speculative thought?” I replied, “Yes and No. Between the
Yea and the Nay the spirits take their flight beyond matter,
and the necks detach themselves from their bodies.” At this
Ibn Rushd became pale, and I saw him tremble as he mut¬
tered the formula, “There is no power save from God.” This
was because he had understood my allusion.

This passage also reveals a characteristic of Ibn al-‘ArabT that is

evident in many of his writings, namely a supreme self-confidence
that often made him intolerant of the achievements of others.

During the process of his spiritual apprenticeship he must have

studied many subjects of a mystical nature, among them the meta¬
physical doctrines of the Sufis, cosmology, esoteric exegesis, and per¬
haps the more occult sciences such as astrology and alchemy. There is
certainly much evidence of his acquaintance with such matters
throughout his works. Although much of this learning may have been
received from spiritual masters in a formal way, he must also have
culled much from example and constant association with experts in
these subjects. In addition to the more theoretical side of the Mystic
Way, Ibn al-‘ArabT and his fellow disciples were undoubtedly urged
by their teachers to cultivate and practice the rites and methods of the
orders. These would have included frequent invocation, prayer, fast¬
ing, night vigil, retreat, and periods of meditation. Such learning and
the accompanying practices often led to experiences of a supersen-
sory nature, many of which Ibn al-‘ArabT claims to have had during
his life. In order to encourage such experiences, Ibn al-‘ArabT, even
while he was still a young man in Seville, would spend long hours in
the cemeteries communing with the spirits of the dead.

The young man was no ordinary disciple, however, and the self-
confidence already referred to, together with a growing sense of his
own spiritual authority, often created a rather difficult relationship
between him and his masters. On one occasion he disagreed with his
Shaikh al- UryanT regarding the spiritual state of a certain person.
Later, in a vision, he was corrected. He himself readily admits that he
was a novice at the time.

Two of Ibn al-‘ArabT’s spiritual teachers at this time deserve spe¬

cial mention since, unusually perhaps, they were women, both of
them considerably advanced in age when he became their disciple.
One of them was Shams who lived in Marchena, the other Fatima of
Cordova. Of the latter he says, “I served as a disciple one of the lovers
of God, a gnostic, a lady of Seville called Fatima bint al-Muthanna
who lived in Cordova. I served her for several years, she being over
ninety-five years of age. . . . with my own hands I built a hut for her
of reeds, as high as she was, in which she lived until she died. She
used to say to me, ‘I am your spiritual mother and the light of your
earthly mother.’ ” A more detailed account of Ibn al-‘ArabI’s experi¬
ences at this time may be had in my translation of his own account of
this period of his life, Sufis of Andalusia.

Toward the end of this period Ibn al-‘Arabi’s own reputation as

an authority on spiritual matters was growing and he felt himself
more and more able to dispute on matters of doctrine with well estab¬
lished shaikhs. He says, “I had heard that a certain shaikh of the order
in Andalusia had denied the possibility of assuming the attribute of
self-sufficiency. On this point I disputed with him frequently in front
of his students, until he finally came round to my point of view on
the matter.”

Sometime in the s Ibn aDArabl left his native shore and

traveled in North Africa, spending his time mostly in Tunis, where
he took the opportunity of studying The Doffing of the Sandals by Ibn
Qisyi, the Sufi leader of the rebellion against the Almoravids in the
Algarve. He later wrote a large commentary on this work. During
his stay in Tunis he visited and consulted with many Sufi shaikhs. It
is possible that he met the famous Shaikh Abu Madyan at this time.

Ibn aDArabl returned to Seville from Tunis after a relatively

short time, perhaps because of political troubles in the region. On his
return to Seville he had one of those apparently chance mystical en¬
counters that characterize so many of his spiritual relationships.
While he had been in Tunis he had composed a poem about which he
told no one.

On my return to Seville ... a complete stranger came to me

and recited, word for word, the poem I had composed, al¬
though I had not written it out for anyone. I asked him who
had composed the lines, and he replied that they were by
Muhammad Ibn aUArabT. Then I asked him when he had
learned them, and he mentioned the very day on which I had
composed them, despite the great distance. I then asked him
who had recited them to him to learn. He said, “One night I
was sitting at a session of the brethren in the eastern part of
Seville, when a stranger who looked like a mendicant came
and sat with us. After conversing with us he recited the lines
to us. We liked them so much that we wrote them down and
asked him who had composed them, to which he replied that
they were being composed by Ibn al-‘ArabI in the oratory of
Ibn al-Muthanna. We told him that we had never heard of
such a place, to which he replied that it was in Tunis where
they had just been composed.”

About this time he made a pilgrimage to a shrine at Rota, on the

coast, after which he traveled once again to North Africa, this time to
Fez, where he heard news of the Almohad victory over the Christian
armies at Alarcos in . A conversation he had in Fez at this time
helps to illustrate some of the more abstruse aspects of mystical learn¬
ing with which Ibn al-‘ArabI was conversant, that of the science of
numbers and letters. “I asked a certain man of God what he thought
[of the victory]. He said, ‘God promised His Apostle a victory this
year ... in His Book ... in the words, “Surely we have given to you a
clear victory”; the glad tidings being in the two words “clear victory”
[fathan mubinan]. . . . consider the sum total of the numerical value of
the letters.’ This I did and found that the total came to [A.H., the
year of the victory].”

The following year he was back in Seville studying the Tradi¬

tions of the Prophet with his uncle. By this time he was much sought
after by aspirants to spiritual learning and many of the would-be dis¬
ciples who visited him treated him with what, Ibn al-‘ArabI thought,
was excessive formality. It is an interesting glimpse into his character
to read his account of the way in which he tried to modify their ap¬
proach to him. Speaking of one particular meeting, he says, “Their
respect for me prevented them from being relaxed, and they were all
very correct and silent; so I sought a means of making them more re¬
laxed, saying to my host, ‘May I bring your attention to a composi¬
tion of mine entitled Guidance in Flouting the Usual Courtesies , and
expound a chapter from it to you.’ He said that he would very much
like to hear it. I then pushed my foot into his lap and told him to mas¬
sage it, whereupon they understood my meaning and behaved in a
more relaxed manner.” A year later he returned to Fez, primarily to
spend time in the mosques and shrines in meditation, but also to gath¬
er with other men of the spirit to talk about their experience on the
Way. During his stay he had a strange experience of spacelessness.
On another occasion, while meeting with some others in a garden, he
claims to have met the spiritual Pole of the age. Once more he expe¬
rienced a growing sense of his own spiritual authority and also of his
special status in the spiritual hierarchy. He says of this, “I learned of
the Seal of Muhammadan Sainthood in Fez, in the year , when
God acquainted me with his identity and revealed to me his mark.”
He later had a vision in which it was revealed to him that he himself
was the Seal.

This stay in North Africa, however, was also cut short by the
threat of persecution by the Almohad rulers, who were beginning to
suspect the Sufi orders of fomenting resistance to their regime. In¬
deed, at this time, relations between the Sufis and the political rulers
were tense and uneasy, since the former often regarded the latter as
usurpers of legitimate Islamic authority and offenders against the Sa¬
cred Law. The advice generally given by the shaikhs to their disciples
was to have as little to do with rulers as possible. In his biographical
sketches of his masters, Ibn al-‘ArabT tells of the occasion when he re¬
fused to eat food the Sultan of Ceuta had provided for a Sufi gather¬
ing, which refusal almost resulted in his arrest. He also describes
the behavior of one of his shaikhs who was particularly opposed to
the rulers of the day.

Ibn al-‘ArabT probably spent the next two years or so in his na¬
tive Andalusia visiting friends and a growing number of his own dis¬
ciples. Sometime during this period he attended the funeral rites of
the philosopher Averroes, whom he had met as a young boy. Aver-
roes had died in Marrakesh and his body was brought to Cordova for
burial. Like most Sufis, Ibn aPArabl was rather skeptical of the value
of philosophical speculation and this is reflected in lines he composed
at the time of the funeral: “This is the Imam and these his works;
would that I knew whether his hopes were realized.”

The year found Ibn al-‘ArabI in Marrakesh, where he spent

some time with a certain Abu aPAbbas of Ceuta. It was during this
visit to what is now Morocco that Ibn aPArabl received the call to
travel to the East. While in Marrakesh he had a vision in which he
was told to go to Fez, where he would meet a certain Muhammad al-
Hasar whom he was to accompany to the eastern Islamic lands. On
reaching Fez, Ibn aPArabl met al-Hasar and they traveled together
in faith and hope on the road to Egypt. On the way they visited Bi-
javah and Tunis visiting fellow Sufis and old friends. They did not
linger, however, pressing on with their journey until they reached
Egypt, where they stayed in Alexandria and Cairo. Ibn aPArabl’s
companion, al-Hasar, died there , and after a brief stay, Ibn aPArabl
continued his journey alone to the holy city of Mecca.

He had not been long in the Holy City before the reputation of
his spiritual learning and authority spread among the more pious
families of Mecca, and he was soon being received with honor and re¬
spect by the most learned of its citizens. Foremost among them was
Abu Shaja Zahir b. Rustam, whose beautiful and gifted daughter was
to inspire Ibn aPArabl to write a fine collection of mystical poetry,
The Interpreter of Desires , which was later to lead to accusations that he
had written sensual love poetry. One suspects that the relationship
between Ibn aPArabl and this young woman had something of the
quality of that between Dante and Beatrice, and it serves to illustrate
a strong appreciation of the feminine in him, at least in its spiritual
aspect. This insight into the spiritual significance of the feminine is
most evident in the last chapter of the present work, where he inter¬
prets the saying of the Prophet, “Three things in this world have
been made beloved to me, women, perfume, and prayer.” He says of
the lady in question, “This shaikh had a virgin daughter, a slender
child who captivated all who looked on her, whose presence gave lus¬
ter to gatherings, who amazed all she was with and ravished the
senses of all who beheld her . . . she was a sage among the sages of the
Holy Places.”

No doubt, while Ibn al-‘ArabI was staying in Mecca, he would

have visited the Ka‘abah regularly to perform the rites and for medi¬
tation. On two of these occasions he had important experiences that
heightened his spiritual awareness and confirmed him in his feeling
that he enjoyed a special spiritual status in the cosmic scheme of
things. The first experience was a vision of the “Eternal Youth” who
represents, so to speak, the fusion of opposites, the coincidentia opposi-
torum in whose wholeness all tensions are resolved. This archetype
has, more recently, been the object of study by C. G. Jung and his
school. The second vision confirmed that it was he who was the Seal
of Muhammadan Sainthood. It is certainly true to say that, for the
Sufi world, Ibn al ‘Arabi holds a very special place, being always re¬
ferred to as the Greatest Shaikh [al-Shaikh al-akbar ], nor can there be
any doubt that his influence on all later generations of Sufis has been
enormous and crucial, especially through the work translated here
and also The Meccan Revelations [al-Futuhat al-Makkiyyah ]. However,
the relationships that were to cause such influence lay still in the fu¬
ture.

During this time Ibn al-‘ArabI would also have been deeply en¬
gaged in study and writing. Indeed, he began the composition of his
monumental The Meccan Revelations at this time. He also completed
four lesser works, including the biographical sketches of his Andalu¬
sian masters.

In Ibn al-‘ArabT left the Holy City and traveled to Baghdad,

staying there only briefly before going on to Mosul, where he spent a
year or so in study and writing, the result of which was his Mosul Rev¬
elations on the esoteric significance of ablution and prayer. Also
while he was at Mosul he was initiated for the third time.
By the year Ibn al-‘ArabI arrived in Cairo to spend some
time with friends. His reputation, however, had gone before him and
it was not one that recommended him to the religious authorities of
Cairo. The learned divines of that city denounced his teachings and
ideas to such an extent that popular reaction promised to threaten his
very life. One must understand that much of what Ibn al ‘Arabi
taught for the benefit of his fellow Sufis was unpalatable to exoteric
attitudes, seeming as it did to undermine Islamic verities. Even a cur¬
sory study of The Bezels of Wisdom will suffice to show clearly how
great was the gulf between the insights of the Andalusian master and
the received interpretations of Islamic doctrine. This sort of antago¬
nism to Ibn al ‘Arabi’s teachings has continued down to the present
day in certain circles of the Muslim World, since all mystical experi¬
ence tends to express itself, when it does so, in terms often abhorrent
to minds firmly fixed within rigid doctrinal limits. Ibn al-‘ArabT’s
life was saved, however, by the timely intercession of a friend in Tu¬
nis who wrote a letter of recommendation to the Egyptian ruler, the
Ayyubid, al-Malik al-‘Adil.

Understandably depressed and upset by these developments, Ibn

al ‘Arabi left Egypt and returned to the more appreciative society of
Mecca, there to take up his studies once more and to renew old
friendships. After some twelve months or so he traveled by way of
Aleppo to Asia Minor, arriving in the city of Konya in . Once
more the master’s by now formidable reputation went before him, so
that he was received with great honor and generosity by the ruler of
Konya, Kay Kaus. It is told of Ibn al-‘ArabI that he gave away the ex¬
pensive house allotted to him by Kay Kaus as alms to a beggar.

In a very short time the people and Sufis of Konya took the new¬
ly arrived master to their hearts, and it was as a result of the spiritual
contacts he made there that his influence became so dominant in all
later Sufism down to the present day. The key figure in this process
was the local disciple of Ibn al ‘Arabi, Sadr al-Dln al-QunawT, who
wrote extensively as a commentator on Ibn al-‘ArabI’s teachings and
who, by his later contacts with such towering exponents of oriental
Sufism as Jalal al-Dln Rum!, helped to bring about that remarkable
synthesis of oriental and Andalusian Sufism which was later to flow¬
er in writers like ‘Abd al-Karlm al-jlll.

After quite a short stay Ibn al ‘Arabi proceeded northward

through Kayseri and Siwas toward Armenia, returning southward,
through Harran, to arrive in Baghdad once more in . On his trav¬
els in northern regions Ibn al ‘Arabi relates that he saw the Euphrates
frozen over so that whole caravans could move across it.

In Baghdad he had a short, silent meeting with the celebrated au¬

thor of the Knowledge of the Mystical Sciences [‘Awarif al-ma‘arif], ‘Umar
al-Suhrawardl, at the end of which the latter described Ibn al-‘ArabI
as “an ocean of divine truths.”

In , Kay Kaus of Konya wrote to him seeking his advice re¬

garding the proper treatment of his Christian subjects, and Ibn al-
‘ArabT’s reply is very revealing of the nonmystical side of his charac¬
ter, since he advised Kay Kaus to impose on them the full rigor of Is¬
lamic Law regarding the restriction of their public worship.(This
letter serves to illustrate an important aspect of Sufism that is not
widely understood, namely that, while reaching beyond Law and
doctrine in their inward search for experience of the divine Reality,
they nevertheless recognize the necessity of law and doctrine for the
Community. ( y

After a Visit to Aleppo in , Ibn al-‘ArabI returned to Mecca

in to deal with the criticisms, which were continuing, of his col¬
lection of mystical love poems, The Interpreter of Desires. Religious
scholars objected to them as being inappropriate to religious feelings,
being, they said, too erotic for pious sensibilities. Ibn al ‘Arabi there¬
fore composed a full commentary explaining the inner meaning of his
verses. In their defense he wrote, “All our poems are related to divine
truths in various forms, such as love themes, eulogy, the names and
attributes of women, the names of rivers, places, and stars.”

During the next few months it is possible that Ibn aUArabT visit-
ed Medina and Jerusalem. However, in he was once again in
Asia Minor, meeting with Kay Kaus at Malatya, where he seems to
have spent much of the next four to five years, instructing and super¬
vising his many disciples. During the year - he was in
Aleppo, where a previous ruler had earlier treated him with great
honor. Indeed, the increasing respect and confidence shown to Ibn al-
‘Arabl by more than one ruler seems to have worsened his relation¬
ships with jealous jurists and theologians, by reason of the growing
influence this respect entailed. His own irritation with such men
emerges on several occasions from the pages of his books.

From the year until his death in November , Ibn al-

‘Arabl, by now probably exhausted from his many travels, his prodi¬
gious literary output, and the sacrifices of his calling, took advantage
of an offer by al-Malik al-‘Adil [d. ] to settle in Damascus. This
ruler’s son, al-Ashraf, continued to support Ibn al-‘ArabI after his fa¬
ther’s death. During this period of semiretirement the master used his
time to finish the massive Meccan Revelations and his major collection
of poetry, the Diwan. More relevantly, it was during this time that he
wrote The Bezels of Wisdom as the synopsis of his teachings.

As far as we can tell, Ibn al-‘ArabI married three times in the

course of his life, first Maryam, while he was still a young man in Se¬
ville; second Fatima, the daughter of a Meccan nobleman; and
third an unnamed lady, the daughter of a judge in Damascus. He
had three children, Sa‘d al-Dln, born in Malatya in and died in
; ‘Imad al-Dln, who died in ; and a daughter, Zainab. Of
these, we know only that Fatima was the mother of ‘Imad al-Dln. In
the Futuhat Ibn al-‘ArabT relates a very touching meeting with his
young daughter. “When I arrived at the meeting place, I went with a
group of people who were with me to look for them in the Syrian
caravan. My daughter caught sight of me and cried, ‘O Mother,
there’s my father!’ Then her mother looked and saw me in the dis¬
tance. Zainab went on calling out, ‘There’s my father! There’s my fa¬
ther!’ . .. When I reached her she laughed and threw her arms about
me, shouting, ‘Father! Father!’ ’’

Although Ibn aUArabf’s physical offspring may have been mod¬

est, his spiritual and literary legacy is not. Among the many Sufis
who have sought to express their insights and experiences in writing,
Ibn al-‘ArabI was, perhaps, the most prolific of all, having contribut¬
ed significantly to every aspect of Sufi thought, both qualitatively and
quantitatively. He himself lists no fewer than titles. While it is
true that many if not most of these titles are relatively small and mi¬
nor works, the list, nevertheless, includes that massive compendium
of Sufi exposition, The Meccan Revelations , which by itself would have
been considered a major contribution. Unfortunately, most of these
works exist today only in manuscript form, some of them in Ibn al-
‘Arabl’s own hand, very few having been printed, even fewer edited,
and still fewer translated into non-Arabic languages.

Therefore, the proportion of Ibn al ‘Arabi’s works available to

the non-Arabic reader is very small. Of the two most important and
definitive works, The Meccan Revelations and The Bezels of Wisdom , only
a partial translation of the latter by T. Burckhardt, La Sagesse des
Prophetes , had been published until the present translation. Transla¬
tions of small sections of The Meccan Revelations exist as quotations in
other works on Ibn al-‘ArabI. Considering that the A.H. printing
of this work contains over , pages, a translation of the whole
work would indeed be a daunting task. Partial or whole translations
of smaller and less general works are to be found in Asin Palacios, El
Islam Cristianizado [Madrid, ], in various numbers of Etudes Tradi-
tionelles , and in A. Jeffrey’s Reader on Islam [The Hague, ]. My
own contribution [before the present translation], Sufis of Andalusia ,
is biographical and not really concerned with his teachings.

Of the printings and editions of Ibn al-‘ArabT’s works, the most

readily available are Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyyah [The Meccan Revelations ]
[printed A.H. , , , and ]; A. A. Afifi’s edition of the
Fusus al-hikam [the present work] [Cairo, ]; H. S. Nyberg, Kleinere
Schriften des Ibn al-Arabi [Leiden, ], Rasa'il Ibnul ‘ Arab [Hyder-
abad-Deccan ], and the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq [Beirut, ].
Books on Ibn al ‘Arabi system of thought and spiritual teach¬
ings are also rather few. By far the best of these, especially for the
present work, is Izutsu’s Comparative Study of Key Philosophical Con¬
cepts in Sufism and Taoism, which is a very thorough and penetrating
study of The Bezels of Wisdom . A profound study of certain important
themes in Ibn al-‘Arab!’s thought is H. Corbin’s Creative Imagination
in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi [London, ]. S. H. Nasr has provided a
very useful study of Ibn al ‘Arabi in Three Muslim Sages [Harvard,
]. Two more philosophically oriented studies are A. A. Afifi’s The
Mystical Philosophy of Muhid Din Ibnul Arabi [Cambridge, ] and
S. A. Q Husaini’s The Pantheistic Monism of Ibn al-'Arabi [Lahore,
].

It is clear from the author of these works himself that his writ¬
ings are not simply the result of long mental and intellectual delibera¬
tions, but rather that of inspiration and mystical experiences, which
makes the task of translating his writings and of interpreting what he
writes a formidable one. He says, “In what I have written, I have nev¬
er had a set purpose, as other writers. Flashes of divine inspiration
used to come upon me and almost overwhelm me, so that I could only
put them from my mind by committing to paper what they revealed
to me. If my works evince any form of composition, it was uninten¬
tional. Some works I wrote at the command of God, sent to me in
sleep or through mystical revelation.” Sometimes the pressure of
mystical revelation was so strong that he felt compelled to finish a
work before taking any rest. For example, he claimed that his Hilyat
al-abddl was written in the space of an hour, that The Bezels of Wis¬
dom was all revealed to him in a single dream, and that, while engaged
in writing The Meccan Revelations , he had filled three notebooks a day.
What Ibn al-‘ArabI is claiming here is that his written works are as
much the result of spiritual revelation as of his own thought process¬
es, the implication being that any attempt to treat what he wrote as a
philosophy or ideology is doomed to failure. He would, of course,
have admitted that the language in which he expressed his inspira¬
tions owed much to the intellectual terminology of the day, educated
as it was by the various traditional and cultural influences to which
he was exposed throughout his life. This, however, only makes the at-
tempt at interpretation and classification the more difficult in that,
by fixing on the many trees of familiar words, expressions, symbols,
and ideas, one may so easily lose sight of the forest of his experience.

HIS HISTORICAL AND SPIRITUAL CONTEXT

In his works, as in his life, Ibn aLArabl bestrides the world of Is¬
lamic mysticism or Sufism like a colossus and, in doing so, brings uni¬
ty and cohesion to the phenomenon of esoteric spirituality in Islam,
drawing as he does on that great legacy of Islamic spirituality which
he inherited, and casting his own peculiar spell on all later genera¬
tions of Sufis. More than this, he brings together in his writings a
whole wealth of spiritual and intellectual disciplines that, in his own
special way, he seeks to weld together into a system of thought nota¬
ble not only for its universality and breadth, but also for its profundi¬
ty and penetration into the central issues of human experience. He
brought to his task not only a great store of traditional and mystical
learning and experience but also, in striving for solutions to the great
difficulties inherent in the divine-human enigma, a quite brilliant ge¬
nius and originality of mind. It is indeed the combination of these
two things that makes any attempt to fully comprehend the Sufi mas¬
ter so extraordinarily difficult.

Historically speaking, Ibn al-‘ArabT’s life occurred toward the

end of a major phase of Islamic development, in that only eighteen
years after his death the Mongol invasions of the Fertile Crescent
dealt a terrible blow to Islamic civilization in the East, so that, in a
sense, the great gathering together of Islamic spiritual learning in the
written works of Ibn aLArabl, before the storm of political, social,
and cultural upheaval, becomes for later, less secure, generations an
invaluable source of spiritual inspiration. Ibn al-‘Arab! represents a
culmination not only of Sufi exposition but also, in a very significant
way, of Islamic intellectual expression.

He was, however, not only a link between one phase of Islamic

civilization and another, but also—more importantly for the Sufi tra¬
dition itself—an essential link between the Islamic spirituality of the
West and that of the Oriental world, between one world influenced
more by the Classical and Neo-Classical heritage and the other influ¬
enced more by the ancient Iranian spirit and the impact of the Hindu
world.

This link was forged, as we have already indicated, when Ibn al-
‘Arabl went to spend the second half of his life in the Eastern Islamic
world and, more particularly, when his travels took him northward
into Anatolia, to Konya, which would become later the home of the
great Jalal al-Dln Rum!. More specifically, the link was created
through the meeting of the Andalusian master with his devoted disci¬
ple in Konya, Sadr al-Dln al-QunawI. It was the latter’s contacts in
later years with many of the most celebrated Persian Sufis that en¬
sured the continuing presence of Ibn al-‘ArabI’s spirit in the body of
Sufism. Al-Qunaw! was later to become the spiritual master of Qutb
al-DTn al-ShlrazT and Fakhr al-Dln al-‘lraql, both major contributors
to Oriental Sufism. He was also a close friend of Jalal al-Dln RumI,
whose monumental Mathnawi did so much to encourage the flower¬
ing of Sufi spirituality in Iran and beyond. Apart from the vital meet¬
ing of master and disciple in Konya, Ibn al-‘ArabI also had contact
both with ‘Umar Shihab al-DTn al-Suhrawardl, himself a major influ¬
ence in Sufi circles, and with Ibn al-Farid, perhaps the greatest mys¬
tical poet of Arab Islam.

Although Ibn al-‘ArabI spent so many years in the East, he was

not forgotten in the western Islamic world, since, through the medi¬
um of Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhill and his order, his influence has
been felt throughout western Islam down to the present day.

The influence of the Andalusian master, however, also spread be¬

yond the confines of the Islamic world to touch, among others, no less
a figure than Dante. Asin Palacios, in his controversial book Islam and
the Divine Comedy , seeks to show that certain elements in the work
of Dante indicate the influence of Ibn al-‘ArabT, albeit secondhand.
Indeed, it is hardly surprising that the ideas and images of so influen¬
tial a man as Ibn al-‘ArabI should have percolated into the mystical
and poetical imagery of Europe at a time when the influence of Mus¬
lim Spain, in general, was very considerable. Whether affected by
such influences or not, the celebrated German mystic Meister Eck-
hart taught a form of Christian mystical theology that in certain re¬
spects bears a striking resemblance to the monistic teachings of Ibn
al ‘Arabi. The German master, like the Andalusian master, also fell
foul of the religious authorities of his day.

All in all, the contribution of Ibn al ‘Arabi to Islamic mystical

thought and devotion was great and extensive, both in time and area,
so that there is hardly a Sufi order or teacher since his time not influ¬
enced by his perspective.

THE BEZELS OF WISDOM

The work of Ibn al ‘Arabi here presented in translation is called

in the original Arabic Fusus al-hikam , which literally translated is The
Bezels of the Wisdoms. The latter translation is too literal and is cum¬
bersome in English. In calling the translation The Bezels of Wisdom I
am following R. A. Nicholson, since it is the only English title that at
once accurately translates the Arabic title and conveys adequately the
intention of the work. T. Burckhardt has called his partial translation
of the work into French La Sagesse des Prophetesf the English version
of which is entitled The Wisdom of the Prophets , While these titles do
indeed convey, in a general way, the original Arabic and the inten¬
tion of the author, they do not convey to the non-Arabic reader the
precise meaning Ibn aLArabl wished to convey by calling his work
Fusus al-hikam. The Arabic word fass , which is the sin¬
gular form of fusus , means the bezel or setting in which the gem, en¬
graved with a name, will be set to make a seal ring. It is true that the
word can also be used to denote the gem itself, but that is not what is
intended here by the author. By calling his work Fusus al-hikam, Ibn
aLArabl means that each prophet, after whom each chapter is enti¬
tled, is the human setting in which the gemstone of each kind of wis¬
dom is set, thus making of each prophet the signet or sign, by
selection, of a particular aspect of God’s wisdom. This is expressed in
another way in the chapter headings. For example, the title of the
first chapter is “The Wisdom of Divinity in the Word of Adam.” In
this chapter the divine truth or wisdom is expressed or set in the form
or word of Adam, Adam being in this context, so to speak, a divine ut¬
terance of a particular wisdom. In this case the Word is equivalent to
the bezel in the main title.

The text I have used in translating this work is the excellent

manuscript from the Evkaf Museum in Istanbul, No. , which, ac¬
cording to a certificate of authenticity incorporated in the manu¬
script, was written down by no less a person that Sadr al-DTn al-
Qunawl and signed by the author, Ibn al-‘ArabT, in the year A.H.
.

In preparing the translation I have also used several of the many

commentaries on this work by Ibn aPArabl’s disciples and followers.
They are, first, al-Qashanl, Shark ‘ala fusils alhikam [Cairo, A.H. ];
second, Al-Fukuk by Sadr al-DTn al-QunawT [Yusuf Agha Library in
Konya, ]; third, Al-Nabulusl’s Shark jawahir al-nusus [Cairo, A.H.
-] and fourth, the Shark of al-Jaml [Cairo, A.H. -].
These commentaries have not, however, been used as quotations in
the footnotes to the translation, since the intention is to let the author
speak for himself as much as possible.

As Ibn al-‘ArabI says in the preface to the work, he composed The

Bezels of Wisdom during the year A.D. [A.H. ] after he had set¬
tled in Damascus. He says,

I saw the Apostle of God in a visitation granted to me during

the latter part of the month of Muharram in the year , in
the city of Damascus. He had in his hand a book and he said
to me, “This is the book of the bezels of Wisdom; take it and
bring it to men that they might benefit from it.” I replied,

“All obedience is due to God and His Apostle; it shall be as

we are commanded.” I therefore carried out the wish, made
pure my intention, and devoted my purpose to the publish¬
ing of this book, just as the Apostle had laid down, without
any addition or subtraction.”

Whether this means that Ibn aDArabl is claiming that he took down
what had been dictated to him in the vision, or whether he expressed
the principal themes in his own way, is not clear. Suffice it to say that
the work, apart from its arrangement into twenty-seven chapters,
lacks any real system or organization of its subject matter.

As the title suggests, the intention of the work is to present par¬

ticular aspects of the divine wisdom within the context of the lives
and persons of twenty-seven prophets. Although the first of the
twenty-seven chapters is concerned with Adam, the first of the
prophets according to Islam, and the last with Muhammad, the
prophets in between are not arranged in any chronological order. In¬
deed, they do not seem to be arranged according to any particular pat¬
tern. In some cases, for example the chapters concerned with Noah,
Moses, and Jesus, the teaching is related specifically to the lives and
utterances of those prophets, as recorded in the Qur'an, while in oth¬
ers there would seem to be very little relationship between the proph¬
et whose name appears in the chapter heading and the topics
discussed in the chapter itself.

Whatever may have been the circumstances of its composition,

The Bezels of Wisdom is clearly a most important resume or synopsis of
Ibn aPArabl’s principal themes and, as such, deserves serious atten¬
tion and careful study, and must be counted as perhaps his greatest
work, apart from the much larger and more diffuse Meccan Revela¬
tions , Distributed throughout the work are the main topics of his
teaching, the nature of God and man and their relationship, the di¬
vine Mercy, the Creative Imagination, and so forth. However, it is
precisely because the author tried to include so many cardinal points
in such a relatively short work in such an haphazard way that The Be¬
zels of Wisdom is very difficult to understand, let alone translate into
the language of another culture. The synoptical character of the work
also leads Ibn al-‘ArabI to great concentration of expression on the
one hand, and to extremes of exegesis on the other.

Indeed, it is mystical exegesis, sometimes of a startling and un¬

usual kind, that is the dominant feature of this work, since through¬
out it Ibn al-‘ArabI draws heavily on qur'anic material to illustrate his
points. In common with many other Sufi writers, he approaches the
qur'anic text in a way different from that of the more familiar exoter¬
ic commentators. That is to say, he deals with the texts on the prem¬
ise that every verse of the Qur'an has many more meanings than the
one that might be obvious to the ordinary believer, who sees merely
the surface of things. Beneath the surface, according to the Sufis,
there lies an ocean of meaning, both subtle and spiritual, that is acces¬
sible only to those whose inner eye is open, whether by divine grace
or by proper training. In this way, the Sufi considers that the qur-
'anic text acts, so to speak, as a mirror to the reader, in that the latter
will perceive in it only what his own spiritual state permits him to
see.

Thus the mystic exegete claims to see in the sacred texts mean¬
ings that are not apparent to ordinary mortals. In The Bezels of Wis¬
dom, especially in the chapter on Noah, Ibn aDArabl goes one step
further and actually interprets verses from the last part of Surah Niih
as meaning the very opposite of what the words appear to mean.
For example, interpreting the words of the Qur'an [LXXI, ], “It
only increases the oppressors in confusion,” he sees them as meaning,
“It only increases those who oppress their own souls by self-denial in
spiritual perplexity.” Now it is quite clear from the context of this
verse that such an interpretation could have been arrived at only by
completely ignoring the context, and also the meaning the words
“oppressors” and “confusion” have throughout the Qur'an. Here
we see Ibn aDArabl at his most “perverse” in forcing the issue of the
Oneness of Being according to which all contrast and opposition is
resolved in the coincidentia oppositorum.

In much the same spirit, Ibn al-‘ArabI is not afraid, in The Bezels
of Wisdom, to express his ideas in ways equally unacceptable to the re¬
ligious establishment. One has only to mention his treatment of such
ideas as the apparent conflict between the divine Will and the divine
Wish or Command, the very interesting and challenging notion of
“the god created in belief’ and the suggestion, in the last chapter,
that it is in woman that man may most perfectly contemplate God,
to see that a work like this would be open to all manner of misinter¬
pretation and misunderstanding. This is because, in the last analysis,
the implications of Ibn al-‘ArabI’s teachings on such subjects are in
danger of leading the reader far beyond the familiar borders of tradi-
tional Islam into realms of spiritual universality and direct experi¬
ence in which dogmatic certainties suffer the torments of the mystical
perplexity, mentioned above. In the author’s defense, it must be said
that such works as The Bezels of Wisdom were certainly not intended
for public consumption, but rather for his fellow Sufis, who knew
how to deal with the apparent theological dangers implicit in it. Ibn
al ‘Arabi knew better than most the essentially incommunicable na¬
ture of mystical experience, and it is clear from his letter of advice
to the ruler Kay Kaus that he recognized fully the validity and neces¬
sity of Islamic doctrine and law. This contrast, and apparent con¬
flict, between daring mystical expression and a more sober caution is
illustrated in two poems in The Bezels of Wisdom. In the first he utters
what appears to be pure heresy in the line, “I worship Him and He
worships me,” while in the second he warns against spiritual infla¬
tion with the words, “Be the servant of the Lord, not the lord of the
servant.” Despite this, however, Ibn al-‘Arabi, like other Sufis be¬
fore him and like Meister Eckhart in Christendom, was often the ob¬
ject of extreme suspicion and passionate denunciation, as during his
visit to Cairo in A.D. .

However, despite the undoubted profundity and originality of

this important work, there is no denying that the overall impression
on the reader is one of a lack of proper organization and continuity.
As has already been observed, the subject matter of most of the chap¬
ters bears little or no relation to the name of the prophet in the title.
Indeed, there is often but scant connection between the subjects dis¬
cussed in a chapter and the particular Wisdom of the title. Within the
chapters also there is often a considerable measure of discontinuity in
the topics dealt with. The main themes of his thought occur again and
again from chapter to chapter in a rather haphazard way. It is for
these reasons that I have tried, in my introductory notes, to isolate
from each chapter the most important themes and to introduce them
within the context of his own thought.

In addition to the general lack of organization, the reader is also

likely to be sorely tried by the devious and tortuous methods Ibn al¬
‘Arabi employs in commenting on and interpreting not only material
from the Oiir'an and elsewhere but also the associated meanings of the
Arabic words themselves.

All in all. The Bezels of Wisdom is a difficult and perplexing work,

requiring considerable patience, sublety, and imagination from the
reader, who must be prepared to follow the Sufi master along all the
tortuous alleyways of his thought and exposition. Nevertheless, the
work also affords many profound and often amazing insights into the
deeper and more recondite aspects of mystical experience and expres¬
sion.

It is recommended that the reader refer frequently to the qur-

'anic passages quoted in such a piecemeal fashion in this work, in or¬
der to form a clearer picture of the context.

HIS THOUGHT

Any attempt, at the present time, to define the nature of Ibn al-
‘ArabT’s thought or to assess its significance must, of necessity, be a
tentative one, since no really satisfactory appreciation of his system of
mystical thought will be possible until the immense task of editing
and interpreting his many still unpublished works is nearer to com¬
pletion, or, at least, until an exhaustive study has been made of The
Meccan Revelations , Athough he was, without doubt, a thinker of
great stature and although there has come down to us a considerable
corpus of his works, comparatively little study has been devoted to
him. The student of Ibn al-‘ArabI has to approach what has been said
of him previously with caution and to be constantly aware of the pro¬
visional nature of his own conclusions. A. J. Arberry summed up the
situation very well when he said,

When all is said and done, however, it remains indisputably

true that thorough research on this the greatest mystical ge¬
nius of Islam is still in its infancy, and there are few subjects
in the whole field of human studies more attractive to the
student or more likely to yield important results. Ibn ‘Arab!
may be compared to an unexplored mountain peak. Much of
the territory on all sides is known, but it has yet to be deter¬
mined by what precise paths the way to the summit lies, or
in what remote heights those fountains spring that well into
the mighty river of all subsequent mystical thought, Muslim
and Christian alike.

In more recent years this situation has been improved somewhat by

the excellent work of H. Corbin and T. Izutzu.

This neglect of one who is undeniably one of the greatest figures

in the Muslim mystical tradition and probably one of the world’s
greatest mystics is a curious one in view of the fact that so much more
attention has been given to other great exponents of Sufism, such as
Ghazall and Ruml.

The reason for this neglect can probably be traced to the daunt¬
ing nature of the task facing the would-be exponent. First of all, there
is the enormous corpus of written material, not only by the master
himself, but also by the many commentators and disciples who came
after him. Second there is the bewildering diversity and richness of
his sources and, last, the variety of levels at which he expresses his
teachings, reflecting his brilliant originality of thought together with
his profound spiritual experience. The first requires of the student
both a good knowledge of the Arabic language and a thorough ac¬
quaintance with Sufism—not to speak of time. The second requires a
reasonable knowledge of comparative mysticism, Neoplatonism, as¬
trology, alchemy and some of the other more obscure sciences of the
Middle Ages. The last requires, if not an actual experience of the
mystic path, then at least some real sympathy and insight into its
premises and aims.

Ibn al ‘Arabi’s two main sources were, by his own admission, the
Qur'an and the Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. In this he fol¬
lowed established Sufi practice and, by so doing, confirms the Mus¬
lim origins of his inspiration. These sources, however, he freely
interpreted, both linguistically and theologically, to corroborate his
spiritual experience. In common with other Islamic thinkers of the
time, whether philosophers or theologians, he draws heavily for
many of his terms and concepts on the Neoplatonic writers, includ-
ing the celebrated and wrongly attributed rheology of Aristotle , The
relationship, however, between the original connotations of the terms
and those he gave them is still by no means established. As an initiat¬
ed Sufi, he also drew much inspiration from both Andalusian and
Eastern exponents of the Sufi tradition. Of the former the most
prominent were Ibn Barrajan and Ibn aUArlf, while of the latter
al-Tirmidhl, al-Hallaj, and al-Bistami are frequently quoted by
him. Within the pale of orthodox Islam, the Masha’is and the
‘Ash‘aris exerted some influence on his thinking, while among the
less orthodox, the various schools of the Isma ilis and the Brethren of
Purity seem to have left some mark.

Although not definitely established, it is quite possible that Ibn

aDArabl used material from the Jewish writers of the Kabbalistic tra¬
dition, especially in his studies on the mystical significance of the let¬
ters of the alphabet. Similarly, some of his cosmological ideas would
seem to suggest some acquaintance with the Gnostic tradition in
Christianity. Another possible source of inspiration, but one that has
been little studied, is that of the various schools of Hinduism and,
perhaps, Buddhism. Both Hindu and Buddhist ideas must be assumed
to have infiltrated into the Muslim world, and it is of particular in¬
terest to note that an Arabic version of a Persian translation of a San¬
skrit work on Tantric Yoga has been attributed to Ibn aDArabl. In
this connection also, his important theory of the Creative Imagina¬
tion bears a striking resemblance to the Hindu concept of maya It
is certainly true that a comparative study of Hindu and Sufi meta¬
physics often produces some surprising parallels.

All of these sources and influences appear in various guises with-

in his works where they become grist to the mill of his own unique
enunciation of a vision of the Oneness of Being [wahdat ak-wujud). It
requires only a general survey of his works to realize that he managed
to combine in himself the genius and resources of the philosopher,
the poet, the traumaturge, the occultist, the theologian, and the prac¬
tical ascetic. He combines the scholastic expertise of GhazalT with the
poetic imagery of Ibn al-Farid, the metaphysical daring of al-Hallaj
with the stringent orthodoxy of al-Muhasibl, the abstract categories
of the Neoplatonists with the dramatic imagination of RumI, and the
abstruse science of the Kabbalist with the practical wisdom of the
spiritual guide.

A further difficulty presents itself in dealing with the writings of

Ibn al-‘ArabI and that is the degree to which he inevitably restrained
himself in expressing certain of his experiences or disguised them in
elliptical language to avoid serious charges of heresy from the reli¬
gious authorities. He refers to this when he says, “This kind of spiri¬
tual insight and knowledge must be hidden from the majority of men
by reason of its sublimity. For its depths are far reaching and the dan¬
gers involved great.”

Too often various studies on Ibn al-‘ArabI’s thought have been

limited to one or another aspect of his teaching, to the exclusion or in¬
sufficient appreciation of other dimensions. Thus, A. A. Afifi and T.
Izutzu, in their different ways, see in him a predominantly philo¬
sophical thinker, while H. Corbin, in his very timely appreciation of
Ibn al-‘ArabI’s intuitive and imaginative genius, does not fully recog¬
nize his undoubtedly precise and systematic mind. As has been the
case with mystics of other traditions, so also with Ibn al-‘ArabI, West¬
ern scholars have too often tried, rather unsuccessfully, to judge him
by the criteria of rational philosophy and to understand his concepts
within that framework, ignoring in the process his own frequent
criticism of rational approaches to reality and forgetting that most
non-Western religious traditions have very different perspectives
from our own. The very systematic way in which he expressed his
ideas, his use of familiar philosophic terms, and his often apparently
philosophic train of thought have led certain scholars to suppose that
he was primarily a philosopher, whereas, on his own testimony, he
was first and foremost a mystic. T herefore, in attempting to form a
comprehensive picture of Ibn al-‘ArabT’s contribution to Islamic
thought, one must take into consideration all aspects of it, and not
simply concentrate on that which is immediately familiar.

Above all, it is the mystical and therefore experiential dimension

underlying the whole of Ibn al-‘ArabT’s work that must necessarily
prove the greatest obstacle to any thorough comprehension of his
teachings, since the most essential experience of spiritual mysteries is,
by the very nature of the case, incommunicable except, in the last
analysis, to those who have shared in the same or a similar experience.
This is, of course, the dilemma faced by all nonparticipant students of
mysticism in whatever tradition. Ibn al-‘ArabT himself draws atten¬
tion to this in The Meccan Revelations: “Knowledge of mystical states
can only be had by actual experience, nor can the reason of man de¬
fine it, nor arrive at any cognizance of it by deduction, as is also the
case with knowledge of the taste of honey, the bitterness of patience,
the bliss of sexual union, love, passion or desire, all of which cannot
possibly be known unless one be properly qualified or experience
them directly.” This means, in effect, that however good one’s
knowledge of Arabic, Islam, history, or comparative religion may be,
one must realize, in trying to understand Ibn al-‘ArabT’s thought, that
all the external and relatively familiar forms of his exposition, draw¬
ing as he did on the intellectual koine of the period, are no more than
vehicles of expression, imperfect ones at that, for the realities he
claimed to have experienced.

It remains, having explained the many factors to be taken into ac¬

count in studying Ibn al-‘ArabI, to consider the main themes of his
teaching, indeed those themes that dominate The Bezels of Wisdom ,
which he composed as a synopsis of his principal ideas.

Of his main themes, the one that predominates over the rest and
to which they are subordinate is that of the Oneness of Being [wahdat
al-ivujud\. The concept of the Oneness of Being is an all-embracing
one, in that all Ibn al-‘ArabT’s other concepts are but facets of it, just
as he would say that all distinction, difference, and conflict are but
apparent facets of a single and unique reality, the “seamless garment”
of Being, whose reality underlies all derivative being and its experi¬
ence.
Certain Sufi writers seem to think that there is an important dif¬
ference between this concept of the Oneness of Being and that of
wahdat al-shuhud or the Oneness of Perception, having regard to a
very important tension in human experience between perception and
being, subject and object, the knower and the object of knowledge.
Ibn al ‘Arabi, however, in coining the term wahdat al-wujud [Oneness
of Being], did not intend to make any distinction but, by choosing the
word wujud , to convey the meaning of the Oneness of both Being and
Perception in the perfect and complete union of the one and only Re¬
ality [al-haqq]. This is because the Arabic root word wajada carries
both ideas, that of being and therefore objectivity, and that of percep¬
tion and therefore subjectivity, both of which he sees as being one in
the Reality. Of this sole and, essentially, undifferentiated Reality,
Ibn al-‘ArabI does not use the word Allah or God, since to speak of di¬
vinity, as is evident in this work, is also to imply that which is not di¬
vine and thus to introduce differentiation, polarity, tension, and
ultimately conflict. Naturally, since the experience of differentiation
and polarity is inevitably an aspect of the whole and complete Reali¬
ty, and since we are, as human beings, patently a part of that aspect,
Ibn al-‘ArabI necessarily spends much of the time writing about the
macrocosmic and microcosmic implications of that aspect of the Re¬
ality, the divine and the nondivine, the substantial and the accidental,
the existent and the nonexistent, and so forth. He is, however, con¬
stantly returning from such considerations of a differential nature to
his great underlying concept of the sole perfect and complete Reality,
which is its own sole Being and its own sole Perception of its own Be¬
ing, a concept succinctly expressed in the Hindu term sachidananda
[Being-Consciousness-Bliss]. As has already been mentioned, in re¬
turning to this concept, Ibn aDArabl often makes statements that
scandalize those of the religious whose outlook is irrevocably fixed in
an attitude of distinction and differentiation.

This characteristic and fundamental concept of Ibn al-‘ArabT has

led Western scholars, at various times, to categorize or to attempt to
categorize his teachings in different ways. Many have called him a
pantheist, while others have, perhaps more accurately, assigned the
term “monism” to his thought. Although helpful in certain ways, this
sort of categorization according to Western criteria impedes rather
than assists in understanding his vision of Reality. To say that he was
a pantheist is to ignore his often strongly transcendental view of di¬
vinity. What he says of the relationship between the Cosmos and God
is that the Cosmos is not and cannot be other than God, not that it is
God or that God is the Cosmos. His doctrine of the Oneness of Being/
Perception means that the sole, whole Reality is far more than the
sum of its parts or aspects and that, however things may seem from
the standpoint of differentiated being or perception, all being is noth¬
ing other than Its Being, and all perception, however limited, is noth¬
ing other than the Perception in a particular mode.

Within the context of the Real, however, there is eternally being

played the great drama of polarity with all its implicit experience of
relationship, affinity, tension, and conflict. The original emergence
of the principle of differentiation within the Reality is accounted for
by the Sufis according to the Holy Tradition: “I was a hidden trea¬
sure, and longed to be known, so I created the Cosmos.” This tradi¬
tion indicates that the primordial and fundamental polarization to
take place within the Reality is that of Self-consciousness, that is to
say the original Self-polarization of the Reality into subject and ob¬
ject, knower and known. This is by no means as simple as it sounds,
since it is not a question of the one being active and dominant while
the latter is passive and dominated, as often tends to be assumed in
our consciousness-oriented society, but there is rather a relationship
of mutual conditioning going on by which each, at once, experiences
and determines the other.

Furthermore, because each of the poles is nothing other than the

Reality, each must imply, potentially and latently, the other within it¬
self. The process of Self-polarization is then one by which each pro¬
jects onto the other what is latent of the other within itself. There is
of course, at this stage, no real otherness, since it is a case of divine
Self-consciousness for which the principle of otherness is simply for
Self-realization, as is the case with human self-awareness. In dealing
with this matter, as also its cosmic and human reverberations, Ibn al-
‘ArabT often uses the image of the mirror in attempting to explain this
process. More importantly, however, he uses two other powerful
images, the one more masculine and the other distinctly feminine in
its connotations.

The first of these images is that of the Creative Imagination or

khayal by which the essentially latent images of reality are projected
onto the screen of the illusion of otherness, so that the divine might
perceive Itself as object. Thus this Imagination is no less than the
link between the Real as perceiver and knower and the Real as object
and what is to be known, between the creator and the created, wor¬
shiped and worshiper. It is, indeed, that which effects the apparent
alienation of the Real as consciousness from the Real as becoming
and, as such, may be said to be the very principle of creation itself,
creation, that is, in the sense of polarization in divinis , since, for Ibn
al-‘Arab, nothing is ultimately other than the Reality. Indeed, for
Ibn al ‘Arabi, there is no such thing as creatio ex nihilo in the usual
sense, since all that is thus caused, apparently, to exist derives from
their essences implicit within the divine knowing, which although
they may be nonexistent are, nevertheless, of the Reality. In being
released into existence by the Creative Imagination they become con¬
firmed by being recognized by the divine Subject, just as the con¬
sciousness implicit, essentially, without being finds its own
corroboration in the affirmation by “created” being of the Supreme
Consciousness. Distant echoes of this original and fundamental Cre¬
ative Imagination in the human sphere are the dreaming of the sleep¬
er, the vision of the craftsman, and the fantasies of the Walter Mitty.

The second striking image Ibn aUArabT uses to illustrate the

original process of Self-realization is similarly inspired by the Holy
Tradition quoted above, although in this case the image is more
earthy and immediate. Having stated that the origin of the divine
longing to be known is love, he goes on to describe the precreative
state of the Reality as one of anxiety or distress [karb\ of a primordial
labor pressing for birth and manifestation, of an original urge to over¬
flow, to pour out into patent existence the realities latent within.
This birth image is reinforced when Ibn al ‘Arabi describes the re¬
lieving of the distress as a breathing or sighing \tanaffus ], which at
once expresses and relieves the distress. * * He goes on, however, to
call this creative and existential exhalation the Breath of the Merciful
[nafas al-rahman\ and Ibn al ‘Arabi, with his keen insight into the
meanings of Arabic roots, cannot have been unaware of the basic
meaning of the root rahima , which is the womb, the meaning of mer¬
cy being derivative. Indeed, for him, the term “mercy” [ rahmah ] did
not simply denote an attitude or feeling of compassion, as usually un¬
derstood, but rather the very principle of creation by which all cre¬
ated things exist and by which all the latent potentialities within the
“divine mind” are released into actuality, as objects of the divine per¬
ception and witness. For Ibn al-‘ArabT, then, love and mercy, both of
which require polarity and relationship, that is to say they require
“another,” an object, lie at the center of the creative process. How¬
ever, as if to complete the circle of Self-realization, the love and com¬
passion for “the other” leads inevitably to the longing for reunion, for
the obliteration of otherness in oneness. Thus, the bipolarization of
the Reality into divine subject and “created” object leads once more
to reidentification in the One Real, but this time enriched and en¬
hanced by the experience of Self-consciousness. Thus, also, the
Mercy operates in two directions, outwardly in creating the neces¬
sary object of the divine love, which Mercy is called rahman , and in¬
wardly in reestablishing the original synthesis of the Reality, which is
called rahlm. llr Although the latter is also a movement of love, a long¬
ing for reunion, it nevertheless threatens the otherness of the object,
thus appearing to the object in its otherness as wrath and destruc¬
tion. Thus we have here that eternal enigma and paradox, the re¬
verberations of which are manifest in all human relationships, of the
double and inevitable necessity of otherness and nonotherness for
love, whether divine or human, which creates the tension necessary
for the experience and awareness of Self-consciousness, whether di¬
vine or human. As we shall see, however, divine Self-consciousness or
identity is Self-subsistent, whereas human identify is truly other-re¬
lated.

Yet another image used by Ibn al-‘ArabI, and one he shares with
many other Muslim and Sufi writers, is that of the divine Pen, equat-
ed with the Universal Intellect of Hellenistic philosophy, and the
Tablet, which was equated with Universal Nature. In all these im¬
ages, Ibn aDArabl, as a Muslim mystic, naturally regards the con¬
sciousness pole as active and dominant and therefore primarily
divine, and the becoming pole as passive and dependent, so that the
relationship between the Cosmos as created object and God as creat¬
ing subject is envisaged within the context of the patriarchal perspec¬
tive in which woman, as the human image of Universal Nature, is
always seen as being derivative from and dependent on man, as the
human agent of the Spirit. In certain passages, however, it is clear
that Ibn al-‘ArabI was well aware that, within the context of the pri¬
mordial polarity, the dependence, as between the two poles, is mutu¬
al, and not as one-sided as traditional attitudes compelled him to
suggest. This awareness is more obvious when he writes on the sub¬
ject of the Oneness of Being.

This leads to a consideration of the various terms Ibn al-‘ArabI

uses in discussing the matters outlined above. When speaking of the
Reality within the context of the Oneness of Being, or of the Reality
as contrasted with that which imagines falsely that it is real or that it
is other or separate from the Reality, he calls it al-Haqq [the Real, the
Reality, the True]. When he is writing about the Reality as polar¬
ized into the spiritual or intellectual pole and the cosmic or existential
pole, he calls the former God [Allah] or the Creator [al-Khaliq] and the
latter creation [ khalq ] or the Cosmos [al-'alam]. The term Allah is
also the Supreme Name, the Name of names, which as the title of di¬
vinity establishes the whole quality of the relationship between the
two poles, the one being divine and necessary while the other is non¬
divine and contingent. The other Names represent the infinite as¬
pects or modes of the relationship in its infinite variety of qualities.
The term Allah, however, when used precisely by Ibn al ‘Arabi, is not
the same as the Reality, since, as he would say, divinity as such is in a
state of mutual dependence with that which affirms or worships it as
divine. The same is true of the term “Lord” [rabb], which denotes
not the universal position of the Creator God vis-a-vis creation, Cos¬
mos, but rather the particular position of a particular aspect of God
vis-a-vis a particular, individual creation, so that, while Allah is the
God of creation as a whole, the Lord denotes a private and special re¬
lationship between a particular creature and its corresponding arche¬
type in divinis. The status of Lord, however, like that of divinity, is
dependent on the existence of the slave or servant [‘abd ], since domin¬
ion requires what is dominated and thus has no function outside the
context of the polarity discussed above. Indeed, all such distinctions
are unreal as far as the Oneness of Being is concerned, something of
which Ibn al-‘ArabI never tires of reminding his reader.

Another of his important themes that relate to the primordial po¬

larity of Divinity-Cosmos is his, in certain quarters, highly controver¬
sial teachings on the subject of the Divine Will. This he divides into
two aspects or modes, one of which he calls the Will [al-mashVah\ and
the other the Wish [ al-iradah ]. Alternatively, he calls the first the
Creative Command [al-amr al-takwirii\, and the second the Obligating
Command [al-amr al-takltfi]. l> The Will of God, as opposed to the
Wish of God, is the infinitely creative power that effects the endless
becoming of the primordial other in all the complexity of its aspects
and derivations. It is indeed the volitive aspect of the creating Mercy,
and everything it wills comes into existence, there being no question,
in the case of the Will, of obedience or disobedience, being purely ex¬
istential in its effects. The Wish of God, however, or the Obligating
Command, is concerned not so much with creation as with reintegra¬
tion and concentration. This Obligating Command has everything to
do with obedience and disobedience, since conformity with the Di¬
vine Wish is the sine qua non of salvation, which is to say the salva¬
tion of man, whose place in Ibn al ‘Arabi’s scheme will be considered
below. It is clear from this that this notion of the two modes of the
Divine Will implies considerable tension between the two modes and
presents theology with a major paradox. In other words, while the
Will is dedicated to cosmic actuality, irrespective of its implications
for faith, morality, or ethics, the Wish demands the recognition of
certain truths and behavior appropriate to such recognition, the one
serving the existential pole of the Reality, the other the sapiential or
spiritual pole.

Linked very closely with these two ideas is another pair of con¬
cepts, namely that of Destiny [ al-qadar] and Decree [al-qada\ the
latter being that power which determines what shall be and not be in
existence, while the former determines more exactly when, where,
and how such coming into existence will be. In certain respects,
therefore, the concepts of Destiny and Decree may be regarded as
modes of the divine Will and Wish, especially the former. Thus, Des¬
tiny and Decree may be said to concern more the realization of the
creative process in actuality, while the Will and the Wish are con¬
cerned with the subjective intention to create .

At first glance this theory of creation might seem to be unduly

deterministic and to leave no room for freedom of action or determi¬
nation by the creature, especially man. It is therefore very necessary
for any proper understanding of Ibn al-‘ArabI’s thought in this re¬
gard to bear two things always in mind. The first of these is his con¬
cept of the latent essences or archetypes, and the second is the
fundamental and all-pervading concept, already discussed, of the
Oneness of Being . It is in the concept of the latent essences that
there lies the mystery of free will and divine omniscience. Indeed,
this concept is one of the most important of Ibn al-‘ArabT’s contribu¬
tions to Sufi metaphysics. The latent essences are the potential, la¬
tent, nonexistent ideas or archetypes, within the divine
consciousness, of all actual, apparent, created things in the projected
Cosmos. Thus each created, existent thing is not something in itself,
independent and isolated, but rather the existential becoming or actu¬
alization of an essential, potential, and latent reality that, hidden
within the divine consciousness, constitutes, so to speak, the inner ob¬
ject of Self-knowledge, the essential core of divine identity. Once
again, the existent thing and its latent archetype form yet another po¬
larity of mutual dependence, since the former depends utterly on the
latter for its reality and essence, while the latter depends on the for¬
mer for its becoming and existence. Thus, the one is the outer and the
other the inner mode of the one real object .

Since, therefore, each one of us, as created beings, also has eternal
and essential being in divinis and since, in our essential latency, we
cannot be anything other than what God is and, furthermore, as con-
stituents of the inner object of His knowledge we contribute to what
He knows Himself to be—which knowledge, in turn, informs the di¬
vine Will and Decree—we therefore share in the most essential way,
by our inevitable essentiality, in the divine free will . As Ibn al-
l ArabT says, quoting the Qur’an, ultimately and originally, in divinis ,
the responsibility for what we are and how we are falls on us, since,
in our latent essences, it is we ourselves who contribute to the divine
knowing the very data that is the basis on which God ordains the na¬
ture and term of our becoming and existence . Of course, as has
been mentioned above, this view of our own eternal answerability as¬
sumes the the undifferentiated and inalienable reality of the Oneness
of Being, in which the whole dialectic of self-other is fused into the
unimaginable and inexpressible experience of the Reality. Connected
with this question of existence-latency is the further concept of eter¬
nal predisposition [isti'dad ], which means that each created thing, in
its state of existence, is and can be no more or less than it is eternally
predisposed to be or become in aeternis . In relation to the Obligat¬
ing Command, as opposed to the Creative Command, this means, for
example, as the Qur’an itself indicates, that only those will heed the
call to God who are, from eternity, predisposed to do so, which idea
would seem to make nonsense of any notion of divine punishment
and reward . The concept of predisposition, however, is closely
linked with the notion of our implicit and essential participation in
the forming of our own destiny within the cosmic context. Thus, we
mortals in our apparent state of otherness and separation, while seem¬
ingly pawns of the divine Will, are, in reality and essentially, none
other than He Who wills.

In all these pairs of concepts, in their polar interrelationships, we

can perceive another aspect of the original polarization within the Di¬
vine Self or the Reality, and that is the paradoxical and problematic
tension between the divine Self-manifestation or Theophany [ tajalli ]
and the divine Self-reservation or occultation, between the longing to
experience Itself as object and other and the insistence on maintain¬
ing uniqueness and singularity of identity, or between the urge to
pour out Its infinite possibility into actuality and the necessity to re-
tain the absolute inalienability of Its Truth. This tension is indeed the
tension between polarization and nonpolarization, between an abso¬
lute consciousness that would contain all object latently and essential¬
ly within Itself and an infinite becoming that would absorb all
subject into the infinite process of Self-actualization. Thus the abso¬
lute subject is eternally seeking to define and order the infinite be¬
coming of the object with a view to annihilating its otherness, while
the infinite object is eternally striving to relativize and involve the ab¬
solute knowing of the subject with the intention of ending its detach¬
ment. Needless to say, all these tensions, together with all the
complex mutual experience they entail, are at once resolved in and a
harmonious part of the Reality Itself.

These observations lead naturally to a consideration of the sub¬

ject of man in Ibn al-‘ArabT’s thought, since, within the context of the
divine-cosmic polarity, man, and especially the Perfect Man, consti¬
tutes the all-important link or medium between the two poles of Re¬
ality; the Isthmus [barzakh] as Ibn aDArabl calls him . Having
called man the link, however, it is necessary to point out that any link
is important only so long as it serves to effect communication and re¬
lationship between things that are real in themselves, the link itself
having no meaning per se, except by reference to the things it links.
Thus man, considered in himself and by himself, is an absurdity,
while assuming enormous significance when considered within the
context of the polarity God-Cosmos.

The human condition, then, considered not as something in itself

but only within the proper frame of reference, is at once representa¬
tive of both poles and of the interrelationship between them, all of
which confers on it, potentially, the most important status of all, in
that as link it constitutes, so to speak, the microcosmic experience of
the Reality Itself. On the other hand, when falsely regarded as an en¬
tity in itself, it is none of these things and an absurdity. Thus man
may be said to combine in himself, simultaneously, the possibility of
supreme significance and utter insignificance, just as he combines in
himself a strong sense of the Absolute and the Infinite, without being
either. Half animal and half angel, he serves to transmit to the Cos¬
mos the truth of the divine subject, while also acting as the reflecting
image of the cosmic object to the divine observer. As the first, he is
God’s agent and vicegerent, while as the second he is His obedient
slave. As representative of Heaven, as mouthpiece of the divine
Word, man is male, while as representative of Earth, man is female, so
that just as Earth or the Cosmos came forth from God the Creator, so
did Eve, the woman, come forth from Adam . At the heart of his
humanity, however, man is both vicegerent and slave, male and fe¬
male, spiritual and sensual, in one human selfhood, being never either
one exclusively or completely . Whatever his degree of spiritual at¬
tainment, man remains, in his human nature, forever a slave, and
whatever the degree of his involvement in the Cosmos, he remains, in
his human spirit, an agent, and it is his charge never to forget either
aspect on pain of absurdity and nothingness. It is precisely the Per¬
fect Man who perfectly combines within himself, in harmony, Heav¬
en and Earth within the context of the realization of the Oneness of
Being, who is at once the eye by which the divine subject sees Him¬
self and the perfectly polished mirror that perfectly reflects the di¬
vine light .

The Perfect Man is, thus, that individual human being who real¬
izes in himself the reality of the saying that man is created in God’s
image, who combines in his microcosmic selfhood both the macrocos-
mic object and divine consciousness, being that heart which, micro-
cosmically, contains all things essentially, and in which the Reality
eternally rediscovers Its wholeness . He is also, at once, the original
and ultimate man whose archetype and potential for realization is in¬
nate in every human being . Most human beings, however, are
caught up in the currents of tension and interrelationship between
the two poles, which meet and struggle in the human state, forever
forgetting, in their vice-regal sense of identity, that they are also cre¬
ated slaves, and always shirking, in their cosmic animality, their re¬
sponsibility as spiritual beings.

As a spiritual being, man shares with God, in Whose image he is

created, in the divine power to create, as also in the power to articu¬
late and give expression to knowledge and consciousness. As regards
creative power, man’s share in it is twofold. First, at the animal level,
his natural instincts urge him, for the most part unconsciously and
involuntarily, into the cosmic process of life and death. Second, at the
spiritual and intellectual level, man’s intelligence prompts him to im¬
press on the Cosmos the forms and images of his own imagination
and awareness. In the case of high spiritual attainment this human ca¬
pacity may become a microcosmic channel of the divine creative act.
This spiritual power is called by Ibn aPArabl himmah , a word that is
rather difficult to translate accurately into English . Its reflection at
the purely mental level is the ability to concentrate mental energy on
an object or situation with the intention of controlling it or determin¬
ing its development. This concept is also linked with that of the
imagination in that it also involves the ability to create, by concentra¬
tion, an inner image of what one intends or would wish to realize ob¬
jectively .

In the case of most men, this ability goes no further than the skill
involved in impressing a form or image on cosmic matter, and does
not extend to the ability to bring about the existence, objectively, of
one’s inner image. In other words, for most people, no matter how
they concentrate on the wish-image, it remains a dream and a fantasy
and no more. In the Tibetan mystical tradition, however, certain
adepts claim to be able to materialize inner images when they exert
intense concentration on them for a prolonged period . It is this de¬
gree of creative, imaginative power that is most like the concept of
himmah , which Ibn aPArabl attributes to the saint or man of ad¬
vanced spiritual attainment . In other words, when the individual
consciousness has been reintegrated into its divine subject by faith
and submission, and when the mind and spirit have been strength¬
ened and refined by asceticism and self-denial, the concentrative pow¬
er of the saint is brought into alignment with the divine creative
power to effect new conditions and states in the Cosmos, states that
often appear miraculous or paranormal. Such phenomena as biloca¬
tion, telekinesis, abnormal auditory and sensory powers, and commu¬
nication with the dead are among the claimed effects of such powers.
However, being human and not divine, the saint can maintain such
effects only for limited periods. The divine him?nah y on the other
hand, is maintained eternally, at every level and in every instance,
since anything that ceases to receive the divine attention ceases there¬
fore to exist at all .

Ibn aDArabT was well aware of the great dangers inherent in the
possession of such power and, while encouraging its development as a
spiritual attainment, was very careful to warn his fellow Sufis against
any egotistical preoccupation with its often miraculous effects, urg¬
ing them rather to abjure any residual individual interest they might
have in such power, as true slaves of God . This facility of himmah
together with other side effects of the spiritual path resulted in much
abuse and deception among the would-be gurus of his day .

The concept of the Perfect Man may further be elaborated in the

context of its particular human manifestations. As has been men¬
tioned, the Perfect Man is that human individual who has perfectly
realized the full spiritual potential of the human state, who has real¬
ized in himself and his experience the Oneness of Being that under¬
lies all the apparent multiplicity of existence. The concept of the
Perfect Man is, however, in itself more of a spiritual archetype than
an actual human condition. Its principal manifestation in the human
individual is that of Sainthood or wilayah , within the context of
which all other spiritual functions are performed . Ibn al ‘Arabi
lays particular emphasis on the fact that the Arabic word for a saint
[wall] is also one of the Names of God, the Friend [al-Wati], as if to
stress the very intimate connection between Sainthood and divin¬
ity . In other words the title of “saint,” strictly speaking, may be
conferred only on one whose individual identity has become spiri¬
tually annihilated in the Supreme Identity, who has become the
“friend” of One whose “friendship” allows of no sense of otherness.
This is the one who sees beyond “the God created in belief,” beyond
the conflicts and tensions implicit in cosmic and human complexity
and variety, to the undifferentiated truth of the ever-present Reality.
For Ibn aDArabl, indeed, Islam proper is nothing other than the
truth and experience of the saint, all actual religions being particular
manifestations of it. He does, however, maintain that the Islam
brought by the Prophet Muhammad, as the final and synoptic version
of the Islam of universal Sainthood, now enshrines that truth most
perfectly . The most important particular functions of the saint are,
when he is so appointed, those of prophet [ nabi ] and apostle [rasul],
the office of prophet being higher than that of apostle . Thus, all
prophets and apostles are saints and all prophets are apostles, while
not all apostles are prophets. The prophet is one who has special knowl¬
edge of the Unseen, while the apostle is one who is aware of a special
responsibility toward the community to which he has been sent. The
prophet may either be the bringer of a new dispensation or may func¬
tion within an existing one . Whatever the case may be, it is the
sainthood of the prophet or the apostle that alone confers validity on
the more particular functions. Thus, as the Qur'an says, every proph¬
et and apostle brings not only a scripture, but also, deriving from his
sanctity, wisdom that is the wisdom of realization .

Just as the Prophet Muhammad is regarded by Islam as the last

or Seal of the prophets, so Ibn al-‘Arab! himself claimed to have had
visionary evidence that he was the Seal of Muhammadan Saint¬
hood . To understand the meaning of this term, one must first un¬
derstand that by the word “Muhammadan” Ibn al-‘ArabI does not
mean simply what pertains to the particular earthly mission of the
Prophet Muhammad, but rather with the Spirit of Muhammad or
Light of Muhammad, which he equates with the whole principle of
prophecy, regarded as having been perfectly manifested in the Proph¬
et Muhammad. Thus the Seal of Muhammadan Sainthood carries a
double significance, in that he embodies not only the wisdom inher¬
ent in the final mission of the Prophet Muhammad, but also, and
more importantly, the special, universal wisdom inherent in the epit¬
ome of the Muhammadan Spirit. Thus, although there may be many
saints after the Seal, whether of the Muhammadan tradition or other¬
wise, it is he who is the culmination of that special and essential
Sainthood associated with Muhammad as the name peculiar to the no¬
tion of the Perfect Man, and as that Spirit of which all prophetic and
apostolic missions are manifestations . This, then, is the Seal, which
Ibn al-‘ArabT claimed to be, although there were and are many who
would dispute that claim. There is no disputing, however, the fact
that al-Shaikh al-Akbar possessed unusual spiritual gifts and insights,
which have penetrated deeply into the fabric of Islamic spirituality.

As has been stressed many times above, the underlying theme to

which Ibn aUArabT is always returning and which is implicit in all
his teachings is that of the Oneness of Being-Perception. One may be
forgiven, however, in reading through his many works, for feeling
that one is being drawn deeper and deeper into a spiritual maze of
frightening complexity, a complexity that, in the light of the funda¬
mental theme, seems somehow strangely unnecessary and perhaps
even irrelevant. On the one hand one is ever being reminded of the
all-pervading presence of the Reality, and on the other hand of the
polemic of interreligious conflict. In other words, one becomes more
and more conscious that the whole edifice of Ibn aUArabi’s thought
is itself polarized, just as many of his secondary themes are character¬
ized by polarity. Thus, while anchored in the dominant theme of the
Oneness of Being as the original and eternal truth to which all other
considerations are related, he leads his reader through all the com¬
plexity of the implications and ramifications inherent in the aborigi¬
nal desire of the Reality to know Itself, striving as he does to capture
the most distant reverberations and reflections of the divine Love, on
the very edge of nothingness. In doing so he presents us with that
most baffling of mysteries, the relationship between reality and illu¬
sion, between what is apparent and what is, and between knowing
and not knowing. However, as Ibn al-‘ArabT himself demonstrates in
dealing, for example, with the concept of the “God created in belief,”
the solution to the mystery is by no means as simple as rejecting illu¬
sion and affirming reality, since it is clear from the whole system of
his thought that the principle of illusion or appearance, far from be¬
ing a purely negative concept, is an important aspect of the Reality’s
consciousness of Itself. This is not to say that this same principle,
from certain viewpoints, is not constantly threatening deception and
alienation .

This paradox is nowhere more vividly in evidence than in a story

Ibn al ‘Arabi tells about one of his Andalusian shaikhs. This man had
met someone at the Ka‘abah in Mecca who had asked him whether he
knew what had brought them both to that place. When he asked the
man to explain he replied, “Heedlessness, my brother!” and then he
wept . In other words, the idea that one has to travel to Mecca to be
nearer to God or, indeed, that one must travel the Sufi path to be¬
come one with Him is an illusion, albeit a necessary one. As Ibn al-
‘Arabl pointed out on numerous occasions, the notion that we can
ever be in a state of separation from God, so that it should be neces¬
sary for us to make ourselves nearer to Him, is an illusion, since we
would have no being or consciousness, however apparently separate,
were we anything other than the Reality. He is saying, therefore, that
it is not a case of the Sufi striving to reach a goal from which he is, in
reality, distant, but only that he is trying to realize and become aware
of a oneness and identity that is inexorably and eternally real. The
question then arises as to why the illusion of separation, which has
then to be painstakingly seen through, arises at all or, more to the point,
why it is capable of exerting such power over us, and why the whole
phenomenon of religion and mysticism is necessary. The answer to
that question lies in the primordial tension inherent in the polarization
of the Reality into knower and known, in the inherent necessity for
apparent separation in that polarization, and in the inevitably spiritual
bias of Ibn aPArabl himself, referred to above, although he was al¬
ways ready to admit that, in the words of the Qur'an, “There can be
no refuge from God, but in Him,” and “Wherever you turn, there is
the face of God .” Thus, ultimately, whether we throw ourselves
into the infinite ocean of cosmic “illusion,” in conformity with the
all-creating Will, or whether we annihilate our identity in the abso¬
lute truth of His identity, in conformity with the all-commanding
Wish, we can never be, in reality, other than the Real, on pain of ab¬
surdity.

Perhaps the best clue to Ibn aPArabl’s vision of the nature of

things is to be found in another paradoxical but nonetheless profound
saying of his. He said, “It is part of the perfection of Being that there
is imperfection in it .” That is to say that Reality, to be real, must
embrace within its reality both the wholeness that includes all possi¬
bilities, including the partial and incomplete, and the perfection that
excludes all but the highest and the best. As has been noted above, the
implications of this idea, as of the concept of illusion, were not missed
by the religious authorities of Ibn al ‘Arabi’s time, nor should he have
expected the representatives of a Wish-oriented religious tradition to
accept the, from their point of view, extremely dangerous implica¬
tions of his teachings on the divine Will .

In writing this survey of the main themes of Ibn al-‘ArabT’s

thought, I am conscious of the fact that I have not explored the many
parallels and similarities in other traditions, nor related his ideas spe¬
cifically to earlier Sufi writers. The ommission is, indeed, deliberate,
since I consider that his system of thought is original enough to merit
presentation without the further complication of detailed religious,
philosophical, and mystical comparisons that, while of great interest
for the wider history of Islamic thought, are for the most part of rela¬
tively little assistance in understanding the way in which Ibn al-
‘Arabi himself saw the nature of reality. As has been mentioned
above, although his terminology and the intellectual models he uses
are often clearly traceable to other sources, nevertheless the particu¬
lar way in which he uses the terms and the models to express his ideas
is, in essence, peculiarly his own .

THE CLASSICS

IWTUALTIY

PREFACE

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Praise be to God Who has sent down the [revelations] of Wisdom

upon the hearts of the logoi in a unique and direct way from the Sta¬
tion of Eternity, even though the sects and communities may vary be¬
cause of the variety of the nations. May God bless and protect him
who provides the aspirations from the treasuries of bounty and muni-
ficience, Muhammad and his family.
I saw the Apostle of God in a visitation granted to me during the
latter part of the month of Muharram in the year , in the city of
Damascus. He had in his hand a book and he said to me, “This is the
book of the Bezels of Wisdom; take it and bring it to men that they
might benefit from it.” I said, “All obedience is due to God and His
Apostle; it shall be as we are commanded.” I therefore carried out the
wish, made pure my intention and devoted my purpose to the pub¬
lishing of this book, even as the Apostle had laid down, without any
addition or subtraction. I asked of God that, both in this matter and
in all conditions, He might number me among those of His servants
over whom Satan has no authority. Also that, in all my hand may
write, in all my tongue may utter, and in all my heart may conceal,
He might favor me with His deposition and spiritual inspiration for
my mind and His protective support, that I may be a transmitter and
not a composer, so that those of the Folk who read it may be sure that
it comes from the Station of Sanctification and that it is utterly free
from all the purposes of the lower soul, which are ever prone to de¬
ceive. I hope that the Reality, having heard my supplication, will
heed my call, for I have not set forth here anything except what was
set before me, nor have I written in this book aught but what was re¬
vealed to me. Nor yet am I a prophet or an apostle, but merely an heir
preparing for the Hereafter.

It is from God, so hear!

And to God do you return!

When you hear what

I bring, learn!

Then with understanding see the details in the whole

And also see them as part of the whole.

Then give it to those

Who seek it, and stint not.

This is the Mercy that

Encompasses you; so extend it.

From God I hope to be of those who are aided and accept aid, of
those bound by the pure Law of Muhammad, who accept to be bound
and by it bind. May He gather us with Him as He has made us to be
of His community.
CHAPTER I

THE WISDOM OF DIVINITY

IN THE WORD OF ADAM

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

This chapter, as the title suggests, is largely concerned with the

relationship between Adam, who here symbolizes the archetype of
humankind, and God. More particularly it is concerned with Adam’s
function in the creative process, as the principle of agency, transmis¬
sion, reflection, and, indeed, as the very reason for the creation of the
Cosmos. The chapter also discusses the nature of angels and the rela¬
tionship between pairs of concepts essential to the understanding of
the creative process, such as universal-individual, necessary-contin¬
gent, first-last, outer-inner, light-darkness and approval-anger.

Ibn al-‘ArabT opens the chapter, however, with the subject of the
divine Names and their relationship with the divine Essence. By the
term “Names,” he means the Names of God, the Name Allah being
the supreme Name. These Names serve, essentially, to describe the
infinite and complex modalities of the polarity God-Cosmos. The su¬
preme Name itself, as being that of God Himself, clearly describes
the overall and universal nature of that relationship, namely that it is
God Who is the real, the Self-sufficient, while the Cosmos is, essen¬
tially, unreal and completely dependent. By the term “Essence”
[dhat\, he means what the divine being is in Itself, beyond any polari¬
ty or relationship with a cosmos. This term should not be confused
with “the Reality,” which denotes rather that primordial Being and
eternal Perception which unites both polarity and nonpolarity. Thus
the Names, including the supreme Name, have relevance or meaning
only within the context of the polarity Divinity-Cosmos, and Adam
represents precisely that principle which at once mediates and re¬
solves the whole experience of that polarity, being that vital link
without which the whole occurrence of divine Self-consciousness
would not be possible.

Ibn al-‘ArabT goes on to illustrate this Adamic function with one

of his favorite images, that of the mirror, by which he seeks to explain
the mystery of the reflection of reality in the mirror of illusion. ’Oln
this subtle image there are two elements, the mirror itself and the ob¬
serving subject who sees his own image reflected in the mirror as ob¬
ject. Adam, being the linking factor in the process of reflection and
recognition of the reflection, is representative of both the mirror and
the observing subject, the mirror itself being a symbol of the receptiv¬
ity and reflectivity of cosmic nature, and the observing subject being
God Himself. Thus, Adam is described by Ibn al-‘ArabI as “the very
principle of reflection” and the “spirit of the [reflected] form.” How¬
ever, Ibn al- ArabT was not thinking of the specially coated glass mir¬
rors of our day, but rather of the highly polished metal mirror of his
own time. Such mirrors served to illustrate better the metaphysical
problems with which he was dealing. To begin with, such mirrors
had to be kept polished in order to preserve their reflective qualities
and, furthermore, it required great skill by the craftsman to make a
perfectly flat surface. With such a mirror, therefore, there was always
the possibility of surface deterioration and distortion. Thus, so long
as the mirror was perfectly polished and flat, the observing subject
might see his own form or image perfectly reflected on its surface, in
which case the otherness of the mirror itself is reduced to a minimum
in the observing consciousness, or even effaced completely. To the ex¬
tent, however, that the mirror reflects a dulled or distorted image, it
manifests its own otherness and detracts from the identity of image
and subject. Indeed, the distorted and imperfect image presents some¬
thing alien to the subject, who then may become involved in efforts to
improve and perfect the mirror, so that he might achieve a more per¬
fect self-consciousness. Thus, in the mirror we have a very apt sym¬
bol of the divine-cosmic polarity. At one extreme of the relationship
cosmic Nature threatens to absorb and assimiliate the subject in the
infinity and complexity of his creative urge, while, at the other, the
divine Subject seems to annihilate Nature in the reassertion of identi¬
ty, each being, at once, another and non-other.

Adam, as the archetype of humankind, is therefore in his essen¬

tial nature at once the medium of sight by which the observing Sub¬
ject beholds His own cosmic image or reflection and the medium of
reflection by which the cosmic “other” is restored to Itself. As medi¬
um, therefore, it is Adam who is the very principle of the polar rela¬
tionship, and who, as such, knows the Names of God, which he is
ordered in the Qur'an to teach to the angels.

The subjects of the angelic state has always been a problematic

one for theology. For Ibn al-‘ArabI the angels seem to have been par¬
ticularizations of divine power, whether creative or recreative, beings
who, while close to the divine presence, nevertheless had no share in
the physical and formal actuality of cosmic creation. Thus, they are
purely spiritual beings, quite unlike the bipolar and synthetic Adamic
being who alone, of all creation, shares in the Self-consciousness of
the Reality. Similarly, the animal creation, as particularization of
purely cosmic life, lies outside the uniquely synthetic experience of
the human state.

Another image Ibn al-‘ArabT employs in this chapter, and which

is particularly appropriate to this work, is that of the seal-ring. In this
image, man is seen as the seal that seals and protects the cosmic trea¬
sure house of God and on which is stamped the signet of its Owner.
Thus Adam, as man, is the receptive wax that bears the image of the
all-embracing and supreme Name of God, the breaking of which seal
means the end of all cosmic becoming.

However, as has been pointed out above, while in the main in¬
sisting on the eternal supremacy of the cognitive and volitive pole,
Ibn aLArabl always returns, as in this chapter, to the underlying mu¬
tuality of the polar experience, in keeping with the fundamental con¬
cept of the Oneness of Being. Thus, as he points out here, the term
“origin” is meaningless without assuming the existence of what is
“originated,” and so on with all polar concepts, including the terms
“God” and “Lord,” which are significant only if the corresponding
terms “worshiper” and “slave” are implied.

In keeping with this basic premise of Ibn al-‘ArabT’s thought, it is

not surprising to find that his notion of the Devil or Satan is some¬
what different from that of ordinary theology. Indeed, he sees the dia¬
bolic principle in two ways. First, it is for him that principle which
resists the Self-realizing urge to create the own-other object and in-
sists on the sole right of pure spirit and transcendence, this being the
reason for Satan’s refusal to obey God’s command to prostrate him¬
self to Adam, from jealousy for the integrity of pure spirit. Second, it
is also that principle which insists on the separate reality of cosmic
life and substance and which denies all primacy to the Spirit. In other
words, it is that principle which would seek to insist on the separate
reality of either pole, at the expense of the other, and thus to impair
the original wholeness of the divine experience as the Reality by try¬
ing to sever the all-important link between “own” and “other” and
consign each to mutually exclusive isolation in absurdity.

THE WISDOM OF DIVINITY

IN THE WORD OF ADAM

The Reality wanted to see the essences of His Most Beautiful

Names or, to put it another way, to see His own Essence, in an all-in¬
clusive object encompassing the whole [divine] Command, which,
qualified by existence, would reveal to Him His own mystery. For
the seeing of a thing, itself by itself, is not the same as its seeing itself
in another, as it were in a mirror; for it appears to itself in a form that
is invested by the location of the vision by that which would only ap¬
pear to it given the existence of the location and its [the location’s]
self-disclosure to it.

The Reality gave existence to the whole Cosmos [at first] as an

undifferentiated thing without anything of the spirit in it, so that it
was like an unpolished mirror. It is in the nature of the divine deter¬
mination that He does not set out a location except to receive a divine
spirit, which is also called [in the Qur'an] the breathing into him. The
latter is nothing other than the coming into operation of the undiffer¬
entiated form’s [innate] disposition to receive the inexhaustible over¬
flowing of Self-revelation, which has always been and will ever be.
There is only that which is receptive and the receptive has been only
from the most Holy Superabundance [of the Reality], for all power to
act [all initiative] is from Him, in the beginning and at the end. All
command derives from Him, even as it begins with Him.
Thus the [divine] Command required [by its very nature] the re¬
flective characteristic of the mirror of the Cosmos, and Adam was the
very principle of reflection for that mirror and the spirit of that
form, while the angels were only certain faculties of that form which
was the form of the Cosmos, called in the terminology of the Folk, the
Great Man. In relation to it the angels are as the psychic and physical
faculties in the human formation. Each of these [cosmic] faculties or
powers is veiled [from knowing the whole] by its own self [being lim¬
ited by its relative individuality], so that it cannot know anything that
excels it. It also claims that it has the qualification for every high posi¬
tion and exalted abode with God by virtue of its participation in the
divine Synthesis, deriving both from the Sphere of Divinity and the
Reality of Realities and, finally, with respect to the formation assum¬
ing these characteristics, from the exigencies of the Universal Nature,
which contains and comprises all the receptivities of the Cosmos,
higher and lower.

This [knowledge] cannot be arrived at by the intellect by means

of any rational thought process, for this kind of perception comes
only by a divine disclosure from which is ascertained the origin of the
forms of the Cosmos receiving the spirits. The [above-mentioned] for¬
mation is called Man and Vice-Regent [of God]. As for the first term,
it stems from the universality of his formation and the fact that he
embraces all the realities. For the Reality, he is as the pupil is for the
eye through which the act of seeing takes place. Thus he is called in -
san [meaning both man and pupil], for it is by him that the Reality
looks on His creation and bestows the Mercy [of existence] on them.
He is Man, the transient [in his form], the eternal [in his essence]; he
is the perpetual, the everlasting, the [at once] discriminating and uni¬
fying Word. It is by his existence that the Cosmos subsists and he is,
in relation to the Cosmos, as the seal is to the ring, the seal being that
place whereon is engraved the token with which the King seals his
treasure. So he is called the Vice-Regent, for by him God preserves
His creation, as the seal preserves the king’s treasure. So long as the
king’s seal is on it no one dares to open it except by his permission,
the seal being [as it were] a regent in charge of the kingdom. Even so
is the Cosmos preserved so long as the Perfect Man remains in it. Do
you not see that when he shall cease to be present in it and when the
seal [on the treasury] of the lower world is broken, none of what the
Reality preserved will endure and all of it will depart, each part
thereof becoming reunited with every other part, [after which] the
whole will be transferred to the Final Abode where the Perfect Man
will be the seal forever.

All the Names constituting the Divine Image are manifest in the
human formation so that this information enjoys a degree by which it
encompasses and integrates all existence. It is for this reason that God
holds the conclusive argument against the angels [in their protest at
His command to prostrate to Adam]. So take care, for God warns you
by the example of another, and consider carefully from whence the
arraigned one is charged. For the angels did not grasp the meaning of
the formation of God’s Regent nor did they understand the essential
servitude demanded by the Plane of Reality. For none knows any¬
thing of the Reality save that which is itself implicit in the Essence [of
the Reality].

The angels do not enjoy the comprehensiveness of Adam and

comprehend only those Divine Names peculiar to them, by which
they glorify and sanctify the Reality, nor are they aware that God has
Names of which they know nothing and by which they cannot glori¬
fy Him, nor are they able to sanctify Him with the [complete] sancti¬
fication of Adam. Their condition and limitation being what it is,
they said, concerning his formation, Will You put in it one who will
work mischief in it? meaning [his] rebellion, which is precisely what
they themselves evince, for what they say of Adam applies equally to
their own attitude toward the Reality. But for the fact that their own
formation imposes this [limitation of knowledge], they would not
have said what they said concerning Adam; but they are not aware of
this.

If they indeed knew their own [essential] selves they would know
[their limitation], and if that were so, they would have been spared
[their mistaken utterance]. Furthermore, they would not have persist¬
ed in their challenge by calling attention to their own [more restrict¬
ed] glorification of God, as also their [limited] sanctification.

Adam enshrines divine Names the angels have no part in, nor are
they able to glorify their Lord by them or by them to exalt His tran¬
scendence, as Adam does.

God expounds the whole affair to us so that we might bear it in

mind and learn from it the proper attitude toward Him and lest we
[ignorantly] flaunt what [little] individually restricted insight or un-
derstanding we might have realized. Indeed, how can we make claims
concerning something the reality of which we have not experienced
and concerning which we have no knowledge, without exposing our¬
selves to ridicule? This divine instruction [concerning the angels] is
one of the ways by which the Reality instructs His most trusted ser¬
vants, His representatives.

Let us now return to this Wisdom. Know that the universals,

even though they have no tangible individual existence in themselves,
yet are conceived of and known in the mind; this is certain. They are
always unmanifest as regards individual existence, while imposing
their effects on all such existence; indeed individual existence is noth¬
ing other than [an outer manifestation] of them, that is to say, the uni¬
versals. In themselves they are always intelligibles. They are manifest
as being individual beings and they are unmanifest as being [purely]
intelligible. Every individual existence is dependent on the univer¬
sals, which can [never] be disassociated from the intellect, nor can
they exist individually in such a way that they would cease to be in¬
telligible. Whether the individual being is determined temporarily or
not, its relationship, in both cases, is one and the same. However, the
universal and the individual being may share a common determining
principle according as the essential realities of the individual beings
demand, as for example [in] the relationship between knowledge and
the knower or life and the living. Life is an intelligible reality, as also
knowledge, each being distinguished from the other.

Thus, concerning the Reality, we say that He has life and knowl¬
edge and also that He is Living and Knowing. This we also say of
Man and the angels. The reality of knowledge is [always] one, as is the
reality of life, and the relationship of each respectively to the knower
and the living remains [always] the same.

Concerning the knowledge of the Reality we say that it is eternal,

whereas of man’s knowledge we say that it is contingent. Consider
then how attachment to the determinant renders something in the in¬
telligible reality contingent and consider the interdependence of the
universals and individual existence. For, even as knowledge deter¬
mines one who applies it as being a knower, so also does the one thus
described determine knowledge as being contingent in the case of the
contingent [knower], and eternal in the case of the Eternal One, both
determining and determined.

Further, even though the universals are intelligible, they enjoy

no real existence, existing only insofar as they determine [existent be-
ings], just as they themselves are determined in any relationship with
individual existence. As manifest in individual existence, they may
admit of being [in a sense] determined, but they admit of no particu¬
larization or division, this being impossible. They are essentially pres¬
ent in each thing they qualify, as humanity is present in every human
being, while not being particularized or divided according to the
number of individual beings [in which they are manifested], remain¬
ing [purely] intelligible.

If, therefore, it is established that there is an interrelationship be¬

tween that which has individual existence and that which has not, the
latter being nonexistent relations, the interconnection between one
individual being and another is the more comprehensible because
they have, at least, individual existence in common, whereas in the
former instance there is no unifying element.

It is established that the originated is [completely] dependent on

that which brings it about, for its possibility. Its existence is [entirely]
derived from something other than itself, the connection in this case
being one of dependence. It is therefore necessary that that which is
the support [of originated existence] should be essentially and neces¬
sarily by itself, self-sufficient and independent of any other. This it is
that bestows existence from its own essential Being on dependent ex¬
istence, in this way becoming related to it.

Furthermore, since the former, because of its essence, requires

the latter [the dependent], the latter has [in a certain sense] necessary
being. Also, since its dependence on that from which it was manifest¬
ed is [implicit in] its own essence, it follows that the originated should
conform to all the Names and attributes of the cause [origin], except
that of Self-sufficient Being, which does not belong to originated exis¬
tence, since what necessary being it has derives [entirely] from other
than itself.

Know that if what has been said concerning the manifestation [of
the originated] in the form [of the originator] be true, it is clear that
God draws our attention to what is originated as an aid to knowledge
of Him and says [in the Qur'an] that He will show forth His signs in
it. Thus He suggests that knowledge of Him is inferred in knowl¬
edge of ourselves. Whenever we ascribe any quality to Him, we are
ourselves [representative of] that quality, except it be the quality of
His Self-sufficient Being. Since we know Him through ourselves and
from ourselves, we attribute to Him all we attribute to ourselves. It is
for this reason that the divine revelations come to us through the
mouths of the Interpreters [the prophets], for He describes Himself
to us through us. If we witness Him we witness ourselves, and when
H e sees us He looks on Himself.

There is no doubt that we are, as individuals and types, many,

and that, though representatives of a single reality, we know definite¬
ly that there is a factor distinguishing one individual from another,
but for which, multiplicity would not be [implicit] in the One. In the
same way, even if we describe ourselves as He describes Himself, in
all possible aspects, there would still remain an inevitable factor of
distinction [between Him and us]. This [factor] is our dependence on
Him for existence, which, in our case, derives entirely from Him be¬
cause we are originated while He is free of all dependence whatso¬
ever. Thus is He rightly called the One without beginning, the
Ancient of Days, contradicting all priority in the sense of existence
starting from nonexistence. For, although He is the First, no tempo¬
ral priority may be attributed of Him. Thus He is called also the Last.
Even if He were the First in the sense of being the first-determined
existence, He could not be called the Last in this sense, since contin¬
gent being has no end, being infinite. He is called the Last only in the
sense that all reality, though reality be attributed to us, is His. His Fi¬
nality is essentially [implicit] in His Priority as is His Priority essen¬
tially [implicit] in His Finality.

Know also that the Reality has described Himself as being the
Outer and the Inner [Manifest and Unmanifest]. He brought the Cos¬
mos into being as constituting an unseen realm and a sensory realm,
so that we might perceive the Inner through our unseen and the Out¬
er through our sensory aspect.

He has also attributed of Himself pleasure and wrath, having cre¬

ated the Cosmos as [expressing] both fear and hope, fear of His wrath
and hope for His pleasure. He has also described Himself as being
possessed of beauty and majesty, having created us as combining awe
[of His majesty] and intimacy, and so on with all His attributes and
Names. He has expressed this polarity of qualities [in the Qur'an] as
being His Hands devoted to the creation of the Perfect Man who inte¬
grates in himself all Cosmic realities and their individual [manifesta¬
tions].

The Cosmos is the sensory realm [both subtle and gross] and the
Vicegerent is unseen. For this reason the Ruler [God] is veiled, since
the Reality has described Himself as being hidden in veils of dark¬
ness, which are the natural forms, and by veils of light, which are the
subtle spirits. The Cosmos consists of that which is gross and that
which is subtle and is therefore, in both aspects, the veil [covering] its
[own] true self [reality]. For the Cosmos does not perceive the Reality
as He perceives Himself, nor can it ever not be veiled, knowing itself
to be distinct from its Creator and dependent on Him. Indeed, it has
no part in the [divine] Self-sufficiency [of being] of the Reality, nor
will it ever attain to that. In this sense the Reality can never be
known [by cosmic being] in any way, since originated being has no
part in that [Self-sufficiency].
God unites the polarity of qualities only in Adam, to confer a dis¬
tinction on him. Thus, He says to Lucifer, What prevents you from pros¬
trating to one whom I have created with my two hands? What prevents
Lucifer is the very fact that he [man] unites [in himself] the two
modes, the [originated] Cosmos and the [originating and original] Re¬
ality, which are His two hands.

As for Lucifer, he is only a part of the Cosmos and has no share

in this Synthesis, by virtue of which Adam is the Regent. Were he not
manifest [in the Cosmos] in the form of Him Whom he represents, he
would not be the Regent, and were he not to comprise all that his de¬
pendent charges require or were he unable to meet all their require¬
ments, he would not be the Regent. In short, the Regency is fitting
only for the Perfect Man.

His outer form He composed of the cosmic realities and forms,

while his inner form He composed to match His Own form. Thus He
says in the Sacred Tradition, “I am his hearing and his sight,” and
not, “I am his eye and his ear,” in order to show the distinction be¬
tween the two forms [the imperceptible and the perceptible]. Like¬
wise He is [implicit] in every cosmic being according as the essential
reality [manifested] in that being requires it, providing it is under¬
stood that no other being enjoys the Synthesis [of divine realities] pos¬
sessed by the Regent. It is only by virtue of this Synthesis that he is
superior [to all other beings].

Were it not that the Reality permeates all beings as form [in His
qualitative form], and were it not for the intelligible realities, no [es¬
sential] determination would be manifest in individual beings. Thus,
the dependence of the Cosmos on the Reality for its existence is an es¬
sential factor.

All is dependent [upon another], naught is independent,

This is the pure truth, we speak it out plainly.

If I mention One, Self-sufficient, Independent,

You will know to Whom I refer.

All is bound up with all, there is no escaping

This bond, so consider carefully what I say.

You are now acquainted with the Wisdom involved in the corpo¬
real formation of Adam, his outer form, as you have become acquaint¬
ed with the spiritual formation of Adam, his inner form, namely, that
he is the Reality [as regards the latter] and that he is creature [as re¬
gards the former]. You have also learned to know his rank as the all-
synthesizing [form] by which he merits the [divine] Regency.

Adam is that single soul, that single spiritual essence from which
humankind was created, as He says, Men, fear your Lord Who created
you from a single soul and created from it its mate, so that from them both
there issued forth many men and women* His saying Fear your Lord
means “Make your outer [transient] selves a protection for your Lord
[your inner essential reality], and make your inner [reality], which is
your Lord, a protection for your outer selves.”

All creation [amr] involves censure [negation] and praise [affir¬

mation], so be His protection as regards censure [as being relative be¬
ings] and make Him your protection as regards praise [as being
identified with the Adamic reality], so that you are of those who act
properly and are possessed of knowledge.

Then He, Most High and Glorious, caused Adam to look on all
He had deposited in him and held it in His Hands [Active and pas¬
sive, Essential and formal], in the first Hand the Cosmos and in the
other Adam and his seed, expounding their degrees.

When God revealed to me, in my innermost center, what He had

deposited in our great progenitor, I recorded in this book only that

which he dictated to me, not all I was given, since no book could con¬
tain all of it, nor yet the Cosmos as now existing.

Of what I witnessed [in the spirit] and, of that, what I recorded

in this book as laid down by the Prophet, are the following chapters:

The Wisdom of Divinity in the Word of Adam

The Wisdom of Expiration in the Word of Seth
The Wisdom of Exaltation in the Word of Noah
The Wisdom of Holiness in the Word of Enoch
The Wisdom of Rapturous Love in the Word of
Abraham
The Wisdom of Reality in the Word of Isaac
The Wisdom of Sublimity in the Word of Ishmael
The Wisdom of Spirit in the Word of Jacob
The Wisdom of Light in the Word of Joseph
The Wisdom of Unity in the Word of Hud
The Wisdom of Opening in the Word of Salih
The Wisdom of the Heart in the Word of Shu‘aib
The Wisdom of Mastery in the Word of Lot
The Wisdom of Destiny in the Word of Ezra
The Wisdom of Prophecy in the Word of Jesus
The Wisdom of Compassion in the Word of
Solomon
The Wisdom of Being in the Word of David
The Wisdom of Breath in the Word of Jonah
The Wisdom of the Unseen in the Word of Job
The Wisdom of Majesty in the Word of John
The Wisdom of Dominion in the Word of Zakariah
The Wisdom of Intimacy in the Word of Elias
The Wisdom of Virtue in the Word of Luqman
The Wisdom of Leadership in the Word of Aaron
The Wisdom of Eminence in the Word of Moses
The Wisdom of Resource in the Word of Khalid.
The Wisdom of Singularity in the Word of
Muhammad
The seal of each Wisdom is the Word assigned to it. I have re¬
stricted myself in what I have written concerning the [divine mani¬
festations of] Wisdom in this book to what is confirmed in that
respect in the Heavenly Book. I have transcribed faithfully according
as was vouchsafed to me. Even had I wished to add to it I would not
have been able to do so T since the plane [from which it came] would
prevent anything of the kind. God it is Who grants success and He is
Sole Lord.

CHAPTER II

THE WISDOM OF EXPIRATION

IN THE WORD OF SETH

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The chapter named after Seth deals with two main topics, that of
divine giving and the subject of the respective functions of the Seal of
Saints and the Seal of Apostles. In connection with the first of these
topics, Ibn aPArabl touches also on the subject of latency and predis¬
position and the possibility of knowing one’s own predisposition.

In the first part of the chapter he deals with the question of di¬
vine giving and favor. He divides the divine giving in various ways
and discusses the whole relationship between requesting and giving
in response to a request, whether uttered or implicit.

This first topic of the chapter provides, perhaps, a clue to the ti¬
tle of the chapter, The Wisdom of Expiration in the Word of Seth. The
Arabic word used for “expiration” is from the root nafakha , which lit¬
erally means “to blow.” Now, the divine gift par excellence is that of
existence itself, the bringing about of which is closely related to Ibn
al-‘ArabI’s concept of the creating Mercy, which creativity is often
termed the Breath of the Merciful [nafas al-rahman ]. In other words
the blowing referred to in the title is precisely that outgoing projec¬
tion inspired by the divine desire for Self-consciousness which, from
the standpoint of created existence, is the supreme act of divine giv¬
ing and generosity, all other particular gifts of God being aspects of
that original gift of existence, since each particular gift to a particular
creature serves only to confirm that existential covenant by which
God affirms the ontological significance of the Cosmos. It is the uni¬
versal gift of becoming that is the gift of the Essence, while the gift of
the Names is the particular manifestation of that supreme Self-giving
of God. Ibn aLArabT returns to this theme in the chapter on the
Prophet David.

As already mentioned, this notion of divine giving is closely re¬

lated by Ibn al-‘ArabT to the concept of latent predisposition in di-
vinis . This means that the quality and nature of one’s existence as
creature, in general and in detail, may be no more or less than that
which it is eternally predisposed to be in one’s latent essence. Fur¬
thermore, not only the gift or response but also the making of the re¬
quest itself is determined by the latent predisposition to do so.

Awareness or knowledge of what one is disposed to be in aeternis

is, for Ibn al-‘ArabI, an essential part of what he calls ma‘rifah or gno¬
sis, since it involves the knowledge of oneself that is, at the same time,
knowledge of the divine Reality of which one is, latently and essen¬
tially, inescapably an aspect, which is the meaning of the saying
“Whosoever knows himself, knows his Lord.’’ Gnosis, according to
our author, is not the acquired knowing of profane learning, but rath¬
er, as the Arabic root suggests, an immediate recognition and grasp
not of something new or strange but rather of the state and status of
things as they really are, have always been, and eternally will be,
which knowledge is inborn in man but later covered over and ob¬
scured by the spiritual ignorance encouraged by preoccupation with
ephemeral and partial data)

It is precisely this gnosis, which is potential in all humankind,

that is the realized spiritual heritage of the saints, prophets, and apos¬
tles, and particularly of the Seal himself. Indeed, it is the normative
cognition of the Perfect Man who perceives all difference and identi¬
ty in terms of the Reality, other than which nothing is or exists.

Ibn aLArabl concludes this chapter with a curious prediction

concerning the fate of man as defined in his teachings. He says that
the last true human, in the line of Seth, will be born in China and that
he will have an elder sister. He goes on to prophesy that thereafter
men will become as beasts, bereft of spirit and law, until the coming
of the Hour. Thus, he indicates that that particular human synthesis
of spirit and nature, of which we are all a part, will come to an end
and the link be broken.

THE WISDOM OF EXPIRATION

IN THE WORD OF SETH

Know that the [divine] gifts and favors manifest in the realm of
determined being, whether through His servants or not, are divided
into two kinds, gifts of the Essence and gifts of the Names, just as
there are those gifts [bestowed in answer] to a specific request and
those [given in answer] to a general request. There are those gifts also
that are bestowed without any request, whether they derive from the
Essence or the Names.

An example of a request for something specific is one who says,

“O Lord, grant to me such and such,” specifying something to the ex¬
clusion of anything else. An example of a general request is one who
says, “Grant to me what You know to be in my interest, whether for
my subtle or physical being.”
Those who ask are of two kinds: The first kind is urged to make a
request by a natural eagerness, for, Man was created hasty , while the
second kind is moved to make the request because he knows that
there are certain things with God that cannot, in accordance with the
divine Prescience, be obtained except by asking for them. He says [to
himself], “Perhaps what we are about to ask for from God is of this
kind.” Thus his request is by way of taking full account of the possi¬
bilities inherent in the divine Command [the thing asked for]. He can¬
not know what is in the knowledge of God, nor can he know his own
eternally determined predisposition to receive, for to be, at each in¬
stant, aware of one’s [eternal] predisposition is one of the most diffi¬
cult kinds of knowledge. Indeed, were it not for that with which the
predisposition imbues the request, he would not make the request at
all.

For those practicing the Presence of God who do not usually

know this, the most they attain to is to know it [their predisposition]
at the time [of receiving or asking]. This is because, by reason of their
presence with God, they know what the Reality bestows on them at
that time and they know that they receive it only because of their pre¬
disposition to receive it. They are of two kinds: those who know their
predisposition by knowing what they receive, the others knowing
what they [will] receive by knowing their predisposition. Of these,
the latter is the more complete knowledge of the predisposition.

There are also those who ask, not because of any natural impulse,
nor yet through knowledge of the possibilities, but simply to conform
with God’s command, Call upon Me and will answer you . Such a one
is eminently a servant, for in such a supplication there is no trace of
self-interest, the concern being directed solely to conformity with the
behest of his Master. If his state necessitates a request on his part, he
asks for more servanthood, whereas if it necessitates silence and resig¬
nation, he is silent.

Job and others were sorely tried, but they did not ask that their
affliction from God be lifted from them. At a later time their state ne¬
cessitated their making such a request and God answered them. The
speed or tardiness in granting what is requested depends entirely on
the measure appointed for it with God. If a request is made at just the
right moment for it, the response is swift, but if its time is not yet
due, either in this life or until the next life, the response will be post¬
poned until that time. By this is meant the granting of the thing re¬
quested, not the principle of divine response, which is always, “I am
here,” so consider well. *

As regards our reference to those gifts bestowed without any re¬

quest being made, I meant a request that is articulated, for in the
case of any [divine] action [gift] there must be a request [a recipient],
whether it be expressed in words or is inherent in the state or predis¬
position.

Similarly the praising of God usually means its articulation,

whereas in the inner sense the praise is necessitated by the [spiritual]
state, for that which impels you to praise God is that essential ele¬
ment in you that binds you to a Divine Name, whether expressing
His activity or transcendence. The servant is not aware of his predis¬
position, but only of the spiritual state, which he knows as that which
impels him, since knowledge of the predisposition is the most hidden.
Those who [receive God’s gifts and] do not make a request omit to
make a request only because they know that God possesses, in respect
of them, predetermining knowledge. They have made themselves
ever ready to receive whatever comes from Him and have withdrawn
completely from their separative selves and their aims.

Of these persons there are those who know that God’s knowl¬
edge of them, in all their states, corresponds to what they themselves
are in their state of preexistent latency. They know that the Reality
will bestow on them only that which their latent essences contribute
to Him [as being what He knows Himself to be]. Thus they know the
origin of God’s [predetermining] knowledge concerning them. Of the
Folk there are none higher or more intuitive than this kind [who do
not ask], for they have grasped the mystery of the divine Premeasure¬
ment. This group is itself divided into two parts: those who possess
this knowledge in a general way and those who have a detailed
knowledge, the latter [knowledge] being more elevated and complete.
In this case he knows what God knows concerning himself, either be¬
cause God informs him of what his essence has contributed to His
knowledge of him, or because God has revealed to him his essence in
all its infinite fluctuations of spiritual state. This is higher than the
general knowledge.

Such a one, in respect of his knowledge of himself, knows him¬

self as God knows him, since the object [of knowledge] is the same in
both cases. However, in respect of his creatureliness, his knowledge
is nothing but a favor from God, one of a multitude of predetermined
[spiritual] states [inherent] in his essence. The recipient of such a rev¬
elation recognizes this fact when God shows to him the states [inher¬
ent] in his essence; for it is not possible for a creature, when God
shows to him the states of his essence, on which the created form will
be cast, to look on it as the Reality looks on the latent essences in their
state of nonbeing, since they are formless attributions of the Essence.

If all of this is understood, we can say that this parity [in knowl¬
edge, as between God and the servant] is a divine favor predeter¬
mined for that servant. In this regard is His saying, [We will try you]
until we know [which of you strive ], which bears a very exact meaning,
quite other than that imagined by those who have no direct experi¬
ence [of the divine mysteries]. Concerning this verse, the most the
transcendentalist could say, using the highest of his mental powers,
would be that the [apparent] temporality in God’s knowledge is due
to its dependence [on creatures], except that he maintains the distinc-
tion of the knowledge from the Essence, and so ascribes the depen¬
dence to it and not to the Essence. By this he is distinguished from
the true knower of God, the recipient of revelation.

Returning to the subject of the divine gifts, we have already

maintained that these stem either from the Essence or from the Di¬
vine Names. As for favors or gifts of the first kind, they can result
only from a divine Self-revelation, which occurs only in a form con¬
forming to the essential predisposition of the recipient of such a rev¬
elation. Thus, the recipient sees nothing other than his own form in
the mirror of the Reality. He does not see the Reality Itself, which is
not possible, although he knows that he may see only his [true] form
in It. As in the case of a mirror and the beholder, he sees the form in
it, but does not see the mirror itself, despite his knowledge that he
sees only his own and other images by means of it. God makes this
comparison so that the recipient of a divine Self-revelation should
know that it is not Him Whom he sees. The analogy of a mirror is the
closest and most faithful one for a vision of a divine Self-revelation.

Try, when you look at yourself in a mirror, to see the mirror it¬
self, and you will find that you cannot do so. So much is this the case
that some have concluded that the image perceived is situated be¬
tween the mirror and the eye of the beholder. This represents the
greatest knowledge they are capable of [on the subject]. The matter is
[in fact] as we have concluded, and we have dealt with it also in The
Meccan Revelations . If you have experienced this [in the spirit] you
have experienced as much as is possible for a created being, so do not
seek nor weary yourself in any attempts to proceed higher than this,
for there is nothing higher, nor is there beyond the point you have
reached aught except the pure, undetermined, unmanifested [Abso¬
lute], In your seeing your true self, He is your mirror and you are His
mirror in which He sees His Names and their determinations, which
are nothing other than Himself. The whole matter is prone to intrica¬
cy and ambiguity.

Some of us there are who profess ignorance as part of their

knowledge, maintaining [with Abu Bakr] that( To realise that one
cannot know [God] is to know.’ ) There are others from among us,
however, who know, but who do not say such things, their knowl-
edge instilling in them silence rather than [professions] of ignorance.
This is the highest knowledge of God, possessed only by the Seal of
Apostles and the Seal of Saints. Thus, none of the prophets and
apostles can attain to it except from the Niche of the Seal of Apostles,
nor are any of the saints able to attain to it except from the Niche of
the Seal of Saints, so that, in effect, none of the apostles can attain to
it, when they do so, except from the Niche of the Seal of Saints.

This is because the office of apostle and prophet [by prophet I

mean the bringer of Sacred Law] comes to an end, while Sainthood
never ceases. Thus the apostles, as being also saints, attain only to
what we have mentioned from the Niche of the Seal of Saints, this be¬
ing even more the case with the lesser saints. For, although the Seal of
Saints follows the Law brought by the Seal of Apostles, this does not
in any way diminish his station or contradict what we have said, since
he is, in one sense, below the apostle and, in another sense, higher.
What we have maintained here is supported by events under our own
dispensation, as when ‘Umar’s judgment was the better one in respect
of the prisoners taken at Badr, as also in the matter of the pollination
of palms.

It is not necessary for one who is perfect to be superior in every¬

thing and at every level, since men of the Spirit have regard only to
precedence in the degrees of the knowledge of God, which is their
[sole] aim. As for the passing phenomena of created beings, they do
not concern themselves with such things. Therefore, mark well what
we have said.

The Prophet likened the office of prophet to a wall of bricks,

complete except for one brick. He himself was the missing brick.
However, while the Prophet saw the lack of one brick, the Seal of
Saints perceived that two bricks were missing. The bricks of the wall
were of silver and gold. Since he saw himself as filling the gap, it is
the Seal of Saints who is the two bricks and who completes the wall.
The reason for his seeing two bricks is that, outwardly, he follows the
Law of the Seal of Apostles, represented by the silver brick. This is
his outer aspect and the rules that he adheres to in it. Inwardly, how¬
ever, he receives directly from God what he appears [outwardly] to
follow, because he perceives the divine Command as it is [in its es¬
sence], represented by the golden brick. He derives his knowledge
from the same source as the angel who reveals it to the Apostle. If you
have understood my allusions you have attained to the most beneficial
knowledge.

Every prophet, from Adam until the last of the prophets, derives
what he has from the Seal of Prophets, even though he comes last in
his temporal, physical manifestation, for in his [essential] reality he
has always existed. The Prophet said, “I was a prophet when Adam
was between the water and the clay,” while other prophets became
such only when they were sent forth [on their missions]. In the same
way the Seal of Saints was a saint “when Adam was between the wa¬
ter and the clay,” while other saints became saints only when they
had acquired all the necessary divine qualities, since God has called
Himself the Friend [al-Wati ], the Praised One .

The Seal of Apostles, as being also a saint, has the same relation¬
ship to the Seal of Saints as the other prophets and apostles have to
him, for he is saint, apostle, and prophet.

As for the Seal of Saints, he is the Saint, the Heir, the one whose
[knowledge] derives from the Source, the one who beholds all levels
[of Being]. This sainthood is among the excellencies of the Seal of
Apostles, Muhammad, first of the Community [of apostles] and Lord
of Men as being he who opened the gate to intercession. This latter is
a state peculiar to him and not common [to all apostles]. It is in this
state that he precedes even the Divine Names, since the Merciful does
not intercede with the Avenger, in the case of those sorely tried, until
intercession has been made [to It]. It is in the matter of intercession
that Muhammad has attained to preeminence. Whoever comprehends
the levels and stations will not find it difficult to understand this.

As for favors deriving from the Names of God, they are of two
kinds: a pure mercy, such as a good pleasure in the world that leaves
no taint on the Day of Resurrection, which is bestowed by [God] the
Merciful, or a mixed mercy, such as an evil-tasting medicine that
brings relief, which is a gift of God in His Divinity, although in His
Divinity He always bestows His gifts through the medium of one of
the holders of the Names.

Sometimes God bestows a gift on His servant in His Name the

Merciful, in which case the gift will be free of all that is contrary to
the servant’s nature at the time, or of anything that might fail him.
Sometimes God gives in His Name the Encompassing, so that the ef¬
fect is universal, while at other times He gives in His Name the Wise,
to serve the best interests of His servant. He may give in His Name
the Bestower, in which He gives as an [unsolicited] favor, so that the
recipient is under no obligation to render thanks or to perform works
to merit the favor. He may give in His Name the Powerful, in which
case His action is in accordance with the requirements of the situa¬
tion. He may give in His Name the Forgiver, in which He considers
the situation or state as it is at the time. If punishment is merited, He
will [under this Name] protect the servant from it, and if no punish¬
ment is merited, He protects from a state that would incur punish¬
ment.

In this way are such servants [the saints] spoken of as being im¬
mune and protected [from sin]. The giver is God as Keeper of the
treasuries [of His Grace], which only He dispenses according to a pre¬
scribed measure through the appropriate Name. He bestows [, appropri¬
ately ] on all He has created , in His Name the Just and similar
attributes.

The Names of God are infinite because they are known by all
that derives from them which is infinite, even though they derive [ul¬
timately] from a [known] number of sources, which are the matrices
or abodes of the Names. Certainly, there is but one Reality, which
embraces all these attributions and relations called the Divine Names.
This Reality grants that every Name, infinitely manifest, should have
its own reality by which to be distinguished from every other Name.
This distinguishing reality is the essence of the Name [the Name it¬
self], not that which it may have in common [with others]. In the
same way every [divine] gift is distinguished from every other by its
own individual quality; for, even though all derive from a single
source, it is evident that one gift is not the same as another. The cause
of that is the mutual distinction of the Names, there being no repeti¬
tion on the Plane of Divinity with all its extensiveness. This is the in¬
disputable truth.

Such was the knowledge possessed by Seth and it is his spirit that
moves every other spirit expressing this kind of truth, except the spir¬
it of the Seal, for his spiritual constituent comes directly from God
and not from any other spirit. Further, it is from his spirit [the Seal]
that all other spirits derive their substance, even though the Seal may
not be aware of the fact while in the physical body. In respect of his
essential reality and his [spiritual] rank he knows it all essentially,
whereas in the body he is ignorant of it. He at once knows and does
not know, taking on himself the attribution of opposites, as does the
Source Itself, as being at once the Majestic and the Beautiful, the
Manifest and the Unmanifest, the First and the Last, this [coincidentia
oppositorum] being his own essence. He knows and does not know,
he is aware and he is not aware, he perceives and yet does not per¬
ceive.

It is because of this knowledge that Seth is so named, his name

meaning “Gift of God.” In his hand is the key to the [divine] gifts in
all their variety and their relations. God bestowed him on Adam, as
his first unconditional gift, bestowing him as coming from Adam
himself, since the son is the inner reality of the father, issuing from
him and to him returning. Thus it is nothing alien to him that comes
[as God’s gift]. He whose understanding is inspired by God will know
this.

Indeed, every gift in the manifested universe is after this fashion.

There is nothing in anyone from God [as other], and there is nothing
in anyone but what comes from his own self, however various the
forms. Though this be the eternal truth of the matter, none knows it
[directly] save certain of the elite of the saints. Should you meet one
who possesses such knowledge you may have complete confidence in
him, for he is a rare gem among the elite of the Folk.

Whenever a gnostic receives a spiritual intuition in which he

looks on a form that brings him new spiritual knowledge and new
spiritual graces, [he should know] that the form he contempla tes is
gone other th j tn his own essential s elf, for i t is only from the tree of
his own self that he will garner the fruits of his knowledge. In the
same way his image in a polished surface is naugRTbut he, although
the place or plane in which he sees his image effects certain changes
in the image in accordance with the intrinsic reality of that plane. In
this way something big appears small in a small mirror, long in a long
mirror, and moving in a moving mirror. It may produce the inversion
of this image from a particular plane, or it may produce an exactly
corresponding image, right reflecting right [and left reflecting left].
However, it is more usual with mirrors for the right to reflect the
left. In contradiction to this, however, the right sometimes reflects
the right and reversion takes place. All this applies [equally] to the
modes and properties of the plane in which the divine Self-revelation
occurs, which we have compared to a mirror.

Whoever has knowledge of his [eternal] predisposition knows

what [divine gifts] he will receive, although not every one who knows
what he will receive knows also his predisposition except after he has
received, even though he may know it in a general way.

Certain theorists of weak intellect, having agreed that God does

what He wills, go on to state things about God that contradict Wis¬
dom and the truth. They go so far as to deny contingency as also self-
sufficient and relative essential being. The one who truly knows con¬
firms contingency and knows its plane; he knows what is the contin¬
gent and in what way it is so, even though it be in its essence self-
sufficient [necessary] by virtue of something other than it, as also [he
knows] in what way its [source] may be considered as “other,” when
it makes it self-sufficient [necessary]. Only those possessing special
knowledge of God understand this in detail.
It will be in the line of Seth that the last true Man will be born,
bearing his mysteries [of divine Wisdom], nor will such be born after
him. He will be the Seal of Offspring. There will be born with him a
sister who will be born before him, so that his head will be at her feet.
He will be born in the land of China and will speak the language of
that land. Sterility will then overcome the men and women of this
land and, although there will be much consorting, there will be no
bringing forth of children [as true men]. He will call them to God
without success and when God has taken him and those of his time
who believed, the others will remain living like beasts with no sense
of right and wrong, given over to the law of the [lower] nature, de¬
void of intellect and Sacred Law. The Last Hour will overtake them.

CHAPTER III

THE WISDOM OF EXALTATION

IN THE WORD OF NOAH

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

This is, perhaps, the most difficult and controversial of the chap¬
ters of The Bezels of Wisdom by reason of the unusual and extraordi¬
nary interpretations of the Qur'an that feature in it. Certainly, from
the standpoint of exoteric theology, Ibn al-‘ArabI’s approach to the
qur'anic material in this chapter is, at best, reckless, and, at worst, fla¬
grantly heretical. The chapter is also unusual among the chapters of
this work in that it not only confines its subject matter to the situa¬
tion of the Prophet Noah, named in the title, but draws almost all its
quotational material from the Surah of Noah in the Qur'an. Thus, this
chapter is in effect a commentary on the issues raised in that Surab.

The situation described in the Surah concerns Noah’s attempts

to persuade his people of their folly and wickedness in worshiping
their idols and of the urgent necessity to repent and recognize the
transcendent unity of the true God. Throughout the Surab Noah calls
on God to vindicate him and to punish his heedless and stubborn con¬
temporaries. Ibn aPArabl uses this situation not so much to confirm
the rightness of Noah but rather to explore and expound on a whole
series of polar concepts, the relationship of which he discusses from
the point of view of the Oneness of Being.
He begins by discussing the tension between the notion of tran¬
scendence and that of immanence or comparability, and it becomes
clear, on reading further into the chapter, that he regards Noah as
representative of the former and the people of Noah as committed to
the latter view. The explanation early in the chapter that both posi¬
tions are mutually related and cannot, properly, be considered in iso¬
lation from each other also makes it clear that he regards both sides of
the dispute in the Qur'an not as right or wrong, but as both necessar¬
ily representing the two fundamental modalities of divine Self-experi¬
ence as being, at one and the same time, involved in and assimilated
into Cosmic creation, and utterly removed from and beyond it. In¬
deed, all the other pairs of concepts he discusses in the chapter are de¬
rived from this pair.

He goes on to consider the concepts outer-inner, form-spirit, and

elaborates yet again on the saying of the Prophet, “Whoso knows
himself, knows his Lord,” with the clear implication that the Adamic
being, as isthmus, as created in the image of the Reality, is the micro-
cosmic synthesis of form and spirit, being the spirit of the form and
the form of the spirit. In the same vein, Ibn al-‘ArabT indulges in his
tendency to manipulate Arabic roots to illustrate a point. Thus he
takes the word qur'an, which derives from the root qara'a , and treats it
as if it derived from the root qarana , meaning to correlate, link. He
then contrasts this novel interpretation of the word with furqan , so
that we have the pair of concepts, correlation-distinction, in other
words, that which on the one hand correlates God with cosmic mani¬
festation, and on the other hand asserts His absolute separation from
it.

In this context, Ibn al-‘ArabT does not regard the people of Noah
as necessarily misguided, but rather as exponents, albeit unconscious
ones, of the reality of the divine Self-manifestation [ tajalti] in the
ever-changing multiplicity of cosmic forms, implying that, had Noah
tempered his extreme transcendentalism with a little concession to di¬
vine immanence, his people might have been more responsive to his
exhortations.

It is toward the end of the chapter that Ibn al-‘Arab!’s interpreta¬

tions of qur'anic verses are, seemingly, most outrageous, since he
seems indeed to be suggesting meanings diametrically opposed to
those usually accepted. In short, he interprets the “wrongdoers,” “in¬
fidels,” and “sinners” of the last verses of the Surah of Noah as saints
and gnostics drowning and burning not in the torments of Hell but
rather in the flames and waters of gnosis, bewildered in the divine
perplexity of their awareness of the paradox of God.

Although at first sight incomprehensible and extraordinary, such

interpretations would seem to be a deliberate attempt on the part of
Ibn aLArabl to demonstrate, as vividly as possible, the full implica¬
tions of the concept of the Oneness of Being, within the context of
which all possible oppositions and conflicts are resolved in the un¬
imaginable wholeness and unity of the Reality.

THE WISDOM OF EXALTATION

IN THE WORD OF NOAH

For those who [truly] know the divine Realities, the doctrine of
transcendence imposes a restriction and a limitation [on the Reality],
for he who asserts that God is [purely] transcendent is either a fool or
a rogue, even if he be a professed believer. For, if he maintains that
God is [purely] transcendent and excludes all other considerations, he
acts mischievously and misrepresents the Reality and all the apostles,
albeit unwittingly. He imagines that he has hit on the truth, while he
has [completely] missed the mark, being like those who believe in part
and deny in part.

It is known that when the Scriptures speak of the Reality they

speak in a way that yields to the generality of men the immediately
apparent meaning. The elite, on the other hand, understand all the
meanings inherent in that utterance, in whatever terms it is ex¬
pressed.

The truth is that the Reality is manifest in every created being

and in every concept, while He is [at the same time] hidden from all
understanding, except for one who holds that the Cosmos is His form
and His identity. This is the Name, the Manifest, while He is also un¬
manifested Spirit, the Unmanifest. In this sense He is, in relation to
the manifested forms of the Cosmos, the Spirit that determines those
forms.

In any definition of Man, his inner and outer aspect are both to
be considered, as is the case with all objects of definition. As for the
Reality, He may be defined by every definition, for the forms of the
Cosmos are limitless, nor can the definition of every form be known,
except insofar as the forms are implicit in the [definition] of the Cos¬
mos.

Thus, a [true] definition of the Reality is impossible, for such a

definition would depend on the ability to [fully] define every form in
the Cosmos, which is impossible. Therefore, a [complete] definition
of the Reality is impossible.

It is similar in the case of one who professes the comparability of

God without taking into consideration His incomparability, so that
he also restricts and limits Him and therefore does not know Him.
He, however, who unites in his knowledge of God both transcen¬
dence and immanence in a comprehensive way, it not being possible
to know such a thing in detail, owing to the infinitude of Cosmic
forms, knows Him in a general way, but not in a detailed way, as he
may know himself generally but not in detail.

In this connection the Prophet said, “Who [truly] knows himself

knows his Lord,” linking together knowledge of God and knowl¬
edge of the self. God says, We will show them our signs on the horizons ,
meaning the world outside you, and in yourselves , self, here, meaning
your inner essence, till it becomes clear to them that He is the Reality , in
that you are His form and He is your Spirit. You are in relation to
Him as your physical body is to you. He is in relation to you as the
spirit governing your physical form.

This definition of you takes account of your outer and inner as¬
pects, for the form that remains when the governing spirit is no long¬
er present may no longer be called a man, but only a form resembling
a man, there being no real difference between it and the shape of
wood or stone. The name “man” may be given to such a form only
figuratively, not properly.
On the other hand, the Reality never withdraws from the forms
of the Cosmos in any fundamental sense, since the Cosmos, in its re¬
ality, is [necessarily] implicit in the definition of the Divinity, not
merely figuratively as with a man when living in the body.

Just as the outer form of Man gives praise with its tongue to its
spirit and the soul that rules it, so also did God cause the Cosmic
Form to give praise to Him, although we cannot understand its praise
by reasons of our inability to comprehend all the forms of the Cos¬
mos. All things are the “tongues” of the Reality, giving expression to
the praise of the Reality. God says, Praise belongs to God, Lord of the
worlds, * for all praise returns to Him Who is both the Praiser and
the Praised.

If you insist only on His transcendence, you restrict Him,

And if you insist only on His immanence you limit Him.

If you maintain both aspects you are right,

An Imam and a master in the spiritual sciences.

Whoso would say He is two things is a polytheist,

While the one who isolates Him tries to regulate Him.

Beware of comparing Him if you profess duality,

And, if unity, beware of making Him transcendent.

You are not He and you are He and

You see Him in the essences of things both boundless

and limited.

God says, There is naught like unto Him, asserting His transcen¬
dence, and He says, He is the Hearing, the Seeing, implying compari¬
son. On the other hand, there are implicit in the first quotation
comparison [albeit negative] and duality [in the word “like”], and in
the second quotation transcendence and isolation are implicit [He
alone being named].

Had Noah combined the two aspects in summoning his people,

they would have responded to his call. He appealed to their outer
and inner understanding saying, Ask you Lord to shield you from your
sins], for He is Forgiving , Then he said, I summoned them by night [ in¬
wardly] and by day [outwardly], but my summons only made them more
averse [outer] He states that his people turned a deaf ear to his sum¬
mons only because they knew [innately] the proper way for them
[maintaining God’s immanence in many forms] to respond to his
summons [made from the standpoint of unity and transcendence].
Those who know God understand the allusion Noah makes in respect
of [what he knows to be the real state of] his people in that, by blaming
them he praises them, since he knows the reason for their not re¬
sponding [positively] to his summons; the reason being that his sum-
mons was made in a spirit of discrimination [seeking to oppose
transcendence to immanence]. The whole truth is a conjunction \al-
qur'an [qarana] as the whole revelation] and not a discrimination [al-
furqan \faraqa ] a chapter of the Qur'an, i.e., a part].

One who is firmly established in [his knowledge of] the conjunc¬

tion does not dwell on the discrimination, for the former [al-qur’an]
includes the discrimination [the chapter—both aspects in their appar¬
ent opposition] and not vice versa. It is for this reason that the Qur'an
[the union of the two aspects] was vouchsafed to Muhammad and this
Community, which is the best granted to mankind.

The quotation There is none like unto Him combines the two as¬
pects. Had Noah uttered this kind of saying [in summoning his peo¬
ple], they would have responded [positively] to him, for he would
have combined in the single verse the transcendental and immanental
modes; nay, even in half a verse.

Noah summoned his people by night , in that he appealed to their

intellects and spirits, which are unseen, and by day, in that he ap¬
pealed to the [evidence of] their external senses. But he did not unite
the two as in the verse There is none like unto Him For this reason
their inner selves [given to the immanental aspect] recoiled [from his
summons] because of its discriminatory nature, making them even
more averse [outer]. Then he told them that he summoned them in or¬
der that God might shield them [from the sin of excessive imma¬
nence] and not to reveal [uncover] for them [His transcendence as an
absolute]. This they understood from him [according to their outer
senses] so that they put their fingers in their ears and tried to cover them¬
selves with their clothes This is an [external] form of shielding to
which he had summoned them, although they responded literally by
their actions and not in humble surrender [to God’s shielding].

In the verse There is none like unto Him similarity is at once im¬
plied and denied. Because of this Muhammad said that he had been
granted [knowledge of God] integrating all His aspects. Muhammad
[unlike Noah] did not summon his people by night and by day , but
by night during the day [an inner summons implicit in the outer one],
and by day during the night [the outer truth being implicit in the in¬
ner].

Noah, in his wisdom, said to them, He causes the heaven to rain

upon you copiously , meaning intellectual knowledge and reflection,
and has provided you with reserves [of wealth ] by which He reserves
you to Himself. When He does this you will see your form in Him.
Whoever imagines that he sees the Reality Himself has no gnosis; he
has gnosis who knows that it is his own essential self he sees. Thus are
the Folk divided into those who know and those who do not know.
And, . . . his offspring , meaning that which results from their ordi¬
nary discursive thinking, while what is required is the devotion of
knowledge to contemplation, far removed from the fruits of ordinary
thought. [It will only increase them ] in loss and Their commerce will not
profit them , meaning that that which they had within their grasp
and which they imagined to be theirs departed from them. In respect
of Muhammad’s heirs, He says, Make use of that over which you have
been appointed regents In the case of Noah [and his people] He says,
Have you not taken a trustee other than Me? By this He confirms that,
in their case, the power was theirs, God being trustee for them, while,
in the case of the heirs of Muhammad, they are God’s regents in His
kingdom, God being both Possessor and Trustee, while they are pos¬
sessors only in the sense that they are regents.

Thus the Reality is Ruler of the Kingdom as indicated by at-Tir-

midhl.

And they hatched a great conspiracy meaning that summoning to

God [in one mode] is [in a sense] a deception played on the one sum¬
moned, since God is no more nonexistent in the first mode [that of
the one summoned] than in the second. I call to God , which is the de-
ception itself, with clear vision , indicating that the whole [both
modes] belong to Him. Thus they [for their part] responded to him
with a deception, as he had summoned them with one.

The heir of Muhammad knows that the summons to God is not a

summons to His Ipseity [Essence], but to Him in respect of His
Names [modes]. He says, On the day when we will gather together the
guarding ones in a band y indicating that they will come before God in
the [all-embracing] Name the Merciful [not before God in His Es¬
sence]. We know that the Cosmos is under the rule of a divine Name
that makes all in it guarding [guarded].

In their deception they say, Do not abandon your gods, neither

IVadd, Suwa\ Yaghuth nor Ya'uq, nor Nasr , If they had abandoned
them they would have become ignorant of the Reality, to the extent
that they deserted them, for in every object of worship there is a re¬
flection of the Reality, whether it be recognized or not.

In the case of Muhammad’s heirs He says, Your Lord has decreed

that you serve only Him, meaning He has determined it. The one who
knows, knows Who is worshiped and in what form He is manifest to
be worshiped. He also knows that the distinction and multiplicity [of
forms] are merely like parts of a sensible form or the powers of a
spiritual image. Indeed, in every object of worship it is [in truth] God
Who is worshiped.

The ignorant man imagines the object to be invested with divin¬

ity and, were it not for such a notion, neither the stone nor anything
similar would be an object of worship. For this reason He says, Bid
them name them. Had they done so they would have called them
stones, trees, or stars. Had they been asked whom they worshiped,
they would have said “a god” and not “God” or “the God.”

The man endowed with knowledge does not imagine thus, but
knows that the object of worship is the vehicle of divine manifesta¬
tion, worthy of reverence, while not restricting himself [to that par¬
ticular object].
The ignorant man says, We only worship them that they might bring
us nearer to God The man of knowledge says, Your God is only One, so
submit yourselves to Him , howsoever He is manifest, and bring glad tid¬
ings to those who conceal , that is, who conceal the fire of their [lowly]
nature. They would say “a god” and not “a nature” [something pas¬
sive].

He also says, They have caused confusion to many, meaning that

they have caused them to become perplexed in the face of the [appar¬
ent] multiplicity of the One in respect of His aspects and attributions.

It only increases the oppressors [in confusion ], meaning those who

oppress themselves [by self-denial], who inherit the Book [of unitary
knowledge]. These are the first of the three [categories] [described by
God elsewhere], since He places the self-oppressor before the moderate
one and the doer of good works In confusion , that is, in [spiritually
self-effacing] perplexity on the part of the heirs of Muhammad, who
said, “My Lord increase my perplexity concerning You.” When it
[the Self-revelation of the One ] shines for the?n they proceed , but when it
shines not [because of the multiplicity of forms ] they stop [in perplexity ].
He who experiences this perplexity is ceaselessly centered on the
Pole [God], while he who follows the “long” path [to a distant God]
is always turning aside from the [Supreme] Goal to search after that
which is [eternally] within him, running after imagination as his goal.
He has an [imaginary] starting point and [what he supposes to be] a
goal and what lies between them, while for the God-centered man
there is no restriction of beginning or end, possessing [as he does] the
most comprehensive existence and being the recipient of [divine]
truths and realities.

Because of their transgressions going beyond themselves so that

they drowned in the seas of the knowledge of God, which is what is
meant by perplexity. And they were cast into the fire % which means the
same as drowning according to the heirs. When the seas swell where
the same verbal root is used to denote the heating of an oven. Nor will
they find any helpers apart from God, since their helpers are [in es¬
sence] nothing other than God and they are annihilated in Him forev¬
er.

Were He to deliver them [from the seas of gnosis] onto the shore
of Nature He would be lowering them from an eminent stage [of
spiritual attainment], [that is, relatively eminent] although [in truth]
all is God’s, through God, indeed is God.

Noah said, u my Lord ’* He did not say, “O my God,” because

[God as] the Lord is fixed, whereas the Divinity is manifold according
to [the variety] of His Names and every day He is engaged in some mat¬
ter [God] as the Lord denotes a constancy of mode without which
the appeal would not be appropriate. [ my Lord], do not leave [any of
the deniers dwelling] upon Earth [that is on the level of devotion to
formal manifestation], beseeching that they be brought to the inner
aspect [of knowledge of essential Unity].
In respect of Muhammad’s heirs, [it might be said], “If you let
down a rope it would fall upon God [He being below and above],”
and, His is what is in the Heavens and the Earth When you are buried
in it you will be in it and it will be your covering, to it We will return
you and from it We will bring you forth a second time, because of the va¬
riety of aspects.

... of the deniers, who seek to cover themselves in their clothes and put
their fingers into their ears , seeking cover because he summoned them
that He might shield [forgive] them, which is a kind of covering.
Dwelling that is, any of them at all, so that the benefit might be gen¬
eral as was the summons. If you spare them, that is leave them [as they
are], they will confuse your servants meaning that they will perplex
them and cause them to depart from their servanthood to [assert] the
mysteries of Lordship in themselves, so that they will consider them¬
selves as Lords after being servants. They will indeed be servants be-
come as Lords. They will only bring forth, they will only produce and
make manifest one who breaks open [wrong doer], that is one who makes
manifest what is hidden, and one who denies, that is one who conceals
what is manifest after its manifestation. They will bring forth what is
hidden and then conceal it after its manifestation, so that the beholder
will be perplexed, not knowing what the discloser intends by his ac¬
tion nor the concealer by his, though they are [in truth] the same.

My Lord, shield [forgive] me, that is, conceal me [from my sepa¬

rate self] and cover for my sake [other than You] and render my [rela¬
tive] span and station unknowable [in You] since You are without
measure; You say, They do not assess God to the fullness of His measure
And my parents, from whom I derived, namely, the Intellect and Na¬
ture. And whoever enters my house, that is, into my heart, believing, that
is, confirming the divine communications, having himself received
them. And the believers, both men, meaning the intellects, and women,
the souls.

And do not increase the oppressors, those in darkness who belong to

the Unseen, concealed behind dark veils, except in destruction , that is,
in annihilation [in God]. They have consciousness of themselves be¬
cause their contemplation of the face of the Reality absorbs them to
the exclusion of their [separative] selves. Among the heirs is remem¬
bered the verse, All perishes save His face the destruction in the
above verse meaning this “p e ri s hmg.”

Whoever wishes to gain access to the Noah mysteries must as¬

cend to the Sphere of the Sun. These matters are also dealt with in
our book, The Mosul Revelations
CHAPTER IV

THE WISDOM OF HOLINESS

IN THE WORD OF ENOCH

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

To understand the significance for this chapter of the word “ho¬

liness” in the title, it is necessary to know that the meaning of the
Arabic root qadasa is “to be far removed,” which in this context
means the spiritual remoteness of God from the trammels of the
world or Cosmos. To demonstrate the relevance of this notion fur¬
ther, it must be pointed out that, in most spiritually oriented religious
traditions, the notion of spiritual remoteness, in the sense of transcen¬
dence, is closely associated with the notion of height or elevation,
which is precisely the main topic of discussion in this chapter.

Ibn al-‘ArabI divides the concept of elevation into two kinds, ele¬
vation of position, which relates to cosmic activity by the soul, and el¬
evation of degree, which relates to the knowing of the spirit. He
discusses also the meaning and significance of the term “elevation” in
connection with God. In other words, elevation of position is accord¬
ing to a cosmic scale and elevation of degree is according to a divine
scale, although it is only God, as the worshiped element in the polari¬
ty Creator-creation, Who may be said to be elevated, since the Reality
Itself is beyond and, at the same time, embraces such a concept,
whether it be of position or degree. It all depends on whether one
views God as the One in the sense of the Unique, or as the One, the
First of many.

This leads us on to the next subject dealt with in the chapter,

namely that of the mystical theory of number. Here he discusses the
implications for his teachings of considering the number one, either
as the number par excellence from which all other numbers derive
and of which they are merely manifestations, or the number one as a
unique reality in itself, unrelated to and beyond any possibility of
multiplication. For Ibn aLArabl, this question relates, once more, to
the polarity God in Himself-God in the Cosmos. In other words, are
we to see God as unique, and therefore as unrelating and unrelatable,
or as the relating and related origin of all created existence? Ibn al-
‘Arabl’s answer is, of course, that both perspectives are true of the Re¬
ality.

Going on to discuss the relationship of cosmic Nature with God,

Ibn aLArabl compares it to the father-son and Adam-Eve relation¬
ship, by which he seeks to show that the Cosmos, deriving as it does
from God, is essentially none other than He. He returns to these anal¬
ogies later in the work. However, as he points out earlier in the chap¬
ter, regarded from the standpoint of the Reality Itself, there is no
clear bias in favor of the Creator rather than creation, since, from this
standpoint, we may speak of a “created Creator” and a “creating cre¬
ation,” as he himself expresses it.
The chapter ends with another look at the subject of the divine
Names. Since all the Names that, as we have seen, serve to describe
the nature of the relationship Creator-creation are the Names of God,
which term is itself the universal Name, each particular name must
needs express, if only essentially, all the other Names, while in itself
denoting some particular aspect of the divine connection with the
Cosmos. Thus each particular creation in its own particular relation¬
ship with its Lord, as determined by its own latent predisposition in
divinis y partakes in reality in all possible creation, since even in its
own particularity it is, and cannot be, other than He.

THE WISDOM OF HOLINESS

IN THE WORD OF ENOCH

Elevation may be attributed in two ways, either with respect to

position [created being] or to degree [of essential reality]. An example
of the former is provided in His saying, We raised him to a high posi¬
tionA* The most elevated [cosmic] position is that point round which
the Spheres revolve, which is the Sphere of the Sun where the spiritu¬
al form of Enoch resides.

There revolve round it seven higher Spheres and seven lower

Spheres, being fifteen in all.

The higher Spheres are those of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Man¬
sions, the Constellations, the Throne, and the Seat.

The lower Spheres are those of Venus, Mercury, the Moon,

Ether, Air, Water, and Earth.

As being the pivot of the Spheres he is elevated as regards posi¬

tion. As for degree, it belongs to the heirs of Muhammad. God says,
You are the elevated ones and God is with you in this elevation, since, al¬
though He is far above all position, He is not so in respect of degree.

When the soul in us, concerned with activity, fears [the loss of at¬
tainment], He follows with His saying, He will not nullify your deeds ,
for action seeks position while knowledge seeks degree. God unites
the two kinds of elevation for us, elevation of position through action
and of degree through knowledge.

Then He says, rejecting any suggestion of co-partnership in His

words God is with you, Exalt the name of your Lord , the Sublime , that is,
beyond any idea of partnership.

Man, namely, the Perfect Man, is the most elevated of existing

beings, but his elevation depends on an elevation of position or de¬
gree, not deriving it from himself [as a created being]. He is elevated
either because he occupies a high position [in the cosmic order] or be¬
cause he has a high degree, the elevation residing in them and not in
him.
Elevation of position is as He says, The Merciful is established on the
Seat , which is the highest position. Alluding to elevation of degree,
He says, All perishes save His face * and All reverts to Him * and Can
there be a god with God?* A
When God says, And We raised him to a high position * He con¬
nects the adjective “high” to the noun “position,” whereas His say¬
ing, When your Lord said to the angels , “/ am going to place on the Earth a
regent , ” refers to elevation of degree. He also says, with reference
to the angels, Are you displaying pride or are you of the elevated ones ?*
connecting elevation to the angels themselves. If this ascription were
implicit in their being angels, all angels would share in it. Since, how¬
ever, it is not a general ascription, even though they are all defined as
being angels, we know that it refers to elevation of degree with God.

Similarly in the case of the Caliphs, if their elevation were im¬

plicit in their being men, all men would partake of it. Since it is not
general however, we know that the elevation belongs to the degree.

The Elevated is one of God’s Beautiful Names; but above whom

or what, since only He exists? More elevated than whom or what,
since only He is and He is Elevated in Himself? In relation to exis¬
tence He is the very essence of existing beings. Thus, in a certain
sense, relative beings are elevated in themselves, since [in truth] they
are none other than He and His elevation is absolute and not relative.
This is because the [eternal] essences are immutable unmanifest,
knowing nothing of manifested existence, and they remain in that
state, despite all the multiplicity of manifested forms. The Essence is
Unique of the whole in the whole. Multiplicity exists only in respect
of the divine Names, which are themselves purely relationships and
thus not manifest [in themselves].

Naught is except the Essence, which is Elevated in Itself, its ele¬

vation being unrelated to any other. Thus, from this standpoint, there
is no relative elevation, although in respect of the aspects of existence
there is [a certain] differentiation. Relative elevation exists in the
Unique Essence only insofar as It is [manifest in] many aspects.

Thus, in a certain sense, it may be said that He is not He and you

are not you. Al-Kharraz , who is an aspect of the Reality and one of
His tongues by which He expresses Himself, said, “God cannot be
known except as uniting the opposites,” in determining them
through them. He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Un-
manifest, the Essence of all that is manifest and all that is not yet
manifest, even as He is manifesting Himself. Thus, only He sees Him
and only He is hidden from Him, for He is manifest to Himself and
hidden from Himself. It is none other than He who bears the name
Abu Sa‘!d al-Kharraz and all the other names given to relative beings.
The Unmanifest says “No” when the Manifest says “I [am]” and the
Manifest says “No” when the Unmanifest says “[Only] I [am].” This
is the nature of opposition, but the speaker and listener [in both cases]
are One, the Unique. The Prophet said, “. . . and what they told them¬
selves,” they being the tellers, the ones told, and the telling, know¬
ing what was to be told.
The Essence is Unique while the determinations are various.
This situation is well known, since every man knows this of himself,
being the form of the Reality. The realities are mingled [some with
others]. The numbers derive from the one according to the well-
known groupings [s, s, etc]. Thus the one makes number possi¬
ble, and number deploys the one. Furthermore, enumeration is possi¬
ble only because of the existence of that which is enumerated. The
latter may exist or not exist, since something may be nonexistent
physically but exist intellectually. Therefore there must be number
and that which can be numbered, just as there must be the one to ini¬
tiate the process by which it is itself developed.

Each unit is a reality in itself, like nine or ten down to the lowest
[two] or upward ad infinitum , although none of them are comprehen¬
sive, each of them being a [particular] collection of ones. Two is
unique and three and so on, even though all are one [in being made
up of ones], nor does a particular number embrace other numbers [es¬
sentially]. For the fact that all numbers are collections of ones estab¬
lishes at once that, as being different collections, they are [relatively]
unique and that, as being all multiples of one, they derive entirely
from the one. Inherent in all this are the twenty groups [, , , , ,
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,], according to a
particular construction. Thus, in saying that all numbers are one re¬
ality, one must also say that the one is not the numbers [being the or-
igin].

Whoever has understood what I have said about the numbers,

namely, that to deny them is to affirm them, will know that the tran¬
scendent Reality is [at the same time] the relative creature, even
though the creature be distinct from the Creator. The Reality is at
once the created Creator and the creating creature. All this is One Es¬
sence, at once Unique and Many, so consider what it is you see.

[Isaac said to his father], Father, do as you are commanded, for

the son is the essence of the father. Abraham saw only his own self to
be sacrificed. Then We ransomed him with a mighty sacrifice , so that
that which had appeared in human form appeared as a ram, whereas
it had appeared in the form of a son or, more precisely, in a form dis¬
tinguishing father and son, since the son is [in reality] the essence of
the father.

He created from it [Adam's soul ] its mate, so that Adam’s consort

was nothing other than his [essential] self. From him came forth both
mate and child, for the [Creative] Command is one in multiplicity.

Who [else] is the Universal Nature and who [else] is manifest in

her [many forms]? We observe that Nature suffers no loss in display¬
ing [her forms] nor yet any increase in reassimilating them. What is
manifest is She Herself, just as She is not what is manifest from the
standpoint of formal distinction. One particular manifestation is cold
and dry, while another is hot and dry. They are both one as regards
dryness, but otherwise distinct. Nature, or rather the Essential Na¬
ture, is that which unites all of them. The natural order may thus be
regarded [at once] as [many] forms reflected in a single mirror or as a
single form reflected in many mirrors. This notion causes nothing
but confusion [to the sense-bound mind] because of the divisive na¬
ture of its apprehension.

He who truly understands what we are discussing here is not

confused. Even if his knowledge is extended, the extension is only the
result of the determination of the location, which is nothing other
than the immutable essence in respect of which the Reality is [formal¬
ly] diversified within the theater [of His Self-revelation]. These loca¬
tional determinants seem to diversify Him, but it is He Who absorbs
every determinant, He Himself being determined only by His Own
Self-manifestation. There is naught but He.

In one sense the Reality is creature, so consider,

In another He is not, so reflect.

Who grasps my saying, his perception will not dim,

Nor may one grasp it save he be endowed with perception.

Whether you assert unity or distinction, the Self is Unique.

As also the Many that are and yet are not.

He Who is Elevated in Himself enjoys that [complete] perfection

in which all realities and relationships, determined or undetermined,
are immersed, since none of the attributes can possibly apply to other
than He. This means all realities and relationships, whether they be,
in the eyes of convention, reason or law, praiseworthy or otherwise.
This applies only to the Reality as “God” [the Name uniting all
Names]. As for the Reality as other than God, [as manifested] in some
place or form, then qualitative disparity [necessarily] occurs, as be¬
tween one location and another. If the form be a [synthetic] form [the
Perfect Man], it embraces [essentially] the essential perfection, since
it is identical with the [universal] location in which it is manifest. The
[all-embracing] totality inherent in the Name “God” is implicit in
that form, which is at once not He and not other than He.

Abu al-Qasim b. QissI alludes to this in his book The Shedding of

the Sandals , where he says, “Every Divine Name is invested with all
the Names.” This is because every Name implies the Essence as
well as the particular aspect it enshrines. Therefore, insofar as it im¬
plies the Essence Itself, it partakes of all the Names, whereas, as
evincing the particular aspect [of the Essence] it is distinct and
unique [relatively]. In this latter sense it is differentiated from every
other Name, such as Lord, Creator, Fashioner, and so on. In the for¬
mer sense the Name is [essentially] the one Named, but other than
He as representing some particular aspect.

If you have understood the elevation I have discussed, you will

know that it is elevation neither of position nor of degree. As regards
the latter, it is peculiar to persons in power, as sultans, governors,
ministers, judges, and every holder of office, be they worthy of it or
not. Self-sufficient elevation is not of this kind. It is quite possible for
the most knowledgeable of men to be under the control of the most
ignorant who happens to hold a powerful office. The elevation of the
latter is entirely relative to the office he holds, while the former is ele¬
vated in himself. When the holder of office ceases to hold it, his eleva¬
tion ceases also. This is nor the case with a man of true knowledge.

CHAPTER V

THE WISDOM OF
RAPTUROUS LOVE
IN THE WORD OF ABRAHAM

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The traditional title of the Patriarch Abraham is al-Khatil , which

is usually translated as “the friend.” Ibn al-‘ArabI, however, reads
into the word one of the other derivative meanings of the root khalla y
that of permeation or penetration. Thus, in this context, Abraham’s
title means, rather, “the permeated one,” permeated, that is, by God.
The friendship, therefore, is of the most intimate kind; indeed it is, as
the title of the chapter suggests, more like rapturous love by which
the lover is wholly permeated by the beloved. Our author goes on to
use the example of Abraham to illustrate the principle of divine per¬
meation in general. Thus, the Cosmos and each of its constituents, as
being totally receptive to the divine Command, is wholly permeated
by the divine agent as something implicit and not explicit, so that the
manifest complexity and multiplicity of the Cosmos conceals the all-
pervading reality of God. As usual, however, he insists on the mutual¬
ity of this principle of permeation, since, just as God is implicitly
present in cosmic creation, so is creation implicitly and essentially
present in God.

This leads Ibn al-‘ArabI on to point out that the terms “God” and
“Cosmos” are interdependent, the notion of divinity being dependent
on the notion of that which worships Him. Thus, neither God nor
the Cosmos may be known, except in relation to each other. He is say¬
ing, therefore, that the Cosmos cannot be properly known or under¬
stood without reference to God, nor can the concept of divinity be
comprehended without reference to creation. Proceeding to the sub¬
ject of our essential latency in divinis , he concludes that, in knowing
the Cosmos, God is knowing Himself, and that, in knowing God, we,
as creatures, know ourselves in essence. Thus, in aeternis , we are the
latent and essential content of His knowledge of Himself, while, in
time and space, He is the all-permeating substance and reality of
which we are but apparent facets. This prompts him to point out
that, in view of this, we have no cause to blame God, since, in reality,
as being nothing other than what He knows Himself to be, we deter¬
mine what we experience ourselves to be, past, present, or future.

Ibn al-‘ArabI goes on to reinforce the concept of mutual perme¬

ation between God and the Cosmos by comparing it with the process
by which consumed food becomes one with the consumer by the as¬
similation of its particles and substances to the substance of the one
who eats it. T hus, divinity is the existential nourishment of the Cos¬
mos, while it, in turn, is the archetypal nourishment of the divine
Self-awareness. Indeed, the two poems with which he concludes this
chapter express his daring vision of mutuality very explicitly, and it
was this kind of expression, on his part, of concepts shocking and un¬
acceptable to less flexible minds, that earned Ibn al ‘Arabi so much
opprobrium among the religious scholars of his time.

THE WISDOM OF RAPTUROUS LOVE

IN THE WORD OF ABRAHAM

Abraham was called the Intimate [ khatil ] [of God] because he had
embraced [takhallala] and penetrated all the Attributes of the Divine
Essence. The poet says,

I have penetrated the course of the spirit within me,

And thus was the Intimate [of God] so called.

In the same way, color permeates that which is colored, provid¬

ing [it be understood] that the accident in relation to its substance is
not as the thing and the space it occupies; or Abraham was so called
because the Reality permeated his form. Either approach is valid,
since every determination has an appropriate assignation beyond
which it does not pass.

Do you not understand that the Reality is manifest through the

attributes of relative beings, when He has informed us of that Him¬
self, even through attributes of deficiency and blame? Do you not un¬
derstand that the created being is manifest through the attributes of
the Reality, from the first to the last, all of them being appropriate to
it, even as the attributes of created beings are appropriate to the Re¬
ality? The words Praise belongs to God mean that every instance of
praise, as respecting the one who praises or the one praised, reverts to
Him. To Him the [whole] matter reverts , in which verse He embraces
all [attributes] without reference to their praiseworthiness or blame¬
worthiness, all being either the one or the other.

Know that whenever something permeates another it is assumed

into the other. That which permeates, the agent, is disguised by that
which is permeated, the object of permeation. Thus, the object in this
case is the manifest, while the agent is the unmanifest, the hidden [re¬
ality]. The latter is as nourishment for the former, even as a piece of
wool swells and expands because of the water that permeates it.

If, on the other hand, the Reality is considered as being the Mani¬
fest and the creature as being hidden within Him, the creature will
assume all the Names of the Reality, His hearing, sight, all His rela¬
tionships [modes], and His knowledge. If, however, the creature is
considered the manifest and the Reality the Unmanifest within him,
then the Reality is in the hearing of the creature, as also in his sight,
hand, foot, and all his faculties, as declared in the [well-known] Holy
Tradition of the Prophet.

The Essence, as being beyond all these relationships, is not a di¬

vinity. Since all these relationships originate in our eternally unmani¬
fested essences, it is we [in our eternal latency] who make Him a
divinity by being that through which He knows Himself as Divine.
Thus, He is not known [as “God”] until we are known.

Muhammad said, “Who knows his [true] self, knows his Lord,”
being the creature who knows God best. Certain sages, among them

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, have asserted that God can be known without
any reference to the created Cosmos, but this is mistaken. It is true
that a primordial eternal essence can be known, but it cannot be
known as a divinity unless knowledge of that to which it can be relat¬
ed is assumed, for it is the dependent who confirm the independence
of the Independent.

However, a further spiritual intuition will reveal that that which

was necessary to affirm His Divinity is none other than the Reality
Himself, and that the Cosmos [of created beings] is nothing more
than His Self-revelation [to Himself] in the forms [determined] by
their eternally unmanifest essences, which could not possibly exist
without Him. It will reveal also that He manifests Himself variously
and formally according to the [inherent] realities and states of the es¬
sences, all of which is understood together with the knowledge that,
in relation to us, He is the Divinity.

A final spiritual intuition will show you our forms manifest in

Him, so that some of us are manifest to others in the Reality, know
each other, and distinguish each other in Him. There are those of us
who have spiritual knowledge of this mutual recognition in the Reali¬
ty, while others have not experienced the plane on which this occurs.
I seek refuge in God lest I be of the ignorant.

As a result of the last two intuitions it is known that we are de¬

termined only through ourselves [as essences]; indeed, it is we who
determine ourselves through ourselves, which is the meaning of the
words God's is the conclusive argument , that is, against the veiled ones
when they ask the Reality why He has done with them things con¬
trary to their own aims. And He made their affair difficult for them
and this is the truth revealed to the gnostics. For they see that it is not
the Reality that has done with them what is claimed, and they see that
what was done with them came from themselves, for His knowledge
of them is according to what they are themselves [in their eternal es¬
sences]. Thus their complaint is nullified, the conclusive argument re¬
maining with God.

If it be asked what is the point of His saying, Had He wished He

would have guided you all , we reply that the Had He in Had He wished
conveys the denial of a suggestion regarding the impossible, for He
wills only that which is. However, according to rational principles
the same contingency may admit of a thing or its opposite, but [in re¬
ality] whichever of the two [alternatives] occurs is the one assigned to
the contingency in its eternal essence. The meaning of He would have
guided you is that He would have made clear to you [your unmanifest
realities]. However, it is not granted to everyone by God that his
spiritual sight should be opened to perceive his essential reality [in its
latency], for there are those who know and those who do not know.
For this reason He did not will and did not guide them all, nor will
He do so; the same applies to the words If He wills, for how is He
to will what is not?

His Will is self-dependent and is an [essential] attribution depen¬

dent on His Knowledge, which is [in turn] dependent on the object of
His Knowledge, which is you and your essential status. Knowledge
has no effect on the object of knowledge, while what is known has an
effect on knowledge, bestowing on it of itself what it is.

The [scriptural] Revelations were formulated in accordance with

what those addressed laid down [as regards the eternal measure of re¬
sponse eternally latent in their essences] and according to reason,
which formulation does not [necessarily] conform to what [direct]
spiritual intuition reveals. Thus, although believers are many, gnos¬
tics endowed with spiritual intuition are few. There are none of us but
have a known station , which is what you are in your eternal latency
and in accordance with which you are manifest in existence, if, in
truth, your reality includes the possibility of being manifested.

If it is agreed that existence may be attributed only to the Reality

and not to you, you will [nevertheless, as essence] determine His exis¬
tence. If it is agreed that you have existence, you are also a determi¬
nant. For, even though the Reality be the Determiner, it is for Him
only to pour existence upon you, while you remain the determinant
and the determined. Therefore praise none other than yourself and
blame none other than yourself. Praise is due to the Reality only as
pouring forth existence, which only He may do, not you.

You are His nourishment as bestowing the contents of His Self-

Knowledge, while He is yours as bestowing existence, what is as¬
signed to you being assigned also to Him. The order is from Him to
you [Be!] and from you to [what you/He shall be]. However, you are
called the one who is charged, but He charges you only in accordance
with what your essential unmanifest reality bids Him. He is not so
called, since He is not the object.

He praises me and I praise Him,

He worships me and I worship Him.

In mv state of existence I confirm Him,

As unmanifest essence I deny Him.

He knows me, while I know naught of Him,

I also know Him and perceive Him.

Where then is His Self-sufficiency,

Since I help Him and grant Him Bliss?

It is for this that the Reality created me,

For I give content to His Knowledge and manifest Him.

Thus did the message come,

Its meaning fulfilled in me.

It was because Abraham attained to this rank by which he was

called the Intimate [of God] that hospitality became a [sacred] act. Ibn
Masarrah put him with Michael [the Archangel] as a source of provi¬
sion, provisions being the food of those provided. Food penetrates
to the essence of the one fed, permeating every part. So also with
God, although in His case there are no parts but only Divine Stations
or Names through which His Essence is manifest.

We are His as has been shown,

As also we belong to ourselves.

He has no other becoming except mine,

We are His and we are through ourselves.

I have two aspects, H e and I,

But He is not I in my I.

jn m g , is Hf§ theater of manifestation,.

And we are for Him as vessels.

CHAPTER VI

THE WISDOM OF REALITY

IN THE WORD OF ISAAC

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Three very important aspects of Ibn al-‘ArabI’s thought are dis¬

cussed in this relatively short chapter. The first of these is the subject
of the Imagination, not so much in its macrocosmic and creative sense
as an image of the divine Self-polarization, but rather in its microcos-
mic and recollective sense. The Imaginative faculty, whether macro-
cosmic or microcosmic, is seen as having two functions, the one
creative and existential, the other recollective or recreational and
spiritual. In the first case, the Imaginative process absorbs and in¬
volves consciousness, divine and human, in the creative urge of cos¬
mic becoming in all its infinitely fascinating complexity. In the
second case, by a process of interpretation and realization, conscious¬
ness rediscovers and reestablishes its ultimately inalienable and abso¬
lute integrity and unity. In the human individual sphere, the first is
illustrated by the man whose consciousness is always being attracted
outward to material objects, dissipated and absorbed by a multiplicity
of “interests,” while the second is illustrated by the person who ab¬
stracts the objects of sense around him to reinforce and confirm his
own conscious identity.

The second process helps to illustrate the qur'anic view of the

Cosmos as being an infinite display of ayat or signs, the intelligent in¬
terpretation and contemplation of which leads one, inevitably, back
toward the absolute and unitive truth of God. The point being made
in the first part of this chapter is that cosmic forms have two aspects,
the existential and creative aspect of cosmic actuality, which seems al¬
ways to alienate and dissipate integral consciousness, and the spiritu¬
al and symbolic aspect, which assists in refocusing the intellect on the
archetypal and ideal. In other words, what one perceives with one’s
worldly and cosmic perception is an image that on the one hand con¬
ceals its essential truth, but on the other reveals that truth to spiritual
perception. This latter perception requires the ability to leap, so to
speak, from the outflowing to the inflowing current of the Imagina¬
tion, which currents meet in the microcosmic synthesis of the human
state, so that man alone is able to make this transition. This means
that, in addition to being of both earth and Heaven, man also occu¬
pies a vital and important middle ground, the ‘alam al-mithal or world
of likenesses in which archetypes mysteriously become translated
into existent things, and through which cosmic forms are trans¬
formed into spiritual essences—a subtle, fluid realm in which the cur¬
rents of cosmic becoming and spiritual reintegration meet and
mingle. The leap, therefore, that man must make in order that he
might use cosmic images as a means of realizing his eternal identity
with God is precisely the act of ta'wil , which means “going back to
first principles,” which means to perceive in cosmic forms that aspect
which points, symbolically, to their creator, God. Thus, in short, cos¬
mic forms are not what they seem, but rather what they mean, not
what they have become, but what they are in aeternis. Although most
cosmic forms are, potentially, diabolic in the sense that, in their exis¬
tential aspect, they may encourage an apparent alienation and separa¬
tion from the divine principle, that of Muhammad, as a particular
formal manifestation of the Perfect Man who unalterably symbolizes
the wholeness of divine Reality, cannot be so.

The subject of the Perfect Man and his manifestation in the form
of Muhammad naturally leads on to the second of Ibn al-‘ArabI’s sub¬
jects in this chapter, that of the Heart. According to a Holy Tradi¬
tion, the only thing that can contain God is the Heart of the gnostic.
This is because the essential Heart, as opposed to the physical heart,
is precisely that synthetic organ which, within the microcosmic con¬
text, symbolizes the unimaginable synthesis of the Reality Itself in Its
undifferentiated wholeness. While, in his intellect and spirit, man is
an aspect of God, in his body and life, an aspect of cosmic creation,
and, in his soul, an aspect of the relationship between God and the
Cosmos, it is in his Heart that man may fully realize his inexorable
oneness with the Reality, which is the coincidentia oppositorum.

The third and last subject dealt with in this chapter is that of the
himmah or creative force of the gnostic, that faculty which enables
him to link his own particular power of creative imagination to the
divine creative Imagination. As has been indicated elsewhere, unless
this linking goes together with total self-effacement in the Self, it may
lead to the illusion of self-deification, because of the seemingly mirac¬
ulous powers attendant on the development of such power, albeit that
the human himmah can never be anything but partial.

THE WISDOM OF REALITY

IN THE WORD OF ISAAC

The ransom of a prophet is a beast slaughtered as a sacrificial

offering,

But how can the bleating of a ram compare with the speech
of Man?

God the Mighty made mighty the ram for our sake or its
sake, I know not by what measure.

No doubt other sacrificial beasts fetch a higher price,

But they all are less than a ram slaughtered as an offering.

Would that I knew how a mere ram came to be a substitute
for the Vice-Regent of the Merciful.

Do you not perceive a certain logic in the matter,

The realization of gains and the diminution of loss?

No creation is higher than the stone, and after it the plant,

In a certain sense and according to certain measures.

After the plant comes sentient being, all know their Creator
by a direct knowledge and on clear evidence.
As for the one called Adam, he is bound by intelligence,
thought, and the garland of faith.

Concerning this said Sahl, a gnostic like ourselves,

Because we and they are at the degree of spiritual vision,
Whoso has contemplated what I have contemplated
Will say the same as I, whether in secret or openly.

Do not consider words contrary to ours, nor sow seed in

blind soil.

For they are the deaf, the dumb of whom the sinless one

spoke in the text of the Qur'an.

Know, may God strengthen us and you, that Abraham the Inti¬
mate said to his son, I saw in sleep that I was killing you for sacrifice .
The state of sleep is the plane of the Imagination and Abraham did
not interpret [what he saw], for it was a ram that appeared in the
form of Abraham’s son in the dream, while Abraham believed what
he saw [at face value]. So his Lord rescued his son from Abraham’s
misapprehension by the Great Sacrifice [of the ram], which was the
true expression of his vision with God, of which Abraham was un¬
aware.

The formal Self-revelation [of the Reality] on the plane of the

Imagination requires an additional knowledge by which to appre¬
hend what God intends by a particular form. Have you not consid¬
ered what the Apostle of God said to Abu Bakr concerning the
interpretation of visions when he said, “I was right in some cases and
mistaken in others”? Abu Bakr asked him to acquaint him in which of
them he had been right and in which wrong, but he did not tell him.

God says to Abraham, calling him Abraham , you believed what

you saw , and He does not say, “You were right concerning what
you saw,” namely [in seeing] your son, because he did not interpret
what he saw, but took it at its face value, although visions require in¬
terpretation. Thus Joseph’s master says, If you will interpret the vi¬
sion . Interpretation means to pass from the form of what one sees
to something beyond it.

Thus were the cattle [symbols] for years of scarcity and plen¬
ty. Had he been true to the vision he would have killed his son, for
he believed that it was his son he saw, although with God it was noth¬
ing other than the Great Sacrifice in the form of his son. Because of
this He saved him, because of the mistaken notion that had entered
Abraham’s mind. In reality it was not a ransom in God’s sight [but
the sacrifice itself]. The senses formulated the sacrifice and the Imagi¬
nation produced the form of Abraham’s son. Had it been a ram he
saw in the Imagination he would have interpreted it as his son or as
something else. Then God says, This is indeed a clear test , that is, a
test of his knowledge, whether he knew what interpretation was nec¬
essary in the context of vision or not. Abraham knew that the per¬
spective of the Imagination required interpretation, but was heedless
[on this occasion] and did not deal with the perspective in the proper
way. Thus, he believed the vision as he saw it.

TaqT b. al-Mukhallad, the Imam and author of the Musnad ,

heard that the Apostle had said, “Whoever sees me in sleep has seen
me in waking, for the Devil cannot take my form upon himself.” * *
Accordingly TaqT b. Mukhallad saw him [in sleep] and the Prophet
was giving him milk to drink. He believed the vision superficially,
and made himself vomit [to prove its truth]. Had he penetrated to the
meaning of his vision, the milk would have been [what it represented]
knowledge, but God denied him much knowledge because he had
drunk it as milk.

Have you not considered that when the Prophet was brought a
bowl of milk in a dream he said [of it], “I drank of it until I was com¬
pletely satiated, and the rest I gave to ‘Umar.’” It was said to him,
“What is your interpretation, O Apostle of God?” He said, “Knowl¬
edge,” nor did he simply take it as milk according to the form he saw,
because of his knowledge of the perspective of vision and the necessi¬
ty to interpret [what is seen].

It is well known that the form of the Prophet perceived by the

senses is buried in Madinah and that the spiritual form and subtle es¬
sence have never been seen by anyone of anyone, nor yet his own, as
is the case with every spirit. The spirit of the Prophet appears to one
in the form of his body when he died, albeit unaffected by decay; in¬
deed, it is Muhammad appearing as spirit in a corporeal form resem¬
bling the buried body, which form Satan is unable to assume, as a
protection from God for the recipient of the vision. Thus, whoever
sees him in this way accepts from him all he commands or forbids and
all he says, as he would accept his precepts in this world according to
w hether the sense of the words is explicit or implicit, or in whatever
sense they are. If, on the other hand, he gives him something, its
[form] is a matter for interpretation. If, however, that thing proves
the same in the sensory world as in the imagination, the vision is one
that does not require interpretation, which is how Abraham, the Inti¬
mate, and TaqT b. Mukhallad dealt with what they saw.

Since, then, the vision has these two aspects and since God has
taught us by w’hat he did with Abraham and what He said to him,
w hich teaching is connected to the station of Prophecy, we know, in
respect of any vision we may have of the Reality in a form unaccept¬
able to the reason, that we must interpret that form in accordance
with a doctrinal concept of the Reality, either from the standpoint of
the recipient of the vision or the [cosmic] context [of the vision] or
both. If, however, reason does not reject it, we accept it as we see it,
even as we shall see the Reality in the Hereafter.

In every abode [of being, becoming] the Unique, the Merci¬

ful has forms, whether hidden or manifest.

If you say, “This is the Reality,” you have spoken the truth,
if “something other,” you are interpreting.

His determination applies in every abode equally,

Indeed, He is [ever] unfolding His Reality to creation.

When He manifests Himself to the sight, reason rushes to

bring proof against it [Him].

He is accepted as manifested on the intellectual plane as also

in the imagination, but direct vision sees true.

Abu YazTd al-Bistaml said with respect to this station, “If the
Throne and all that surrounds it, multiplied a hundred million times,
were to be in one of the many corners of the Heart of the gnostic, he
would not be aware of it.” This was the scope of Abu YazTd in the
realm of corporeal forms. I say, however, that, were limitless exis¬
tence, if its limit could be imagined, together with the essence that
brought it into existence, to be put into one of the corners of the
Heart of the gnostic, he would have no consciousness of it. It is estab¬
lished that the Heart encompasses the Reality, but though it be filled,
it thirsts on, as Abu Yazid has said. We have alluded to this station as
follows:

O He Who creates things in Himself, You comprise all You

create.

Though You create beings without limit within Yourself,

You are both the Restricted and the All-Encompassing.

Were all the creation of God in my heart, its brilliant dawn

would not shine there.

Whoso embraces the Reality can contain all creatures,

What then is the true situation, O Hearing One?

Every man creates by his fancy in the Imaginative faculty that

which has existence nowhere else, this being a common facility. The
gnostic, however, by his Concentration, creates that which has exis¬
tence beyond the origin of the Concentration, indeed, the Concentra¬
tion continues to maintain its existence, which depletes it in no way
at all. Should the attention of the gnostic be deflected from the main¬
tenance of what he has created, it will cease to exist, unless the gnos¬
tic commands all planes [of existence], in which case such deflection
does not arise, since [at all times] he is present on some plane or an¬
other. When the gnostic who has such a command creates something
by his Concentration, it is manifest in his form on every plane. In this
case the forms [each on a different plane] maintain each other, so that
if the gnostic is absent on a certain plane or planes, while present on
another or others, all the forms [on all the planes] are maintained by
the form on the plane to which his attention is given; lack of attention
is never total, either with the generality of men or the elite.
Thus, I have expounded here a mystery that the Folk have al¬
ways guarded from exposition, because it would seem to contradict
their claim to be one with the Reality. The Reality is never unatten-
tive, while the servant is always inattentive to something or other.
With respect to the maintenance of something he has created, the
gnostic may say, “I am the Reality,” but his maintenance of that
thing cannot be compared to the maintenance exercised by the Reali¬
ty. The difference between the two we have already explained, since
to the extent that he is inattentive to some form on its plane, he is a
servant as distinct from the Reality. The distinction remains even
when we take account of the fact that attention to a single form on a
particular plane assures the maintenance of all the other forms, for
this is maintenance by implication. The maintenance by the Reality
of His creation is of this kind, since He maintains each form Himself
[at all times].

This whole question, as I have been told, has never previously

been committed to writing, either by me or any other, until now. It is
indeed unique and without precedent. Take care lest you forget this,
for that plane in which you remain present with the form may be
compared to the Book of which God said, We have missed nothing in the
Book , for it comprises all that has come to pass [into being] and all
that has not come to pass. Only he will truly know what we have said
whose essential self is a united totality [qur'an], For one who fears
God, He will make a discrimination for him, xx and he is as we have
mentioned in discussing the distinction between servant and Lord.
This discrimination is the loftiest discrimination.

At the time the servant is a Lord, without a doubt,

At the time the servant is a servant, most certainly.

If servant, he encompasses the Reality,

If Lord, he is in a lowly state.

As servant he perceives the essential self

And hopes range widely from him.

As Lord he sees all creation, both lower and higher,

Making demands on him.

In himself he is quite unable to answer their demands,

And for this reason you may see gnostics weeping.

So be the servant of a Lord, not Lord of a servant,

Lest you fall into Hell Fire.

CHAPTER VII

THE WISDOM OF SUBLIMITY

IN THE WORD OF ISHMAEL

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The main topic of this chapter is the relationship between the

servant and Lord, which represents the particularization of universal
relationship, previously discussed, between God and the Cosmos.
Once again, as with the term “God,” the term “Lord,” in Ibn al-
‘ArabLs view, has meaning only within the context of its relationship
with the concept of servant. That is to say, there can be no lordship
or dominion without servitude. Thus, as was explained in the Intro¬
duction, this relationship denotes the polarity of servant, as the par¬
ticular, individual created, existent thing, and the Lord, as the
particular aspect of God that creates and determines the destiny of
that thing according to its latent, essential reality in God. What fol¬
lows from this is yet another of Ibn al-‘ArabTs statements that instills
horror into the mind of the religious establishment. He says that be¬
cause each created being is and cannot be other than its Lord deter¬
mines, as informed by its own eternal predisposition, each thing must
therefore necessarily be, as the Qur'an puts it, “pleasing to its Lord,”
irrespective of whether that ontological approval appear, to the untu¬
tored view, as praise or blame, reward or punishment. The Lord can¬
not but approve of what He has willed should be, nor can the servant,
in reality, disapprove of the Lord who, in effect, determines him only
in accordance with what he himself inevitably is in essence.

Ibn aLArabT goes on to point out that Lordship is a concept that

derives from the concept of the divine Names, which, as we have
seen, denote the infinite complexity and multiplicity of particular re¬
lationships as aspects of the universal relationship between God and
the Cosmos. Thus, in a certain sense, each lord is a particular divine
Name defining the quality of a particular, aspectual relationship
within the context of the universal relationship that is qualified by
the universal Name, God. Once again, the Tradition of the Prophet is
quoted, “Whoso knows himself knows his Lord,” which is here inter¬
preted in the light of his view of the relationship. That is to say,
“Whoever knows himself as he is in divinis, knows his particular Lord
as agent of his own release into existence.”
Here again, Ibn aLArabT seeks to make clear the distinction be¬
tween the term “God,” which implies polarity and relationship, as
also duality, triplicity, and multiplicity, and the term “Essence,”
which denotes the One in Itself, Alone and utterly unique, beyond
the need for any polarizing otherness, no matter how contingent.
Thus, the notions of God and Lord are not related to that of divine
Essence.

Toward the end of this chapter, Ibn al- ArabT, having stressed the
mutuality of the terms servant and Lord and the essential oneness of
all the divine Names, seeks also to correct any misapprehension in the
reader that the principle of distinction and difference as between con¬
cepts and the realities they denote is redundant or unimportant. Al¬
ways striving for as whole and balanced a view as possible, he is here
maintaining that a whole and complete view of the Reality, of the
way things really are, demands that both the truth of the oneness of
universality and the truth of the oneness of singularity and unique¬
ness be grasped together in synthesis, each correcting and compensat¬
ing the other as necessary aspects of the Reality’s experience of Itself.
Thus, although from one viewpoint the servant is the Lord is God is
nothing other than the Reality, from the other standpoint the servant
is not the Lord is not God is not the Reality, in the sense that each,
while inwardly and essentially in a state of inexorable identity with
every other, nevertheless reserves to itself, validly and legitimately
within the context of Reality, its own special and peculiar characteris¬
tics. It is for the gnostic, therefore, as servant, to recognize not only
his eternal identity with God, as latent essence, but also that he is not
and can never be God as such; that it is for him to worship and for
God to be worshiped, whatever his degree of attainment or gnosis.

Concluding the chapter, Ibn al ‘Arabi explains that, in accor¬

dance with the qur'anic statement that the divine mercy is stronger
than the divine wrath, the notion of punishment in Hell, which signi¬
fies a terrifying separation from God, cannot ultimately be more than
a secondary consequence of ignorance, since all existent beings ulti¬
mately and finally share in the mercy of essential reality in Him.

THE WISDOM OF SUBLIMITY

IN THE WORD OF ISHMAEL

Know that that which is termed “God” is One through the Es¬
sence and All through the Names. Each created being is related to
God only as being its particular Lord, since its relationship to [God]
as the All is impossible. As regards the divine Unity, there is no place
in it for one as being one of many, nor does it admit of any differenti¬
ation or distinction. His Unity integrates all in potentiality.

Blessed is the one with whom his Lord is pleased, indeed, there is
none but is pleasing in the sight of his Lord, since it is by him that the
Lord maintains his Lordship so that he is pleasing in the sight of his
Lord and is blessed. In this connection Sahl said, “In Lordship is a
mystery, that mystery being you, which means every being, and were
it to cease, the Lordship would cease.” Here he uses the words
“were it to,” which imply impossibility, since it will not cease, nor
yet the Lordship, since the being exists only by its Lord. The being
always exists and the Lordship never ceases.

One who is pleasing is loved so that all the loved one does is also
loved, indeed, all is pleasing, since the individual being itself does not
act, but its Lord in it. Thus the being is content that an action should
be assigned to it and is pleased with that which is manifest in it and
from it by its Lord. These actions are pleasing because every doer or
maker is pleased with what he does or makes, and bestows on his ac¬
tion or work all that is necessary, as He bestows on all He has created and
then guides , making clear that it is He Who bestows on all He has
created, so that it is neither more nor less than it should be.

Ishmael was well pleasing to his Lord because he had come to

know what we have mentioned, just as every created being is well
pleasing. It does not follow, however, that because a created being is
well pleasing to his Lord he is equally so to the Lord of some other
servant, since he has his Lordship from a source embracing many, not
only one. Thus, from the totality [of divine aspects] each being is as¬
signed one particularly suited to it to be its Lord. This [Lord is as¬
signed from God in His Names] not from [God] in His Unity.

For this reason the Folk are barred from a divine Self-revelation
of His Unity. Were you to look on Him through Him, [you should know
that] He is always looking on Himself by Himself. Were you to
look on Him through you, His Unity would vanish in your being
you. The same would be the case if you looked on Him through Him
and through you. This is because by positing yourself in the pronoun
“you look” you are positing something other than what is looked on,
thus establishing a relation between two things, the observer and the
thing observed, thereby nullifying the Unity [which admits of no oth¬
er], although [in reality] only He sees Himself alone through Himself.
Here also there would appear to be observer and observed [but both
are He].

It is not usual for one who is pleasing to be absolutely so, unless

all he manifests is from the action of the one pleased within him. Ish¬
mael was more so than other beings in that the Reality describes him
as being pleasing to his Lord. It is said, to every tranquil soul, Return
to your Lord, that is to its own Lord, the one who summoned it, which
it knows apart from all the others, pleased and well pleasing . Enter in
among my servants , insofar as they have the same station.

The servants mentioned here are those who know their Lord,
Most High, reserving themselves to Him and not to any other, de¬
spite the [essential] Unity [of all Being]. And enter into my Paradise
\jannah\ , which is my covering. My Paradise is none other than
you, for it is you who hide Me with your [individual] self, nor am I
known except by you, as you have being only through Me. Who
knows you knows Me, nor am I known [by another] as you also are
not known. When you enter into His Paradise you enter into your¬
self. Then you will know yourself with a gnosis other than that by
which you knew your Lord by knowing yourself. Thus, you will be
possessed of two kinds of gnosis, first knowing Him as knowing your¬
self, second, knowing Him through you as Him, not as you.

You are servant and you are Lord,

For One for Whom and in Whom you are servant,

You are Lord and you are servant,

For One Who reminds of the covenant in His address.

Every particular servant-Lord relationship

Is dissolved by every other such relationship.

God is pleased with His servants and they are well pleasing, and
they are pleased with Him and He is pleasing. Thus the two planes
[servants and Lords] are contrasted like similars that are [in a sense]
opposed, since no two similar things can unite, otherwise there would
be no distinction. There is [in fact] only He Who is distinct, nor is
there any similarity [with Him]. In existence there is no similarity or
dissimilarity, for there is but One Reality, and a thing is not the oppo¬
site of itself.

Naught save the Reality remains, no being,

There is no arriving and no being afar,

Spiritual vision confirms this, for I

Have not seen aught but Him, when I looked.

That is for one who fears His Lord , meaning [who fears] that he
“be” Him, since he knows the distinction [between servant and
Lord]. This is further demonstrated to us by the fact that some beings
are ignorant of what I [for example] know, for there are surely dis¬
tinctions between servants, as also between Lords. Were it not for
this distinction one divine Name would be interpreted, in every way,
as another. The Name the Strengthener is not understood in the same
way as the Name the Abaser, and so on. However, from the stand¬
point of the Unity, every Name evinces both the Essence and its own
reality, for the One named is One. Thus the Strengthener is the
Abaser in respect of the named One, whereas the Strengthener is not
the Abaser in respect of its own [relative] reality, the signification be¬
ing different in both of them.

Do not look upon the Reality, lest you abstract Him from
creation.

Do not look upon creation, lest you invest it with what is not
the Reality.

Know Him as both Comparable and Incomparable and so sit in

the abode of truth.
Be in [a state] if integration if you will, or be in [a state of]
discrimination, if you will.

Then you will, through the All, achieve the victor’s Crown, if
indeed a totality reveals itself [to you as combining both
states].

Do not pass away and do not subsist, nor yet annihilate or

sustain.

Thus revelation will not be granted you in respect of another,

nor will you [as Lord] grant it [in respect of another].

Praise is not occasioned by His being true to His threat but by

His being true to His promise [of Paradise]. Indeed the Plane of Di¬
vinity demands praise praised by Itself [the Essence]. Thus, It is
praised through faithfulness to the promise [of Paradise] and not to
the threat [of Hell], indeed, through His refraining from His threat.
Do not think that God will fail in His promise to His Apostles . He does
not say “His threat,” but says further, elsewhere, We overlook their
wrongdoings , despite His threat in this regard. He praises Ishmael
for being true to his promise . Thus possibility [contingency] ceases
in respect of the Reality because of its [inherent] tendency to proba¬
bility.

Only He Who is true to His promise subsists,

Nor does His threat have any true being.

Even though they enter the abode of distress,

They have their pleasure in a delight,

Other than Heaven's delight, but they are One [in Him],

The difference between the two being apparent in his Self¬

manifestation.

It is called an ‘adbah because of its sweet taste ,

Like a skin that preserves what is inside.

CHAPTER VIII

THE WISDOM OF SPIRIT

IN THE WORD OF JACOB
INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Ibn al-‘Arab! begins the chapter with a discussion of his view of

the nature of religion. In doing so, he inevitably becomes involved
once again in the related concepts of archetypal latency and the ten¬
sion between the divine Will and the divine Wish. Although religious
truth is dictated by God, the creature, according to his view, has an
essential part in its determination and, although higher spiritual reli¬
gion is primarily dedicated to the triumph of the divine Wish as ex¬
pressed in God’s revealed commands, the divine Will also produces
religious forms, however heterodox they may seem from the ortho¬
dox viewpoint. Another point that emerges from his treatment of this
subject is that religion, as such, is concerned almost entirely with the
Reality as polarized in the relationship God-Cosmos.

He begins by dividing religion into two types, one that he calls

the religion of God, and the other that he calls the religion of crea¬
tures. The former is indeed the religion of Islam as revealed in the
Qur'an, which Ibn al-‘ArabT regards, naturally enough, as the su¬
preme expression of the divine Wish or the Obligating Command. As
an example of the latter, he quotes the qur'anic reference to the Chris¬
tian institution of monasticism, which implies that it is something the
Christians created by themselves. Indeed, Ibn al- ArabI would include
all non-Islamic religions under this heading, insofar as many of their
doctrines and practices deviate, apparently, from the revealed qur-
'anic norm. Not that such creature-originated religion could ever,
really, be contrary to the divine Will, which is the creative origin of
all things, whether they be regarded by what he calls divine religion
as blameworthy or not. Furthermore, since the creatures, considered
as the cosmic manifestations of eternal realities, are the very stuff of
God’s knowledge, they must be equally the determiners of religious
forms and norms. Thus, whether a religion conforms, as it inevitably
must, to the divine Will, or more specifically to the divine Wish, it is,
unavoidably, of God and of us in God.

He further divides religion into outer and inner religion, the out¬
er being concerned primarily to maintain the distinction and differ¬
ence between the divine and cosmic poles in their creative and Self-
realizing relationship, while the inner is concerned more with the
original and ultimate oneness and identity of being, of God in the
Cosmos, of the Cosmos in God, and of both in the Reality. Both types
of religion, the exoteric and the esoteric, reflecting as they do funda¬
mental polarities in divinis , are necessary manifestations of the Self¬
experience of the Reality. Both, however, are in a state of tension and
conflict with each other at the verbal and formal levels, since the one
would seem to contradict and threaten the other, which tension Ibn
al-‘ArabI experienced firsthand in Cairo.

There follows another discussion of the subject of sameness and

uniqueness.

He brings this chapter to a conclusion with a fascinating insight

into the nature of the relationship between the Will and the Wish or
Command. He introduces the subject by pointing out that the physi¬
cian can effect his cure of the patient only by working with and not
against Nature, since, beyond the appraisal of human experience,
sickness and health are both states of Nature. He then applies this il¬
lustration to the subject of the divine Will and Wish by comparing
the Will to Nature, the Wish to the desire for good health, and the
apostle to the physician. What he is saying is that the Will, like Na¬
ture, embraces equally, without distinction, what we call faith and in¬
fidelity, while the apostle is concerned to promote the state of faith in
men. In order to do so, however, the apostle cannot do other than act
in conformity not only with the divine Wish but also with the Will,
which embraces also w hat is wished by God. When considering the
question of the effects and result of the apostolic treatment, however,
this is determined by the divine Will in accordance, once again, with
the nature of the latent predisposition of the patient who may, ac¬
cordingly, perish or be saved, indicating clearly the polar tension that
can be resolved only in the inexpressible Oneness of Being.

THE WISDOM OF SPIRIT

IN THE WORD OF JACOB

Religion is of two kinds, the religion of God and those whom

God has taught His religion and those whom they have taught and,
second, the religion of created beings, which God acknowledges. The
religion of God is that chosen by Him and set by Him at a level far
above the religion of creation. He says, Abraham enjoined it upon his
sons , as did Jacob his son [saying], “ my son, God has chosen for you the re¬
ligion , so die not save as submitting yourselves to Him , ” which means fol¬
lowing Him. Religion [in this verse] has the definite article, namely,
it is a known and established religion. He says, The religion with God is
Islam [submission], which means following and obeying [Him], reli¬
gion meaning your yielding to and submitting [to Him].

That which comes from God is the Dispensation to which you

submit yourself, which is religion, the Holy Writ being the Dispensa¬
tion God has established. He who is marked by his submission to
what God has laid down is the one who practices the religion and
maintains its practice, who establishes its practice as he keeps up the
[canonical] prayer.

It is the servant who establishes the practice of the religion and

God Who determines its nature, for [your] submission is your action
and the religion is from your act, since your being blessed may be
only through that which derives from you yourself. Thus, just as
your act establishes your blessedness, so also His acts establish the di¬
vine Names, which acts are you, being originated [relative], so that
only in relation to His effects is He called a divinity and only in rela¬
tion to your effects are you called blessed. Thus does God equate your
position [in this respect] with His, when you maintain the practice of
religion and submit to what He has established.

If God wills, we will elaborate on this point after we have ex¬

plained religion as it is with creation, of which God takes due ac¬
count. All religion is for God, from you not Him, except as being
your Origin.

He, Most High, says, Monasticism was introduced by them for the
first time , which [incorporates] the revelations of Wisdom that
were not brought by the Apostle as [generally] known in bringing
[the Message] to the people from God in the customary fashion.
Since the Wisdom and good apparent in it are in harmony with the
divine determination respecting the purpose of revealed Scripture, it
is in God’s sight as that which He laid down [in His Dispensation], al¬
though He did not prescribe it for them . Thus, since God has, un¬
known to them, opened the door of His providence and Mercy to
their hearts, He causes them to extol what they have established,
apart from the more familiar way brought by the Prophet and recog¬
nized by divine revelation, seeking [by it] the pleasure of God. He
says, They do not observe it , that is, those who established it and for
whom it was established, as it should be observed , except to seek God's
pleasure . Thus, they believe. We brought those who believed in it
their reward , but many of them , that is, those among whom this way
is practiced, are astray , that is they have departed from submission
to it and its proper practice. As for those who have departed in this
way, God will not be well disposed toward them.

However, a command [divine] requires obedience. The one com¬

manded either obeys willingly or opposes the command. As for the
former, no more need be said; as for the latter, the opposition by
which he is governed demands of God one of two courses, either in¬
dulgence and forgiveness, or censure. One of them must take place ac-
cording as he requires it [deserves it] in himself, for the Reality
always [acts] in accordance with the servant as regards his acts and
state. Thus, it is the [essential] state that affects [the decision].

In this way religion [may be regarded as] a matter of requital and

recompense for what pleases and what does not please. Concerning
recompense for the former, He says, God is pleased with the?n and they
with Him , and concerning recompense for the latter, Whosoever of
you oppresses , We will cause him to experience a severe punishment . His
saying, We overlook their evil deeds is also a recompense. Thus reli¬
gion is a form of recompense, for the religion is Islam, which means
submission, so that one submits to what pleases and to what does not
please, which [involves] recompense. This is, then, the outer aspect of
the subject.

As for its inner and secret aspect, it is a [divine] Self-revelation in

the mirror of the existence of the Reality. For the contingent beings
receive from the Reality only as they themselves in their [essential]
states dictate; they have a form for every state, the forms varying ac¬
cording to the variation of their states, as the Self-revelation [of the
Reality] differs according to the state. Thus, the servant is affected in
accordance with what he is in himself. Thus also, only he bestows
good on himself and only he evil, being his own benefactor and chas¬
tiser. Therefore, let him not blame any but himself, nor praise any
but himself.

God's is the conclusive argument , through His Knowledge of

them, since knowledge is dependent on that which is known. A deep¬
er truth in this matter is that the contingent beings are, in the final
analysis, nonexistent, since the only [true] existence is the existence of
the Reality in the forms of the states in which the contingent beings
are in themselves and in their [eternally latent] essences. So you
should know [that it is none other than the Reality] Who undergoes
pleasure and pain and that [it is the divine Self-revelation] that is the
result of every state, which is called consequence and penalty. The
same applies as a result of good or evil, except that convention calls
the result reward in the case of good, and punishment in the case of
evil. In this sense the religion might be called or interpreted as a cus¬
tom [‘adah\ since there befalls [the servant] only that which his own
state demands and necessitates.

The poet says: “As was your custom [dinika] with Umm al-
Huwairith before her.” That is to say, “your custom.” The mean¬
ing of a custom is that something should revert to its original state, al¬
though custom in the sense of repetition is not appropriate to what
we are concerned with. However, custom is an intelligible reality and
a certain resemblance exists between the forms. For example, we
know that Zaid is the same as ‘Amr in respect to their humanity, al¬
though [in this instance] humanity does not occur twice for, if so, it
would be a multiple thing and it is a single reality, not a multiplicity.
We also know that Zaid is not the same as ‘Amr in respect to their in¬
dividuality. Thus, Zaid as Zaid is not ‘Amr as ‘Amr because of their
individual identities. On the surface Zaid would appear to be a repli¬
ca of ‘Amr, but a true assessment shows this not to be true, there be¬
ing from one standpoint no repetition, while from another there is [a
certain] repetition. In the same way we may speak of recompense in
one sense and deny it in another, since recompense is itself one of the
states of contingent being. This is a question kept unexplained by
those who know it as is proper, not because they are ignorant of it but
because it is an aspect of the mystery of Premeasurement which gov¬
erns created being.

Know that just as it may be said that the doctor is the servant of
Nature, so might it also be said that the apostles and heirs are the ser¬
vants of the divine Command in general and, at the same time, serv¬
ing the states of contingent beings. Their service is one of their own
states that they are in in their [eternal] essences. Consider what a
wonderful thing this is! It must be understood, however, that the ser¬
vant in this case limits his service to that which accords with the rules
governing what he serves, with respect to state or speech.

The doctor may be called a servant of Nature only if he works in

cooperation with her. Nature has established in the body of the pa¬
tient a particular complex of conditions by which he is called sick.
Were the doctor to assist her [in that particular manifestation] he
would serve only to increase the sickness. Thus, he restrains her only
in order to restore health [to his patient]. However, health is also
from Nature, which condition may be had by the setting up of an¬
other complex of conditions opposed to the existing one. Thus, the
doctor is not [fully] the servant of Nature, being her servant only in
the sense that he would be quite unable to cure the sick man and
change his condition except by means of Nature. He serves her in a
particular way, but not in a general way, which does not apply in this
kind of question.

In this way the apostles and heirs are like the doctor who is at
once both the servant and not the servant of Nature, as regards their
serving the Reality. The Reality [manifests] two aspects in determin¬
ing the states of those who receive the divine Command. The effect of
the Command on the servant is as the Will of the Reality determines,
which is itself determined by His Knowledge, which is determined in
turn by that which the object of His Knowledge bestows of itself,
which is not manifest except in its image [form].

Thus the apostle and the heir are servants of the divine Com¬
mand through the Will, but are not servants of the Will, opposing it
[the Will] with it [the Command] in order to secure the blessedness of
the one charged to obey it. Were he the servant of the Will he would
not seek to advise, or would advise only in accordance with it. The
apostle, as also the heir, is a doctor of souls completely obedient to the
Command of God. Considering both the Command of God and His
Will, it may be seen that what is commanded may be contrary to His
Will, since only what He wills takes place, which is the reason for the
Command. If He wills what He commands, it takes place, and if He
does not will what He commands, it does not. This is called [ordinari¬
ly] opposition and disobedience [sin].

The apostle is merely the transmitter [of the Command]. For this
reason he [the Prophet] said, “The Chapter Hud and its kind
caused me great anxiety, because of their oft-repeated saying, Be up¬
right as you have been commanded. ” This caused him anxiety, namely
the words as you have been commanded , for he did not know whether
the Command was in accord with the Will and thus to be, or whether
it conflicted with the Will, and thus would not be. None knows what
the Will wills until what it has willed takes place, except one receive a
spiritual intuition from God enabling one to perceive the essences of
contingent beings in their [eternal] latency, in which case he may act
in accordance with what he sees. This may happen to a very few men
in times of isolation from others* He says, / know not what He will do
with me or you , thus speaking openly of the veil [between God and
us]. This is intended to convey that the Prophet has [unseen] knowl¬
edge of certain things.

CHAPTER IX
THE WISDOM OF LIGHT
IN THE WORD OF JOSEPH

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Although the chapter begins with a discussion of the subject of

the Imagination, with special reference to the dreams and visions of
Joseph, the main theme of the chapter is, as the title suggests, the di¬
vine Light and the cosmic shadow.

Much of what he says here regarding symbols and the necessity

for their interpretation is similar to material on the same subject in
the chapter on Isaac [Chapter ]. Ibn al-‘ArabI does, however, intro¬
duce us here to another aspect of the subject of the Imagination,
namely its twofold character in the human state. In other words,
man, as the microcosmic image of the macrocosm, experiences the
Imaginative process both as being part of the greater creative process
and also as having within himself an imaginative faculty. Thus, as our
author says, man experiences “an imagination within an Imagina¬
tion,” his own microcosmic “dream” being part of the greater macro-
cosmic “dream.” Here we are introduced to Ibn al-‘ArabT’s view of
the creative situation as a state of sleep in which the created Cosmos
is seen as the divine dream, of which human experience is the micro¬
cosmic image. The whole creative situation, therefore, which requires
the device of “the other” to effect its purpose, may be viewed as a
kind of divine dreaming in which the illusion of something that is
“not I” is presented to the divine consciousness as the reflection of
His own possibility. The waking state in this context is the inalien¬
able state of the Oneness of Being.

The major theme of this chapter is that of the divine Light and
the corresponding image of the cosmic shadow. Light is seen here as
being yet another agency of creation, similar to the Breath of the
Merciful, the Imagination, or the mirror. It is that power which illu¬
minates or makes apparent the nonexistent and latent archetypes of
God’s knowledge, as created Cosmos. In a certain sense, however, it is
also a symbol for the divinity Itself as Creator. The image of the cos¬
mic shadow is rather more complicated, since Ibn al-‘ArabT views its
significance in two ways.

First, the shadow is seen as an image of the Cosmos itself, as be¬

ing in a certain sense detached and apparently separate from God,
while being ultimately an absurdity without His Light. Second, it is
seen as an image of the unmanifested state of the latent essences of the
Cosmos in divinis. In other words, he views the shadow’s quality of
darkness and obscurity both as an indication of the apparent distance
of the Cosmos from God, as also its obscuring, by its formal complex¬
ity, of divine reality, and as a symbol of the occultation and nonexis¬
tence of the uncreated and unmanifested essences of the Cosmos in
God. Thus, the shadow, whether as image of the created or, as yet,
uncreated Cosmos is, in different ways, nothing other than God, ei¬
ther as reflecting image or as inherent content of knowledge. Another
way in which he tries to explain the relationship in this chapter is to
use the interaction of light and color, whether as potential and latent
in its unillumined state or as illumined in all its variety of shades, so
illustrating the mutual dependence of light and color, of light for its
differentiation and of color for its manifestation.

Ibn al-‘Arab! concludes the chapter with further discussion re¬

garding the difference between the Reality as God in His relationship
with created beings through His Names, and the Reality as Essence
that transcends the whole creative process.

THE WISDOM OF LIGHT

IN THE WORD OF JOSEPH

The light of this luminous Wisdom extends over the plane of the
Imagination, which is the first principle of revelation according to
the people of Providence.

‘Aishah [God be pleased with her] said, “Revelation began with

the Apostle of God as the Verdicial Vision, which was [as clear] as the
breaking of dawn every time he saw it, there being no obscurity.”
‘Aishah’s knowledge went no further than this. She added that he had
been in this state for a period of six months after which the Angel
[Gabriel] came to him. What she did not know was that the Apostle of
God had said, “Men sleep and when they died they shall awake,”
all that is seen in sleep being of a similar nature, although the condi¬
tions are different. She stated a period of six months, whereas [in
truth] his whole earthly life was after this fashion, [eayl existence]
being a dr eam w ithin a dream.

All things of this kind come within the realm of the Imagination,
because of which they are interpreted. That means that something
that of itself has a certain form appears in another form, so that the
interpreter proceeds from the form seen by the dreamer to the form
of the thing in itself, if he is successful, as for example the appearance
of knowledge in the form of milk. Thus, he [the Apostle] proceeded in
his interpretation from the form of milk to the form of knowledge,
thus transposing [the real meaning of both] from one plane to an¬
other, the proper transposition of the milk form being to the form of
knowledge.

When the Apostle used to receive a revelation he was withdrawn

from all usual sensations, covered with a cloak, and [in all but his
body] absent from all present. When the revelation ceased he was re¬
stored [to the sensory world]. What he perceived [in this state] he per¬
ceived only in the plane of the Imagination, except that he was not
considered to be sleeping. In the same way the appearance of the An¬
gel to him as a man was also from the plane of the Imagination, since
he [Gabriel] is not a man but an angel who took on himself human
form. This [form] was transposed by the beholder with gnosis to its
own true form. He said, “It is Gabriel who has come to teach you
your religion”; he had also said, “Return the man’s greeting,” calling
him a man because of the form in which he appeared to them. Then
he said, “This is Gabriel,” [this time] taking into account the origi¬
nal form of the imaginative human form. He was right in both cases,
right from the viewpoint of the physical eye and right also in that it
was, without doubt, Gabriel.

Joseph said, I saw eleven stars and the sun and moon prostrating before
me. He saw his brothers in the form of stars and saw his father and
aunt as the sun and the moon. This is the viewpoint of Joseph. How¬
ever, had it been so from the standpoint of those seen, the manifesta¬
tion of his brothers as stars and his father and aunt as the sun and the
moon would have been according to their wishes. Thus, since they
had no knowledge of what Joseph saw, Joseph’s perception [of what
he saw] took place through his own imaginative faculty. When Joseph
told Jacob of his vision, Jacob knew the situation and said, My son , do
not relate your vision to your brothers , lest they conspire against you .
Then he goes on to absolve his sons of conspiracy and to lay it at Sa¬
tan’s door, who is the very essence of conspiracy, saying, Surely Satan
is Man V certain foe , which is outwardly so.

Much later on Joseph said, This is the original meaning of my vision ,

which my Lord has made true , that is, He has made it manifest to the
senses, being previously in a form from the Imagination. Concerning
this, the Prophet Muhammad said, “Men sleep,” while Joseph said,
My Lord has made it true , since he [in relation to what the Prophet
said] is in the position of one who dreams that he has waked from a
dream and proceeds to interpret it. Such a one does not know that he
is still asleep and dreaming, but when he does wake, he says, “I saw
such and such, which, dreaming that I had waked, I interpreted.” Jo¬
seph’s situation is similar to this.

Consider then the difference between the perception of Muham¬

mad and that of Joseph when he said, This is the real meaning of my vi¬
sion, which my Lord has made true , by which he means sensible. It
could not be other than sensible, since the Imagination deals only in
what is sensible. Consider also how lofty is the knowledge of Muham¬
mad’s heirs! We will elaborate further on this plane, if God will,
through Joseph’s words conceived in the spirit of Muhammad’s in¬
sight.

Know that what is “other than the Reality/ which is called the
Cosmos, is, in relation to the Reality, as a shadow is to that which
casts the shadow, for it is the shadow of God, this being the same as
the relation between Being and the Cosmos, since the shadow is,
without doubt, something sensible. What is provided there is that on
which the shadow may appear, since if it were possible that that
whereon it appears should cease to be, the shadow would be an intel¬
ligible and not something sensible, and would exist potentially in the
very thing that casts the shadow.

The thing on which this divine shadow, called the Cosmos, ap¬
pears is the [eternally latent] essences of contingent beings. The shad¬
ow is spread out over them, and the [identity of] the shadow is known
to the extent that the Being of the [original] Essence is extended upon
it. It is by His Name, the Light that it is perceived. This shadow ex¬
tends over the essences of contingent beings in the form of the un¬
known Unseen. Have you not observed that shadows tend to be
black, which indicates their imperceptibility [as regards content] by
reason of the remote relationship between them and their origins? If
the source of the shadow is white, the shadow itself is still so [i.e.,
black].

Do you not also observe that mountains distant from the observ¬
er appear to be black, while being in themselves other than the color
seen? The cause is only the distance. The same is the case with the
blueness of the sky, which is also the effect of distance on the senses
with respect to nonluminous bodies. In the same way the essences of
contingent beings are not luminous, being nonexistent, albeit latent.
They may not be described as existing because existence is light. Fur¬
thermore, even luminous bodies are rendered, by distance, small to
the senses, which is another effect of distance. Such bodies are per¬
ceived by the senses as small, while being in themselves large. For ex¬
ample, the evidence is that the sun is times the size of the Earth,
while, to the eye, it is no larger than a shield. This is also the effect of
distance.

No more is known of the Cosmos than is known from a shadow,

andfno more is known of the Reality than one knows of the origin of a
shaoow, Insofar as He has a shadow, He is known, but insofar as the
form of the one casting the shadow is not perceived in the shadow,
the Reality is not known. For this reason we say that the Reality is
known to us in one sense and unknown in another.

Have you not seen how your Lord extends the shade; if He so willed He
would make it stay, that is, it would be in Him potentially, which is
to say that the Reality does not reveal Himself to the contingent be¬
ings before He manifests His shadow, the shadow being [as yet] as
those beings that have not been manifested in existence. Then We made
the sun as an indication of it , which is His Name, the Light of which
we have already spoken and by which the senses perceive; for shad¬
ows have no [separate] existence without light.

Then We take it back to Ourselves easily , only because it is His

shadow, since from Him it is manifest and to Him the whole manifes¬
tation returns, for the shadow is none other than He. All we perceive
is nothing other than the being of the Reality in the essences of con¬
tingent beings. With reference to the Identity of the Reality, it is Its
Being, whereas, with reference to the variety of its forms, it is the es¬
sences of contingent beings. Just as it is always called a shadow by
reason of the variety of forms, so is it always called the Cosmos and
“other than the Reality.” In respect of its unity as the shadow [of
God], it is the Reality, being the One, the Unique, but in respect of
the multiplicity of its forms it is the Cosmos; therefore understand
and realize what I have elucidated for you.

If what we say is true, the Cosmos is but a fantasy without any

real existence, which is another meaning of the Imagination. That is
to say, you imagine that it [the Cosmos] is something separate and
self-sufficient, outside the Reality, while in truth it is not so. Have
you not observed [in the case of the shadow] that it is connected to
the one who casts it, and would not its becoming disconnected be ab¬
surd, since nothing can be disconnected from itself? Therefore know
[truly] your own self [essence], who you are, what is your identity and
what your relationship with the Reality. Consider well in what way
you are real and in what way [part of] the Cosmos, as being separate,
other, and so on. It is in this respect that the sages are better than one
another; so heed and learn!

The Reality is, in relation to a particular shadow, small or large,

pure or purer, as light in relation to the glass that separates it from
the beholder to whom the light has the color of the glass, while the
light itself has no [particular] color. T his is the relationship between
your reality and your Lord; for, if you were to say the light is green
because of the green glass, you would be right as viewing the situa¬
tion through your senses, and if you were to say that it is not green,
indeed it is colorless, by deduction, you would also be right as view¬
ing the situation through sound intellectual reasoning. That which is
seen may be said to be a light projected from a shadow, which is the
glass, or a luminous shadow, according to its purity. Thus, he of us
who has realized in himself the Reality manifests the form of the Re¬
ality to a greater extent than he who has not. There are those of us in
whom the Reality has become their hearing, sight, and all their facul¬
ties and limbs, according to signs taught us by revealed Law that tells
us of God.

Despite this, the shadow [the individual] still exists essentially,

for the pronoun used [in the words of the Tradition] “his hearing,”
refers to him [as shadow] particularly, since other servants are not of
this attainment. Such a servant is more closely attached to the being
of the Reality than others.

If things are as we have decided, know that you are an imagina¬

tion, as is all that you regard as other than yourself an imagination.
All [relative] existence is an imagination within an imagination, the
only Reality being God, as Self and the Essence, not in respect of His
Names. This is because the Names have two connotations: The first
connotation is God Himself Who is what is named, the second that by
which one Name is distinguished from another. Thus the Forgiving
is not [in this sense] the Manifest or the Unmanifest, nor is the First
the Last. You are already aware in what sense each Name is essential¬
ly every other Name and in what sense it is not any other Name. As
being essentially the other, the Name is the Reality, while as being
not the other, it is the imagined Reality with which we are here con¬
cerned.

Glory be to Him Who Alone is evidence of Himself Alone, and

Who is Self-subsisting. There is naught in Being but is implicit in the
divine Unity, and there is naught in the Imagination but is implicit in
[Cosmic] multiplicity. Whoever holds to multiplicity is [involved]
with the Cosmos, the divine Names [in their distinctions], and the
cosmic names. Whoever holds to the Unity is with the Reality in His
Essence as Self-sufficient beyond all worlds. Being Self-sufficient be¬
yond all worlds, He is independent of and beyond all nominal rela¬
tionships, since the Names, while implying Him [as the Essence], also
imply the realities named, whose effects they manifest.
Say: He God is One y lS in His [Unique] Self; God the Eternal Refuge ,
in respect of our dependence on Him; He begets not y in His Identity or
in relation to us; nor is He begotten y as for the preceding verse; He has
no equal , as for the preceding verse. Thus does He describe Himself
and isolates His Essence in the words God is One y although the multi¬
plicity manifest through His Attributes is well known among us. We,
for our part, beget and are begotten, we depend on Him and we com¬
pete one with another. However, the Unique One transcends all these
attributes, having no need of them or of us. Indeed, the Reality has
no [true] description better than this chapter, al-Ikhlas y xs which was
revealed precisely for this reason.

God’s Unity, in respect of the divine Names that require our ex¬
istence, is a unity of many, while in respect of His complete indepen¬
dence of the Names and us, it is unity of Essence, for both of which
the Name the One is used, so take note.

God created shadows lying prostrate to right and left only as

clues for you in knowing yourself and Him, that you might know
who you are, your relationship with Him, and His with you, and so
that you might understand how or according to which divine truth
all that is other than God is described as being completely dependent
on Him, as being [also] mutually interdependent. Also that you might
know how and by what truth God is described as utterly independent
of men and all worlds, and how the Cosmos is described as both mu¬
tually independent with respect to its parts and mutually dependent.

Without any doubt, the Cosmos is fundamentally dependent on

causes, the greatest of which enjoys the causality of the Reality. The
divine causality on which the Cosmos depends is the Divine Names,
which are every Name on which the Cosmos depends, whether on [a
Name manifested in] a cosmos or the divine Essence. Whichever it be,
it is [essentially] God, no other. Thus, He says, Aen y your need of God
is total , while He is the Self-sufficient, the Praised , Besides this it is well
known that we are also mutually dependent. Therefore, our [true)
names are God’s Names, since al! depends on Him. At the same time
our essential selves are His shadow. He is at once our identity and not
our identity. We have paved the way for you, so consider!

CHAPTER X

THE WISDOM OF UNITY

IN THE WORD OF HUD

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Although the main subject of the chapter on Hud is the concept,

qur'anic in origin, of the Straight Path, the underlying theme is, as
the title suggests, the original and ultimate mutuality in oneness that
is the essential nature of reality.
Ibn al-‘ArabI uses the subject of the Straight Path to introduce
this principal theme. Although the most obvious meaning of the
words Straight Path in the Qur'an is as the path to salvation, he char¬
acteristically uses this idea to support his own mystical thesis of the
Oneness of Being. This Path is, for him, nothing other than the way
of inexorable return to the original and undifferentiated state of One¬
ness that is the Reality Itself. It is in fact Ibn al-‘ArabI’s explanation
of another qur'anic quotation, “And to Him is the eventual becom¬
ing,” which means that all the infinite possibility of becoming un¬
avoidably returns to its source in pure, unitary Being, and that the
whole creative device of polarity and otherness must inevitably melt
away to reveal the unaltered and unalterable face of the Reality. As
Ibn al-‘ArabI says, at the very beginning of the chapter, all things are,
without exception, on this Path toward the ultimate realization, not
only because all things are inescapably of the Reality, but also because
the factor of the divine Wrath, which would seem always to be con-
demning created beings to perdition and exile, is subordinate and ac¬
cidental to the all-prevailing Mercy, which ultimately guarantees
their essential reality in aeternis. Thus, the dazzling and fascinating
panorama of cosmic forms in all their contradictions and multiplicity,
which at once manifest and obscure the Truth, is always within the
embrace of the divine Mercy, however negative and therefore wrath¬
ful the secondary and accidental effects may seem.

Perhaps in this chapter more than in any other, Ibn al ‘Arabi

drives home, over and over again, using various analogies, the relent¬
less logic of his fundamental thesis of the Oneness of Being, that
nothing can ever be other than It. Consequently, in other places, he
is swift to point out that the concept of the Straight Path itself is de¬
ceptive insofar as it suggests the possibility of distance and separa¬
tion, which is itself no more than a device the purpose of which is to
create the polarity by which alone the divine might “enjoy Himself.”
Indeed, the whole exercise is, as RumT suggests, “like flying birds
looking for air.” In a letter to the celebrated theologian al-RazI
[Hyderabad, ] Ibn al-‘ArabI goes so far as to say that the very dif¬
ferentiation between God and creation, so necessary to exoteric faith,
is, in fact, infidelity, since it posits two entities, Him and us. This un¬
derlying Oneness is succinctly expressed in this chapter when he says
that God is our outer form [the Outer] and also the inner spirit of that
form [the Inner], so that nothing remains of us as something other
than He. Although he has a great deal to say on this subject, both here
and elsewhere, Ibn aUArabi would have been the first to admit that it
is a subject that is, essentially, inexpressible, since human language,
being human and formal, cannot by its very nature adequately de¬
scribe what transcends form, nor can human reason be expected to
cope properly with experiences and realities that pertain to realms
beyond the human. Much of what he says on this particular subject is
therefore necessarily approximate and inadequate to the reality and
experience he is trying to describe.

THE WISDOM OF UNITY

IN THE WORD OF HUD
The Straight Path of God is not hidden,

But manifest universally.

He is essentially in all things great or small,

Ignorant of truth or aware.

Thus does His Mercy embrace all things,

Be they mean or mighty.

No living being is there but He will seize it by its forelock. Surely my

Lord is on a straight path . All things walk on the Straight Path of
their Lord and, in this sense, they do not incur the divine Wrath nor
are they astray. This is because the divine Wrath, like error, is an acci¬
dental [nonessential], all things stemming ultimately from the Mercy,
which embraces all things and which has precedence, All that is other
than the Reality is a being walking [ dabbah ] [on the Path], since each
has a spirit and none proceeds [on the Path] by itself but by another
[God]. It proceeds [along the path] following, according to a [certain]
determination, Him Who is on the Path [the Lord]. It would not be a
path but for the procession along it.

If the creature submits to you,

It is [in truth] the Reality Who submits.

And if the Reality submits to you,

The created may not follow Him in that.

Therefore realize what we say,

For all I say is true.

There is no created being

But is endowed with speech [expression].

Nor is there aught created, seen by the eye,

But is essentially the Reality.

Indeed, He is hidden therein,

Its forms being merely containers.

Know that the divine and gnostic sciences possessed by the Folk
vary according to the variety of spiritual capacities, although they all
stem [ultimately] from one source. God, Most High, says, “I am his
hearing by which he hears and his sight by which he perceives, his
hand with which he takes and his foot by which he moves along.”
He states that He is, in His Identity, the limbs themselves that are the
servant himself, even though the Identity is One and the limbs many.

For each limb or organ there is a particular kind of spiritual knowl¬

edge stemming from the one source, which is manifold in respect of
the many limbs and organs, even as water, although a single reality,
varies in taste according to its location, some being sweet and pleas¬
ant, some being salty and brackish. In spite of this it remains unalter¬
ably water in all conditions, with all the varieties of taste.

This wisdom is concerned with the knowledge related to the

“feet” referred to in what the Most High says concerning the spiritu¬
al nourishment bestowed on those who properly uphold the Scrip¬
tures: [And if they had observed the Torah and the Gospel and that which is
revealed to them from their Lord , they would certainly have eaten from
above them] and from beneath their feet . For the way, which is the
[Straight] Path, is there to be traveled along and walked on, which is
not accomplished except by the feet. It is only this particular kind of
esoteric knowledge that results in this particular insight into the lead¬
ing by Him Who is on the Path by the forelocks with His Hand.

And He drives the wrongdoers, who merit the station to

which He drives them, by means of the westerly wind by which He
purges them of their [separatist] selves. He draws them along by their
forelocks, while the wind drives them [from behind] to Hell, [the
driver] being none other than their own desires and inclinations, and
Hell the distance they imagined [to be between them and the Reality].

Since it is He [their Lord] Who drives them to this abode, they

[in truth] attain nearness [to Him], all distance and notion of Hell
ceasing for them. Thus they attain [in reality] the blessing of nearness
[to Him] in respect of what they have merited [in their eternal es¬
sences], being [eternally] wrongdoers; nor does He grant them this
pleasurable station as a freely given gift, since it is they themselves
who adopt it according as their essential realities have merited eter¬
nally by their deeds [thus determined]. Indeed, in performing their
deeds they are, nevertheless, on the Path of their Lord, their forelocks
being in the hand of the One thus qualified; thus, they do not walk
[on their Path] by themselves, but under compulsion till they reach
[their] nearness [to Him].

And We are nearer to him [the dying\ than you, but you do not see
[Us], the dying man having sight because the covering has been
drawn back, and his sight is sharp . In this verse He does not speci¬
fy a particular kind of person, one who is blessed rather than one who
is damned. Again, We are nearer to him than his jugular vein , where
no particular man is specified. The divine proximity is clearly stated
in His Revelation. No proximity is closer than that His Identity
should be the very limbs and faculties of the servant, which are the
servant himself. For the servant is an attested reality in an illusory
creation.

For the believers and men of spiritual vision it is the creation

that is surmised and the Reality that is seen and perceived, while in
the case of those not in these two categories, it is the Reality Who is
surmised and the creation that is seen and perceived by the senses.
The latter are as the salty, bitter water, while the former are as the
sweet, pleasant water, fit to drink.

Men may be divided into two groups. The first travel a way they
know and whose destination they know, which is their Straight Path.
The second group travel a way they do not know and of whose desti¬
nation they are unaware, which is equally the Straight Path. The
gnostic calls on God with spiritual perception, while he who is not a
gnostic calls on Him in ignorance and bound by a tradition.

Such a knowledge is a special one stemming from the lowest of the

low , since the feet are the lowest part of the person, what is lower
than that being the way beneath them. He who knows that the Reali¬
ty is the way knows the truth, for it in none other than He that you
progress and travel, since there is naught to be known save He, since
He is Being Itself and therefore also the traveler himself. Further,
there is no Knower save He; so who are you? Therefore, know your
true reality and your way, for the truth has been made clear to you on
the tongue of the Interpreter [Muhammad], if you will only under¬
stand. His is a true word that none understands, save that his under¬
standing be true; the Reality has many relations and many aspects.

Have you not considered ‘Ad, the people of Hud, how they said,
This is a cloud come to rain upon us , thinking well of God Who is
present in what His servant thinks of Him. But God detached Him¬
self from what they said and told them of that which is more corn-
plete and lofty in proximity. For, when He caused the rain to fall on
them it proved a boon to the earth and a draught for the seed, while
they enjoyed the fruits of that rain only from afar [beyond the grave];
He said to them, This is what you have sought to hasten on , a wind in
which is a painful punishment , making the wind [rlh] an indication
of what it contained by way of respite [rdhah\ since by it He delivered
them from the darkness of their bodies, the roughness of their paths,
and their [spiritual] blackness. In this wind there was an ‘adhab [pun¬
ishment or sweetness], that is something they would delight in when
they experienced it, even though it caused them pain by separating
them from what was [previously] familiar to them.

He brought them the punishment [inherent in their own eternal

essences] and it was nearer to them [their realities] than they imag¬
ined. All was destroyed by the command of its Lord; and they were not
to be seen in the morning , except their dwellings , that is, their bodies in
which their essential spirits had dwelt. In other words the particular
relationship of spirit with body ceased and the bodies continued liv¬
ing [the spiritless life of material being] the life accorded them by the
Reality, that life of which the skin, the hands, the feet give evidence,
as also the the tips of the lashes and the thighs. All this is contained in
Holy Writ.

God, Most High, has described Himself as Jealous [that aught

should exist but Himself], and it is because of this that He “forbade
excesses ,” which means that which is manifest and apparent. As
for that which is unmanifest, it is [excessive] for him to whom it is ap¬
parent [in himself]. Thus, He forbade excesses [relative existence],
that is, He prevented the real secret from being known, namely that
He is the essential Self of things. He conceals it by otherness, which
is you [as being not He]. Otherness asserts that the hearing [referred
to in the Tradition] is Zaid’s hearing, while the gnostic [who sees be¬
yond that to the Oneness of Being] asserts that it is the Reality Him¬
self, and similarly with the other organs and faculties. Not every one
knows the Reality, some men excelling others according to [known]
spiritual ranks, so that it is plain who is superior [in this respect] and
who is not.

Know that when the Reality revealed to me and caused me to

witness the essential realities of His apostles [on whom be peace] and
prophets of humanity from Adam to Muhammad [peace and blessings
be on all of them] at an assembly in Cordova in the year , none
addressed me from among them save Hud, who informed me of the
reason for their gathering together. I saw him as a stout man, fair of
form, subtle of converse, a gnostic, a discloser of the realities. What
proved this to me was the verse, There is no walking being but He draws
it by its forelock. Surely my Lord is on the Straight Path . What greater
tidings could there be for creation? Indeed, God reminds us of His fa¬
vor on us in bringing this [verse] to us in the Qur'an. Then Muham¬
mad, who integrates the whole, completes the tidings in transmitting
to us the Tradition in which it is said that the Reality is [essentially]
the hearing [of the servant, the gnostic], the sight, the hand, the foot
and the tongue, indeed, all the senses. Further, although the spiri¬
tual faculties are nearer than the [outer] senses, He contented Himself
with what was more distant but known, instead of what was closer
but unknown.

God interprets as tidings for us the words of His Prophet Hud to

his people, and the Apostle of God interprets for us God’s words [in
the Tradition].

Thus, knowledge is perfected in the hearts of those who have

been granted knowledge, and none deny Our signs save the concealers [ka-
ftruna ]. For there are those who would conceal them [God’s signs],
even though they themselves possess knowledge of them, out of envy,
rivalry, and injustice. For our part, whenever God has revealed or in¬
formed us [through Holy Traditions] concerning Himself, whether it
assert His transcendence or comparability, we always see it in terms
of limitation.

The first limitation [to which He subjects Himself] is “The Dark

Cloud having no air above or beneath it.” The Reality was in it be¬
fore He created His creation. Then He says, He established Hhnself on
the Throne , which also represents a Self-limitation. He then says
that He descended to the lower heaven, also a limitation. He says fur¬
ther that he is in the Heaven and on the Earth, that He is with us
wherever we are, and finally that He is, in essence, us. We are limited
beings, and thus He describes Himself always by ways that represent
a limitation on Himself. Even the verse There is none like unto Him
constitutes a limitation if we regard the kaf as simply emphatic, since
one who is distinguished from what is limited is himself limited be¬
cause he is not that thing; to deny all [possibility of] limitation is itself
a limitation, the Absolute being [in a sense] limited by His Own Ab¬
soluteness.

If we regard the kaf as a second qualification, we limit Him. If

we take the verse There is none like unto Him as denying similarity,
we have realized the true sense and the intended meaning, that He is
essentially all things. Created things are limited, even though their
limitations are various. Thus, He is limited by the limitation of every
limited thing, each limitation being a limitation of the Reality. He
permeates through all beings called created and originated, and were
it not the case, [relative] existence would not have any meaning.

He is Being Itself, the Essence of Being, He is the Preserver of all

by His Essence, nor does this preservation weary Him. In preserv¬
ing all things, He is preserving His Form, lest aught assume a form
other than His Form, which is not possible. He is the observer in the
observer and the observed in the observed; the Cosmos is His Form
and He is the governing Spirit of the Cosmos, which is the Great
Man [Macrocosm].

He is all Becoming and He is the One by Whose

Becoming I become, therefore I say He feeds

On my being, so we are modeled in His Image.

As also, from a certain aspect, I seek refuge in Him from Him.

It was because of the bursting fullness [of the essential realities in

the undifferentiated Essence] that He breathed forth [the primordial
creative Word kun]. He relates the Breath to the Merciful, because by
it He had mercy [assented] on the demand of the divine Modes for the
creation of the forms of the Cosmos, which are the manifest Reality,
He being the Manifest. He is also their inner Essence, being also the
Unmanifest. He is the First, since He was when they were not, and
also the Last, since in their manifestation He is their Essence; the
Last is the Manifest and the First is the Unmanifest. Thus, He knows
all things, as knowing Himself.

Since He created the forms in the Breath, and there became man¬
ifest the dominion of the relations, called the Names, the divine con¬
nection with the Cosmos is established, all beings deriving from Him.
He says, “This day have I reduced your relationship and raised My
connection,” that is, I have taken away your relationship to your¬
selves and have returned you to your [proper] relationship with Me.

Where are the righteous? They are those who take God as their
protection, He being their manifest form, as being the inner reality of
their manifested forms. Such a one is the mightiest and strongest of
men in the eyes of all men. The righteous one is also he who makes
himself a protection for God, as being His form, since the Identity of
God is, in essence, the faculties of the servant. He makes what is
termed the servant a protection for what is called the Reality, though
perceiving [the truth, namely that both are one], so that the knower is
clearly distinguished from the ignorant.

Say: Are those who know the same as those who do not know , only those
with true insight reflect , that is, those who look on the inner reality
of a thing, which is the real object of knowledge regarding a thing.
For one who is negligent is not superior to one who is diligent, nor is
a hireling to be compared with the servant. If, then, God is a protec¬
tion for the servant, from one aspect, and the servant for God in an¬
other, you may say of Being what you will; either that it is the
creation or that it is the Reality, or that it is at once the creation and
the Reality. It might also be said that there is neither creation nor the
Reality, as one might admit to perplexity in the matter, since by as¬
signing degrees the difficulties appear. But for the [principle of] limi¬
tation [in defining the Reality], the apostles would not have taught
that the Reality transforms Himself in cosmic forms nor would they
have described Him [at the same time] as abstracting Himself from all
forms.

The eye perceives naught but Him

Only He is determined [by Himself].

We are His, by Him we exist and by Him we are governed,

And we are in His Presence at all times, in all states.

Because of this [inevitable limitation by definition] He is both de¬

nied and known, called incomparable and compared. He who sees the
Reality from His standpoint, in Him by Him is a gnostic. He who
sees the Reality from His standpoint, in Him, but with himself as the
seer, is not a gnostic. He who does not see the Reality in this way,
but expects to see Him by himself, is ignorant.

In general, most men have, perforce, an individual concept [be¬

lief] of their Lord, which they ascribe to Him and in which they seek
Him. So long as the Reality is presented to them according to it they
recognize Him and affirm Him, whereas if presented in any other
form, they deny Him, flee from Him and treat Him improperly,
while at the same time imagining that they are acting toward Him fit¬
tingly. One who believes [in the ordinary way] believes only in a de¬
ity he has created in himself, since a deity in “beliefs” is a [mental]
construction. They see [in what they believe] only themselves [as rel¬
ative beings] and their own constructions within themselves.

Consider this matter, for, as men know God [in this world], so
will they see Him on the Day of Resurrection, the reason for which I
have informed you of. So, beware lest you restrict yourself to a partic¬
ular tenet [concerning the Reality] and so deny any other tenet
[equally reflecting Him], for you would forfeit much good, indeed
you would forfeit the true knowledge of what is [the Reality]. There¬
fore, be completely and utterly receptive to all doctrinal forms, for
God, Most High, is too All-embracing and Great to be confined with¬
in one creed rather than another, for He has said, Wheresoever you turn ,
there is the face of God y lS without mentioning any particular direction.
He states that there is the face of God, the face of a thing being its re¬
ality.

By this He [intends] to keep alert [spiritually] the Hearts of the

gnostics, lest the transient things of this world deflect them from
[constant] reflection on this [truth]; for no servant knows in which
breath he will be taken [from this life], and it may be that he be taken
in a moment of heedlessness, so that he will not be equal [in the Here¬
after] to one taken in a moment of attentiveness. The perfect servant,
despite his knowledge of this [truth concerning God’s omnipresence],
nevertheless maintains himself, in his outer and limited form, in [con¬
stant] prayer, his face turned toward the Sacred Mosque, believing
God to be in that direction when he prays; the Sacred Mosque is, in
truth, representative of a facet of the Reality, as in the verse, Whereso¬
ever you turn, there is the face of God , and [in facing it] one is face to
face with God in it. However, do not tell yourself that He is in that
direction only, but rather maintain both your [particular] attitude [of
worship] in facing the Sacred Mosque and your [more universal] atti¬
tude [of knowledge] to the impossibility of confining His face to that
particular direction, it being merely one of many points toward
which men turn.

God has made it clear that He is in every direction turned to,

each of which represents a particular doctrinal perspective regarding
Him. All are [in some sense] right [in their approach]; everyone who
is right receives his reward, everyone who receives his reward is
blessed, and everyone who is blessed is well pleasing [to his Lord],
even though he may be damned for a time in the Final Abode. For
[even] the people of Providence are sick and suffer pain in this world,
though we know them to be blessed among the Folk of God. Thus,
there are those servants of God who are afflicted with sufferings in
the afterlife in a place called Hell. Despite this, those who possess
knowledge and have spiritual insight into what really is do not deny
that they will enjoy their own delight in that place, whether by a re¬
lief from the pain they suffer, which will be their delight, or [per¬
haps] a separate delight similar to that enjoyed by the people of
Paradise; but God knows best.

CHAPTER XI

THE WISDOM OF OPENING

IN THE WORD OF SALIH

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Two subjects are dealt with in this rather short chapter. The first
is the concept of triplicity, which Ibn al-‘ArabT sees as the basis of the
creative process. The second concerns certain symbols associated
with salvation and damnation on the Last Day.

In this chapter Ibn al-‘ArabT returns to the subject of number, be¬

ing here concerned not with the relationship between unity and mul¬
tiplicity but rather with the process by which singular unity projects
itself into the many, so that the many may exist as the infinite diversi¬
fication of the One. Unity alone is not creative, but sufficient to itself,
not requiring anything beyond itself to preserve its absolute integri¬
ty. The One simply is, there being in it no implication of becoming or
development. Similarly with duality, unless there is a working rela¬
tionship between the two entities, there are merely two singulars in
sterile and contradictory isolation from each other. If there is a rela¬
tionship, it is the connecting principle that relates the two entities,
bringing their separate qualities together to form a third entity, born,
so to speak, of their union. Put another way, this is the familiar tri-
plicity of knower-knowledge-known in which the term “knowledge”
as relationship brings together the receptive objectivity of the known
and the active subjectivity of the knower to produce the principle of
knowledge itself. Although not specifically stated here, it is man him-
self who is precisely the third and relating entity in the duality God-
Cosmos, being at once the meeting point of Heaven and Earth and
also that entity which symbolizes their union, potentially.

In this chapter, Ibn al-‘ArabI describes the concept of triplicity

somewhat differently. Indeed, as one might expect, he describes a
double or bipolar triplicity that, on the side of the divine pole, con¬
sists of the singular Essence Itself, the Will or the urge to Self-alter¬
ation, and the verbal creative command “Become!” On the side of the
cosmic pole the triplicity consists of the latent essence, the “hearing”
or readiness to be created, and the coming into existence in obedience
to the creative command. Here the former triplicity is mirrored by
the latter, together forming the complete triplicity of the Reality It¬
self, which consists of Essential Oneness, the urge to polarity, and the
actual experience of bipolarity, which itself is eternally being re¬
solved back into the Essence. Once again he is describing in terms of
triplicity the process in divinis that he has elsewhere described in
terms of the Breath of the Merciful, the Creative Imagination, the
Mirror, and the Light-shadow relationship. In all of this the difficulty
of adequate expression conceals what is really an attempt to describe
a bipolarity within a greater bipolarity. That is to say, the creative bi¬
polarity that creates the “otherness” necessary for the Self-realization
of infinite possibility eternally inherent in absolute unity is itself, so
to speak, one pole of the polarity Essential Unity-bipolarity, both ele¬
ments of which relate and unite to constitute the Reality in Itself. Ibn
al-‘Arab! returns to this theme in the last chapter of this work.

Ibn al-‘ArabT concludes this chapter with a discussion of the man¬

ifestation of the inner in the outer, illustrating this from the qur'anic
description of the effects on the righteous and the sinners of the
promise of Paradise and the threat of Hell. He seeks to link this sec¬
tion to the first by pointing out that these effects take place in three
stages. At the end of the chapter he reminds the reader, yet again, that
the outer manifestation of man’s cosmic existence derives only from
his own inner and essential predisposed determination.

THE WISDOM OF OPENING

IN THE WORD OF SALIH

Among His signs are the riding beasts,

Because of the variety of the paths.

Some follow the true course,

While others traverse trackless wastes.

The former are possessed of true vision,

The latter have missed the way.

To both there come from God

Revelations of inner realities from every side.

Know, may God prosper you, that the [Creative] Command is es¬
sentially based on unevenness in which triplicity is implicit, since
three is the first of the uneven numbers. It is from this divine plane
that the Cosmos is created; He says, When We wish a thing, We only say
to it , “Be, ” and it is , there being the Essence, the Will, and the
Word. Were it not for the Essence, the Will, which denotes the partic¬
ular tendency to bring something into being, and the Word Be accom¬
panying that tendency, that thing would not be. Furthermore, the
triple unevenness is manifest in that thing by which its being brought
into being and its being said to exist may be said to be true. This
[principle] of unevenness constitutes its thingness, its “hearing,” and
its obeying of its Creator’s command to come into being. These three
[aspects of the creature] correspond to three [in the Creator]. Its latent
essence in its state of nonexistence corresponds to the Essence of its
Creator, its “hearing” [receptivity] to the Will of its Creator, and its
compliance with the Creative Command to His saying [Word] Be. It is
He, and [as obeying the Command] the becoming is attributed to it.
Indeed, were it not able to come into being of itself, on receiving the
Command [Word], it would not come to be. In truth, it was none oth¬
er than the thing itself that brought itself into being from nonexis¬
tence when the Command was given.

Thus, the Reality establishes that the coming into being stems
from the thing itself and not from the Reality Who is the origin of the
Command. Thus He says of Himself, When We wish a thing [to be], Our
Command is only that We say “Be" and it is. Here He attributes the
becoming of the thing itself, at the Command of God, and God speaks
true, this being understood in the Command, just as when one who is
feared and obeyed commands his servant to stand, the servant stands
obediently. With respect to the standing of the servant, only the corn-
mand to do so belongs to the master, the standing being the servant's
action and not that of the master.

Thus, bringing or coming into being is based on a triplicity, or

rather a bipolar triplicity, one being of the Reality, the other of the
creature. This [principle of triplicity] pervades to the existence of
ideas arrived at by logical proofs. Thus, a proof arrived at by syllo¬
gism is made up of three parts in a particular way that inevitably
yields a result. First of all the person establishes two premises, both of
which include two terms so that there are four terms. However, one
of the terms is present in both premises, to link the two together, so
that there are [really] three parts because of the repetition of one term
in both premises. The proof comes into being when this particular ar¬
rangement occurs, which is the binding of the two premises together
by the repetition of one term, producing a triplicity. The special con¬
dition attendant on this is that the major should be more general than
the middle term, or at least similar, if the result is to be true, other¬
wise it will be untrue. This kind of thing occurs in creation, as when
acts are attributed solely to the servant without reference to God, or
when coming into being, with which we are concerned, is ascribed
solely to God, while the Reality ascribes it to that to which Be is ad¬
dressed.

For example, if we wished to prove that the Cosmos is caused, we

would say, “Every originated thing has a cause," in which we have
the two terms “originated" and “cause." In the second premise we
would say, “The Cosmos is originated," the term “originated" being
repeated in both premises. The third term is therefore “Cosmos," the
conclusion being that the Cosmos has a cause. The same term, namely
“cause," appears both in the first premise and in the conclusion. The
special point is the repetition of the word “originated." The special
condition is the generality of the [occasioning] principle, which is, in
the case of the existence of the originated [being], the cause that, as
the major term, is general with respect to the originating of the Cos¬
mos from God. We have decided that every originated being has a
cause, whether the middle term is similar to the major term or wheth¬
er the latter is more general than it and coming within its prov¬
enance; and the conclusion is true. The principle of triplicity is thus
apparent also in the creation of concepts arrived at by [syllogistic]
proofs.

The origin of all becoming is thus triplicity. For this reason the
Wisdom of Salih, which God manifested in delaying the destruction
of his people for three days, was no vain promise since it came true in
the cry by which God destroyed them, so that they became stricken
down in their tents. On the first of the three days the faces of the
people changed color to yellow, on the second to red, and on the third
to black. On the completion of the third day, [their essential] natures
were ready to receive the manifestation of wickedness within them,
which manifestation is called destruction.

The yellowing of the faces of the damned corresponds to the

shining of the faces of the blessed, as in His saying, Faces on that day
will be shining, [stemming] from [the word] unveiled, which means
manifested. In this way the yellowness of their faces on the first day
signals the manifestation of damnation in the people of Salih. Corre¬
sponding to the redness is what He says concerning the blessed,
laughing , since laughter is a cause of redness in the face, being, in
the case of the blessed, a rosiness of the cheeks. Corresponding to the
blackening of the skins of the damned is what He says [of the blessed]
that they are joyful , being the effect of joy on their complexions, as
the blackness in the case of the damned. Thus He uses the term tidings
[bushra ] for both parties [the blessed and the damned]; that is, He
tells them things that affect their complexions, causing them to
change to a color other than the one they had before. In the case of
the blessed, He says, Their Lord brings them glad tidings of mercy from
Him and His good pleasure , while in the case of the damned, Bring
them tidings of a painful punishment , each party showing outwardly
the effects of this address on their souls. This is because what is out¬
wardly manifest only accords with the inner effect of the sense [of
these words].

In truth, they themselves affect themselves even as they them¬

selves come into being of themselves [in obedience to the divine Com¬
mand]. God's is the final argument .

Whoever [truly] understands this Wisdom and establishes it in

himself and realizes it releases himself from dependence on others
and knows that good and evil come to him only from himself. By
good I mean what is in consonance with his aim, in harmony with his
nature and disposition, and by evil what is contrary to his aim and in
conflict with his nature and disposition. He who has such a knowl¬
edge [vision] excuses all creatures regarding what they manifest, even
though they themselves make no excuse, knowing as he does that all
he undergoes is from himself, as we have mentioned previously to the
effect that knowledge depends on what is known. Thus, he says to
himself when something contrary to his aim befalls him, “Your two
hands cast the dye and your own mouth breathed the breath [of your
life].” God speaks true and guides aright.

CHAPTER XII

THE WISDOM OF THE HEART

IN THE WORD OF SHU‘AIB

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

As the title suggests, Ibn al-‘Arabi returns, in this chapter, to the

subject of the Heart, particularly the Heart of the gnostic. This con¬
cept of the Heart is perhaps, in the human context, the most impor¬
tant of his concepts insofar as it corresponds, in man, as already
mentioned, to the concept of the Reality Itself. If, in a general way,
the Perfect Man symbolizes the synthesis of all aspects of being, it is
the Heart of the Perfect Man that particularly symbolizes this syn¬
thesis. He dramatically illustrates the wholeness of the Heart in say¬
ing that it is capable of embracing the Reality, while the Mercy is not,
even though he elsewhere accords to the principle of Mercy a seem¬
ingly similar capacity. The reason for the greater capacity of the
Heart is that, whereas the Mercy is exclusively concerned with the
complementary processes of creative manifestation and its resolution
into unity, the Heart symbolizes the whole experience of the Oneness
of Being, as including not only the creative process and its resolution,
but also that inalienable and unalterable aspect of the Reality which
knows nothing of cosmic becoming. This synthetic wholeness of the
Heart, however, is realized fully only in the Perfect Man, remaining
potential and latent in most human beings. For them the Heart is able
to contain usually no more than the particular Lord as essential de-
terminer of their particular existence according to the predisposition
of their own latent essences. It is only by gnosis, or the gradual seeing
beyond formal multiplicity, that the Heart is enabled to fulfill its true
function. In other words, for most men, the function of the Heart re¬
mains confined to the context of creative bipolarity.

This leads Ibn al-‘ArabI on to discuss one of the most interesting

of his ideas, the “god created in belief,” which of course brings in the
question of the diversity of approaches to truth and salvation. This
subject enables him, in his characteristic way, to relate his discussion
to the prophet Shu‘aib, after whom the chapter is named, since the
root from which this name is derived is sha'aba , which means “to di¬
verge.” Thus, since the Reality as God, the Supreme Name, tran¬
scends all its Names or aspects, the Heart of the ordinary man cannot
see God or know God as such, but only the God of his credal belief,
which conforms to the Self-manifestation of “his Lord” to him, which
of course in turn conforms to what his own latent essence determines
should be the content of his belief. In this way each man’s belief re¬
garding the nature of God not only differs from the particular belief
of other men, but is also, inevitably, but a minute facet of what God
is in Himself. Each belief, determined as it is by essential predispo¬
sition, cannot be other than what God is, but neither, paradoxically,
can it be wholly faithful to the divine Truth. It is only through the
acquiring of gnosis that the Heart can be made receptive, not only to
the particular Lord, but also to the universality of “God,” and ulti¬
mately to the Reality Itself. Since, however, knowledge of one’s Lord,
as reflected in one’s particular belief, is part of knowledge of God and
ultimately of the Reality, and since no man ever ceases to be the par¬
ticular existing creature of his Lord according to essential predeter¬
mination, the gnostic, in experiencing the greater vision of universal
divinity, may not deny his creatureliness nor refuse the obligations
of his particular determination, since true gnosis reveals to the gnos¬
tic the ontological necessity of particular servanthood as part of the
nature of things. For the gnostic, the only alternative to creatureli¬
ness, however enlightened, is precisely annihilation in God, not some
false personal inflation.

Ibn al-‘ArabT concludes the chapter by dealing with another of

the concepts for which he is famous, that of “the renewal of creation
by Breaths.” He views the creation of the Cosmos neither as a once-
and-for-all act, nor as a continuous and developing process, but rather
as constantly recurring acts of creation and resolution from instant
to instant. The human symbol here is the process of breathing, con¬
sisting of an inhalation followed by exhalation. On a divine scale, in
the case of the Breath of the Merciful, each inhalation represents the
resolution of the Cosmos into the Essence, while each exhalation rep¬
resents the creation of the Cosmos, representing the two currents of
the divine Mercy, the one releasing the archetypal desire for exis¬
tence, the other reaffirming the exclusive integrity of the Absolute
One. In reality, however, there is no temporal sequence here, but an
eternal simultaneity, since at each instant the Cosmos is and is not,
is manifest and latent, created and uncreated, is other and non-other
in a timeless divine pulse, at once creative and noncreating. In other
words the whole becoming of the Cosmos through the breathing out
of the divine Mercy is not seen by Ibn al-‘ArabT as a long creative ex¬
halation in time, followed by a corresponding resolving inhalation,
but rather as a situation in which each instantaneous exhalation her¬
alds and includes inhalation and vice versa.

As Ibn ADArabI points out in this chapter, the Ash’arite theo¬

logians also had a theory of instant creation and re-creation, while
maintaining, unlike Ibn ADArabT, an absolute discontinuity between
God and creation. The main purpose behind the Ash’arite theory
seems to have been the removal of any constraint whatsoever on
God’s ability to do whatever He wishes, as also to undermine the
structure of cause and effect without which reason and logic cannot
function. The important difference between the Ash’arites and Ibn
al-‘ArabI is that the latter insists that the Cosmos, however appar¬
ently other than God, cannot, in reality, be other than He, and that,
as essentially latent in divinis , mysteriously is none other than its own
Creator.

THE WISDOM OF THE HEART

IN THE WORD OF SHU‘AIB

Know that the Heart, by which I mean the Heart of the gnostic,
derives from the Divine Mercy, while being more embracing than it,
since the Heart encompasses the Reality, exalted be He, and the Mer¬
cy does not. This is alluded to and supported in Tradition.

The Reality is the subject and not the object of the Mercy, so that
the latter has no determining power with respect to the Reality. In
a more particular way, one might say that God has described Himself
as the Breath \nafas\ from tanfis y which means to cause respite or re¬
lief. It is also true that the divine Names are [in a certain sense] the
thing named, which is none other than He. [At the same time] they
require the very realities they bestow, which are the Cosmos. For Di¬
vinity [ uluhiyyah ] implies and requires that which depends on it, just
as Lordship requires servanthood, since neither would have any ex¬
istence or meaning otherwise.
The Reality, in Its Essence, is beyond all need of the Cosmos.
Lordship, on the other hand, does not enjoy such a position. The
truth [in this matter] lies between the mutual dependency [implicit]
in Lordship and the Self-sufficiency of the Essence. Indeed, the Lord
is, in its reality and qualification, none other than this Essence.

When, however, differentiation and opposition arise by virtue of

the various relationships, the Reality begins to describe Itself as the
bestower of compassion on His servants.

The Reality first expressed the Breath, which is called the Breath
of the Merciful, from Lordship by creating the Cosmos, which both
Lordship and all the Names require by their very nature. From this
standpoint it is clear that the Mercy embraces all things including the
Reality Himself, being more or less as encompassing as the Heart in
this respect. So much for that.

Know that the Reality, as is confirmed by Tradition, in His Self¬

manifestation, transmutes Himself in the forms; know also that when
the Heart embraces the Reality, it embraces none other than He,
since it is as if the Reality fills the Heart. By this is meant that when
the Heart contemplates the Reality in Its Self-manifestation to it, it
is unable to contemplate anything else whatever. The heart of the
gnostic is, in respect of its compass, as Abu Yazld al-Bistaml has said,
“Were the Throne and all it comprises to be placed one hundred mil¬
lion times in the corner of the gnostic’s Heart, he would not be aware
of it.” On this question Junayd said, “When the contingent is
linked with the eternal there is nothing left of it.’’ Thus, when the
heart embraces the Eternal One, how can it possibly be aware of what
is contingent and created?

Since the Self-manifestation of the Reality is variable according

to the variety of the forms, the Heart is necessarily wide or restricted
according to the form in which God manifests Himself. The heart
can comprise no more than the form in which the Self-manifestation
occurs; for the Heart of the gnostic or the Perfect Man is as the set¬
ting of the stone of the ring, conforming to it in every way, being cir¬
cular, square, or any other shape according to the shape of the stone
itself, for the setting conforms to the stone and not otherwise. This
is opposed by those who maintain that the Reality manifests Himself
in accordance with the predisposition of the servant. This is, howev¬
er, not the case, since the servant is manifest to the Reality according
to the form in which the Reality manifests Himself to him.

The solution of this question rests on the fact that God manifests
Himself in two ways: an unseen manifestation and a sensible mani¬
festation. It is from the former type that the predisposition of the
Heart is bestowed, being the essential Self-manifestation, the very na¬
ture of which is to be unseen. This is the divine Identity in accor¬
dance with which He calls Himself [in the Qur’an] He . This
Identity is His alone in all and from all eternity.

When the predisposition comes to the Heart there is then man¬

ifest to it the sensible Self-manifestation in the sensible world, so that
it sees Him manifest in the form in which He manifests Himself to
it, as we have said. It is none other than God Who bestows on the
Heart its predisposition in accordance with His saying, He bestows
upon everything He has created . Then He raises the veil between
Himself and the servant and the servant sees Him in the form of his
belief; indeed, He is the very content of the belief. Thus, neither the
Heart nor the eye [of the Heart] sees anything but the form of its be¬
lief concerning the Reality. It is the Reality contained in the belief
whose form the Heart encompasses. It is this Reality that manifests
itself to the Heart so that it recognizes it. Thus the eye sees only the
credal Reality, and there are a great many beliefs.

He who restricts the Reality [to his own belief] denies Him
[when manifested] in other beliefs, affirming Him only when He is
manifest in his own belief. He who does not restrict Him thus does
not deny Him, but affirms His Reality in every formal transforma¬
tion, worshiping Him in His infinite forms, since there is no limit to
the forms in which He manifests Himself. The same is the case with
the gnosis of God, there being no limit for the gnostic in this respect.
Always the gnostic is seeking more knowledge of Him, saying,
Lord , increase me in knowledge. The possibilities are without end on
both sides, that of the Absolute and that of relative being.

When you consider His saying, “I am his foot with which he

walks, his hand with which he strikes, and his tongue with which he
speaks/’ and all the other faculties and members in which they are
situated, why do you make the distinction by saying it is all the Re¬
ality, or it is all created? It is all created in a certain sense, but it is
also the Reality in another sense, the Essence being one. After all, in
essence, the form of a Self-manifestation and that of the one who per¬
ceives it are the same, for He is [at once] the Self-manifesting subject
and the object of that manifestation. Consider then how wonderful is
God in His Identity and in His relation to the Cosmos in the realities
[inherent] in His Beautiful Names.

Who is here and what there?

Who is here is what is there.

He who is universal is particular,

And He Who is particular is universal.

There is but one Essence,

The light of the Essence being also darkness.

He who heeds these words will not

Fall into confusion.

In truth, only he knows what we say

Who is possessed of spiritual power [ himmah ].

Surely in that is a reminder for him who has a heart by reason of
His [constant] transformation through all the varieties of forms and
attributes; nor does He say, “for him who has an intellect.” This is
because the intellect restricts and seeks to define the truth within a
particular qualification, while in fact the Reality does not admit of
such limitation. It is not a reminder to the intellectuals and mongers
of doctrinal formulations who contradict one another and denounce
each other, . . . and they have no helpers.

The god of one believer has no validity in respect to the god of

one who believes something else. The supporter of a particular belief
defends what he believes and champions it, while that which he be¬
lieves in does not support him. It is because of this that he has no ef¬
fect on his opponent’s belief. Thus, also, his opponent derives no
assistance from the god formulated in his own belief. . . . they have no
helpers . This is because the Reality has denied to the gods of credal
formulations any possibility of rendering assistance, since each one is
restricted to itself. Both the one assisted and the one who assists are
[in truth] the Totality [majmu‘\ [of the Divine Names].

For the gnostic, the Reality is [always] known and not [ever] de¬
nied. Those who know in this world will know in the Hereafter. For
this reason He says, for one who is possessed of a heart, namely, one
who understands the formal transformations of the Reality by adapt¬
ing himself formally, so that from [or by] himself he knows the Self.
[In truth], his self is not other than the divine Identity Itself, as also
no [determined] being, now or in the future, is other than His Iden¬
tity; He is the Identity Itself.

He [God] is the one who knows, the one who understands and
affirms in this particular form, just as He is also the ignorant one, the
uncomprehending, the unknown in that [particular] form. This, then,
is the lot of one who knows the Reality through His Self-manifesta¬
tion and witnessing Him in the totality of formal possibilities. This
is what is meant by the saying, for one possessed of a heart that is,
one who turns [toward the Reality] [ taqltb ] in all the diversity of the
forms [in which He manifests Himself].

As for the people of faith who follow blindly the utterances of

the prophets and apostles concerning the Reality, not those who slav¬
ishly follow thinkers and those who derive their knowledge from in¬
tellectual processes, they are referred to in His saying or gives ear
to what God has said through the lips of the prophets. By this is
meant one who gives ear in witness, indicating the plane of the Imagi¬
nation and its use, alluded to in the saying of the Prophet, “that you
should worship God as if you saw Him,” for God is in the qiblah of
the one who prays . Because of this he is a witness [to God]. It cannot
be said of one who follows the thinker and is bound by his thoughts
that he is one who gives ear, since one who gives ear is also a witness
to what we have mentioned. And since, as we have mentioned, such
a one is not a witness, the verse quoted does not refer to him; they
are referred to in God’s saying, when those who are followed will be ac¬
quitted of [any association with ] those who follow them . The same may
not be said of the apostles with respect to those who follow them.
Therefore, O Friend, realize the truth of this Wisdom of the Heart
that I have set forth for you.

As for its special connection with Shu‘aib, it is because of its [in¬

numerable] ramifications \tasha“ub\ since each and every creed is a
[particular] path. Thus, when the covering [of this earthly life] is
drawn back, everyone will see what is disclosed according to his be¬
lief—or he might see what is contrary to his belief regarding the [di¬
vine] determination; as He says, And there is manifest to them of God
what they had not expected to see. Such cases usually concern [divine]
determination. Such a one is the Mu‘tazilite, who believes that God
will carry out His threat [to punish] the sinner who dies unrepentant.
When he dies and is in fact granted mercy with God, since [divine]
providence has already decreed that he should not be punished, the
Mu‘tazilite finds that God is Forgiving and Merciful, so there is man¬
ifest to him of God that which he had not considered in his belief.

As regards God in His Identity, certain of His servants have

judged in their belief that God is such and such, so that when the cov¬
ering is removed, they see the form of their belief, which is true, and
they believe in it. When however the knot [of belief] is loosened, be¬
lief ceases [to bind his heart] and he knows once more by [direct] con¬
templation. After his sight has been sharpened, his weak-sightedness
does not recur. Some servants [then] have God disclosed to them in
various forms, other than those first seen, since [a particular] Self¬
manifestation is never repeated. He then holds this to be true with
respect to His Identity, so that there is manifest to them of God , in His
Identity, what they had not considered, before the drawing back of the
veil.

We have discussed advancement in the divine sciences in our

Book of Theophanies, where we talk of those of the Order we have
met with in vision [kashf] and what we imparted to them on this ques¬
tion that they did not know already. The amazing thing is that such
a one is always advancing, although he is not aware of it, by reason
of the subtlety and fineness of the veil and the ambiguity of forms;
as He says, It is brought to them in an ambiguous way. It [the veil] is
not the same as the other, for similars in the sight of the gnostic,
though similars, are also different from each other. That is because
he who has attained to realization sees multiplicity in the One, just
as he knows that essential oneness is implicit in the divine Names,
even though their [individual] realities are various and multiple. It is
a multiplicity intelligible in the One in His Essence. In manifestation
it is a discernible multiplicity in a single essence, just as the Primal
Substance is assumed in the case of every form, which, despite the
multiplicity and variety of forms, springs in reality from a single sub¬
stance, its primal substance.

He, therefore, who knows himself in this way knows his Lord,
for He created him in His image, indeed, He is his very identity and
reality. It is because of this that none of the scholars have attained to
knowledge of the self and its reality except those theosophists among
the messengers and the Sufis.
As for the theorists and thinkers among the ancients, as also the
scholastic theologians, in their talk about the soul and its quiddity,
none of them have grasped its true reality, and speculation will never
grasp it. He who seeks to know it by theoretical speculation is flog¬
ging a dead horse. Such are certainly of those whose endeavor is awry
in this world , but who consider that they do well He who seeks to know
this matter other than by its proper course will never grasp its truth.

How wonderful are the words of God concerning the Cosmos

and its transformation according to the Breaths “in a new creation”
in a single essence. He said concerning a portion, nay most of the
Cosmos, Nay, they are in the guise of a new creation. They do not un¬
derstand the renewal of the Creative Command according to the
Breaths.

The AslTarites did indeed discover it for certain things, namely

accidents, as did also the Sophists for the Cosmos as a whole. How¬
ever the speculative thinkers dismissed them all as ignorant.

In fact, both the AslTarites and the Sophists were mistaken.

As for the latter, although they speak of the transformation of the

Cosmos, they fail to grasp the Unity of the Essence of the substance
that assumes this form, that it cannot be created without it [form],
while it [form] cannot be comprehended without it [substance]. Had
they made that clear they would have realized the truth of the matter.

As for the AslTarites, they did not realize that the whole Cosmos
is a sum of accidents, so that it is transformed in every duration, since
the accident does not last for more than one duration. This is man¬
ifest in the defining of things, since when they define a thing its be¬
ing accidental is evident in their doing so. Also that the accidents
implicit in its definition are nothing other than the substance and its
reality, which subsists of itself. As accident, it does not subsist of it¬
self, whereas the sum of what does not subsist of itself is that which
subsists of itself, just as the position taken in defining the substance
that subsists of itself, as also its assuming accidents, is an essential
definition. There is no doubt that the assuming [of accidents] is itself
an accident, since it cannot occur except in the case of a recipient, be¬
cause it does not subsist of itself. It is essential to the substance. Hav¬
ing a position is also an accident that can only occur in respect of that
which takes a position; it does not subsist of itself.

Neither the taking of a position nor the assumption [of accidents]

constitutes anything additional to the essence \‘ain\ of the defined
substance, because the essential limits are nothing other than the
thing defined and its identity. Thus, that which does not last for two
durations becomes [in sum] a thing that lasts for two, indeed many
durations, and that which was not self-subsistent becomes once again
self-subsistent.

They are not aware of what they are about, while they are in the
guise of a new creation. As for those to whom the higher worlds are
disclosed, they see that God is manifest in every Breath and that no
[particular] Self-manifestation is repeated. They also see that every
Self-manifestation at once provides a [new] creation and annihilates
another, Its annihilation is extinction at the [new] Self-manifestation,
subsistence being what is given by the following [other] Self-manifes¬
tation; so understand.

CHAPTER XIII

THE WISDOM OF MASTERY

IN THE WORD OF LOT

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

According to the title, this chapter is concerned with the subject

of “mastery,” which term in the original Arabic implies possession
and control. It becomes evident, however, early in the chapter, that
what Ibn al-‘ArabI means by mastery is not physical or vital power,
but rather spiritual power, since such power is usually acquired, as
he points out, not in the physical vigor of youth, but at a more ad¬
vanced age when physical power is declining. His discussion of the
question of mastery, as illustrated by the situation of the prophet Lot,
leads Ibn al-‘ArabI on to yet another exposition on the subject of the
spiritual power of Concentration or himmah. In this chapter he is par¬
ticularly concerned with the relationship between this power and
gnosis [ma'rifah\ and how the attainment of the latter severely re¬
stricts and limits the exercise of the former.

In a certain sense, the two are aspects of spiritual attainment, the

one dynamic, the other static. Gnosis, however, being recollective
and centripetal, is superior to spiritual concentration, which is cre¬
ative and cosmically oriented. He illustrates this by explaining that
the prophets were reluctant to exercise their himmah to produce mir¬
acles with a view to convincing the unbelievers to accept the faith be¬
cause their gnosis made them aware that, in reality, it is only God
Who guides men to the Truth and, furthermore, that He does so ac¬
cording to His knowledge of the realities, which is itself eternally in¬
formed by the latent archetypes of created beings. This is indeed the
realization by the gnostic that not only the creative power itself, but
also the principle of conscious identity that exercises it, is in reality
God’s power and His identity, which means that any notion of indi¬
vidual or personal autonomy in the exercise of such power is inevita¬
bly illusory both in its conception and its result.

He concludes the chapter by reminding his reader once again

that, in reality, it is we ourselves, as being nothing other, in divinis,
than that which God Himself knows Himself to be, who determine
the nature of our created experience in the Cosmos and the course of
our destiny.

THE WISDOM OF MASTERY

IN THE WORD OF LOT

Mastery implies force, and the master [of a thing] is one who is
forceful and firm. One says, “I mastered the dough” when one makes
it firm. Qais b. al-Khatlm says, describing a thrust:

My hand so mastered it that I made the gaping wound pour

forth,

So that one in front of it could see through to the other side .

That is to say, “My hand made a good job of it,” namely the wound.

This brings to mind God’s saying concerning Lot, If only I had

some power over you, or had recourse to some firm support . The Apostle
of God said, “May God have mercy upon my brother Lot, seeing that
he had recourse to a firm support .” By this he means that he was
with God, Who is Forceful. By the words firm support Lot meant his
tribe, and by the words, Would that I had some power he meant resis¬
tance, which here means that power of concentration peculiar to
man. The Apostle of God said, “Since that time,” that is, from the
time when Lot said, or had recourse to some firm support every proph¬
et sent forth has encountered the opposition of his people and has
been protected by his own tribe ,” as in the case of ‘All and the
Apostle of God.

Lot said, If only I had some power over you , because he had heard
the saying of God, It is God Who created you in weakness , as a funda¬
mental characteristic, then He brought about strength after weakness. The
strength occurs by the [divine] bringing about, being an accidental
strength. Then He brought about , after strength , weakness and white
hair. g Now the white hair pertains to the bringing about, while the
weakness is a regression to the original nature of His creation, as He
says, Who created you in weakness Thus does He return him to the
state in which He created him, as He says, Then he is returned to a most
ignoble state , so that , having enjoyed knowledge , he now knows nothing any¬
more , Here He indicates that he is restored to the original weak¬
ness, since, with respect to weakness, the old man is much like a child.

No prophet has ever been sent until he has completed his fortieth
year, at which time decrease and weakness begin to set in. Because
of this he said, If only I had power over you which requires an ef¬
fective power of concentration. Should you ask what prevented him
from exercising such power effectively, seeing that it is evident in
those of the followers who are actively on the Way, and that the
prophets are most entitled to it, I would reply that while you are
right [in one sense], you are mistaken [in another]. That is because
gnosis allows such a power no room for maneuver, his power of con¬
centration decreasing as his gnosis grew stronger. There are two rea¬
sons for this. The first is his confirmation of the status of servanthood
and his awareness of the original characteristic of his natural cre¬
ation. The second is [the truth of the essential] unity of the One Who
acts and that which is acted upon. Thus he could not see anything
[other] at which to direct his power of concentration, which prevent¬
ed him from exerting it. In such a state of perception he realized that
his opponent had in no way deviated from his reality as it was in its
state of essential latency and nonexistence. The opponent was there-
fore manifest in existence just as he was in his state of latency and
nonexistence. In no way was he transgressing the limits of his [essen¬
tial] reality, nor had he failed to fulfill his [eternally appointed] role.
Calling his behavior “opposition’’ is merely of accidental import, seen
thus only because of the veil that obscures the eyes of men; as God
says of them Most of them know not. They know the externals of this
world's life , but are heedless of the Hereafter . This is an inversion and
relates to their saying, Our hearts are enveloped ; that is to say by a
covering that prevents them from grasping the matter as it is in re¬
ality. These and similar things restrain the gnostic from acting freely
in the world.

The Shaikh Abu ‘Abdallah b. Qa’id asked Shaikh Abu al-Su‘ud

b. al-Shibl , “Why do you not exert your power?” To which he re¬
plied, “I leave God to act for me as He wills,” having in mind His
saying, Let Him be your agent and the agent is the one who acts;
for he knew God’s saying, Spend of that with which We have encharged
you . Now Abu Su‘ud and other gnostics knew that the matter in
hand was not his to dispose of as he willed, but that it had only been
entrusted to him. God was saying to him [in effect], “With regard to
this matter that I have put into your charge and control, make Me
your agent therein.” So did Abu Su‘ud obey the command of God and
yielded the initiative to Him. How then could any power of concen¬
tration remain to be exerted by one who [truly] contemplates on this
matter, seeing that such power is effective only by total concentra¬
tion, which itself is not within the scope of the one exerting it, except
with regard to that particular thing on which his concentration is
fixed? Indeed it is precisely this gnosis that prevents him from reach¬
ing such total concentration, since the true gnostic manifests his gno¬
sis by weakness and lack of power.

One of the Substitutes said to Shaikh ‘Abd al-Razzaq ,

“When you have greeted Shaikh Abu Madyan , ask him how it is
that while nothing is impossible for us and many things are impos¬
sible for him, it is we who aspire to his station, while he does not as¬
pire to ours?” This was how it was with Abu Madyan, having
attained to that station and others. We, however, have attained to that
station of incapacity and weakness more completely. Nevertheless,
that is what the Substitute said to him. This matter is related to the
same subject.

The Prophet, speaking of God’s decree for him, said of this sta¬
tion, I know not what will be done with me or with you. I follow only that
which is revealed to me , In this station the Apostle is governed by
what is revealed to him, having nothing more than that. If it was re¬
vealed to him unequivocally that he should act, he acted, but if he was
restrained, he held back. If he was given the choice, then he chose not
to act, unless his gnosis was deficient. Abu al-Su‘ud said to a trusty
disciple, “Fifteen years ago, God granted me the freedom to act, but
I have not used it, thinking that it would seem an affectation.”
This is pompous talk. We ourselves did not leave it aside for such a
reason, which implies choice in the matter, but only because of per¬
fect gnosis; for gnosis does not leave the matter to choice, since, when
the gnostic acts in the world through his power of concentration, he
does so only by divine command and compulsion, not by his own
choice. We have no doubt, however, but that the rank of Apostleship
requires freedom of action in order to effect the acceptance of its mis¬
sion. 'hus there is evident in the apostle that which would confirm
his veracity with his community and people, so that God’s dispensa¬
tion might become manifest. The same is not the case with the saint.
The apostle, however, does not require it outwardly, but out of con¬
sideration for his people and not wishing to expose them too much
to the Irrefutable Arguement (of God), which would destroy them,
preferring to preserve them.

The apostle realizes that when something miraculous is shown to

a group of people, some will believe what they see; others, realizing
what was happening, would reject it; while others would connect it
with magic and trickery, so that it would not result in the desired
confirmation [of his mission]. When, therefore, the apostles grasped
this and realized that only he would believe whose heart had been il-
lumined by God with the light of faith, and that certain people would
not see by the light called faith, it became obvious that miraculous ac¬
tivity was useless. For this reason the power of concentration was
kept from seeking miracles, seeing that their effect was not universal
in the hearts of those who witnessed them. In the case of the most
perfect of apostles, the wisest of creation, the truest in state, God says,
You will not guide those whom you wish to guide; rather it is God Who
guides whom he wishes Had the power been effective, which it usu¬
ally is without doubt, then none would have used it to more effect
than the Apostle of God, since none enjoyed a greater and more po¬
tent power than he, although it could not effect the conversion of his
uncle Abu Talib concerning whom the verses we have mentioned
were revealed. This is why He says of the Apostle that it is for him
only to proclaim the message. He says, It is not your task to guide them;
rather God guides whom He pleases In the Surat al-Qasas He adds, He
knows best those that are rightly guided, that is, those who have given
Him the knowledge of their guidance in their state of nonexistence
through their latent essences.

This confirms the fact that knowledge is dependent on what is

known, since he who is a believer in his latent essentiality and in his
state of nonexistence becomes manifest in that form in the state of ex¬
istence. God has learned from him the fact that he would be thus. He
says, He knows best those that are rightly guided In saying this He is
really saying, It is not by Me that the word is changed because what
I say is determined by what I know of My creation, and, I do not
wrong My servants * that is, I do not decree for them the infidelity
that will damn them and then require of them what is not in their
power to achieve. Indeed, We treat them only in accordance with
what We know of them [in their latent essentiality], and what We
know of them is what they give Me of themselves as they are [in eter¬
nity]. If there is any question of wrong, it is they who are the wrong¬
doers. M Thus He says, It is they who wrong themselves It is not God
Who has wronged them. “We only say to them what Our Essence has
given us to say to them, and Our Essence is too well known to Us
in its reality to say one thing rather than another. We say only what
We know We say, for the utterance is to Ourselves from Ourselves,
and it is for them to comply or not once they have heard Us.”

All is from Us and from them,

It is learned from Us and from them.

Even if they are not of Us,

Most surely We are of them.

So realize, O friend, this Wisdom of mastery concerning the

Word of Lot, for it is part of gnosis.

The mystery is now clear to you,

And the matter is well explained.

For that which is called odd

Is enshrined within the even.

CHAPTER XIV

THE WISDOM OF DESTINY

IN THE WORD OF EZRA

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Continuing from the end of the last chapter, Ibn al-‘Arab! here
develops further the theme of human and cosmic destiny. Indeed, it
is in this chapter in particular that he treats, more fully than else¬
where in this work, his theory of divine creative determination. As
was suggested in the Introduction to this translation, the two con¬
cepts of Decree [qada ] and Destiny [qadar] by which Ibn al-‘ArabT
seeks to explain the way in which created being is determined are
very closely related to the concepts of the divine Will [mashVah] and
Wish [iradah], all these concepts being themselves dependent on the
underlying concept of the eternal predisposition of the latent es¬
sences.

The term “Decree” [qada ] derives from the Arabic root qada,
which means “to carry out,” “to execute,” that is, the carrying out of
the divine Creative Command [amr\ which is itself the result of the
divine decision to create [hukm\ which is prompted by the inherent
urge of the preexistent and latent essences to cosmic actualization.
Thus, the Decree is another way of expressing the creative process it¬
self, the releasing of the Breath of the Merciful, the projection of the
reflecting image, but with the extra dimension of inevitability and
fait accompli. This concept is not so much concerned with the will or
the urge to create stemming from the divine inner desire for Self-
awareness, but rather with the fact of existence itself and the inescap¬
able consequence of becoming. The Decree is what is willed, the
execution of the Will together with all the consequences that flow
from that execution, which consequences are none other than the in¬
finite elaboration and manifestation in existence of what creation is
in its latency.

Destiny [qadar] is, so to speak, a modification of the Decree in

that it determines the mode and measure of its becoming, again as es¬
sential realities dictate. Being concerned with measure and propor¬
tion, it determines the when, where, and how of creation, the
particular instant of its manifestation, the context and nature of its
existence. Thus Destiny is concerned not so much with the universal
outpouring of the creative act, but rather with the allotment to indi¬
vidual created beings of the limits of their existence, thus checking
and individually defining the creative act. In a certain sense, there¬
fore, Destiny reverses the current of the Decree and renders the Cos¬
mos back to God Who has the measure of all things and thus knows
and has power over all things. According to Ibn Al-‘ArabT, the mys¬
tery of Destiny is one only God knows properly, although mortal
men may be granted some insight into their own destiny, which
knowledge itself is dependent on a predisposition to know it. Such
knowledge, as he says, produces a perplexity of conflicting feelings,
of calm, total resignation on the one hand, and of painful anxiety on
the other; calm resignation to what is, ultimately, one’s own self-de¬
termined destiny, and anxiety at the apparent otherness of cosmic ex¬
istence.

The other major subject of this chapter is Sainthood [walayah].

Here, Ibn al-‘ArabI points out that the name u the friend” [al-wati\ is
the only one God shares with man, so that the saint is one who has
realized a state of intimacy with God, who has seen through the veil
of cosmic otherness to the essential identity, who knows himself, like
Abraham, to be permeated by the divine Reality. As already men¬
tioned, this is the universal state that underlies the more limited func¬
tions of the prophet and the apostle. Thus, each prophet and apostle,
while being the bringer of formal revelation, expressing the Wish of
God, is also the repository of an inner wisdom that expresses more
esoteric and paradoxical insights.

THE WISDOM OF DESTINY

IN THE WORD OF EZRA

Know that the Decree [qada ] is God’s determination of things,

which is limited to what He knows of them, in them, since His
knowledge of things is dependent on what that which may be known
gives to Him from what they are [eternally] in themselves [essential¬
ly].

Destiny [qadar] is the precise timing of [the manifestation and an¬

nihilation of] things as they are essentially. This then is the very mys¬
tery of Destiny itself for him who has a heart , who hearkens and bears
witness, for God has the last word for the Determiner, in actual¬
izing His determination, complies with the essence of the object of
His determination in accordance with the requirements of its essen¬
tial nature. The thing determined, in strict accordance with its essen¬
tial state, itself determines the Determiner to determine concerning
it by that [which it is essentially], since every governor is itself gov¬
erned by that in accordance with which it governs or determines,
whoever or whatever the one governing may be. Therefore grasp this
point, for Destiny is unknown only because of the intensity [imme¬
diacy] of its manifestation and, although greatly sought after and ur¬
gently pursued, it is seldom recognized [for what it is].

Know that the apostles, as apostles and not as saints or gnostics,

conform to the [spiritual] level of their communities. The knowledge
with which they have been sent is according to the needs of their
communities, no more nor less, since communities vary, some need¬
ing more than others. Thus, in the same way, do apostles vary in the
knowledge they are sent with according to the variety of communi¬
ties. He says, We have given some of these apostles more than others Just
as the doctrines and regulations deriving from their essences are var¬
ious according to their [eternal] predispositions, so He says, We have
favored some of the prophets over others Of creation, God says, God has
favored some of you over others in the matter of provisions. Provisions
may be either spiritual, like learning, or sensible, like food, and the
Reality sends it down only according to a known measure, to which
a creature is entitled, since God has given to everything He has created,
and He sends down as He wills and He wills only in accordance with
what He knows and by what He determines. As we have already said,
He knows only what is given to Him to know by what is known.
Thus the timing [of Destiny] ultimately belongs to that which is
known, while the Decree, knowledge, Will and Wish depend on Des¬
tiny.

The mystery of Destiny is one of the most glorious kinds of

knowledge, and God grants insight into it only to one whom He has
selected for perfect gnosis. Knowledge of this mystery brings both
perfect repose and terrible torment, for it brings the opposites by
which God has described Himself as Wrathful and Approving. It is
by this mystery that the divine Names polarize. Its truth holds sway
over both the Absolute and the contingent, and nothing is more per¬
fect, powerful, and mighty by reason of the totality of its dominion,
whether direct or indirect.

Since, therefore, the prophets derive their knowledge only from

a particular divine revelation, their Hearts are simple from the intel¬
lectual point of view, knowing as they do the deficiency of the intel¬
lect, in its discursive aspect, when it comes to the understanding of
things as they really are [essentially]. Similarly, [verbal] communica¬
tion is also deficient in conveying what is only accessible to direct ex¬
perience. Thus, perfect knowledge is to be had only through a divine
Self-revelation or when God draws back the veils from Hearts and
eyes so that they might perceive things, eternal and ephemeral, non¬
existent and existent, impossible, necessary, or permissible, as they
are in their eternal reality and essentiality.

It was because Ezra sought the special way that he incurred the
condemnation related of him. Had he sought rather the divine inspi¬
ration we have mentioned, he would not have been condemned. His
simplicity of heart is shown by his saying, in another connection,
How can God revive it {Jerusalem ] after its oblivion? His character is
summed up in this saying even as Abraham’s character is summed up
in his saying, Show me how you revive the dead Such a request de-
manded an active response, which the Reality accordingly made ev¬
ident in him when He says, God caused him to die for a hundred years
and then brought him forth alive He said to him, Behold the bones , how
We have joined them together and then clothed them in flesh. In this way
he perceived directly how bodies grow forth, with immediate percep¬
tion. Thus, He showed him how it was done. He, however, had asked
about Destiny, which can be known only by a revelation of things in
their latent state and in their nonexistence. It was not accorded him,
since such knowledge is the prerogative of divine awareness. It is
surely absurd that any other than He should know such things, see¬
ing that it concerns the primordial keys, that is the keys of the Un¬
seen, which none knows save He. God does, however, inform those
whom He wishes of His servants about some of these things.

Know that they are called keys to indicate a state of opening,

which is the state in which the process of bringing into existence af¬
fects things, or, if you prefer, the state in which the capacity to come
into existence attaches to what is destined to exist, a state of which
only God may have any real experience. That is because the keys of
the Unseen are never manifested or unveiled, since all capability and
activity are God’s particularly, Who has absolute being, unrestricted
in any way.

When we learn that the Reality rebuked Ezra for his request con¬
cerning Destiny, we may realize that it was a request for this kind
of awareness in particular, seeking as he was a capability regarding
what is destined, which capability is reserved only to Him Who has
absolute being. He sought that which no creature may experience,
nor may the modalities [of things] be known except by direct expe¬
rience.

When God said to him, “Unless you desist, I will surely erase
your name from the register of prophets,” He meant, “I will deprive
you of the means to [divine] communication and present things to
you as they are manifested, which will occur only in accordance with
your own [eternal] predisposition, which is the means by which di¬
rect perception is experienced. Know, O Ezra, that you may perceive
only what you seek to perceive as your [eternal] predisposition per-
mits. If you do not, then you will know that your predisposition does
not permit that you should and that it is something reserved to God.
Although God has given to everything He has created, He has nev¬
ertheless not bestowed on you this particular predisposition. It is not
inherent in your creation; had it been so, He Who said He gives to ev¬
erything He has created would have given it to you. You should have
refrained from such a request of yourself, without needing a divine
refusal.” Such was God’s concern with Ezra, who knew [the truth of
the matter] in one way but was ignorant of it in another.

Know that Saintship is an all-inclusive and universal function

that never comes to an end, dedicated as it is to the universal com¬
munication [of divine truth]. As for the legislative function of Proph¬
ecy and Apostleship, it came to an end in Muhammad. After him
there will no longer be any law-bringing prophet or community to
receive such, nor any apostle bringing divine law. This statement is
a terrible blow to the friends of God because it implies the cessation
of the experience of total and perfect servanthood. The special name
of “friend” [of God] is not widely used of the servant in that he does
not presume to share a name with his Lord, Who is God. God Him¬
self is not called by the names “prophet” or “apostle,” but He does
call Himself “friend,” and is so described. He says, God is the friend
of those who believe , and, He is the Friend , the Praiseworthy. The
name is also often applied to God’s servants, alive and dead. With the
coming to an end of the Prophecy and Apostleship, however, the ser¬
vant no longer has another name not applicable also to the Reality.

God, however, is kind to His servants and has left for them the
universal Prophecy, which brings no law with it. He has also left to
them the power of legislation through the exercise of individual
judgement [ ijtihad] concerning rules and regulations. In addition, he
has bequeathed to them the heritage of legislation in the tradition,
“The learned are the heirs of the prophets.” This inheritance in¬
volves the use of individual judgment in certain rulings, which is a
form of legislation.

When the prophet speaks on matters that lie outside the scope of
law, he is then speaking as a saint and a gnostic, so that his station
as a knower [of truth] is more complete and perfect than that as an
apostle or lawgiver. If you hear any of the Folk saying or transmitting
sayings from him to the effect that Saintship is higher than Prophecy,
he means only what we have just said. Likewise, if he says that the
saint is superior to the prophet and the apostle, he means only that
this is so within one person. This is because the apostle, in his Saint-
ship, is more perfect than he is as a prophet or an apostle. It does not
mean that any saint coming after him is higher than he, since one
who follows cannot attain to the one who is followed, as regards that
which he follows in him. Were he indeed to affect such a position, he
would no longer be a follower; so understand. The Apostleship and
Prophecy stem from Saintship and learning. Consider how God com¬
mands him to seek an increase in knowledge, rather than anything
else, saying, Say: my Lord , increase me in knowledge ,

Now the law imposes certain obligations to perform some things

and forbids certain other things, all of which apply to this world,
which will come to an end. Saintship, on the other hand, is not of that
kind, since, were it to come to an end, it would end as such, as does
the Apostleship. Indeed, were it to end in this way it would cease to
have a name. The friend [saint] is a name that is God’s eternally, as
also one that attaches to, is characteristic of, and is realized in His ser¬
vants. Related to this is His saying to Ezra that unless he desisted
from asking about the nature of Destiny, He would erase his name
from the register of Prophecy, that the command would come to him
as a manifested revelation, that he might no longer be called a proph¬
et or an apostle, but that he would continue in his Saintship. When,
however, the attendant circumstances of his state indicated to him
that the [divine] address to him was in the form of a warning, he, ex¬
periencing that state and heeding the warning, realized that it was a
threat to deprive him of certain degrees of Saintship in this world,
since Prophecy and Apostleship constitute certain degrees of Saint¬
ship. Thus, he might know that he was superior to the saint who has
no legislating Prophecy or Apostleship. In the case of someone asso¬
ciated with some other state also requiring the rank of prophecy, it
would have come as a promise and not a threat.

His request is in fact acceptable since the prophet is a special

kind of saint who knows by the circumstances of his state that it
would be absurd for a prophet, having this special degree of Saint-
ship, to approach what he knows God would not approve of, or to ad¬
dress himself to something impossible to attain. In the case of one
associated with such states and in whom they are well established,
His words, “I will surely erase your name from the register of proph¬
ecy,” come forth as a threat that clearly indicates the sublimity of an
eternal degree [of Saintship], which is that degree which remains to
the prophets and apostles in the Hereafter where there is no occasion
for lawgiving to any of God’s creation once they have entered either
into Paradise, or into the Fire. I have restricted discussion on this
point to entry into the two states of Paradise and the Fire because of
what He has ordained, on the Day of Resurrection, for those who
lived between periods of revelation, for young children and the in¬
sane, all of whom He will gather in a particular place, there to do jus¬
tice, to punish wrongdoing and to reward the good deeds of the
people of Paradise. When they have been gathered, apart from other
men, into that place, He will send the best one of them as a prophet
to the others to present a fire to them and say, “I am the messenger
of the Reality to you.” Some of them will then believe in him, while
others will reject him. Then he will say to them, “Cast yourselves
into this fire, for whichever of you obeys me will be saved and will
enter the Garden, but whoever disobeys me and opposes my com¬
mand will perish and become dwellers in the Fire.” Then, those who
obey him and throw themselves into the fire will be blessed and gain
their reward, finding the fire cool and safe, while those who disobey
him will be worthy of punishment and will enter the fire, descending
into it with their contentious deeds, so that justice might be done by
God upon His servants.

Thus He says, On the day when the leg will be uncovered , which
indicates an important matter concerning the Hereafter, they will be
summoned to prostrate themselves , which denotes obligation and leg¬
islation. Some of them will be able to do it, while others will not. Of
the latter God has said, They will be summoned to prostrate themselves ,
and they will not he able to do it, just as certain servants found them¬
selves unable to comply with God's command, like Abu Jahl and oth¬
ers This much legislation will remain in the Hereafter on the Day
of Resurrection before the entry into Paradise and the Fire. We have
therefore restricted our treatment of this subject. Praise be to God.

CHAPTER XV

THE WISDOM OF PROPHECY

IN THE WORD OF JESUS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The greater part of this chapter is concerned with the various

modes and manifestations of the Spirit [ rub ] and the way it is impart¬
ed to matter and form. In particular, it is concerned with the role of
the Spirit in the creation of Jesus and also his powers of revival.

So far, in this work, Ibn al-‘ArabT has spoken in terms of the

Breath of the Merciful when discussing the creative act, described as
a movement of relief from inner pressure within the Reality, the ex¬
pression of which brings about the existence of the created Cosmos.
However, in discussing the nature and activity of the Spirit here, he
is concerned with more particular aspects of that spontaneous act of
creative expiration. The two most important words he uses in this
context are ruh [spirit] and nafakha [to blow]. In relation to the pri¬
mordial Breath [nafas], the former is its content, while the latter de¬
scribes a mode of its operation. The Spirit, the root meaning of
which, in Arabic, is closely related in meaning to the root nafasa,
clearly denotes the living reality of God, His living consciousness,
which as the active pole inflates, inseminates, irradiates, and informs
the dark passivity of primal substance, of original Nature. Thus, it is
also clear from Ibn al ‘Arabis treatment of the subject that the con¬
cepts of breath-blowing, seed-impregnation, light-radiation, and
word-enunciation are very closely related in his mind, as they are in
the spiritual lore of most religious traditions. It is probably the last
of these related concepts, word-inform, that provides a clue to the ti¬
tle of this chapter, since the word for Prophecy in Arabic [nubuwwah]
comes from the root naba'a , which means “to inform,” a prophet
[nabl] being a particular and special receptacle for the divine Word,
just as, in a more universal sense, the whole Cosmos [‘ alam] is “in¬
formed” [created] by the divine Spirit, its multiple forms constituting
clues [aHam] from which the “intelligent ones” might learn [Him] the
truth.
The concept of Spirit—like its other complement, the soul,
which is its passive and experiential pole—is complicated by the fact
that its manifestation differs according to the existential level at
which it is being considered. Thus, the Spirit, at its source, is thought
of as pure light, while at the physical level it is manifest as the fire
and heat of cosmic life, representing, as it does, the pulse of life-re¬
ality, the expression of Being, at every level of the divine creation-
Self-manifestation. At source, it is pure Identity-consciousness, but as
it reaches out further and further it is experienced as commanding
Word and impregnating seed.

As elsewhere in this work, Ibn al-‘ArabI speaks of the relation¬

ship between the Spirit and Nature as being, so to speak, a parental
relationship on a macrocosmic scale in which the Spirit is the Father
and Nature the Mother. While the former is viewed as active, lumi¬
nous, and commanding, the latter is thought of as passive, dark, and
receptive, that primordial matrix which is ever ready to receive the
determining impress of the Spirit. Sometimes this relationship is ex¬
pressed in terms of the Universal Intellect and the Universal Soul or,
in more qur'anic terms, the Pen and the Tablet. Perhaps the best way
to explain the difference between Nature and the Soul on the one
hand and between Spirit and the Intellect on the other is that the first
term in both cases is ontological, while the second term is experien¬
tial. Thus, while Nature may be said to be the reality of passive re¬
ceptivity, the Soul denotes rather the experience of that reality;
similarly, while the Spirit denotes the reality of active truth, the In¬
tellect may be seen as the consciousness of being that reality. Thus,
within the context of creation and Self-manifestation, we have yet an¬
other expression of the polarity subject-object, and their mutual de¬
pendence.

In the human or microcosmic context, Ibn al-‘Arab! illustrates a

particular and special instance of this relationship in the case of Jesus,
who is the product of both Mary, who personifies the “water” of Na¬
ture, and Gabriel, who represents by his blowing the seed-word of
the Spirit. The creation of Jesus is a special case in that, unlike most
men, the Spirit impregnated Mary not through the loins of a mortal
man but directly by the angelic instrument, as in the case of revela¬
tion to Jesus himself as a prophet of God. His Prophecy, however, or
“being informed” by the divine Word, was not only verbal but also
vital, in that the spiritual “blowing” of which he was a channel trans¬
mits the divine Command in all its modes. Thus, by virtue of the di¬
rect means of his being begotten, Jesus was able to communicate the
divine Spirit not only verbally, but also vitally, since the Spirit en¬
livens at every level.

Thus, Jesus was, in a special way, what every man is potentially,

that is to say, a spirit enshrined within natural form, which is nothing
other than the Spirit enshrined within His Nature. Throughout the
chapter, Ibn al-‘ArabI is concerned, as always, to explain the paradox
of “He” and “other than He,” to try to make clear in what sense Je¬
sus, or for that matter anything, is himself rather than Himself, or to
what extent it is Jesus himself or God Himself who speaks and re¬
vives. This, of course, is the question of the underlying and constant¬
ly recurring theme of the Oneness of Being, the essence of which the
author finds himself unable to explain satisfactorily because of the in¬
herent polarization of language.

THE WISDOM OF PROPHECY

IN THE WORD OF JESUS

From the water of Mary or from the breath of Gabriel,

In the form of a mortal fashioned of clay,

The Spirit came into existence in an essence

Purged of Nature’s taint, which is called Sijjin.

Because of this, his sojourn was prolonged,

Enduring, by decree, more than a thousand years.

A spirit from none other than God,

So that he might raise the dead and bring forth birds from
clay.

And became worthy to be associated with his Lord,

By which he exerted great influence, both high and low.

God purified him in body and made him transcendent

In the Spirit, making him like Himself in creating.

Know that it is a particular characteristic of the spirits that ev¬

erything on which they descend becomes alive, and life begins to per¬
vade it. Thus did al-SamirT arrogate [to himself] some of the influence
of the messenger Gabriel, who is a spirit. When he realized that it
was Gabriel, and knowing that all he touched would come alive, al-
SamirT snatched some of it (his power), either with his hand or with
his fingertips. Then he transferred it to the [golden] calf, so that it
bellowed, which is the sound cattle make. Had he fashioned it in some
other form, it would have made the appropriate sound, such as the
grumbling of the camel, the bleating of lambs and sheep, or the ar¬
ticulate speech of man.

Now the measure of life that pervades a creature is called divine,

humanity being [preeminently] the locus in which the Spirit inheres.
Thus humanity is called a spirit by virtue of that which inheres in
it.

When the trusty spirit, which was Gabriel, presented itself to

Mary as a perfectly formed human, she imagined that he was some
ordinary man who desired to lie with her. Accordingly, she sought
refuge from him in God, totally, so that He might rid her of his at¬
tentions, knowing that to be forbidden. Thus she attained to per¬
fect presence with God, which is the [pervasion of] the unseen spirit.
Had he blown [his spirit] into her at that moment, Jesus would have
turned out too surly for any to bear, because of his mother’s state.
When he said to her, / am only a messenger of your Lord, come to give
you a pure boy , her anxiety subsided and she relaxed. It was at that
moment that he blew Jesus into her.

Gabriel was, in fact, transmitting God’s word to Mary, just as an

apostle transmits His word to his community. God says, He is His
word deposited with Mary, and a spirit from Himself

Thus did desire pervade Mary. The body of Jesus was created
from the actual water of Mary and the notional water [seed] of Ga¬
briel inherent in the moisture of that blowing, since breath from the
vital body is moist owing to the element of water in it. In this way
the body of Jesus was brought into being from a notional and an ac¬
tual water, appearing in mortal form because of his mother’s [being
human] and the appearance of Gabriel in human form, since all cre¬
ation in this human species occurs in the usual way.

Jesus came forth raising the dead because he was a divine spirit.
In this the quickening was of God, while the blowing itself came
from Jesus, just as the blowing was from Gabriel, while the Word was
of God. As regards what was made apparent by his blowing, Jesus’
raising of the dead was an actual bringing to life, just as he himself
became manifest from the form of his mother. His raising of the dead,
however, was also notional, as coming from him, since, in truth, it
came from God. Thus he combines both [the notional and the actual]
by the reality according to which he was created, seeing, as we have
said, that he was created of notional and actual water. Thus, bringing
the dead to life was attributed to him both actually and notionally.
Concerning the former, it is said of him, And He revives the dead,
while of the latter, You will breathe into it [the clay ] and it will become
a bird by God's leave. * Now that which relates to the words by God's
leave is it will become and not you will breathe. The words you will blow
may be considered to relate to them [by God's leave ] if it means that
it will become a bird in a sensible, corporeal form. The same is the
case with His saying, You will cure the blind and the leprous , and every¬
thing else attributed to him and to God’s permission, as also by allu¬
sion, such as His saying By My permission and By God's
permission. * If the word permission is connected with You will blow
into * then the one who blows is permitted to blow, so that the bird
comes into being through the one blowing, but by God’s permission.
If the one blowing does so without permission, then the coming into
being of the bird is by His permission, in which case the word per¬
mission is related to the words it will become. * Were it not for the fact
that actuality and hypothesis are both present in the matter, the [re¬
sulting] form would not possess these two aspects, which it has be¬
cause the makeup of Jesus effects it.

The humility of Jesus was such that his community was com¬
manded that they should pay the poll-tax completely , humbling them¬
selves * that if any one of them were struck on one cheek, he should
offer also the other, and that he should not hit back or seek retribu¬
tion. This aspect [of his teaching] derives from his mother, since
woman is lowly and humble, being under the man, both theoretically
and physically. His powers of revival, on the other hand, derive from
the blowing of Gabriel in human form, since Jesus revived the dead
in human form. Had Gabriel not come in human form, but in some
other, whether animal, plant or mineral, Jesus would have been able
to quicken the dead only by taking that form to himself and appear¬
ing in it. Similarly, had Gabriel appeared in a luminous, incorporeal
form, not going beyond his nature, Jesus would not have been able
to revive the dead without first appearing in that luminous natural
form, and not in the elemental human form deriving from his moth¬
er.

It used to be said of him, when he revived the dead, “It is he and

yet not he.” Both the sight of the observer and the mind of the in¬
telligent man were confused at seeing a mortal man bring the dead
to life, rationally as well as physically, which is a divine prerogative.
The spectator would be utterly bewildered to see a mortal man per¬
forming divine acts.

This matter has led certain people to speak of incarnation and to

say that, in reviving the dead, he is God. Therefore, they are called
unbelievers [concealers], being a form of concealment, since they con¬
ceal God, Who in reality revives the dead, in the human form of Jesus.
He has said, They are concealers [ unbelievers] who say that God is the Mes¬
siah\ son of Mary. The real error and unbelief in the full sense of the
word is not in their saying “He is God” nor “the son of Mary,” but
in their having turned aside from God by including [God in human
form] in the matter of reviving the dead, in favor of a merely mortal
form in their saying [He is] the son of Mary , albeit that he is the son
of Mary without doubt. Hearing them, one might think that they at¬
tributed divinity to the form, making it the form itself, but that is not
the case, having in fact asserted that the divine Identity is the subject
in the human form, which was the son of Mary, Thus they distin¬
guished between the form and its determination, but did not make
the form the same as the determining principle. In the same way, Ga¬
briel was in mortal form [at first] without blowing [into Mary]; then
he blew [into her]. Thus the blowing is distinguished from the form,
since, although it derives from the form, it is not of its essence. So do
the various sects quarrel concerning the nature of Jesus.

Considered in his [particular] mortal form, one might say that he

is the son of Mary. Considered in his form of humanity, one might
say that he is of Gabriel, while considered with respect to the revival
of the dead, one might say that he is of God as Spirit. Thus one might
call him the Spirit of God, which is to say that life is manifest into
whomsoever he blows. Sometimes it might be imagined, using the
passive participle, that God is in him, sometimes that an angel is in
him, and at other times mortality and humanity. He is indeed accord¬
ing to that aspect [of his reality] which predominates in the one who
considers him.

Thus he is [at once] the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the
slave of God, and such a [triple] manifestation in sensible form be¬
longs to no other. Every other man is attributed to his formal father,
not to the one who blows His Spirit into human form. God, when He
perfected the human body, as He says, When I perfected him , blew
into him of His spirit, attributing all spirit in man’s being and essence
to Himself. The case of Jesus is otherwise, since the perfection of his
body and human form was included in the blowing of the spirit [by
Gabriel into Mary], which is not so of other men. All creatures are
indeed words of God, which are inexhaustible, stemming as they do
from [the command] Be , which is the Word of God. Now, can the
Word be attributed to God as He is in Himself, so that its nature may
never be known, or can God descend to the form of him who says Be ,
so that the word Be may be said to be the reality of the form to which
He descends and in which He is manifest? Some gnostics support the
former, some the latter, while others are confused and do not know
what is the truth of the matter.

This matter is one that can be known only by direct experience,

as with Abu YazTd al-Bistaml when he blew on an ant he had killed
and it came alive again. At that very moment he knew Who it was
that blew, so he blew [into it]. In that respect he was like Jesus.

As for revival by knowledge from spiritual death, it is that eter¬

nal, sublime, and luminous divine life of which God says, Who was
dead and We made him alive again , and for whom We made a light where¬
with to walk among men. Anyone who revives a dead soul with the
life of knowledge relating to some truth about God has thereby
brought him to life, so that he has a light by which to walk among
men; that is to say those that are formed like him.

But for Him and but for us,

That which has become would not be.

We are servants in very truth,

And it is God Who is our master.

But we are of His very essence, so understand,

When I say “man”

And do not be deceived by (the term) “man,”

For He has given you a proof.

Be divine (in essence) and be a creature (in form),

And you will be, by God, a compassionate one.

We have given Him what is manifest in us through Him,

As He has given to us also.

The whole affair is shared, divided,

Between Him and us.

He Who knows by my heart

Revived it when He gave us life.

In Him we were existences, essences,

And instances of time.

In us it is not permanent,

But only intermittent. (But it gives us life).

A corroboration of what we have said regarding the coming to¬

gether of the spiritual blowing with the elemental mortal form is that
the Reality describes Himself as the Merciful Breath, and that all that
attaches to an attribute, in the case of something described, should ad-
here to that attribute. You know that the breath in one breathing is
all that it needs to be. Therefore, the Divine Breath is receptive to
cosmic forms, in relation to which it is like the Primordial Substance,
being very Nature Herself.

The elements are a form of Nature, just as that which is above

them and what they generate, which is the sublime spirits that are
above the seven heavens.

As for the spirits of the seven heavens and their essences, deriv¬
ing as they do from the smoke they [the elements] generate, they,
as also the angels, which come into being from each heaven, are el¬
emental. These angels are elemental, while the ones above them are
of Nature. It is for this reason that God has described them, that is
the heavenly host, as being in conflict, Nature itself being self-con¬
tradictory. Indeed it is the Breath that has brought about the mutual
conflict among the divine Names, which are relationships. Consider,
however, how the divine Essence, which is beyond this regime [of
conflict], is characterized by [utter] Self-sufficiency, beyond all need
of the Cosmos. Because of this the Cosmos has been set forth in the
form of its Creator, which is nothing other than the divine Breath.
To the extent that it is hot, it is high, while to the extent that it is
cold and moist, it is low. According as it is dry, it is fixed and does
not move, since precipitation relates to cold and moisture. Consider
how the physician, when he wishes to prescribe a potion for a patient,
looks first at the sedentation of the urine. When he sees that it is pre¬
cipitating he knows maturation is complete and prescribes the medi¬
cine to accelerate the cure. It only precipitates because of its natural
moisture and coldness.

God kneads this human clay in His two hands, which, although
both are right hands, are nevertheless in opposition. There is no con¬
cealing the difference between them, even if it be only that they are
two [separate] hands, since naught influences Nature except what
conforms to her, and she is polarized; so He came forth with two
hands. When He created him [Adam] with two hands He called him
bashar [mortal, human] because of the direct connection [ mubasharah]
suggested by the two hands ascribed to Him. This He did out of
concern for this humankind, saying to the one who refused to pros¬
trate himself before him, What restrains you from prostrating before him
whom I have created with My two hands; are you too proud [to do jo] —that
is, before one who is elemental like yourself, or are you one of the sub¬
lime ones? By the epithet sublime He means one who, in his lumi¬
nous makeup, is beyond the elements, although he is natural. Man’s
only superiority over other creatures is in his being a bashar [mortal,
human], for [in this respect] he is superior to all things created with¬
out that direct connection [ mubasharah ] [with the Divine Presence].
Thus man ranks above the terrestrial and celestial angels, while God
has stipulated that the sublime (higher) angels are superior to man¬
kind.

Whoever wishes to know the divine Breath, then let him [first]
know the Cosmos, for “Who knows himself, knows his Lord,” Who
is manifest in him. l*n other words, the Cosmos is manifested in the
divine Breath by which God relieved the divine Names from the dis¬
tress they experienced by the nonmanifestation of their effects. Thus
He bestows favor on Himself by what He creates in His breath. In¬
deed, the first effect of the Breath is experienced only in the divine
Presence, after which it continues its descent by a universal [process
of] release, down to the last thing to be created.

All is essentially in the Breath,

As light is, in essence, in the dark before dawn.

Knowledge [of this] by [intellectual] proof

Is like the emergence of daylight to one half asleep.

He perceives what we speak of,

In a way that gives him a clue to the Breath.

What I say relieves him of anxiety,

As he recites the chapter, He Frowned

It manifests itself to him who

Comes seeking a coal [from its fire].

He sees it as fire, but it is

A light to kings and nightfarers.

When you understand what I am saying,

You will know that you are indigent.

Had he [Moses] sought other than that [a fire],

He would have seen it in it, and not inversely.

When the Reality addressed Himself to this Word of Jesus in the

station of until We know although He knows [well], He asked him
whether it was true or not that certain things had been attributed to
Him, knowing full well what had transpired, saying, Did you say to
the people, “Take me and my mother as gods rather than God ?' Now
courtesy requires that the questioner be given an answer, since when
He reveals Himself to him in this station and this form, wisdom dic¬
tates that the answer be given from the standpoint of distinction [be¬
tween speaker and the one spoken to], but with the reality of
synthesis clearly in view. Jesus replied, emphasizing the divine tran¬
scendence, May You be exalted , stressing the You, a word that im¬
plies encounter and dialogue. It is not for me, that is, for me rather
than You, to say what I have no right to say, that is, what my identity
[might] require, but not my [latent] essence. If, indeed, I said such a
thing, You know of it, because You are the [true] speaker, and one who
utters a statement knows what he is saying. You, therefore, are the
tongue by which I speak; as the Apostle has told us of his Lord, with
respect to divine communication, “I am his tongue by which he
speaks .” Thus does He make His Identity the same as the tongue
of the speaker, attributing the speech to the servant. Then His devot¬
ed servant completes the reply, saying, You know what is in my soul ,
the speaker being [in essence] God, but I do not know what is in it [as
form ] He denies knowledge to Jesus in his own identity, but not
as speaker or as possessor of [creative] effect. Then he says Surely
You, * using a reinforcing pronoun to emphasize and confirm the
following declaration, seeing that none knows the Unseen except
God.

Thus [in his reply] he distinguishes and synthesizes, singularizes

and pluralizes, broadens and narrows. Then he says, completing the
answer, I told them only what You commanded me to say so indicating
by denial that it was he [who said it]. The uttering [of the reply] re¬
quires a certain courtesy toward the enquirer. Had he not answered
at all, he would have been considered devoid of all knowledge of the
realities, which is, of course, quite untrue of him. His saying only
what You commanded me to say is as if to say, “You are the speaker
on my tongue, and you are [in truth] my very tongue.” Consider then
how precise and subtle is this divine and spiritual intimation.

[So I said], Worship God. He uses the name Allah because of the
variety of worshipers in their acts of worship and the different reli¬
gious traditions. He does not use one of the particular names, but
rather that Name which includes them all. Then he goes on to say,
My Lord and your Lord since it is certain that His relationship with
one creature, as Lord, is not the same as with another. For that reason
he makes the distinction between My Lord and your Lord , referring
separately to the speaker and the one spoken to.

When he says, only what You commanded me to say he lays the

stress on himself as being commanded, which is his servanthood,
since a command is only given to one who, it is supposed, will com¬
ply, whether he does so or not. Since the command descends accord¬
ing to the regime of ranks, everything manifested in a particular rank
is affected by what is afforded it by the reality of that rank. The rank
of the “ordered” has a regimen that is apparent in everything or¬
dered, just as the rank of commanding has a regimen apparent in ev¬
eryone who commands. When God says, Establish prayer, He is [at
once] the Commander, the one who obliges, and the commanded.
When the servant prays, my Lord , forgive meP he is the command¬
er, while the Reality is the commanded, for what God requires of His
servant by His command is the same as that which the servant re¬
quires of the Reality by his command. For this reason [one might say]
that every supplication is inevitably responded to, even if it be de¬
layed. For instance, certain people under obligation, when command¬
ed to pray, might not pray at that time, but postpone compliance by
praying at another time, although they are quite capable of praying
at the time. Thus, response is inevitable, even if only by intention.
Then he says, lam , concerning them , not concerning myself together
with them, as when he said, My Lord and your Lord , a witness so long
as I remain with them. This is because the prophets bear witness con¬
cerning their communities while they are with them.

He continued, And when You caused me to die y that is, when You
raised me to Yourself, hiding them from me and me from them, You
were the watcher over them , not in my material substance, but in theirs,
since You were their sight, which required supervision. Man’s con¬
sciousness of himself is indeed God’s consciousness of him, but he [Je¬
sus] has attributed this consciousness to the name, the Watcher,
referring the consciousness to Him. He wishes thereby to distinguish
between himself and his Lord, so that he may know that he is himself
a servant, and that God is Himself as his Lord, considering himself
as witness and God as the Watcher. Thus, in relation to himself, Jesus
puts his people first, saying, concerning them a witness , while I am with
them , preferring them out of courtesy. He places them last, how¬
ever, when speaking of God in saying, the Watcher over them , since the
Lord is deserving of precedence.

Then he shows that God, the Watcher, bears also the name that
he used of himself when he said concerning them a witness. He says, You
are the Witness of every thing , the word “every” denoting generality
and the word “thing” being the most unspecific of words. That is be¬
cause He is the witness of everything that is witnessed, according as
the reality of that thing dictates, so showing that it is, in fact, God
Who is the witness concerning the people of Jesus in his saying, I was
a witness concerning them while I was with them. This is the witnessing
of God in the substance of Jesus, having confirmed that He was his
tongue, hearing, and sight.

God speaks of a word of Jesus and a word of Muhammad. As for

it being of Jesus, it is because it is the utterance by Jesus of God’s
communication concerning him in His Book. As for its being of Mu¬
hammad, it is because it happened to Muhammad in a particular
place. He spent a whole night repeating it and nothing else, until the
breaking of dawn.

If You chastise them , then they are Your servants , but if You forgive
them , then You are the Mighty , the Wise. The word “them,” as also the
word “he,” is a pronoun of absence. He also says, It is they who dis¬
believe ’, using the third person pronoun, the absence veiling them
from what is meant [by the gnostics] by “the witnessed One Who is
present.” He says, If You chastise them, with the pronoun of absence,
which is naught but the veil that hides them from God. He therefore
reminds them of God before their presence [on the Last Day], so that
when they are present, the leaven may gain control in the dough and
make it like Itself. For they are Your servants* using the singular pro¬
noun because of the unity by which they exist.

There is no abasement greater than that of slaves, seeing they

have no freedom of action with respect to themselves. Their lot is de¬
termined by what their Master wants with them, and He has no as¬
sociate in what concerns them; as He says, Your servants , with the
singular pronoun. By chastisement is meant their abasement, and
there is none more abased than they because they are slaves. That
they are abased is determined by their essences.

He means “You do not abase them any more than their state of
servitude requires.” If You forgive them, that is, if you shield them
from the befalling of punishment they deserve by their contention,
or make a covering for them to shield them from it and avert it from
them, You are the Mighty, the Averter, the Protector. When God
bestows this name on one of His servants, He Himself is called the
Strengthener [al-muHzz], while the recipient is called the mighty [al-
aziz]. Thus God, as Protector, guards against the wishes of God the
Avenger, the Chastiser. Here also He uses a reinforcing pronoun to
make things clear, the verse being of the same kind as His saying,
Surely You are the knower of the unseen things, and Surely You were the
Watcher over them He also says, Surely You are the Mighty, the
Wise.

The words [// You chastise them ... if You forgive them ] became an
urgent question for the Prophet Muhammad, which he repeated all
night until daybreak, seeking an answer. Had he received the answer
immediately, he would not have gone on repeating the question. God,
for His part, set out for him, in detail, all the reasons for their being
punished, and at each one he would say to God, If You chastise them ,
then they are Your servants , but if You forgive them , then surely You are
the Mighty , the Wise. Had he perceived, in what was set forth to
him, any reason to take God’s side, he would have pleaded against
them rather than for them. God set forth to him what they deserved,
to emphasize the submission to God and the exposure to His forgive¬
ness set out in this verse.

It is said that when God likes the voice of His servant in his sup¬
plication to Him, He postpones the response, so that he might repeat
it, not out of any aversion, but out of love for him. So He is called
the Wise, and the Wise One is He Who apportions things to their
proper places and does not deviate, concerning them, from what their
realities, through their attributes, dictate and require, Thus the
phrase, the Wise, the Knowing, is in the proper order, which the
Prophet reiterates in accordance with a profound knowledge from
God, Most High. Whoever recites it should do so in this manner, or
remain appropriately silent.

When God befits a servant to give expression to some matter, He

does so only that He might respond to him and fulfill his need.
Therefore let no one think that what he has been made fit for is late
in coming. Let him rather emulate the zeal of God’s Apostle, in re¬
spect of this verse, in all his states, so that he may hear with his inner
or outer hearing, or in whatever way God may cause him to hear His
response. If God blesses you with a physically expressed request, He
will cause you to hear His response with the physical ear, but if He
blesses you with an inner request, then He will cause you to hear His
response inwardly.

CHAPTER XVI

THE WISDOM OF COMPASSION

IN THE WORD OF SOLOMON

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Once again, in this chapter, Ibn al-‘ArabT returns to one of his fa¬
vorite subjects, that of the divine Mercy. Generally speaking, when
he talks of the divine Mercy, he means the creative Mercy that gen¬
erously and infinitely bestows existence on the latent essences in an¬
swer to the desire for divine Self-consciousness. Here, however, he
points out that Mercy is implicit not only in the act of cosmic cre¬
ation but also in the annihilating reversal of that act, which would re¬
store all being to God alone. The first Mercy directs God’s attention
[himmah] to the creation and maintenance of His cosmic image, while
the second Mercy refocuses all that attention on Himself, alone, in
His perfect uniqueness and Self-sufficiency. By the first He freely
gives of His power and consciousness in response to the urge of the
latent essences to realize in existence what they are eternally predis¬
posed to become. By the second He rigorously obliges the Cosmos to
recognize that, in itself, it is nothing other than He and to yield its
being back to its sources in Him. Thus, the second kind of Mercy is
essentially synonymous with the divine Wrath, while the first is es¬
sentially the same as the divine Good Pleasure. It is wrathful in the
sense that it seeks to annihilate the existence of creatures and inflict
on them the pain of being, after all, “nothing worth mentioning.”

From another standpoint, the first Mercy is related to the concept of

the divine Will, while the second is related to the divine Wish, the
former being concerned purely with existential becoming, while the
latter seeks to encourage the reawakening from the dream of cosmic
existence to a clearer consciousness of His sole right to be. However,
in keeping with the Qur'an [VII: ] and Tradition, Ibn aLArabl
points out that the second Mercy is contained within and subordinate
to the first, so confirming the continuance of the polarity God-Cos¬
mos, but only within the context of the Oneness of the Reality, since
the Cosmos is but Its form.

The other major subject discussed here is that of dominion or

mastery. We have seen that each prophet is seen as a particular chan¬
nel for the transmission of the divine Spirit, which initiates, enlivens,
and determines. Thus, just as Jesus was favored with the spiritual
power to revive, so was Solomon favored with the spiritual power to
effect changes in the way physical and elemental things behaved, in
addition to the usual verbal revelation. Many of the prophets, there¬
fore, transmit not only the Word of God as usually understood but
also some other aspect or mode of the creative and determining pow¬
er of the Spirit. In the case of Solomon, Ibn al- ArabI is saying that
he was granted, without the need for special disciplines, and partic¬
ularly for himself, the power to master and direct physical and ele¬
mental forms.

The other important subject dealt with in this chapter is that of

the concept of creation from instant to instant, which we have dis¬
cussed in the note to Chapter .

THE WISDOM OF COMPASSION

IN THE WORD OF SOLOMON

It , meaning the letter, is from Solomon , . . . and it , that is, the con¬
tents of the letter, are in the name of God , the Compassionate , the Mer¬
ciful. Some have supposed that the name of Solomon is here given
precedence over the name of God, but this is not so. They speak of
it in a way that is not consonant with Solomon’s gnosis of his Lord.
Indeed, how could what they say be appropriate in view of what
Bilqls says of it, I have been sent a respectful letter, that is, respectful
to her. Perhaps they are prompted to say such things because Chos-
roes tore up the letter of the Apostle of God, although he did not do
so until he had read the letter and acquainted himself with its con¬
tents. Indeed Bilqls would have done the same, had she not been fit¬
ted for grace as she was, nor would the placing of his name before
or after the name of God have saved the letter from destruction.

Solomon mentions two kinds of Mercy, the mercy of unobligat¬

ing giving and the mercy of binding obligation, which are the Com¬
passionate and the Merciful. As the Compassionate He gives freely,
while as the Merciful He binds by obligation, although the latter pro¬
ceeds from the former, the Merciful being implicit within the Com¬
passionate. God has prescribed Mercy on Himself for his servant in
return for the acts performed by the servant, which are mentioned by
God, as a right God has imposed on Himself, so that by those acts the
servant might be deserving of His Mercy, that is the mercy of obli¬
gation. Servants of this kind know well what part of themselves is the
doer of the action, since human action is divided among eight mem¬
bers. Now God has shown that He is [in reality] the identity of each
of the members, so that He is the only true agent, the form alone be¬
longing to the servant. This identity is implicit in him, that is in his
name [of servant] alone, since God is the essence of what is manifest
and what is called creature, by which the names the Outer and the
Last may accrue to the servant, seeing that he was not and then ex¬
isted. Similarly, the names the Inner and the First are His because his
being manifest and his acting are dependent on Him. Thus, when
you see a creature, you are seeing the First and the Last, the Outer
and the Inner.

Solomon was by no means unaware of this knowledge, which

was indeed an integral part of that “dominion” accorded to no one
after him, at least in its sensory manifestation. Muhammad was
granted what was granted to Solomon, but it was not outwardly man¬
ifest. God gave Muhammad power over a demon that came to him by
night to destroy him. He siezed it and tied it to a pillar of the mosque
until morning, when the children of Madlnah played with it. He
had remembered the supplication of Solomon, and God had cast it
out, but whereas Solomon exercised that power outwardly, Muham¬
mad did not.

Solomon spoke of “a dominion” and not dominion as such, and

we know that he wished for some dominion. We also know that oth¬
ers shared with him in every aspect of the dominion God granted to
him, as we know that he was especially privileged in that he enjoyed
that dominion in its totality and, as shown by the tradition concern¬
ing the demon, that he alone exercised it outwardly.

Had Muhammad not said of the demon, “God caused me to get

the better of it,” we would have said that when he went to sieze
it, God caused him to remember the prayer of Solomon, so that he
might know that God was not giving him the power to sieze it, since
it was God Who cast it away. When he said that God had caused him
to get the better of it, we conclude that, having granted him a certain
freedom of action with it, God reminded him and he remembered the
prayer of Solomon, aquitting himself in a similar manner. From this
we may learn that what was denied to creatures after Solomon was
the manifestation [of the dominion] in a universal way. Our only aim
in discussing this point is to expound on the two kinds of Mercy that
Solomon mentioned in the two words, which in Arabic are al-rahman
and al-rahun.

God binds [restricts] the Mercy of obligation and unleashes the

Mercy of giving in His saying, My Mercy encompasses every thing ,
even the divine Names, which are the real relationships. Indeed He
bestows on them by us, since we are the result of the Mercy of giving
on the divine Names and dominical relationships. Then He made it
binding on Himself for us by our manifestation, and made us know
that He is our identity, from which we might know that [in truth] He
imposed it on Himself only for Himself, since the Mercy is never out¬
side Him. On whom, therefore, does He bestow, seeing that there is
only He? Despite the oneness of the [original] Essence, one must,
when speaking of the various capacities of creatures in the sciences,
express things in various details, so that one says that such a one is
more learned than another.

This means that the scope of the divine Wish [iradah] falls short
of the scope of the divine knowledge, which shows the comparative
nature of the divine Attributes, as with the superiority of the scope
of his Wish over His power; similarly with His hearing and sight.
Thus all the divine Names are graded according to their relative mer¬
its, one with another, as is also the case with what is manifest in cre¬
ation, so that one may say that such a one is more learned than
another, despite the oneness of the Essence. Just as, in emphasizing
a particular Name, one names it and describes it by all the Names,
such is also the case of a particular creature, in that it may be quali¬
fied by all the qualities with which it is normally compared. This is
because every part of the Cosmos is the totality of the Cosmos in that
it is receptive to the realities of the disparate aspects of the Cosmos.
Thus the fact that the Identity of God is the essence of Zaid and Amr
does not contradict our saying that Zaid is less learned than ‘Amr,
since the Identity is more perfect and knowing in ‘Amr than in Zaid,
the divine Names being nothing other than the Reality, however
much they may vary in merit. Thus, God as the Knower is more uni¬
versal in His scope than as He Who wishes or as the Powerful, albeit
He is Himself and none other.

So, O friend, do not know Him in one context and be ignorant

of Him in another, nor affirm Him in one situation and deny Him
in another, unless you affirm Him in an aspect in which He affirms
Himself and deny Him in an aspect in which He denies Himself, as
in the verse in which denial and affirmation of Himself are brought
together. He says, There is nothing like unto Him , which is a denial,
And He is the Hearer, the Seer, which is an affirmation of Himself
with attributes attributable to all living creatures that hear and see.
There is always some living creature in the world hidden from the
awareness of some men, which will be manifest in the Hereafter to
all men, it being the Abode of the Living, as is also this lower
world, although its life is hidden from certain servants, so that the
distinction and variety of degrees among God’s servants concerning
what they grasp of the realities of the Cosmos may be demonstrated.

The Reality is more evident in one whose awareness is universal

than in one who lacks such universality, so do not be deceived by the
manifest disparity [of created things] into gainsaying the one who as¬
serts that creation is [none other than] the Identity of the Reality. I
have just demonstrated the disparity among the Names of God,
which you do not doubt are the Reality, their significance being in
the One named by them, which is none other than God, Most High.

How then may Solomon give precedence to his name over the
Name of God, as they say he did, seeing that he is but a part of the
whole created by the divine Mercy? Surely The Compassionate , the Mer¬
ciful should have been put first to confirm the dependence of the one
who receives the Mercy. Indeed, the putting first of one who should
be last and the putting last of one who should be first in the position
he merits runs counter to all accepted realities.

In her wisdom and sublime knowledge, Bilqls does not mention

the person who sent her the letter, so that her advisers might know
that she was in touch with things the course of which they did not
perceive. This is the way of God in the matter of dominion, since if
the means of information coming to a ruler remain unknown to oth¬
ers, the people of the kingdom are very cautious in exercising their
free will and do not do so except in matters that have first been con¬
sidered for them by their ruler, thus being safe from the possible evil
consequences of such free action. Were it to be accorded to them by
the one by whom the ruler is informed, they would treat with him
and honor him until they could do what they wanted, and the ruler
would not hear of it.

She said A letter has been sent to me, without naming the sender,
as a matter of policy. She had inherited the awe of her people and
close advisors, and so merited precedence over them. As for the su¬
periority of human over demonic [jinn] learning concerning the mys¬
teries of disposition and the special nature of things, it may be known
from the measure of time, since the perception of the eye is quicker
than the action of one rising from his seat, the movement of the eye
in perceiving its object being more rapid than that of the body in
moving from its place. That is because the time it takes for perception
to take place is the same as it takes to reach its object, no matter what
the distance is between the perceiver and perceived, since it takes no
more time for the eye to open than for its sight to reach the fixed
stars, just as the closing of the eye takes no longer than the ceasing
of perception. The rising of a person is not the same and is not as rap¬
id. Thus Asaf Ibn Barkhiyah proved better in this respect than the
Jinn, since his utterance and his action took place in a single moment.
In that moment Solomon saw with his eye the throne of Bilqls firmly
set before him, lest he should imagine that he was seeing it while it
remained in its own place without being moved. We do not know of
instantaneous transference. Indeed the causing not to be and to be [of
the throne] happened in a way unknown to any but He Who apprised
us of it in His saying, Nay , they are confusion regarding a new cre¬
ation , although there was no lapse of time in which they did not
see what they were looking at. If it is as we have said, then the mo¬
ment of its disappearance from its place is the same as its presence
with Solomon, by virtue of the renewal of creation by breaths. No
one has any knowledge of this decree, indeed no one is aware of the
fact in himself that, with each breath, he is not and yet comes into
being again.

Therefore, do not say “then,” which implies a lapse of time, for

the word thumma in Arabic implies a process of cause and effect in
specific situations, as the poet says,

Like the quivering of the spear, then it shook.

Now the time of its quivering is the same as that of its shaking.
He says “then,” although there is no lapse of time. Similarly with the
renewal of creation by breaths, the moment of the nonexistence of a
thing is the very moment of the existence of its like, as with the re¬
newal of accidents according to the Ash‘arites.

The matter of the obtaining of the throne of Bilqls is no different

from most other [theological] questions, except for those who have in¬
ner knowledge of what we have said about it. Asaf s only merit in the
matter was that he effected the renewal in the court of Solomon. One
who truly understands what we have said will realize that the throne
covered no distance, that no land was folded up for it, nor was it pen¬
etrated. It happened by means of a follower of Solomon so that it
should be something greater for Solomon in the hearts of those pres¬
ent, than for Bilqls and her associates.

That was because Solomon was a gift from God to David, and He
says, And We gave to David Solomon. A gift is the bestowal of some¬
thing as a favor by the giver, not a token of agreement or reward.
Such a [divine] gift is the complete favor, the irrefutable argument,
and the unmistakeable stamp. Concerning his knowledge, He says,

And We caused Solomon to understand it , despite the contrary judg¬

ment [of David], although God granted them both judgment and
knowledge. David’s knowledge was an acquired knowledge grant¬
ed him [indirectly] by God, while Solomon’s knowledge was God’s
own knowledge on the matter, He being the judge [in the matter]
without intermediary, since Solomon was himself the exposition of
God, of perfect veracity. Likewise, one who strives and makes a right
decision in a matter in which God has ruled, whether it be by his own
effort or according to what God has inspired His Apostle, has two re¬
wards, while one who makes a mistaken decision has only one, the
former having used learning and judgment. Now this Community of
Muhammad has been granted the rank of both Solomon and David
in the matter of judgment. How fine a Community it is!

When BilqTs saw her throne, knowing the great distance involved
and the impossibility, in her view, of its being moved in such a short
time, she said, It is as if it were it , so confirming what we have said
concerning the renewal of creation by similars. It is it, and so con¬
firms the [divine] command, since you are, in the moment of recrea¬
tion, [essentially] the same as you were before it.

Solomon’s direction concerning the palace was characteristic of

the perfection of his knowledge. She was told, Enter the palace ,
which was paved in perfectly smooth glass. When she saw it she
thought it was a deep lake, so she bared her legs y S so that the water
should not reach her gown. He then explained to her that the seeing
of her throne was after the same manner, which did more than justice
to the matter. By that he showed her how right she had been in say¬
ing, It is as if it were it. Then she said, my Lord , surely I have
wronged my own soul , so I submit with Solomon , that is, the submission
of Solomon, to God y Lord of the worlds * She was yielding to God, the
Lord of the worlds, and not to Solomon himself, who is of the worlds.

She was not restricted in her yielding, no more than are the apos¬
tles in their belief in God, unlike Pharaoh who said, The Lord of Moses
and Aaron. Although Pharaoh shares to some extent in this yield¬
ing of BilqTs, his power was weak, and she had a greater understand¬
ing than he in her yielding to God. That is because Pharaoh was
subject to the pressure of the moment in saying, I believe in what the
Children of Israel believe in so specifying his belief. He did so only
because he heard the magicians say, concerning their faith in God,
The Lord of Moses and Aaron

The submission of BilqTs was the same as that of Solomon, seeing

that she said with Solomon following him in all the teachings he be¬
lieved in. In the same way, we are on the same Straight Path our Lord
is on, our forelocks being in His grasp, nor is it possible that we
should be separated from Him. We are with Him by implication and
He is with us by declaration, since He has said, He is with you wherever
you are We are with him by the fact that He has us by the forelock,
and He is with Himself wherever He may take us on His path, ev¬
erything in the Cosmos being on a straight path, which is the path
of the Lord. Thus BilqTs learned from Solomon and said to God , the
Lord of the worlds, without specifying any particular world.

As for the Power of subjugation by which Solomon was favored

and made superior to others, and the dominion God granted to him
and to none after him, [its significance lies in the fact] that it proceed¬
ed from him, as He says, We subjected to him the wind , so that it blew
at his command The matter of subjection alone is not the point,
since God has said, And He has subjected to you all that is in the Heaven
and the Earth , and He has mentioned the subjection of wind, stones,
and other things. The point is that these things occur not by our com¬
mand but by God’s. What singles Solomon out [from the rest of us],
if you will only understand, is that he could effect such things by per¬
sonal command alone, without the need for spiritual concentration or
the exertion of spiritual power. We say this because we know that
cosmic bodies are susceptible to the powers of souls raised to the sta-
tion of spiritual synthesis, having observed such things along the
Way. Solomon, however, had only to utter the command to whatever
he wished to subject, without the need for special states.

Know, may God assist both you and us with his Spirit, that such
a favor conferred on a servant does not affect any dominion he might
enjoy in the Hereafter, nor is it counted against him, although Sol¬
omon asked for it from His Lord. Experience of the Way requires
that Solomon should be given in advance what is held in store for oth¬
ers, who would be taken to task if they presumed to wish for it in the
Hereafter. God said to him, This is our favor , without saying “upon
you” or any other, going on to say, So give or withhold , without reck¬
oning. From spiritual experience on the Way we learn that his re¬
quest [for that] was made at the command of his Lord. Now when a
request is made by divine command, the one who requests is fully re¬
warded for his request.

The Creator fulfills the need implicit in what is requested, if He

so wills, or withholds it, since the servant has performed what God
obliged him to do in obeying His command regarding that which he
requested from his Lord. Had he made the request on his own ini¬
tiative rather than at his Lord’s command, He would have called him
to account for it. This is the case in everything requested of God, as
He said to our Prophet Muhammad, Say , my Lord , increase me in
knowledge Accordingly, he obeyed his Lord’s command and was
ever seeking more knowledge, so that when he was brought milk, he
would regard it as a symbol of knowledge. He once dreamed that he
had been given a bowl of milk, which he drank, giving what was left
to ‘Umar b. al-Khattab. On being asked how he interpreted it, he said
that he saw it as knowledge. Similarly, when he was taken on the
Night Journey, the angel brought him a vessel containing milk and
another wine. He drank the milk and the angel said to him, “You
have attained to the primordial state [of innate spirituality]; may God
bless your Community by you.” Thus, whenever milk appears [in
a vision], it is an image of knowledge, just as Gabriel presented him¬
self to Mary in the guise of a well-made man.

When Muhammad said, “All men are asleep and when they die
they will aw ake,” he meant that everything a man sees in this life
is of the same kind as that which one sleeping sees; in other words
an apparition that requires interpretation.

All becoming is an imagination,

And in truth also a reality.

Who truly comprehends this,

Has attained the mysteries of the Way.

Thus, when milk was offered to him he said, “God bless us by it and
give us increase of it!” because he saw it as an image of knowledge,
increase in w hich he had been commanded to seek. When something
other than milk w as offered, he would say, “O God, bless us by it and
feed us with w hat is better than it.” God, therefore, does not call
anyone to account in the Hereafter for what He has bestowed in an¬
swer to a commanded request. When, however, God bestows some¬
thing in answer to a request not commanded by Him, it is then for
God to call that servant to account or not, as He wishes. I particularly
hope, and especially concerning knowledge, that He will not call to
account, since His command to His Prophet to seek an increase in
know ledge applies equally to his Community. God has said, You have
in the Apostle of God an excellent exemplar , and what finer example
is there for one who learns of God than this following by Muhammad
[of God’s command]?

Had we expounded the station of Solomon completely you

would have encountered something awesome, for most of the learned
of this Order are ignorant of the station of Solomon, nor is the matter
as they claim it to be.
CHAPTER XVII

THE WISDOM OF BEING

IN THE WORD OF DAVID

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The prophet David, like all the prophets who feature in this
work, was the special and particular human context for some partic¬
ular aspect of divine Wisdom. In his case, it was the personal appoint¬
ment to the office of vicegerent, which function is, in a general sense,
shared potentially by all humankind. Man, for Islam in general and
Sufism in particular, is, as has already been mentioned in the Intro¬
duction, at once the slave and the appointed representative of God,
that unique microcosmic creation who reflects in his makeup both
the createdness of the Cosmos and the creativity of God, being of
both, yet being neither of them completely.

Man, as khatifah [vicegerent], must not fail in his divine steward¬

ship to remember \dhikr] always in Whose Name he acts and com¬
mands, being always in danger of the sin of self-deification or the
association of himself [shirk] with God, as a separate identity. As is
clear from this chapter, the office of vicegerent is of two kinds, the
one concerned with matters spiritual and divine, the other directed
to the ordering of the Cosmos, the one inner and universal, the other
outer and restricted to a particular religious heritage. The first kind
relates to that inner Wisdom, mentioned in the Qur'an, which impels
man to reaffirm his commitment to the uniqueness of the divine Idcn-
tity and to efface his own in the divine Oneness of Being. The second
is related to the revelation of Scripture that urges man to govern and
order the many and complex concerns of this world, which is the
kind with which David was personally invested, according to the
Qur'an [XXXVIII:], not indirectly by some human authority, as is
generally the case, but directly by God Himself.

The outer Yicegerency is granted only to certain prophets and

apostles or to their successors, whether by appointment, election, or
providence, apart from the general vicegerency implicit in all human
power and activity. The inner office is granted, often in a more direct
way, to certain saints who are appointed to be special transmitters of
spiritual power and authority. There is no doubt that, for Ibn al-
‘ArabT, the inner Yicegerency was the greater office and, in view of
his own special sense of spiritual mission, he probably considered
that he himself enjoyed this privilege. He is quick to point out, how¬
ever, that such a person would always, outwardly, conform to and
pay allegiance to the Tradition of the prophet or apostle under whose
dispensation he was living.

David, however, is the only individual appointed by name to this

office, and thus he enshrines in his life and person that particular
Wisdom of governance which is itself a mode of the revelation of the
Spirit in man.

The chapter ends with yet another discussion regarding the ten¬
sion between the divine Wish, as expressed in the Sacred Law, and
the existential Will, as manifested by what actually happens in the
Cosmos.

THE WISDOM OF BEING

IN THE WORD OF DAVID

Know that since Prophecy and Apostleship are a special divine

favor, there is no question of any aquisition [of merit]. I mean [par¬
ticularly] the legislative Prophecy. His favors to them in this respect
are pure gifts and not in any sense rewards for which any compen¬
sation will be asked of them, His bestowal on them being a matter of
favor and selection. He says, And We gave to him Isaac and Jacob ,
meaning to Abraham, the Friend. Of Job, He says, And We bestowed
on him his people and , with them , their like. * Of Moses He says, /iw*/
W *? gave him from our Mercy his brother Aaron , # prophet and other
similar examples.

They were invested from the beginning, and in all or most of

their states, by His name the Bestower. He says of David, We gave to
David , of Ourselves , bounty not linking it with any notion of a re¬
turn to be demanded of him, nor is there any suggestion that it was
granted as a reward or recompense. When God demands thanks, he
demands it of the people, nor does He omit to mention David, so that
the people might thank Him for what He has bestowed on David. In
David’s case it is the granting of a favor and a boon, while in the case
of his people a return is required, as He said, Give thanks y people of
David , for so few of my servants are thankful If the prophets gave
thanks to God for his favor and gifts to them, it was not something
required of them by God, but something that came voluntarily from
themselves, as when the Apostle stood until his legs became swollen,
giving thanks to God for forgiving him his early and later sins. When
someone spoke to him on the matter, he said, “Shall I not be a grate¬
ful servant?” God said of Noah, Indeed he was a grateful servant
albeit that few of God’s servants are so.

The first favor granted by God to David was that He gave him
a name, not one of the letters of which is a connecting letter, by
which he cut him off from the world and informed us about him by
his name alone, the letters being dal y alif and waw. He named Mu¬
hammad, on the other hand, with a name containing letters of con¬
nection and disconnection, by which He joined him to Himself and
separated him from the world, so combining in his name both states.
He did the same for David, but inwardly, not in his name. This is
what especially distinguishes Muhammad above David; I mean the in¬
formation concerning him by his name. In his case it is complete in
every respect, as in the name Ahmad, which is of God’s wisdom.

Concerning His favor on David, He also mentions the turning

back of the mountains and their exaltation. They exalted God because
of his exaltation, so that their action might conform with his. Simi¬
larly, in the case of the birds, God granted him power and attributed
it to him. He also granted him wisdom and the final say in affairs.
Finally, the greatest favor and degree by which God singled him out
was that He attributed the vicegerency specifically to him, which He
did not do for any other human, although there were regents among
them. He said, David , We have appointed you a vicegerent in the Earth,
so judge between men with truth and follow not caprice meaning any¬
thing other than My inspiration that comes to your mind in exercis¬
ing your judgment, Lest it cause you to err from the path of God, that
is, the way revealed to the apostles. Then He admonishes him, saying,
For those who stray from God's path will be a severe punishment, because
they have forgotten the day of reckoning . He does not say, “If you stray
from My way, you will be severely punished.”

Should it be pointed out that the vicegerency of Adam was also

specified, we reply that it was not as specific as David’s, since He said
only, I am going to put a vicegerent on the Earth , not, / am going to make
Adam a vicegerent in the Earth. bs Even if He had said it, it is not the
same as saying, We have made you a vicegerent, as in the case of Da¬
vid. While the latter statement is unambiguous, the former is not,
since no further mention is made of Adam, in what follows, to the
effect that it is he who is the vicegerent specified by God. Therefore,
consider carefully what God tells us of His servants.

Similarly, in the case of Abraham, the Friend, He says, lam going

to make you a leader [imam] of men , not a vicegerent. It might be the
case if we knew that leadership here means also vicegerency. It can¬
not be the same, however, because He does not specifically call it vice¬
gerency. A further specification of the vicegerency of David is that
it is a vicegerency of judgment, which comes only from God, when
He said, So judge between men with truth , whereas Adam’s vicegeren¬
cy was probably not of this rank. Adam's regency might have been
based on the fact that he had succeeded whoever was there before,
and not because he was God’s representative to His creation with the
divine power of judgment over them. If indeed he was, so be it, but
we are here concerned only with what is clearly specified.

God has, in the Earth, representatives appointed by Him, and

they are the apostles. As for the vicegerency at the present time, it
derives from the apostles and not from God [directly], since they
judge only by what the Apostle has laid down for them and no more
than that. There is here, however, a subtle point, which only people
like ourselves grasp, that concerns the deriving of criteria for judg¬
ment [directly] from what was laid down for the Apostle. The one
who derives his vicegerency from the Apostle arrives at his judg¬
ments from the Tradition of the Apostle or by his own effort, also in¬
spired by that Tradition. Among us, however, are those who derive
it [directly] from God, who are vicegerents appointed by God in the
same way and whose criteria come to them in the same way as to the
Apostle himself. Such people appear to follow the Apostle only be¬
cause their judgment in no way contradicts him, as will be the case
with Jesus when he will come down and judge, or as in the case of
the Prophet in His saying, Those are they whom God has guided, so follow
their guidance. Such a person is special and worthy in what he re¬
alizes concerning the form of derivation, being in the same position
as the Apostle who confirmed the Law of the apostles who preceded
him. Thus we follow him in his confirmation of them, not the law
revealed to those before him. Thus the derivation of judgment, as
vicegerent, from God is the same as in the case of the Apostle. Speak¬
ing esoterically, we would say of such a one that he is the vicegerent
of God and, speaking exoterically, that he is a vicegerent of the Apos¬
tle of God.

The Apostle died without appointing a successor, because he

knew that someone would later on receive the vicegerency from his
Lord and become a vicegerent appointed by God [directly], albeit in
conformity with the revealed Law. Therefore, when he knew that, he
did not seek to prejudge the matter.

God has vicegerents among His creatures who take from the
store of the Apostle and apostles what they have themselves taken,
and they know the importance of the preceding apostle, because an
apostle is always open to new revelation. The vicegerent himself,
however, is not open in this way, as he would be were he an apostle.

When he legislates he propounds only such knowledge and judg¬

ments as conform to what the Apostle was given. Thus, outwardly,
he is a follower, not an equal, like the other apostles. Consider how
the Jews believed in and confirmed Jesus so long as they thought that
he had brought no more than Moses, as in the case of the regency to¬
day in relation to the Apostle. When, however, he enlarged on or ab¬
rogated a judgment established by Moses, Jesus being an apostle, they
could not tolerate that, since he was contradicting their preconcep¬
tions about him. The Jews were ignorant of the truth of the matter
and so demanded his execution, the story being told to us by God in
His mighty Book. Being an apostle, he was open to new revelation,
either limiting an established judgment or adding to it, limitation be¬
ing something added, without doubt. The vicegerency today is not of
this kind, since only rulings arrived at by personal judgment may be
limited or added to, not the Law promulgated on the lips of Muham¬
mad.

Sometimes a regent might say something that appears to contra¬

dict some tradition on a judgment, and it might be imagined that this
stems from personal judgment, while it does not. In such a case, the
leader in question is not inwardly sure about the apostolic tradition,
otherwise he would judge according to it. If, indeed, it is the sort of
tradition that is transmitted by one honest man from another, such
a one is not immune from fancy or notional transmission. Such things
happen today to a viceregent, as they will happen also to Jesus. For
when he comes again, he will abolish many established rulings based
on personal judgments, clarifying thereby the truth revealed to Mu¬
hammad, and not least in the case of community leaders contradicting
each other on a single revelation. We know, of course, that, were a
revelation to be sent on the matter, it would agree with one of the
conflicting opinions, and that would be the divine judgment on the
matter, all else being corroborative, if confirmed by the Reality, so
that this Community might be relieved of stress and that God’s judg¬
ment might be spread throughout it.

As for the saying, “If allegiance is paid to two caliphs, then kill
the second,” this applies only to the outer viceregency, which wields
the sword. Indeed, even if the two caliphs agree together, one of
them must be executed. This is not the case with the spiritual vice¬
gerency, in which no killing is involved, such action being applicable
only to the outer form. This matter of killing in the outer caliphate,
which, although it does not enjoy the status of the inner, nevertheless
is representative of the Apostle of God, if it be just, must be inspired
by the imagined possibility of two gods; If there were in them gods apart
from God , they would bring about corruption , even if they agreed to¬
gether. However, we know that if, for the sake of argument, they dis¬
agreed, the ruling of one of them would be carried out, so that he
would be the god rather than the other.

From this one may deduce that every ruling carried into effect
in the world today is the decision of God, since it is only God’s de¬
cisions that have any effect, in reality, even if it seems to go against
the outer established ruling called the Law. That is because every¬
thing that happens in the Cosmos is according to the ruling of the di¬
vine Will and not [necessarily] in accordance with the rulings of
established Law, even though its very establishment derives from the
divine Will. Its establishment was brought about in a particular way,
the divine Will being concerned with its confirmation (by actualiza¬
tion), but not with guaranteeing its being acted on. The authority of
the divine Will is immense, so that Abu Talib al-Makki called it
the Throne of the Essence, since for Itself it determines the effective¬
ness of the divine decision. Indeed, nothing occurs or fails to occur
in existence without the divine Will. When the divine Command ap¬
pears to be contradicted by what is called “disobedience,” it is be¬
cause it is an indirect [through the medium of prophets or angels]
command and not the Existential Command. In the context of the
command of the divine Will, no one can ever oppose God in anything
He does. That may happen only in the case of the indirect command,
so understand. In truth, the Will is concerned only to create the act
itself and is not concerned with the agent. Thus, it would be absurd
for it not to come into being. In particular instances, however, it may
be seen as disobeying God’s command, while in others it is regarded
as conforming to His command, eliciting praise or blame, as the case
may be. If then the matter is as we have said, then all creatures come
eventually to felicity, of whatever kind it may be. T his is explained
by the fact that the Mercy embraces all things and takes precedence
over His Wrath, that which precedes going first. When something
conditioned by the latter encounters it, the former then takes over
and the Mercy touches it, since no other has precedence. This then
is the meaning of the saying that His Mercy precedes His Wrath, con¬
ditioning all that comes into contact with it, since it stands at the
eventual goal toward which all are traveling. Coming to it is inevita¬
ble, so that the attainment of Mercy and the separation from Wrath
is also inevitable. The Mercy governs everything that encounters it,
according as each thing’s state dictates.
Whoever understands, is witness to what we say,

But he who does not is assailed by anxiety.

There is naught but what we have mentioned, so trust,

And be of our own state with respect to it.

What we have experienced of it we have rehearsed to you,

And you have from us what we have given you.

As for the “softening of iron,” it means that hardened hearts

are softened by admonishment and warning, as iron is softened by
fire. “Difficulty” refers to hearts harder than stone, stone being split
and calcified, not softened by fire. He softened the iron for him only
so that he could work protective armor from it, as a sign from God.
In other words, something may be protected against only by itself, so
that one is protected from spears, swords, and knives by armor. Thus
in the dispensation of Muhammad, it is said, “I seek refuge from You
in You,” so understand. This then is the mystery of the softening
of iron, and He is the Avenger, the Merciful, the Giver of grace.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE WISDOM OF BREATH

IN THE WORD OF JONAH

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The name of the prophet Jonah is in the title of this chapter be¬
cause the story of the rescue of Jonah from the belly of the whale and
the sparing by God of the citizens of Nineveh helps to illustrate the
main theme of the chapter, which is the special nature of the human
state and the importance of preserving its life at all costs.

As mentioned in the Introduction, Islam, in keeping with the

spirit of all major religious traditions, sees the human state as a spe¬
cial one, being as it is microcosmic, which is to say that it reflects
both cosmic and divine realities, part angel, part animal. The Sufis
described man as the “Isthmus” [barzakh ] between God and the Cos¬
mos, that essential link between the Creator and His creation, that all-
important medium by which God perceives Himself as manifested in
the Cosmos, and by which the Cosmos recognizes its source in God,
but which, in isolation, without its cosmic or spiritual reference, is
nothing but an absurdity.

Thus the human state, the epitome of which is the Perfect Man,
is at once extremely precious and to be valued above all other states
of existence, and also pathetic and nonsensical in that, outside the
context of the God-Cosmos polarity, it is neither one thing nor the
other; indeed, it is nothing at all.

The goal of all human life is the realization of the perfection and
completeness implicit and potential in the human state, so that each
human birth presents yet another precious opportunity for the fulfill¬
ment of one’s original potential to be, on the one hand, the faithful
representative of cosmic servanthood and, on the other, the perfect
transmitter of spiritual dominion. Thus, in this chapter, Ibn al-‘ArabT
is concerned to show how important it is, both for God and for man,
to preserve each human life, as far as is possible, and to destroy it only
when human actions effectively cancel the privilege attendant on that
state.

As our author says, one of the aims of this human opportunity

should be to become, as far as possible, the perfect instrument for
God’s Self-awareness in the reflected image that is the Cosmos. The
best way of doing this, indeed the best of all human acts, is the re¬
membrance [ dhikr ] of God, not only by mentioning His Name with
one’s tongue alone, but by imbuing every member and condition with
that remembrance, since God is with and remembers everything that
remembers Him. Conversely, that human being who completely for¬
gets God has forgotten himself, that is his humanity, as being also di¬
vine, so that he forfeits that state and becomes “the lowest of the low”
[XCY:], dissipated and dispersed in the infinite multiplicity of the
Cosmos, since it is only by that divine spark within him that he may
preserve his unity and integrity as man.

In conclusion, Ibn al-‘ArabI discusses the subject of death itself

and the states of the Afterlife. He maintains that death, far from be¬
ing an end—since how can that which is, in truth, nothing other than
He come to an end—is rather the dispersal of the various elements
and aspects making up this human synthesis and their reassimilation,
each to its own kind. Thus, the personal identity and consciousness
becomes fully, once again, what it always has been in reality, namely,
His Identity, while the various constituent parts of the physical body
revert to their original cosmic states, being themselves no more than
aspects of His Form. Thus there can be no loss or oblivion in any real
sense, seeing that all is nothing other than He Who never dies.

Following on from the subject of death, Ibn al-‘ArabI points out

that, since the divine Wrath is subordinate to the divine Mercy, the
punishment of Hell in the Hereafter cannot be eternal or unmitigat¬
ed, seeing that all are ultimately and inexorably on the Straight Path,
obedient to the divine Will and returning inescapably to their source
in Him. Our salvation, therefore, lies ultimately in the inalienable re-
ality of the Oneness of Being. According to several of the Sufi mas¬
ters, even Satan himself had only the best motives for disobeying
God’s command to prostrate before Adam, in that, perceiving only
the ephemeral in man, he could not bring himself to associate what
he saw as contingent with God. Thus it is, in truth, only our illusory
perception and experience of otherness that is our pain, death, and
damnation.

THE WISDOM OF BREATH

IN THE WORD OF JONAH

Know that this human creation, in all its spiritual, physical, and
psychic perfection, was created by God in His own image, and that
none but He has charge of its dissolution, whether by His hand,
which is always the case, or by His command. Whoever takes it on
himself without God’s command wrongs his own soul, transgresses
the bounds of God, and seeks the destruction of him whose proper
functioning God has ordered. Indeed, solicitude in caring for God’s
servants is better than [killing them from an excessive] zeal for God.

David desired to build the Holy House and did so several times.
However, every time he finished it, it fell down in ruins. When he
complained of that to God, God revealed to him, “My House shall not
be raised by the hand of one who has spilt blood.” David then said,
“O Lord, was it not done in Your cause?” God said to him, “Indeed,
but are they not My servants?” Then David said, “O Lord, let it then
be built by one who is of me.” God then revealed to him that his son
Solomon would build it.

The moral here concerns the proper maintenance of this human

creation, and that its raising up is better than its destruction. Have
you not considered how God has ordained the poll tax and the truce
for dealing with enemies of the Faith, so that He might spare them?
He says, If they incline to peace , incline to it yourselves and trust in God .
Have you not also considered how, in the case of retaliation, the in¬
jured party is encouraged to exact a ransom or to forgive, and that
only if he refuses these may the man be killed? Indeed, when there
are many injured parties, one of whom is ready to accept payment
while the others insist on execution, it is the former, rather than the
latter, whose decision is accepted, thus averting the death of the
wrongdoer. Also, the Apostle said of the owner of the thong, “If he
kills him, he is then no better than he.” God says, The recompense
of one evil is an evil like /V, referring to retaliation as an evil action,
even though it is legal; but whoever forgives and does good , his reward is
with God , because he is in His image. So, whoever forgives and does
not kill will be rewarded by Him in Whose image he is, since He has
most right to him, having created him for that [to be in His image].
This is because God is manifest in the name, the Outer, only through
his existence, that whoever preserves him, preserves God.

Man is not blameworthy in himself, but only because of the act

that proceeds from him. This act is not the same as his [human] self,
and it is of this that we are speaking. Although there is no act [in
truth] but God’s, some are considered worthy of blame, while others
are praised. To pronounce blame for one’s own purpose is itself
blameworthy in God’s sight, since only that which the Law blames
is truly blameworthy. The censure of the Law is a wisdom that only
God or one who He has taught knows, just as He has ordained retali¬
ation in the interests of preserving humankind and as a deterrent to
one who would transgress God’s bounds. In retaliation there is life for
you , you who are intelligent . Such are the ones who perceive the
essence of things and who have discovered the secrets of God’s laws.
When you have realized that God has care of this human creation and
its rearing, you yourself should care for it all the more, which will
bring you felicity. That is because, while a man still has life, he has
the opportunity to achieve that perfection for which he was created,
so that whoever tries to destroy him is seeking to prevent his achiev¬
ing that for which he was made.

How fine was the saying of the Apostle of God, “Shall I tell you
of something much better than engaging the enemy, attacking them
and being attacked by them; it is the remembrance of God.” That
is because only he who remembers God properly appreciates the true
worth of this human creation, for it is God Who is the companion of
one who remembers Him, and the companion is perceived by the one
who remembers. If the rememberer does not perceive God, Who is
his companion, then he is not a true rememberer, since the remem¬
brance of God flows throughout every part of the [true] servant. This
does not mean one who invokes Him with his tongue only, so that
only the tongue perceives Him, which is not the same as the percep¬
tion of the whole man. You should try to understand the mystery im¬
plicit in the remembrance of those that are really forgetful. Indeed,
that part of the forgetful man which invokes God is undoubtedly
present with God, and the one remembered is its companion. The
forgetful person [as a whole], however, is not remembering, and He
does not accompany one who is heedless.

Man is multiple and not single of essence, while God is single of

Essence, but multiple with respect to the divine Names. So also is
man of many parts, and the remembering by one part does not imply
the remembering by any other part of him. God is with that part
which is remembering Him, the rest being described as forgetful. It
is necessary that there should be some part of a man that is remem¬
bering God and with which God is present, so that the rest of him
might survive by His care [for that one part]. The Reality does not,
as death, have charge of the destruction of this creation, since it is not
a matter of extinction so much as one of severance. God takes him to
Himself, And to Him does the whole matter return .

When God takes him to Himself, He fashions for him a compos¬

ite body, not the physical body, of a kind appropriate to the realm to
which he has been transferred, which is that of eternal life by virtue
of the equilibrium there. There he will never die, nor will his parts
be separated again.

As for the dwellers in the Fire, they will indeed eventually attain
to felicity, but in the Fire itself, since, after the period of punishment,
the Fire must needs become cool and safe, which is their felicity. The
felicity of those in the Fire, after the fulfillment of certain rights [of
punishment], is similar to that of Abraham when he was thrown into
the fire. He was tortured by the sight of it and by what he was ac¬
customed to think of it, being quite sure that it was something that
would harm anything that came near it, being ignorant of God’s pur¬
pose in it for him. However, after all these [mental] tortures, he found
it cool and safe, despite what he saw of its color and form. To the peo¬
ple there it appeared as fire, showing that one and the same thing
may appear differently to the various observers of it. Such is the Self¬
manifestation of God.

Either one may say that God manifests Himself like that or that
the Cosmos, being looked at and into, is like God in His Self-mani¬
festation. It is various in the eye of the beholder according to the
makeup of that beholder, or it is that the makeup of the beholder is
various because of the variety of the manifestation. All this is possible
with respect to the [divine] realities. If it were the case that any dead
or killed person did not return to God when he died, God would not
bring about the death of anyone or command his execution. All is
within His grasp, so that there can never be any [real] loss. He com¬
mands execution and decrees death, secure in the knowledge that His
servant can never escape Him, but returns to Him, as in His saying,
To Him does the whole matter revert , meaning that all disposal rests
with Him, the Disposer, nor is there anything not of His Essence out¬
side Him. Indeed, His Identity is the essence of each thing, which is
what inspired the words, To Him does the whole matter revert.

CHAPTER XIX

THE WISDOM OF THE UNSEEN

IN THE WORD OF JOB

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The chapter opens with an explanation of the all-embracing na¬

ture of the Reality. It is pointed out that God is to be found not only
in what is “high,” “above,” and “lofty,” but also in what is tradition¬
ally thought of as profane, “low,” “below,” and “beneath,” so that
wherever you turn , there is the face of God [:]. Thus, although
the “blowing” breath and radiating light of the Spirit enlivens, it can¬
not do so without the receptive matrix of the “water” of Nature,
which underlies and supports the living structure of the Cosmos
[Throne]. Although the Spirit is the spark of the life of Reality, lowly
and passive Nature is, correspondingly, the primordial stuff of that
life without which no formal life is possible. Indeed, according to the
logic of Ibn al-‘ArabT’s teaching, there is nothing in existence that is
not alive in some way or another, since that which is nothing other
than He cannot be dead. As he says later in the chapter, we, as Cos¬
mos and creatures, as ephemeral, lowly beings, are in reality His
form, while He is, through His all-pervading Spirit, our identity, so
that there is nothing at all of which it can be said truly that it is not
He.
Before going on to consider the plight of Job and its lesson for
us, Ibn al-‘ArabT briefly touches on the question of equilibrium and
harmony as betw een the two great currents of cosmic creation and di¬
vine reintegration, between His Wrath and His Compassion. He sug¬
gests that the question may be resolved only in the ineffable Oneness
of Being Itself, but not in our human state, oscillating as it does be¬
tween the imperative of the divine Wish and the creative impulsion
of the creative Will, and in which overemphasis on what is considered
“good” inevitably causes imbalance with respect to what is consid¬
ered “bad,” albeit that it exists, by the Will of God.

In discussing Job’s plight, our author suggests that true patience

is not simply the stubborn refusal to voice a complaint, but rather
that it is the intelligent refusal to be tempted by the illusion that any
other but God is able to bring relief of suffering. Indeed, supplication
to God is, for him, not a sign of impatience, but rather an indication
of the essential reciprocity between himself and God, God in him and
he in God. Furthermore, suffering is a test and a stimulus from God
to awaken His servant to the reality of this relationship, so that fail¬
ure to respond with supplication is tantamount to heedlessness of His
Reality.

THE WISDOM OF THE UNSEEN

IN THE WORD OF JOB

Know that the secret of life permeates water, which is itself the
origin of the elements and the four supports. Thus did God make of
water every living thing. * There is nothing, indeed, that is not living,
just as there is nothing that does not sing God’s praises, even if we
do not understand its praises, except by divine disclosure. Only the
living can offer praise. Therefore, everything is living and everything
has its origin in water.

Have you not considered the Throne, how it rests on the water
and derives from it? It floats on the water, which supports it from be¬
neath. In the same way, after God had created man as a servant, he
became arrogant and aspired to be above Him. In spite of this God
supports this servant’s “loftiness” from beneath, ignorant as he is of
himself, alluded to in his [the Prophet’s] saying, “Even if you let
down a rope it will fall upon God.” This shows that God may be
thought of as “below/’ as also “above” in His saying, They fear their
Lord above them , and His saying, He overcomes His servants. All be¬
low and above belong to Him. Thus, the six directions are manifest
only through man, who is in the image of the Merciful.

There is no source of sustenance but God. He said, concerning

a group of people, If they had only abided by the Torah and the Gospel,
going on to be less definite and more general, saying, and what was
revealed to them from their Lord, which includes all judgments revealed
through the apostles and inspired ones. He went on to say, . . . they
would have eaten from above them, referring to the sustenance from
above attributed to Him, and from below their feet, which is the sus¬
tenance from below that He attributes to Himself on the lips of His
Apostle, who transmits His word by His authority.

Were the Throne not on the water, its existence could not be
maintained, since the living can be kept in being only by life. Con¬
sider how, when someone living dies a normal death, the various
parts of his composition break down and his powers are extinguished.

God said to Job, Urge with your foot, for this is a washing place
in other words “cool” water, because of the extreme heat of his pain,
which God soothed with the coolness of the water. Thus, it is for
medicine to lessen that which has increased and to increase that
which has grown less, in order to achieve an equilibrium that, how¬
ever, can be achieved only approximately. We say approximately be¬
cause evidence of the realities indicates that the act of creation, which
occurs with the breaths eternally, constitutes an imbalance in Nature
that might be called a deviation or alteration. Similarly, in God there
is a desire that is an inclination toward the particular object of desire
to the exclusion of any other. Harmony and equilibrium are every¬
where sought, but never [truly] achieved. We are thus denied the rule
of equilibrium.

In the divine knowledge brought by the prophets, God is de¬

scribed as pleased, angry, and by other attributes. Now pleasure
causes anger to cease, while anger brings pleasure to an end. Equilib¬
rium might be said to be the mutual balance of pleasure and anger.
However, one who is pleased with someone else is not also angry
with him, being thought of as one or the other, which indicates a
preference. It is the same the other way round. We point this out for
the benefit of anyone who might think that the people of the Fire suf¬
fer God’s Wrath eternally and never enjoy His pleasure, which shows
the validity of what we have said. If, on the other hand, as we have
also said, the dwellers in the Fire, while remaining in the Fire, are
eventually relieved of their tortures, then that is pleasure. Now wrath
comes to an end with the alleviation of their pain, since the reality
underlying pain is the same as the reality of anger, the angry one be¬
ing a sufferer who is only trying to avenge himself on the object of
his anger by hurting him, so that he might gain relief by passing the
suffering he experiences on to the object of his anger.

When one considers the Reality in His transcendence from the

Cosmos, then He is far removed from such notions thus limited [by
human experience]. If, however, the Reality is the Identity of the Cos¬
mos, then all determinations are manifest from Him and in Him, as
in His saying, The whole matter reverts to Him , in reality and
through spiritual disclosure, and Worship Him and trust in Him ,
from the standpoint of veiled consciousness. Indeed, there is naught
in the realm of possibility more wonderful than this Cosmos, which
is in the image of the Merciful and which God created in order that
His being might become manifest through its appearance. Likewise,
man became manifest through the coming into being of the form of
Nature.

We are His outer form, while Identity is the directing spirit of

that form. That direction can be only in Him and of Him, for He is
the First, essentially, and the Last, formally. He is the Outer with re¬
spect to the changing of determination and states, the Inner with re¬
spect to directing, and He knows everything. He is aware of
everything and knows by direct perception, not by any deductive
thought process, just as spiritual awareness is not achieved by
thought. Such is true knowing, all else being guesswork and conjec¬
ture, and not knowledge in its true sense.

Job, therefore, was given that water to drink to relieve the an¬
guish of his thirst, which stemmed from the fatigue and distress with
which Satan had afflicted him. In other words, he was too far re-
moved from the realities to see them as they are, the perception of
which would have put him into a situation of proximity. Everything
perceived is close to the eye, even if it be physically remote, for the
sight makes contact with it by perception, or else does not perceive
it at all. Either that or the object itself makes contact with the sight.
There is therefore a certain proximity between the perception and
the perceived. Job, however, attributed his affliction to Satan, al¬
though it was close to him, saying, “That which is far from me is
close to me by reason of its power within me.” You know, of course,
that distance and proximity are relative notions, having no existence
in themselves, despite their quite definite effects on that which is dis¬
tant and near.

Know that there is a mystery of God in Job, whom He has made

a lesson for us and recorded as a story that this Community of Mu¬
hammad reads, that it might learn what is in it and become ennobled
by contact with its subject, Job. God commends Job for his pa¬
tience, in spite of his supplication to Him to remove the hurt from
him. Now, the supplication of a servant in no way detracts from his
patience or his being a good servant, as He says, Surely he was repen-
tant , meaning that he turned back to God and not to causes. Al¬
though the Reality works through a cause, and although the causes
contributing to the cessation of the hurt may be many, the Causer is
single. The resorting of the servant to the One Who alleviates the
hurt by causes is better than having resort to some particular cause
that might not be in accord with God’s knowledge concerning the
hurt. He might say, “God does not answer me,” while he has not
called on Him, having merely resorted to a particular cause that is not
ordained for that period or moment.

Job, being a prophet, acted according to the wisdom of God,

knowing as he did that patience, which most men regard as the re¬
straining of the soul from complaint, is not limited, as we also know,
to that, but is rather the restraining of the soul from complaint to
what is other than God, not to God Himself. Most people are misled
in their view that the one who complains detracts from his accep¬
tance of destiny thereby. That is not the case, since it is not one’s ac¬
ceptance of destiny that is impaired by complaint to God or any other
so much as one’s acceptance of the thing predestined. What we have
been told, however, does not concern the acceptance of what is des-
tined, since the hurt itself is that which is predestined and not destiny
itself. Now Job knew that what was implicit in the restraining of the
soul from complaint to God, that He might relieve the affliction, was
a resistance to divine compulsion. [Such resistance] reveals an igno¬
rance in the person, when God tests him, as to the real nature of what
is afflicting the soul, so that he refrains from calling on God to end
his pain. In the view of one who is truly aware, one ought to humble
oneself and beg God to raise such a thing from one, since, for the in¬
spired one, that alleviation is an alleviation also for God.

God has, indeed, described Himself in terms of hurt when He

says, those who would hurt God and His Apostle. What greater hurt is
there for Him than that He should try you with some affliction or
station unknown to you, so that you might beg Him to relieve it,
when you are heedless of Him? It is better that you approach Him
with the sense of indigence, which is your true condition, since, by
your asking Him to relieve you, the Reality Himself is relieved, you
being His outer form.

A certain gnostic was hungry and wept because of it, at which

someone who had no insight into such matters upbraided him, to
which he replied, “He made me hungry only that I might weep.” He
means that God tried him with an affliction only so that he might ask
Him to relieve it, which in no way detracts from his patience, which
is the restraining of the soul from complaint to what is other than
God. By other than God is meant some particular aspect of God,
since He has specified a particular aspect, the aspect of Identity, by
which you should call on Him to relieve your distress, and not by oth¬
er aspects that are called “causes.” The latter are nothing other than
He as constituting the [principle of creative] particularization in
Himself. In asking the Identity of God [God Himself] to lift the af¬
fliction from him, the gnostic is well aware that all causes are in Him
in particular ways.

This way [of knowing] may be the privilege of only the discreet
among God’s servants, those worthy to be entrusted with the myster¬
ies of God, for He has trusty servants whom only He knows and who
know each other. Thus we have counseled you; so act and ask of Him,
may He be exalted.

CHAPTER XX

THE WISDOM OF MAJESTY

IN THE WORD OF JOHN

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The name for John in Arabic, Yahya y provides Ibn al-‘ArabI with
yet another opportunity to find mystical significance in the construc¬
tion of words. The Arabic name Yahya means, as an ordinary Imper¬
fect Indicative verb form, “he lives.” What he means is that the
father, in this case Zakariah, lives on, essentially in the son, John, or,
by extension, that each prophet lives on in the prophet who succeeds
him. In the case of Zakariah and John, the physical and the spiritual
lines of descent are combined. That is because, as he sees it, the son
represents so to speak the embodied essence or seed of his father, in
which embodiment both his seed and his name are continued from
one generation to the next and thus remembered. As we have seen,
in discussing the various modalities of the Spirit [Chap. ], seed-es¬
sence, idea-identity, and word-name are closely related concepts, al¬
beit representing the spiritual reality at different levels of existence.
Thus the physical deposition of the seed in the “water” of the mother
to produce the son is also a concrete symbol, in the Sufi context, of
the spiritual implanting of the divine Name into the worldly mind
of the aspirant by way of initiating him into a new life of the spirit,
in order to perpetuate the invocation [memory] of His Name [Es-
sence], or of the inspiration of Revelation into the virgin mind of the
prophet, to produce a new community of faith and remembrance.

Taking the argument further, we come to the notion that the

son, whether spiritual or physical, is essentially identical with the fa¬
ther. It is this notion that underlies the distinction Ibn aLArabl
makes between John and Jesus, since the relationship of the former
to the Spirit is indirect, through his father, while that of the latter is
direct, the spiritual seed having been deposited without the interme¬
diary of the human male. For him, this distinction, which he bases on
words from the Qur'an [XIX: and XIX:], illustrates the differ¬
ence between the learning- ['ilm\ based faith of the believer and the
gnosis-based experience of Identity of the saint-gnostic. In the qur-
'anic verses quoted, John is blessed by God, in the third person, while
Jesus, as a token of Identity, calls down the blessing on himself, after
bearing witness to the innocence of his mother, Mary, as being sym¬
bolic of the total receptivity of Nature to the act of the Spirit.

THE WISDOM OF MAJESTY

IN THE WORD OF JOHN

This is the wisdom of precedence with respect to names, since

God names him Yahya [John], which is to say that the memory of Za-
kariah lives [yahya) on through him; And We did not name anyone be¬
fore him with that name. He combined in himself both the attribute
[of Prophecy] inherent in all those that have passed on, but whose
memory lives on in a son, and the distinction of being named in that
way.

He named him John [Yahya] and his [father’s] name lives on like
true knowledge, for Adam’s memory lived on through Seth, Noah’s
through Shem, and likewise with other prophets. However, God had
never, before John, combined a self-explanatory name with the attri¬
bute, except from concern for Zakariah when he said, Give me from
Yourself an heir Here he places God before his son, just as Asiyah
mentions the “neighbor” [God] before the “house,” saying, [ my
Lord , build for me] with You a dwelling in Paradise.

So God honored him by fulfilling his need and named him by

His attribute so that his name became a reminder of what His proph¬
et Zakariah had asked of Him, since he had stressed the continuance
of the remembrance of God in his offspring, a son being the secret
essence of his father. . . . who will inherit from me and from the people
of Jacob, being none other than the inheritance of the state of God’s
remembrance and supplication to Him. Then He tells him of the
well-being bestowed on him the day he was born, the day he would
die, and the day he would be brought forth living. Here He uses the
word “life,” which is [the meaning of] his name and informs Zakariah
of His bestowal of well-being on his son. God’s speech is true and
conclusive.

If the [revealing] Spirit had said, Well-being be upon me the day I

was born , the day I will die and the day I am brought forth living , it
would better have expressed the [state of] identity. It is, however, bet¬
ter in that it combines the notion of identity and belief, which is less
susceptible to misinterpretation. What was unusual and remarkable
in the case of Jesus was his ability to speak [in the cradle], since, in
making him articulate, God made his intelligence perfect and effec¬
tive. It does not follow that everyone thus enabled to speak is sincere
in what he says, except one who is attested, like John.

The divine well-being bestowed on John is less susceptible to am¬

biguity with respect to the divine concern for him than that of Jesus,
which he pronounced on himself, even though the situation indicates
his proximity to God and sincerity in the matter, since, in speaking
in the cradle, he was seeking only to prove the innocence of his moth¬
er. Other evidence of this is the dried-up trunk of the palm tree that
dropped fresh fruit without being fertilized by the male, just as Mary
bore Jesus without the normal sexual union with a male.

Were some prophet to say that his sign and miracle was that a
certain wall should speak, and were that wall to say that he was a liar
and that he was not the apostle of God, the sign by itself would be
valid and would confirm his apostleship, no attention being paid to
what the wall actually said.

Since then such a possibility [of misunderstanding] is implicit in

the speaking by Jesus in his cradle, when referred to by his mother,
the divine well-being bestowed on John is less ambiguous in this re¬
spect. Such evidence that he is the servant of God is necessary be¬
cause of those that assert that he is the son of God, the speaking in
the cradle being sufficient in itself. Those who assert that he was a
prophet also regard him as the servant of God. There w ill remain cer¬
tain possibilities of misunderstanding until, in the future, his veracity
w ith respect to all he uttered in the cradle will become clear; so re¬
alize what we have touched on here.

CHAPTER XXI

THE WISDOM OF DOMINION

IN THE WORD OF ZAKARIAH

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The main theme of this chapter is the relationship between the

creative Mercy and the objects of its creativity in general, and with
the divine Names in particular. The eternal essences of all possible
created beings, containing essentially, as they do, all the possible mul¬
tiplicity and complexity of cosmic state and experience, yearn with
the yearning of God to become knowable as existing objects of the
Self-consciousness of the divine Subject. As has already been shown,
the response to this yearning, this metacosmic labor, is the relieving
exhalation of the Breath of the Merciful, which releases the possibil¬
ities inherent in the latent essences into the infinite display of cosmic
existence.

The first thing that must happen is for the Breath itself to come
into being, after which the very principle of objectivity must be es¬
tablished, which Ibn al-‘ArabT calls “thingness” [shai'iyyah], thus
bringing about the polarity Subject-object, both universally as God-
Cosmos and particularly as Lord-servant. It is this latter objectiviza-
tion of the “thing” as servant, as being of the utmost importance for
any relationship between latent essence and existential becoming,
that probably prompts Ibn al-‘ArabT to say, a little later in the chap-
ter, that the “god created in belief is the first recipient of the Mercy,
which concept is very closely related to that of Lord-servant [cf.
Chap. ].

It may seem strange, at first, that Ibn al-‘ArabT should speak of

the divine Names as things, until it is realized that everything that
has anything to do with the creative act, which appears to situate an
object outside the divine Essence as something “other,” is therefore
itself involved in otherness and therefore also in thingness. Now, the
divine Names, as has already been mentioned, are precisely various
facets of the principle that determines the nature and quality of the
relationship, whether individually as Lord-servant or universally as
God-Cosmos. They therefore share in the thingness of all existential
factors. However, although various and many in existence, they all
name the One Named, just as all essences are essentially His Essence,
the inevitable return to which is the task of that other obligating “in¬
haling” Mercy which seeks to resolve thingness in Identity and
Uniqueness [cf. Chap. ].

Finally, that Breath of divine relief without which there would

be no Cosmos to experience is the directing Mistress of all becoming,
harboring eternally the Mercy of reintegration within Herself.

THE WISDOM OF DOMINION

IN THE WORD OF ZAKARIAH

Know that the Mercy of God encompasses everything existen¬

tially and in principle, and that the Wrath [of God] exists only by vir¬
tue of God’s Mercy on it. His Mercy has precedence over His Wrath,
which is to say that Mercy is attributed to Him before Wrath. Since
every [latent] essence has an existence that it seeks from God, His
mercy must embrace every essence, for the Mercy by which He is
Merciful accepts the desire of the essence for existence and so creates
it. We therefore say that His Mercy encompasses everything existen¬
tially and in principle. The divine Names are “things” and stem from
one essence.

The first object of God’s all-encompassing Mercy is the thingness

of that essence which creates the Mercy through the Mercy. There-
fore, the first object of the Mercy’s encompassing is itself, then the
thingness referred to, and then the thingness of every created being,
to infinity, whether of this world or the next, accidental or substan¬
tial, complex or simple, without any consideration of purpose or suit¬
ability, since the Divine Mercy embraces existentially the suitable
and unsuitable alike.

As we have mentioned in The Meccan Revelations , only that which

is nonexistent exerts influence, and not that which is existent. If
the latter seems to exert an influence, it is only by the authority of
that which is nonexistent. This knowledge is strange and the question
[here considered] is rarely discussed. Only men of imagination may
understand it through the spiritual sensitivity they possess, while
those devoid of imagination are far from such an understanding.

The Mercy of God flows in [all] created beings,

and courses through the selves and essences.

The rank of Mercy is the epitome to those who perceive

[directly]

Sublime to those of discursive minds.

Everything designated by the Mercy is fortunate; there is, how¬

ever nothing that is not so designated. In designating things, the Mer¬
cy creates them, every created thing being the object of Mercy. O
friend, do not be distracted from grasping what we are saying by
what you observe of afflicted people or what you may believe regard¬
ing the torments of the Hereafter which eternally afflict the con¬
demned.

Know that Mercy is inherent in all creating, so that, by the mer¬

cy bestowed on pain, pain was created [brought into existence]. Mer¬
cy is effective in two ways: first, its effect by essence, which is the
bringing into existence of every created essence without regard to
purpose or lack of it, suitability or otherwise, having regard only to
the essence of every created thing as it is before being brought into
existence. Indeed, it beholds it in its latent state, so that it sees “the
god created in belief’ as one of many latent potentialities on which
it bestows mercy by bringing it into existence. We therefore say that,
after the Mercy Itself, “the god created in belief’ is the first recipient
of Mercy, which has to do with the creation of all created beings. Sec¬
ond, its effect [is] by petition, since the veiled ones, in their belief, ask
God to have mercy on them, while the truly inspired ones ask that
God's Mercy remain with them. They ask it in God’s name, saying,
“O God, have mercy on us!” although it is only the remaining of
the Mercy with them that is the mercy upon them.

The Mercy has determining power, which really belongs only to

the reality conceived of as being inherent in a situation, so that it is,
in reality, the Merciful one [the agent], since God has mercy on His
intended servants only by the Mercy. When it comes on them, they
experience its control in an immediate way. He whom the Mercy re¬
members, it has mercy upon. The Active Participle is both rahtm and
rahim.

The determining power itself cannot be thought of as a creation,

since it is something the [spiritual] concepts [of Name and attribute]
require essentially. Indeed, the states (of the Names and attributes)
cannot be said to be existent or nonexistent. In other words they are
simply relationships, having no true existence. Nor can they be re¬
garded as nonexistent with respect to the determining power, seeing
that that in which knowledge resides is called a knower, which is a
state. Thus a knower is an essential reality attributed with knowl¬
edge. It is not that essence itself, nor the knowledge itself, there being
in truth only knowledge and that essence in which the knowledge re¬
sides. Being a knower is a state of that essence brought about by its
being attributed with this concept [of knowledge]. This attribution of
knowledge happens to it, so that it is called a knower. Thus Mercy
is, in reality, an attribution of the Merciful that necessitates control,
being indeed that which is merciful. He Who causes it to exist in the
recipient of Mercy does not bring it into existence to have mercy on
the recipient by it, but only to have mercy by it on that which resides
within it. God is not a locus for phenomena, nor yet a locus for the
bringing of mercy into existence. He is the Merciful, and the Mer¬
ciful is only such by the residing of Mercy within it. Thus is it con¬
firmed that He is the very Mercy Itself.

There are those with no insight or attainment in this matter who

dare not say either that He is the Mercy Itself or that He is the at¬
tribute itself, but say that He is not the reality [essence] of the attri-
bute or of anything else, since in their view the attributes of God are
not He, nor yet other than He. That is because they can neither deny
them nor make them the same as Himself. They therefore turn to this
expression, which is quite a good one, although some other would
have been closer to the mark and less ambiguous, to the effect that the
attributes have no essential reality other than that of Him to Whom
they are attributed. They are merely relationships and ascriptions re¬
lating the One to Whom they are ascribed with their intelligible es¬
sences.

Although the Mercy is universal, it is, in relation to each Divine

Name, different, so that God is begged for Mercy by every one of His
Names. Thus, it is the Mercy of God, as in the words My Mercy ,
which is all-encompassing, and its ramifications are as many as the di¬
vine Names themselves. It is not universal [but particular] in relation
to a particular divine Name, as one might say, “O Lord, have mercy
on me.” Such is the case also with other divine Names, so that even
in the case of the Name the Avenger, one seeking revenge might say,
“O Avenging One, have mercy on me.” That is because the Names
are referring to the Essence that is named, while referring, in their
[particular] realities, to the various ideas they bear. Thus they may all
be appealed to for Mercy in that they all refer to the Essence named
by each Name and none other, but not in the sense by which it is dif¬
ferent and distinct from other Names. Indeed, [in a sense] it is not dis¬
tinct from the others since, for the suppliant, it is a reference to the
Essence, distinct from the others only by its own essence, the conno¬
tation given it by usage representing a reality distinct in itself from
any other, even though all of them are used to denote one named Es¬
sence. There is no doubt that each Name has an authority of its own
to be considered, just as consideration is given to the fact that it refers
also to the named Essence.

In this connection Abu'l-Qasim b. Qissi said that every

Name, despite its uniqueness, is named by all the other Names, so
that when one gives a Name preference, one is qualifying it by all the
Names, however many they are, or how various their realities.

Mercy may be acquired in two ways, by obligation, as in His say¬

ing, I will ordain it for those who are God-fearing and give aims , togeth-
er with the intellectual and practical qualities He attributes to them,
or by divine Grace, which is unlike any [human] action, as in IIis say¬
ing, My Mercy encompasses everything so that He might forgive you
your earlier and later sins * xx and, “Do what you will, I have forgiven
you/’ So learn!

CHAPTER XXII

THE WISDOM OF INTIMACY

IN THE WORD OF ELIAS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Ibn al- Arab! introduces us, in this chapter, to a particularly in¬

teresting microcosmic aspect of the fundamental polarity that fea¬
tures so much in his thought, at the same time hinting at the true
nature of gnosis. Related to the suprahuman polarity of God-Cosmos,
transcendence-immanence, is the corresponding human polarity of
natural desire-intellect, both elements of which are capable of expe¬
riencing part of the truth about the Reality, but not the synthetic
truth of the Oneness of Being. Later in the chapter, he uses the word
wahm [fancy, delusion] in place of shahwah [desire, lust], while, for the
intellect, he uses the single word aql. Since they pertain, however, to
the human state, neither aspect of human experience is itself divine,
but merely reflects and serves to manifest suprahuman realities, in
keeping with the nature of that state. Thus, although the microcosmic
mode and reflection of the divine Spirit in its Wish for reintegration
in the Essence, the intellect cannot properly comprehend either the
nature of its vital compliment nor the Oneness of which it is a func¬
tion, but only transcendental and intangible verities. Similarly, vital
desire, or the urge to instinctive experience, although it reflects and
manifests the urgent imperative of the divine Will to infinite becom¬
ing, cannot comprehend either the principle of its mental compli-
ment, or the Oneness in which both are resolved, but only the
actualities of natural life. Since, however, the creative Mercy of the
divine Will encompasses the obligating Mercy of the divine Wish, the
human intellect, as Ibn aLArabl says, is rarely free of the influence
of natural fancy that is precisely the human expression of that pri¬
mordial illusion of otherness and multiplicity without which there
would be no vital existence.

As in the case of transcendence and immanence, Ibn aLArabl

points out that over-emphasis on the claims of either natural desire
or the intellect results in the possibility of only partial gnosis, which,
in its perfection, is nothing other than immediate knowledge and ex¬
perience of the all-synthesizing Oneness of Being. To be a true gnos¬
tic, therefore, it is not enough, as in the case of Elias, to concentrate
exclusively on the intellect, purged of vital urges and susceptibilities,
but to experience also, as fully as possible, the inarticulate urge of ani¬
mal life, devoid of thought and precept, which is after all nothing oth¬
er the divine life of His Form. Indeed, for any true realization of the
full potential of the microcosmic state, the two aspects of human ex¬
perience must work together mutually, the natural life being inspired
and commanded by the intellect, the intellect being tempered and
conditioned by life, seeing the presence of the Reality in both as re¬
flecting His Life in Spirit and Spirit in Life. For those in whom one
aspect predominates over the other, the predominating aspect acts as
a veil concealing the realities of the other, thus preventing any true
vision of the Reality.

Toward the end of the chapter he returns to the great mystical

paradox implicit in the doctrine of the Oneness of Being. He demon¬
strates it by saying that it is possible for a cause to be the effect of
its own effect, a notion that logic of the usual kind finds difficult, to
say the least. This paradox is illustrated by his notion of the latent es¬
sences, since the creature who is caused to exist by the Creator is, as
the latent essential content of God’s knowledge, that which causes
Him to become “God.”

THE WISDOM OF INTIMACY

IN THE WORD OF ELIAS

Elias is the same as Idris, who was a prophet before Noah whom
God had raised to a high rank. He resides at the heart of the [seven]
celestial bodies, which is the sun. He was sent to the settlement of
Baalbek. Now Baal is the name of an idol and Bek was the ruler of
that place, the idol Baal being special to its ruler. Elias, who was Idris,
had a vision in which he saw Mount Lebanon, which is from lubanah,
meaning a need, splitting open to reveal a fiery horse with trappings
of fire. When he saw it he mounted it and felt all his lusts fall away
from him. Thus be became an intellect without any lust, retaining no
link with the strivings of the [lower] soul. In him God was transcen¬
dent, so that he had half the gnosis of God. That is because the in¬
tellect, by itself, absorbing knowledge in its own way, knows only
according to the transcendental and nothing of the immanental. It is
only when God acquaints it with His Self-manifestation that its
knowledge of God becomes complete, seeing Him as transcendent
when appropriate, and as immanent when appropriate, and perceiv¬
ing the diffusion of God in natural and elemental forms. Indeed, he
sees the Essence of the Reality to be their essence. This is complete
gnosis, which the Law, sent down from God, brings, all fancies being
determined by this gnosis. For this reason fancies have greater power
in this human makeup than the intellects, since the intelligent man,
however mature his intellect, is never free of fancy and imagination
in what he decides on. Indeed, fancy is the greatest authority in this
whole human form. Through it there come the revealed decrees, at
once comparing and making Him transcendent. By fancy they liken
Him in making Him transcendent, and by the intellect they make
Him transcendent in likening Him. Each is [inextricably] bound up
with the other, so that transcendence cannot be unaffected by liken¬
ing, or vice versa.

He says, There is nothing like unto Him , where He makes tran¬

scendent and likens. He says also, He is the Hearing , the Seeing, thus
likening Himself. Although the former verse is the greatest expres¬
sion of transcendence, the word “like” shows that it is not unaffected
[in principle] by likening. However, He knows Himself best, and this
is the way He has expressed Himself. He says further, May thy Lord ,
the Lord of might , be exalted beyond what they describe. That is, they
describe Him only according as their intellects dictate. He therefore
puts Himself beyond their insistence on His transcendence, because
such insistence [in fact] limits Him by reason of the inadequacy of the
intellect to grasp such things. Then the revealed decrees bring what
the fancies determine. Indeed, God is never without an attribute in
which He is manifest, as all Scripture attests and reveals. It is in ac¬
cordance with that that the peoples act, God having bestowed on
them His own Self-manifestation, and they are attached to the apos¬
tles as an inheritance. They speak as God’s apostles speak.

God knows best where to place His message , The words God knows
best may be seen in either of two ways. First as predicative of “mes¬
sengers of God,” and second as subjective to “where to place His mes¬
sage,” each way revealing a [particular] truth. It is for this reason that
we speak of likeness in transcendence and transcendence in likeness.
Once this is established we let down the covering and draw the veils
over the eyes of the skeptic and the dogmatist, even though both are
forms in which God manifests Himself. We are ordered to draw the
veil in order that the disparity among forms regarding their readiness
[to receive the Self-manifestation] might become clear, and to show
that He Who manifests Himself in a form does so only according to
the degree of receptivity of that form, so that what is attributed to
Him [by that form] is only such as its reality and inherent qualities
dictate. Such is the case with someone who has a vision of God in his
sleep and accepts it as being God Himself without reservation. In this
case, the realities and inherent qualities of the form in which He is
manifest in sleep pertain to the sleeper. After sleep what was seen
while sleeping might be expressed in terms of something other,
which will compel the intellect to recognize God’s transcendence [be¬
yond that form]. If the one who interprets it is a man of insight and
faith, then it need not necessarily be dismissed in favor of transcen¬
dence, since such a man can accord what was seen its due share of
transcendence and of that in which He was manifest, since [the name]
God is, in reality, but a [verbal] expression, for one who understands
what I am talking about.

The spirit and essence of this wisdom is that everything may be

divided into that which affects and that which is affected, both of
which are denoted by certain expressions. That which affects in ev¬
ery way, in every instance, and in every situation is God, while that
which is affected in every way, instance, and situation is the Cosmos.
When what we have spoken of comes on you, then attach everything
to its appropriate origin, for that which comes on you is inevitable
and always derives from some origin, just as the divine Love springs
from the superogatory acts performed by His servant. This is an af¬
fect that occurs between that which affects and that which is affected,
just as God is the hearing, sight, and powers of the servant by virtue
of this Love. This is an affect that is confirmed in the Divine Law and
cannot be dismissed, if one is a believer. One of good intelligence will
either be aware of a divine Self-manifestation in the natural order so
that he grasps what we are saying or, as a Muslim and a believer, will
simply believe it because it appears in the Sahibs There can be no
doubting the power of fancy to prevail over the intellectual enquirer
into what God has brought in this saying, since he is a believer. As
for one who is not a believer, he tries to overcome fancy with fancy,
imagining, in his rational way, that he has invested God with what
that Self-manifestation accorded to him in what he saw. In that case,
unknown to him, the fancy will never leave him, being ignorant of
himself. Concerning this God says, Call upon Me and I will answer
you, ls and, When My servants ask concerning Me, then I am near to re¬
spond to the call of the suppliant when he calls upon Me , for He does
not answer unless there be one to call on Him, even though the es¬
sence of the suppliant and of Him Who answers is the same.

There is no real conflict implicit in the variety of forms. They

are in fact twofold. All these forms are like the limbs of Zaid. It is
quite clear that Zaid is a single personal reality, and that his hand
does not look like his foot, head, eye, or eyebrow. In other words he
is multiple and single, multiple in form and single in essence, just as
man is, without doubt, one in his essence. We do not doubt that ‘Amr
is not Zaid or Khalid or Ja‘far, nor that the various individual parts
of this one essence are infinite in existence. Thus God, although One
in His Essence, is multiple in forms and individual parts.

If you are a believer, you will know that God will manifest Him¬
self on the Day of Resurrection, initially in a recognizable form, then
in a form unacceptable [to ordinary belief], and finally back into a
form readily recognized [by belief], He alone being, [throughout], the
Self-manifesting one in every form, although it is obvious that one
form is not the same as another.

It is as if the single Essence were a mirror, so that when the ob¬

server sees in it the form of his belief about God, he recognizes and
confirms it, but if he should see in it the doctrinal formulation of
someone of another creed, he will reject it, as if he were seeing in the
mirror His form and then that of another. The mirror is single, while
the forms [it reveals] are various in the eye of the observer.

None of the forms are in the mirror wholly, although the mirror
has an effect on the forms in one way, and not in another. For in¬
stance, it may make the form look smaller, larger, taller, or broader.
Thus it has an effect on their proportions, which is attributable to it,
although such changes occur only due to the different proportions of
the mirrors themselves. Look then, into just one mirror, without con¬
sidering mirrors in general, for it is the same as your beholding [Him]
as being one Essence, albeit that He is beyond all need of the worlds.
As being the divine Names, on the other hand, He is like mirrors [in
the plural]. In which divine Name have you beheld yourself, or who
is the one who beholds? It is only the reality of the Name that is man¬
ifest in the beholder. Thus it is, if you will but understand.

Do not distress yourself nor fear, for God loves courage, even if
it be in killing a snake, which snake is nothing other than yourself.
Now, to a snake, a snake is a snake in form and reality, nor is any¬
thing killed by itself.

Even if the human form is corruptible physically, its [essential]

character will maintain it, nor will the imagination desert it. If this
is how things are, then it is the guarantee, strength, and defense of
the essences [of things], and what strength is stronger than this? You
imagine, by fancy, that you have killed [yourself], although the [essen¬
tial] form survives in the intellect and the fancy, according to its
[original] definition. Evidence of this is His saying, You did not shoot
when you shot , but it was God Who shot , The eye [of the observer] per¬
ceived only the form of Muhammad, which to the physical sight
clearly appeared to shoot. This is the form to which God firstly de¬
nies the act of shooting, which He then goes on to confirm in the act,
finally reaffirming that it was God Who shot in the form of Muham¬
mad. In this matter, faith is very necessary, so consider His effective¬
ness in that God was sent down in a Muhammadan form. It is God
Himself Who has related this to His servants, not us, but He Himself.
Now, His word is true and to believe it is obligatory, whether one
grasps the significance of what He has said or not, whether one be
a learned man or just a believing Muslim.

An indication of the weakness of intellectual speculation is the

notion that a cause cannot be [also] the effect of that to which it is
a cause. Such is the judgment of the intellect, while in the science of
divine Self-revelation it is known that a cause may be the effect of
that for which it is a cause. The judgment of the intellect is sound
provided that the speculation is clear and thorough. The most that
the intellectual will admit to on this matter, when he sees that it con¬
tradicts speculative evidence, is that the essence, after it is established
that it is one in the many, as a cause, in some form or other, of an
effect, cannot be an effect to its effect, so that that effect should be¬
come its cause, while it is still a cause, but that its determination be¬
comes changed by its transformation in forms, so that it may thus
become an effect to its own effect, which might then become its
cause. This then is as far as he will go, when he perceives that the
matter does not agree with his rational speculation. If such is the case
in the matter of causality, what scope can intellectual speculation
have in other more difficult questions?

There have been none more intelligent than the apostles, God’s
blessings be on them, and what they brought [to us] derived from the
divine Majesty. They indeed confirmed what the intellect confirms,
but added more that the intellect is not capable of grasping, things the
intellect declares to be absurd, except in the case of one who has had
an immediate experience of divine manifestation; afterwards, left to
himself, he is confused as to what he has seen. If he is a servant of
his Lord, he refers his intelligence to Him, but if he is a servant of
reason, he reduces God to its yardstick. This happens only so long as
he is in this worldly state, being veiled from his other-worldly state
in this world.

The gnostics appear in this world as if they were in worldly

forms, by reason of its [apparent] effect on them, but God has trans¬
formed them inwardly into their other-worldly state, without a
doubt. [Veiled] in their forms, they remain unknown except to one
whose inner sight God has uncovered to perceive [spiritual reality],
nor may anyone know God in His Self-manifestation, except he be in
his other-worldly form. He has already been gathered in [for the
Hour] in this world, and is brought forth in the grave, for he can see
and witness what you cannot, as evidence of God’s caring for certain
of His servants.

Whoever wishes to discover this Wisdom of Elias and Idris,

which God established twice, then let him know that Idris was a
prophet before Noah, and was then raised up and sent down again
[as Elias]. Thus, God gave him two missions. He lets him descend
from the realm of his intellect to that of his lust until he becomes a
pure animal, experiencing what every beast experiences, apart from
the two heavy ones [man and jinn]. Then he will know that he has
realized his animality. Such a one may be recognized by two signs.
The first is this revelation, so that he sees who is to be punished and
who rewarded in the grave, and sees the dead man as living, the dumb
speaking, and the sitting, walking. The second sign is his dumbness,
so that even if he wanted to speak of what he sees, he cannot do so.
It is this that makes him realize [to the full] his animality. We once
had a disciple who had such an experience, but he did not remain
dumb and so did not fully realize his animality. When God estab¬
lished me in this station, I realized my animality to the full. I saw
things and I wanted to express what I saw, but could not do so, being
no different from those who cannot speak. When he has realized all
this, he will be transformed into pure intellect, bereft of natural mat¬
ter. Then he will see things that are at the source of what is manifest
in natural forms and will know in an immediate way the origin of
this [divine] regime in the forms of nature. If he discovers that Na¬
ture is the same as the Breath of the Merciful, then he has received
a great favor. If, however, he realizes no more than what we have
mentioned, so much gnosis will be enough to condition his intellect.
He will then be one of the gnostics and will know experientially [the
truth of His saying], You did not kill them, but God killed them , since
it was only the iron and the striker who killed them and He Who is
behind these forms. All in all, the killing and the shooting happened.
Thus, the gnostic sees things in principle and in forms, so being com¬
plete [in his knowing]. If, in addition to that, he sees the Breath [of
the Merciful], he is perfect as well as complete [in his knowing]. He
sees only God as being that which he sees, perceiving the seer to be
the same as the seen. This is enough, and God is the giver of grace,
the Guide.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE WISDOM OF VIRTUE

IN THE WORD OF LUQMAN

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Another way Ibn al-‘ArabI has of trying to explain the mutuality

and interdependence of the concepts “God” and “Cosmos” is to de¬
scribe the relationship in alimentary terms. Food is that which is tak¬
en into one’s body to be disseminated and assimilated for the
sustaining of life. At the beginning of this chapter, he says that we,
as creatures, are food for Him and that He is food for us. In His di¬
vinity, as “God” [Allah], He needs the sustenance of our worship,
slavery, and contingency, while we, in our servanthood and creature-
liness, need the sustenance of His sufficiency, reality, and power. In
His essence, as the Supreme Identity [huwiyyah], He needs the nour¬
ishment of our latent essentiality, while we, in our latency, need the
nourishment of His Consciousness.

Later in the chapter, he makes clear the essential difference be¬

tween his own view of the nature of things and that of Ash’arite the¬
ology. While he agrees with their conclusion that the Cosmos is of
one substance, he disagrees with the notion, necessary to exoteric the¬
ology, that that substance is, ultimately and essentially, other than or
separate from the reality of God.

He concludes the chapter with yet another discussion on the re¬

lation of multiple parts to the Single Essence, that each part is none
other than the Essence, Which is, in turn, the true identity [reality]
of each part.
THE WISDOM OF VIRTUE IN THE WORD OF LUQMAN

Should the deity wish for Himself sustenance,

Then the whole of existence is food for Him.

Should the deity wish sustenance for us,

Then He may be food for us, as He wishes.

His Will is His Wish, so say,

Of it that He has willed it, so it is what is willed.

He wishes increase and He wishes decrease,

But what He wills is naught but what is willed.

There is this difference between them, so realize,

Although from another view they are essentially the same.

God has said, We brought Luqman the Wisdom , and whosoever

is brought the Wisdom is granted a great boon. Luqman, therefore,
was the possessor of a great boon, according to the Qur'an and God’s
own witness. Now Wisdom may be expressed [in words] or may be
unexpressed, as when Luqman said to his son, my son , consider this
tiny mustard seed , which God would bring forth were it to be [hidden] in a
rock , whether in heaven or earth* * This is an expressed wisdom, name¬
ly that the bringing forth is God’s doing, which is confirmed by God
in H is Book, the saying not being attributed to the one who uttered
it. As for the unexpressed wisdom, it is known by the circumstantial
indications, the one for whom the seed is brought forth not being
mentioned, since he did not say to his son, “God will bring it forth
for you or for someone else.” He made the bringing forth general and
situated what was brought forth in the heavens or in the earth, to
draw the attention of the hearer to His saying, He is God in the heavens
and the earth* By what was expressed and what was unexpressed,
Luqman realized that God is the essence of everything known, “the
known” being a more general term than “the thing,” being as indef¬
inite as possible. Then he completes the wisdom and fulfills it, so that
its meaning may be perfected, by saying, Surely , God is Gracious . It
is also of His grace and kindness that He is the essence of the thing,
however named or defined, so that it is referred to by its name only
by collusion and usage. Thus one speaks of the heaven, the earth, the
rock, the tree, the animal, the angel, sustenance or food, the Essence
of everything and in everything being One.

The Ash'arites maintain that the Cosmos is substantially homo¬

geneous, being one substance, which is the same as our saying that
the Essence is one. They go on to say that its accidents are differ¬
ent, which is the same as our saying that it is various and multiple
in its forms and attributions, so that [its parts] might be distinguished
[one from another]. One says of this that it is not that, whether in
form, accidental nature, or makeup. One may also say that this is the
same as that, with respect to substance, so that the same substance is
implicit in defining every form and makeup. We say that it is nothing
other than God, while the Ash‘arites consider that what is called a
substance, even if it is a reality, is not the Reality, which is what is
meant by those who understand divine revelation and manifestation.
This then is the wisdom of His being Gracious.

Then he [Luqman] describes Him as being “Experienced,”

which means knowing by experience, as in His saying, We will surely
test you until We know, indicating knowledge by immediate experi¬
ence. God, despite His knowledge of things as they are, speaks [here]
of Himself as gaining knowledge, and we cannot deny what God has
stipulated of Himself. Here God is distinguishing between knowl¬
edge acquired by direct [sensory] experience and absolute knowledge,
direct experience being restricted to the faculties. He has said of
Himself that He is the very powers of his servant in His saying, “I
am his hearing,” which is one of the servant’s faculties, as also “his
sight,” and his tongue, foot, and hand, which are his members. It
is not merely the faculties that are involved, but also the limbs, which
together constitute the servant. Thus the essence of that which is
called servant is God, which is not to say that the servant himself is
[the same as] the master. That is because the attributions of the es¬
sence are differentiated, which is not true of that to which they refer.

In fact there is nothing but His Essence in all attributions, for He is

the One Essence endowed with relationships, ascriptions, and attri¬
butes.

It is of the Wisdom of Luqman in instructing his son that he used

the two names the Gracious , the Experienced to describe God. This
wisdom would have been more perfect had he used the word “is” to
denote its being in existence. God relates Luqman’s saying notional-
lv, in the sense that he meant that nothing can add increase to Him.
His saying, God , the Gracious , the Experienced is God’s own saying, since
God knew of Luqman [in eternity] that he would have completed the
Wisdom, had he uttered it in a more complete way.

As for His saying, Even if it be the weight of a mustard seed , it

concerns the one whose food it is, being the same as the “speck” men¬
tioned in His saying, Whoever does a speck's weight of good will see it f and
whoever does a speck's weight of evil y will see it also , [That which feeds
on it] is the smallest feeder, and the mustard seed is the smallest item
of food. Were there anything smaller, He would have brought that
forth, as in His saying, God is not shy of coining a similitude , be it a gnat ,
there being nothing more so . Because He knows that there is nothing
smaller than a gnat, He says, there being nothing more so , meaning any
smaller. This, as also the verse in the Chapter of the Earthquake [con¬
cerning the speck], is the speech of God, so understand. We know that
God would not have restricted Himself to the weight of a speck, had
there been anything smaller, but would have used it for hyperbole;
but God knows best.

As for his use of the diminutive of the word “son,” it is a diminu¬

tive of mercy, seeing that he counsels him concerning things that will
bring him felicity, provided he acts on them. As for the wisdom of
his counsel prohibiting him from associating anything with God y for such
association is a terrible wrong , it is that the divine object of this
wrong, which the polytheist describes as divided, is but One Essence.
He is, in fact, associating with Him what is nothing other than His
Essence, which is the height of ignorance. The reason for this is that
one who has no [spiritual] insight into things as they are, or of the
true reality of something when its forms appear various in the one Es¬
sence, and does not realize that this variety occurs in one Essence, as¬
sociates one form with the other in that state [of oneness] and
apportions to each form a part of it. Now, concerning an associate,
it is well known that that which distinguishes it from that with which
it is associated is not the same as that with which it is associated, since
the latter is [similarly] distinguished [in some way]. There is then no
associate in reality, since each of them has something of its own, from
which it is said that an association exists between them. The reason
[for such an assertion] is general association. However, if it is truly
general, then the independent activity of any particular part annuls
that generality. Say: Call upon God , or call upon the Merciful , This is
the spirit of the matter.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE WISDOM OF LEADERSHIP

IN THE WORD OF AARON

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The creative Mercy is, once again, a subject for discussion here.
Ibn al- ArabI says that Aaron’s Prophethood derived from the divine
Mercy, which he goes on to link with the mother of both Moses and
Aaron, since motherhood is more representative of the creative Mer¬
cy than is fatherhood, which represents rather the more wrathful, ob¬
ligating Mercy. Earlier in the work he relates the concept of
motherhood to Nature and fatherhood to the Spirit. Thus, the infi¬
nite Mercy of cosmic becoming in all its luxuriating multiplicity and
complexity of forms is thought of in maternal and feminine terms,
the very word rahmah [Mercy] being closely related to the word rahim
[womb], while the absolute Mercy of spiritual reintegration in all its
rigorous simplicity of principle is thought of in paternal and mascu¬
line terms. As is only natural, however, within the context of a pa¬
triarchal tradition, the male dominates the female, the Spirit rules
over Nature, and the Reality as “God” takes precedence over the Re¬
ality as Cosmos.

The next main topic of this chapter is that of subjection, of the

Cosmos to man, man to God, and of the animal in man to the spirit
in man. After pointing out that similars cannot be subject to each oth¬
er, that a man, as a human being, cannot be subject to another man,
as human, he goes on to distinguish between subjection by force of
will and subjection by circumstance. Thus, man as servant is subject
to the will of his Lord, while man as being part of the Cosmos is cir¬
cumstantially subject to God. Similarly, as in the case of sustenance
and causality, that which is subject may also be said, in a certain
sense, to subject its subjecter. Thus God, in His creative and govern¬
ing role, is, so to speak, responsible and therefore subject to the need
and dependence of His creation, just as, in His knowledge of Himself,
whether as Essence or as Cosmos, He is subject to what the latent es¬
sences give Him to know of Himself.

Now we come to what is, perhaps, one of Ibn al-‘ArabT’s most

daring and profound concepts, that of divine passion [hawa\ This
word is usually used to denote blind passion, impulse, whim, infat¬
uation, and desire of a most earthly kind. Looking more closely, how¬
ever, at the various meanings of the Arabic root, one realizes how
subtle a concept we are here presented with. Among the meanings of
the root hawa are to fall headlong, to die, to be wide and deep, wind,
air, to blow, space, and abyss. The whole sense, therefore, of the
word, as intended here, is that of spontaneously falling passionately
in love, hurling oneself, like a rushing gust of wind, into the deep
emptiness of the abyss. This experience is, says Ibn al-‘ArabT, univer¬
sal and necessary to the whole notion of worship, since without this
desperate urge by the whole to integrate its part and by the part to
merge with the whole there would be no love, worship, or affirma¬
tion, the consummation of which is in the Oneness of Being.

For Ibn al-‘ArabI, this concept is undoubtedly related to his con¬

cept of divine Love [ mahabbah\ which is itself another way of describ¬
ing the Breath of the Merciful, which acts in response to the divine
inner yearning for Self-consciousness and thus produces the head¬
long, outgoing, “blowing” radiation of the Spirit in its urgent desire
\hawa\ to inform and enliven the all-receptive abyss of the matrix of
all becoming. In other words, the passionate love-worship that impels
man to affirm the real and eternal in his object of worship is nothing
but a reflection of the divine desire of the omnipresent Reality to
know Itself as Object and, having known Itself, to love Itself to the
point of reconsummation, since the worshiper, who is essentially
nothing other than He, is only worshiping what is also nothing other
than He. Ibn al-‘ArabI could not have picked a more suitable word,
combining as it does the both the notion of active content and that
of receptive container, since every object of love or worship is, in a
sense, an assimilating abyss, and every worshiper or lover is a “head¬
long faller,” whether it be the Breath of the divine Mercy releasing
the treasure of its essences into the abyss of cosmic existence or the
human worshiper pouring out his heart to his deity.

Ibn al-‘Arab brings this chapter to an end by stating something

very important, both for his own position with Islam and for the in¬
tegrity of any mystical tradition. That is that every true gnostic,
while inwardly aware of the unrestricted universality of truth, as ex¬
pressed so often in this work, and of the omnipresence of the Reality
in all things, nevertheless conforms outwardly to the doctrinal for¬
mulations and ritual practices of that religious dispensation to which
his destiny has made him subject by the time and place of his birth
and life. In other words his gnosis, if it is true, reveals to him not only
the undifferentiated wholeness of the Oneness of Being fundamental
to all being and experience of being but also that distinction, differ¬
entiation, tension, and otherness are an inescapable aspect of that
wholeness which at certain levels requires their due recognition and
conformity.

THE WISDOM OF LEADERSHIP

IN THE WORD OF AARON

Know that the existence of Aaron derived from the realm of the
divine Mercy, according to His saying, We bestowed on him , meaning
Moses, of our mercy , his brother Aaron, a prophet. His Prophethood
derived from the realm of the divine Mercy, since, while he was
greater than Moses in age, Moses was greater than him in Prophet-
hood. It was because Aaron’s Prophethood derived from the divine
Mercy that Moses said to his brother, son of my mother address¬
ing him by reference to his mother and not his father, since mercy
pertains to the mother more than the father and is more profuse in
its effect. But for this mercy, she would not have the patience to per¬
severe in the rearing of her children.

Then Aaron said, Do not seize me by my beard nor my hair and do

not give my enemies occasion to gloat over me. All of this is a breath
of Mercy, the reason being that Moses had not looked carefully
enough at the tablets he had cast from his hands. Had he done so he
would have found in them guidance and mercy, and they would have
made clear to him how the affair that angered him had occurred and
that Aaron was innocent of it. The Mercy was on his brother, since
he did not seize him by the beard in view of his people, because of
his advanced age and because Aaron was older than he. Aaron's plea
was an act of kindness to his brother, since his Prophethood derived
from the divine Mercy, and only such [considerate] behavior was to
be expected from him.

Then Aaron said to Moses, I fear lest you should accuse me of divid¬
ing the Children of Israel , that is to say that you might make me the
cause of their division, which was, in fact, the worship of the calf.
Some of those who worshiped it did so in emulation of al-Samirl,
while others held back from that, so that they might consult Moses
on the matter on his return. Aaron feared that Moses would attribute
their division to him. Moses, however, knew more of the matter than
did Aaron, knowing what it was that the followers of the calf were
[really] worshiping, being aware that God has ordained that none
might be worshiped save Him alone, and that what God ordains sure¬
ly happens. His rebuke to his brother was because of his [impulsive]
rejection of the affair, as also his lack of adequacy [to the occasion].
The gnostic is the one who sees God in everything, indeed, sees Him
as the essence of everything. Thus it was Moses who was teaching
Aaron, although he was younger than his brother.
Therefore, when Aaron said that to him, he turned to al-Samirl
and said, And what have you to say , Samiri ? regarding his action
in making the form of a calf from an enemy [the Devil], fashioned
from the treasures of the people, thus stealing their hearts for the sake
of their wealth. Jesus said to the Children of Israel, “O Children of
Israel, every man’s heart is where his wealth is. Let, therefore, your
wealth be in heaven so that your hearts may be there also.” He
only calls the wealth mal because it is something that by its very na¬
ture inclines [ tumilu ] hearts to its worship, being, by far, the most de¬
sired object by reason of the heart’s need for it. Forms, however, do
not endure, and the form of the calf would undoubtedly have disap-
peared had not Moses been so quick to burn it. In his great zeal he
burned it and cast the ashes of that form into the sea. Then he said
to al-SamirT, Look now upon your god, calling it a god to reinforce
his instruction, knowing well that it was an aspect of divine manifes¬
tation. He said, I will surely burn it Z

Human animality exercises a certain influence on that of the ani¬

mal by virtue of the fact that God has subjected it to man, and not
least because his [true] origin is not animal. The calf, however, was
even more subject, since what is inanimate has no will of its own and
is at man’s disposal, without any resistance on its part. If an animal
has the power to offer resistance, it becomes obstinate against what
man wants from it. If it has no such power, or if the man’s wish hap¬
pens to coincide with that of the animal, it may then be led submis¬
sively to comply with his wish. Similarly, men, like such an animal,
may be persuaded to obey some command regarding that by which
God has raised him [above the animals] for the sake of some gain he
hopes for from his compliance. Such gain is sometimes called wages,
as in His saying, He has raised some of you several degrees above others ,
so that some might subject others. A man is subject to another only in
his animality, not in his humanity, since two similars are mutually ex¬
clusive. The superior man might subject another by status through
wealth or reputation, that is to say by his humanity, but the other is
subject to him, whether through fear or greed, only by his animality,
and not by his humanity. One similar is not subject to another, in
which respect one has only to consider the mutual conflict among
animals by reason of their similarity, similars being mutually exclu¬
sive. This is why He said, And He has raised some of you above others
in degree b the one above not being as the one below in degree. This
shows that subjection is a matter of degree.

Subjection is of two kinds, the first being the subjection of the

will to him who subjects by overpowering [the will of] the subjected
one. This is like the subjection of the slave by his master, even if they
be alike in their humanity, or like the subjection by the ruler of his
subjects. Thus, even if they are his equals in their humanity, he sub-
jects them by degree. The second kind is subjection by circumstance,
as with the subjection of a people to the king who orders their affairs,
defending them, protecting them, fighting their enemies, and pre¬
serving their property and persons. In the case of this subjection by
circumstance, the subjects [in a way] subject their ruler. Properly
speaking, it is called subjection by rank, which rank governs him.
Some kings strive for their own ends, while others realize the truth
of the matter and know that by rank they are [inevitably] in subjec¬
tion to their own subjects, because they recognize their power and
right [to their service]. God rewards such a one as He rewards those
who know things as they really are. The recompense of such a person
is incumbent on God as being involved in the affairs of His servants.
Indeed, the whole Cosmos subjects, by circumstance, One Who can¬
not properly be called subjected, as He has said, Every day He is busy
with some matter

Aaron’s lack of effective power to restrain the followers of the

calf by gaining mastery over it, as Moses did, is a wisdom from God
made manifest in the created world, so that He might be worshiped
in every form. Indeed, even if that form disappears thereafter, it does
so only after it has been, for its worshipers, clothed in divinity, so
that every kind of thing is [at some time] worshiped as divine or
dominant, and every intelligent person can realize that this must be
the case. Nothing in the Cosmos is worshiped, however, except it as¬
sume for the worshiper a certain sublimity and enjoy a certain degree
in his heart. Thus God is called The Lofty in degrees, and not lofty
in degree, since He has made many degrees in One Essence. Thus
also, He has ordained that none but He should be worshiped in many
different degrees, and that each degree should become a context for
that divine Self-manifestation in which He is worshiped. The greatest
and most sublime of these is passion, as He says, Do you not consider
him who has taken his passion as a god? It is, indeed, the greatest ob¬
ject of worship, since nothing can be worshiped without it, nor can
it be worshiped without His Essence. Concerning this I say:

By the truth of passion, surely passion begets passion,

And but for passion in the heart it would not be

worshiped.

Do you not consider how perfect and complete is God’s knowl¬

edge of things, and how He accomplishes [His will] in the case of one
who worships his passion and makes of it a god? He says, God has
caused him to err , knowingly , error being confusion. Thus He sees
that the worshiper worships only his passion because he is driven to
obey its urge to worship whatever he worships. Indeed, even his wor¬
ship of God is motivated by passion, since, had he no passion for the
divine Holiness, which is the will to love, he would not worship God
or prefer Him to another. The same is the case with everyone who
worships some cosmic form and adopts it as a god, since it is only by
passion that he can regard it in this way. Every worshiper is under
the rule of passion.

Then the worshiper begins to see that, among those who wor¬
ship, the objects of worship are various and that the worshiper of
some particular object of worship accuses those who worship any¬
thing else of infidelity. Thus those who have any awareness become
confused because of the universality of this passion, indeed, the one¬
ness of passion being the same in every worshiper.
God caused him to err , that is, He confused him knowingly , in
that every worshiper serves only his passion, by which alone he is
moved to worship, whether it conforms to the Sacred Law or not.
The perfect gnostic is one who regards every object of worship as a
manifestation of God in which He is worshiped. They call it a god,
although its proper name might be stone, wood, animal, man, star, or
angel. Although that might be its particular name, Divinity presents
a level [of reality] that causes the worshiper to imagine that it is his
object of worship. In reality, this level is the Self-manifestation of
God to the consciousness of the worshiper of the object in this par¬
ticular mode of manifestation. Because of this, certain people igno¬
rantly said. We worship them only that they might bring us nearer to
God , but calling them gods when they said, Would he make the gods
into one God , surely this is amazing , They were not rejecting Him,
but showed their amazement, being limited to a notion of multiple
forms and the attribution of divinity to them. Then the apostle came
and summoned them to one God Who, although recognized, was not
affirmed by them, having shown that they confirmed Him and be¬
lieved in Him by their words, We worship them only that they may bring
us nearer to God, knowing that those forms were of stone. Thus the
argument was brought against them with His saying, So, name
them! They, however, named them only in such a way as to sug¬
gest that their names possessed a reality.

As for the gnostics, who know things as they really are, they dis¬
play an attitude of rejection toward the worship of forms, because
their degree of knowledge makes them aware that they are, by the au¬
thority of the apostle in whom they believe and through whom they
are called, believers, subject to the rule of time. Thus, despite their
awareness that the polytheists do not worship the forms themselves,
but only God in them, by the dominance of the divine Self-manifes¬
tation they discern in them, they are nevertheless servants of [their]
time. The rejecter, who has no knowledge of how He manifests Him¬
self, is completely unaware of this, since the true gnostic hides all this
from the prophet, the apostle, and their heirs. Instead, he orders the
polytheists to shun such forms whenever the apostle of the time does
so. This they do, adhering to the apostle and seeking the love of God,
as He says, Say: If you love God, then follow me and God will love you (
He is summoning to a god who is eternally resorted to, universally
known, but not seen. Sight cannot reach Him but, He reaches all
sight , by virtue of His subtlety and permeation in the essence of
things. The eyes cannot see Him, just as they cannot see the spirits
that govern their shapes and outer forms. He is the Subtle, the Expe¬
rienced , experience being immediate tasting, which is His Self¬
manifestation that is in the forms. Both they and He are necessary,
just as one who sees Him through his passion, must worship Him if
only you would comprehend; and to God does the path lead.

CHAPTER XXV
THE WISDOM OF EMINENCE
IN THE WORD OF MOSES

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

This is a very complex chapter that deals with many subjects.

Certain important themes, however, deserve special note. The first of
these is the relationship, dealt with throughout the chapter, between
Moses and Pharaoh. The second is the equally interesting relation¬
ship between Moses and al-Khidr. Last, he deals again with various
aspects of the divine desire to create the Cosmos in a movement of
love, the necessity of cosmic ephemerality for the wholeness of the
Reality, and the spiritual perplexity experienced by the gnostic who
tries to grasp the paradox of divine polarity in Oneness.

In the Qur'an, Pharaoh is the archetype of unbelieving, arrogant,

unjust, and self-deifying man, the supreme example of the man who,
knowing the truth of divine Unity in his heart, deliberately sup¬
presses that truth in order to arrogate to himself the rights and pow¬
ers that are properly God’s. He thus represents the ultimate abuse of
the viceregal function of man by seeking to rule in his own name and
to ignore the Law of Heaven. This arrogance is summed up in two
words in the Qur'an, kufr and zulm , the first meaning the deliberate
ignoring or concealment of truth for one’s own ends, the second be¬
ing that arbitrary oppression and injustice which is the hallmark of
every tyrant. In short, Pharaoh is the embodiment or personification
of naked power without principle. Correspondingly, Moses, in the
situation described in the Qur'an, represents human commitment and
conformity to divine Law, but without the personal power to enforce
it. Thus, while Moses has spiritual rank and authority, Pharaoh has
actual rank and authority in this world, illustrating, once more, the
paradoxical tension between the divine Wish, as symbolized by Mo¬
ses, and the divine Will, as symbolized by Pharaoh. In other words,
Ibn al-‘ArabT is suggesting that, despite the apparent godlessness of
Pharaoh, the actuality of his power can be nothing other than a par¬
ticular realization, in the human context, of power as a function of
the divine Will to create, the implication being that, inwardly, Pha¬
raoh knows the divine truth, but perforce fulfills his cosmic function
in accordance with his own predisposition in divinis , even though that
function appears entirely reprehensible from the viewpoint of the di¬
vine Wish as expounded by Moses. Thus, the dialogue between Moses
and Pharaoh, which on the surface appears to be a simple confron¬
tation between right and wrong, good and evil, is in fact an act in the
drama eternally being played between the polar principles of the cre¬
ative Will and the spiritual Wish of God. The inward reality of Pha¬
raoh’s faith is reaffirmed at the point of his death.

In the case of the relationship between Moses and al-Khidr,

which is the name traditionally assigned to the unnamed person
whom Moses meets in the Qur'an, we have rather an illustration of
the perennial tension between the Sacred Law, represented by Moses
and expressing the divine Wish, and the mystic or esoteric knowledge
of the gnosis that perceives not only the necessity for and validity of
that Law, but also the inescapable validity and necessity of those as¬
pects of cosmic becoming that elude the Law, as also the synthesis of
both in the Oneness of Being. Moses, as exponent of the revealed
Word as Law, fails to understand, or seems to, either the scope and
relevance of the divine Will or the fundamental Oneness in which the
conflict Spirit-world is resolved. Al-Khidr, on the other hand, while
perceiving this failure on Moses’ part, nevertheless respects his spiri¬
tual rank as a prophet, recognizing also the inevitability of his appar¬
ent bias as being necessary to the tension between poles of the divine
Reality. In other words, there are certain things revealed by gnosis
inwardly, which the prophet and apostle, as in the case of Noah
(Chap. ), cannot take account of outwardly as representative of the
spiritual pole, being committed by his function to the rejection of ev-
erything, albeit actualized by the divine Will, that does not conform
to the divine Wish.

As has been mentioned before, Ibn al- l ArabT sees the outgoing
movement of creation as being impelled by Love \rnahabbah ], that is
the divine Love, yearning, or desire to know Himself, to love Himself
and ultimately to unite with Himself in the consummation of Reality.
As has also been mentioned, this loving movement toward Self-
knowledge by creating His cosmic reflection implies the inescapable
necessity of what is called the “ephemeral” as an essential element in
the attainment of that Self-recognition, as being that necessary cos¬
mic formulation, as object, of what He is in Himself, latently and es¬
sentially. This polarity of, on the one hand, the Cosmos essentially
implicit in Godhead and, on the other, God spiritually implicit in cos¬
mic forms, with all the seemingly irreconcilable tensions and con¬
flicts inherent in such a polarity, presents the human intellect with
a terrible dilemma that can be resolved only by the greatest realiza¬
tion of all, which is to acquire insight into and experience of the One¬
ness of Being. Awareness of that polar mutuality of God-Cosmos,
Wish-Will, Spirit-Nature, throws the aspirant into a state of over¬
whelming perplexity [ hairah ] in which he can only drown to himself,
letting go of all partial certainties and sinking into the ocean of divine
realities, thus annihilating himself, only to subsist in Him. For such
a one there is no “we” and “He,” no duality or tension, but only we
in Him in us in It in an ineffable experience of Oneness.

THE WISDOM OF EMINENCE

IN THE WORD OF MOSES

The wisdom of the slaughter of the male children because of Mo¬

ses was that the life of each boy killed because of him might revert
to him as strength, since each one was killed as being (potentially)
Moses. There was no ignorance in the matter, since the life of each
boy killed because of him had to revert to Moses, each life being pure
and innocent, unsullied by selfish aims and in the state of Yea , zzz-
deed! Moses was thus a fusion of each life taken in his stead, and
everything prepared for each child according to its spiritual receptiv¬
ity [then] resided in Moses. For Moses, this was a special divine favor
not bestowed on anyone before him.

The Wisdom of Moses is manifold and, if God wills, we will in¬

clude in this chapter as much of it as the divine command dictates to
my mind. Indeed, this is the first time I have spoken of such matters.

From his birth Moses was an amalgam of many spirits and active
powers, the younger person acting on the older. Do you not see how
the child acts on the older person in a special way, so that the older
person comes down from his position of superiority, plays and chat¬
ters with him, and opens his mind to him. Thus, he is under the
child’s influence without realizing it. Furthermore, the child preoc¬
cupies him with its rearing and protection, the supervision of his in¬
terests and the ensuring that nothing might cause it anxiety. All this
demonstrates the action of the younger on the older by virtue of the
power of his [spiritual] station, since the child’s contact with his Lord
is fairly recent, being a new creature. The older person, on the other
hand, is more distant from that contact. One who is closer to God ex¬
erts power over one who is further from Him, just as the confidants
of a king wield power over those further removed from his presence.
The Apostle of God would expose himself to the rain, uncovering his
head to it, saying that the rain had come fresh from its Lord. Consider
then, how majestic, sublime, and clear is our Prophet’s knowledge of
God. Even so, the rain had power over the best of humanity by virtue
of its proximity to its Lord, like a divine emissary summoning him
in his essence, in a silent way. He exposed himself to it so that he
might receive what it had brought from its Lord to him. Indeed, he
would not have exposed himself to it but for the divine benefit im¬
plicit in its contact with him. This, then, is the message of water
from which God created every living thing; so understand.

As for the wisdom related to his [Moses’] being placed in the bas¬
ket and being cast on the waters, it is that the basket represents his
humanity, while the waters represent the learning he acquired
through the medium of his body, such as is obtained through the fac¬
ulty of speculative thought, of sensation and imagination, all of which
accrue to the human soul only through the existence of the elemental
body. When the soul attaches to this body and is commanded to act
in it and direct it, God allots these faculties to it as a means by which
to achieve the direction God wishes for this vessel [basket] in which
resides the tranqillitv of the Lord. 'hus, he was cast on the waters
that he might acquire by these faculties all kinds of learning. God told
him that even though the directing spirit was the body’s ruler, it di¬
rected it only through him. God granted to him those powers inher¬
ent in humanity and expressed in terms of “the basket” in qur'anic
and learned allusions.

The same is true of the Reality’s direction of the Cosmos, since

He directs it only by itself or by its form. This He does in the same
way as the child depends on the engendering of the father, of effects
on their causes, of agreements on their conditions, of attested things
on their evidence, and of realizable things on their realities. All such
things are of the Cosmos, being nothing other than the Reality’s
working in it, which He does only through it itself. As for our saying,
“or by its form,” it means the form of the Cosmos, by which is meant
the Beautiful Names and sublime attributes by which the Reality is
named and described. Whenever we hear one of His Names, we may
discover its meaning and spirit in the Cosmos, since He directs the
Cosmos only through its form.

Therefore, He has said of the creation of Adam, who is the syn¬

thetic link of the attributes of the divine Presence, which is the Es¬
sence, to the qualities and actions, “Surely, God created Adam in His
Own image,” His image being nothing other than the divine Pres¬
ence. In this noble epitome, which is the Perfect Man, He created all
the divine Names and realities, which issue forth from him into the
macrocosm outside him. God made him a spirit for the Cosmos and
subjected to him what is high and low, by virtue of the perfection of
his form. Just as there is nothing in the Cosmos but gives Him praise,
so there is nothing that is not subject to this Man by reason of what
is invested in him by the reality of his form. God says, He has subjected
to you , as a charge from Him , all that is in the heavens and the earth ,
so that everything in the Cosmos is subject to Man. Whoever [truly]
knows this is the Perfect Man, while whoever knows it not is the ani¬
mal man.

Outwardly, the placing of Moses in the basket and the casting of

the basket on the waters is an image of destruction, while inwardly
it meant his escape from death. Thus, his life was spared, as the soul’s
life is spared from the death of ignorance by learning, as He says or
was dead from ignorance, and We revived him by learning, and We gave
him a light by which to walk among men , which is the guidance. [Is such
a one] like one in darkness , that is, error, never to emerge therefrom
which means that he will never be rightly guided, and that He has
decreed for his soul that he should have no goal to aim at? [True]
guidance means being guided to bewilderment, that he might know
that the whole affair [of God] is perplexity, which means perturba¬
tion and flux, and flux is life. There is no abatement and no cessation,
but all is being with no nonbeing. The same is the case with water
by which the earth lives and moves, as in His saying, and it quivers
in its pregnancy, and swells in its bringing forth, and brings forth every
joyous pair, That is to say that it gives birth only to what is like it
in Nature. This pairing is the polarity inherent in all that is born or
manifest from her. Similarly, the Being of God has a [certain] mul¬
tiplicity and diversity of Names, because what is manifest of Him in
the Cosmos innately requires the realities of the divine Names, so
that by it [the Cosmos] and by its Creator the unity of multiplicity
is confirmed. In respect to its essence it is single, as the essence of pri¬
mordial substance is single, but it is multiple in respect to the outer
forms it bears within its essence. So it is with God in respect to the
forms of His Self-manifestation.

He is the theater of the forms of the Cosmos, taking into account

His Unity. How fine is this divine teaching, insight into which is a
special favor granted By God to whomsoever He wishes.

When Pharaoh and his people found him in the water by the
tree, Pharaoh called him Moses [Musa], mu meaning water and sa
meaning a tree, in Coptic. Thus, he called him according as he had
found him, since the basket stopped by a tree at the water’s edge. He
intended to kill him, but his wife was inspired by divine words, see¬
ing that God had created her for perfection, as our Prophet said when
he attributed to her and to Mary the perfection usually reserved for
males. She said to her husband, Let him be a consolation for you and
me So it was that she was consoled with the perfection assigned
to her, as we have said.

Pharoah’s consolation was in the faith God endowed him with

when he was [later] drowned. God took him to Himself spotless, pure
and untainted by any taint, because He took him in the act of com¬
mitment, before he could commit any sin, since submission [to God]
erases all that has gone before it. Thus, He made of him a symbol of
the loving care He may bestow on whomsoever He wills, lest anyone
should despair of the mercy of God, For , only the unfaithful people de¬
spair of the spirit of God , Had Pharaoh been despairing, he would
not have hastened to believe [in God].

Moses was, as Pharaoh’s wife had said of him, a consolation to you

and me and , perchance a benefit to us both f for God benefited both of
them by him, even though they were not aware that he was the
prophet at whose hands the kingdom and people of Pharaoh would
come to destruction. When God had saved him from Pharaoh, His
mother's heart became empty , that is, empty of the anxiety that had
afflicted her. Then God kept him from being suckled until he might
be brought to his own mother’s breast, so that He might make her
pleasure in him complete.

Such is also the case with knowledge of the Sacred Law. He says,
For everyone of you We have made a way and a course [minhaja ], that
is a path [shir‘ah], while minhajan [min-ha ja'a] means that it came
from that way, this being an allusion to the source from which it
came, which is sustenance for the law-abiding servant, just as the
branch of a tree feeds only from its root. Thus, what is forbidden in
one Law is permitted in another, from the formal standpoint. This
does not mean that it has always been permitted, since the divine
Command is [always] a new creation that is never repeated: so be
alert. This is indicated, in the case of Moses, by his being denied a
wet-nurse. This is because the real mother is the one who suckles the
child, and not the one who bears hm. The mother who bears him car¬
ries him as a trust [from the father], and he comes into being in her
and feeds on her menstrual blood, all of which happens involuntarily,
so that she has no claim on him. Indeed, he feeds only on that which
would kill her and make her ill, were it not to discharge from her.

One might say, therefore, that the fetus has a claim on her, seeing that
he feeds on that blood and thus protects her from the harm she might
suffer were it to remain inside her and not discharge from her or be
eaten by the fetus. The wet-nurse is not like that, for by her suckling
she promotes his life and survival deliberately. This (voluntary moth¬
erhood) was provided by God for Moses from the mother who also
bore him. Thus, none other than the mother who bore him was given
the right to him, so that she might find consolation also in rearing
him and watching him grow on her bosom, that she might not grieve *
Thus did God rescue him from the distress of the basket, and he
pierced through the darkness of nature by the divine learning that
God granted to him, even though he did not [completely] emerge
from it. God tempted him many times, testing him in many situa¬
tions, so that patience with God’s trials might be realized in him. The
first test was his killing of the Egyptian, which was inspired in him
by God and deposited in his inmost heart, although he himself did
not know it. He did not really have any interest in killing him, al¬
though he did not hesitate when God’s command came to him. That
is because the prophet is inwardly protected, being unaware of some¬
thing until God informs him of it. Thus, when al-Khidr killed the
youth in front of him, Moses disapproved of that, forgetting his own
killing of the Egyptian. Then al-Khidr said, I did not do it on my own
initiative , trying to apprise him of his rank, before he was himself
informed that he was, although unaware of it, protected against any
tendency (contrary to the divine Will). He also showed to him the
sinking of the vessel, which symbolized destruction outwardly, while
inwardly it meant deliverance from the action of a plunderer. In this
he was giving him a comparison with the basket by which he had
been encompassed in the water, the outer aspect of which was de¬
struction, deliverance being its inner significance. His mother had
done it, only out of fear lest the destroying hand of Pharaoh should
sacrifice him in his helplessness before her eyes, despite what God
had revealed to her, to the effect that she should not be aware [see].
Although she felt a strong urge to suckle him, she cast him out on the
waters when she feared for his safety; as the proverb goes, “What the
eye does not see, the heart does not grieve about.” It was not because
of something she could see that she feared and grieved for him, hav¬
ing as she did a strong intimation that God might restore him to her,
because of her trust in Him. Thus she lived with this feeling, hope
and despair jostling within her, so that, when she was inspired by
God, she said to herself, “Perhaps this is the messenger at whose
hands Pharaoh and the Egyptians will be destroyed.” Thus she lived
with this feeling and was content with it, it being also [a form of]
knowledge.

Then, when he was sought [for the crime he had committed], he

left [that place] in flight, outwardly afraid, while inwardly seeking de¬
liverance, since all motivation springs from love, the observer being
diverted from this by its other less important causes. That is because
the origin [of all motivation] is the movement of the Cosmos out of
its state of nonexistence in which it was [latently] until its existence,
it being, so to speak, a stirring from immobility [rest]. The movement
that is the coming into existence of the Cosmos is a movement of love.
This is shown by the Apostle of God in the saying, “I was an un¬
known treasure, and longed to be known ,” so that, but for this
longing, the Cosmos would not have become manifest in itself. Thus
its movement from nonexistence into existence is the love of the Cre¬
ator for it [to happen]. Similarly, the Cosmos longs to behold itself in
existence as it did in its latency, so that, in every respect, its move¬
ment from the latency of nonexistence into existence is a movement
of love by the Reality and the Cosmos.
Perfection is loved for itself, so that God’s knowledge of Himself,
as being beyond all need of the worlds, is for Himself [alone]. There
remains only the completion of the degree of Self-knowledge through
knowledge of what is ephemeral, which stems from the essences of
the Cosmos when they come into existence. The image of perfection
is complete only with knowledge of both the ephemeral and the eter¬
nal, the rank of knowledge being perfected only by both aspects.
Similarly, the various other grades of existence are perfected, since
being is divided into eternal and noneternal or ephemeral. Eternal
Being is God’s being for Himself, while noneternal being is the being
of God in the forms of the latent Cosmos. It is called ephemeral be¬
cause parts of it are manifest to others, which being is manifest to it-
self in the forms of the Cosmos. Thus Being is perfect, the whole
movement of the Cosmos being the movement of love for perfection,
so understand.

Consider, then, how He relieves the distress of the divine Names

in the lack of the manifestation of their effects in the Cosmos. This
is because God loves relief, which may be achieved only through for¬
mal being, whether high or low. So is it confirmed that movement is
for love, there being no movement in existence except for love. Al¬
though some of the learned are aware of this, others are made igno¬
rant of it by the impact of more immediate circumstantial factors and
their influence over the soul.

Moses’ fear of the consequences of his killing the Egyptian was

outwardly apparent, although the fear contained within itself the de¬
sire [love] for escape from execution. Although he fled when he be¬
came afraid, in reality he fled when he began to desire escape from
Pharaoh and his designs. He does indeed mention the more immedi¬
ate and evident cause of his fleeing, which was [to the real cause] as
the bodily form is to a man, the desire for escape being implicit, just
as the human spirit is implicit in the body. For the benefit of the
many, the prophets express themselves on this matter in an outer
fashion, limited as they are by the understanding of the hearer. This
is because the apostles consider only the generality of men, being well
aware of their level of understanding. Our own Prophet said, con¬
cerning the question of level in the matter of [worldly] gifts, “I will
give a certain man a gift, even though I may prefer another, lest God
cast him into the Fire ,” since he considered him weak of intelli¬
gence and insight and governed by greed and mere instinct. Thus, the
knowledge they bring is couched in terms suitable for the lowest un¬
derstanding, so that one who has no depth of understanding may go
no further than the outward forms [of the message], wonder at its out¬
er manifestation, and think that to be the [furthest] limit of knowl¬
edge. On the other hand, one of refined understanding, who would
probe to the depths for the pearls of wisdom he deserves [to find],
says, “This is the outer garment of a king.” Thus he examines the
quality of the garment and the fineness of its cloth and thereby learns
the worth of the one whom it covers, so acquiring knowledge denied
to the other, who understands nothing of this. Since, therefore, the
prophets, apostles, and their heirs know that such people exist in the
world, and among their own peoples, they strive to express what they
say openly, so as to combine what is outer and public with what is
special and inward, so that the special person will understand what
the generality understand and more, as is appropriate to that special
capacity which distinguishes him from the ordinary man, while those
who [who are charged to] convey the knowledge are content with
this. This, then, is the wisdom [implicit] in his [Moses’] saying, / fled
from you when I feared you ; he did not say, “I fled from you from
a desire for safety and well-being.”

Then he came to Madyan and found two maidens and obtained

water for them , without any payment; then he went back to the shade of
God and said, Lord , I am in dire need of the good you sent down to
mef thus equating his action in obtaining water with the good that
God had sent down to him, speaking of himself as being in dire need
of God for the good He has. Al-Khidr showed to him the wall being
rebuilt for nothing, and Moses chided him for that. He then remind¬
ed him of his obtaining water without payment and other things he
did not mention, until Muhammad wished that Moses would keep
quiet and not interfere until God had related their story to him, so
that he might learn what Moses had attained to without being aware
of it. Had he been aware of it [in himself], he would not have failed
to recognize it in al-Khidr, whom God had confirmed to him as pu¬
rified and equitable. Moses, however, was unaware of God’s purifi¬
cation of al-Khidr and forgot the condition he had laid down if he
were to follow him, which is a mercy for us who are [frequently] for¬
getful of God’s command. Had Moses been aware of it, al-Khidr
would not have said to him, what you have no experience of which
is to say that he knew things of which Moses had no experience, as
Moses knew things he did not know. Thus, he was just to Moses.

As for the wisdom implicit in his parting from al-Khidr, it is in

God’s saying, Do what the Apostle tells you to do and refrain from what
he forbids you Those of the learned in God who know the true
worth of the Apostleship and the apostle need go no further than this
saying. Al-Khidr, knowing that Moses was an apostle of God, paid
careful attention to what he did and said, so that the proprieties
might be maintained as regards his position vis a vis an apostle. Moses
said to him, If I ask you anything more , then do not keep company with
me. When, therefore, it happened a third time, al-Khidr said, This
is the parting between me and you. At this Moses said and did noth¬
ing, demanding no more of his company, since he recognized the sig¬
nificance of the rank that had prompted him to deny him any further
companionship. Moses therefore remained silent and they parted
company.

Consider, then, the perfection of these two men in knowledge in

their maintaining of the divine proprieties, as also al-Khidr’s impar¬
tiality in recognizing Moses’ rank when he said, “I have knowledge
from God that you do not have, just as you have knowledge from God
that I do not possess.” This concession to Moses’ knowledge was by
way of alleviating the irritation he had caused him by saying, How can
you have patience with that of which you have no experience? while
knowing the loftiness of his apostolic rank, which he himself did not
enjoy. This is relevant to the Community of Muhammad in the story
of the pollination of the palm trees. Muhammad said to his compan¬
ions, “You have more experience [than I] of what needs to be done
in this world,” although there is no doubt that knowledge of a
thing is better than ignorance of it. God, therefore, extols Himself as
being knowledgeable about all things. Thus, the Apostle recognized
that his companions were more knowledgeable about the things of
this world, of which he had no experience, since such things are a
matter of experience and direct contact, and Muhammad had no time
for such knowledge, being concerned with more important matters.
I have brought your attention to a way of behaving that will greatly
benefit you if you train yourself to it.

He also said, My Lord has given me an authority , meaning the vice-

gerency, and made me one of the apostles, meaning the Apostleship,
although not every apostle is a vicegerent. This is because the vice¬
gerent bears the sword and is one who dismisses and appoints gov¬
ernors, whereas the apostle is not such, his only charge being to
communicate the message with which he is sent. If he should fight
for and protect it by the sword, then he is both a vicegerent and an
apostle. Thus, just as not every prophet is an apostle, so not every
apostle is a vicegerent, which is to say that dominion and rulership
are not given to everyone.

As for the wisdom implicit in Pharaoh’s question regarding the

nature of God, it lies in the fact that it was not asked out of any
ignorance on his part, but from experience, to see how consonant his
answer would be with his claim to be the Lord’s apostle. Pharaoh
knew well the rank of apostle through his knowledge [of God], and
he duly inferred from Moses’ answer the veracity of his claim. He
asked the question in a misleading way, to acquaint those present,
without their knowing it, of what he himself was aware of in asking
the question. When, therefore, Moses answered in the way of one
who knows, Pharaoh, to preserve his position, pretended that Moses
had not answered the question [properly], so that it might appear to
those present, who were weak in understanding, that he knew more
than Moses. Therefore, when Moses answered the question in a way
that seemed not to answer what was asked, Pharaoh, knowing that he
would answer in that way, said to his entourage, Surely , this messenger
of yours is mad, that is, he is ignorant of what I asked him about,
since he does not seem, basically, to know. The question was a valid
one, since the question “What?” is concerned with the reality of what
is sought, which must be real in itself. As for the imposition of defi¬
nitions involving genus and species, they are applicable to everything
that admits of association. As for Him Who has no genus, His reality
in Himself must be quite other than that in any other. Thus, the ques¬
tion is a valid one, according to the people of God, true learning, and
sound intelligence, and the answer to it could only have been the one
that Moses gave.

Here is a great mystery, since he effectively answered one who

had asked about the most essential of all definitions by couching his
answer to conform with His own attribution of Himself to the cosmic
forms by which He manifests Himself, or in which He is manifest.
It was as if he had said in answer to his question, And what is the Lord
of the worlds? “He in Whom are manifest the forms of the worlds,
both on high, which is the heavens, and down below, which is the
earth, if you are certain or by which He is manifest.” When, there-
fore, Pharaoh said to his entourage, “Surely, he is mad,” as we have
mentioned, Moses explained further, so that Pharaoh might recognize
his degree of divine knowledge, although he knew that Pharaoh knew
it already. Thus he said, Lord of the East and West* so combining
what is apparent with what is hidden, the outer and the inner and
what is between them, as in His saying, He knows everything * Also
He says, If you are intelligent , that is, if you are of those who re¬
strict, the intellect being restrictive. The first part of the answer is
for the “certain ones” who are the people of inspiration and [true] be¬
ing, since He said to them, If you are certain* in other words the
people of inspiration and [true] being. [It is as if He were saying to
them], “I have only informed you of what your inner witness and es¬
sential being have made you certain of. If you are not of this kind,
but people of intellect, restriction, and limitation, then I answer you
with the second part, for God is [also] present in your intellectual
proofs.” Moses showed himself in both aspects, so that Pharaoh might
know his virtue and veracity. Moses knew that Pharaoh knew or was
getting to know that, because he had asked what God was, just as he
knew that he had not put the question as the ancients did when they
asked the question “What?” Therefore, he answered him. Had he
thought otherwise, he would have regarded the question as mistaken.
Thus, when Moses associated the one asked about with the Cosmos,
Pharaoh conversed with him in this fashion, unknown to those pres¬
ent. He said, If you have a god other than me , I will surely imprison you *
Now, the letter sin in the word sijn [prison] is a redundant letter; in
other words [he was saying], “I will surely cover \janna] [confuse]
you, for you answered in such a way as to provoke me into saying
what I said to you. You might have said to me, ‘O Pharaoh, you are
showing your ignorance in threatening me, but how can you separate
[us, essentially], seeing that the Essence is One.’ ” Pharaoh is saying
[to him], “It is only the ranks that divide the Essence [apparently], al¬
beit that the Essence cannot [in reality] be divided or separated. My
rank now is that of de facto power over you. Although I am you, es-
sentially, I am, nevertheless, different from you in rank.” When Mo¬
ses understood this, he admitted his right, while saying to him that
he could not do it [what he had threatened]. Pharaoh’s rank demon¬
strated to Moses that he had power and influence over him because
God in the outer form of the rank of Pharaoh had power over that
rank in which Moses was manifest in that situation.

Moses then said to him, by way of resisting his threat, What if

I were to present to you something clear and unambiguous, to which
Pharaoh could only reply, Present it then , if you are truthful lest he
should appear weak and unjust to his people, who might doubt him,
a people whom he despised but who obeyed him. Surely , they are the
evildoers that is to say, those who refuse to admit that sound intel¬
ligence requires the rejection of what Pharaoh claimed with his
words. That is because the intellect reaches a certain limit, beyond
which it cannot go, while one possessed of inspiration and certainty
can proceed beyond that limit. Thus Moses produces an answer that
can be accepted, particularly by one who is certain and intelligent. So,
he cast down his staff which was in the form of Pharaoh’s rejection
of Moses in resisting a response to his summons; and Lo , it was a man¬
ifest serpent that is a snake, unmistakably. Thus, the disobedience
[of Pharaoh], which is evil, was changed into obedience, which is a
good thing, as He says, God changed their evil deeds into good deeds
that is, according to [divine] judgment. Thus, the judgment is here
manifest in a particular thing in a single substance, since outwardly
it is the staff and the snake. As a snake, it devoured the other snakes
like it, and as a staff it consumed the other staffs. Thus Moses’ argu¬
ment appeared superior to that of Pharaoh, [as symbolized] in the
form of staffs, snakes, and strands. The magicians had strands, which
are small threads, while Moses had none, which shows that their
powers, in relation to Moses’ power, was as that of strands to huge
mountains. When the magicians saw that, they became aware of Mo¬
ses’ degree of knowledge, realizing that what they witnessed was not
of mortal doing, or, if it were, it could only have come from one
whose knowledge is free of all fancy and ambiguity.

Have faith, therefore, in the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of Mo¬
ses and Aaron, the Lord on Whom Moses and Aaron called, since the
magicians realized that the people were well aware that it was not
Pharaoh on whom Moses had called. It was only because Pharaoh was
in a position of power, the man of the moment and vicegerent by the
sword, even though he had abused all legal norms, that he said I am
your highest Lordl That is to say, “Even if all be Lords in a certain
sense, I am higher by virtue of the rule I have been granted, outward¬
ly, over you.” The magicians, realizing the truth of what he said, far
from denying it, confirmed it, saying, You only judge in the things of
this world; so pass judgment, for the state is yours. Thus, his saying, I
am your highest lord , was correct, since, even though he was [in es¬
sence] God Himself, the form was that of Pharaoh. By the divine Es¬
sence [within him], but in the form of falsehood, he cut off hands and
feet and crucified people, so that ranks might be acquired that could
be acquired only by such action. Causes can never be canceled, be¬
cause the latent essences make them necessary. They are manifest in
existence only in some form or other according as their latent states
dictate, there being no way of changing the words [logoi] of God,
which are nothing other than the essences of created things. In re¬
spect of their latency [in aeternis ], they are called permanent, while,
in respect of their existence and manifestation, they are called ephem¬
eral. One might say that some guest has only just come to us today,
which does not mean that he had no existence before his appearance
[as a visitor]. Thus, God, in His mighty speech, says, which means
His sending it forth despite its eternality, Whenever there comes to them
some new reminder from their Lord, they listen to it casually , and, When¬
ever there comes to them some new reminder from the Merciful, they turn
aside from it. The Merciful only comes by Mercy, and whoever
turns aside from it may expect the penalty, which is a lack of Mercy.
Also His saying, Their faith will not avail them when they see Our might;
the norm of God which has been applied before to His servants, except
to the people of Jonah, which exception does not mean that it will not
benefit them in the Hereafter, but means that it will not save them
from blame in this world.

Thus, Pharaoh was taken [killed] despite his [sudden] faith,

which would also have been the case if he had been certain of dying
in that moment. The evidence, however, indicates that he was not
certain, since he watched the believers walking along the dry path
that had appeared when Moses struck the sea with his staff. Thus,
when he believed, Pharaoh was not certain of destruction, unlike the
dying man [who only believes] so that death might not touch him. He
believed as the Children of Israel believed, although he was [falsely]
certain that he would be saved [from destruction]. What he was cer¬
tain of ocurred, but in a form other than that he had wished for. God
saved him from the punishment of the Hereafter in his soul, and also
saved his body [corpse], as He says, Today We will save your body , so
that you might be a sign to those that come after you, , lest his people
should say that he had merely gone into hiding if his form had dis¬
appeared. Although dead, he was visible in his usual form, so that it
might be known that it was he. He was thus saved both outwardly
and inwardly. One who is condemned to be punished in the Hereaf¬
ter does not believe, whatever sign he is given, Until they see the painful
punishment , that is, until they experience the punishment of the
Hereafter. It is clear from the Qur'an that Pharaoh was not of that
kind. We say further, but God has the last word, that, although peo¬
ple think that he was damned, there is no text to support such a view.
As regards his people, that is another story for which there is no place
here.

Know that God does not take a man who is dying, unless he be
a believer, insofar as the divine warning has reached him. For this
reason sudden death and the killing of a man unawares are abhorred.
While, in the case of sudden death, the internal breath escapes, but
the external breath does not enter, this is not so with one who dies
[more slowly]. It is the same with one who is killed unawares, [for ex¬
ample] by being struck from behind. Such a person is taken in what-
ever state of belief or unbelief he is in when he dies. The Prophet
said, “He will be gathered in the state he was in at death.” The dy¬
ing man, on the other hand, is aware of death and is sure about what
is happening, so that he is taken in that state. This is because kana [to
be, become] is a word of being that is concerned with the extension
of time only by association with states. A distinction must be made,
therefore, between an unbeliever who dies in a state of awareness and
one who is killed unawares or dies suddenly, as we have mentioned
regarding sudden death.

As for the divine Self-revelation and its speaking in the form of

fire, it ocurred because of the desire of Moses. God revealed Himself
[to him] in [the form of] his desire, so that he might approach and not
turn away. Had He revealed Himself to him in any other way, he
would have turned away because of the concentration of his interest
on a particular purpose. If he had turned away, his act would have
rebounded on him and God would have turned away from him also.
He, however, was a chosen and favored one, as indicated by the fact
that God revealed Himself to him in [the object of] his desire, un¬
known to him.

As with the fire of Moses, he saw it as his very need,

Unknown to him it was indeed the very God.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE WISDOM OF RESOURCE

IN THE WORD OF KHALID

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Two subjects are touched on in this very short chapter. The first
is the subject of the Isthmus [barzakb], that intermediary world set be¬
tween life and death, as also between death or nonexistence and life.
It is that halfway house between Spirit and Nature, between becom¬
ing and reintegration, in which the intangible spirit becomes trans¬
formed into physical form and in which or through which forms are
transfigured into spirits. It is a subtle world, neither physical nor
spiritual, that is the meeting place of Heaven and Earth, between one
creative “breath” and another, and between one duration and an¬
other.

The other subject is that of intention or wish and its fulfillment,

the question being whether an unfulfilled intention or wish merits
the same recompense as one that is fulfilled actually. According to the
Prophet Muhammad, men will be judged according to their inten¬
tions, which suggests that they do deserve equal recompense. In cer¬
tain respects, intention and wish have to do with love and desire,
while fulfillment has to do with destiny, both of which have to do
with essential predisposition. Within the context of the Oneness of
Being, every wish is His wish, which cannot but be fulfilled in some
way or another.

THE WISDOM OF RESOURCE

IN THE WORD OF KHALID

The wisdom of Khalid b. Sinan resides in the fact that, in his mis¬
sion, he manifested the Prophethood of the Isthmus. He claimed that
he would reveal what was there [at the Isthmus] only after his death.
It was therefore ordered that he be disinterred. When he was asked
about the matter, he revealed that its regimen was in the form of this
world, by which it may be known that what the apostles said in their
wordly lives was true. It was Khalid’s aim that the whole world
should believe in what the apostles told them, so that divine Mercy
should be available to all. He was ennobled by the proximity of his
mission to that of Muhammad, knowing that God had sent him as a
mercy to the worlds. Although Khalid was not himself an apostle, he
sought to acquire as much as possible of the [all-encompassing] mercy
of Muhammad’s mission. He was not himself commanded to deliver
God’s dispensation, but wished, nevertheless, to benefit from it in the
Isthmus, so that his knowledge of creation might be greater. His peo¬
ple, however, failed him. A prophet does not speak of his people as
failing, but rather as failing him, in that they did not enable him to
fulfill his purpose.

Did God, then, allow him to achieve the fulfillment of his wish?
While there is no doubt that He did, there is doubt as to whether he
attained to the object of his wish, which raises the question as to
whether the wish for something to happen is the same as its happen¬
ing or failing to happen. In the Sacred Law there are many instances
that support such an equation. Thus, one who tries hard to attend the
congregational prayer, but misses it, is rewarded as if he had attended
it. Similarly in the case of one who would dearly like to perform the
good deeds possible to rich and wealthy men, his reward is the same
as theirs. However, is the similarity in intention or in action, since
they combine both intention and act? The Prophet did not pronounce
on either one of them. Outwardly, they do not seem to be the same.
Thus, Khalid b. Sinan sought to attain both the wish and its fulfill¬
ment and thus reap two rewards; but God knows best.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE WISDOM OF SINGULARITY

IN THE WORD OF MUHAMMAD

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The last chapter, named after the Prophet Muhammad, is, in the
main, an extended commentary on the reported saying of the Proph¬
et, “Three things have been made beloved to me in this world of
yours: women, perfume, and prayer,” which, for Ibn al-‘ArabT, serves
to illustrate the underlying theme of triplicity in singularity, a sub¬
ject already touched on in Chapter . As has been pointed out, this
triplicity in singularity is, in simple terms, the two fundamental poles
of the God-Cosmos polarity, the third factor of the relationship be¬
tween the two, all three elements being united in the Oneness of Be¬
ing. In the course of his commentary on the saying of the Prophet,
which contains three symbolic elements, Ibn al-‘ArabT makes some
very remarkable and daring statements, the various implications of
which he does not fully develop, probably from fear of going too far,
conscious as he was of the limits imposed on him by the nature of the
Dispensation to which time and place had committed him.

For our author, the three elements used in the saying of the
Prophet are perfectly suited to the kind of interpretation and com¬
mentary he intended, since each element is associated with a whole
constellation of symbolic meanings, each of which helps to illustrate
some aspect or mode of triplicity and polarity.

The word “women” very well represents the various aspects and
nature of the cosmic pole, suggesting as it does multiplicity, nature,
form, body, receptivity, fecundity, becoming, beauty, fascination. In
short, the feminine symbolizes, microcosmically and therefore in a
very succinct way, the very principle of the projected and multifac¬
eted mirror of the cosmic image that reflects to the divine Subject the
panoramic beauty of His Own infinite possibility to become, which
is nothing other than His Own essential Self, which He cannot but
love and desire and into which He pours and “blows” the Breath of
His Mercy and Spirit, but which, in absorbing the energies of the di¬
vine Will, always threatens the reintegrative imperative of the divine
Wish. Similarly, in the human context, the male, as representative of
the initiating Spirit, is constantly being attracted by the microcosmic
feminine to pour his life and energy into her world of cosmic becom¬
ing and natural life experience, threatening always to divert him
from the remembrance of the Spirit in Whose Name he acts and of
the vicegerency that is his particular function. As Ibn al- ArabT points
out, this total involvement in the complex and multiple demands of
cosmic life, symbolized by absorption in sexual union, can be correct¬
ed and purged only by the purification of remembering and reinte¬
gration into the world of the Spirit, symbolized by the major ablution
after such union.

However, just as the Cosmos is nothing other than He, originat¬

ing in Him, so also woman is nothing other than man and deriving
from him, symbolizing for him, therefore, his own servanthood and
receptivity vis a vis God. It is for this reason that he says that a man
may most perfectly contemplate God in woman, since, in her, he con¬
templates at once his own servanthood and dominion and in union
with her may experience, in microcosmic mode, that fusion of polar
experience which is the Reality. According to this view of things, the
attracting beauty of woman, far from being a snare to delude man,
should rather become for him that perfect reflection, as formal beau¬
ty, of his own spiritual truth, being, as she is, that quintessential sign
or clue [ayah] from which he might best learn to know his own true
self, which is, in turn, to know his Lord.

The second element in the saying is “perfume,” which, repre¬

senting as it does the relating factor in the triplicity, is a very subtle
and flexible symbol that lends itself to association with either of the
two polar elements. Thus, perfume, aroma, or fragrance is that which
at once soothes and incites, drugs and stimulates, may remind one of
the delight of woman or the serenity of the sanctuary, and may either
sharpen or dull spiritual awareness. In short, it is that not entirely
physical nor yet entirely spiritual element that symbolizes at once
both the current of the creative Mercy and also the spiritual nostalgia
that draws the human spirit back to its source in God. The word used
in the Arabic is fib, which also carries the idea of goodness, in the
sense that in God all is good, whether it be the goodness of what the
Will effects, which may seem from the standpoint of the Wish as rep¬
rehensible, or whether it be the spiritual goodness of what the Wish
demands, which may seem from the standpoint of existential experi¬
ence hard and painful.

The last element, symbolizing the Spirit and its reflection in

man, is “prayer,” which seeks to divert man from the world of cosmic
concerns and to make him as totally aware as possible of Him from
Whom he is and to Whom he is inexorably returning. As with wom¬
en, it has its own perfume to remind and console the world-weary
soul.

As part of his commentary on this saying of the Prophet, Ibn al-

‘ArabT, true to his usual form, seeks to interpret the linguistic features
of the saying in his own special way and to make suggestions of a dar¬
ing kind. He observes that the word for “three” is, unusually, in the
feminine form, and also that the masculine noun “perfume” is placed
between two feminine nouns, “women” and “prayer,” thus suggest¬
ing, although not pursuing, the notion of a certain feminine predomi¬
nance and all-containing nature. He goes on further to observe that
many of the words in Arabic that denote cause, origin, and essence
are feminine nouns. This would seem to be an odd suggestion in view
of his otherwise firm commitment to a masculine bias, as encouraged
by the patriarchal nature of the Islamic tradition. One suspects, how¬
ever, that this untypical suggestion is yet another way of expressing
the idea that the creative Mercy overrides and embraces the obligat¬
ing Mercy of reintegration and that the positive and essential func¬
tion of the Cosmic experience overrides its negative and ephemeral
nature. Thus the creative Mercy, the word for which in Arabic is
feminine and has a close association with the word for “womb,” in
its complete concern with cosmic becoming and the actualization of
infinite possibility, may be thought of as feminine in the same way
that the Hindu notion of maya , the world-creating power, is thought
of as feminine. In other words, the object of knowledge, whether cos¬
mic or essential, may be thought of as feminine, just as the subject or
knower, whether creative or Self-reaffirming, may be thought of as
masculine. Thus we are known as a “feminine” aspect of the Reality,
whether outer or inner, and we know as a “masculine” aspect of the
Reality, whether outwardly or inwardly.

THE WISDOM OF SINGULARITY

IN THE WORD OF MUHAMMAD

His is the wisdom of singularity because he is the most perfect

creation of this humankind, for which reason the whole affair [of cre¬
ation] begins and ends with him. He was a prophet when Adam was
still between the water and the clay and he is, by his elemental
makeup, the Seal of the Prophets, first of the three singular ones,
since all other singulars derive from it.

He was the clearest of evidence for his Lord, having been given
the totality of the divine words, which are those things named by
Adam, so that he was the closest of clues to his own triplicity, he be¬
ing himself a clue to himself. Since, then, his reality was marked
by primal singularity and his makeup by triplicity, he said concern¬
ing love, which is the origin of all existent being, “Three things have
been made beloved to me in this world of yours,” because of the tri¬
plicity inherent in him. Then he mentioned women and perfume,
and added that he found solace in prayer.

He begins by mentioning women and leaves prayer until last, be¬

cause, in the manifestation of her essence, woman is a part of man.
Now, man’s knowledge of himself comes before his knowledge of his
Lord, the latter being the result of the former, according to his say¬
ing, “Whoso knows himself, knows his Lord.” From this one may un¬
derstand either that one is not able to know and attain, which is one
meaning, or that gnosis is possible. According to the first [interpre¬
tation] one cannot know oneself and cannot, therefore, know one’s
Lord, while, according to the second, one may know oneself and
therefore one’s Lord. Although Muhammad was the most obvious ev-
idence of his Lord, every part of the Cosmos is a clue to its origin,
which is its Lord, so understand.

Women were made beloved to him and he had great affection for
them because the whole always is drawn toward its part. This he ex¬
plains as coming from the Reality, in His saying regarding the ele¬
mental human makeup, And I breathed into him of My spirit! God
describes Himself as having a deep longing for contact with man
when He says to those who long [for Him], “O David, I long for them
even more.” That is a special meeting. He says further, in a saying
on the Antichrist, “None of you will see his Lord until he dies.”
Indeed, it is hardly surprising that one [God] so described should be
longed for. Thus, God longs for those favored ones, seeing them and
wishing that they could see Him, although their state does not permit
that. It is like His saying, [We will test them ] until We know , although
He knows [them] well. Thus, He longs [for them] because of this spe¬
cial quality, which cannot be realized except after death, while their
longing for Him is kept fresh by it, as He says, in the Saying of Hesi¬
tation, “I do not hesitate in what I do as much as in taking the soul
of My faithful servant. He hates death as much as I hate to hurt him;
but he must meet Me.” He gives him glad tidings instead of telling
him that he must die, lest he become distressed at the mention of
death, although he may not meet God until after death, as he said,
“None of you will see his Lord until he dies.” He says, “He must
meet Me,” the longing of God being because of this attribution.

The Beloved longs to see me,

And I long even more to see Him,

The hearts beat fast, but destiny bars the way,

I groan in complaint and so does He.

Since He has explained that He breathed into man of His spirit, He

is yearning [in reality] for Himself. Consider, then, how, because of
His spirit, His creation is in His own image.

Since man’s makeup is composed of the four elements or humors

in the body, His breathing produces a burning, because of the mois¬
ture in the body. Thus, by his makeup man’s spirit is a fire, because
of which God spoke to Moses in the form of fire, in which He put
what he wished for. Were his makeup [purely] natural, his spirit
would be of light. It is called “blowing” because it comes from the
Breath of the Merciful, and it is by this Breath, which is the blowing,
that his essence is manifest. It is according to the eternal predisposi¬
tion of the one blown into that the flaring up is fire and not light,
the Breath of the Merciful being deeply implicit in that by which
man is man.

Then God drew forth from him a being in his own image, called
woman, and because she appears in his own image, the man feels a
deep longing for her, as something yearns for itself, while she feels
longing for him as one longs for that place to which one belongs.
Thus, women were made beloved to him, for God loves that which
He has created in His own image and to which He made His angels
prostrate, in spite of their great power, rank and lofty nature. From
that stemmed the affinity [between God and man], and the [divine]
image is the greatest, most glorious and perfect [example of] affinity.
That is because it is a syzygy that polarizes the being of the Reality,
just as woman, by her coming into being, polarizes humanity, making
of it a syzygy. Thus we have a ternary, God, man, and woman, the
man yearning for his Lord Who is his origin, as woman yearns for
man. His Lord made women dear to him, just as God loves that
which is in His own image. Love arises only for that from which one
has one’s being, so that man loves that from which he has his being,
which is the Reality, which is why he says, “were made beloved to
me,” and not “I love,” directly from himself. His love is for his
Lord in Whose image he is, this being so even as regards his love for
his wife, since he loves her through God’s love for him, after the di¬
vine manner. When a man loves a woman, he seeks union with her,
that is to say the most complete union possible in love, and there is
in the elemental sphere no greater union than that between the sexes.
It is [precisely] because such desire pervades all his parts that man is
commanded to perform the major ablution. Thus the purification is
total, just as his annihilation in her was total at the moment of con¬
summation. God is jealous of his servant that he should find pleasure
in any but Him, so He purifies him by the ablution, so that he might
once again behold Him in the one in whom he was annihilated, since
it is none other than He Whom he sees in her.

When man contemplates the Reality in woman he beholds [Him]

in a passive aspect, while when he contemplates Him in himself, as
being that from which woman is manifest, he beholds Him in an ac¬
tive aspect. When, however, he contemplates Him in himself, without
any regard to what has come from him, he beholds Him as passive
to Himself directly. However, his contemplation of the Reality in
woman is the most complete and perfect, because in this way he con¬
templates the Reality in both active and passive mode, while by con¬
templating the Reality only in himself, he beholds Him in a passive
mode particularly.

Because of this the Apostle loved women by reason of [the pos¬

sibility of] perfect contemplation of the Reality in them. Contempla¬
tion of the Reality without formal support is not possible, since God,
in His Essence, is far beyond all need of the Cosmos. Since, therefore,
some form of support is necessary, the best and most perfect kind is
the contemplation of God in women. The greatest union is that be¬
tween man and woman, corresponding as it does to the turning of
God toward the one He has created in His own image, to make him
His vicegerent, so that He might behold Himself in him. According¬
ly, He shaped him, balanced him, and breathed His spirit into him,
which is His Breath, so that his outer aspect is creaturely, while his
inner aspect is divine. Because of this He describes it [the spirit] as
being the disposer of this human structure by which God disposes of
things from the heaven , which is elevation, to the earth , which is the
lowest of the low, being the lowest of the elements.

He calls them women \nisa\ a word that has no singular form.

The Apostle therefore said, “Three things have been made beloved to
me in this world, women . . .”, and not “woman,” having regard
to the fact that they came into being after him [man]. Indeed, the
word nus'ah means “coming after.” He says, The postponed month [nasi *]
is an increase in unbelief as also selling by nasi'ah, that is, “by post¬
ponement.” Thus he says “women.” He loves them only because of
their [lower] rank and their being the repository of passivity. In re¬
lation to him they are as the Universal Nature is to God in which He
revealed the forms of the Cosmos by directing toward it the divine
Will and Command, which, at the level of elemental forms, is sym¬
bolized by conjugal union, [spiritual] concentration in the realm of lu¬
minous spirits, and the ordering of premises toward a conclusion [in
the realm of thought], all of which correspond to the consummation
of the Primordial Singularity in all these aspects.

Whoever loves women in this way loves with a divine love, while
he whose love for them is limited to natural lust lacks all [true] knowl¬
edge of that desire. For such a one she is mere form, devoid of spirit,
and even though that form be indeed imbued with spirit, it is absent
for one who approaches his wife or some other woman solely to have
his pleasure of her, without realizing Whose the pleasure [really] is.
Thus, he does not know himself [truly], just as a stranger does not
know him until he reveals his identity to him. As they say,

They are right in supposing that I am in love,

Only they know not with whom I am in love.

Such a man is [really] in love with pleasure itself and, in consequence,

loves its repository, which is woman, the real truth and meaning of
the act being lost on him. If he knew the truth, he would know
Whom it is he is enjoying and Who it is Who is the enjoyer; then he
would be perfected.

Just as woman [ontologically] is of a lower rank than man, ac¬

cording to His saying, Men enjoy a rank above them , so also is the
creature inferior in rank to the One Who fashioned him in his image,
despite his being made in His image. By virtue of the superiority by
which He is distinguished from him, He is above all need of the Cos¬
mos and is the primary agent, the form or image being an agent only
in a secondary sense, since the image [man] does not have the prima¬
cy, which belongs to God. The eternal essences are similarly distin¬
guished according to their ranks, and the gnostic allots to everything
its proper due. Thus it is that Muhammad’s love for women derives
from the divine love and because God Gives to everything He has cre¬
ated what is its due, essentially. He gives to them according to a
merit fixed in the [eternally predisposed] essence of that which is de¬
serving.

He places women first because they are the repository of passiv¬

ity, just as the Universal Nature, by its form, comes before those
things that derive their being from her. In reality, Nature is the
Breath of the Merciful in which are unfolded the forms of the higher
and lower Cosmos, because of the pervasion of the expressed Breath
in the primordial Substance, particularly in the realm of the celestial
bodies, its flow being different in respect of the existence of the lu¬
minous spirits and accidents.

Then the Apostle goes on to give precedence to the feminine

over the masculine, intending to convey thereby a special concern
with and experience of women. Thus he says thalath [three] and not
thaldthah , which is used for numbering masculine nouns. This is re¬
markable, in that he also mentions perfume, which is a masculine
noun, and the Arabs usually make the masculine gender prevail.
Thus one would say, “The Fatimahs and Zaid went out [using the
third person masculine plural]/’ and not the third person feminine
plural. In this way they give preference to the masculine noun, even
if there is only one such noun together with several feminine nouns.
Now, although the Apostle was an Arab, he is here giving special at¬
tention to the significance of the love enjoined on him, seeing that he
himself did not choose that love. It was God Who taught him what
he knew not, and God’s bounty on him was abundant. He therefore
gave precedence to the feminine over the masculine by saying thalath .
How knowledgeable was the Apostle concerning [spiritual] realities
and how great was his concern for proper precedence.

Furthermore, he made the final term [prayer] correspond to the

first [women] in its femininity, placing the masculine term [perfume]
between them. He begins with “women” and ends with “prayer,”
both of which are feminine nouns, [the masculine noun] perfume
coming in between them, as is the case with its existential being, since
man is placed between the Essence [a feminine noun] from which he
is manifested, and woman who is manifested from him. Thus he is be¬
tween two feminine entities, the one substantively feminine, the oth¬
er feminine in reality, women being feminine in reality, while prayer
is not. Perfume is placed between them as Adam is situated between
the Essence, which is the source of all existence, and Eve, whose ex¬
istence stems from him. [Other terms] such as sifah [attribute] and
qudrah [capability] are feminine. Indeed, whatever school of thought
you adhere to, you will find feminine terms prominent. Even the
Causalists say that God is the “Cause” [‘ illah\ of the Cosmos, and ‘illah
is feminine. As for the wisdom of perfume and his putting it after
“women/’ it is because of the aromas of generation in women, the
most delightful of perfumes being [experienced] within the embrace
of the beloved, as they say in the well-known saying.

When Muhammad was created a pure servant, he had no ambi¬

tion for leadership, but continued prostrating and standing [before
his Lord], a passive creation, until God effected [His purpose] in him,
when He conferred on him an active role in the realm of the Breaths,
which are the excellent perfumes [of existence]. Thus, He made per¬
fume beloved to him, placing it after women. He pays respect to the
ranks of God in His saying, Lofty of rank , the Possessor of the Thronef *
seeing that He is established on it by His name the Merciful, so that
everything encompassed by the Throne is affected by the divine Mer¬
cy, as He says, my Mercy encompasses all things , It is the Throne that
encompasses all things, while the Merciful is its occupant, by Whose
reality Mercy permeates the Cosmos, as we have explained many
times, both in this work and also in The Meccan Revelations [Al-Futuhat
al-makkiyyah ]. God Himself has put perfume [tib, also goodness] in
the context of conjugal union with reference to the innocence of ‘A’i-
shah when He says, Evil [ malodorous ] women are for evil men and evil
men are for evil women , just as good [sweet-smelling] women are for good
men and good men for good women , who are innocent of what they allege.
Thus, He speaks of them as sweet smelling, since speaking implies
breath, which is of the essence of aroma, coming forth [from the
mouth] sweetly or offensively, according to its expression. However,
being at source divine, it is all sweet smelling and good, but according
as it is approved of [by separative attitudes] or disapproved of, it may
be considered good or bad. Of Garlic, Muhammad said, “It is a bush
whose odor I detest”; he did not say “I detest it.” Thus, it is not
the thing itself that is to be detested, but only that which issues from
it. Such an aversion may be a question of custom, natural antipathy,
law, deficiency, or something else. If then the distinction between
good and bad is to be made, then Muhammad was made to love the
good and not the bad. Now it is said that the angels are offended by
the bad odors arising from the putrefaction associated with this ele¬
mental makeup [of man], since he is made of clay and putrid slime ,
that is to say of varying odors, so that the angels find him repugnant
by his nature. In a similar way, by its very nature, the dung beetle
is offended by the odor of the rose, which, although it has [for us] a
fine aroma, is malodorous to the dung beetle. Thus anyone of such
a nature, essentially and formally, is repulsed by the truth when he
hears it and rejoices in falsehood, as He says, Those who believe in false¬
hood and not in God y describing them as losers, are the losers who have
lost themselves , Anyone who cannot tell the good from the bad has
no perception.

The Apostle of God was made to love only the good in every¬
thing, which is [in reality] everything that is. [We might ask] whether
there can be anything in the Cosmos that sees only the good in ev¬
erything and knows no bad. We would say that there is not, since in
the very source from which the Cosmos is manifested, which is the
Real, we find aversion and love, the bad being that which is loathed,
while the good is that which is loved. Now the Cosmos is [created]
in God’s image [macrocosm] and man has been made in both images
[microcosm], so that there cannot be anything that sees only one as¬
pect of things. There are certainly those who can distinguish the good
from the bad, that a thing is bad by [sense] experience and good by
nonsensual experience, but in whom perception of the good predomi¬
nates over perception of the bad. As for the idea that one might re¬
move the bad from the Cosmos of created being, such a thing is not
possible, since the Mercy of God inheres in both the good and the
bad. From its own standpoint the bad is good and the good bad. In¬
deed, there is nothing good, but seems, in some way, bad to some bad
thing, and vice versa.

As for the third element by which the singularity is made com¬

plete, it is prayer. He said, “and my solace is in prayer,” because
it is [a state of] contemplation, being an intimate discourse between
God and His servant. He says, Remember Me y and I will remember
you y since it is an act of worship equally divided between God and
His servant, half for God and half for His servant, as in the authori-
tative tradition, “I have divided the prayer equally between Me and
My servant, a half for Me and a half for My servant who may also
have whatever he asks.” Thus when the servant says [in reciting
Al-Fatihah ], In the Name of God , the Compassionate , the Merciful , God
is saying, “My servant is remembering Me.” When the servant says,
Praise be to God , the Lord of the worlds , God says, “My servant is prais¬
ing Me.” When the servant says, The Compassionate , the Merciful , God
says, “My servant is lauding Me.” When the servant says, King on the
Day of Judgment , God says, “My servant is glorifying Me and has
yielded all to Me.” Thus the whole of the first half [of Al-Fatihah ] be¬
longs to God. Then the servant says, Thee do we worship and Thee do
we ask for help , and God says, “This is shared between Me and My ser¬
vant; and for him is whatever he asks,” thus introducing an element
of participation into this verse. When the servant says, Guide us on the
right path , the path of those whom you have favored , and not the path of
those who have incurred Your wrath , nor of those who have gone astray , God
says, “These [verses] are reserved to my servant who may have what¬
ever he asks.” Thus these last verses are for the servant alone, just as
the first ones belong only to God. From this one may realize the ne¬
cessity of reciting [the verse], Praise be to God , the Lord of the worlds ,
since whoever omits it has not performed the prayer [properly],
which is shared between God and His servant.

Being a discourse, it is also a remembrance, since whoever re¬

members God sits with God and God with him, as mentioned in the
tradition, “I am the companion of him who remembers Me.” Now
whoever, being perceptive, is in the presence of the one he is remem¬
bering, he sees his companion. In such a case there is contemplation
and vision, otherwise he does not see Him. From this the one praying
will be able to ascertain his degree [of gnosis], that is to say whether
he is able to see, in the prayer, in this way or not. If he cannot see
Him, then let him worship Him as if he saw Him, imagining Him
to be in the quiblah during his discourse, and let him listen most care¬
fully to what God might say to him in response [to his prayer]. If he
is an imam [leader] for his own world [of family or community] and
the angels praying with him, he has, in the prayer, the [same] rank
as the Apostle, which is to represent God. Indeed, every one who
prays is an imam, since the angels pray behind one who prays alone,
as is stated by the tradition. When he say, “God hears him who
praises Him,” he is letting the people behind him know that God
has heard him, to which the angels and others present answer, “O our
Lord, yours is the praise,” for it is God Himself Who is saying, on
the tongue of His servant, “God hears him who praises Him.”

Consider, then, the sublimity of the rank of prayer and to what

degree of dignity it brings the one who performs it. However, the one
who does not attain to contemplative vision in his prayer has not
reached its summit and cannot find [true] solace in it, since he cannot
see Him with Whom he has discourse. If also he cannot hear the Re¬
ality’s response, he cannot be listening carefully enough. Indeed, he
who is not present with His Lord in prayer, neither hearing nor see¬
ing Him, is not really praying at all, since he does not listen and
watch [for God]. While it lasts, there is nothing like the prayer rite
to prevent preoccupation with other things.

In the prayer, the most effective element is the remembrance of

God, by virtue of the words and actions it comprises. We have, how¬
ever, described the state of the Perfect Man in prayer, in The Meccan
Revelations [Al-Futuhat al-makkiyyah\ God has said, Surely, the
prayer prevents much evil and sin, seeing that the one praying is for¬
bidden to occupy himself with anything else while he is engaged in
it. But the remembrance of God is greater, that is to say that, within
the context of prayer, God’s remembering of His servant when He
responds to his request is greater. Furthermore, in the prayer, the ser¬
vant’s praising of God is greater than his remembering Him, since all
majesty belongs to God. Thus, He says, And God knows what you fash¬
ion, and, or who listens and watches The listening derives from
God’s remembering of His servant in prayer.

Thus, of the intelligible movement by which the Cosmos is trans¬

formed from nonexistence into existence, the prayer has all three
phases, a vertical movement in which the one praying stands erect,
a horizontal movement in which the praying one bows and a down-
wards movement, which is the prostration. The movement of man is
vertically, that of the animals is horizontally, that of the plants down¬
ward, while inanimate things have no real motion, since a stone
moves only if some other thing moves it.

In his saying, “and my solace was made to be in prayer ,” he

does not attribute this to himself, since the Self-revelation of God to
one praying comes from God and not the one who is praying. Indeed,
had he not mentioned this by himself, God would have ordered him
to pray without the [solace of] His Self-revelation to him. Since that
came to him as a favor, the contemplative vision is also a favor. He
said, “and my solace was made to be in prayer,” which means seeing
the Beloved, which brings solace to the eye of the lover. This is be¬
cause the word qurrah [solace] comes from the word istiqrar [fixing],
so that the lover’s eye might be fixed [on the Beloved] to the exclusion
of all else. It is for this reason that looking around is not permitted
in prayer, because in this way Satan seeks to steal something from the
prayer of the servant, to deny to him the vision of his Beloved. If God
were indeed the Beloved of the one who is [always] looking around
him, he would look, in his prayer, only toward the qiblah. Every man
knows in himself whether his worship is of this kind or not, for Man
sees himself well enough , however many excuses he may give . Indeed,
each man knows the false in himself from the true, since no one is
(truly) ignorant of his own state, it being a matter of self-experience.

That which is called prayer has also another aspect in that He

has commanded us to pray to Him and has told us that He prays for
us, the prayer being both from us and from Him. When it is God
Who prays, He does so in His name the Last, as coming after the cre¬
ation of the servant, being, indeed, the God the servant creates in
himself (in his Heart), whether by his reason or through traditional
learning. This is the “God of belief,” which is various according to
the predisposition inherent in that particular person; as al-Junaid
said, when asked about the gnosis of God and the gnostic, “The color
of the water is the same as that of its container ,” which is a most
precise answer, showing the matter as it is. This then is the God Who
prays for us. Also, when we pray, we bear the name the last, being
in the same position as He Who properly has that name. That is be¬
cause, to Him, we are only as our state dictates, and He sees us only
in the form with which we provide Him, since the praying one al¬
ways lags behind the leader on the race track.

God says, Everyone of them knows its own way of prayer and exal¬
tation , which is to say its degree of tardiness in worshiping its
Lord, as also its mode of exaltation by which it affirms God’s tran¬
scendence according to its eternal predisposition. Indeed, there is
nothing that does not express its praise of its good and forgiving
Lord. This why the worship of the Cosmos in detail, in each of its
parts, is not understood (by man). In another way, the pronoun (in
the phrase, His praise ) may also refer to the exalting servant in His
saying (by changing the way it is read), There is nothing , but He exalts
its praise , meaning the praise of that thing. Thus, the pronoun in His
praise returns to that thing by virtue of the praise uttered on Him in
what is believed, since he is only praising the God of his belief whom
he has bound to himself. Thus, whatever deeds he performs return
to himself. Indeed, he is only [in reality] praising himself since, with¬
out doubt, in praising the product, one is praising its producer, its sat¬
isfactoriness, or otherwise rebounding upon the one who made it.
Similarly, the God of belief is made for the one who has regard for
it, being his own production, so that his praise for that which he be¬
lieves in is self-praise. That is why he rejects the [different] beliefs of
someone else, although he would not do so if he were impartial. The
owner of this private object of worship, however, is usually ignorant,
in that he is wont to object to what someone else believes concerning
God. If he were to understand truly what Al-Junaid said regarding
the color of the water being that of its container, he would allow to
every believer his belief and would recognize God in every form and
in every belief. His attitude, however, is merely a matter of opinion
and not knowledge. Thus, He has said, “I am in my servant’s notion
of Me ,” that is to say that He is manifest to him only in the form
of his belief, whether it be universal or particular in nature. The God
of beliefs is subject to certain limitations, and it is this God Who is
contained in His servant’s Heart, since the Absolute God cannot be
contained by anything, being the very Essence of everything and of
Itself. Indeed, one cannot say either that it encompasses Itself or that
it does not do so; so understand! God speaks the truth and He is the
[sole] Guide along the Way.