Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries

(The soul as the locus of divine revelation)

He is told, “If it were not for you, the mysteries would not exist nor would the lights shine.”4

The one who stays with the image is lost, and the one who rises from the image to the reality is rightly guided.”11

As Ibn ‘Arab! explains elsewhere, the purpose of spiritual ascension is not to reach God - for He is never apart from us - but simply for Him to show some of His wonders and indications. He writes: [God] says, “I only made him journey by night in order that he see the signs, not [to bring him] to Me: because no place can hold Me and the relation of all places to Me is the same. For I am such that [only] ‘the heart of My servant, the man of true faith, encompasses Me’, so how could he be ‘made to journey to Me’ while I am ‘with him wherever he is’?!”14

(God’s love to be known as the motive of creation)

According to a prophetic tradition often quoted by Ibn ‘Arabī, “I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known, so I created the world …”. This love to be known is not a static goal but a constantly unfolding revelation.

Yet Ibn ‘Arab! is clearly aware of the universal value of these revelations, for he is repeatedly told to inform others of what he has seen, “… tell the servants what you have seen, so that you awaken their longing for Me and fill them with desire for Me, and you will be a mercy for them.”18

The necessity to inform others involves not only a reminder but a warning. From the inside, the wall that encircles the Garden of Truth appears as pure mercy in the knowledge of the Divine Unity, while from the outside ignorance makes it appear as threat and punishment.

(Divine mercy, hell as purification, and the wall of truth)

Moreover, Ibn ‘Arabī’s writings generally stress the all-encompassing Mercy of Being which excludes no one. Hell may then be seen as the suffering which burns off impurity so that what is real can return to itself.

At the end of the final contemplation the contemplator is warned that whether he follows what he has been told or not, either way he must perish,22 that is, he must wake up from the illusion of a separate existence, which he can control according to his lower desires, and acknowledge the singular existence of the Real. Then he must follow the order, that is, persist in being true to his Reality.

You are yourself the cloud veiling your own sun! So recognize the essential Reality of your being!l23

Beyond the vicissitudes of all that is transitory, the light that is constant continues to shine: When the star of the Real rises and enters into the servant’s heart, the heart is illuminated and irradiated. Then bewilderment and fear disappear from the possessor of the heart, and he gives news of his Lord explicitly, through hints, and by means of various modes of informing.

(Ibn Arabi’s biography and visionary initiations)

When he was about sixteen, he experienced a strong calling to turn to God and went into retreat. He tells us that he returned to the spiritual path due to a vision where he found himself under the guidance of Jesus, Moses and Muhammad, the prophets of the three major religions stemming from Abraham.

During these retreats he would sometimes receive Quranic verses, which would descend in a shower of stars, one of the ways in which the Quran was received by Muhammad himself.

It was on Ibn Arabī’s return from Tunis in 1194 that he composed the Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries, which is one of his first major works. He was then twenty-nine.

For the next few years Ibn ‘Arab! continued to travel in Spain and North Africa, spending much of his time in Fez where he had many spiritual experiences, including entry into the abode of light, a spiritual ascension and knowledge that he was the Seal of Muhammadian sainthood.

(The journey within: discovery of pure servanthood)

I received the meaning of all the Divine Names and I saw that they all referred to a single Named and to a unique Essence; this Named was the object of my contemplation and this Essence my very being. I had only journeyed in myself and it was to myself that I had been guided; from that, I knew that I was a pure servant, without the least trace of sovereignty.

Ibn ‘Arab! points out in the Fusūs al-hikam, every person is conscious of their own state of soul: “The human being has an intuitive perception of himself whatever excuse he may give.”48 The witnessing described in the contemplations is not just seeing but actively acknowledging.

(Unity of opposites, letters, and cosmic correspondences)

For Ibn ‘Arabī, the singularity of Truth originates at the point where the opposites are united, and then the Truth expresses itself in all its diverse forms.

Each letter has its own numerical value and is connected to a day in the lunar cycle, a level of existence, a Divine Name. In fact, Ibn ‘Arabī says, “It is not like people think, that the mansions of the Moon represent the models of the letters; it is the twenty-eight sounds which determine the lunar mansions.”52

There is a correspondence between the witnessing of the fourteen contemplations which Ibn ‘Arab! recounts and these fourteen heavens and earths, for according to a traditional saying of the Prophet Muhammad: “I bring before you as witnesses the seven heavens and the seven earths.”57

Just as the Breath of the All-Compassionate is the Reality of Realities at a cosmic level, so the Reality of Muhammad is the Reality of Realities at a human level, encompassing in a single reality all the individual possibilities of human perfection. Muhammad therefore represents the principle of the perfection of the human being.

The Quranic passage is as follows: “Tā’-Hā’. We have not revealed the Quran so that you suffer”.

The Perfect Human Being summarizes the whole of existence, from the lowest to the highest degree. He both encompasses the worlds and is a copy of the world.

The Fātiha is regarded as the perfect prayer and is repeated in all the ritual prayers of Islam. Ibn ‘Arabī writes, “It is the Seven Doubled Ones, for it includes the [seven] attributes [of the Essence].”63 The seven attributes of the Essence are that It is Knowing, Willing, Able, Living, Speaking, Seeing and Hearing.

With regard to God, he writes elsewhere, “He is as though He doubled/praised Himself, and He is the praiser and the praised.”

Contemplation of the Light of Existence (wujūd) as the Star of Direct Vision (iyân) rises

(The first contemplation: existence, non-existence, and paradox)

“Non-existence is real and there is nothing else; and existence is real and there is nothing else.” I agreed, saying, “That is so.” Then He said to me, “Are you a Muslim9 by mere tradition or do you have your own standard of judgement?”10 I answered, “I am not a [blind] imitator nor do I follow my own [rational] opinion.” He said to me, “Then you are no thing.”11 I said to Him, “I am the thing without likeness and You are the thing with likeness.”12 He said, “What you say is true.” Then He told me, “You are not a thing, nor have you been a thing, nor are you according to a thing.”

Then He said to me, “Only the non-existent knows the existent.” “Only what is existent knows the existent as it is in reality. Existence is from Me, not from you,19 but it is in you, not in Me.”20

“Whoever finds you loses Me and whoever loses you finds Me.”22 “Whoever loses me finds Me23and whoever has found Me does not lose Me.”24 “Finding and losing are yours, not Mine.”25

(Finding and losing God as a single movement)

Then He said, “If you find Me you will not see Me34 but you will see Me if you lose Me.”35 “Finding is losing Me and losing is finding Me. Were you able to discover taking,36 then you would know real existence.”

2 Contemplation of the Light of Taking (akhdh) as the Star of Affirmation (iqrār) rises

Nothing is owned unless it is dominated, and nothing is dominated unless it is confined, and nothing is confined unless it is newly arrived, and nothing arrives newly except the [potential] non-existence.”

He said, “When you come out of the sea, take away with you some sea-water, for whilst the water remains, pearls, jewels and coral will continue in that state; but if the water dries up, they will turn into ordinary stones. In the Sura of the Prophets201 have made its secret clear.”

Then He said to me, “Do you see how excellent this darkness is, how intense its brightness and how clear its light! This darkness is the place from which the lights rise,29 the source from which the fountains of secrets spring forth and the [original] matter of the elements. From this darkness I have brought you into being, to it I make you return and I shall not remove you from it.”

Then He said to me, “Take all the veils away from Me. Reveal Me, for I have given you permission, keep me in the treasuries of the hidden, so that no other than Me sees Me, and invite the people to see Me.

The servant21 said: When I finished [lifting the veils] He asked me, “What have you seen?” “Something magnificent”, I replied. Then He said to me, “What I have hidden from you is even more magnificent.”22 “By My glory! I have not hidden anything from you, nor have I shown you anything.”23

Then come to Me; let your son go, that he may take your place63and tell him to be consumed in annihilation by his subsistence, not to be jealous of [communicating] his revelation64and to contemplate Me in the attributes, but not in the essences,65because I am not contained by them.66Although he may listen, understand, know, allude, communicate, particularize or summarize, he will not comprehend Me. [However], in intuition (shu’ūr) things show themselves clearly to the people of vision.’”

7. “That is, ‘do not show your position in relation to Me to the people’, for you are My face; an order which is similar to the words of God to the Prophet Muhammad, ‘Say: I am only a human being (bashar) like you …’ (Q. 18:110), since by these words He hides him from the eyes of people so that they do not see his position as the face of the Real in the world.” (IS)

8. The knocking (qar) means asking God to increase us in knowledge. (SA) An allusion to the verse: “Lord, increase me in knowledge!” (Q. 20:114)

certainty of the “secret [centre of the heart]” (sirr), since the chest is, in fact, the seat of the “secrets” (asrâr), according to the saying of the Prophet: “Abu Bakr does not outdo you in fasting or in prayer but in something deposited in his chest.” (SA)

The Real made me contemplate the light of intuition1 as the star of transcendence rose, and He said to me, “I hide Myself in evidence2 and intuition3 from the people of veils.”4

Then He said to me, “If you stay in intuition, you will be the middle degree. Whoever is beneath you will look towards you and whoever is above you, will turn towards you, so that there is no one above you. In intuition you will find the instant.” “If you are the middle degree then travel in spring!”22

12. The mule (baghl) is a cross between a horse and a donkey, and so a barzakh, “isthmus”, or intermediary between two orders. This symbol implies that the contemplative is not restricted to a limited form (in one order), but adopts a form which unites two or more aspects, since if he oriented himself exclusively towards one of them he would lose the perspective of the other. (IS)

13. The term sha’r, “hair”, from the same root as shu’ūr, “intuitive knowledge”, alludes to interior vision. See above, n. 1. 17.17“That is, apply your ‘synthetic intuitive knowledge’ (shu’ūr) to the centre of your awareness to see what it brings you. If you do this, you will leave the station of imagination (maqām al-khayâl), you will reach the river [nahr, from the same root as nahâr, ‘day’, ‘daylight’] and you will be saved, whilst those who ride horses or donkeys -having restricted Reality (al-haqq) to a particular order - will perish, since God, glory to Him, is not limited.” (IS)

14. “Light veils darkness and vice versa. The line between them unites them, because it has a side facing towards light and a side facing darkness. Therefore, be the confluence of the essential realities.” (IS) 24. At dusk, which is the line or “isthmus” between night and day, the sunset prayer (salât al-maghrib) is performed. It is the fourth obligatory prayer which consists of an odd number of raka’ât (sequences of movements and ritual postures). See Contemplation 12, n. 8.

15. “That is, beyond attributing a troublesome or formal character to the ritual action, but performing it in such a way that it is a joy and loving intimacy with God.” (IS)

(Silence as the origin of speech and the alif as guide)

5 Contemplation of the Light of Silence (samt) as the Star of Negation (salb) rises

Then He said to me, “You are the place of My seeing and you are My attribute. So do not speak except when I look at you. I look at you constantly, so address the people continuously but do not speak.” “My silence is the exterior of your existence and your being.” “If I had remained silent, you would not exist; if you had spoken, I would not have been known. Speak, then, so that I may be known.” Then He said to me, “The alif is silent8 whilst the letters speak. The alif articulate s the letters, but the letters do not articulate the alif9 The letters are regulated by the alif and the alif accompanies them always, without their realizing.” “The letters are Moses10 and the alif is the staff.”11

“If you remain silent, everything will be guided by you and if you speak, everything will go astray through you. Rise beyond and you will discover.”

“From the Watchtower, whoever descends descends3 and whoever ascends ascends. Beware of Me in the Watchtower! If I see that the exterior of your wall exceeds the limit, I will make you descend from the Watchtower to the exterior;5 however, if you stay within the limit,6 the Watchtower will want you to stay in your position.”7

“Glory rises in Closeness and the magnificence of the world bears witness to it. The Instant rises in time-suspension9 and the sea of Compassionate Beatitude bears witness to it.

Then He said to me, “All that you have beheld and all that was hidden from you and which will occur to you unexpectedly, all that is for you, because of you, and is in you. But had I revealed the least of the secrets of the mystery of the essential Unity of Divinity which I deposited in you, you would not have been capable of bearing its weight and you would have been consumed by fire. What would become of you then, if I were to reveal to you something of Myself or of My essential attributes!”

“Persist for all eternity and you will see nothing but yourself in every station. Quicker than the blinking of an eye you will ascend through stations you have never glimpsed and to which you will never return, but they will remain in you without surpassing your capacity.”

“If you could evaluate your worth you would limit yourself and, in reality, you have no limits; so how could your worth be evaluated? Since you are incapable of appreciating your own worth - which is proper - follow good form and do not seek to know My worth, for you could never succeed in evaluating it, even if you were the most noble being in My [eternal] knowledge.”

Then He said to me, “Know that every day seventy thousand mysteries from My Majesty pass through the heart of the gnostic never to return. If just one of those mysteries were revealed to someone who has not reached this station, it would consume him.”24

Then He said to me, “So appear in My existence on My behalf in order to speak to them with My tongue without them realizing it. They will see you talking, although [really] you are silent. They will see you moving although you are still. They will see you as the knower although you are the known. They will see you as powerful, although power is exercised over you. Whoever sees you, has seen Me. Whoever honours you, has honoured Me. Whoever insults you, has insulted himself. Whoever degrades you, has only degraded himself. You punish whom you wish27 and you reward whom you wish, without any will of your own.”

“If I want to punish someone, he will deny you. If I want to grace him, he will show gratitude towards you. Praise to you, may you be exalted! You are the praised, the glorified, the magnified. The goal of learning and knowledge is to be attached to you.”

“The limit of your knowledge depends on the capacity I have given you; therefore you only know yourself.”

Then He said to me, “Come back, for you cannot go beyond your rank. All of you are ignorant of Me, dumb, blind, incapable, inadequate, speechless, bewildered. You have absolutely nothing whatsoever, however paltry it may be, that belongs to you.”29

You have claimed the impossible and you are living in error. You have split into factions and become dispersed, ‘each group is happy with what it has’,30 but the Truth is beyond all that.” “O My servant and place of My vision in My creation! Communicate about Me truthfully, for I am the Veracious One.”

Ibn ‘Arabi mentions the four corresponding human types: “the people of the exterior” (rijāl al-zāhir), “the people of the interior” (rijāl al-bātin), “the people of the limit” (rijāl al-hadd), and “the people of elevation” (rijāl al-matla’). He also tells us that one of his teachers, one of the greatest shaykhs he met, al-Shakkaz of Priego, related these four categories of people to those referred to in the Quran respectively as: those who “are true to their covenant with God” (Q. 33:23); those “whom neither trade nor business distract from the remembrance of God” (Q. 24: 37); those of “the battlements [heights, between heaven and hell] who know everyone by their marks” (Q. 7:46); and those who come to God “on foot” when He calls to them (Q. 22:27). See also R. W.J. Austin, Sufis of Andalusia, pp. 111-12, C. Addas, Quest for the Red Sulphur, p. 171, and W. C. Chittick, The Self-Disclosure of God, p. 219.

The I-ness (aniyya or inniyya) is the “individual being”, which Ibn ‘Arabī defines as “the reality by way of relationship (al-haqīqa bi-tarīq al-idâfa)”.

17. “That is, since the quiddity [what-it-is-ness] of the Real (mâhiyyat al-haqq) is unknown, the creature is lost in it.” (IS)

18. When commenting on this, Ibn ‘Arabī explained to Ibn Sawdakm that “God has a special kingdom set aside for mysteries or secrets, from which the spirits of the letters are breathed into the whole world. The Divine Word ‘… and I have breathed into him of My spirit’ (Q. 15: 29) contains seventy thousand powers, so that the heart of the gnostic receives seventy thousand secrets every day: each power confers a secret and each secret bestows one of the knowledges of divinity, and this each of the days of the world.” (IS)

7 Contemplation of the Light of the Leg (sāq) as the Star of the Summons (du ‘ā’) rises

7. That is, “we distracted them” using a kind of divine trick (makr), by veiling (the servant) from (the vision of) a higher Reality with what is inferior to it. (IS)   8. That is, “the leg follows the foot”, and the foot has the meaning of “firmness”; if the foot is firm, the leg is firm, and if not, it stumbles. (IS)   9. “The leg is the Order of God, the Most High, and so by means of it He makes the manifestation of the sun more intense.” (IS) 10. “The moon represents the prophets.” (IS)

That is, they do not belong to a particular rank, since they appear in every degree according to what is required by that degree. (IS)

Those who are above them11 will sail on it for a thousand years,12 until they land on its shore. They will disembark in an empty desert13 without end or limit, and they will wander about in it as long as eternity lasts, and if it ceased they would be extinguished.”

Then He said to me, “Everything you have seen is created and everything created is incomplete. Ascend until you do not see creation.”38 I ascended. I threw myself into the sea of perplexity and He left me swimming39 in it.

That is, ignorant people attribute actions to themselves, therefore they associate another agent with God. However, for the great ones, the only means of realizing the contemplation of actions (mashhad al-fi’t) is through the way of witnessing, where the two orders of affirmation and denial are witnessed together, leaving them perplexed. (IS) The most well-known Quranic reference to this doctrine, which simultaneously affirms and denies the attribution of action to the human being, appears in Q. 8:17: “You did not throw when you threw, but God threw.”

28. The Real built a boat of remembrance (dhikr) and retreat (khalwa)for the witness in order that he might see what pertains to the attribute of transcendence, which is sheer negation. Because of this, fire comes out of the keys which burns the boat of remembrance, retreat and suchlike. (IS)

29. “By ‘everything’ he is alluding to the letter bā’ [the first letter of the Quran and, insofar as it is the beginning, the ‘door’ (bob) of the revelation]. The letter bā’ or the doors are here the symbol of every attribute that can be attributed to the Real (al-haqq).” (IS)

“Whoever is in perplexity has reached happiness; whoever is in perplexity unifies; whoever unifies exists;11 whoever exists passes away and whoever passes away remains and whoever remains is worshipped12 and whoever is worshipped rewards; the One who rewards is the Most High, and the best of the rewards is the I-ness and in it is perplexity.” Then He said to me, “Perplexity is not perplexity. It is only My jealousy towards you. Be jealous of Me and guard Me and veil Me and do not be revealed to other than Me in existence!”

“Throw it into the fire. If it burns,17 then it is My garment and if it remains intact then it is not My garment.” “If it burns, it is not My garment, but if it remains intact then it is My garment. Whoever puts on My garment is not of Me, and whoever leaves it is of Me.”

performed alone and consists of an uneven number of ritual movements (raka’ât),

Everything that you distinguish through your imagination or perceive through your intellect, however complete, comes from you and returns to you: it is contingent and fabricated like you.”

He said to me, “Join with them if you want salvation and follow their path. But do not join with them (ma’a-hum) whilst the [final] mīm remains. When the mīm disappears, join with them whilst the ‘withness’14 remains, and when the ‘withness’ disappears, do as you like and it will not be held against you.”

Then He said to me, “Enter the pavilion and its fire will revert to light. Enter the flames and it will turn into Paradise. Do not enter a place except through Me and do not seek anything but Me.”

Then He said to me, “Do not do anything that I have told you to do. If you do not do it, you will perish and if you do it, you will perish. So be on your guard and do not depart from the Order!”

Among them are those whom God has endowed with the perception of satanic tricks and the machinations of the (lower) self, and also those who pay attention to the power of the passions, observing the mastery that these exercise over human beings. Each friend of God knows, definitively, what his station bestows on him.

The wise ones who have “arrived” are of two kinds: those who return and those who do not. Those who do not return are called by the name wāqif (the one who stops) among the Sufis. Those who return are also divided into two: those whose return is particular, who are called knowers (arif), and those whose return is general, who are called heirs.

Although these secrets are not disclosed [directly except to those who are able to receive them], it is not forbidden to reveal them and communicate them, as Niffarī, Abu Mūsā al-Dubaylī, Ibn Barrajān of Seville and Ibn al-’Arīf have done in their works. Finally, Ibn ‘Arab! observes that these secrets are protected so that they cannot be discovered in a casual way, without proper attention. On the contrary, he says, earnest endeavour and constant application are required, accompanied by great yearning and a submissive heart.

(The heart as mirror and receptacle of divine knowledge)

Ibn Arab! returns to the heart (qalb) as a receptacle for knowledge, describing its many facets and its constant transformation (taqallub).

He then describes how the various facets of the heart are each polished in turn, so that the mirror of the heart becomes clear and free from the rust of otherness.

The former belong to the people of progress by degrees and the latter to the people of the realities, for, as Ibn ‘Arab! points out, not every “wise person” is truly wise:

In order to establish whether you are the possessor of a knowledge which arises in you, or merely its carrier, it is necessary to observe how it manifests within yourself: “To veridfy this, look at your being rightly guided in the clearest way, the soundest road and the most preferable balance in your words, deeds and heart.”

The most excellent degree is appropriateness of words, actions and heart, followed by appropriateness of actions and heart but not words, and then various combinations of these.

He warns his reader to beware of the ruse of God, for “no one feels safe from the ruse of God except those who are lost.”9

“So be on your guard and do not depart from the Order!”

“The straight path is finer than a hair and sharper than a sword: no one can adhere to it except the people under God’s special care.”12 He concludes by saying, “If you wish to reach the lights and secrets [of such people], follow in their footsteps.”

“Innovation from this world is not possible” -the implication being that what he describes in this book is not invented but a revelation from the treasuries of knowledge of the Unseen.