The alchemical transmutation of mundane awareness into that which is capable of fulfilling its destiny was his sole occupation.
He tells of events that happened to him primarily to make a point and convey a message to the reader, and he often speaks of these episodes in an elliptical manner, posing a kind of riddle to the reader, inviting him to find out what he really means. Only by correlating different passages can one begin to piece the jigsaw together.
1 In search of new perspectives
A good word is as a good tree: its roots are firmly established and its branches are in heaven; it gives its produce every season by permission of its Lord. The wise man is not he who speaks of wisdom or makes use of it, but he whom wisdom makes act, even if he is not aware of it.
The genius of Ibn ‘Arabī lies in exposing this revelation of the unknown within the arena of Unity and according to Its dictates. His insight into human experience is vast and encompassing. He describes thoughts as “visitors from heaven that cross the field of the heart”, where the heart describes the most fundamental ground of our awareness. In this sense, thought does not refer simply to a process of the brain, or even something we can think about or reflect upon. It indicates that which arises at each instant within us, within our innermost consciousness.
All these visitors require the existence of someone to think them, someone to “carry” them, a “place” where they can manifest.
In the world of human spirituality, originality depends on totality and integration, a unified field of being and knowledge which is by definition all-inclusive of the principles of all other fields. This unity represents, as it were, the very ground that the other fields operate on, like the heart from which all the faculties are derived. Occasionally, rare individuals appear in this world, bringing out the genuinely new regarding the whole human condition, and making it accessible for others.
These people have gone beyond the norms of what has already been revealed, and have reached a level of true humanity that is not bound by time or place.
The most evident feature of these writings is their universality and breadth, coupled with an astonishing penetration into the central issues of human experience. Few people can claim to have read more than a portion of these works, and even fewer would be bold enough to claim to have understood them. They represent an unparalleled resource for all genuine seekers of Truth, and often openly state, or prefigure, insights more commonly attributed to later figures. For example, the concept of human evolutionary development appears in one of his poems, several centuries before it was taken up in the West. It is equally clear that his works have a remarkable power to transform the state and mentality of his readers. Ibn ‘Arabī has always aroused fierce passions, and his writings have never been considered “easy”.
He was one of those who realise their true nature through experience and state rather than through intellectual thinking, and yet at the same time he was able to express his vision in words, in the most comprehensive manner. His own life must rank as one of the most remarkable lived by any human being.
The realisation of the unity of God (tawhïd) has completely predominated over him in terms of knowledge, behaviour and state, and he pays no heed to the ups and downs of existence. As disciples he has men of knowledge, who are masters of spiritual perception and authors in their own right.
It is essential to realise that spirituality does not simply denote a part of the human reality, but rather the whole of what is meant by human being. This integral wholeness is the foundation-stone of self-consciousness, and cannot but include all the particular aspects.
To try to comprehend a writer and thinker such as Ibn ‘Arabī is to confront two immediate conundrums: firstly, inhabiting a seemingly very different world, we may find our assumptions and world-view challenged by someone who expressed himself within a medieval context. It requires, then, a suspension of certain modern preconceptions, or at least a willingness to go beyond immediately “modern” concerns.
To understand or love another human being inevitably involves self-understanding and love. The “other” is as a mirror in which we can see ourselves.
When the mirror into which we are looking is a man who can speak to us on all levels of our being, both those which are known to us and those that remain unknown, it is inevitable that we will be confronting our hidden, more personal preconceptions as well.
At the same time, we must remember that a genius of the stature of Ibn ‘Arabī is a genius precisely because he transcends the conditions of his time and place, and that his constant preoccupation is with the essential unity of all conditions.
It was a new fusion at the edge of the Muslim world, incorporating elements of the old Roman Empire, the Christian kingdom of the Visigoths and immigrants of varying backgrounds who were drawn to Spain by the excitement of a dynamic culture. It took many years for Muslims to form the majority of the population, and as minority rulers they were bound to tolerate and accept peoples of different backgrounds, ways and faiths.
On 2 January 1492 Boabdil, the last Muslim ruler, rode out from Granada to Santa Fe, and surrendered the keys of the city to Ferdinand and Isabella.
On 28 March the royal contract was signed, authorising Christopher Columbus to travel across the Atlantic in the name of Christendom and Spain. On 31 March an edict expelling the Jews from Spanish soil was issued.
Columbus can be seen as a symbol of the human desire to explore the unknown, to “capture” it and exploit it for our own ends, with scant regard for any other perspective.
True cultural advance is not related to progress in technology or social organisation, but to an increase in self-knowledge and the freedom to contemplate and celebrate the Divine Beneficence in all its forms.
2 Of Oneness and Singleness
In other words, the best educator is not one who interposes himself or herself as a separate being, ladling out limited amounts of knowledge, but one who identifies with, or actually is, the drinking water itself.
For Ibn ‘Arabī the true meaning of Oneness is a mystery, and the whole of his work can be described as a ceaseless circumambulation around the Unknowable One, which lies beyond all contrasting descriptions and manifestations. In this chapter we shall explore some of the ways in which he describes this Oneness, but we should never lose sight of the fact, which for him is a sine qua non, that this is a mystery which cannot be ultimately understood or fathomed by the human intellect.
This Oneness is not simply equatable to belief in the One God as professed in Western religions, for that is one formulation of the principle which is according to a particular understanding. Such belief in God has all too often appeared to exclude other formulations, such as the non-theistic doctrines of Buddhism or the great spirit beliefs of the American Indians.
Nor should it be thought of simply as a philosophical concept. The Arabic word wujüd also means “experience” or “finding”, and therefore Being cannot be understood or appreciated solely as an intellectual idea. It is the quest of life, to be found and realised.
The creation is intelligible and God the Real is perceptible and visible, according to the people of Faith and the people of true Insight and Experience. As for those who are in neither of these two categories, the Real is intelligible and the creation is visible. These latter are like bitter, salty water while the former are like sweet, pleasant water, fit to drink.
The first of the Names is al-Wähid al-Ahad (the One and Unique) which is a compound Name like Baalbek or Rämhurmuz or al-Rahmän al-Rahïm (the All-Compassionate and Most Merciful)… It points to the very Essence of Ipseity, not as a relation by which He is qualified… The Wahid al-Ahad is an essential Name for Him.
They can be classified as either “transcendent”, denoting the manner in which Absolute Being is beyond the relative by virtue of inferiority and logical priority, or “immanent”, denoting the manner in which the Being is connected to rela-tivisation.
the human being: When the Unity (wahdäniyya) is revealed, the one who witnesses it does not see other than himself, whether in the station of his own unity or any other. If he is in the station of his own unity, that is similar to multiplying one by one, and all that makes is one, using numerical terms as an analogy and an approximation. So multiply one by one and you get one. If he is not in the station of unity, then that is similar to multiplying one by two, which of course makes two, and so on through all the numbers.
When the One appears as any other number, three aspects are simultaneously present: the unique existence of this possibility (two is uniquely two), its place in the hierarchy of numbers (two is less than four) and its dependence on the principle of Oneness (two is one plus one). In the following passage, which describes the contemplative implications of this knowledge, Ibn ‘Arabī clarifies this distinction between what he calls the One as Essence (or the unitary principle) and the One as Name (or the first number): When that which never was passes away, being transient, and that which ever is remains, being permanent and subsistent, then the Sun of clear proof will rise, bringing evident comprehension. There occurs the absolute transcendence, realised in absolute Beauty. It is the essential reality of Collecting-together and Being9 and the station of Tranquillity and Stillness. The numbers are seen as [the same as] the One (Wahid) - this One journeys in the [many] degrees and by this journeying the realities of the numbers are manifest. It is at this station that the one who professes unification falls into error: for when this person sees the journeying of the One through the imaginary degrees, he does not see any number except the Unique One (Ahad)10 and therefore he professes identity.
“every number arises from One, and this in turn from Zero. In this lies a great and sacred mystery.”
As for the cause of the Divine Self-expression in forms, Ibn ‘Arabī is very fond of quoting the Divine words: “I was a Hidden Treasure and I loved to be known, so I created the world that I might be known”. The Hidden Treasure is the Names and possibilities of existence in their undif-ferentiated state; Love is the prime motive of all creation, and out of Love for these possibilities of self-expression He created the world, the “stage”, so that He may be known in all these different modalities. Creation is, for Ibn ‘Arabī, no more or less than the rendering visible of the invisible. There is no substantial or temporal gap between Creator and creature.
There is no one “right” way of seeing things, but each way reflects the fact that the whole universe is multiple revelations of a single Light, ever-changing in form, never-changing in principle, ever-fresh in the discovery of meanings. There is nothing but Being, sheer, pure, not ex nihilo, and that is the Being of God the Most High. The being ex nihilo is the essence of the created thing itself, which is the existence of the world. There is no difference between the two existences; and there is no “extension” except in the imagination which classifies things, and that becomes reorganised through knowledge, so that nothing of it is left except Absolute Being and relative Being, active and passive. This is how the realities have been bestowed - peace through perfection.
Ibn ‘Arabī conceives of two fundamentally distinct presences. The first is unlimited, non-manifest and sheer. It is without need of manifestation, permitting no association or similarity. The second is relative and limited, manifest in various degrees or forms or “things”, where all relation is of one thing with another thing. This relative universe comprises physical forms, imaginai forms (as appear in dreams, for example) and conceptual forms, but remains utterly dependent upon the transcendent Meaning that the Absolute is. Each manifest thing is an indication of the non-manifest, a pointer to reality, while appearing to have some
substantial reality of its own as a limited thing.
Ibn ‘Arabī views the active spirit as a single principle flowing through all spirits, “one father”, which he identifies with the Highest Spirit. This spiritual paternity, which is singular, is not to be confused with the physical image of a father, which varies from person to person. Indeed Ibn ‘Arabī makes a rather surprising link between the fatherhood of the spirit and the motherhood of the body: “the Highest Spirit is his real father in the world above and his phenomenal mother in the world below”.
Jesus, the model of perfect renunciation and detachment, was Ibn ‘Arabī’s first teacher, and there is an extraordinary bond between the two, which surfaces and resurfaces throughout his writings. This is no accident, and its significance cannot be overemphasised if we are to truly appreciate Ibn ‘Arabī’s work. He was my first teacher, through whom I returned [to God]; he is immensely kind towards me and does not neglect me even for an instant.
He said to me, “O my son, when you have tasted the honey, taste no more of vinegar. God has opened the Way to you, so stand firm in it.”23
All are led back to the Compassion of God that encompasses everything and which is precedent [to His Anger].31
As can be seen in the following description, it constitutes a state of complete indigence in the face of what is revealed, akin to a childlike innocence and spontaneity: It is only given to the perfect Muhammadian, even if in other respects he is the heir of another prophet. The most powerful station obtained by the person who has received this illumination is the station of veracity (sidq) in all he says, in all his movements and in his state of repose… Such a person is incapable of conceiving inwardly what he will say, then putting it into order by means of reflection and finally uttering it. For him, the moment in which he speaks is the same as the moment in which he conceives the discourse by means of which he expresses his thought… Of all the men I have met throughout my life, I have met none who showed any trace of this form of illumination. It may be that such people exist but I simply have not met any; the one thing I am sure about, on the other hand, is that I am one of them.
I was leading a group of people in prayer in the al-Azhar Mosque when I saw it as a light which was almost more visible than what was in front of me, except that I had lost all sense of behind [or in front]. I no longer had a back or the nape of a neck. While the vision lasted, I had no sense of direction, as if I had become completely spherical. Any sense of direction I might have had was simply hypothetical, not what I actually experienced.
The light-vision is a kind of foretaste of his great journey of light. In the following year,13 at the age of thirty-three, he was taken on one of the most extraordinary journeys of all: the ascension (mi ‘raj) that mirrored the Prophet Muhammad’s famous night-journey.
In exact and faithful replication, Ibn ‘Arabī, the Muhammadian heir par excellence, travelled the same path spiritually. While the ascension of the Prophet took place bodily, those of the saints “are the ascensions of their spirits and the vision of their hearts, the vision of forms in the intermediate world and embodied spiritual realities…
God does not transport His servant so that he can see Him, but in order to show him some of His Signs, those that have not been seen by him. He has said: “Glory be to Him who caused His servant to travel by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Distant Mosque, the precincts of which We have blessed, so that We might show him some of Our Signs”17… I have transported him only to see the Signs, not to Me, since no place can contain Me and the relation of “places” to Me is identical. I am the One who is contained in the heart of My faithful servant, so how can I possibly transport him to Me when I am next to him and with him, wherever he is?18
When Ibn ‘Arabī begs him to make known the secrets of the Quran and the Fätiha, the Youth replies: You are a cloud over your own sun. First of all, know the reality of your self. None can understand My words except one who ascends to My Station, and none ascends to It except Me! So how is it you want to know the reality of My Names? Nonetheless you shall be taken up to My heaven!20
He reveals himself as the ultimate source and secret of inspiration, the true Image from which all is imaged, “the Scribe who writes upon all the pages of the intellect”.
Only his qualities remain, to be uncovered in the course of the ascension.
The first part of the journey is not concerned with the glorification which is constantly being rendered to God in these three kingdoms; it is a stripping away of all attachment to this world and its forms, a dissolution of the coverings which have clothed man during his descent into relative existence. This stage requires total effort and striving in one-pointed concentration. We could compare it to the explosive force that powers a rocket into space: the weightless state of space cannot be reached as long as the gravity of the earth predominates.
In this journey physical geography metamorphoses into spiritual topography. Every place on earth is revealed according to its original meaning. Like an astronaut looking back at the earth, Ibn ‘Arabī describes all the terrestrial features in a different light. From the human perspective, the spiritual journey begins in faith, the certainty which is heart-felt, and reaches fulfilment in the complete realisation of servanthood or indigence before God.
He explains that the people of Yathrib have reached the Muhammadian “station of no-station”, where the journey in God is akin to voyaging upon a perpetual ocean without shore. The travellers have realised that God is manifest in all things, in all places, in all states, and can therefore never be reached. He is truly the Unseen and the Unknown.
The following extracts will give a flavour of this initial meeting and some of its ramifications: I left the land of the West, seeking the city of Yathrib, and I journeyed for forty nights… When I arrived [at the city of Yathrib] and the aspirations that had carried me there had disappeared, I asked some of my companions and dearest friends: “Is there in your land any priest to take refuge with or any teacher to sit in front of?” I was told: “Here is a teacher who is meticulously clear in enquiry and vision, who communicates well and informatively. He is called father of humanity, and he teaches in the temple of the moon. Under his sway there are wonders. There is no veil between you and him.” I rose up as if being released from bondage and casting off a heavy weight, and I came upon him [Adam] in the midst of his work. I arrived at his spirituality and saw a person of light countenance and clear speech. He stood up in respect and honoured me with a generous welcome, saying to his people: “He is [one] of my people.” They looked at me, and included me among their brethren and followers. I felt rather shy, and my heart was filled with awe and dread.
This Real Event (wäcji ‘a) is the manifestation of the reality of Heaven and Hell, which occurs at death, “whose coming cannot be denied” since death will overtake us all, but whose meaning and significance is realised by gnostics, the “forerunners”, while in this world. The gnostics, the “ones brought close”, who have reached the Station of Closeness (macjäm al-cjurba), have already risen above the earthly polarities and realised the heaven of their being. They have “died” to themselves before physical death. This realisation is the actualisation of our Adamic heritage.
This act of witnessing is peculiar to those who are brought close. They know the pure heaven of eternal felicity while still in this lower world of opposites. Having left the earth, they have realised that heaven is here on earth. They see their real self as the eternal possibility they are, and know that they are the meaning of the whole of phenomenal existence.
Each of these particular “lights” are refractions of the singular Muhammadian Light, facets of the jewel of sainthood.
This in no way means being without any kind of belief. To think that all beliefs are limited and therefore should be scrapped becomes in turn another belief and dogma, equally limiting and limited, if not more so. To be free of the limiting condition is to be free of the dominion of intellectual thought. This requires the most penetrating insight into the very structure and root of belief, which by its nature simultaneously accepts and rejects. This insight is the seeing of the heart. Only then is it possible not to be tied to any one form of belief. It implies accepting things as they really are, without the bias of a particular viewpoint or “room”.