Insights Into The Nature Of Being And Existence

Only Allah is pure Being, everything else is a reflection of this Being in different colors and forms.

1. "How can I find² God?"

How can we find Allah (God), when all we see is something other than Allah (God)? When asking what God is,ⁿ² all we can say is that "God is," God's Being³ (wujūd ).

Allah says Himself:

{ اللّٰهُ نُورُ ٱلسَّمَاوَاتِ وَ الأرْضِ }

{ Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. }
24-35

If asked if Allah is⁴, we say - keeping in mind that neither senses nor reason can comprehend Allah (may His Majesty be exalted) - as the ancients⁵ have been saying:

"HE HAS NO intelligeable representation
and the intelligences don't show the way towards Him:

ليس له مثل معقول و لا دلت عليه العقول

laisa lahu mathala maʿqūl wa lā dallat ʿaleihi-l ʿuqūl

"NEITHER does time limit Him, nor does place lessen Him:

لا يحدّه زمان و لا يقلّه مكان

lā yahidduhu zamān, wa lā yaqilluhu makān

"HE WAS when there was no place,
and He is now such as He has always been:

كان و لا مكان و هو على ما عليه كان

kāna wa lā makān wa huwa ʿala mā ʿaleihi kān

(The) Being is Itself Allah, because there is no being (no thing) without Allah, or except for Allah. This being is called wujūd⁶. Wujūd is literally 'Finding', also passive mode 'being found' with the meaning of existence.

This "is the wājib al-wujūd, the Necessary Being, because It cannot not be." SPK80 It is that "which by its very nature is and cannot not be," referred to here as 'Being'.

In spiritual travel, the "mind's journey (is) to find the signs (āyāt ) of Allah and to understand that He can be 'found'." SPK80 Allah (swt) says⁷:

{ لَّقَدْ أَنزَلْنَا آيَاتٍ مُّبَيِّنَاتٍ وَاللّٰهُ يَهْدِى مَن يَشَاءُ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ }

{ We have indeed sent down signs that make things manifest: and Allah guides whom He wills to a way that is straight. }
Sura An-Nur 24-46

2. How?

How can you ask for the knowledge of Allah when you are ignorant of yourself and your origin?⁸

There is no spiritual travel without an ongoing search for knowledge. This means not to stop at what one knows already (unlearning before learning), not to stop asking questions. Hadith: "Seek Knowledge as far as China."⁹ (See also 'Metaphysics, Why Is It Necessary Today?')^RL In the quest for knowledge, there are many hinders, the first and probably the worst is conceit and self-deception, especially if one knows "a little".

Then (being on the path - of finding or experiencing Allah) "is to fall into bewilderment (hayra )," which is "the bewilderment of finding and knowing Allah and not-finding and not-knowing Himⁿ⁴ at the same time." SPK3 How to manage this without assistance?!

There are those misunderstandings created by (the crudeness of our) languages, esp. Western languages, which have lost much of their ability to express metaphysical facts and relationships. For example in English, German, French etc. when we say "the sky is blue", the 'is' is only a copula¹⁰ here, the color blue doesn't tell us anything about the sky's being or existence. So to say in Arabic "the sky is blue" it appears as السماء زرقاء, which is: "the sky blue", with no linking 'is' to be a sign of existential statement. ¹¹

NB: Muhyiddin Ibn ʿArabi does not give a "comprehensive, systematic exposition" for an understanding of "the basic underlying principles of cosmology." What he explains is only a summary account, touching on its topics.

3. Pure Being - Light

"Only Allah is pure Being, everything else is a reflection of this Being in different colors and forms - and more or less intense. To explain the relationship of the things of the universe in relation to Being and non-being, Light is taken as a symbol for Being, especially since it is said in the Quran, that Allah is Light (24-35):"

{ اللّٰهُ نُورُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ }

"Allah is pure Light, and the many things are the rays of this Light. These rays, although they are light, are not identical to pure Light, and insofar as they are not identical with it, they are darkness. And darkness is the absence of light, which means - from this perspective - that the many things are characterized by the absence of Being."¹²

4. On The Necessary Being, Which Cannot Not Be

The wājib al-wujūd contrasts with the possible things (mumkināt ) and the impossible things (mumtaniˋ). The relationship of the possible things (mumkināt ) to existence and nonexistence is equal, whereas the impossible things (mumtaniˋ) cannot come into existence - although they can exist in a certain fashion in the mind of man.

"It is the Necessary Being which (will) give preponderance (tarjīh ) to the existence of the possible thing over its non-existence for it to come into existence as a thing in the world." SPK82L

There is only One Being, "and all existence¹³ is nothing but the manifestation or outward radiance of that One Being."¹⁴ The fact that existence is but the manifestation of the One Necessary Being entails that existence itself is an intermediary situation/ domain, and that "there are degrees of participation in (the light of) Being."¹⁵

5. The Possible Entities

Contrasted with the Necessary Being are the possible beings/ entities. Possibility (imkān ) is one of the greatest rational arguments that can be offered to prove "there is a God." (Here wujūd in the meaning of: He can be found, He does exist). SPK82ro

This is so because the (seeker of knowledge) "will prefer his own existence over his non-existence."¹⁶. He will "uncover the existence of his Preponderator (which is Allah swt), then embark on his 2nd journey, which will lead him "into the knowledge of that which should be known about this Maker who has brought him into existence." So this alone will be a proof of His Incomparability. Then the 3rd journey…

Actually the cosmos is "the sum total of the possible things, whether or not they exist." If they have come into existence, they are still possible things.¹⁷ 83Lo

"The infinite number of different ranks and qualities of the entities of the universe (can be read as) are Allah's signs, as the names of Allah, which describe His Attributes and Actions. On the basis of a saying of the Prophet (saws) the Islamic tradition mentions the 99 Most Beautiful Names of Allah¹⁸ - which are derived from the Quran and from the prophetic hadith." These names express relationships between Allah as The Creator, The Lifegiver, The Ever Just etc. and creation itself. ¹⁹

6. Existence & Nonexistence

"Allah Himself is Being (wujūd ) - non-existence is everything other than Allah."²⁰ However, "Ibn ʿArabi's main concern is not with the mental concept of being, but with the experience of Allah's Being, the tasting (dhawq ) of" wujūd . SPK3

Also, it is important to note that for English speakers the word 'existence' has "no necessary connection with awareness, this is not the case for Ibn al-ʿArabi" (or for the Islamic intellectual tradition). "To speak of wujūd is to speak of finding and what is found, and finding is meaningless without knowledge and consciousness."²⁴

The expression²¹ 'He / Not-He', (huwa lā huwa ) signifies the state of all things situated between Being and non-being (or non-existence): They have 'being' (or existence) derived from the Being of Allah, His Essence, just as when rays spread out from the light, and they belong to non-existence in so far as they are not identical with the Light.ⁿ¹

This world - the universe - will sometimes be called 'existence' and sometimes referred to as 'non-existence'.²² Non-existence in this sense is 'relative non-existence' (al-ʿadam al-iDāfī ) in contrast to the 'absolute non-existence' (al-ʿadam al-mutlaq ).²³

Existence²⁵ of the possible thing over its non-existence is because the Necessary Being has given preponderance (tarjīh ) to its existence over its non-existence,²⁶ and so it came into existence, it 'was'.

Nonexistence (other than Being) are "things, entities, possible things, loci of manifestation, forms, attributes," however "the universe is nothing but His theophany²⁷, (conditioned) by the forms of aʿyān thābita." ²⁸

"But 'nonexistence' does not mean absolute nothingness, since the things²⁹ possess certain modes of relative existence.³⁰ So nonexistents (maʿdūmāt ) are not pure nothingness,… "the nonexistents of the things is clearly a relative (iDāfī ) matter." If not (yet - or no more) in existence, any creature "clearly exists in some mode, since it is an object of Allah's knowledge. It is 'found' with Allah."³¹

(See also 'How Allah (God) Brought The Cosmos Into Existence Disclosing Himself.')^RL

7. The Relationship Between the Many and the One

This is about the various relationships in wujūd, most importantly the relationship between the many entities and the One, between the existent things and Being, between the possible existents and the Necessary Being.

…

Q: And we ask:ⁿ³ what is the wujūd of the things - including ourselves? What is our existence/ life?

A: "The creatures dwell in an ambiguous middle ground or barzakh whose actual situation is exceedingly difficult to express in words." SPK81

Q: "If Allah is 'wujūd ' are the things also 'wujūd '?"

A: "Yes/ No; they are 'He/ not He'"

Further we know that every thing is alive to a degree - that is alive through Allah, there are no dead, or inert things.³² "There is nothing in the universe which is not alive, although in some cases life may be hidden, in other cases manifest." ES102

8. On The Unity of Manyness

"Wujūd is ONE entity. In itself it is infinite, and its self-disclosures are never-ending."

"However, everything 'in' wujūd is finite³³, because each is limited and bound by specific modalities³⁴ of self-disclosure.

Q: How do the many arise from the one God?

NB: There is the unity of the One (ahad ) (Non-dual) and the unity of the many (Wāhid ), i.e. He bringing out every engendered oneness (thing) into existence in respect of His name Wāhid.

"Allah alone has true wujūd, while the fixed entities acquire wujūd from Allah.³⁵

9. The One Entity and the Fixed Entities

What are the fixed entities?

Contrasted with wujūd are the nonexistent, fixed entities. "Allah alone has true wujūd, while the fixed entities acquire wujūd from Allah and can then be called 'existent entities.'"

This is why the domain of existent things "is ambiguous by nature. Only Being - the Necessary Being - is absolutely unquestionable and unambiguous. - We can only know It by negating from It all the ambiguities of 'that which is other than Being.'" ...They are 'Not He'. SDG12ro

So the fixed entities, ʿayān thābita, are the nonexistent objects of Allah's knowledge, - the 'nonexistent things' are objects of knowledge. They are "immutable or fixed because they never change, just as Allah's knowledge never changes. He knows them from all eternity." An 'immutable or fixed entity' is a nonexistent possible thing. (Then comes tarjīh.)

10. Prayer

May the blessings and peace of Allah be on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions!

11. List Of Terms

wujūd : Being, existence, and finding³⁶
-- Being: wujūd - Allah's own Reality and Essence³⁷
-- existence: wujūd - things are found in the cosmos³⁸

al-ʿadam al-iDāfī : relative non-existence

al- 'adam al-mutlaq : absolute non-existence

ahadiyyat al-ahad : Unity of the One, -: (tanzīh )³⁹
ahadiyyat al-kathra : Unity of Manyness -: (tashbīh )⁴⁰

adāb : courtesy (in respect to Allah) athār : effect or property Hukm of Allah's names āyāt : the signs of Allah⁴¹
ʿayn thābita : fixed entity

barzakh : middle ground, a state between 2 other states, neither - nor -

hayra : bewilderment māhiyya : (entity, reality of sth.)

mā hiyya ? = what is it?⁴²
mawjūd : existent or existent thing⁴³
mawjūdāt : existents, which is the reality of the created things,
maʿdūm : nonexistent: a thing known by Allah, not in the created world⁴⁴
maʿdūmāt : nonexistents

mumkināt: possible things⁴⁵
imkān : possibility

maʿlūmāt :, objects of Allah's knowledge⁴⁶

nūr, Zulma : light and darkness

shay' : thing, entitiy, anything existent or non~.

tanzīh : incomparability tashbīh : similarity tafāDul : the ranking in degrees.
tarjīh : preponderance of God - Allah to… ⁴⁷

12. Literature

SPK: The Sufi Path Of Knowledge; Ibn al-ʿArabi's Metaphysics of Imagination; Willian C. Chittick, NY 1989

SDG: The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-ʿArabi's Cosmology; Willian C. Chittick, NY 1998

ES: Emir Abd el-Kader; écrits spirituels; pres. & trad. par Michel Chodkiewicz, Paris 1982

TD: Tadhkirat, La profession de foi d'Ibn ʿArabi, Roger Deladriere, Thèse 1975

UW: Urwolke & Welt; Ibn ʿArabī; Alma Giese

Insights Into The Nature Of Being And Existence

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

W.C. Chittick¹

1. "How can I find² God?"

2. How?

3. Pure Being - Light

4. On The Necessary Being, Which Cannot Not Be

5. The Possible Entities

6. Existence & Nonexistence

7. The Relationship Between the Many and the One

8. On The Unity of Manyness

9. The One Entity and the Fixed Entities

10. Prayer

11. List Of Terms

12. Literature

Insights Into The Nature Of Being And Existence

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

W.C. Chittick1

1. "How can I find2 God?"

2. How?

3. Pure Being - Light

4. On The Necessary Being, Which Cannot Not Be

5. The Possible Entities

6. Existence & Nonexistence

7. The Relationship Between the Many and the One

8. On The Unity of Manyness

9. The One Entity and the Fixed Entities

10. Prayer

11. List Of Terms

12. Literature

W.C. Chittick¹

1. "How can I find² God?"