Edit by OmarKN
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Our understanding of Tawhīd is of course informed by our understanding of Allah.
Every moment are existent things in this world originating from Allah, sustained by Allah and any moment returning to Allah.[1]
This is a summary of some points of the teachings of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi by the eminent scholar Bulent Rauf, slightly edited by OmarKN.[3] Full text: Union and Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi [2]
{ لا اله الا اللّٰه }
Tawhid actually does mean “unification”, or “making into One”. But …not “unification” of several things.
The prerequisite knowledge of Tawhid is that there is absolutely no other Being in existence than the One and Only, Self-Subsistent Being. [n3]
That what seems to be “all that there is”, is no other than Itself, somewhat like the apparently different facets of the jewel are no other than the jewel itself, or… [4]
Further:
Tawhid or Union is not [simply] a matter of knowing what it means but the act of progression towards the fulfilment of that action and knowledge … [5]
Yet the knowledge of all this is not per se enough to allow one to be in the State of Union or Tawhid.[6]
So Tawhid or Union is a deliberate act of progression to being One. [7]
Union or Tawhid is both an act of progression and a State of Being to which the action of progression leads [n2] but does not stop in its action when once it is in Being.
That Tawhid is both a state of Being and an act of progression [n1] without end is due to at least four aspects of the Being Itself: [13]
Even in the other world as well as this, man is constantly in progress whether he is conscious of it or not. [11]
[This means] that the progressing movement[12] with Love towards Beauty is constant whether one knows about it or not or whether one is in this world or not. ↩
When Ibn ‘Arabi says everyone progresses, he does not equally say everyone progresses in the same latitude nor in the same manner. This is possible because though the Divine Names are the source of relativity they are all the same absolute in their Essence emanating from the same Ipseity. ↩
Joe Hu Unsplash
As regards man’s progression towards Union or Tawhid, since Beauty is always in expression and Love is Its movement, then the expression which is always in movement cannot but reach man for whom that movement and that expression is meant. Whether man acknowledges this or not, he is subjected to that Love and Beauty.
And the effusion of Beauty is such that it covers the wary and the unwary recipient,… [14]
And the effusion of Beauty is such that it covers the wary and the unwary recipient, the former consciously responding to it, the latter denying it through unawareness.[15]
To “wake up” or not is, as we have seen, a matter of Taste (dhawq).[16] It is related that Bayazid (also referred to as Abu Yazid) of Bastam in Iran,…[17]
The crux of the matter of Union or Tawhid seems to lie in a taste for it. Dhawq (taste) has a connotation of “enjoyment” in it. There is “joy” in the enjoyment of it because it leads to appreciating fully, and then identifying with, Beauty.
No other can see God. But those who have vision to see “no other” see God in all His effects everywhere.[8] When one’s vision has progressed to a vision of “no-other”, then one sees Him everywhere. [18]
–
Allah
(may His Majesty be exalted!)
Related texts
Malik and al-Shafiʿi’s Understanding of Tawhid
Unity - Al-Tawhid, René Guénon
L'Unité - Et-Tawhid, René Guénon
Being and Existence, Muhyiddīn Ibn al-ʿArabī
↩
Man was given (a sort of) free will, but what is willed is from the Will and Wisdom of Allah. ↩
Bulent Rauf was first President of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society.
His chief literary work was the complete rendering into English of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi’s Fusus al-hikam (“Settings of Wisdom”), incorporating the Turkish commentary attributed to Ismail Hakki Bursevi. He also translated into English (from Turkish), Kernel of the Kernel, by Ismail Hakki Bursevi (1981), and from French, Mystical Astrology According to Ibn ’Arabi by Titus Burckhardt (1977).
From his bio at
Union and Muhyiddin, Ibn Arabi | Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society ↩
All this according to the Islamic Intellectual Tradition ↩
or like the different colours refracted by the prism are no other than The Light which turns into various colours when passed through the prism.
Tawhid then comes to mean the recognition of plurality as no other than the fact that what seemingly appears as many or varied is in reality One and Only in Essence. ↩
Meaning: to feel an irresistible desire to reach, consciously, that state of being where one is in Union or in Tawhid – i.e. in the state of having formed a concept whereby there exists no other than the One and Only, the Unique Existent, Absolute. //mc fn to The word ’Absolute’: ↩
It’s one thing to know what is a hero, quite another to being a hero. ↩
Not only is it an act which is deliberate, like any other deliberate action, but that action deliberately and consciously undertaken must, by its nature, be all exclusive, irresistible in its attraction, a passion induced by the supreme and all pervading Love of the State of Union or Tawhid. ↩
The vision of Allah (may His Majesty be exalted) is the highest recompense, the greatest reward for the ʿabd, the obedient servant of God. ↩
Su 55–29 , kullu yaumin huwa fii-shaan
{Every day in (new) Splendour does He (shine)} ↩
this Beauty is not something qualified by Beauty but as sheer Beauty, as Beauty Itself the Jamâl.
… ↩
As stated by Ibn ‘Arabi.
Ibn ‘Arabi sees “death” as such, leave alone as a finality, as not existing. [19] The Prophet ﷺ said: "Die before you die" (and) Ibn ‘Arabi expects all that follow his teachings to acquiesce and to accede as urgently and as soon as possible as each is capable of understanding what it means. [20] [Otherwise it would appear that] they are not ardently in Love and are not consequently intent on Union or Tawhid. ↩
The original text had “progressive movement”, to avoid misunderstandings it was here changed to “progressing movement”. ↩
These four points have also been shortened, please refer to the original article, Union and Muhyiddin, Ibn Arabi
↩
And the effusion of Beauty is such that it covers the wary and the unwary recipient, the former consciously responding to it, the latter denying it through unawareness. But when he is in the other world, released from the veil of his relative identity, he will see the Reality of the situation necessarily and will comply and conform with the unavoidable Truth (Haqq) – eventually reaching a state which will be his state of unconscious but definite progress. ↩
denying it through unawareness: or through their absorbtion into the dunya, forgetful of their real purpose in this world. (ghaflah) ↩
It is true that the way one goes, towards Union – Tawhid – or not, and which way, is a matter of Taste (dhawq). The Progress through Taste (dhawq) does not impair in any way the Expression of Beauty nor the Love.
In his Fusûs al-Hikam, ‘Arabi quotes a converse where David is told: “Oh David, it is I who desire them even more intensely” than they yearn for Him.
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Dhawq (taste) has a connotation of “enjoyment” in it. There is “joy” in the enjoyment of it because it leads to appreciating fully, and then identifying with, Beauty. ↩
"To “wake up” or not is, as we have seen, a matter of Taste (dhawq).
It is related that Bayazid (also referred to as Abu Yazid) of Bastam in Iran, one of the greatest Saints of this line of thought, was met by some people going to the mosque for the pre-dawn prayer. Bayazid of Bastam was coming from a direction other than his house.
Upon being questioned as to where he had been so early, Bayazid answered that it had been an especially lovely moonlit night and everyone was asleep, so he had decided, since God had been so bountiful in showing His Beauty, that at least he himself should devote his night to the witnessing of such loveliness, as no other servant of God seemed to wish to do, and had passed the night in wakeful adoration of Beauty, so that His Beauty did not pass unnoticed." ↩
NB: "Seeing Him everywhere" doesn’t mean accepting any- or everything or equalizing everything. ↩
”He (Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi) himself goes and comes to and fro to the other world, converses with the inhabitants of both worlds and advises them, and assumes that such a state is not a unique possibility accessible to him alone. Quite in concordance with the saying of the Prophet ﷺ "Die before you die", Ibn ‘Arabi expects all that follow his teachings to acquiesce and to accede as urgently and as possibly soon as each is capable of understanding what it means.”
↩
”He (Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi) has no patience in this and will brook no reluctance. He says in his Treatise on Being (Risalat-ul Wujudiyya) that he has no converse with those who see illusion as reality since they are limited in their vision to the objects or “things” seen and are veiled from Reality. They are not, therefore, ardently in Love and are not consequently intent on Union or Tawhid.”
↩
