A Question To Pose:
All human beings must seek answer to the following question, and they should do this in their best interest:
How do I find God?
Having answered it they must then set out to verify the truth of their answer by finding God in fact, not in theory.
1. Some Texts by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi
A warning by Ibn ʿArabi against a 'do-it-yourself' approach to his thought:
“We are a group whose works are unlawful to peruse, since the Sufis, one and all, use terms in technical senses by which they intend other than what is customarily meant by their usage among scholars, and those who interpret them according to their usual significance commit unbelief.”
Al-Suyuti's attitude and what he reports from al-Munawi is echoed by Imam al-Safadi who said of Ibn 'Arabi:
"He was a very great man, and whatever can be understood from his words is excellent and upright; as for what we find difficult, we leave its matter to Allah, for we were not tasked with following him nor with doing all that he said." (In al-Suyuti, Tanbih al-Ghabi (p. 70). [link]
And as Imam Ibn al-ʿArabi also explicitly stated:
“It is unlawful to read [the Sufis'] books unless one attains to their level of character and learns the meaning of their work in conformity with their technical usages, neither of which is found except in someone who has worked assiduously, rolled up his sleeves, abandoned the wrong, tightened his belt, filled himself replete with the outward Islamic sciences, and purified himself from every low trait connected with this world and the next. It is just such a person who comprehends what is being said and is allowed to enter when he stands at the door.” RT1082
Al-Futūhāt al-Makkiyya, as interpreted by professor William C. Chittick
In one respect, God - Allah is infinitely beyond understanding, and the only proper response to Him is silence. In another respect, He discloses Himself to His human forms, and He does so in two basic ways.
[ more ]
No one can have knowledge unless he knows things through his [its] own essence. Anyone who knows something through something added to his own essence is following the authority of that added thing in what it gives to him.
[ more ]
‘Intellectual tradition’ is the branch of Islamic learning that puts its primary effort into actualizing the intellect ( ʿaql ), understood as a living awareness of the way things actually are. (As interpreted by W. C. Chittick)
[
more ]
From the Original Text
[In Islam] "philosophy” and "mysticism” are not mutually exclusive,… are not necessarily watertight categories to begin with… [Even if the] approach to things was "philosophical,” [there was among muslim scholars] little interest in the actual discipline of philosophy.
[ more ]
The need of the self for knowledge is greater than the constitution's need for the food that keeps it wholesome. Knowledge is of two sorts: The first knowledge is needed in the same way as food is needed. ...
[ more ]
Wahdat-ul wujūd is really ʿain al wujūd, and it is formalized in the first part of the shahādah, which states that in essence nothing really exists except the Real (Allah), because everything else has only a limited, defined, metaphorical, borrowed wujūd.
[ more ]
No individual can escape having a belief (a personal, individual belief iʿtiqād) concerning his Lord. Through it he resorts to Him and seeks Him ...
[ more ]
“There is no form in the cosmos - that does not glorify its Creator with a specific praise that He inspires within it...”
[ more ]
“God disclosed Himself in an all-inclusive, all-encompassing self-disclosure, and He disclosed Himself in a specific, individual self-disclosure.”
[ more ]
Allah (al-haqq) wanted to see the essences (al-aʿyan) of His most perfect Names (al-asmā al-husnā) whose number is infinite - and if you like you can equally well say: Allah wanted to see His own Essence (ʿayn) in one global object (kawn) which having been blessed with existence (al-wujūd) summarized the Divine Order (al-amr) so that there He could manifest His mystery (sirr) to Himself.
[ more ]
Ch. 317
Concerning The True Knowledge Of
The Waystation Of Trial And Its Blessings;
Ch. 339
Concerning The True Knowledge Of A
Waystation In Which The Shari'a Kneels
Before The Reality, Seeking Replenishment; introd. and transl. by William C. Chittick
[ in pdf - more ]
He - Most High - speaks, not after being previously silent nor following
presumed tacitness, with a speech pre-eternal and beginningless like the
rest of His Attributes, whether His knowledge, will, or power. He spoke to
Musa - upon him peace. He named it [His speech] the divine Bestowal (al-tanzīl),
the Book of Psalms (al-zabūr), the Torah, and the Evangel. [All this]
without letters (hurūf), sounds (aswāt), tones (nagham), nor
languages (lughāt). Rather, He is the Creator of sounds, letters, and
languages. (From the Futuhat al-Makkiyya, trnsl. by by GF Haddad)
[ more ]
About being truthful in something, about the knower of Allah, the knower's declaration to his student, about asking for proofs for Allah's oneness.
[ more ]
The cosmos, all of it, is a book inscribed (52:2),
since it is an orderly arrangement, parts of which
have been joined to other parts. Instant by instant in
every state it gives birth.
[ more ] (with topics from the introduction in SDG, by W C Chittick)
“The religious laws sharaʿi' are all lights, and the law
of Muhammad ﷺ Allah bless him and give him peace) among these lights is as
the sun's light among the light of the stars.”
[ more ]
At once Ibn ʿArabi -- whose veneration for Abu Madyan knew no bounds -- formed an aversion towards al-Tartusi, but the same night he saw ... (Quoted from his al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya)
[ more ]
I shall first describe the nature of the journey to Him, then the procedure of arriving and standing before Him, and what He says to you as you sit on the carpet of His vision. Then the nature of the return from Him to the presence (hadra) of His actions ...
[ more ]
Shams, Mother Of The Poor; and Nunah Fatimah Bint Ibn Al-Muthanna
[ more ]
Texte probablement par un murīd d'Ibn ʿArabī et erroneusement attribué à Ibn ʿArabī lui-même
[ more ]
Islamic Geometric Pattern
2. Some Shorter Quotes From Ibn Arabi
Perpetual existence-giving belongs to Allah
and perpetual reception of activity belongs to the possible things
[ more ]
Know that if you want to enter the presence of the Truth (of God, al-Haqq) ...
[ more ]
All human beings must seek answer to the following question,
and they should do this in their best interest ...
[ more ]
3. Some Scholars on Ibn Arabi
His greatest and best-known is his last work, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya ["The Meccan Openings"] which begins
with a statement of doctrine about which al-Safadi said: "I saw that from beginning to end it consists in the doctrine of Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari without any difference whatsoever."
On his teachers, his rank of mujtahid mutlaq, adab towards the [Sufi] Shaykhs, ...
[ more ]
A story heard 150 years after his death relates that Ibn ʿArabi (ق) was at a dinner party which rounded off with wine. As he took the wine cup to his lips, he heard a voice: “O Muhammad, it was not for this that you were created!” This gave him an urge to quit worldly pursuits and to embark upon the search of God…
Drawing from the most advanced philosophical and metaphysical thinking of his time and from his extensive knowledge of the religion of Islam, Ibn Arabi created an extraordinary mystical theosophy that essentially sprang from his own spiritual realization into the Divine unity of existence. ... Because of the subtlety of his language and complexity of his thought, access to Ibn Arabi has always been difficult and translation daunting.
[ more ]
The term 'Unity of Existence' (wahdat al-wujūd) was a term more ascribed to Ibn Arabi rather than used by him directly. [The term he used was ʿayn al-wujūd, or the 'essence of existence', exactly what is evoked by the word: lā ilāha ill-Allāh, OKN]
[ more ]
In order to understand this concept we will first have to look at how existence
is defined by the Imams of tenets of faith (ʿaqida). In the Ahl al-Sunna
schools of ʿaqida existence or being is divided into three categories.
[ more ]
At the intersection of the timelessness with time the past is not behind and the future not ahead, all exists in the moment. What happened to other people in another time and another place happens to us here and
now.
[ more ]
“Your first duty is to search
for the knowledge which establishes
your ablution and prayer, your
fasting and reverence.
You are not obliged to seek out
more than this.
This is the first door of the journey; then work; then moral heedfulness; then asceticism; then trust.”
[ more ]
Islamic Geometric Pattern
4. Further Pages On ʿIbn Arabi
A: accomplishment of His purpose: Ibn ʿArabi believes that God's purpose is to have knowledge of Himself. He possesses this knowledge by knowing Himself through the medium of His creatures. By the very fact of being one of God's creatures, you help Him to fulfill His purpose.
[ more ]
xL =broken link 2020-10-02: http://www.amislam.com; Fusus al-Hikam - The Seals of Wisdom,
by Shaykh al Akbar Muhi-d-Din Ibn al-ʿArabi
Adam: “When Allah - glory be to Him! - willed that the source of His most Beautiful Names - which are beyond enumeration - be seen, He willed that they be seen in a microcosmic being which contained the entire matter, endowed with existence, and through which His secret was manifested to Him.”
- [archive.org]
also:
- [yumpu.com]
5. From The Teachings of Muhyiddīn Ibn ’Arabi
Exposition by W.C. Chittick - In Our Section /d
1.1 - Advice For Spiritual Realisation, Muhyiddin Ibn `Arabi
1.2 - Understanding God
1.3 - Khayyāl - Creative Imagination
1.4 - God is Light
1.5 - Various Notes
Islamic Geometric Pattern
6. Some Shorter Texts Regarding Ibn Arabi
In Our Section /
[ link ]
”I also side with Ibn ʿArabi and Qunawi, who maintain that immersion into metaphysics necessarily entails immersion into the content of revelation.
It would not be possible, in other words, to understand metaphysical thinking without grasping the nature and scope of revelation.”
[What Is Metaphysics? Pt.2 - Ekrem Demirli]
7. Links to External Pages
- xL =broken link 2020-10-03: https://archive.org/details/SufisOfAndalusia; Sufis of Andalusia, Ibn Arabi; by R W J Austin
- xL =broken link 2020-10-03: https://www.tatliaskim.com/dini-konular/297277-muhyiddin-ibn-arabi-ve-turkiyeye-tesirleri.html, Muhyiddin İbn Arabī ve Türkiye'ye Tesirleri
- Hur Man Studerar Futūhāt : Ibn 'Arabis Egna Råd James Winston Morris
Det är inte förborgat för dem som har ägnat lite tid åt Ibn 'Arabis verk, om så bara åt sådana relativt "enkla" och rättframma texter som de summariska helgonbiografier som översatts i Sufis of Andalusia, att alla hans skrifter är avsedda att tjänstgöra som ett slags andlig spegel som återkastar och avslöjar varje läsares inre avsikter, antaganden och åsiktspreferenser med grundläggande – och ibland pinsam – klarhet…
Notes:
RT1082: Reliance Of The Traveller, Nuh Ha Mim Keller; p.1082
Today’s date:
AlHambra
The Possible Things
