Presented by OmarKN
Wujūd opposite is ʿadam, nonexistence.[4]
Nonexistence is an inherent, essential property of the cosmos and all things, given that everything other than God is other than wujūd.
However, in creating the cosmos and the entities, God "gives them existence" (ījād), which is to say that they "acquire" (istifāda) or "receive" (qabūl) wujūd from Him.
The question then arises to the exact relation between the wujūd of the Real[2] and that of the existent things. What sort of wujūd does the cosmos acquire from God? How exactly is the cosmos related to Real Wujūd? …
The ultimate mystery of, wujūd's presence in the things is unknowable. However… the things never become qualified (ittis.āf) by wujūd in the same mode that the Real is qualified by wujūd.
The Real, after all, is identical with wujūd, whereas the things nearly become draped (iktisāʿ) in wujūd.
God is the Manifest, but they are simply the loci[3] in which He becomes manifest. They remain totally different from God in that He is wujūd, while their wujūd is He.
Inasmuch as they are non-existent, they are distinct from Him, but inasmuch as they exist, they are identical with Him. The cosmos is… "He/ not He," both the same as wujūd and other than wujūd at the one and the same time.
Muhyiddīn Ibn al-ʿArabī writes:
As the counterpart of His wujūd are fixed entities that have no wujūd except by way of acquisition from the wujūd of the Real.
Hence they are His loci of manifestation in this qualification by wujūd. They are entities by their own essences, not by a necessitating factor or a cause. In the same way wujūd belongs to the Real by His essence, not by a cause.
Just as independence belongs to God absolutely so, so also poverty toward Him who is Independent – who is necessarily Independent through His essence by His essence – belongs to these entities absolutely. (II 57.15)
Keep in mind that nonexistence can be divided into two basic kinds – bound or relative (muqayyad) and unbounded or absolute (mut.laq).
Absolute nonexistence has no mode of existence whatsoever. Relative nonexistence is the situation of the possible things, which are nonexistent relative to the Real wujūd, but existent relative to absolute nonexistence. In other words all entities are non-existent in themselves but, existent through the Real.
SDG29/30, The Self-Disclosure of God; Principles of Ibn al-ʿArabī's Cosmology; William C. Chittick; p29/30
The Possible Things The Veil of Otherness Being and Existence 1 Being and Nonexistence 2 Wujūd and Infinity Being, Names, and Nonexistence Acquiring Knowledge The Nonexistent EntitiesRelated texts
Insights Into The Nature Of (Being) And Existence From Sh. Muhyiddīn Ibn ʿArabī
Sh. Muhyiddīn Ibn al-ʿArabī And the Unfolding of the Islamic Intellectual Tradition
الفتوحات المكيّة
التي فتح الله بها على الشيخ الإمام العامل الراسخ الكامل خاتم الأولياء الوارثين برزخ البرازخ محيي الحق و الدين أبي عبد الله محمد بن علي المعروف بابن عربي الحاتمي الطائي قدّس الله روحه و نوّر ضريحه ٱمين
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the Real is Al-Haqq, transcendant, divine Truth, Reality
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locus, pl. loci; ‘place’
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Wujūd is Being/ existence depending on the context.
See: On Being and Existence 1
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