Sh. Muhyiddin Ibn al-ʿArabī

04 Statement of tawhīd - No True Reality but the Reality of the Real

This aphorism is a straightforward statement of tawhīd, the assertion of divine unity that is the first principle of Islamic thought.

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Al-Wāsitī is saying that what we call life is not in fact life because it is inseparable from death. God, however, is ‘the Living who does not die’ (Q.25:58).

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It follows that there is no true life but God’s life, no true being but God’s being, and no true reality but the reality of the Real. Hence only those ‘who live through the Real will never die.’