Sh. Muhyiddin Ibn al-ʿArabī

31 Perfection Demands Realizing the Real in the Full Expanse

In another account of the ascent to God, Ibn al-ʿArabī tells the story in the first person. Here he suggests with a bit more clarity that achieving perfection demands realizing the Real in the full expanse of His self-disclosure within one’s very wujūd, one’s existence/ finding. After spending a few pages describing the stages of his own climb in Muhammad’s footsteps, he concludes with these words:

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In this journey I gained the meanings of all the divine names. I saw that they all go back to One Named Object, One Entity. That Named Object was what I was witnessing, and that Entity was my own wujūd. So, my journey had been only in myself. I have provided no indications of anything but myself.^[23]

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This last sentence can stand for the entire contents of The Meccan Openings, Ibn al-ʿArabī’s grand catalogue of the doorways to the Real: ‘I have provided no indications of anything but myself.’

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The self in question is the human essence, created in the image of God and receptive to every name taught by the Divine Teacher. Recognizing this self to whatever extent one is able to do so brings forth intimations^[24] of the life of the heart. Such recognition will never be found by blindly imitating jurists and theologians, not to speak of the thinkers and dreamers of our own times. It will only come by patient knocking at the door.

.-.