The Bezels of Wisdom by Ibn al-Arabi

Author:Ibn al-Arabi [al-Arabi, Ibn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780809123315
Amazon: 0809123312
Goodreads: 193641
Published: 2017-08-27T00:52:23+00:00

TH E B EZELS O F W I S DOM

Identity, u·hat they had not considered, 2 16 before the drawing back of the vei I.

We have discussed advancement in the divine sciences in our Book of Theophanies, 2 1 7 where we talk of those of the Order we have met with in vision [kashj] and what we imparted to them on this question that they did not know already. The amazing thing is that such a one is always advanci ng, although he is not aware of it, by reason of the subtlety and fineness of the veil and the ambiguity of forms; as He says, It is brought to them in an ambiguous way. 2 1 8 It [the veil] is not the same as the other, for similars in the sight of the gnostic, though similars, are also different from each other. That is because he who has attained to realization sees multiplicity in the One, just as he knows that essential oneness is implicit in the divine Names, even though their [individual] realities are various and multiple. It is a multiplicity intelligible in the One in His Essence. In manifestation it is a discernible multi plicity in a single essence, just as the Primal Substance is assumed in the case of every form, which, despite the multiplicity and variety of forms, springs in reality from a single substance, its primal substance.

He, therefore, who knows himself in this way knows his Lord, for He created him i n His i mage, i ndeed, He is his very identity and reality. It is because of this that none of the scholars have attai ned to knowledge of the self and its reality except those theosophists among the messengers and the Sufis.

As for the theorists and thinkers among the ancients, as also the scholastic theologians, in their talk about the soul and its quiddity, none of them have grasped its true reality, and speculation will never grasp it. He who seeks to know it by theoretical speculation is flogging a dead horse. Such are certainly of those whose endeavor is awry in this world, but who consider that they do we/1. 2 19 He who seeks to know this matter other than by its proper course will never grasp its truth.

How wonderful are the words of God concerning the Cosmos and its transformation according to the Breaths “in a new creation”

m a single essence. He said concerning a portion, nay most of the 2 1 6. Qur’an, XXXIX:47.

2 1 7. Written at Aleppo prior to A.D. 1 209. Publ ished in Rasa’i/ /bnul ‘Arabi, Hyderabad-Decca n, 1 948, �o. XXI I I .

2 1 8. Qur’an, 1 1: 2 5 .

2 1 9. I bid., X'1 1 1 : 1 04.

1 5 3

I B N A L-‘ARA B I

Cosmos, Nay, they are in the guise of a new creation. 220 They do not understand the renewal of the Creative Command according to the Breaths.

The Ash’arites did indeed discover it for certain things, namely accidents, as did also the Sophists for the Cosmos as a whole.

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