Ibn 'Arabi Heir to the Prophets
To the extent that we do come to know
ourselves correctly as the divine form,we also come to know the
infinite God in both his incomparability and his similarity.
It is axiomatic for Ibn ‘Arabi (and for most of Islamic theology
as well), that God never repeats himself in his creative activity,
because he is absolutely One. At each moment the One discloses
itself to each individual in the universe,and each disclosure of the
One is one and unique.
Every creature undergoes constant
change and flux as the moments of self-disclosure follow one
upon another.We are no different from any other creature in this
respect, so we are endlessly changing and forever new. Each
moment of self-knowledge represents a new perception of
God’s manifestation in the soul and the world.
For Ibn ‘Arabi, the achievement of self-understanding
means to live in a constantly overflowing fountain of divine
elf-expression, a neverending outpouring of knowledge and
awareness.
At each instant God’s knower experiences a
renewed divine self-disclosure and comes to a fresh understanding
of what it means to be created in God’s form.
God is infinite, but his form is limited, because it appears in
the realm of disclosure and manifestation. Each moment of
self-disclosure specifies the form and makes it uniquely itself.
The Real itself cannot fit into form, so the divine forms can
only appear as successive self-disclosures, extending ad infinitum.
This explains among other things why people in paradise
will never be sated or bored: they experience constant renewal
and refreshment. So also, the gnostic, who sees with both eyes,
witnesses each moment as a totally new creation, fresh and
exhilarating.
In discussing the nature of self-knowledge, Ibn ‘Arabi frequently
cites the famous maxim attributed to the Prophet,“He
who knows himself (or, “his soul”) knows his Lord.” The saying
can perhaps more accurately be translated,“He who recognizes
himself recognizes his Lord.”The saying does not employ the
usual word for knowledge, ‘ilm, which often carries the connotation
of learning or erudition without true understanding.
Rather, it uses the verbal form of the noun ma‘rifa, which is
often translated as “gnosis.” This word implies direct experience
of the thing and recognition of its true nature and actual
situation.
The “gnostics” are those who achieve this sort of
knowledge – direct, unmediated knowledge of self and God.
Thus “gnosis,” if this is the right translation, means simultaneous
self-recognition and God-recognition.
In his frequent explanations of the meaning of this maxim,
Ibn ‘Arabi sometimes takes one or the other of the two basic
routes of understanding God – asserting his incomparability
or declaring his similarity.
The more we use our rational insight
to analyze the knowing self, the better we come to recognize
that we are not God and we cannot hope to know him. But the
more we are given the gift of imaginal vision, the better we
recognize ourselves and the world as forms of the divine selfdisclosure.
Ibn ‘Arabi refers to the perception of self and world achieved
by the gnostics – those who recognize things for what they are
– as the direct vision of “He/not He,” or “God/not God.”With
one eye they see that God is incomparable, transcendent, and
infinitely beyond their perception and understanding.With the
other eye they see that all things display God’s similarity,immanence,
and sameness. Each thing in the universe, not least the
human self, is simultaneously God and not God.
Each breath,
each beat of the heart, offers a new instance of God’s absence
and presence.
Although knowledge of God’s Essence is inaccessible to any
but God himself, knowledge of God as he discloses himself to
the soul is the ready cash of everyone.There is in fact no other
knowledge.All of us know God in ourselves and the world, but
most of us do not recognize what we know.“There are none but
knowers of God,but some of the knowers know that they know
God, and some do not know that they know God.The latter
know what they witness and examine, but they do not know
that it is the Real” (F. III 510.32).
From: Ibn ‘Arabi Heir to the Prophets by William C. Chittick