Ibn 'Arabi and the Mystical Journey:

A First Attempt to Understand Ibn Arabis

The Journey to the Lord of Power

by

John G. Sullivan

Department of Philosophy

Elon College

prepared as part of NEH 1999 Summer Seminar for College Teachers on

"The Literature of Islamic Mysticism"

held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,

June 14 - July 16, 1999

under the direction of Dr. Carl W. Ernst

(This is an exploratory work. Comments may be sent to me via my e-mail: sullivan@elon.edu)

OUTLINE -- A PERSONAL APPROACH TO SUBDIVIDING THE TREATISE

A) Preliminary Work to be done by the Seeker

[a] "Your first duty is to search for the knowledge which establishes

your ablution and prayer, your fasting and reverence.

You are not obliged to seek out more than this.

This is the first door of the journey;

[b] then work;

[c] then moral heedfulness;

[d] then asceticism;

[e] then trust."

B) The Ascent

[I-a] Unveiling of the sensory world.

[I-b] Unveiling of the imaginal world.

[I-c] Unveiling of the world of abstract meanings.

[I-1] God will show you the secrets of the mineral world

[I-2] God will show you the secrets of the vegetal world

[I-3] God will show you the secrets of the animal world.

[I-4] The Infusion of the world of life-forces into lives

[I-5] "If you do not stop with this, He reveals to you the surface signs"

[I-6] Next the light of the scattering of sparks becomes visible.

[I-7] Then the light of the ascendant stars (tauhid) and the form of

universal order

[I-8] The proper adab for entering into, standing in and leaving the

Divine Presence.

C) What is the Knowledge that awaits you in the Divine Presence?

[II-1] Knowledge of degrees of speculative sciences & other things -- sustenance of preachers

[II-2] Revealing Form and Beauty -- sustenance of poets

[II-3] Degrees of qutb -- highest station of Sufi hierarchy and one able to see

with both eyes (rational & imaginal) the unity perspective and the mercy

flowing from it

[II-4] [Of Diversity and Deeper Unity]

[II-5] The world of dignity and serenity and firmness

[II-6] The world of Bewilderment and Helplessness and Inability

[II-7] Seeing the Gardens ascending and Hell descending

[II-8] [Of Ecstasy and Light and Seeing the Original Forms of the

Children of Adam]

[II-9] The Throne of Mercy

[II-10] The Pen (First Intellect) and the Mover of the Pen

[II-13] Full sense of Fana:

"you are [i] eradicated, [ii] withdrawn, [iii] effaced, [iv] crushed, then [v]

obliterated."

[II-14] Full sense of Baqa

"you are [i] affirmed, [ii] made present, [iii] made to remain, [iv] gathered, and then [v] assigned."

D) The Return: Ibn Arabis Closing Comments

Poet Robert Bly has remarked that the interesting overlap in the first half of the twentieth

century was between ethics and psychology. The interesting overlap in the second half of this

century is between psychology and mythology -- opening a wider, more cosmic viewpoint.

The study of the medieval Sufi master Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) offers resources to enter such

a wider, cosmic viewpoint.

First, Ibn Arabis thinking encompasses God, the cosmos and humankind -- or, in an alternate way of speaking, a set of viewpoints encompassing the metacosmic, macrocosmic

and microcosmic. In his work, we meet an immensity requiring a spiraling upward and

outward, downward and inward until there is deepening understanding of all three

interconnected "realities."

Second, Ibn Arabi presents a world that is fluid and ever changing. The world can be seen literally but also "imaginally" -- everything being what it is and an image of a further reality.

Ecologist and self-styled "geologian" Thomas Berry predicts that the religious sensibility

appropriate for an ecological awareness will be shamanic. Ibn Arabis sensibility has a number of resonances with a shamanic viewpoint. For a beginner seeking to grasp the figure

of Ibn 'Arabi, the experience is like seeking to grasp the wind or a mist or the traces of his

teacher Khidhr. You feel you are entering an immense world of mystery and miracles,

shamanic and shapeshifting. In the image from one of Rumis poem, Ibn Arabi moves "back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch."

Third, Ibn Arabi stands very deeply in one tradition yet offers a perspective that allows an honoring of a number of valid religious perspectives. Both of these features put him at odds

with modern thinkers yet possibly useful for post-modern thinkers. E. M. Adams has noted

that a key difference between pre-modern and the modern periods is that the modern period

asks "What do we want and how can we get it?" while the pre-modern [and possibly post-

modern?] asks "What does reality require of us?" Ibn Arabi asks what does reality require of us? And he asks that while he is deeply embedded in the Islamic tradition. Thus, he proceeds

even in the training of Sufi students by opening the conditions for what Chittick calls in a

felicitous phrase "the self-disclosure of God." At the same time, he is able to honor all of the

prophetic traditions -- known and unknown -- that are valid guides to a life wherein humans

manifest the names of God.

All of this is an invitation to explore the mysterious genius Ibn 'Arabi, born in Andalusia

exactly 100 years before Dante. As Dante focuses on the year 1300 as the time he was at the

midpoint of his life (age 35), so Ibn Arabis turning point is the year 1200 when at the midpoint of his life he is urged through a vision to leave Spain and make his pilgrimage to

Mecca.

The primary model for Sufi accounts of mysticism was the Prophets night journey (isra) where he went from the near temple (Mecca) to the far temple (Jerusalem) and then was

taken upward through the planetary spheres and beyond -- to "within two bow lengths or

nearer to Allah." In the planetary spheres, Muhammad met earlier prophets -- traditionally

Adam (Moon), Jesus (Mercury), Joseph (Venus), Idris (Enoch/Elias) in the Sun, Aaron

(Mars), Moses (Jupiter), Abraham (Saturn). [I present this scheme as a chart in Section A of

this paper.] Mention is made of the night journey and the culminating vision in at 17:1 and

53:1-18 of the Quran respectively. Numerous hadith and commentaries clustered around these suggestive passages.

Ibn al-Arabi treats the mystical ascent-and-return in four key places. He recounts his own mystical journey through the stars in The Nocturnal Journey (Kitab al-Isra) written in 594. He

writes the work I shall consider The Journey to the Lord of Power (Risalat-ul-anwar fima

yumnah sahib al-khalwa min al-asrar -- literally "Treatise on the lights in the secrets granted

one who undertakes retreat.") in 602 / 1204. And he leaves us two key passages from the

Meccan Revelations (Futuhat) at chapters 167 and 367.

My point of entry is the short work entitled in translation The Journey to the Lord of Power, a

work composed in Konya in 602/ 1204. This work was written very soon after Ibn Arabi left Spain and made his pilgrimage to Mecca -- written to answer questions of an unnamed friend

who was himself a saint and Sufi master. Unfortunately, we have the answers without having

the questions.

"I shall answer your question, O noble friend and intimate companion,

concerning the Journey to the Lord of Power (may He be exalted) and

the arrival in His presence and the return, through Him, from Him

to His Creation, without separation." (25)

James Morris notes that Ibn Arabi prefers the term "night journey" (isra) to that of "ascension" (mi'raj) for three reasons: (a) The phrase "night journey or voyage" is not limited

to ascent alone but includes equally ascent (from creation to God) and return (from God to

creation). (b) The phrase accents the hiddenness of the process. (c) The phrase, from the verb

form, highlights the active part played by God in the journey.

The very notion of "journeying to God" is paradoxical. Since all is of God, any journeying is

only for our benefit -- so that we can deepen our capacities to understand what always is; so

that we can recognize Gods "signs in the souls and on the horizons." (Quran 41:53) So we can become more aware of both the timeless perspective of God and the timebound,

unfolding perspective of humans. As T. S. Eliots put it: "We shall not cease from exploring and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the

first time." This is the first paradox. The second is like it: we would not begin to seek unless

we were first sought by God. Our seeking is from Him, as Rab'ia realized so beautifully.

Here is what Ibn Arabi will discuss:

The nature of the journey to Him.

The procedure of standing before Him.

What he says to you.

The nature of the return from Him to the presence of His actions.

The absorption and [more exalted still] the return.

A hermeneutic note: A Sufi retreat -- perhaps something on the order of a 40 day retreat -- is

the backdrop for this work. We in the 20th century will perhaps think of such a retreat from

the standpoint of the retreatant and what he or she will gain (i.e. basically in psychological

terms). However, I shall hypothesize that our understanding of such a retreat might be better

served to see the retreat in a more shamanic way. Suppose that the retreatant was led to

expect visions ( whether in the body or in the imaginal world matters not). The visions reveal

something of the person having them certainly, and they may also reveal inspiration from

God. If such were the expectations, then we should expect images. We should expect the

landscape of such images will be coextensive with the "koranization of memory." Such an

opening to dreams and visions, to images and signs can be dangerous. Such a retreat is hardly

for everyone. It should only be undertaken at the direction of a shaykh -- a shaykh who is

experienced enough to interpret the images and signs for the highest good. But first, the

shaykh who is master of the retreat needs to assess the varying conditions of the seekers. Ibn

Arabi points to the following conditions:

"The balance or imbalance of the seeker's constitution.

The persistence or absence of his motivation.

The strength or weakness of his spiritual nature.

The straightfowardness or deviation of his aspiration.

The health or illness of his relation to his goal." (26)

Some seekers possess all the favorable characteristics, other seekers are more mixed in

character -- combining some favorable and some unfavorable characteristics. The shaykh

must be able to "read" his students and know when sufficient preliminary work has been done

so that the retreat will have chance of success.

Again, there are many realms. Yet, Ibn Arabi (Shaykh al-akbar) will remind us strongly that, in retreat, we are to focus on this world -- "the place of responsibility, trial (or testing) and

works." (27) Elsewhere Ibn Arabi teaches that all created things have their haqq (truth) and this truth/nature has a normative dimension. The nature of each thing makes demands on us --

that we act appropriately toward each thing. The creation as a whole makes claims on us,

establishes obligations for us, is the arena where God tests us and the place where we are

assigned tasks or works to do. The retreat, we might say, takes us to the roots of this realm in

knowledge and returns us to this realm in service.

In this world, we are to gain knowledge with struggle so that this form (level of awareness) is

available to us in the next world to contemplate in ease. "It would be best for you if, at the

time of your contemplation, you were engaged in labor outwardly, and at the same time in the

reception of knowledge from God inwardly." (29) Receptiveness to God is the key. But what

is the goal? Perhaps we would do well to remind ourselves of Ibn 'Arabi's teaching

concerning the perfect man.

All that God has made reflects the Divine Names and further particularities. For everything

made is, in a sense, a particular name. Yet simplification and courtesy keep our thoughts in

line with the 99 Divine Names found in the Qu'ran. Even the mineral, vegetal and animal

realms reflect the Divine Names, but, Ibn Arabi teaches, only humans innately have all of the

Divine Names. Only humans can manifest the Divine Names in their unity, rather than spread

out throughout the cosmos in diversity. Of course, it is most rare for all of the names to be

consciously manifested in the mirror of one human being -- and to be manifested in a

balanced way. Yet this is possible and the Islamic world looks to the Prophet as such a

perfect one. This human/divine potential and the "work" to actualize it are basic for

understanding the Sufi quest through the eyes of Ibn Arabi. Yes, the yearning is to be with

the Beloved, to disappear so all dualisms vanish, so that lover and love and beloved are not

separate, so that as Shams of Tabriz says: "I You He She We In the garden of mystical lovers

these are not true distinctions." Yet even here we come from the human side, not the divine

side. The human mystic may think of tasting God in this life. However, Ibn Arabi begins, not with the human perspective, but with the Divine perspective. From this perspective, we are

drawn to notice that we exist to manifest God whose Names we already bear potentially

within us.

"If you want to enter the presence of the Truth and receive from Him without

intermediary, and you desire intimacy with Him, this will not be appropriate as

long as your heart acknowledges any lordship other than His. For you belong

to that which exercises its authority over you." (29)

Thus, at the beginning, there will be a move away from the world (as involving people's

busyness and talk) to seclusion and silence. (Shaykh Ibn Arabi tell us that the word for retreat

"Khalwa" has its roots in a hadith qudsi "Whoever remembers Me in himself I remember him

in Myself, and whoever remembers Me in assembly, I remember him in an assembly better

than his." The root of khalwa is al-khala -- the void in which the world existed before

creation.)

Below I divide the work in ways that follow the ascent and descent structure mentioned by

Ibn Arabi. I emphasize that these divisions are mine and that they are provisional. Use of them may show that this was not the structure Ibn Arabi had in mind. In fact, we might remain open to the fact that the treatise might have taken a very different shape had it not

been prompted by Shaykh Ibn Arabi answering questions from a friend.

A) Preliminary Work to be done by the Seeker

It seems clear enough that the first part of the work concentrates on preliminary work -- what

has been called in the West the via purgativa. Consider the following passage:

[a] "Your first duty is to search for the knowledge which establishes

your ablution and prayer, your fasting and reverence.

You are not obliged to seek out more than this.

This is the first door of the journey;

then [b] work;

then [c] moral heedfulness;

then [d] asceticism;

then [e] trust.

And in the first states of trust, four miracles befall you. These are the

signs

and evidence of your attainment of the first degree of trust. These signs

are

crossing the earth,

walking on water,

traversing the air,

and being fed by the universe.

And that is the reality within the door.

After that, stations and states and miracles and revelations

come to you continuously until death." ( 30)

Spiritual discipline is incumbent before entering on retreat. The seeker needs training for

character, abandonment of heedlessness, and endurance of indignities. The advice is this: Go

shut yourself in and do not yield to seeing people. And "occupy yourself with dhikr,

remembrance of God, with whatever sort of dhikr you choose." For example "Allah, Allah."

Beware corrupt imagining. Be careful of your diet. Keep your constitution in balance.

Influences may come like the pain the Prophet felt when Gabriel transmitted the Qu'ran. Be

careful to distinguish angelic and demonic influences. Angelic influences will be followed by

coolness and bliss and will not alter your form but will leave knowledge. Protect yourself by

repeating the dhikr.

Articulate what you intend. Make a personal declaration (a sort of mission statement or

commitment). For example, "There is nothing like God and I will cling to nothing save God. I

will accept nothing less than God." Expect that your commitment will be tested.

Before going further, I wish to present a fuller picture of Ibn Arabis cosmology -- not because this structure is explicitly utilized in The Journey to the Lord of Power, but because

much said here presupposes knowledge of the fuller scheme.

A simplified picture of that cosmology is presented below. For a more complex story see the

Appendix II to this paper.

Allah (Reality Itself)

Unknowable Essence

The 99 Wonderful Names

(Attributes and Actions and Effects)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------

[the so-called "Process" of Creation or Emanation]

Intellect

World Soul

Nonmanifest -- Natures of things

the Prime Matter

the corporeal (physical & imaginal) "base stuff"

the shaping

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------

the Created Universe (all beings "other than God")

Throne

Footstool

-------------------------------------------

Starless Sphere (Paradise is usually located

Sphere of Fixed Stars between Starless and Fixed Stars)

Saturn (Abraham)

Jupiter(Moses)

Mars (Aaron)

SUN (Idris / Enoch)

Venus (Joseph)

Mercury (Jesus)

Moon (Adam)

------------------------------------

ethereal fire

air

water

earth

***************************************************************

*******************************************

Also to be pictured -- types of beings

{Humans} -- in one sense humans take precedence over angels and jinn

because they

can display the 99 Names

Angels (created from light)

Jinn (created from fire)

Humans (created from clay)

Animals

Plants (Vegetals)

Minerals

B) The Ascent

I am treating the material here as an ascent pattern. Ibn Arabis first comments introduce three modes of knowing and the "worlds" that are known from each set of operations. I treat

them as one complex "step":

[I-a] Unveiling of the sensory world. Receive but do not stay at this level.

[I-b] Unveiling of the imaginal world.

In the imaginal world -- abstract intelligible ideas descend in sensory forms.

(Yet who knows the meaning save a prophet or another whom God wills?)

For example, suppose you are offered something to drink. Choose water. If no

water, choose milk. If both are offered, mix them together. If honey is offered,

drink it. If wine is offered, take care unless mixed with rainwater.

The imaginal world is a level of "the between" (bazakh, an isthmus, an

intermediary zone) Receive but do not stay at this level.

[I-c] Unveiling of the world of abstract meanings. Receive but do not stay at this level.

Consider this illustration:

Higher --------> The Spiritual or Intellective World -- something like the "principles" of

things

Middle --------> The Imaginal World -- the between -- hidden meanings clothed in images

Lower --------> The Bodily or Physical, Material World

After mentioning these various modes of knowing, Ibn Arabi offers another hierarchical chain.

Lower Portion of Great Chain 20th century thinker E.F.Schumachers notation

The Human designated as M + X + Y + Z where Z represents the

distinctively human.

The Animal designated as M + X + Y where Y = consciousness

The Vegetative designate as M + X where X = life

The Mineral designate as M for materiality

The first three levels (mineral, vegetal, and animal) are reminiscent of a poem of Rumi where

he speaks of the mineral dying and coming to live as a plant, the plant dying and coming to

live as an animal, the animal dying and coming to live as a human. Why, he asks, is the

human afraid to die to what is higher? Also as we move up the great chain, the higher, more

complex beings integrate more potentialities than the lower. Thus, the mineral exists in a

material mode,

the plant exists + lives,

the animal exists + lives + has consciousness,

the human exists + lives + has consciousness + a higher calling.

For Ibn Arabi, this higher calling is to manifest the names of God. As we shall see, Ibn Arabi speaks of the passage through these levels as "dissolving" or leaving behind some aspect (perhaps as sole or predominant identity modes).

[I-1] God will show you the secrets of the mineral world -- the harmful and beneficial

qualities of every stone. Do not become enamored with this world. If you let go and occupy

yourself with dhikr, He will free you from this mode and unveil the vegetal world.

(During the first unveiling let your nourishment be what increases heat and

moisture)

[I-2] God will show you the secrets of the vegetal world -- the harmful and beneficial

qualities of each green thing. If you let go and occupy yourself with dhikr, He will free you

from this mode and unveil the animal world.

(During this second unveiling let your nourishment be what balances heat and moisture)

[I-3] God will show you the secrets of the animal world. The animals will greet you and

acquaint you with their harmful and beneficial qualities and how they proclaim majesty and

praise. Here if you are simply reminded by them of your own type of dhikr, this is imaginal;

if you witness the variety of their own dhikr, that is true perception.

"This ascent is the ascent of dissolution of the order of nature, and the state of contraction

(qabd) will accompany you in these worlds." (39)

Consider the notion of dissolution as a form of letting go. Perhaps we let go of certain

identifications with these worlds outside ourselves and within us. We might think of letting

go of tendencies to survive at all cost, tendencies to grow and nourish and reproduce at all

costs, tendencies to act out the instinctual drives of animals. I am reminded of Paul Macleans work on the triune brain. To release from clinging to any level allows emerging qualities to

become manifest.

[I-4] The Infusion of the world of life-forces into lives

At this juncture, we expect the appearance of the human and perhaps this is what Ibn Arabi has in mind in speaking of how life-forces are infused into lives. I think here of what Chittick

calls "The Breath of the All-Merciful." I think of God infusing life into Adam. I think of the

loving kindness of Jesus, who is associated with life-giving. The influence of the life-force is

according to disposition and the influence has, we might add, a normative, faith-initiating

power. Ibn Arabi writes: "Then He reveals to you the infusion of the world of life-forces into lives, and what influences this has in every being according to its disposition, and how the

expressions (of faith) are included in this infusion." (39)

[I-5] "If you do not stop with this, He reveals to you the surface signs"

Commentator Abdul-Karim Jili is unsure of the meaning of "surface signs." He believes Ibn Arabi is speaking of "signs of state." Suppose we read this as the seeker moving to supra-consciousness. Fear may enter as the states or visions focus on "surface signs." The esoteric

tradition sees surface as opposed to depth, outer as opposed to inner. So we might think of

surface and outer here as concerned with multiplicity. Suppose the states reveal the mind-

boggling number and variety of living creatures, the vastness of cosmic power, the

unfathomable layers upon layers of diversity. Without the counter-balance of unity such

visions might appear kaleidoscopic and terrifying. Returning to the practice of dikhr would be

especially needed here.

[I-6] Next the light of the scattering of sparks becomes visible.

Perhaps here there is a higher intuition, as if there was a glimmer of the sparks being

associated with God, but not enough of a glimpse to hold the unity. God becoming diverse

and spread out in all creatures would also appear terrifying. Could this be why Ibn Arabi gives the advice: "Veil yourself from this and persevere in the dikhr."

[I-7] Then the light of the ascendant stars and the form of universal order

The commentary states that "the ascendant stars" (tawali) is a technical expression for the lights of the declaration of tauhid (the Divine Unity -- There is no God save God). Such an

affirmation arising in the hearts of the gnostics extinguishes speculative proofs and intuition

and leaves only the prophetic revelatory proofs in place.

The "form of universal order" refers to the appearance of God in the form of creation. Yet

here the seeker will know essential existence as composed of haqq (truth) and khalq

(creation). The diversity will be seen in its roots in oneness.

[I-8] The proper adab for entering into, standing in and leaving the Divine Presence.

The result of the journey thus far is "perpetual contemplation of the Divine Names, the

Manifest and the Hidden." Looking back on this ascent, there is a receiving of divine

knowledge -- a receiving and giving, contraction and expansion, ["contraction" and

"expansion" being Sufi terms for contrition and exaltation.] Also there is instruction in

protecting the heart -- the place where the states arrive. There is also the knowledge that "all

ways are circles. There is no straight line." (40) Internalizing this advice would seem to ready

the seeker to enter the Presence and receive from God.

All that Ibn Arabi relates thus far, seems to be a kind of "advanced via purgativa" -- a way of purgation or advanced preparation to receive what is to be received. But what do you

receive, what do you know, when you have opened yourself in these ways to God?

Confronting this question is equivalent to making the ascent in terms of gaining knowledge.

This brings us to the next of my sections.

C) What is the Knowledge that awaits you in the Divine Presence?

The next section of the Journey seems to make good Ibn Arabis promise to treat what one learns in the Divine Presence. Interestingly, there are states of what may be received. So the

journey continues, one might say, even in the Presence of God. Here is how Ibn Arabi outlines this next phase. Notice that the knowledge gained is broadly speaking "religious

knowledge -- in this case, the deepening of what is already present in the Quranic revelation.

[II-1] Knowledge of the degrees of speculative sciences and other things

"If you do not stop with this, He reveals to you the degrees of

speculative sciences, sound integral ideas, and the forms of

perplexing questions which confuse understanding. He reveals

the difference between supposition and knowledge, the birth of

possibilities between the world of spirits and the physical

world, the cause of that genesis, the infusion of the Divine

Mystery into the domain of His loving concern, and the cause

of abandoning the world by effort or otherwise -- and other

related matters." (40 & 43)

What is this first set of gifts? Perhaps we might think of them as a kind of infused rational

knowledge such that one senses where and how the sciences are correct and where they are

running off track. Some of this knowing echoes Ibn Arabis distinctions among the intellective world, the imaginal world and the sensory world.

Abdul-Karim Jili comments that "the infusion of the Divine Mystery into the

domain of His loving concern" refers to "the unity of Essence in the world of

the Names, the unity of the Intellect in the world of the spirits and the unity of

the Throne in the world of bodies. This unity is the essence of mercy. The

unity penetrates into the people of Gods concern until it pervades their essences, their attributes, and their actions as it pervades the Divine Essence,

Intellect, and Throne." (86)

This is a major learning if taken to heart. Perhaps of a piece with Ibn Arabis reflections on the hadith "My mercy has precedence over my wrath." This type of knowledge is needed by

the preacher who elaborates the teachings and clears up doubts. It is the type of knowledge

needed to see through misfortunes to realize that all is in Gods hands. It is the sustenance of the preachers.

[II-2] Revealing Form and Beauty

If one does not stop here, then other revelations follow.

"He reveals to you the world of formation and adornment and

beauty, what is proper for the intellect to dwell upon among the

holy forms, the vital breathings from beauty of form and

harmony, and the overflow of languor and tenderness and

mercy in all things characterized by them." (43)

From this level, as Ibn Arabi notes, comes the sustenance of poets.

Before proceeding further, a brief excursus is in order. In other places, Ibn 'Arabi speaks of

three basic sources of knowing -- prophetic reports, rational investigation, and unveiling (a

knowing from the heart with strong ties to imagination). Some modern religious sensibilities

might rate "knowing through reports" as lowest and either rational investigation or unveiling

as higher (as both of the latter appeal to some form of experience). For Ibn 'Arabi, on the

contrary, prophetic revelation is the strongest and most solid yet he believes we need both

rational investigation and unveiling to have complete knowing of that which the Prophet

reveals to us. Ibn Arabi speaks of the two categories of the names of God -- correlated with the "two hands of God."

The left hand tends to dispersion, ignorance, darkness (at least in a sense). More positively it

reminds us that we do not know God (tanzih) -- stressing incomparability. So that the rational

investigation would be useful to hold that aspect. The right hand would tend to unity and

self-awareness -- stressing what is similar (tashbih). Here the way of the lover would unveil

similarity and tend to closeness. Thus seen, II-1 and II-2 appear as left and right hand

knowledge and they will be integrated by the figure of the qutb below.

[II-3] Degrees of qutb

The "qutb" or axis or pivot is the highest station in the Sufi hierarchy. "The qutb is directly

responsible for the welfare of the entire world. The qutb is said to be the spiritual successor of

Muhammad." (Glossary, Journey to the Lord of Power, p.114) All that has been seen before

is, Ibn Arabi says, from the world of the left hand. From this station onward, we witness the world of the right hand "and this is the place of the heart." (43) As mentioned above, consider

the right hand as representing mercy and unity; the left as representing punishment and

separation. From hereon, we more and more realize the unity perspective of the qutb and the

mercy flowing from it.

The degrees here have to do with the following items: [Insofar as you can mirror some of the

features of the qutb], "You are given the divine wisdoms and the power to preserve them and

integrity to transmit them to the wise, and you are given the power of symbols and a view of

the whole, and authority over veiling and unveiling." (43)

More than the poet alone or preacher alone, the qutb harmonizes both aspects, understanding

the incomparableness of the Divine (tanzih) and the similarity of the Divine (tashbih), being

able to hold both the universal perspective of timelessness and the "moving image of

eternity" in which humans dwell.

[II-4] [Of Diversity and Deeper Unity]

Consider how diversity and opposition might appear as one returns from grasping something

of the unity of all things in God. Ibn Arabi says that here " He reveals to you the world of fever and rage and zeal for truth and falsehood; the foundation of apparent difference in the

world, the variation of forms, discord and hatred." (44) Then you notice the world of jealousy

and the unveiling of the Truth before the most perfect of His faces. Here you see "sound

opinions and true schools and revealed traditions and you will see as a knower that God Most

High has adorned them, among the holy knowledges, with the most beautiful adornments."

All stations greet you with honor and reverence and exaltation and you know the degree of

the Divine Presence and each one loves you in its essence. (44) Nonetheless, as the

commentary points out. This is still not God and if you rest here you will have failed to

complete your journey. With every station, the seeker must continually receive insight and let

go. These high states can be especially dangerous.

[II-5] The world of dignity and serenity and firmness

In this stage of the journey, you know "the ruse (makr), the enigmas and the secrets, and

other matters of this sort." (44) It would appear that this knowledge has similarities with what

is called in the Zen tradition "skillful strategies." To live the paradoxes or double viewpoints.

I recall a Zen story of a Zen master with his disciples who take refuge on their winter travels

in a mountain shrine with many wooden buddhas. The master takes some of the buddhas and

burns them to warm himself and his students. His students are scandalized. In the morning,

they awaken to find that the master has risen before they did. He is prostrate before the ashes

of the burnt buddhas. To hold the paradoxes is essential.

[II-6] The world of Bewilderment and Helplessness and Inability

This is the highest heaven. (Does this mean we are at the planet Saturn again or near the

starless realm? Or at the First Intellect? If so, we are circling once again.) To approach the

"inexpressible being-nature of God" is to be thrown into bewilderment, yet "gazing here

bequeaths life." The reference reminds me of the final lines in Dantes Divine Comedy:

How weak are words, and how unfit to frame

My concept -- which lags after what was shown

So far, twould flatter it to call it lame!

Eternal light, that in Thyself alone

Dwelling, alone dost know Thyself, and smile

On Thy self-love, so knowing and so known!

The sphering thus begot, perceptible

In Thee like mirrored light, now to my view --

When I had looked on it a little while --

Seen in itself, and in its own self-hue,

Limned with our image; for which cause mine eyes

Were altogether drawn and held thereto.

As the geometer his mind applies

To square the circle, nor for all his wit

Finds the right formula, howeer he tries,

So strove I with that wonder -- how to fit

The image to the sphere; so sought to see

How it maintained the point of rest in it.

Thither my own wings could not carry me,

But that a flash my understanding clove,

Whence its desire came to it suddenly.

High phantasy lost power and here broke off;

Yet, as a wheel moves smoothly, free from jars,

My will and my desire were turned by love,

The love that moves the sun and other stars.

[II-7] Seeing the Gardens ascending and Hell descending

Usually, the gardens ascending and hells descending are located between the fixed stars and

the starless heaven. (See Appendix.) Either we have circled to this level again or we are

seeing these worlds from a Gods eye perspective or perhaps we are spiraling back over this content but from a higher received state of knowledge. "And He reveals to you the works

connected to each of these two abodes."

[II-8] [Of Ecstasy and Light and Seeing the Original Forms of the Children of Adam]

Of Ecstasy: "If you do not stop with this, He reveals one of the

sanctuaries where spirits are absorbed in the Divine Vision. In

it they are drunken and bewildered. The power of ecstasy has

conquered them and they beckon to you." (47)

Of Light and Bliss: "If you do not stop with this beckoning, a

light is revealed in which you do not see anything other than

yourself. In it a great rapture and deep transport of love seizes

you, and in it you find bliss with God that you have not known

before. All that you saw previously becomes small in your eyes

and you sway like a lamp." (47)

Of our Original Forms: "And if you do not stop with this, He

reveals the [original] forms of the sons of Adam. Veils are

lifted and veils descend. And they have a special praise which

[when you hear] you recognize, and you are not overcome. You

see your form among them, and from it you recognize the

moment which you are in." (47)

[II-9] The Throne of Mercy

If you do not stop he reveals to you the Throne of Mercy (sarur ak-rahmaniyya). All is upon

this Throne.

"If you regard everything you will see the totality of what you

knew in it, and more than this: no world or essence remains that

you do not witness there. Search for yourself in everything. If it

is appropriate, you will know your destination and place and

the limit of your degree, and which Divine Name is your Lord

and where your portion of gnosis and sainthood exist -- the

form of your uniqueness." (47)

And if you do not stop here, there is yet more.

[II-10] The Pen (First Intellect) and the Mover of the Pen

The Pen or First Intellect is the first creative principle. Ibn Arabi calls it "the master and teacher of everything." Here one receives an over-all sense of creation -- a sense that what the

Pen writes is a coherent story, that creation is a unified whole. But if you do not stop with

this, God reveals the Mover of the Pen, the right hand of truth.

To understand the design is one thing; to understand the design and see it arising out of its

cause, God is another. And further to see the oneness in the created world as an expression of

mercy and loving kindness is another deepening still.

This sense of the hadith that Gods mercy has precedence over his wrath was one of Ibn Arabis deepest insight from his own night journey.

[II-13] Full sense of Fana

Suppose we think of fana not simply in the focal sense of annihilation, but also in lesser

degrees of relinquishing, letting go, dying to. Suppose we think of baqa not simply in the

focal sense of continued presence after fana but also in lesser degrees of rising to a new

station, being born into a new way of seeing and being. Then we could say that fana and baqa

are dynamics throughout. In leaving one station, you die to your identification with that

station. The witness self withdraws observes that you are more than this way of grasping the

world. You "looks back" at the station you were inhabiting as a way of knowing you have

rather than a way of knowing you are. American psychologist James Mark Baldwin once

remarked that every genuine act of self-sacrifice is an act of self-enhancement. And, I might

add, the self that is sacrificed is not the same as the self that is enhanced. The smaller (less

expansive) self is let go in order for the larger self to emerge. These themes mark both the

Sufi teachings of stations and states and modern developmental theory.

Yet if there are deaths and renewed life over and over again, still there are major instances of

fana (annihilation) -- dissolving into the nothingness from which you came. I will speak of

major fana or, perhaps better, fana as a station. Ibn Arabi says that here "you are [i] eradicated, then [ii] withdrawn, then [iii] effaced, then [iv] crushed, then [v] obliterated." (48

-- numbering mine)

Austrian writer Heimito Von Doderer once wrote a one sentence autobiography. He said: "I

began my life breaking windows; I end my life becoming a window." The Sufi who

undergoes fana will understand about becoming a window or a mirror that reflects only God.

[II-14] Full sense of Baqa

If you do not stop with fana, then Ibn Arabi says, "you are [i] affirmed, then [ii] made present, then [iii] made to remain, then [iv] gathered, and then [v] assigned." (48 --

numbering mine)

The robes of your degrees are conferred and they are many. "You return to your path and

examine all you saw in different forms until you return to the world of your limited earthly

sense." It has been said:

"You make your path by walking." Ibn "Arabi would agree. He writes: "The destination of

every seeker depends upon the road he traveled." (48)

To have processed all of this is, in a way, to have made a return. Yet such knowledge makes

us primarily a servant. Ibn Arabis closing comments give us some hints as to how the knowledge becomes character and how the character issues into acts of service.

D) The Return: Ibn Arabis Closing Comments

Among those who make this journey, some are entrusted with Gods word and some are not. Those entrusted with one or more of Gods words become the inheritors of the prophet of that word. The full Muhammadan perspective balances all the words of all the prophets, or, from

another perspective, manifests all the Divine Names in balanced fashion.

Some seekers "stop at fana" and these do not return -- that is, they do not live in this material

plane as functioning societal presences. Rather they remain in fana -- lost in God, often

uttering ecstatic sayings. They have not fully reentered the world.

Other seekers do return and manifest the Divine among the brethren. All things being equal,

those who return are higher than those who, in being absorbed in God, do not "return" to

ordinary life. Those who return will be either saints or prophets. Both groups share

knowledge without acquired learning, action by, the hearts intention (himma), and the ability to see the world of images in the sensory world. (see 55) They differ in how they address the

people. The commentary says "The saint addresses whoever is behind and following him.

The prophet addresses whoever is before him, through fundamental authority, not through

their following. And the saint speaks from behind the veil of his prophet, while the prophet

speaks without a veil -- that is, without the mediation of another prophet." (96) Ibn Arabi explains that the saint receives via the mediation of his or her prophet. He writes: "Although

the two classes share a common ground -- the stations of divine realizations -- still the ascent

of the prophets is through the fundamental light itself, while the ascent of the saints is

through what is providentially granted by that light." (55) Saints ride in the wake of their

prophet.

"Know that the certain, enduring, perfect sage is he who treats

every

condition and moment in the appropriate manner, and does not

confuse them.

This is the state of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon

him) for he was

two bow lengths distance or less from his Lord." (59)

In the return, beyond states and "the blending of worlds," the mystic must develop "the stage

of divine wisdom appearing within the customary outward principles." (60) "He will say

unceasingly with every breath, My Lord, increase me in knowledge while the heavenly sphere turns by Your breath. and let him strive that his Moment be His breath." (60) To be in the Moment seems to be in a state wherein God could say, "I am the eye by which he sees

and the ear by which he hears." Whether the Moment brings closeness or distance, the Sufi

mystic remains as servant and does not leave the moment by craving after what was or

longing for a different future. As with Dante, the will is aligned. Life is lived in His will.

Dante closes his great journey with the words: "Yet, as a wheel moves smoothly, free from

jars, my will and my desire were turned by love, the love that moves the sun and other stars."

Ibn Arabi says: "Through the knowledge which arises in contemplation, [the attainer] turns to face what is beyond each appearance: the Truth beyond appearances. For the Apparent

One, though He is one in essence, is infinite in aspects. They are His traces in us." (64) The

words echo: "There is no God but He, everything perishes except His Face." (Quran) And I think of Nicholas of Cusa speaking of "the Face of faces, veiled as in a riddle." Of Abu Said pointing to the true saint "who walks among the people, and eats and dwells with them, and

buys and sells in the market, and marries and socializes, yet never forgets God for a single

moment." In the end, this is what the night journey produces.

"And may the blessings of God be upon our Master Muhammad, and upon his family and

companions; and peace. And praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds." (page 64 -- last words of

the treatise)

John G. Sullivan

Elon College

July 12, 1999