1.10 - Comments on the Opening Poem

As we shall do with each of the seven chapters in this book, we quoted a short poem at the beginning of this chapter, which is selected from Ibn al-Arabi's rich poetry, in accordance with the content of the chapter and its significance, especially as related to the period of the day and the position of Sun. This also goes in line with what Shaykh Muhyiddin, may Allah be pleased with him, did in the five hundred and sixty chapters of the Meccan Revelations, and many of his other books and shorter treatises.

Owing its importance in describing the status of Shaykh Muhyiddin, two verses of this poem are inscribed at the entrance to his mausoleum in Salhiya district in Damascus.

caption[Two Verses Inscribed on the Entrance to Ibn al-Arabi's Mausoleum]{Two verses from the poem quoted at the beginning of this chapter. These verses are inscribed on the entrance to Ibn al-Arabi's mausoleum in Salhiya district in Damascus.

In this poem mentioned above, Shaykh Muhyiddin is proud of his Hatimiy lineage, and his name Muhammad, the same name of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Then he adds that this is not a claim or a fabrication, but a reality, despite the fact that was born far away from the place of his ancestors. In another poem, the Shaykh attributed himself boldly to Yemen, where he says in the Tarjuman [p. 84]:

In his commentary on the Tarjuman, Shaykh Muhyiddin says in his explanation of this verse that the people of Yemen are characterized by faith and wisdom, and they have tender hearts, and that's due to “the Breath of the Merciful” in reference to the Prophet's Hadith: “I find the Breath of the Merciful coming to me from Yemen.” [Kanz: 33951]. He discussed this Hadith in detail in Chapter 49 of the Meccan Revelations, especially that he is attributed to the Supporters, al-Ansar, from the side of his mother as we will see in the following chapter, and the Ansar were meant by the breath because through them Allah released the constrain and distress that the Prophet, peace be upon him, encountered at the beginning of his call. So they accepted his call and supported him, may Allah be pleased with them, due to the tenderness, wisdom and mercy inherent in their hearts.

These characteristics are also rooted in Ibn al-Arabi to the point that Allah, the Almighty, made him one of the carriers of the Throne and He allocated him with the best post, that is the post of mercy, as the Shaykh says in the chapter 371 of the Meccan Revelations:

Allah created angels from the lights of the Throne, so they surround the Throne, and made from this creation four angels as the bearers of the Throne holding the four posts, on which the Throne is held, and each post is shared between two faces, to the middle of the face, and He made its corners different in rank, thus He allocated me the best one amongst its bearers, for although Allah created the angels to bear the Throne, but it also has from the human kind some forms also bearing the Throne, on which the Merciful is established. I am among them, and the post which is the best of its posts is for us, and that's the treasury of mercy. Thus He made me absolutely merciful despite my knowledge of severity, but I know that there is some softness in every hardness and mercy in every agony, and extension in every stress, and abundance in every restriction, thus I knew the two sides. [Futuhat: III.431]

This text is the basis for his distinctive view of the world and its origin and fate. He sees that everything emerged from mercy, and it is destined by mercy. Hence, from here we can understand the argument of Shaykh Muhyiddin about the faith of Pharaoh, by which he opposed most Muslim scholars as we will talk about in Chapter VII.

It should be noted here that Shaykh Muhyiddin considers that the Throne, in one sense, is the kingdom itself, the whole cosmos, and not only in the sense of the bed that the king [Futuhat: I.146, I.583]. Therefore the bearers of the Throne are the holders by whom the kingdom is sustained. And because the cosmos is created for us, in fact, each one of us is one of the Throne holders, but the ranks and tasks vary, just as every atom in the building carries a certain limited amount of its weight, while the main pillars are the ones that do the greatest work.

Therefore, the primary holders of the Throne are eight on the Judgment Day [according Quran, 69:17], and today they are four, as reported by the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, when this verse was recited, as also Shaykh Muhyiddin, may Allah be pleased with him, reported in Chapter 13 of the Meccan Revelations: “On Knowing the Bearers of the Throne”. They are: Israfil (Raphael), Adam, Michael, Abraham, Gabriel, Muhammad, Ridwan and Malik, peace be upon them all. But also on another level and different ranks, the other prophets and saints have their shares, and then also all the believers and other people.

Then, in the second verse of this poem, the shaykh, may Allah be pleased with him, referred to the hierarchical classification of saints, some of them poles and pillars and supporters, as he explained further in Chapter 73 of the Meccan Revelations. Then he adds in the third verse that there can be only one person at the same time! This is the Single Monad Model, which is almost unique to Ibn al-Arabi, although the unity of existence has been discussed by many other scholars and philosophers in Islam and throughout history in different civilizations,footnote{Shaykh Muhyiddin did not mention the term unity of being, in the usual form, but he has a special view that we will mention in the seventh and final chapter of this book, God willing. but his interpretation is unique, as it has been formulated in the Single Monad Model into a complete cosmological theory that can explain many of the philosophical and physical dilemmas that stem from the contradictions between the modern theories such as relativity and quantum mechanics. This research has been published in the Single Monad Model of the Cosmos book series (citep)yousef2014ibn, which also includes the Duality of Time Theory cite{yousef2017duality and Ultimate Symmetry (citep)yousef2019ultimate in addition to translations of some of Ibn al-Arabi's key related treatises, such as the White Pearl (citep)yousef2019white and the book of Eternity (citep)yousef2019eternity.

This view is based on the fact that God Almighty is continuously re-creating the world at every instance of time. So at every single time, that is the individual day of event, is alternating between existence and non-existence, it is originally in the darkness of nothingness, then Allah is bringing it out into existence, one entity at a time, so no two entities may ever exist at the same time. In every moment of the real flow of time, there is only the essence of one individual who appears to exist and then is followed by the essence of another. Thus, the world that is manifest is the sum of the images of these essences that appear one after the other. Because God is one, only once can proceed from Him at a time, so multiplicity is the accumulation over time of the temporal forms that proceed only one by one. For this reason, Allah said in Surat al-Rahman:(Every day He is in one event [29]), and the day here is the single individual time which is equivalent to one moment for us.

Knowing time is the key to understanding the spiritual world and opening the eye of insight. Ibn al-Arabi said in the Meccan Revelations that the science of time is a noble science that reveals the secret of eternity. By knowing time one can know the meaning of the Hadith: Allah is and none is with Him [Kanz: 29836]. This kind of knowledge may only be known by al-Afrad, the individual saints, who are like the Pole but they are not under his circle. This secret of eternity is also called the first age or the age of ages, from which time is emerging, and by which Allah is called: the Age (al-Dahr), as the Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him, said: Do not curse the age for Allah is the Age [Futuhat: I.156-7].

Those who are realized in the knowledge of time become out of time because they shall control it rather than being under its rule, we are the sons of time because we live in it, and the realizing is the father of time because he is flowing with it, so that no moments of time actually pass over him ever! This is the meaning of Ibn al-Arabi's saying in this poem: I encounter the bites of time, and that's not easy. But the Shaykh, may Allah be pleased with him, admits that there is no virtue or claim in that, but rather that God is the one who supports him in this steadfastness to these high-standing positions.

Then the Shaykh states in the rest of the poem that the opening that happened to him, and the science that came from this, was not a result of contemplation, as it is the custom in mysticism, but this was through the attraction as we will explain in the second chapter, God willing.