2.3.4 - Attraction

Attracting or attraction is a Sufi term that means “observing the divine providence for the servant by attracting him to the presence of proximity” [???]. This happens by God’s providing the seeker with everything he needs on his way to pass through the houses and stations without cost or hardship, unlike the seeker who cuts the road with struggle and contemplation. The shaykhs of Sufism say that the seeker having attraction sees at the beginning what he will have at the end, and that the one moment of attraction is worth more than the work of the two-heavy (humans and jinn).

Therefore, the sought is attracted out of his will, and this situation is very serious among Sufis. Shaykh Muhyiddin says in the Treatise of Lights: “If the opening precedes before contemplation one will rarely become a true man” [The Disclosure of the Treatise of the Lights, author: Ibn al-Arabi, explained by Abdul Karim al-Jili, editor: Asim Kayali, House of Scientific Books - Beirut, 2004, p. 102.]. Thus Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi was one of these rare situations.