IMPERFECT LOVE When Ibn ‘Arabi talks about love for God, he means specifically God in respect of his all-comprehensive name, i.e., Allah, to which all other names refer and in the form of which human beings were created. It was God in respect of this name who created man in his own form, not God as Creator or All-merciful. If people love God because he is the Benefactor or the Provider or the All-powerful and not because he is God per se, they run the risk of failing to actualize the full range of divine attributes that determine human nature. Imperfect love for God can be seen wherever we look. Whatever love’s object appears to be, in fact it is love for God, because all phenomena go back to the divine self-disclosures. Typically people love God under the guise of one or more of the divine attributes that he has lent to the creatures. This is a major theme of the great Persian lovers like Rumi, and Ibn ‘Arabi expresses it just as clearly: “None but God is loved in the existent things. It is He who is manifest within every beloved to the eye of every lover – and there is nothing in the existent realm that is not a lover” (F. II 326.19). All things come from God and return to him. The force that brings them into existence is the Hidden Treasure’s love to be known. Among all creatures, only human beings, made in God’s form, are given the gift of full and integral love in order to realize full and integral knowledge and recognition of the Hidden Treasure. In loving their Lord and thereby actualizing the form in which they were created, they burn away the veils of ignorance and illusion that keep them back from their eternal home.“The sincere lover is he who passes into the attributes of the Beloved, not he who pulls the Beloved down to his own level ... He assumes as his own the traits of His names” (F. II 596.6). We should not conclude that all lovers are equal in love. Although God is one, his forms are infinitely diverse. Perfect love for God is found only in Perfect Man, and each of the prophets and friends loves God in a unique mode of perfection. In Chapter 208 of the Futuhat, Ibn ‘Arabi explains something of the typology of lovers in keeping with their varied knowledge of God, for every lover knows God, because it is impossible to love what you do not know. Ibn ‘Arabi tells us that some people are simply believers, and their knowledge of God comes by way of hearsay and prophetic reports. But reports invariably conflict, so the believers remain bewildered about God and are not able to have a clear conception of their Beloved. Among them, some prefer what they understand through their imagination, which recognizes God’s similarity and immanence. They conceive of God in a limited form and become attached to it. In their search for God they desire ecstasy, intimacy, and vision. Some believers know God through their rational faculties. In contrast to those who depend on imagination, they impose no limits on him, but they miss great good. Despite the fact that “He is closer to them than the jugular vein” (Q. 50: 16), they fail to recognize that he is he. Their Beloved is always manifest to them, but they do not have the eyes to see him. Those who gaze upon God by means of the eye of reason are divided into two sorts. One sort craves to see their Beloved. Here Ibn ‘Arabi probably has in mind the Ash’arite theologians, who affirmed that the vision of God in the afterlife was the supreme goal of man. The other sort declare, like the Mu’tazilite theologians, that it is impossible to see the Beloved, though it is possible to know Him.They despair of seeing and, as Ibn ‘Arabi puts it, “They remain in the bliss of despair, while the other group remains in the bliss of craving” (F. II 494.6). After all, as the Qur’an tells us, “Each party takes joy in what they have” (23: 53). All these groups are ranked in degrees according to the level of their understanding. The greatest of the lovers, however, are those who constantly seek to augment their knowledge, in keeping with the Quranic command: “Say: ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge’”(20:114). They increase their knowledge by never denying God’s presence in any phenomenon and by never affirming his presence in anything whatsoever. Seeing with both eyes, they constantly recognize that all is “He/not He.” They never let themselves fall into stasis and fixity, but flow with the constant unfolding of the universe. They recognize themselves and all things for what they are. Ibn ‘Arabi. Heir to the Prophets ~William C. Chittick
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 17:19:02 +0000
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