In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. May God bless our master Muhammad.
(The Reality of Existence)
Praise belongs to God, who brought things into existence out of a state of nonexistence[6] and its nonexistence,[7] and made their existence depend upon the directing of His words, so that through this we might realize the secret of their temporal origination and their eternity through His eternity, and, in this realization, apprehend what He has made known to us of the truth of His “Foot.”[8]
Thus He—glory be to Him—became manifest, made manifest, and brought into manifestation;[9] He did not become hidden, but made hidden and brought into concealment.[10]
The existence of the servant’s (temporally originated) entity established for Him the Name “the First,” although it (the Name “the First”) had already been established (before that). The envisaged extinction and disappearance (of the servant’s entity) established for Him the Name “the Last,” although it (the Name “the Last”) had already been established before that.
(Thus the existence of creation disclosed the realities of the divine Names and Attributes in manifest actuality, as they had been in their inward reality. For God, exalted is He, the two are alike, since reality is always manifest to Him. It is the inward reality of these Names and Attributes that became manifest to creation through the existence of the servant’s entity, just as it had previously been inwardly.)
Were it not for the age and its contemporary (that is, the ordering of creation’s manifestation in time), and the ignorant and the informed (that is, the diversity of states), no one would know the meaning of His Names “the First” and “the Last,” or “the Hidden” and “the Manifest.”[11] His Most Beautiful Names do indeed follow this most exalted way (being established before the existence of creation in its multiplicity, and indicating the unity of the Divine Essence).
Yet their stations differ, (because they concern creation in some relation, and so become multiple with its multiplicity). This (difference) becomes evident when these Names are taken as means of meeting the events that befall us.
The servant of the Forbearing is not the servant of the Generous (although the Forbearing is the Generous, and He is God, exalted is He); nor is the servant of the All-Forgiving the servant of the Appreciative (although the All-Forgiving is the Appreciative, and He is God, exalted is He). Every servant has a Name that is his lord; the servant is a body, and that Name is its heart.
He is the All-Knowing—
Notlar
[6]
That is, after a state of nonexistence, not from nonexistence as a material source. This is an issue misunderstood by Ibn al-Arabi’s critics, who declared him an unbeliever on its account, as we discussed in Chapter Seven of Shams al-Maghrib (p. 000 [reference unfinished in the source]). Nonexistence is sheer negation, from which existence can never result. Creation after nonexistence means that the cosmos was not, and then was: God created it after it had been nothing worth mentioning. Yet the question remains: from what? Ibn al-Arabi says that the cosmos exists potentially in God’s eternal knowledge before God brings it into actual existence. We discussed this at length in Ayyam Allah (p. 000 [reference unfinished]), and it will recur throughout the Meccan Revelations before us; see, for example, Part Three, in the creed of ??? [reference unfinished in the source].
[7]
Uthman Yahya says: “‘And its nonexistence’: that is, the nonexistence of nonexistence, namely unseen existence in the Presence of divine Knowledge, which is the immutable entity of every actually existing thing.” I would add that the pronoun in “its nonexistence” may also refer to God’s Majesty—that is, to His existence in this cosmos. For things do not in reality exist in the state of the complete existence of God, glory and exaltation be to Him—that is, in the fullness of His self-disclosure. Rather, He brought them into existence when He became hidden through them; were He to manifest His Essence, the cosmos would pass away. This is what happened to the mountain when God disclosed Himself to it, although He disclosed Himself through His Name “the Lord.” As He says concerning Moses in Surat al-Araf (7): “He said: ‘My Lord, show Yourself to me, that I may look upon You.’ He said: ‘You shall not see Me; but look at the mountain. If it remains in its place, then you shall see Me.’ When his Lord disclosed Himself to the mountain, He made it crumble, and Moses fell down unconscious. When he recovered, he said: ‘Glory be to You! I turn to You in repentance, and I am the first of the believers’” [7:143]. Thus we find that things came into existence from two premises: original nonexistence and God’s hiddenness within existence. The link between these two premises was the directing of God’s speech toward it through the command “Be!” As we shall see, Ibn al-Arabi repeatedly affirms that creation proceeds from two premises and a link joining them. God knows best, and He is the Knower of unseen things.
[8]
God says in Surat Yunus (10): “Give glad tidings to those who believe that they have a footing of truth with their Lord” [10:2]. The attribution of a “Foot” to God occurs in a report from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: “The Footstool is the place of the Two Feet” (Kanz al-Ummal, hadith no. 1683). Ibn al-Arabi explicitly states that “foot” means “firm establishment,” and that the Two Feet attributed to the All-Merciful are the foot of compulsion and the foot of choice (al-Futuhat al-Makkiyyah, vol. 3, p. 432, line 23).
[9]
Uthman Yahya says that “the first zahara means manifestation in the Real’s self-disclosures within everything, while the second zahara means predominance and power.” The other possibility, however, is the doubled consonant we have supplied, so that it agrees with what follows: zahhara corresponds to battana. ??? [The source leaves this reading under consideration.]
[10]
Uthman Yahya says that “‘He did not become hidden’ means that He did not become remote, while ‘but He became hidden’ means that He concealed Himself.” I would add that the second verb may also be read with a doubled consonant, as we have supplied above. It would then mean that He, glory and exaltation be to Him, did not in reality become hidden, since He is the Manifest; rather, He made hidden—that is, He rendered His manifestation enigmatic and veiled it from those who look.
[11]
An allusion to His saying in Surat al-Hadid (57): “He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He knows all things” [57:3].
Translator’s note TN5-1: The opening plays on adam (“nonexistence”), qidam (“beginningless eternity”), and qadam (“foot” or “footing”). Their echoes cannot be fully reproduced in English. “Its nonexistence” retains the pronoun’s ambiguity; editorial note 7 offers two readings.
Translator’s note TN5-2: The paired verbs for manifestation and concealment are translated according to the vocalization supplied in this edition. Editorial notes 9–10 explicitly discuss alternatives. “A Name that is his lord” refers here to the particular divine Name governing the servant’s relation to God; it does not introduce a separate deity.
