Ibn 'Arabi & The Unity of Being

okay here we go I hope you're ready for this I hope I'm ready for this I once spoke to my supervisor in religious studies about a banana bee and that I was having some trouble understanding his ideas and he comforted me by saying that anyone who claims to understand a banana bee is either wrong or they're lying to you so clearly we are here dealing with a very difficult figure perhaps one of the most difficult thinkers in all of Islamic history if not history generally but since this is one of my main fields of interest in the study I will try to give you a sort of short simple introduction to this massive figure in Muslim history so let's talk about a banana bee [Music] Abdullah Mohammed Ben Ali eben Mohammed they've been Arabi I'll had to me a tie or more commonly known simply as even our abhi was a Sufi mystic poet and philosopher in the broad sense of that term that has had a massive impact on the Islamic intellectual tradition to some he is a very divisive and controversial figure to those who admire him and follow him is known as sheikh al akbar or the greatest master and so the view doesn't one of the greatest Saints in all of Islamic history and to others he's a dangerous heretic as will become clear both of these positions stem from his very unique fascinating and complicated metaphysical and cosmological ideas the basis of which is often called what at illusion which means the unity of a being and this is a doctrine that we were turn to soon but these ideas have cemented him as one of the most important and interesting thinkers and figures in all of history if not abhi was born in the year 11 65 in the city Marcia in what is today Spain what we call Spain and Portugal today was known back then as al-andalus and was in the 12th century a vibrant time of intellectual and mystical activity empanada B was born into a rather wealthy aristocratic family his father actually working for the local Sultan in the city and also among other things being close friends with the very famous philosopher even rushed or averroes Hui banana B would later have a very famous encounter with for the most part however empanada B grew up in the city's severe since his family moved there when he was very young he would be educated as was fitting for someone of his status and he would take part in the vibrant cultural life of the city at the time al-andalus was at a time ruled by the Almohad dynasty which can be seen as a rather puritanical and strict interpretation and in terms of its social and religious policies but in spite of this the region was ripe with intellectual activity of all sorts banana bees youth and in the time before al-andalus and North Africa had been blessed with many famous thinkers and philosophers like a band rush that I mentioned even to fail even Bahji the Jewish philosopher Maimonides and Sufis like Abba Madonna and eben bana John who were both predecessors of a banana B he would greatly influence him in fact in his youth a banana B would most likely have been exposed and influenced by many of these currents even if he didn't receive any extensive education and philosophy or fanciful faults of a tradition for example nonetheless he lived a life for the first part of his life that could be described as a rather worldly which would have been rather common for someone of his status at the time but sometime in his teenage years he would have an experience that changed his life forever it is said that a banana bee was at a dinner party at which wine was being served and just as a banana he was raising his glass to drink from it he heard a voice that said to him Muhammad which was his first name it was not for this that you were created and this crisis and which he fled from the party and went to the Graveyard in Sevilla where he meditated some say for several days or even weeks it was during this time of meditation that he had his first major spiritual vision and received what he calls fad or illumination or opening in which all the sciences and secrets he would later convey in his teachings were revealed to him all at the same time and on the same time he also claims that he had a vision of the prophets Moses Jesus and Mohammed who all encouraged him to follow the religious or spiritual path indeed Jesus was especially important to him and not to be in this regard and he refers to Jesus as his first teacher and the one who inspired him to his leader asceticism these visions and experiences would lead empanada me to give away all of his belongings and dedicate himself to a ascetic life on the Sufi path now even though he considered himself to be kind of above most Sufi masters since he had already received all the secrets and all the knowledge in this one grand vision he would still dedicate himself and study under various masters and sheiks in al-andalus Claude Addis in his excellent biography of the Sheikh called quest for the red sulphur writes quote in a sense if inaudible arrived at the goal of spiritual realization straightaway following the example of the motto the ecstatics he burned all the stages and in one single leap completed the journey of the quest but that he was quote obliged to make the journey again step by step to perform the wayfaring or sir Luke patiently and entered truly on the way the Masters are shakes he would frequent include perhaps above all a quote illiterate peasant called abul abbas al arabi but also names like Imran Musa have an umbrella medulla and actually a few women like shams of Martina and Fatima bint Abdal Mehsana he talks about these masters in his book or or he'll quotes from Menasha hatun nafs released in English as Sufis of Andalusia and the foothill Makia and in which he says quote I served as a disciple one of the lovers of God a lady of Sevilla called Fatima bint a banana thana of Cordoba I served her for several years she being over 95 years of age she used to play on the tambourine and show great pleasure in it she used to say to me I am your spiritual mother and the lights of your earthly mother I banaji was also especially found on the North African Sophia boumedienne whom he considered to be his almost foremost teacher and the Sufi that he mentions the most in his own writings even though that who never actually met in person even claimed to be taught by wizard the legendary figure of the Quran that is said to have been also a teacher of Moses scholars tend to divide a banana miss life into two periods the first part of which he spent in in al-andalus in the Maghreb in North Africa and the second part in which he spent in the East indeed for the first part of his life he never left his home region and he would travel across modern Spain Morocco Algeria and so on visiting different masters travelling between cities visiting masters and tombs of great Saints he would frequently spend time in these cemeteries meditating or going on spiritual retreats called Halawa he continued to live in ascetic life and he took part in the literary circles of the region studying both religious and profane literature and would actually become quite an accomplished poet himself as we will see later he also took part in debates regarding the theology or doctrinal theology column and also philosophy or fanciful he would also be in contact with Christian thinkers and Jewish thinkers and probably the Kabbalah movement but it would not be threatened most of his life is surprisingly uninterested in refuting or accepting any of the ideas of these theologians of the philosophers he disagreed with much what the philosophers and theologians taught but he also said that much of it contains truth as well he simply wasn't that interested in knowledge conveyed through intellect as such but rather knowledge through a mystical unveiling or intuition known as cash if I were to talk about this much later but this is a party remember that a but not obviously philosopher is primarily interested in knowledge through experience through tasting and through intuition rather than like a philosopher through rational or intellectual debates but this doesn't deny the fact that a banana be in his writings and in the language he uses is still highly influenced and inspired by the philosophers a good example of a banana bees very sometimes strange relationship to the philosophers is this very famous meeting with a panda douched known in the West as a biro is it not a bee tells this story himself that even ruched had heard about a banana bee and his great spiritual powers were status even though a banana be at this time was likely very young and his teens are very early adulthood and of course the fact there being a Bernard were friends with even none of his father but the story goes that a banana arrives at a Ben Rusch place after his invitation and they greet each other very warmly and respectfully after which it been rushed asks a banana be quote what kind of solution have you found through illumination and divine inspiration is it just the same as what we receive from speculative thought to reach a banana B replied yeah and know between the yes and the no spirits take flight from their matter and next break away from their bodies you can do what you will with that quote he continued to have visions and illuminating spiritual experiences as he traveled across North Africa and Spain in the year 1190 for at the age of 29 and in the city of Tunis in modern Tunisia a banana be entered what he calls God's wide earth Allah Allah and Wassa sometimes also the realm of symbols manzil dramas or the earth of reality erotica this can be seen as one of the highest stages of the spiritual path as a banana be himself puts it quote it is only realized by those who inhabits God's vast earth which contains both the contingent and the eternal this is the Earth of God whoever dwells there has realized true servitude with regard to God and God joins that person to himself and that this earth this God spider earth is quote a super formal intelligible earth not a sensory earth one of the foremost scholars of a banana by today William chidduck explains the concept as such quote at the highest stage of self-knowledge the Gnostics recognize their own nature as the infinite and never-ending self disclosures of God in their constant visions of the forms of self disclosures they live along with a banana be in God's wide earth a lot of strange and very complicated words and concepts here but this will be at least a little clearer once we talk about him that I was actually teachings and ideas but we'll get there soon when I leave this for now he was also given another great vision in 1190 in the city Cordoba where he witnessed all the prophets and messengers of God assemble to name him the so called seal of sainthood now we should stop here for a second and talk about the word wali which is what I and many others have here translated as Saint now we should be careful not to draw too close parallels to the Christian idea of saints this is different but in the Sufi tradition throughout history there have been many men and women who have been called by the name wali which in Arabic literally means friend and thus denotes a person's close proximity or intimacy with God so whenever the Bible talks about the Hatem allow Lia the seal of the Saints this is the concept that he's talking about this could also then be translated as the seal of the friends as many of you probably know Muhammad is known to Muslims as the heart Amanda being the seal of the prophets which to the majority of Muslims means that Muhammad is the last and final prophet of God but when a banana me considers himself to be the seal of the saints were specifically the scene of the saints he isn't claiming that he is the last saints or last wali that would ever exist instead he believes that every saint is the quote inheritor of a certain prophet some Saints are so to say heirs to Jesus or Moses and some are heirs to Muhammad a banana be viewed himself as the last saintly complete heir to Muhammad himself or in the line of saints and thus inherits all the knowledge and sciences Salah say of Muhammad quotes even Arabi maintains that there are friends of God in every age and that they will continue to inherit from Muhammad but they will no longer have access to the entirety of Muhammad's works States and Sciences the modalities of the inheritance will be defined by their connection to specific prophets embraced by Muhammad's all-comprehensive prophethood being the last inheritor of Muhammad insane turn is a very privileged position to be given quote if the Muhammad and Friends of God inherits all the sciences of Muhammad this means that they have been open to all the knowledge and understanding given to all the prophets since Muhammad has seen as the all-comprehensive prophets who contained the messages of all the previous prophets thus the seal of the Muhammad and friends will somehow embody the whole Quranic message in other words it not to be thought very highly of himself and of course even though he considered those two been given this position by the prophets themselves this is a standpoint that has been criticized by many as being very well pretentious which is maybe understandable but this is still a very important concept to understand in order to well to understand a banana be and his worldview when is the view we Adam himself and his responsibility towards the larger Muslim community and the world at large and after spending the first half of his life in the environments of al-andalus and the Maghrib he then decided to leave his home region and travel to the eastern parts of the so-called Muslim world and this is a trip that he would never return from one of the goals of this journey was to go on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca which is a duty for every Muslim time to take at least once in their life he began by traveling to Egypt where he stayed in Cairo or Fustat rule at a time by the a ubud dynasty of the famous Saladin he then took a detour through Jerusalem before finally reaching the hedges and the holy city of Mecca in the year 1202 his stay in Mecca which he visited at least twice and they stayed lasted for three years would be one of the most significant and important periods of a banana bees life it would be the catalyst for some of his most important literary works it was here that he met the young woman Nizam whom he fell hopelessly in love with at first glance I would inspire him to write the fantastic poetic work the Telugu man a lush walk the interpreter of desires in which his love for a Nizam serves as a metaphor for love of God it was also in Mecca that he had another one of his most major spiritual visions while which really circulating the Kaaba and praying he encountered what he calls a youth who began communicating with him through metaphors and after a short profound conversation a banana be realized who this youth really was he puts it like this in the introduction to the photo Hethel Makhija quote suddenly while I was before the black stone astonished I came upon the transient youth the silent speaker the one who is neither living nor dead the compass it's simple the encompassed encompassing him in a secret gesture and I knew then he tion to me a truth of his beauty and I was overwhelmed with passion I was felled before him and the moments overcame me it seems that the youth is in some way God himself communicating with a banana pea but it's not entirely clear in what way maybe nada because it's the spirit and the youth seemed to refer to God as something other than itself sometimes but at other times it's much clearer with the youth referring to himself as the Lord so it becomes clear that in some way at least this seems to be God communicating with the banana be a banana be then has an ecstatic experience or vision where he witnesses basically the entire universe or cosmos itched into the body of this youth it's incredible imagery quote the youth said I am the mature garden the universal harvest so lift my veils and recite what is contained edged in my lines what you learned from me put it in your book and speak directly in it to everyone dearest to you I lifted his valence and I observed his edged lines and their tion to my eyes his light that was deposited on him whatever he contained and encompassed of hidden knowledge what a banana be saw edged into the body of this spirit this youth is what would become his probably greatest work the foot too hot and Makia which means the Meccan the Meccan revelations with the Meccan openings which is a massive piece of work that spans over 10,000 pages for the next couple of years a banana B would continue to travel around different regions and cities but this time in the East instead of the West he stayed in Konya and Turkey Iraq Egypt and Palestine among other places he married and had children and at the same time had the most productive period of his life it is during this last period of his life that he composes the majority of his written works he eventually decided to down in DC to Damascus around the Year 1223 and would stay there for the rest of his life and from here it would continue to give spiritual guidance to students and rights great works of poetry and prose while at the same time raising his family even an abbey had many disciples who would later become famous in their own right his most closest or some would say maybe favorites his disciple was a man by the name of eibon's saw the Keane who had accompany banana before basically the majority of his life another one of his most prominent students was soldered in Kunar we who had become his stepson after he married the young solder Dean's widowed mother who now he would be considered his closest students in a way and one whom he considered like his son he would be the student that led the interpretation and dissemination of the shaykhs work after his death being responsible for much of our understanding of it today living mostly in Konya turkey he also had close ties with the very famous contemporary Sufi poet Jalal add-in Rumi which then indirectly connects two of the most famous Sufis in history Rumi and empanada B through his student qunari there's a good example to show just how important how close of a student Kaname was to hit banana B if not other what often holds audiences or sama where he would present or read his new texts to different people and these these sessions were attended by different people depending on the nature of the text so a text that were aimed to a more larger broader general audience would be attended by a lot of people his students and maybe general audiences as well while other more difficult or complex works would be attended on only by a chosen few those who were his closest and most involved students now in 1233 he held one of these sessions for his one of his last and maybe his crowning work which is a book called the faso cell he come the ring stones of wisdom and very interestingly at this session where he read this book only soldered in Kaname was present other students or acquaintances also include controversial figures like a FIFA dental M Sonny who had ties to another controversial Sufi philosopher called eben Sabine who can and probably will dedicate a whole other video to nonetheless after a long life of great activity traveling across the Muslim lands writing a bunch of works and teaching many students on the spiritual path even now be probably left this world on November 8th 12:40 having reached the age of 75 the life of a banana B is of course a very interesting tale filled with fascinating stories and what is perhaps most significant about him is after all what he said what he taught and what he wrote and what his ideas were he wrote many different where he decided he wrote hundreds of different works of varying lengths and contents some of the most famous of which I've already mentioned like the food to hath and makea the Meccan revelations or mekin openings which is this massive work of 10,000 pages that basically goes goes through everything like it's an encyclopaedia of this entire thought there is the very famous paretic work the Tarot zoom on the ash walk the interpreter of desires in which what's been spired by the beautiful Nizam in Mecca he order also about the raw help woods or the Sufis of Andalusia in English translation in which he tells these stories about the great Sufis of the Western tradition in London Lewis and maghrib and lastly the foo sous al hakam which to some is his crowning work and in which he presents his metaphysical ideas in full and sometimes shocking force but what do these texts actually say what are the ideas and teachings of a banana bee that is both so controversial and so loved at the same time this is what we will talk about in part 2 okay so empanada B's metaphysics and cosmology is a very broad and complicated subject but it's impossible for me to fit it into one video but he is associated with a doctrinal idea that's referred to as what dot world or the unity of being and is this philosophy that is followers to this day CSD culmination and utmost expression of monotheism while those who are skeptical of him see it as a complete heresy that was important to remember is that a banana by himself never uses the word what attitude the unity of being but this is a name or a term that was used by later thinkers and was applied to him but this isn't to say that the ideas that we mean when we say what that I would you it doesn't apply to Nana B because in his writings he often of course seems to imply a lot of these ideas even so I banana B is notoriously difficult of a writer who rarely speaks in clear terms he isn't the philosopher in the traditional sense of that term in that he doesn't present this argument through his ideas as rational arguments or as a systematic presentation rather it is structured as visions and illumination spiritual experiences basically that he retells therefore when we interpret them in a B we are often relying on later interpreters later writers who have formulated his ideas into a more systematic form chief among these of course is soldering clue now is close a student that I mentioned earlier who now he is very much responsible for systematizing anonymous ideas into a more coherent philosophical language we aren't exactly sure whatever not be meant a lot of the time my point is that it's important to remember that we are relying on outside commentators and it's always open to interpretation how these ideas should be understood and I will be relying on outside interpretations later commentators in my presentation of the unity of being as such in short terms the adoption of the unity of being is based on taking monotheism to its most extreme and it not only states that God is the only divinity in existence he is the only being in existence one of God's so-called 99 names in the Quran is al Haq which means the truth or the real or the reality with this in mind the Islamic Proclamation la ilaha illallah isn't simply read as there is no god but God or there is no divinity but the divinity but instead as there is no reality but the real or thus ultimately there is nothing but God to a banana bee and his followers there is only one singular reality and that reality is God a banana B identifies God in his utmost essence as wizard or being or existence so God is being he isn't a being he is being itself and since Islamic theology requires that God not only be the only divinity but also that he is absolutely one that must necessarily mean that being or existence itself is one absolutely one this also means that if anyone says that anything exists except of God one is actually committing shidduch or polytheism which is the greatest sin in Islam since you are saying that there is a being that isn't God but being is God and that basically means you're saying that there is another God but if God is the only reality what are we what is creation there appears to be multiplicity everywhere what what's that - a banana be anything other than God which is creation basically is utterly non-existent it's a kind of illusion he writes quotes the world is illusory and has no real existence this is what is meant by imagination hi al you have been made to imagine that the world is something separate and independently real outside of the absolute but in reality this is not so but it isn't an illusion in the ultimate sense we do have a certain existence on the physical plane it's not all a dream like in Advaita Vedanta and Hindu for example the illusion is the idea of separation that I exist as a separate being when in reality only God exists the only true self is God's self and ours are only relative reflections of this self one of the more celebrated scholars from Abu Dhabi schools Muhammad shall be story or a masterpiece of Persian poetry called the Gulshan or oz in which he xpick AIT's the doctrine of the unity of being and he writes quote when absolute existence is alluded to people use the word i as a matter of expression when reality has taken form through individuation you refer to it in language with the word i you and i are accidents of the essence of being like openings and the covering of the lamp of being a banana be himself loves to use metaphors to describe this relationship between God in the world one of them is where he describes it almost like a light a pure white light which is God's being that travels through a prism and creates a multitude of colors which would be the world the colors themselves are never the same as the white light just as the creatures or creation is never the same as God but at the same time they consist of nothing but the white light he also describes the world as the shadow of God being at once the same as him and exactly that which is not him quote we say know that what one calls other than the real and which is referred to as the world is in relation to the real as a shadow is to an object it is the shadow of God it isn't just this way that existence is attributed to the world for without doubt the shadow is existent in the sensory domain albeit only when there is something where in the shadow is manifest it but not often operates within paradoxes there is nothing but God but we as creatures are also absolutely not God we are he and not he in Arabic who wa lahu wa there's a metaphor to describe this idea that I really like personally which comes from the author robert abdullah hired are in his introduction to the translation of muhammad shah be study there he describes the God world relationship through these of a projector imagine a projector projecting a movie or image onto a wall the light from the projector is being or God's reality with God the wall on which it projects is non-existence it's non being nothingness it is in the meeting of absolute being and nothingness that the created world operates as an isthmus a line in between the two extremes we as in creation are the images themselves formed by the light which despite taking different forms remain one and undivided it is the nothingness that obscures that light that create the forms but the light itself remains unchanged faculity Nawrocki another famous writer in the even Anna B school writes the following in his book Lama at quote come then into my eyes and look and you will see a sun shining through a thousand bits of glass beaming to plain sight through each array of color why should any difference appear between this one and that all light is one but colors a thousandfold if you've read Hindu philosophy or Taoism or Christian mystics like Meister Eckhart Allah this will seem very familiar to you in fact the doctrine of the unity of being sometimes bears a striking resemblance to philosophies like Advaita Vedanta or certain ideas within Taoism for example among many other things there are differences of course but they share aspects explained thus far with a single absolute non dual reality being identified with God and denying the reality of anything beside him but what creates the forms of the world themselves what is the world when it is not pure being and where does multiplicity come from it will help a bit to try to look at things like the people back then would have viewed the world partly thanks to a benzina or Avicenna philosophically one had at this time started to separate between existence or being assured on the one hand and essence or what 'no SMAW here on the other when talking about a thing or an object in the like this table in front of me we can ask two basic questions about it we can ask is it and we can ask what is it the first question is it is a question of existence or being and the answer to that question would be yes or no the second question what is it gives a completely different answer and this is the question of essence or what Ness in this case a table table is independent of whether or not it exists it is an essence or what Ness that can either exist or not exist it can either have existence or which would being or it can have we can not have existence or being so according to what a turtle was you would in terms of the existence or the being the was you would of the objects of the world they are God because remember God is being he is being itself is the only being and so God is thus our being he is our being however in terms of our essences are what nasai are absolutely not God we are that which by definition God isn't I as a human being feel at home cannot possibly be God because I am everything that God isn't I am I am finite I am temporal I am mortal I have a certain form these are all things that God cannot possibly be because this would limit God and God is limitless God is eternal God is perfect God is immortal and all these things so this is the relationship that we have here we are simultaneously God and not God we are absolute existence and we are absolute non-existence we are being and non-being all at the same time but it doesn't end here these essences or what misses also has a relationship with God even if they aren't God directly here we will need to have some basic knowledge of Islamic theology again so according to mainstream islamic theology God is absolutely transcendent beyond any creaturely qualities so he doesn't have any attributes or qualities that any created things or creatures have but according to the Quran and mainstream Islamic theology he still has certain attributes and each of his name's like a hawk or rahman al rahim and so on all these names that he's referred to by corresponds to a search attribute that he has so al-haqq means the truth or the real he is the real he is the truth a Rahman means the merciful he's merciful Rob means the Lord for some all these names that he has is also an attribute that he has now traditionally in the Quran it is said that God has 99 names and there's also 99 attributes but according to a banana be the names are actually infinite he has an infinite amount of names and an infinite amount of attributes and qualities and these attributes and qualities have a very important role to play in creation interestingly there is an idea that I banoffee expresses where God can be viewed in two different ways there is firstly God as the essence or a VAT and this is the absolute ultimate reality and identity of God where there are no attributes and nothing at all can be said or understood or grasped about God the extent of which we can say about him in this state is that he is and beyond that language completely fails us the attributes that we talk about are there in a sense but they are not attributes as such but just parts of this unknowable essence in some mysterious way or not part of there but they are this essence the attributes are not distinguished there's just this one essence that is completely unknowable then there is God as he relates to the world the God with attributes like merciful or as creator and Lord and this is the form of God that most people think of when we talk about God but this is not the ultimate form of God the essence is so the attributes in this sense are dependent on creation the attributes like merciful creator are only relationships to us as creatures and don't exist in the essence in that same way instead they could be seen as to simply point to be which you see them may be as metaphors that point to certain realities within this one essence and this idea is obviously very similar to the idea expressed by Adi Shankara and advaita vedanta about near guna brahman on the one hand and saguna brahman on the other oh this is almost identical to even Allah beside the in fact there's a hadith Qudsi a saying of the Prophet Muhammad where God is speaking through him in which God says I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known so I created the world so that I might be known he gotta be loves this hadith as he used it frequently it is the key to understanding creation and the purpose behind it I was a hidden treasure refers to God's essence and the attributes that are hidden therein I loved to be known he wants to he wants this hidden treasure to be experienced and of course he knows his own attributes since he well he is he but he still wants his essence and attributes to be experienced through someone who is not him so I created the world so that I might be known therefore the world is created as a way for God to experience himself through someone other than himself there's a great section nifa suzana come where he talks about this relationship as a person who is talking about himself so if I refer to myself and say something like I really love coffee which I usually don't but it's let's say I say this in saying I really like coffee there is a duality created there between the one who is speaking and the one I am speaking of I'm speaking about myself even though it's essentially really the same person speaking about himself so this is the kind of relationship the world has to God it is different from God there is a duality created between the Lord the creator and creation but ultimately creation is simply God that is experiencing himself but since this hidden treasure is to be known through the world that must mean that the world contains traces of these attributes and qualities of God right this is absolutely true - banana be the world is nothing but to use William jeddaks words the loci of God's self-disclosure or God's self manifestation so everything in the world every essence in philosophical terms every particle of this world reflect and reveal God's qualities and attributes in an indirect sense like in a mirror this is based partly on a Quranic verse that I bunnelby loves to apply which goes whichever way you turn there is the face of God now remember the things of the world or creation itself is not God he is absolutely transcendent of them but in a real sense they reflect everything in the world the entire cosmos reflects God's attributes and thus they are God in a sense - in any case since God is infinite and so are the possibilities of his attributes there is no end to the constant self manifestation of God in the world at every moment at every instant the world is created anew revealing a new self disclosure the world in that sense becomes the continuous unfolding of God's manifestation in limited form it's the unfolding of possibilities inherent in actuality the essences of the world the things are contained in God's knowledge beyond time and space as something he calls the Ayana thar beta the immutable entities these are non existent in themselves but function almost as archetypes that determine what is created in the actual cosmos and these I Anitha beta are themselves determined by God's attributes as they in their totality reflect him so God has these attributes of qualities and then he has a knowledge of his own attributes or qualities which are infinite so there's an infinite number of possibilities an infinite number of ways that his attributes can be manifested and all these ways all these forms in which he can manifest himself are contained in his own knowledge beyond time and after which when he wants to create something he simply gives those archetypes those iana Thabeet a-- he gives them being and at each instant is a new creation at East instant is a new reflection of God that's constantly unfolding before our eyes so the world relates to God in two ways on the one hand there is only one reality the reality of being and God's essence who are identical and this is the hidden and unfathomable aspect of God that we cannot experience or see or hear in any way or experience in any way except through God himself only God Himself can experience himself in his own essence on the other hand the things in the world are reflections of God's attributes and qualities they aren't God directly but they reflect him like in a mirror and receive his being like containers almost this is the manifest and apparent aspect of God which we experience at every moment even if we don't realize it so let's return to that projector again as I said the light itself is being existence it's God himself it's God's essence the wall on which it is being projected is nothingness on which being is being projected the images that we see on the wall that is the world that is creation in ourselves but these images are created by the light traveling through pieces of film which delimits and shape this light into these certain images this film or the Ayana Thabit ah the immutable entities that are reflections of God's attributes so we have a situation here where from one perspective there is only light and different nuances of that light but on the other hand there are images on the wall which are determined by this light being dimmed or shaped into certain forms which makes them different from the light because what makes them what they are is by definition that which is not the light but at the same time these images are also determined by the attributes that are contained within the light itself I know this is a whole lot to take in and you may have to watch this a few times if you this is all new to you but believe it or not that is actually the basic very basic simple explanation of the deduction of what a Telugu jeweled it is you could see a non dual philosophy where reality is ultimately oneness and nothing exists except for God he is all of being and he is the one in whose being my being resides but there are many other nuances to it that make it a lot more complicated as I hope I have shown you some scholars Western scholars especially in the past for a banana be as a pantheist or a pantheist and of course what this is understandable it really isn't that accurate at least from the traditional prosperity traditional understanding of the word pantheism now if not abhi does in a way affirm that the world is God since there is nothing but God but at the same time he's very careful to point out that the world is happened at the same time absolutely not God and that God completely transcends the world in fact the world is as I've said the very definition of what God isn't in terms of itself the world is absolute nothingness non being who has quote never smelled a whiff of existence this point is finally expressed by the 19th century figure Amira birth Khadija xiety famous for his defense against French colonialism who was also a follower of banana beyond his school he states quote I am two things according to two different relations with respect to you I am the eternal for ever and ever I am the necessary being who epitomizes himself with respect to me I am pure non being who has never breathed the perfume of existence the adventitious being who remains non-existent in his adventitious Ness if not I be himself also talks about this paradoxical situation through the terms Tennessee and Tash B or similarity and difference as I mentioned the cosmos is who wa lahu wa it's he and not he God is simultaneously the same and utterly different in every way in the fossil he come he talks about the situation how one needs to see the world through both eyes of reason and intuition reason tells us that God is transcendent while intuition or illumination lets us know that he's infinitely imminent at the same time quote if you profess transcendence tensive you delimit if you profess imminence - be you restrict but if you profess both you have been shown the right way you are a leader in the Gnostic Sciences a master in other words if you look at say a rock and say this is not God he beyond compare you are qualifying God and thus in a way limiting him but if you say this rock is God you are also limiting him to this rock in particular which is equally false instead he urges us to see it as both at the same time God is always present and he is always not present whatever we look it is always God but also never really God quote do not look to the real while divesting him of creation and look to creation clothing it with art but the real make him incomparable and make him similar and reside in the seed of sincerity be thou in union if you wish or if you wish in distinction through both obtain a great success this leads us to another concept which is sometimes referred to as the divinity of beliefs as I mentioned earlier banana be wasn't just a prose writer who wrote complicated metaphysical works he was also a very accomplished poet and one of his most famous poem is probably the most famous that's always quoted when when people talk about a banana B is a poem from the collection that tells Uman an ash walk the interpreter of desires that I mentioned earlier this poem has been recited numerous times because of its incredible beauty and goes like this o marvel our garden amidst the flames my heart has become capable of every form it is a pasture for gazelles and a covenant for Christian monks and a temple for idols and the pilgrims Kaaba and the tables of the Torah and the books of the Quran I follow the religion of love wherever way loves camels take that is my religion and my faith this may appear like an expression of religious tolerance or pluralism which it really isn't in fact instead it's a natural extension of a banana bees metaphysics since the world is God's manifestation and the place of his so-called self disclosure that must mean that whatever we worship we are worshipping God right quote not attach yourself to any particular Creed exclusively so that you disbelieve all the rest otherwise you will lose much good now you will fail to recognize the real truth of the matter let your soul be capable of embracing all forms of belief God the omnipresent and omnipotent is not limited to any one creed is he saying that all beliefs and therefore all religions are equally valid in short terms no he isn't he is saying that whatever it is you believe about God it is right in a sense because God is all there is and everything in the world is a reflection and manifestation of God whatever you worship be it Jesus on the cross an idol or a rock it is ultimately all God so you are right in your worship in that sense however banana B is of course a Muslim and a very staunch one he believes that Islam is the one true religion and the discussion where the people worshipping Jesus or a rock go wrong is that they are limiting God to that specific form yes God is the rock and yes God is Jesus in the statue but only in the sense that they are manifestations of him God is much bigger and more transcendent than that so a banana B everyone is actually just worshiping themselves and forms their perception of God according to their own natures quotes one only believes in a divinity through what he has made within his own soul in other words one experiences the divine according to one's own nature or one's own soul we create an image of God in our own heads and then we worship that image that image that we have of God and while in one sense we are correct in that worship what we are really doing is only worshipping ourselves and our own mental creations this critique also extends to his fellow Muslims as he sees many of them or maybe most of them as being idolaters sure they don't worship a rock or an actual Idol made of stone but they still create this image of what God is in their head and then they worship that God and this to him is also a form of idolatry in this discussion he uses a saying by an older Sufi thinker by the name of John IDE who said that the water takes on the color of the cup and this is true of people's experience or perception of God God manifest or discloses himself to according to their own receptivity or their own preparedness so everyone experiences God differently according to as I said their nature the person who recognizes that all these images are God but that he simultaneously transcends all of them that person is truly illuminated he will be able to see every image as God that every moment whatever way we turn there is the infinite self-disclosure of God thus the famous poem now makes a lot more sense it's speaking from the point of view of a master Gnostic who has reached the furthest station on the spiritual path whatever now because the station of no station here one soul or heart is in constant flux realizing that it is only the eternal reflection of God which is infinite this soul or heart can take on any form it can see God in every form whether it be the pasture for the gazelles the cloister for the monks or the pages of the Quran one is not bound to witnessing God in any one of these forms instead one follows the religion of love the innermost cause of creation and in which everything expresses God's love of creation and vice-versa creations love for God so as I mentioned earlier the entire cosmos is a manifestation a reflection of the entirety of God's names or the entirety of God's attributes while a certain object in the world or a certain thing on reflects one or a certain combination of certain attributes or names the entire cosmos reflects all of the names so the creation as a whole is a direct reflection of God's entire nature his all of his attributes the cosmos is thus often referred to by Menotomy as the macrocosm or the great man in san al kabir but the human being also has a central role to play in the scheme and he is often referred to as the microcosm or the small man in san elsewhere the human being thus also reflects all the names and all the attributes but in a contained form so the human being is a microcosmic reflection of the macrocosm that is the entire universe and so everything that exists on the inside access exists on the outside as above so below and and and so on thus the human being has a very central role to play in creation you could say that he is even the purpose of creation itself as he he is the only place except for the in the cosmos in its entire e where all of the names and attributes are reflected so we reflect all of God's attributes and thus he completes the hidden treasures wanting to be known from the famous hadith that I quoted earlier in fact the very first lions of the facade had come is the following quote the real will the glorified be he in virtue of his beautiful names which are innumerable to see their identities if he saw where she can say to see his identity in a comprehensive being that comprises the whole affair insofar as it is possessed of existence and his mystery is manifest to himself through it this talks about the obviously creation of the human being and states that it is the culmination of God's wanting to know himself through the form of another man in his most perfect and primordial form is known as in sand and camel or the perfect or universal man this term and concept is one of the most central aspects of a banana bees thought arguably maybe the most central in Sanel camel is a designation of God's perfect manifestation in human form a human being who has reached a state of complete self annihilation where he recognizes himself as nothing but God's reflection and acts accordingly in the perfect man God is finally able to witness and glorify himself like in a mirror one of the more famous writers and poets from the school of a banana be is a man by the name of Adina Araki who wrote a incredible piece of was a combination of prose and poetry called LaMotte which means divine flashes and in this book he presents this relationship between God and the world through a triad of love lover and beloved which is a rather common theme within Sufi and poetry now love can be seen as the utmost essence of God being itself and lover and beloved are the relationship between the human being and God as he is experienced by the human being man is the lover who longs for his beloved which is God and they gaze upon each other like in in a mirror in mirrors so in a sense God sees his own reflection in the mirror of the human being and the human being sees his own reflection in the mirror of God and these two these lovers want desperately to be close to each other they want to unite with each other and so the human being cleans this mirror of his heart so that it more and more can reflect more perfectly God's own reflection and when this process is finally finished and reaches its culmination the two are finally United and they reflect each other perfectly and in this meeting they realized that the difference between lover and beloved was only really an illusion and the only thing that ever existed was the reality of love itself which is identical with God's essence of that or being itself as such then the eye of certainty opens and staring inwardly at himself he finds himself lost vanished but he finds the friend and when he looks still deeper realizes the friend is himself he exclaims beloved I sought your hair and there asked for news of you from all I met then I saw you through myself and found we were identical now I blush to think I ever searched for science of you the term insanity common could also be used to refer to the cosmos at large in a way and it functions in a similar way but the human being as you can see has a very special position in a banana bees cosmology and this description by Araki is the actual practice or the unit of the practical psychological aspects of Sufism or a banana bees thought as well a banana me was of course a Sufi and so he would practice the most common Sufi practices like a vicar remembrance where the names of God were certain you could say mantras almost certain terms are repeated over and over again and similar to many other Sufis the goal of these while these Sufi practices or the goal of life in general is to fight against your nafs your ego or your lower self and finally reach a unity or you to unite with God but to a banana bee and many other Sufis there is never any uniting with God this would actually be an impossibility since that would mean that's there was an imperfection in God if something can be added to him non-existence can never unite with absolute being this is just an impossibility instead if not it puts a lot of emphasis on self-knowledge since these the human being in the self is a direct reflection of God as everything else is the key to suicide enlightenment is actually to know yourself to gain knowledge of your own self there's a hadith where the Prophet Muhammad is thought to have said know yourself and you shall know your Lord thus the goal is to realize that one's own separate existence is a kind of illusion as we are only the continuous self manifestations of God thus to know ourselves and to know our soul in a proper way is to know God but this can only be achieved through the right kinds of knowledge so there's no uniting with God the part of us that is creature the part of us that is separate from him can never unite with him the goal is to realize that there is nothing but God and that our being is his being put in another way uniting with God is not a process it's a realization of what what has always been we don't unite with God we realized that we in a sense were God all along that which has United with God is not his creature such words are not spoken by the completed person what is non being that it should unite with the real and on on being makes spiritual journey in progression in Union the fantasy of you ends only when the other vanishes is their union don't say the contingent has transcended its limits it has not become the necessary nor the necessary it Union with a real is separation from creativeness estrangement from oneself is acquaintance with a real when the contingent removes the dusts of contingency except for the necessary nothing remains there are other aspects of the insanity camel and these other ideas that gives me headaches just thinking about it so I will not go any further into it but just know that this is a vast field right phonebooks just about these philosophies but this has believe it not been a very short introduction to a banana bees general metaphysical ideas there's a lot more to it as I said but I could maybe explore that further in future videos but this will be sufficient for now while I'm Anatomy is a very original thinker obviously these ideas didn't appear just in a vacuum he is very much dependent and influenced by other thinkers that had come before him in his language he is inspired by the Muslim philosophers like eben Cena even if he is critical of them at times thus we find a lot of traces of Neoplatonism in his thoughts for example when talking in philosophical language like in the work at the haqqani he talks about the hierarchy of existence in terms of first intellect universal soul and so on which are very common Neoplatonic terms in fact some of his contemporaries thought that he was so influenced by this school that he had become known by some as eben flattened or the son of Plato and even though he didn't consider himself a philosopher and he was often very critical of their rational approach to theology he still respected many of them a lot in fact in the photo Hetal Makia he refers to play dough as flattened Elahi or the divine play-doh we can also see traces from more unlikely places like the Elon Asafa the brethren of purity who are as Smiley's some of the more esoteric aspects of his theoretical mysticism do have direct parallels in that movement like the microcosm macrocosm relationship or a small man versus large man and they're sort of reflecting each other and so on since he was a Sufi and belonged to the Sufi tradition he of course takes a lot of influence from the previous Sufi thinkers and from general ideas that had been around in that movement as well while he is often credited with the doctrine of the unity of being it is clear that these ideas or similar ideas had been floating around for a long time among the Sufis a very good example is the famous sufi from Baghdad Mansur al-hallaj who is thought to have entered ecstasy and exclaimed Ana al-haq I am the truth where I am the way I was he was saying I am God and was possibly executed for it or at least very much shunned and there are many other examples Rumi also expresses similar ideas and lumen was a near contemporary women RB even if they never met and so even if he was very important for this kind of philosophy it is clear that other Sufis both before and at the same time as him had similar ideas to us same ideas what a banana be can be said to have done is to for the first time theoretically and in at least somewhat systematic way formulate a theory and also to add terms like in sand camel and other a certain theoretical concepts to it and of course the creation of a certain school of followers that came after him who would hold on to this idea or his expression of this idea very strongly in particular some people scholars included have presented eben Abbey as being tolerant or pluralistic and this statement is problematic partly because it's taken very modern terms and applying it to someone who lived almost a thousand years ago but at the same time he in other cases expresses ideas that can't really be considered very tolerant he was as I said a very staunch Sunni Muslim and he wasn't that fond of Shiites for example he was also sometimes highly critical of the philosophers even though he had very strong opinions about things and he was absolutely sure that he was right a banana bees method of reaching knowledge was not primarily through reason or intellect as the philosophers often would instead he reaches knowledge by what he refers to as cache which means unveiling to the kind of intuitive spiritual knowledge that is directly experienced they not only believe that this form of knowledge was the highest in form but that it should nonetheless be complemented with reason and revelation revelatory texts like the Quran as I've mentioned he asks us to view the world with both eyes of both reason and intuition but despite this he believed that the rational approach to God that the philosophers were taking was foolish and would only lead to confusion they were misguided he would claim even if some of their ideas are true and this is where some of that apparent tolerance actually does come in he never denies that the philosophers has good things or true things to say he affirms that they actually do when applies much of their terminology and thinking into his own writings this includes the schools of theology like the Asha Knights and the Mata Silla a banality believes that they all actually have good things to say and that at this sometimes one is closer to the truth than another but that he himself never subscribes to any one school of thought in particular it is when it comes to the ultimate knowledge the knowledge of God not of things in this world this is where reason becomes unnecessary or actually and harmful here when it comes to this level the only way to reach true knowledge or proper knowledge is through cash it's through unveiling so even at abhi does have a somewhat lenient attitude towards the philosophers even though he often disagrees with them he holds a strong conviction that one should not engage in fighting about these matters a good example is a letter he wrote to the theologian Dean Razi in which he asks him to abandon his theology and enter the mystical path instead in this letter he criticizes the philosophical approach that Allah Rossi takes but does so in a very friendly and sort of almost brotherly manner similarly another good example of his approach would be the following which is from one of his writings quotes it is best to separate yourself from people who do not believe in what you believe who do not do what you do and who are against your faith yet at the same time you should not think badly of them or condemn them for what they are your intention and ignoring them should be that you prefer the company believers this idea of a banana B so-called tolerance can also be extended to his general ethical ideas as well he often claims that God's mercy precedes his wrath and that mercy is the very foundation of existence of creation as such he himself as the heir to Muhammad and sainthood is also responsible for spreading or extending that mercy in the world he even called himself the unlimited mersa fire the author Claude adass writes quote he wished to be a source of hope for all created beings and they would not be himself writes quote thanks be to God I am NOT one of those who love vengeance and Punishment on the contrary God has created me as a mercy and has made me an heir to the mercy of him whom he was said we have sent you only as a mercy towards the worlds while he was a staunch Sunni Muslim with very strong convictions and calling him tolerant is very anachronistic and problematic one could argue that he certainly seems to have had a very compassionate and relatively open approach to existence and to religion in many ways he embodies the common Sufi ideal that love for God equals love of his creation and this becomes even more prominent than his thoughts since essentially everything is God and so obviously you must always want well for something that you love if you love God help and serve as much as you can the people who hide their misery who are content with their poverty the travelers on the path to truth do not attribute to yourself virtue goodness and graciousness because of your service to the creation consider that you all other people thanks for having hardly accepted your help it is a comment upon you to lighten the load of those who are burdened if people whose pain you have helped to alleviate caused you pain in return if their responses their ways their habits or a dark and cast shadows upon you show patience and forbearance quotes above all what you need is high morals good character proper behavior you must identify your bad features and rid yourself of them your relationship to whomever you come into contact with must be based on the best of conduct but what this means may vary with conditions and circumstances similarly in the photos alikom he shows similar tendencies of compassion and mercy quote know that kindness for God's slaves deserves more care than does one zeal for God or do you not see that God has made the poll tax and peaceful co-existence our obligation regarding the enemies of the religion saying quote and if they incline to peace do thou incline to it and put thy trust in God to a banana bee to care for or guard God's creatures or other human beings is to care for or love God himself so as you can see there is certainly an argument to be made that the ethical teachings of a banana bee could be considered by using modern terms tolerance since one of his most important teachings is that we should extend unlimited love to all of God's creatures on the other hand which may surprise some of you a banana bee is almost fanatically strict when it comes to following the Sharia or the Islamic law he's very adamant that his students and society in general follow the Sharia as it is laid down by God the Sharia or Islamic law should here primarily be seen as the the primary rituals of Islam like like pray daily prayers and fasting and the pilgrimage and so on but it also of course includes the more legalistically oriented aspects included in thick or in jurisprudence but here in terms of v however he is actually a bit more lenient in certain regards even Ali was highly critical of the fokaha or jurists of his day who he felt had returned the religion into simply a system of rules and thus neglected its actual inner reality it's in room meaning to him differences of opinion regarding legal matters are a mercy from God quote God has made the divergence in legal questions a mercy for his servants and a broadening of what he has prescribed they should do to testify their adoration but in the case of those who follow the jurists of our time these jurists have prohibited and restricted what the Sacred Law had broadened in their favor they say to the person who belongs to their school if for example he is a Hanafy don't go looking for our Daksha from a Shafi regarding this problem you are faced with and so on with all of them this is one of the greatest calamities and heaviest constraints in the matter of religion God himself has said in religion he has not imposed anything difficult on you the law has affirmed the validity of the status of anyone who makes a personal effort at interpretation for himself and for those who follow him but in our day the jurists have condemned this effort claiming it encourages people to make a mockery of religion for them to say this is the height of ignorance again this should not be understood as some kind of liberal standpoint what in the rule of the law is undermined even a bit is in fact usually strict that it is observed but it is a rather unique and more open perspective on the larger aspects of jurisprudence based on his understanding of of mercy as an important aspect of creation and its role in religion generally another interesting point is his legal opinion that women can actually lead men and mixed congregations in prayer in the mosque which is very unusual especially today but not as unusual as you may think historically and a banana group represents one of those people who considered women to be perfectly capable of leading men in prayer nonetheless it would not be both during his life and especially after became a very significant and important figure in Sufism and Islam in general his ideas like the insanity camel and whatever Jude would extend a huge influence on the later traditions his ideas through Saturday in Kona we and his students became especially popular in the Persian world and later also in India where it's meeting with certain Vedanta traditions created some very interesting inter-religious dialogue and discussions as you may imagine and even if it isn't as apparent this these doctrines also very much present in the arabic-speaking world as well it's no wonder that he is called the greatest master in most Sufi context we'll find traces of his doctrines in India many of the famous sages and princes like Akbar and Dara Shikoh were influenced by the unity of being it most likely influenced Hinduism and Vedanta through their meeting and different forms of synthesis as well through different Muslim saints it also made its way into things like Sikhism which appeared in the 15th and 16th centuries well we shouldn't attribute too much of this to banana be himself the ideas of a oneness of reality was expressed in Sufism and in the Islamic world before his time as well but we should recognize that he's a monumental figure in the history of mysticism philosophy and human thought in general he's an incredibly difficult thinker one that is infinitely fascinating nonetheless I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Let's Talk Religion

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Keywords: Ibn Arabi, Ibn Arabi & The Unity of Being, Wahdat al-wujud, Wahdatul wujood, The Unity of Being, Mysticism, Sufism, Sufi philosophy, Islamic mysticism, Pantheism, Panentheism, Non-dualism, Islamic non-dualism, Monism, Islamic philosophy, Medieval philosophy, History, Islamic history, Ibn Arabi Ertugrul, Ibn Arabi poem, Ibn Arabi religion of love, religion of love, Ibn Arabi documentary, Unity of being in philosophy, Wahdat al wujud meaning, Wahdat al shuhud, mystical philosophy

Id: -bgWnzjONXE

Length: 72min 10sec (4330 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2020