Noah - the Breath of Divine Inspiration

Salaam alikoom

Bismillah.

As with anything of Ibn Arabi - you must be extremely familiar with all of
the references he makes to the Holy Quran, otherwise it will read as
rather obscure and even impenetrable.

Enjoy.

The Seal of the Wisdom of the Breath of Divine Inspiration 1 in the Word
of Nuh (Noah)





Know that disconnection (tanz�h) among the people of realities in respect
to Allah is the same as limitation and qualification, so the one who
disconnects is either ignorant or ill-mannered if he only applies
disconnection to Him and believes that about Him.2 When the believer
who follows the Shar�'a disconnects and stops at that, and does not see
anything else, he displays ill manners and slanders Allah and the
Messengers - may the blessings of Allah be upon them! - although he is
not aware of it. He imagines that he has reached the target and yet he has
missed it, so he is like the one who believes in part and rejects part.3

One especially knows that when the language of the various Shar�'as
speaks about Allah as they do, they speak to the common people in the
first sense, and to the elite in every sense which can be understood from
the various aspects of that expression in any language in the usage of
that language.

Allah manifests Himself in a special way in every creature. He is the
Outwardly Manifest in every graspable sense, and He is the Inwardly
Hidden from every understanding except the understanding of the one
who says that the universe is His form 4 and His He-ness (huwiyya), and
it is the name, the Outwardly Manifest. Since He is, by meaning, the spirit
of whatever is outwardly manifest, He is also the Inwardly Hidden. His
relation to whatever is manifested of the forms of the world is the relation
of the governing spirit to the form. The definition of man, for example,
includes both his inward and outward; and it is the same with every
definable thing. Allah is defined in every definition, yet the forms of the
universe are not held back and He is not contained by them. One only
knows the limits of each of their forms according to what is attained by
each knower of his form. For that reason, one cannot know the definition
of Allah, for one would only know His definition by knowing the definition
of every form. This is impossible to attain, so the definition of Allah is
impossible.

Similarly, whoever connects without disconnection has given limits to
Allah and does not know Him. Whoever combines connection and
disconnection in his gnosis, and describes Allah with both aspects in
general - because it is impossible to conceive in detail because we lack
the ability to encompass all the forms which the universe contains - has
known Him in general and not in particular, as he knows himself generally
and not in particular. For that reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him
and grant him peace, linked knowledge (ma'rifa) of Allah to knowledge of
oneself and said, "Whoever knows himself knows his Lord." Allah says,
"We will show them Our signs on the horizons (what is outside of you)
and in themselves (what is your source) until it is clear to them (the
contemplators) that it is the Truth," (41:53) inasmuch as you are His form
and He is your spirit. You are to Him as your body-form is to you, and He
is to you as the spirit which governs the body.

The definition contains your inwardness and outwardness, for the form
remains when the spirit which governs it departs, and it is no longer man,
but one can speak of it as resembling the form of man. There is no
difference between it and the form made of wood or stone, upon which
the name of man is only applied by metaphor and not by reality. Allah
cannot vanish from the forms of the universe, as His definition of His
divinity is by reality, not metaphor, as the definition of man applies only
so long as he is alive. As the exterior of the form of man praises both his
spirit, and the self governed by it, with his tongue, similarly Allah made
the forms of the universe which glorify His praise, but we do not
understand their glorifying.6 We do not embrace all forms in the universe.
All are tongues of Allah uttering the praise of Allah and for that reason He
said, "Praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds," (1:1) i.e. all types of
praise refer to Him. He is the Praiser and the One praised.


If you speak of disconnection, you limit Him,
    and if you speak of connection, you define Him.

If you speak of the two together,

    then you are free of error

       and you are an Imam and a master in knowledges of gnosis.


He who affirms duality, falls into shirk, and whoever speaks of
uniqueness is a unifier.6 Take care lest you be a dualist by connection,
and take care lest you be a isolator by disconnection.


You are not Him, rather you are Him
    and you see Him in the source of thing,

    absolute and limited at the same time.


Allah says, "There is nothing like Him," and so He disconnects, "and He is
the Hearing, the Seeing," (42:11) so He connects. Allah says, "There is
nothing like Him," so He connects and doubles it,7 and "He is the
Hearing, the Seeing." Then He uses disconnection and makes Himself
Unique.

If Nuh had combined these two calls for his people, they would have
answered him. He called them openly (71:8), and he called them secretly
(71:9). Then he said to them, "Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Truly He is
Endlessly Forgiving." (71:10) He said, "I have called my people night and
in the day, but my calling has only made them more evasive" (71:5-6)
because they knew what they had to do in answering his call.

So the knowledge of those who know Allah is what Nuh indicated in
respect to his people by praising them through blame. He knew that they
would not answer his call because of the furq�n 8 it contained. The
command is the Qur'an, not the Furq�n. Whoever is established in the
Qur'an does not incline to the Furq�n. Even if the Furq�n is in the Qur'an,
the Qur'an contains the Furq�n but the Furq�n does not contain the
Qur'an. For this reason, no one was favoured by the Qur�an except
Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and this
community which is the "best community ever to be produced before
mankind." (3:110)

So "there is nothing like Him" unified several matters in one single matter.
If Nuh had articulated something like of this �yat, his people would have
responded to him, because it contains connection and disconnection in a
single �yat, rather in half an �yat.

Nuh, peace be upon him, peace be upon him, called on his people at
night in respect to their intellects and spirituality (r�h�n�yya), which are
unseen; and by day he called on them in respect to their outer forms and
arrival. In his call, he did not unify with anything, like "there is nothing
like Him." So their inward had a distaste for this separation, and it
increased them in evasion. Then he said of himself that he called upon
them that He might forgive them, not that He be unveiled to them. They
understood that from him. That is why "they put their fingers in their
ears and wrapped themselves in their clothes," (71:7) and this is the form
of veiling to which he called them. So they answered his call by action,
not by saying, "At your service."

There is both the confirmation of likeness and its negation in "There is
nothing like Him." For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and
grant him peace, said of himself, "I have been given all the words."9
Muhammad, peace be upon him, did not call on his people by night and
day, but rather he called upon them by night in the day and by day in the
night. Nuh said in his wisdom to his people, "He will send heaven down
on you in abundant rain," (71:11) which is intellectual gnosis in meanings
and metaphorical speculation, and "He will reinforce you with wealth," i.e.
by what comes to you from Him.

Thus it is your wealth in which you have seen your form. So whoever
among you imagines that he has seen Him, does not have gnosis, and
whoever of you knows that he has seen himself, he is the gnostic. For this
reason people are divided into those who know Allah and those who do
not know. "And sons" is what results from their logical speculation while
the knowledge of the business (to which Nuh called them) is based upon
contemplation which is far from the results of thought. Their trade did
not profit them,10 so what they had in their hands, which they only
imagined they possessed, vanished from them.

The kingdom belongs to the people of Muhammad, may Allah bless him
and grant him peace, for Allah says "Give of that to which He has made
you successors." 11 (57:7) For the people of Nuh it is, "Do not take
anyone besides Me as a guardian." (17:2) The kingdom was confirmed for
the people of Muhammad, and the guardianship in it belongs to Allah.
The people of Muhammad are the khal�fs in it. The kingdom belongs to
Allah and He is their guardian, and that is the kingdom of being
appointed khalif. For this reason, Allah is the "King of the kingdom"12 as
at-Tirmidhi says. "They have hatched a mighty plotting," (71:22) because
calling to Allah is the plotting of the the One called; since He does not
lack the beginning, He is called to the end, so they call to Allah. This is
the source of devising according to inner sight. Nuh said, "The affair
belongs entirely to Him," so they answered Him with plotting as He called
them.

The people of Muhammad came and knew what the call to Allah was in
respect of its He-ness, rather what it is in respect to His Names. Allah
says, "The day those who are godfearing are gathered to the All-
Merciful."13 So He used the "particle of the end" (il� - to) and joined it to
that Name, and we recognise that the universe is under the care of a
Divine Name which requires them to be among the "godfearing". The
reality of taqw� 14 is that man avoids ascribing blessings, perfections and
praiseworthy attributes to himself or to others, except for Allah. He fears
Allah through His acts and attributes. These things are evils from the
spring of possibilities. They said in their plotting, "Do not abandon your
gods. Do not abandon Wadd or Suwa' or Yaghuth or Ya'uq or
Nasr." (71:22) Then they abandoned them ignorant of the Truth according
to what they left of the idols. Allah has an aspect in every worshipped
thing. Whoever recognises it, recognises, and whoever is ignorant of it is
ignorant among the people of Muhammad. Your Lord decreed that you
should worship only Him � that is the judgement of your Lord.

The one who possesses knowledge knows who the slave is and in what
form he is manifested as far as he is a slave. Separation and multiplicity
are like the limbs of the sensory form and like faculties of meaning 15 of
the spiritual form. He only worships Allah in every worshipped object. The
lowest one is the one who imagines that godness is contained in it. Were
it not for this illusion, stones and other things would not have been
worshipped. This is why He said, "Say: Name them!" (13:33) If they had
named them, they would have named stone, tree, or star. If they had been
asked, "Who do you worship?" they would have replied, "God". They would
not say "Allah" or "the god".

The highest knower does not use this imagination,16 but rather he says
that this is a divine tajalli which one must exalt, and he does not restrict
himself. The lowest one is the one possessed of fantasy: "We only worship
them so that they bring us neared to Allah." (39:3) The highest knower
says, "Your god is One God, so submit to Him," (22:34) wherever He is
manifest, "and give good news to the humble-hearted" who humble the
fire of their nature. They spoke to it (the fire), and did not say "nature".
"They have misguided many people," (71:24) i.e. they perplexed many in
the multiplicity of the One by aspects and relations.

"Do not increase not the wrongdoers" because their selves are from the
totality of the chosen ones who inherited the Book and they are the first
of the three,17 which precedes the ambivalent and the outdoer, "in
anything but misguidance", except in the perplexity of the man of
Muhammad who says, "Increase me in perplexity."18 "Every time it shines
on them, they walk in it. When the darkness comes over them, they stop."
(2:20) So the perplexed one turns about, and the circular movement is
about the axis which he does not leave.

The one who has a stretched-out path is inclined to leave the goal,
seeking what the possessor of imagination has in it, and his end is that
imagination. He has "from" and "to" and what is between them. The one
who has a circular movement has no beginning, "from", which clings to
him, and no end, "to", is judged of him. Thus he has the most perfect
existence. He "is given all the words"19 and wisdoms. "And because of
their errors" which is that which is recorded for them, "they were
drowned" in the seas of the knowledge of Allah which is perplexity among
the men of Muhammad. When the seas were heated up,20 "they were put
into a fire" in the source of water, "and they found no one to help them
besides Allah." (71:25) Allah is the source of their helpers, and so they
were destroyed in it for time without end. If He had brought them out to
the shore, the shore of nature, He would have brought them down from
this high degree. All belongs to Allah and is by Allah, rather it is Allah.

Nuh said, "My Lord!" and he did not say, "My God," for the Lord has
immutability, and "God" differs according to the Names. So "every day He
is engaged in some affair." (55:29) By Lord, he meant something with an
immutable quality. "Do not leave upon the earth�" and he called on them
to go into its Muhammadan interior. "If you let down a rope, it would fall
on Allah,"21"to Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is in the
earth." When you are buried in it, you are in it and it is your container,
and "We will return you into it and We will bring you forth from it
again," (20:55) by the difference of existence.

"...of the unbelievers" who wrap themselves in their garments and put
their fingers in their ears, seeking veiling because he called on them that
He might forgive them. Forgiveness is the veiling of wrong actions, "not
even one" so that the benefit will become universal like the call. "If You
leave any," i.e. if You call them and then leave them, "they will misguide
Your slaves," i.e. confuse them and so bring them out of their service to
what they have of the secrets of lordship. They will think themselves lords
after they were slaves in themselves. Thus they are slaves and lords.
"They will spawn nothing" i.e. they will not have any result or manifest
anything except their being shameless � that is, the manifestation of what
veils the unbelievers is that they were veiled from what appeared after
their manifestation. They manifested that which veils, so they were veiled
after their appearance.

The thinker is confused and does not recognise the goal of the shameless
in shamelessness,22 or the unbeliever in his disbelief, yet the person is
but one. "My Lord, forgive me," i.e. veil me and that which concerns me
so that my rank and station are unknown, as the rank of Allah are
unknown in His statement, "They do measure Allah with His true
measure";23 "and my parents" of whom I am a result, and they are the
intellect and nature; "and all who enter my house," i.e. my heart, "as
believers" believing in what it contains of divine reports, and it is what
their selves occasioned, "And all the believers, men (the intellects) and
women (the selves)."

"Do not increase the wrongdoers (dh�lim�n)" who are from the darkness
(dhulum�t), the people of the unseen, hiding behind the veils of darkness,
"except in ruin" i.e. in destruction. Thus, they do not recognise
themselves because they see the Face of Allah outside of them. Among
the men of Muhammad, "All things are passing except His Face." (28:88)
Ruin is destruction.


Whoever wishes to understand the secrets of Nuh must rise into the
sphere of Nuh.24 It is in our book, at-Tanazzulat al-Mawsuliyya.






1. Subb�h, name applied to Allah, the All-Perfect, disconnected from
imperfections.

2. If he does not go on to include tashbih, connection.

3. cf. Qur'an 4:149: "Those who reject Allah and His Messengers and
desire to make division between Allah and His Messengers, saying, 'We
believe in some and reject some.'"

4. By manifesting His attributes and Essence since everything is a proof
and indication of Him.

5. Ref. to Qur'an 17:44, "There is nothing which does not glorify Him with
praise, but you do not understand their glorification."

6. In this case, ignorant of the multiplicity of His Names and Attributes.

7. "Like Him" = "ka-mithlihi", the word "like" occurs twice: "ka" and
"mithl", so like negates like, like a double negative.

8. Furqan: One of the names of the Qur'an, meaning a "discrimination"
that which separates or distiguishes. Here presented as an opposite in a
dyad: Qur'an/furqan, that is, discrimination/gathering.

9. Hadith in al-Bukhari and Muslim.

10. Reference to Qur'an, 2:16, "Those are the people who have sold
guidance for misguidance. Their trade has brought no profit. They are not
guided."

11. Khalifs.

12. Since He answers His slave who is the "kingdom". Technical term used
by al-Hakim at-Tirmidhi and Abu Madyan, discussed by Ibn al-'Arabi in
the Futuhat al-Makkiyya, Chapter 24, vol. I, p. 182.

13. ref. Qur'an 19:85.

14. Fearfulness of Allah which is reflected in one's behaviour.

15. Meaning. Meaning does not carry the ordinary connotative
significance that it has in the science of semantics. In the Sufic science
meaning is not allied, but inseparable from the experience of the
recognition of meaning. In other words, it is not a "thing" which can be
apprehended with the qualities of thingness. It is a mode of experiencing
which takes places in a zone of awareness that is in itself a realm of the
inward reality cognised in the waking state. Meaning/sensory, ma'na/
hiss.

16. Khayal: An important term. Khayal means imagination, but in the
special technical language of Ibn al-'Arabi the khayal contains an outer
and inner meaning. Its outer (not inner) meaning is imagining in the
ordinary sense of a "tangible reality" which is experienced mentally yet
remans unreal, that is, untouchable and non-physical. Its inner meaning,
however, is that faculty by which we solidify the objects - which are
according to unveiling basically "not-there" - spatiality itself. There is
much resistance to this in "rational" and programmed intellects as there is
of the hand to the rock in "common sense" experience. The rock is there,
it does not budge. There is, it must not be forgotten, a threshold
situation where this is not so, for if the subject were brain-damaged,
subjected to a hallucinogen, or hypnotic trance, then the object would
experientially melt away. That is still not the same as seeing in which
things are seen as-they-as in one unified field without differentiation,
while altert within that condition of experiencing. And this state brings
with it wisdom beyond the recognition of how-it-is at that moment - in
other words a new understanding is established by the experience.

17. Ref to Qur'an 35:32, "...but some of them wrong themselves, some
are ambivalent, and some outdo each other in good."

18. Hayra: Bewilderment. A Key term. Hayra is not a negative situation - it
is the condition in which the seeker finds every intellectual channel
blocked, every pathway of reason clashing against the other in
contradiction so that it induces in the seeker a state of intensity. This
intensity by virtue of its inner tension creates a condition we call hayra. It
is a collapse of separation - a kind of "white hole" - which results in
gatheredness. That is, the hayra creates a new condition which is its
result and that result is a breakthrough into an illumination of the Real.

19. Meaning the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, who was given all the words.

20. By the oven (from which the water gushed out of the earth in the
Flood.)

21. Hadith.

22. The manifestation of lordship.

23. 6:91, 22:84, 39:67.

24. The Sphere of the Sun.

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