Wisdom of the Prophets

The Wisdom of the Prophets
Fusus al-Hikam
by Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi

There are several translations into English available. The extract below is from an Arabic to French translation by Titus Burckhardt, rendered into English by Angela Culme-Seymour. It is an abrieviated text, which offers an excellent first introduction.
Beshara Publications; ISBN 0904975010

Find out more about Ibn 'Arabi

In 'The Wisdom of the Prophets', written when he was in his sixties, Ibn 'Arabi describes the meaning of universal human spirituality through the medium of 27 prophetic figures. Ibn 'Arabi's aim is to show how these luminary figures exemplify the various wisdoms available to mankind, a harmonious vision of Reality which integrates differences without destroying them. To read this book is to encounter the full scope of what it means to be truly human.

The particular gift that comes from Ibn 'Arabi… is the all-inclusive point of view. This is a perspective that leaves nothing out. It is not a Judeo-Christian or Islamic perspective, but it is this which has informed and given rise to the Abrahamic line and to all spirituality everywhere.

 

Extracts:
Of the Divine Wisdom in the Word of Adam

God wanted to see the essences of His most perfect Names whose number is infinite - and if you like you can equally well say: God wanted to see His own Essence in one global object which having been blessed with existence summarized the Divine Order so that there He could manifest His mystery to Himself.

For the vision that a being has of himself in himself is not the same as that which another reality procures for him, and which he uses for himself as a mirror: in this he manifests himself to his self in the form which results from the 'place' of the vision; this would not exist without the 'plane of reflection' and the ray which is reflected therein.

God first created the entire world as something amorphous and without grace, comparable to a mirror not yet polished; but it is a rule in the Divine activity to prepare no 'place' without it receiving a Divine spirit as is explained (in the Quran) by the blowing of the Divine spirit into Adam and this is none other (from a complementary point of view to the former), than the actualization of the aptitude which such a form possesses, having already the predisposition for it, to receive the inexhaustible effusion of the essential revelation.
More of this chapter, with the addition of notes, can be read on the Beshara Publications site.

Of the Wisdom of Elevation and Prophecy, in the Word of Jesus
Translation by Cecilia Twinch, Easter 2014

As for the spiritual bringing to life through knowledge, this is luminous, sublime, eternal, divine life about which God said, “Or whoever was dead and we brought him to life and we made for him a light with which he walks among the people”( Q. 6:122). Anyone who revives a dead soul through the life of knowledge, with regard to a particular question relating to the knowledge of God, has brought him to life by it, so it is for him a light with which he walks among the people, that is among those resembling him in form.

Were it not for Him and were it not for us
        that which is would not have been.
We are truly servants
        and God is our master;
And we  are the same as Him. Know this
        when you say ‘human being’
And do not be veiled by human being.
        He has given you proof,
So be the Real (haqq) and be creation (khalq)!
        You will be, through God, All-compassionate.
Nourish His creation through Him,
        You will be a “refreshing repose and reviving scent.” (Q.56:89)
We give Him that by which He appears in us,
        and He gives to us.
The affair becomes shared
        between Him and us.
He gives life to the one who knows my heart
        when He gives us life.
In Him, we were beings
        and potentialities and moments.
In us, it is not always so,
        but only so at times.

For an in-depth study, have a look at this translatioin from the Ottoman, with extensive commentaries.