Wisdom of the Heart

by Cecilia Twinch
 
 
"A turning sphere, a travelling star"
 

The heart that is spoken of here is the subtle organ which is the spiritual centre of the human being, the seat of divine consciousness, where Reality reveals Itself to Itself according to the constant variation of love.

"The whole world is both rising and setting, a turning sphere, a travelling star. It is manifest between sunrise and sunset from a divine revelation, which is the command that is turned toward it to become manifest or hidden, and a revelation of self, which is what the Real seeks from it and what it seeks from the Real." From Ibn 'Arabi's Futûhât al-makkiyya.

Ibn 'Arabi's works are permeated with reminders of God's love and compassion for His creation, and of the dazzling beauty and exquisite taste of reality. So in one way, I would prefer not to talk of about a prophet of doom – we have plenty of those in our time, although usually lacking the essential message of mercy that Ibn 'Arabi emphasises in the Quranic and Biblical prophets. But if Ibn 'Arabi's writings are meaningful for us in the present time, it is necessary to examine what they tell us about our current concerns, now that we are becoming so aware of the oneness of humanity crowded together on this earth where the sun is always rising, always setting for someone I can contact from where I am. So much so that what is local and particular is seen as becoming increasingly reflected in the global and universal. Constant change confronts us at every turn, perhaps more frenetically than ever before. This leads many to ask whether it is conceivable that through our neglect, this fragile planet, suspended among myriads of galaxies in endless space, might continue to turn for a few more billion years while no longer supporting human life and human consciousness?

People all over the world, sometimes even in the most remote places, now seem to be aware of the currents connecting us all to each other and the environment. Fewer people perhaps see this movement as an expression of a single consciousness spanning both what actually exists in the world and what exists only as potential. An ability to perceive what is really happening, requires seeing things with new eyes so that the ordinary is seen to be extraordinary.

"If not for you..." as in the divine saying to the beloved, "If not for you, I would not have created the universes", immediately reminds us that it is love for the highest human potential that is the cause and purpose of creation. It is a principle that is implicit in sheer being even before the coming to light of its own consciousness. Once exteriorized and objectified, the contents of that consciousness can be scrutinized with the prism of compassion, so that the beauty of all its hidden, rhythmic colours can be seen, known and appreciated. This is in accordance with another divine saying that Ibn 'Arabi often quotes: "I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known, so I created the world..."

While I was pondering over the title of this symposium, If not for you... Self and other in Ibn 'Arabi, Jane Clark and I were involved with translating and reading Ibn 'Arabi's Wisdom of the Heart in the Word of Shu'ayb for the recent Temenos Academy series of seminars. Each time I tried to write about something else, I was turned again to The Wisdom of the Heart where all these concerns seem to come together and all contradictions are resolved.

In Ibn 'Arabi's Fusûs al-hikam, or Ringstones of Wisdom, The Wisdom of Shu'ayb follows on from The Wisdom of Opening in the Word of Salih. Like the prophecy of Salih, who preached against the rich landowners of Thamud for preventing poor people access to water which flows freely as a gift, Shu'ayb's prophecy seems very relevant to today when social justice and ethical business practices are major concerns, in particular with the present credit crisis and consequent speculation affecting the distribution of food.

Shu'ayb was an Arab prophet sent to the people of Midian to encourage them to give up their fraudulent business dealings. Many of the traders were giving their customers short measure or fiddling the weights so that people did not get what was due to them. Shu'ayb called on his people to turn to the One God of all, to give others what is rightfully theirs and not to degrade the wholesomeness of the established order on earth. Otherwise, he prophesied doom; and being unheeded, an earthquake brought about the people's demise.

Ibn 'Arabi does not go into the Quranic story which his contemporary readers would have been familiar with. Rather, The Wisdom of the Heart is connected to Shu'ayb through his name which refers to the dispersing and restoring to unity which occurs through the veins and arteries branching out from the constantly beating heart, so that fresh blood flows in due measure, with every breath, to every part of the body according to its receptivity; and then returns. So there is proper balance and fair distribution of life-giving nourishment to every faculty, through the ramifications of the unified heart. As Qashani comments: "Spiritual replenishment comes to the heart constantly according to a guarded measure, and the heart gives everything its due."

Sadr al-din al-Qunawi states in his commentary on this chapter that the heart is the first part of the body to come into existence in both animals and humans. This is borne out by modern scientific knowledge. The initial single and unique cell from which the human body develops, continues dividing itself until by three weeks after conception it has developed into an embryo with a heart branching out into a circulatory system. That heart now begins to beat audibly, circulating blood and its nourishment around its system.

If we think about the flow of money, water, food, and other resources around the world at the present time, we can of course see many parallels with our present situation. Nor should we forget the more intangible resources like the interchange of knowledge and ideas, or the flow of love, concern and compassion. These are all flows that receive endless replenishment so long as we live our lives in a balanced, sustainable way which allows every part of the whole to obtain what is due to it according to the proper measure, so that each part receives what it needs to maintain the required equilibrium.

According to Qashani's commentary, the heart is the place where the quality of justice manifests, as an image of "the unity which combines outward manifestation and inward manifestation", so it brings together the faculties of the spirit, the body and the self. In this way, the heart maintains "the equilibrium of the bodily constitution and a just balance of the soul" through the flowing of divine effusion and life to all the parts.

So both the measure that has a holding capacity, or an ability to receive a precise amount, and the scale which balances, are mentioned in the Quranic story of Shu'ayb. The fairness and impartiality in giving to others their just portion hints at the Compassionate Mercy which flows freely, being limited only by the capacity to receive, and the forgiving Mercy which allows for a change of heart. For according to the Quran, Shu'ayb tells his people, "My Lord is Merciful and constantly Loving"(Quran 11:90).

The Wisdom of Shu'ayb in the Fusûs starts with the largeness of the heart. The heart that is spoken of here is the subtle organ which is the spiritual centre of the human being, the seat of divine consciousness, where Reality reveals Itself to Itself according to the constant variation of love. This is specifically the heart of the knower of God/Allah; for Allah is the comprehensive divine name, which unites in itself all other names and qualities. Although this heart comes from the divine mercy, it is more encompassing than the quality of mercy because it encompasses the whole of reality, both created and uncreated. This is an allusion to the divine saying, "Neither My heavens nor My earth can contain Me, but the heart of My faithful servant contains Me."

Yet Ibn 'Arabi emphasizes that God has qualified his own Self with the breath of compassion (nafas ar-rahman), which may also be read as 'the compassionate self' (nafs ar-rahman). It is this breath of compassion or mercy which releases the qualities inherent in the divine reality to express their effects in the world. Breath brings life and when it is articulated, it brings speech. Insofar as the breath which bestows being belongs to God, the created beings are nothing but Himself. Insofar as they are distinguished from God, then they constitute creation or the world which is what Ibn 'Arabi calls "everything other than God". He explains in the Futûhât that: "If you look upon the world in respect of the Breath of the All-Merciful, you will say, 'It is nothing but God'. But if you look upon it in respect of the fact that it is shaped and balanced, you will say 'Creatures'."

Ibn 'Arabi maintains, in the chapter on Shu'ayb, that "The Real in respect of His Essence (dhat) has no need of the universes." However, when considering the level of divine names and qualities, divinity and lordship require an object who recognizes divinity or lordship in order to find expression. Nothing can be worshipped without a worshipper, just as compassion cannot be known without an object of compassion, nor can nourishment be expressed without something that is nourished. So all these potential qualities seek a place of expression and the Breath of Compassion releases the tension of these hidden qualities so that they manifest their effects in the world. Ibn 'Arabi writes that "God, who is the Powerful, demands the worshipper, who is the object of power, and this is the other. The other must exist since God demands it. Hence, He brought the cosmos into existence according to the most perfect mode that existence could take... "

This is why the world is so instructive to us in the knowledge of Reality, since everything manifest in the world and in ourselves is a pointer to Truth. This is confirmed in the Quranic verse that Ibn 'Arabi frequently cites: "We shall show them our signs on the horizons and in themselves until they see that it is the Real" (Q. 41:53). Ibn 'Arabi states that "some thinkers say... that God can be known without regarding the world but that is incorrect"; for although the Essence (dhat) is known eternally, It is not known as "God" until the object which recognizes divinity is known, and that means us.

The inaccessibility, transcendence and incomparability of God who is beyond need of the world is then balanced by the intimacy, immanence and similarity of God who reveals Himself in the whole of creation. The Sunday morning prayer from Ibn 'Arabi's Awrad (The Seven Days of the Heart) sums up this situation succinctly when he asks of God:

How can I know You when You are the Inwardly Hidden who is not known?
How can I not know You when You are the Outwardly Manifest, making Yourself known to me in every thing?

Following on from the themes of this opening section, The Wisdom of the Heart continues by focusing on the self-revelation of God in different forms. Here Ibn 'Arabi is alluding to the traditional saying, or hadith, about the transformation of forms on the day of resurrection, when God will appear to His servants in a form they do not recognize, so they deny Him. Then He appears in a form they do recognize and He is accepted as their Lord.

Although this hadith refers to what will happen after death, it clearly has reference to the way we perceive Reality at every moment. In general, we condition the Reality to a particular form which we can accept and only recognize the Truth when it appears in that form. So this form is dependent on what we believe about Reality. If we are unable to accept Reality in other forms, God then conforms Himself to that form which we have limited Him to, which is a form of our own self, for we have created it.

When the Real appears in different forms, the qualities of the heart which Ibn 'Arabi emphasizes are its ability to change and its ability to accept those different forms. This is bound up with the very word for 'heart' in Arabic which is 'qalb' from the root meanings of change and transformation, turning and altering. The idea of 'a change of heart' is implicit within the word itself. So too is the idea of reversal such that when the second two root letters of qalb 'q-l-b' are reversed, we are left with the root 'q-b-l' meaning to accept or receive as in the famous lines: (laqad sara qalbi qabilan kulla suratin), "My heart is able to accept every form" or "My heart has become receptive to every image".

The person of vision sees that only God is worshipped in every belief and that God conforms Himself to the beliefs, however limited, without being limited by them. The wisdom of the heart is specific to Shu'ayb, whose name derives from the root meaning of both gathering and dispersing or branching, because the heart is the source of all the branches of belief. "Each belief is a branch" stemming from the divine unity and they are all brought together and encompassed in the heart which is able to recognize the face of God in everything. Ibn 'Arabi writes:

"It is well known that there is a variety of different beliefs. Whoever limits [God to one form] denies Him in any other, and recognizes Him only in that [form] to which he limited Him when He reveals Himself. And whoever frees Him from limitation does not deny Him, but recognizes Him in every form into which He transforms Himself ; he gives to Him, from himself, according to the "measure" (qadr) of the form in which He reveals Himself to him endlessly."

Just as the forms of self-revelation of the Real are endless, so too is the knowledge of God limitless for the person who seeks to know more. The heart of the knower of God or the perfect human being does not condition God to their own belief but recognizes Him in every form. Then, "the heart expands and contracts according to the form in which the divine revelation occurs in it."

Since the very nature of the heart is to expand and contract, widen and narrow, it is able to accept both the universal and the particular. The heart of the knower of God conforms exactly to the revelation which appears in it.

"For the heart of the knower of God or the perfect human being (al-insan al-kamil)," Ibn 'Arabi says, "occupies the same position as the place of the ringstone of the ring. It does not exceed it, but it will be according to its size (qadr) and shape, being round if the ringstone is round, or square, hexagonal, octagonal and other shapes if the stone is square, hexagonal, octagonal, or any other shape according to the shape of the stone. Its place in relation to the ring will be like it, not other than it." This is the quintessence of the Fusûs or Ringstones of Wisdom, that the twenty-seven prophets whose various facets of wisdom are displayed in this book, accept the form of wisdom engraved on their hearts in the same way that the place (mahall) where a ringstone is located, conforms exactly to the shape and size of that precious stone. This is because they impose no measure of their own, but only the exact measure appointed by God.

Mevlana Jelaludin Rumi, tells how Shu'ayb told a man to remove the layers of rust that had formed on the iron mirror of his heart. The man heard Shu'ayb's words and "at that breath of the spirit, roses blossomed in his heart". In being aware of the breath of the spirit, there is an immediate readiness to receive. Unless the mirror of the heart is freed from condition and the rust of otherness, all that we observe in the mirror of reality is an imagined version of our self, depending on what we identify with.

Clarity of heart allows God to be seen as He is without distortion so that there He may see the essences of His most beautiful names. As Ibn 'Arabi says at the beginning of the Fusûs, "the vision that something has of itself in itself is not the same as the vision it has in something other which serves as a mirror for it."

Ibn 'Arabi explains, in the chapter on Shu'ayb, that there are two self-revelations - a hidden one and a visible one. The hidden one is the essential self-revelation where God reveals His Identity to Himself as self-conscious being. The second revelation, which is the appearance in the world, is the one that is determined by the place in which it manifests:

"It is from the hidden revelation that the aptitude of the heart is given, and this is an essential revelation which is hidden by its very nature. It is the divine identity (huwiyya), which He claims as His by speaking of Himself as 'He'. And 'He' belongs to Him forever and always."

The essential identity being unbounded in this way, we need to consider to whom we should attribute our actions, thoughts, characteristics and all that we may lay claim to as belonging to us.

Ibn 'Arabi informs us that: "the essence of the form which is revealed, is the essence of the form which receives that self-revelation; He is the one who reveals Himself, and the one to whom He is revealed. Consider, then, how wonderful the order of God (Allah) is with regard to His identity (huwiyya), and with regard to His relationship to the universe in the realities of His Beautiful Names!"

Whereas the heart is able to accept this kind of direct knowledge, Ibn 'Arabi maintains that the relative intellect or rational faculty by its very nature tries to confine "the divine order to a single description, but in fact, reality refuses to be confined." The heart that is open, however, does not limit and constantly varies in its states. The knowing person of heart understands how the forms of reality change, by being aware of the changeability in their own heart while the intellect itself is what binds us to the notion of a separate self and abstracts reality to a distant idea.

Referring to the Quranic verse "In that there is a reminder for the one who has a heart", Ibn 'Arabi writes, "(God) said: 'For the one who has a heart', since that person knows the changeability of the Real in images [or forms] by virtue of the change in shape [of his own heart]. So from himself, he knows His Self, his self being no other than the identity (huwiyya) of the Real."

Ibn Arabi explains in the Futûhât that "the heart changes (taqallaba) from state to state, just as God (Allah) who is the Beloved, is 'Every day busy with something'. So the lover varies in the dependence of his love on the variation of the Beloved in His actions, just as a pure, clear glass varies in relation to the liquid poured into it. The colour of the lover is the colour of his Beloved. This [property] belongs only to the heart, since reason is from the realm of limitation... Love has a great variety of contradictory properties. Nothing can receive them except that which is capable of changing along with [love] in [those properties], and that belongs only to the heart. If I have ascribed something like this to the Real (al-haqq), [see] His saying 'I answer the request of the one who prays when he calls on Me.' "

We shall return to this matter of request in relation to the changing states of the heart and the world, later.

Whereas the rational faculty tends to place limits on reality, the heart, in its changeability, transcends opposition since it represents a position where different forms and points of view are reconciled in the origin as different expressions of the same being. This is why the heart is able to resolve conflict. "There is nothing existing in the world (kawn)", Ibn 'Arabi says, "which is other than the identity (huwiyya) of the Real; rather, it is the same as the identity (huwiyya). He (the Real) is the one who knows, who understands and affirms in this form, and He is the one who does not know, does not understand and who denies in this other form. This is the lot of the one who knows the Real through revelation and seeing according to the eye of unification, referred to in (God's) Saying: 'For the one who has a heart' (Q. 41:53), for he varies with [the heart's] turning (taqlib)."

While it may be possible to accept in principle that what is called the "other", both in terms of intellectual ideas and physical forms, is simply a different expression of a single reality, it requires a total shift in perception to realize it in actuality. As Ibn 'Arabi says:

"The realized person sees multiplicity in the One, just as he knows that what is signified by the Divine Names, although their realities are many and different, is a single entity ('ayn wahida). It is an intelligible multiplicity in a single entity which becomes, in the self-revelation, a witnessed multiplicity in a single entity... Whoever knows himself in this way, knows His Lord, since He created him in His image – indeed, He is the same as his identity (huwiyya) and his reality."

The rational side of human beings, seeking to qualify and categorize, attempts to grasp the direct experience of reality, and often connects actions and qualities to its own limited framework, so creating a false identity. The heart, however, balances the rational side with the experiential, direct perception of the unlimited flow of being passing through, in whatever mode it may then appear due to place and circumstances. "Because of this," Ibn 'Arabi continues, "not one of the scholars has discovered the knowledge of the self (nafs) and its reality; only the 'divine ones' from amongst the messengers and Sufis [know this]. None of the speculative thinkers and rationalists from amongst the ancients and the theologians, in their discussions about the self and what it is, has discovered its reality, for this can never by attained by speculative thought. Anyone who seeks this knowledge by means of reasoning and thought is trying to do something impossible... Whoever seeks to achieve something by means of something other than its own way, will never succeed."

Despite the elevation of the aspiration, the opportunity to step out of fixed patterns, arises at each instant, since at every moment and with every breath, the world is transformed and recreated. Ibn 'Arabi writes, "How beautiful is the saying of God about the world and its transformation with the breaths "in a new creation" in a single being ('ayn al-wahida)". This perpetual renewal allows an absolution and a newness to each moment, a moment where a change of heart can instantaneously appear as a moment of grace.

Due to the flowing of water, the saying that you cannot enter the same river twice is well-known. But whereas the changes in the world are often considered to belong to the world itself, Ibn 'Arabi emphasizes that the world is totally recreated at every breath as a manifestation of the one, underlying Reality. Perhaps the pace of change and an awareness of scientific discoveries mean that in our present age the world seems a lot less solid than it did in the worldview of Ibn 'Arabi's time. However, it may still hold true that in their ordinary state, most people, as Ibn 'Arabi maintains, are unaware of the perpetual recreation since they are deceived by the similarity of forms appearing from moment to moment. Even with regard to themselves, humans are unaware that at each breath they disappear and then come into being again.

However, in the final sentence of the chapter on Shu'ayb, Ibn 'Arabi says of the people who see through the veils, that "they see that God reveals Himself in every breath, and that the revelation is never repeated. They also see by direct witnessing that every revelation brings a new creation and takes away a creation. Therefore, its disappearance is the same as its passing away (fana') at the same moment as the self-revelation, and its continuation (baqa') is due to what the next revelation brings."

The simultaneity of the exhalation which brings about existence and the inhalation which returns everything to its source, means there is no interval between them. So nothing in the world subsists by itself, but is totally dependent on the Breath of Compassion to maintain it in existence. One may then ask whether the self which is in receipt of this perpetual flux retains consciousness from one moment to the next or how all these transient states relate to the eternal essential self which does not change.

Ibn 'Arabi maintains that "you are, in the moment of recreation, the same as you were in the previous moment" – only the form changes. "Though the forms display variation," he says, "they have no effect upon the Self ('ayn) manifest within them, just as substance (jawhar) does not cease being substance because of the states and accidents that become manifest through it." Once again, in both the Divine and the individual identity there is a positive affirmation of 'it is it' or 'huwa huwa' – 'He is He' – the hidden identity remains the same.

Here we return to the context of the quotation from the Futûhât which appears in the title of this talk-: "The world is not devoid of transformation at every breath. If the essence ('ayn) of the substance which receives this transformation at every breath were not one, and unchanging-such that its substance does not become transformed- he would not know at the time of the transformation into something else, what his state was before this transformation. ... The whole world is both rising and setting, a turning sphere, a travelling star. It is manifest between sunrise and sunset from a divine revelation, which is the command that is turned toward it to become manifest or hidden, and a revelation of self, which is what the Real seeks from it and what it seeks from the Real."

God who is both the Manifest and Hidden unites all opposites in Himself. But just as everything in the world is both the identity of the Real and not the identity of the Real, He and not He, so when the sun appears, the stars vanish away. Ibn 'Arabi quotes Junayd with reference to the line of poetry from the Tarjuman al-ashwaq: "Have you seen or heard that two opposites are ever united?" "When the recent is united to the eternal, no trace of it remains. If He is, then you are not; if you are, He is not." When the Real is revealed to the heart, it sees nothing else with Him. Ibn 'Arabi asks, in the chapter on Shu'ayb, "How would a heart which contains the eternal be aware of what has come into existence recently?"

Then these different ways of regarding Reality follow a pattern which Ibn 'Arabi mentions inThe Wisdom of Abraham. First, we know from knowledge of ourselves and the world that everything created is subject to a divinity, and that the whole of creation points to Him. Here there is the Creator and the creatures, God and the world. Then we realize, through unveiling, that the Real Himself is the signifier of Himself and that the world is nothing but His self-revelation in the forms of the immutable essences, and that includes myself. Then, after realizing that we do not in fact possess an independent existence other than the one existence, the knowledge that we have of ourselves and each other takes place in God.

Although our real place is known and immutable in God's knowledge, human beings only reach that place with their last breath. While living in this world, the potential is vast and it is we ourselves who determine how we are. For Ibn 'Arabi maintains that knowledge is subject to the known and God only knows us from what we give of ourselves. His eternal knowledge of something does not influence what happens at the moment of its actualization in time. Ibn 'Arabi continues in the chapter on Abraham in the Fusûs: "Knowledge is a relationship that is subject to the known. The known is you and your states. Knowledge has no effect on the known. On the contrary, the known has an effect on knowledge and gives to knowledge what it actually is in itself." From this it may be seen that we have a direct responsibility for what comes to our attention in caring for the place in which we find ourselves.

God has qualified Himself with the Breath of Mercy and with response to our call and request, whether that request is by means of our state or in words. God answers our call, by bringing into being what we ask for, according to our readiness to receive or not. So "Every day He is busy with something" since "every creature in the heavens and on earth is asking of Him" (Q. 55:29) and He hastens to respond. Yet since we cannot know all the parameters involved, we need to turn our hearts constantly to the source of all knowledge to ask for the best solution and best course of action to be enacted through us. In response to this request, there is an intention towards service to the total situation, rather than to our own limited idea of it.

The state of seeing the multiplicity in the One relates to the divine saying which Ibn'Arabi records in his Mishkat al-anwar, or book of Divine Sayings:

"God, ever blessed and exalted is He, says: "My love is by necessity for those who love one another in Me, for those who sit with one another in Me, for those who give generously to one another in Me, and for those who visit one another in Me."

Here the 'other' is not seen to be other than the one who is found when visiting the sick or addressing the needs of those who are hungry and thirsty according to the Divine Saying where it is asked at the Resurrection:

"O child of Adam, I was sick, and you did not visit Me." 
[The person] asks; "My Lord, how could I visit You, when you are the Lord of the universes?"
'Did you not know that one of My servants was sick, and you did not visit him? Did you not know that if you had visited him, you would have found Me with him?" 
God is the first recourse in our need; and the illness that afflicts us all, or most of us, is that we neglect to address the real needs, both physical and spiritual, of others and of ourselves, for each of us is the most precious manifestation of the infinitely merciful and loving one.

God never creates anything useless – each existent has a value and a place. If we can rest in the knowledge of being sustained by mercy and compassion, despite all the vicissitudes and effects of relativity which challenge us, the world is not seen as a collection of disparate objects disconnected from each other or from God. Rather, it may be seen more as a voyage of discovery of ourselves, of God, of reality. Everything that we encounter, whether in our inner life or in the outer world, is an opening or an opportunity to know more. By the very fact of entering our awareness, all that we come across is a part of our 'self' and capable of reflecting what we deeply need to know now. And Ibn 'Arabi repeatedly affirms that, in reality, there is no other – the other is itself again.

I would like to finish with a quotation from Ibn 'Arabi's Contemplation of the Holy Mysteriesfrom a contemplation in which the unlimited value of the human being is highlighted:

"If not for you... the mysteries would not exist, the lights would not shine nor would there be darkness; there would be no rising, nor limit, nor exterior, nor interior... If not for you, I would not be known or worshipped... "

Cecilia Twinch:
Cecilia Twinch read Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University. She has studied at the Beshara School in Scotland and is closely involved with the work of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society. Besides working as a teacher, translator and editor, she has written numerous articles and has lectured on Ibn 'Arabi in Europe, America, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Publications include Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi and the Interior Wisdomin Los Dos Horizontes (The Two Horizons); Julian of Norwich: "All shall be well" in Mujeres de Luz (Women of Light); The Circle of Inclusion in El viaje interior entre Oriente y Occidente: La actualidad del pensamiento de Ibn 'Arabi (The inward journey between East and West: Ibn 'Arabi's thought in the world today); and an English translation with Pablo Beneito of one of Ibn 'Arabi's earliest works, Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries.