(AD 1165–1240; AH 560–637)
Mohyuddin Ibn ‘Arabi is universally acknowledged as the greatest mystic of Islam. He is often referred to as the Shaykh ul Aakbar (The Greatest Sheikh) and credited with the doctrine of Wahdatul Wujud (Unity of Being). Born at Medinat Mursiya (present-day Murcia) in Spain on 28 July 1165, he began his theological studies at Seville in 1172 and in 1201 travelled to the East to make the hajj. He lived in Egypt, the Hejaz, Baghdad, Mosul and Asia Minor, and died at Damascus on 16 November 1240.
He was a writer of colossal energy, composing some 150 works, the most celebrated being his two great mystical treatises Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Revelations) and Fusus al-Hikam (variously translated as The Seals of Wisdom, The Bezels of Wisdom or Wisdom of the Prophets). Like many great mystics Ibn ‘Arabi was also a poet, famous for his Tarjuman al-Ashwaq (The Interpreter of Desires), a collection of ghazals accompanied by lengthy commentaries, written to ward off criticism from orthodox Muslims.
No other mystic poet (with the exception of Jalaluddin Rumi) has surpassed Ibn ‘Arabi in influence and output. The following poems come from Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, complete with a commentary by the poet. This commentary is essential to the poems and offers an insight into the symbolic nature of Sufi verse.
1. When they departed, endurance and patience departed. They departed, although they were dwelling in the core of my heart.
2. I asked them where the travellers rested at noon, and I was answered, ‘Their noonday resting-place is where the shih and the ban trees diffuse a sweet scent.’
3. Then I said to the wind, ‘Go and overtake them, for they are biding in the shade of the grove,
4. And bear to them a greeting from a sorrowful man in whose heart are sorrows because he is separated from his people.’
1. they departed: The Divine Ideas. They were dwelling in the core of my heart. The Divine Ideas have no relationship except with their object, which is God; and God dwells in the heart, according to the Tradition: ‘Neither My earth nor My heaven contains Me, but I am contained in the heart of My servant who believes.’ Since, however, no manifestation was vouchsafed to him at this moment, the Ideas, being objects of vision, disappeared, notwithstanding that God was in his heart.
2. I asked them: The gnostics and the real existences of the past sheikhs who were my guides on the mystic Way.
Their noonday resting-place… : They reposed in every heart where the sighs (Anfas) of longing appeared, for shih denotes inclination (mayl) and ban absence (bu’d).
3. I said to the wind: I sent a sigh of longing after them in the hope of causing them to return to me. in the shade of the grove: Among the arak trees, whereof the wood is used as a toothpick. He refers to the Tradition: ‘The use of the tooth-stick purifies the mouth and pleases the Lord,’ i.e., the Divine Ideas are dwelling in the abode of purity.
R. A. Nicholson
1. As I kissed the Black Stone, friendly women thronged around me; they came to perform the circumambulation with veiled faces.
2. They uncovered the [faces like] sunbeams and said to me, ‘Beware! for the death of the soul is in thy looking at us.
3. How many aspiring souls have we killed already at al-Muhassab of Mina, beside the pebble-heaps,
4. And in Sarhat al-Wadi and the mountains of Rama and Jam’ and at the dispersion from ‘Arafat?
5. Dost not thou see that beauty robs him who hath modesty, and therefore it is called the robber of virtues?
6. Our trysting-place after the circumambulation is at Zamzam beside the midmost tent, beside the rocks.
7. There everyone whom anguish hath emaciated is restored to health by the love-desire that perfumed women stir in him.
8. When they are afraid they let fall their hair, so that they are hidden by their tresses as it were by robes of darkness.’
1. As I kissed the Black Stone: When the Holy Hand was outstretched to me that I might take upon it the Divine oath of allegiance, referring to the verse ‘Those who pay you homage are in fact paying homage to God – the hand of God rests above their own.’ (Qur’an 48:10).
friendly women: The angels hovering around the throne of God (Qur’an 39:75).
2. the death of the soul… : These spirits say, ‘Do not look at us, lest thou fall passionately in love with us. Thou wert created for God, not for us, and if thou wilt be veiled by us from Him, He will cause thee to pass away from thy existence through Him and thou wilt perish.’
3. have we killed: Spirits like unto us, for the above-mentioned angels who hover around the throne of God have no re lation ship except with pilgrims circumambulating the Kaaba.
5. beauty robs him who hath modesty: Since the vision of Beauty enraptures whosoever beholds it.
the robber of virtues: It takes away all delight in the vision of beauty from him who acts at the bidding of the possessor of this beauty; and sometimes the beauteous one bids thee do that which stands between thee and glorious things, inasmuch as those things are gained by means of hateful actions: the Tradition declares that Paradise is encompassed by things which thou dislikest (makkara).
6. at Zamzam: In the station of the life which thou yearnest for.
beside the midmost tent: The intermediate world (albarzaq), which divides the spiritual from the corporeal world.
beside the rocks: The sensible bodies in which the holy spiritual beings (Al Maaniyul Qudsiyya) take their abode. He means that these spirits in these imaginary forms are metaphorical and transient, for they vanish from the dreamer as soon as he wakes and from the seer as soon as he returns to his senses. He warns thee not to be deceived by the manifestations of phenomenal beauty, inasmuch as all save God is unreal, i.e. not-being like unto thyself; therefore be His that He may be thine.
7. In the intermediate world (al-barzaq)) whosoever loves these spiritual beings dwelling in sensible bodies derives refresh ment from the world of breaths and scents (Alam al-Anfas o Rawayeh) because the spirit and the form are there united, so that the delight is double.
8. When these phantoms are afraid that their absoluteness will be limited by their confinement in forms, they cause thee to perceive that they are a veil which hides something more subtle than what thou seest, and conceal themselves from thee and quit these forms and once more enjoy infinite freedom.
R. A. Nicholson
1. O doves that haunt the arak and ban trees, have pity! Do not double my woes by your lamentation!
2. Have pity! Do not reveal, by wailing and weeping, my hidden desires and my secret sorrows!
3. I respond to her, at eve and morn, with the plaintive cry of a longing man and the moan of an impassioned lover.
4. The spirits faced one another in the thicket of ghada trees and bent their branches towards me, and it [the bending] annihilated me;
5. And they brought me divers sorts of tormenting desire and passion and untried affliction.
6. Who will give me sure promise of Jam’ and al-Muhassab of Mina? Who of Dhat al-Athl? Who of Na’man?
7. They encompass my heart moment after moment, for the sake of love and anguish, and kiss my pillars,
8. Even as the best of mankind encompassed the Kaaba, which the evidence of Reason proclaims to be imperfect,
9. And kissed stones therein, although he was a Natiq [prophet]. And what is the rank of the Temple in comparison with the dignity of Man?
10. How often did they vow and swear that they would not change, but one dyed with henna does not keep oaths.
11. And one of the most wonderful things is a veiled gazelle, who points with red fingertip and winks with eyelids,
12. A gazelle whose pasture is between the breastbones and the bowels. O marvel! a garden amidst fires!
13. My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
14. And a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Kaaba and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Qur’an.
15. I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love’s camels take, that is my religion and my faith.
16. We have a pattern in Bishr, the lover of Hind and her sister, and in Qays and Lubna and in Mayya and Ghaylan.
1. O doves: The influences of holiness and purity.
3. I respond to her: I repeat to her what she says to me, as God said to the soul when He created her, ‘Who am I?’ and she answered, ‘Who am I?’ referring to her qualities, whereupon He caused her to dwell four thousand years in the sea of despair and indigence and abasement until she said to Him, ‘Thou art my Lord.’
4. faced one another: Because love entails the union of two opposites.
in the thicket of ghada trees: The fires of love.
branches: Flames.
annihilated me: In order that He alone might exist, not I, through jealousy that the lover should have any existence in himself apart from his Beloved.
6. Jam’: Union with the loved ones in the station of proximity, which is al-Muzdalifa.
al-Muhassab: The place where the thoughts which prevent lovers from attaining their object of desire are cast out.
Dhat al-Athl: Referring to the principle (athl) for it is the principle in love that thou shouldst be the very essence of thy Beloved and shouldst disappear in Him from thyself.
Na’man: The place of divine and holy bliss (naeem).
7. for the sake of love and anguish: In order to inspire me with passion.
and kiss my pillars (properly, kiss over the litham or veil covering the mouth): He is veiled and unable to behold them except through a medium (wasta). The pillars are the four elements on which the human constitution is based.
10. one dyed with henna: He refers to sensual influences (wardat-e-nafsiya), such as descended on the soul when God addressed it and said, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ (Qur’an 7:171), and received from it a promise and covenant. Then it did not faithfully keep the station of unification (Altauheed), but followed other gods. No one was exempt from this polytheism, for every one said, ‘I did’ and ‘I said’, at the time when he forgot to contemplate the Divine Agent and Speaker within him.
11. a veiled gazelle: A divine subtlety (lateefa), veiled by a sensual state (Halat al-Nafsiyya), in reference to the unknown spiritual feelings (ahwaal) of gnostics, who cannot explain their feelings to other men; they can only indicate them symbolically to those who have begun to experience the like.
with red fingertip: He means the same thing as he meant by one dyed with henna in the last verse.
and winks with eyelids: The speculative proofs concerning the principles of gnostics are valid only for those who have already been imbued with the rudiments of this experience. Gnostics, though they resemble the vulgar outwardly, are Divines (Rabbaniyun) inwardly.
12. whose pasture…: As ‘Ali said, striking his breast, ‘Here are sciences in plenty, could I but find people to carry them [in their minds].’
a garden amidst fires: Manifold sciences which, strange to say, are not consumed by the flames of love in his breast. The reason is that these sciences are produced by the fires of seeking and longing, and therefore, like the salamander, are not destroyed by them.
13. My heart has become capable of every form: As another has said, ‘The heart [AlQalb] is so called from its changing [Taqqaluba],’ for it varies according to the various influences by which it is affected in consequence of the variety of its states of feeling (Ahwaal); and the variety of its feelings is due to the variety of the divine manifestations that appear to its inmost ground (sirr). The religious law gives to this phenomenon the name of ‘transformation’.
a pasture for gazelles: i.e., for the objects of his love.
a convent for Christian monks: Inasmuch as he makes the loved ones to be monks, he calls the heart a convent.
14. a temple for idols: i.e., for the Divine Realities that men seek and for whose sake they worship God.
the pilgrim’s Kaaba: Because his heart is encompassed by exalted spirits.
the tables of the Torah: His heart is a table on which are inscribed the Mosaic sciences that have accrued to him.
the book of the Qur’an: Because his heart has received an inheritance of the perfect Muhammadan knowledge.
15. I follow the religion of Love: A reference to the verse ‘If you love God, follow me and God will return your love’ (Qur’an 3:29).
whatever way Love’s camels take…: ‘I accept willingly and gladly whatever burden He lays upon me. No religion is more sublime than a religion based on love and longing for Him whom I worship and in whom I have faith.’ This is a peculiar prerogative of Muslims, for the station of perfect love is appropriated to Muhammad beyond any other prophet, since God took him as His Beloved (habib).
16. He says, ‘Love, qua love, is one and the same reality to those Arab lovers and to me, but the objects of our love are different, for they loved a phenomenon, whereas I love the Essential.’ ‘We have a pattern in them,’ because God only afflicted them with love for human beings like themselves in order that He might show, by means of them, the falseness of those who pretend to love Him and yet feel no such transport and rapture in loving Him as deprived those enamoured men of their reason and made them unconscious of themselves.
R. A. Nicholson
1. Their abodes have become decayed, but desire of them is ever new in my heart and decayeth not.
2. These tears are shed over their ruined dwellings, but souls are ever melted at the memory of them.
3. Through love of them I called out behind their riding-camels, ‘O ye who are rich in beauty, here am I, a beggar!
4. I have rolled my cheek in the dust in tender and passionate affection: then, by the true love which I owe to you, do not make hopeless
5. One who is drowned in his tears and burned in the fire of sorrow with no respite!
6. O thou who wouldst kindle a fire, be not hasty! Here is the fire of passion. Go and take of it!’
1. Their abodes have become decayed: He says, ‘The places of austerities and mortifications, where the Divine Names made works (A’mal) their abode, have become decayed through age and loss of youthful strength.’ The word rubu’ is used in reference to the springtide (rabi’) of human life.
3. behind their riding-camels: The powers of youth and the delights of the commencement (al-badiah).
4. I have rolled my cheek in the dust: i.e., desiring to be united with you, for God says, ‘Seek access to Me by means of that which I have not,’ viz., abasement and indigence.
6. Here is the fire of passion: In my heart.
R. A. Nicholson
1. He saw the lightning in the east and he longed for the east, but if it had flashed in the west he would have longed for the west.
2. My desire is for the lightning and its gleam, not for the places and the earth.
3. The east wind related to me from them a tradition handed down successively from distracted thoughts, from my passion, from anguish, from my tribulation,
4. From rapture, from my reason, from yearning, from ardour, from tears, from my eyelid, from fire, from my heart,
5. That ‘He whom thou lovest is between thy ribs; the breaths toss him from side to side.’
6. I said to the east wind, ‘Bring a message to him and say that he is the enkindler of the fire within my heart.
7. If it shall be quenched, then everlasting union, and if it shall burn, then no blame to the lover!’
1. He refers to the vision of God in created things, viz., the manifestation in forms, and this causes him to cleave to phenomena, because the manifestation appears in them.
the east: The place of phenomenal manifestation.
if it had flashed in the west: If it had been a manifestation of the Divine essence to the lover’s heart, he would have longed for that purer manifestation in the world of purity and mystery.
2. He says, ‘I desire the forms in which the manifestation takes place only in so far as they are a locus for the manifestation itself.’
3. The world of breaths (alam-e-anfas) communicated to me the inward meaning of these phenomenal forms.
4. rapture (sukr: literally, ‘intoxication’): The fourth degree in the manifestations. The first degree is Zauq, the second Shurb, and the third ri’.
from my reason: Because intoxication transports the reason, and takes away from it whatever it has.
5. the breaths…: i.e., the overwhelming awe inspired by this manifestation produces in him various ecstasies (Ahwaal).
7. He says, ‘If the awful might of this manifestation shall be veiled through the permanence of the Divine substance, then the union will be lasting; but if the manifestation be unchecked, it will sweep away all that exists in its locus, and those who perish are not in fault.’ This is the saying of one possessed and mastered by ecstasy.
R. A. Nicholson
1. Halt at the abodes and weep over the ruins and ask the decayed habitations a question.
2. ‘Where are the loved ones? Where are their camels gone?’ [They answer], ‘Behold them traversing the vapour, in the desert.
3. Thou seest them in the mirage like gardens: the vapour makes large in the eyes the figure [of one who walks in it].’
4. They went, desiring al-‘Udhayb, that they might drink there a cool, life-giving fountain.
5. I followed, asking the zephyr about them, whether they have pitched tents or have sought the shade of the dal tree.
6. The zephyr said, ‘I left their tents at Zarud, and the camels were complaining of fatigue from their night-journey.
7. They had let down over the tents coverings to protect their beauty from the heat of noon.
8. Rise, then, and go towards them, seeking their traces, and drive thy camels speedily in their direction.
9. And when thou wilt stop at the landmarks of Hajir and cross dales and hills there,
10. Their abodes will be near and their fire will be clearly seen – a fire which has caused the flame of love to blaze.
11. Make the camels kneel! Let not its lions affright thee, for longing love will present them to thine eyes in the form of cubs.’
1. He says to the voice of God (Daiy al Haq) calling from his heart, Halt at the abodes, i.e., the stations where gnostics alight in the course of their journey to infinite know ledge of their object of worship.
and weep over the ruins: the traces left by those gnostics, since I cannot accompany them.
the decayed habitations: Because there is no joy in the abodes which have been deserted, and their very existence depends on those who dwell in them.
2. their camels: their aspirations.
the vapour: the evidences (dala’ils) of that which they seek, for its evidences are attached to its being found in themselves.
the desert: the station of abstraction.
3. makes large: They are grand because they give evidence of the grandeur of that which they seek. Hence it is said, ‘In order that he who was not (namely, thou) may pass away, and He who never was not (namely, God) may subsist for ever.’ And God said, ‘Like a mirage in a far-flung plain [i.e., the station of humility]… when he arrives thereto, he finds it to be nothing, but there he finds God’ (Qur’an 24:39), inasmuch as all secondary causes have been cut off from him. Accordingly, the author says that the vapour makes large, etc., meaning that man’s superiority over all other contingent beings consists in his giving stronger evidence of God, since he is the most perfect organism, as the Prophet said, ‘Verily he was created in the image of the Merciful.’
4. desiring al-‘Udhayb: Seeking the mystery of life in the station of purity from the fountain of liberality.
that they might drink: Shurb is the second degree of divine manifest ation (tajjali), dhawq being the first.
5. whether they have pitched tents: Referring to knowledge acquired by them.
or have sought the shade of the dal tree: Referring to knowledge divinely bestowed, in which their actions have no part. Dal implies bewilderment (haira).
6. at Zarud: A great tract of sand in the desert: inas much as sand is often tossed by the wind from one place to another, he indicates that they are in a state of unrest, because they are seeking that which is unimaginable, and of which only the traces are to be found in the soul.
7. coverings to protect their beauty: Unless their faces, viz., their realities, were veiled, the intense radiance of this station would consume them.
8. seeking their traces: He says, ‘Seek to approach the degree of the prophets with thy aspiration [this he indicates by the word camels], but not by immediate experience [hal], for only the Prophet has immediate experience of this station.’ There is nothing, however, to prevent anyone from aspiring to it, although it is unattainable.
9. Hajir: Referring to the obstacle which makes immediate experience of this station impossible for us.
10. their fire will be clearly seen: i.e., the perils into which they plunged before they could arrive at these abodes. According to the Tradition, ‘Paradise is encompassed with hateful actions.’
One of the illuminati (almukashifin) told me at al-Mawsil that he had seen in a dream Ma’ruf al-Karkhi sitting in the midst of hell-fire. The dream terrified him and he did not perceive its meaning. I said to him, ‘That fire is the enclosure that guards the abode in which you saw him seated. Let anyone who desires to reach that abode plunge into the fire.’ My friend was pleased with this explanation and recognized that it was true.
11. Let not its lions affright thee: If thou art a true lover, be not dismayed by the dangers confronting thee.
in the form of cubs: i.e., innocuous and of no account.
R. A. Nicholson
1. O ancient temple, there hath risen for you a light that gleams in our hearts.
2. I complain to thee of the deserts which I crossed, where I let my tears flow unchecked,
3. Taking no joy in rest at dawn or dusk, continuing from morn to morn and passing from eve to eve.
4. Truly, the camels, even if they suffer from footsoreness, journey by night and make haste in their journey.
5. These beasts of burden carried us to you with eager desire, though they did not hope to attain thereby.
6. They traversed wildernesses and well-nigh rainless lands, impelled by passion, but they did not therefore complain of fatigue.
7. They did not complain of the anguish of love, and ’tis I who complain of fatigue. Indeed, I have claimed something absurd.
1. O ancient temple: The gnostic’s heart, which contains the reality of Truth.
there hath risen for you…: The light in the heart (which is the centre of the body) seeks to rise from its source and convey to the members of the body the divine realities. In this station a man sees by God, hears by God, speaks by God, and moves by God.
2. the deserts which I crossed: The mortifications and austerities which I suffered.
4. the camels: The aspirations. He means that they do not cease from seeking, although exhausted by the difficulty of their quest. They are exhausted because the proofs supplied by the understanding are unable to lead them to the divine reality.
7. I have claimed something absurd: I pretend to love God, while complaining of distress and fatigue, yet these ‘beasts of burden’, viz., my acts and thoughts, which I control and govern, make no complaint.
R. A. Nicholson
I remembered my sins; they troubled me and made me weep,
Because they are banishing me from God’s proximity.
How can there be salvation for the way I have wasted my life?
The Lord will question me about it on the Resurrection Day.
If only my ears had not heard words of passion,
If only my eyes had not seen any beauty,
If only neither my palm nor foot had been created,
Nor even my tongue, and my heart had not existed,
Or else I had been created to lead a life of bliss,
Then, both publicly and privately, my Lord would have given me success,
And I would not have adored anyone who would be of no benefit,
When, on the Resurrection Day, the Merciful would question me about it.
If only I hadn’t grieved for places with which I was intimate.
If only I hadn’t yearned for certain dwellings and encampments.
If only I hadn’t flirted with white prima donnas
As they sang on couches lamenting my fate.
If only I hadn’t drunk vintage wine,
Stored up since the days of Ibn Dhi Yazan.
If only I hadn’t hoped for things unattainable.
If only I hadn’t wasted my time in the causes of destruction.
If only I hadn’t made speeches about science and knowledge,
Until they called me the clever scholar.
The cursed Iblis [Satan] still toyed with me
And the agony of my sin was burning me within.
For how long shall I continue to sin and be grieved by it?
And You – may Your name be praised – protect me.
The mornings and evenings I spend in things
That draw me to misfortune and further from fortune.
How often have I struggled with him [Iblis], hidden from God’s servants,
While the eye of God was watching me!
Even the sense of shame before the Merciful does not deter me
From sins which, if He wills, could destroy me,
And no friend among the brethren could arouse me
From the sleep conveying me to God’s punishment.
I have no friend save the one who sees my error
And offers me advice from time to time.
The true friend is like soap that washes garments clean
From dirt or filth or squalor.
Then, on my right, I heard my companion,
Prodding, warning and restraining me:
‘O master, may God protect you, listen to me please.
Many a time have I come and the doorman has barred my way.
He is not a human being whom you can beat or harm,
But your action which will be raised in the shroud [of death].
Look at him and improve the image that he creates.
He is courteous if from the world you become estranged.
It is he who keeps your two enemies at bay [the world and the devil]
If they entice you, and this is one of the greatest of blessings.’
Hearing his advice, my soul yearned after it,
And said, ‘Will the Merciful accept me?’
‘O soul,’ I replied, ‘whatever course you take,
He will come rushing towards you with blessings and bounty.’
O my friend, may God preserve you!
I was afraid that you would say, in a bitter tone,
Like one who, in his goal, has strayed from the proper way,
‘I feel sorry for myself and I weep for my negligence,
I lament for the heart that has erred from the path of goodness.’
If proximity to my God can be measured
By my heart’s proximity to Him, then indeed I am far away.
If He were to reward me for what I have done,
Then what reward would there be but to be turned roughly away!
But I have hope in Him, both secretly and openly,
And if this passion is useful to me, then how fortunate I shall be!
If I am like a full Moon whose light has been dimmed by ignorance,
Then God will very soon give me back its bliss.
Neither my sin, nor my misguided action, will remove me far from Him;
Therefore my offence is more befitting for me as a slave.
Just as generosity, beautiful clemency, together with approbation,
Are the most appropriate things to coexist with the majesty of God,
So gracious majesty is the constant attribute of the Creator,
And faith truly resides in me. Let happiness be mine!
Roger Boase