The Mahdi and His Helpers - Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society

16For this (inner ignorance of the true reality of the Sharia) is the root of all injustice in theholders of authority, since we hold it to be impossible that someone could (truly) know (aparticular divine command) and then deviate from the judgment (required by) hisknowledge all at once. This is something that is considered possible by those learned inthe external forms (of the Law), 43 although we ourselves consider that this "possible"thing never actually occurs in reality; it is indeed a difficult question.Now it is because of this (inner knowledge of men's souls and the true divine commands)that the Mahdi "fills the world with justice and equity," just as "it was filled with injusticeand oppression." 44 Because in our view (true spiritual) knowledge necessarily andinevitably implies action (in accordance with it), and if it does not do so, then it is notreally knowledge, even if it appears in the (outward) form of knowledge.... 4543 'ulama' al-rusum: here this term (used more broadly in the previous section) refers to the formal"knowledge" of the external "traces" of the Prophetic heritage typical of the mass of legal scholars(fuqaha') popularly known as the "learned" ('ulama'). The roots of Ibn 'Arabi's radically differing point ofview--which at first seems to contradict his own discussion here of individuals whose formal legal"knowledge" is overcome by their passions--are explained more openly throughout sections II-7 (e.g., atn. 43) and II-9 below.It should be stressed that this term, for Ibn 'Arabi, is primarily used in a "descriptive" and notnecessarily pejorative sense, since many of the saints and Sufis (including, for example, the pious judgedescribed in section II-5 below) were also notable representatives of this category of 'ulama'. See hisdiscussion of the complementary functions of "those who preserve (the outward literal) forms of thedivine judgment" as expressed by the prophet (hafazat al-ahkam) and "those who preserve (the Prophet'sspiritual) states and secrets" (hafazat al-ahwal wa-l-asrar) in Chapter 14, O.Y. II, 361-362 (= Cairo ed., I,151), and the more detailed discussions and references in our article cited at n. 3 above.44 A quotation from the classical hadith account of the characteristics of the Mahdi given at theopening of this chapter (section I, at n. 7 above).45 I.e, Ibn 'Arabi is not specifically pointing to some outwardly "reformable" defect in the teachingand transmission of the Law in his time, nor to the fraudulent pretensions or moral defects of particularindividuals (although that latter subject does come up in section II-7 below). Rather he is primarilyalluding here (and more clearly in the following sections) to the fundamental--and in our presentcircumstances, humanly inescapable--problem that the just, appropriate application and interpretation ofthe traditional sources concerning the divine commands and their historical application by the Prophetusually require a far deeper understanding of both their ultimate contexts and intentions and the relevantfactors in each particular case than can be expected of any but the rarest individuals, those whose everyaction is divinely inspired and protected from error (ma'sum: see the discussion at n. 27 above). As heremarks more openly in section II-7 below, those truly qualified "authorities" (the true wulat) in any age,whether or not they outwardly rule, are none other than the divinely guided "saints"--i.e., the awliya' (aterm drawn from the same Arabic root as the words translated as "authority" in these passages, and havingexplicit connotations of spiritual authority [wilaya] that are not readily conveyed by the term "saint" inWestern languages).