The Resources of the Human Spirit - Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society

42 Souad Al-HakimIX. The spirit abandons the body andmoves outside itIn the Fut¬¢åt, Ibn ¡Arabi speaks of a science which he calls “(thescience of) the abandonment of managing spirits”. 70 This showsus an advanced spiritual degree where the human spirit abandonsthe body and enters into an ethereal body in order to actoutside the material body. Among these activities outside thebody we can include the entrance into Divine Dignity, spiritualencounters, night journeys and ascensions.1. The entrance into Divine DignityIbn ¡Arabi states that he who experiences revelation is separatedfrom the material, and every element returns to its origin, and hespiritually enters the world of the Invisible, and God Almightygives him the gift of science and knowledge. 71 When he emerges,he emanates a light that illuminates and guides.2. Spiritual encountersWhen the spirit frees itself from the imprisonment of the elements,it traverses the dimensions of time and space, and at thatmoment is able to meet with the spirits of people who existedin the past but are still present in the world of the Invisible. Ibn¡Arabi relates how he entered into such a degree when he wasin Morocco in 597/1200: he felt so lonely that God Almightysent him a person whose incarnated spirit was that of Abu ¡Abdal-Rahman al-Sulami (d.412/1021); he embraced him and spoketo him, telling him that this degree was called the station ofcloseness (qurba). 72He also tells us that he met the seven abdål (the Substitutes). 73However, the most important spiritual encounter in the Invisible70. Fut. I.55.71. Fut. I.276.72. Fut. II.261.73. Fut. II.27.