'Arabî and the Mi'râj - Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society

25likenesses God has made, and in that immediate witnessing he actually sees precisely whatconnects the likeness and That Which it symbolizes: for the likeness is precisely what issymbolized, with respect to that which connects them, but it is different insofar as it is a likeness.So the saint "does not make up likenesses for God"; instead, he truly knows what Godsymbolized with those likenesses.... 81IV. IBN 'ARABI'S PERSONAL MI'RAJ[IV-A. The Departure From the Elemental World] 82So when God wished to "journey with me to cause me to see (some) of His Signs" in HisNames among my names 83 --and that was the portion of our inheritance from the (Prophet's)nocturnal journey--He removed me from my place and ascended with me on the Buraq of mycontingency. 84 Then He penetrated with me into my (natural) elements...."dispute concerning that of which they have no knowledge," and in verse 2:216 it follows the reminderthat "Perhaps you abhor something although it is good for you, and perhaps you love something andit is bad for you."81 In the remainder of this section (III, 340.6-25), Ibn 'Arabi first insists on the decisive importanceof considering every single detail of expression in the revealed divine "likenesses" or symbols (which heillustrates here with reference to the famous Light-verse of the Koran, 24:35). This point, in his opinion,was rarely respected by those interpreters (mutakallimun, philosophers, etc.) who relied on their ownreasoning (nazar) to decipher the meaning of those symbols. He then goes on to stress the decisivedifferences between such "rationalist" approaches and the methods of the saints, who rely solely oninspired "unveiling" (kashf) and direct "witnessing" (shuhud) of the divine intentions in those cases (seen. 76 above).82 III, 435.26-35.83 fi asma'ihi min asma'i: a dense formula that summarizes Ibn 'Arabi's complex metaphysicalunderstanding of the divine Names in their relation to each individual's experience, as outlined in theimmediately preceding section. This relatively abstract formulation is made more explicit in hisdiscussion of the Heart--of the Knower, but ultimately of each individual--as the true Temple or "Houseof God," in section IV-H (notes 168-172) below, and finds its ultimate confirmation in the revelatorypersonal experiences described in section IV-I.84 imkani, referring to each creature's inner dependency on God (and the particular "lords"constituted by certain divine Names) for its very being and manifestation. In Ibn 'Arabi's description ofthe culminating revelation of his own universal, "Muhammadan Station" (III, 350 = section IV-I below),he says that God "took away (his) contingency," so that he could "realize the inner realities of all thedivine Names.""Buraq" is the name of the Prophet's mysterious steed described in the hadith accounts of theMi'raj and Isra': see the translation at n. 39 above and Ibn 'Arabi's longer discussion of the "Buraq" of