The Book of Stations
المواقف
Context: Calling Ibn ʿArabī «ختم الولاية المحمدية» is an incidental honorific for his contested self-claim. The substance is the oneness of being: God is 'the very entity' of every existent, even the impossible, so He does not will annihilation. The school reads renewal of creation each instant; kalām theologians and critics see God identified with creatures and real annihilation denied.AI
سَأَلَنِي بَعْضُ الْاِخْوَانِ عَنْ قَوْلِ سَيِّدِنَا خَتْمِ الْوِلَايَةِ الْمُحَمَّدِيَّةِ- رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ- فِي الْبَابِ الثَّالِثِ وَالسَّبْعِينَ وَثَلَاثِمِائَةٍ مِنَ الْفُتُوحَاتِ:
One of the brethren asked me about the saying of our master, the Seal of Muhammadan sainthood (may God be pleased with him), in the three hundred and seventy-third chapter of the Futūḥāt:
In briefAI
Asked about a passage in chapter 373 of Ibn ʿArabī's Futūḥāt, the Emir explains why God ties taking-away to His will (Q 14:19). It is an allusion that He is the very entity of everything that receives a judgement: existence, nonexistence, necessity, possibility, even impossibility. Existence pervades all of these, even what is only a name. Annihilating anything would therefore be God acting upon Himself, which is impossible. So He does not will it. Things vanish of themselves before the Essence's self-disclosure, while the names require them to exist. Hence creation is new at every instant.
See the print: Damascus 1966, p. 1195 ↗, Damascus 1966, p. 1196 ↗ (archive.org)
«وَأَمَّا تَعَلُّقُ ذَلِكَ بِالْمَشِيئَةِ الْاِلَهِيَّةِ فَاِنَّهُ سِرٌّ مِنْ أَسْرَارِ اللَّهِ نَبَّهَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ فِي قَوْلِهِ: «إِنْ يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ».
“As for the connection of that with the divine will, it is one of God's secrets, to which God drew attention in His saying: ‘If He wills, He will take you away’ (Q 14:19, 35:16)
مِنْ بَابِ الْاِشَارَةِ اِلَى غَوَامِضِ الْأَسْرَارِ لِأُولِي الْأَفْهَامِ اَنَّهُ عَيْنُ كُلِّ مَنْعُوتٍ بِحُكْمٍ مِنْ وُجُودٍ أَوْ عَدَمٍ وَوُجُوبٍ وَأِمْكَانٍ وَمُحَالٍ فَمَا ثَمَّ عَيْنٌ تُوصَفُ بِحُكْمٍ اِلَاّ وَهُوَ ذَلِكَ الْعَيْنُ».
by way of allusion, for those endowed with understanding, to the obscure secrets: that He is the very entity of everything qualified by a judgement, whether existence or nonexistence, necessity, possibility or impossibility; so there is no entity there described by a judgement but that He is that entity.”
مُحَصَّلُ هَذِهِ الْاِشَارَةِ أَنَّهُ لَمَّا كَانَ الْوُجُـودُ الذَّاتُ مِنْ حَيْثُ الِاسْمُ النُّـورُ سَارِياً فِي كُلِّ نَعْتٍ وَمَنْعُوتٍ وَحُكْمٍ وَمَحْكُومٍ عَلَيْهِ وَمَحْكُومٍ بِهِ، مِمَّا لَهُ عَيْنٌ ثَابِتَةٌ، وَمَالَا عَيْنَ لَهُ اِلَاّ الِاسْمُ، وَمَا ثَمَّ اِلَّا هَذَا، فَالْوُجُـودُ يُنْعَتُ بِأَنَّهُ وُجُـودٌ ذَاتِيٌّ وَعَرَضِيٌّ وَيُحْكَمُ عَلَيْهِ بِذَلِكَ، وَالْعَدَمُ يُنْعَتُ بِأَنَّهُ عَدَمٌ مَحْضٌ أَوْ عَدَمٌ اِضَافِيٌّ.
The gist of this allusion is as follows. Existence (the Essence, in respect of the name the Light) flows through every qualification and qualified thing, every judgement, subject of judgement and predicate of judgement, both what has a fixed entity and what has no entity but the name, and there is nothing there but this. Since that is so, existence is qualified as being essential and accidental existence and is judged to be such, and nonexistence is qualified as being absolute nonexistence or relative nonexistence.
وَالْوُجُوبُ يُنْعَتُ وَيُحْكَمُ عَلَيْـهِ بِاَنَّهُ وُجُوبٌ ذَاتِيٌّ أَوْ وُجُوبٌ بِالْغَـيْرِ،
Necessity is qualified and judged as being necessity by essence or necessity through another;
وَالْاِمْكَانُ يُنْعَتُ وَيُحْكَمُ عَلَيْهِ بِاَنَّهُ مُسْتَوِى الطَّرَفَيْنِ لَا يَتَرَجَّحُ أَحَدُهُمَا عَلَى الْآخَرِ اِلَّا بِمُرَجِّحٍ،
possibility is qualified and judged as being equal in its two sides, neither of which outweighs the other except through something that tips the balance;
وَالْمُحَالُ يُنْعَتُ وَيُحْكَمُ عَلَيْهِ بِاَنَّهُ مَا لَايُتَصَوَّرُ فِي الْعَقْلِ وُجُودُهُ وَلَا عَيْنَ لَهُ ثَابِتَةٌ، وَاَنَّهُ فِي مُقَابَلَةِ الْوُجُودِ،
and the impossible is qualified and judged as being that whose existence cannot be conceived by the intellect, and which has no fixed entity, and as standing over against existence;
فَمَتَى تُلُفِّظَ بِالشَّيْءِ صَارَ اسْمُهُ حَقِيقَةَ وُجُودِهِ•
so whenever the thing is uttered, its name becomes the reality of its existence.
وَلَمَّا كَانَ الْأَمْرُ وَالشَّأْنُ هَكَذَا قَالَ تَعَالَى: «إِنْ يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ وَيَأْتِ بِخَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ».
Since the matter and the situation are thus, He (exalted is He) said: “If He wills, He will take you away and bring a new creation” (Q 14:19, 35:16).
الْخِطَابُ لِكُلِّ مَوْجُودٍ فِي أَيِّ مَرْتَبَةٍ مِنْ مَرَاتِبِ الْوُجُودِ كَانَ عَيْنِيّاً أَوْ ذِهْنِيّاً أَوْ لَفْظِيّاً أَوْ خَطِّيّاً،
The address is to every existent, in whatever level of the levels of existence it may be: concrete, mental, verbal or written;
يَتَعَلَّقُ الْاِعْدَامُ وَالذَّهَابُ بِالْمَشِيئَةِ، وَهُوَ لَا يَشَأُ، فَاِنَّهُ لَوْ تَصَرَّفَ فِي شَيْءٍ مِنْ ذَلِكَ مِمَّا سَرَى فِيهِ النُّورُ الْوُجُودِيُّ لَكَانَ ذَلِكَ التَّصَرُّفُ تَصَرُّفاً فِي نَفْسِهِ وَذَلِكَ مُحَالٌ•
annihilation and taking-away are tied to the will, and He does not will; for were He to act upon anything of that through which the existential light flows, that action would be an action upon Himself, and that is impossible.
فَتَعْلِيقُ الْاِعْدَامِ وَالذَّهَابِ بِالْمَشِيئَةِ اِشَارَةٌ اِلَى أَنَّهُ عَيْنُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ مِمَّا تَقَعُ عَلَيْهِ عِبَارَةٌ، أَوْ تَكُونُ اِلَيْهِ اِشَارَةٌ•
So tying annihilation and taking-away to the will is an allusion to His being the very entity of everything upon which an expression can fall or to which an allusion can point.
فَهُوَ لِهَذَا لَا يُذْهِبُ شَيْئاً وَلَا يُعْدِمُهُ، وَاِنَّمَا تَذْهَبُ الْأَشْيَاءُ لِأَنْفُسِهَا لِتَجَلِّي الذَّاتِ الْأَحَدِيَّةِ الَّتِي تَقْتَضِي عَدَمَ مَا سِوَاهَا مِنَ الصُّوَرِ•
For this reason He does not take anything away nor annihilate it; rather, things go away of themselves, owing to the self-disclosure of the Essence of exclusive oneness, which requires the nonexistence of the forms other than it.
فَالْأَسْمَاءُ الْآلَهِيَّةُ تَقْتَضِي وُجُودَ الصُّوَرِ•
The divine names require the existence of the forms,
وَالذَّاتُ الْأَحَدِيَّةُ تَقْتَضِي اِعْدَامَهَا، فَالْعَالَمُ دَائِماً بَيْنَ هَذَيْنِ الْمُقْتَضِيَيْنِ فَلَهُ فِي كُلِّ آنٍ خَلْقٌ جَدِيدٌ وَآنُ وُجُودِهِ آنُ انْعِدَامِهِ•
and the Essence of exclusive oneness requires their annihilation; so the world is always between these two requirements, and therefore at every instant it has a new creation, and the instant of its existence is the instant of its ceasing to exist.
Translations, word glosses and term notes are AI-generated (Claude) and marked as such; no published translation is reproduced.Word analysis is automatic (CAMeL Tools), guided by the text's vowelling. How this text was established.