Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi - When my Beloved appears
Ivan M. Granger August 22nd, 2008
When my Beloved appears,
by Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi
English version by Reynold A. Nicholson
When my Beloved appears,
With what eye do I see Him?
With His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself.
— from The Mystics of Islam, by Reynold A. Nicholson
/ Photo by tanakawho /
What does ibn Arabi mean when he says that he sees God, the Beloved, not with his own eyes but with God’s eye? These lines sound like ibn Arabi is playing a poetic word game, but he is actually expressing a deep truth: God is not perceived directly with the physical senses, not even by the subtle senses. You do not see the Beloved; the Beloved is simply seen.
Sight, the senses, even the subtle senses of inner visions compartmentalize awareness. They break perception down into manageable pieces that the mundane consciousness can process and understand. But to truly see God, to be fully and consciously in the presence of the Beloved, you must look not with the physical eyes or the limited mind but with the whole awareness that flows through you.
The selfish sense of self, the ego, keeps the conscious mind busy slicing up reality into small fragments, for only in that scattered reality can the ego pretend it is in control of anything. The holistic reality is too immense and too complete for the petty tyrant of the ego-self to maintain its illusion of dominion.
So the first task is — with supreme patience and balance and subtlety — to unseat the ego in order to open the possibility of genuine, unhampered perception of the Divine.
The resulting unbroken, unsegregated awareness is “His eye.” It is the holistic awareness that does not begin and end but simply permeates yourself and all things. It is not ‘your’ eye because that awareness doesn’t feed back into or reaffirm the egoistic self. Instead, it is “His eye,” the eye of the Eternal Beloved that sees all as a living unity. It is only through this eternal awareness that we become aware of the Eternal, “For none sees Him except Himself.”
Another way of trying to put this into words is to say that you and I don’t see God in the normal sense; instead God shares awareness of Himself through us. When we lovingly purify our awareness and remove the shadow of the ego, we become like a clear mirror through which the Beloved sees His own reflection. As individual sparks of consciousness, we don’t do the seeing so much as participate in it.
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Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi
Spain (1165 - 1240) Timeline |
Ibn ‘Arabi is considered by many to be the greatest Sufi philosopher. His was more of a structured approach to Sufi mysticism directed toward gnosis, in contrast to Rumi’s mysticism which was more directed toward ecstatic annihilation in Love. Ibn ‘Arabi was one of the most prolific of Sufi writers, having composed an immense volume of work in his lifetime in both prose and verse, influencing philosophical and mystical thought, not only in the Muslim world, but also in Christian Europe.
Born in Murcia, in Moorish Spain, Ibn ‘Arabi could trace his ancestry back to ancient Arabia. When he was a boy, his family moved to Sevilla (Seville) where he began his studies. During a childhood illness, he had a transformative vision that set him firmly on the mystical path.
Ibn ‘Arabi traveled throughout the Islamic world — Spain, North Africa, the Middle East. He spent the last ten years of his life in Damascus.
Among his many writings, perhaps his most influential philosophical works are Spiritual Victories (al Futuhat al Makkiya) and Facets of Wisdom (al Fusus al Hikam). Many of the poetry selections here are excerpts from his long poem The Interpreter of Desires. The Interpreter of Desires is a multi-layered love poem that, like the Song of Songs in the Bible and many of the courtly love songs of the Troubadours, reveals itself to ultimately be an exploration of the soul’s yearning for God. It is a tale of a holy pilgrimage to Mecca, in which the hero meets a young Persian woman of pure beauty named Nizham (Harmony). This encounter with such a perfect embodiment of harmony inspires an ardent quest that becomes a quest for the True Beloved, for God.
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I guess ’seeing” is the key word here does not this
lead us to the old prohibition of “no graven
images” and wasn’t it written at the approximate time of the construction of the Al Hambra. and ( pardon me ) but isn’t this part of the quasi religious logic behind the destruction of the Buddhas in the desert a few years ago? … and the previous attempt by the Red Communist -Red Guard to destroy priceless paintings of the apsaras and sculptures of Buddha out in the Gobi desert?
I have been out there , more than twenty years ago, and
seen the results of the Hong We BIng and also seen the beauty that was left by the actions of Chairman Mo’s Number 2,
Zhou
EN Lai who sent a large contingent of PROC soldiers out to protect this priceless world treasure
painted and sculpted by monks in caves way out in the desert.
Dear Ivan,
An excellent and profound poem! There is an English saying “putting yourself in other’s shoes”. This poem sort of reminded me of the saying. Most of the problems in this world arise only due to lack of this feeling and total lack of respect for the other. Leave alone seeing God! If only we try to respect others’ right of their views and develop to accept their right, much of what we are facing today can be avoided. Nice work! Thanks!
“The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love.” ~ Meister Eckhart
Dear Ivan, Your poetry selections inspire, your pictures and music delight, your comments elucidate & educate…always an enriching experience to open an email from Poetry Chaikhana. The last paragraph did beautifully “put into words” how our acting, feeling and being more godlike will mirror in the world….most hopeful thought for this lovely blue/green sphere. THANKS & may you dwell in happiness and good health (in the best tradition of Irish poets…..may you…..). Love, Jacki Wms.
The greatest truth that I have found is that to know God, let God tell you Who He is. To see truely, let your eyes be the instrument of God and He will tell you what you are seeing. It is either God or past ‘conclusions+current input’ that we see. It is truth or it is perception, but it cannot be both. Perception can close the gap towards truth, and God will close the gap, and the need for perception will no longer be there. And that is the most wonderful news!
Hi Ivan,
great site, good stuff. On this one, I like what you say so this is an ‘and’ not a ‘but”. Based on reading Ibn Arabi’s Fusus weekly with friends I think he always bases everything on there being only one being (or Being) in existence which we can call God if we like. So I think when he says ‘none sees him but himself’ he means that this is literally the truth. We don’t realise this but I believe he means it is the case, (whether we know it or not). The person who knows does witness this. ie actually you/I/we do see Him with the eye (and hear, touch, feel etc Him) and nothing except Him every second - as he is the reality of each and all as there is only Him. He sees with your/my/our eye but we think it is our own individual, separate eye (and think that we see other than Him) and don’t realise it is His eye in fact, moreover seeing Himself, there being nothing ‘other’ to see.
ps the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society has a great website, lots of good stuff, well worth checking out. Also Chisholme Institute’s site.
I remembered something that John Lennon is supposed to have said: “…reality leaves a lot to the imagination…” which provided the impulse for what I’d like to share.
To see the Eternal Beloved may really involve unseating the ego from its engagement with so-called reality. When that happens, the mind could be freed from its earthbound imaginative wo/andering into that kind of realm where hope and joy and peace no longer are found neither in neat borders betwixt body and mind and soul nor according to some one’s analysis or an other’s fixed truth. Rather, such notions about gut feelings become suffused in a dynamic, even if untoned, “flow of ohm”.
Nothing else matters but “being with” the Energetic Source “who am”.