Insight Editions · No. 109
Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries and the Rising of the Divine Lights
Ibn 'Arabi · Translated by Cecilia Twinch and Pablo Beneito
Ibn 'Arabi's fourteen visionary dialogues depict the servant's ascent through divine manifestations, addressing existence, spiritual realization, inspiration, and the signs of the Day of Judgement.
A study guide to Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries and the Rising of the Divine Lights by Ibn 'Arabi, translated by Cecilia Twinch and Pablo Beneito. Shared free for personal reading; not for sale and not endorsed by the authors or publishers. Please read and buy the original.
Overview
Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries (Mashahid al-asrar al-qudsiyya wa matali' al-anwar al-ilahiyya) is one of Ibn 'Arabi's first major works, written in 1194 at twenty-nine. In fourteen visions the Real questions, commands and unsettles the visionary, from "Who are you?" to the Day of Judgement. Cecilia Twinch and Pablo Beneito translate it from the Hakim and Beneito critical edition, with notes drawn from two thirteenth-century commentators.
The Book in Brief
- Ascent without distance. The visions climb star by star, like Abraham leaving what sets, but the aim is to be shown signs, not to reach a God who is never absent.
- The servant is apparent non-existence. Existence and finding belong to God; the human being is "the thing without likeness", God's mirror and hidden treasure, and also "scattered dust".
- Paradox by level. Nearly every statement is followed by its reverse; each holds from a different standpoint, and Truth begins where opposites unite.
- The middle way. The mule, the half-moon, the line between light and darkness and the sunset prayer all stand for the isthmus that reconciles transcendence and similarity.
- Beyond the symbol, not against it. The esoteric sense never cancels the literal: God threatens those who call the Garden and the Fire mere images.
- Perplexity and no argument. Knowledge ends in perplexity, "the reality of reality"; on the Day of Judgement those who trusted their own arguments are judged by them.
Figure 2. The fourteen contemplations as one arc: identity (1-5), testing and carrying (6-9), the end of speech and judgement (10-14).
Argument Map
Chapter Map
| Light of | Star of | Core move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Existence (wujud) | Direct vision | "Apparent non-existence"; finding and losing |
| 2 Taking (akhdh) | Affirmation | The covenant; sea-water; "Now you are you" |
| 3 Veils (sutur) | Strong backing | Seventy veils; Stone outweighs Throne; anta |
| 4 Intuition (shu'ur) | Transcendence | Ride the mule; the line between light and dark |
| 5 Silence (samt) | Negation | Alif silent, letters speak |
| 6 Elevation (matla') | Unveiling | Thirty-one risings; mirror and dust |
| 7 Leg (saq) | Summons | Hold the Order; five kinds of servant |
| 8 Rock (sakhra) | Sea | The fish; commands to the moon |
| 9 Rivers (anhar) | Degrees | Four seas, one ocean; empty treasure |
| 10 Perplexity (hayra) | Non-existence | "The reality of reality" |
| 11 Divinity (uluhiyya) | Lam-alif | The address stops |
| 12 Uniqueness (ahadiyya) | Servanthood | Root and branch; two Poles |
| 13 Support ('amd) | Singularity | The dome falls |
| 14 Argument (hijaj) | Justice | Judgement of the sects; "do not depart from the Order" |
Twelve Ideas to Carry Away
- Seeing obliges bearing witness. Mashahid are places of presence and testimony, not private reverie.
- Publish and verify. "Take it with strength and make it known," while scrutinizing it closely.
- Existence and finding are God's. The servant is apparent non-existence, the possible (mumkin).
- God is found by losing the self. Finding and losing are the servant's states, not God's.
- Carry sea-water; drop your own fruit. Knowledge dies on dry land if stripped of its source.
- The Perfect Man outweighs the Throne. The Stone of Similarity is named anta, "you".
- Cross on the mule. Absolute transcendence and absolute immanence both drown.
- Silence grounds speech. The alif is silent and present in every letter.
- Stay within the limit. From the Watchtower, claiming divinity sends you down.
- Perplexity is the summit. "He who does not remain in perplexity does not know Me."
- Preserve the intermediaries. Delight depends on fruit, earth, rain, wind and the order.
- Drop your own argument. On Judgement Day, those who worshipped their intellect are punished by it.
Reading Paths
| If you want | Read |
|---|---|
| The vision Q&A method | Contemplations 1-4 (existence, taking, veils, mule) |
| Silence, limit and literal warning | Contemplations 5-6 |
| Order, Rock and empty treasure | Contemplations 7-9 |
| Perplexity to Judgement | Contemplations 10-14 |
| Inspiration defended | Appendices (preface summary) |
| Practice inside the book | Synthesis: Applying It |
Introduction: Visions in a Holy Place
Ibn 'Arabi wrote the Mashahid al-asrar at twenty-nine, on his return from Tunis in 1194. It is a sequence of fourteen visions, each tied to the rising of a star, in which the Real speaks to him directly. Cecilia Twinch's introduction places the book in his life, in its textual tradition, and in the science of letters and numbers that shapes it.
The first instruction he received about the book was "Take it with strength and make it known to everyone you see". He was also told to verify it for himself and scrutinize it, so the text asks for close attention before its meaning opens. He states that it came from the hidden, divine Identity (huwiyya). Its themes are perennial: the nature of existence, our relation to the all-encompassing Reality, the limits by which we define ourselves and the Truth, and the way to happiness. The human being is the secret of existence and the purpose of creation: "If it were not for you, the mysteries would not exist nor would the lights shine." Between majesty and beauty, compulsion and freedom, awe and intimacy, the Fire and the Garden, the book draws a line that allows a unified perspective to arise. Mixed with visions of great beauty runs a warning: pass beyond the forms of images to their meaning, act appropriately and be vigilant.
An ascending journey
The visions run from "the contemplation of existence as the star of direct vision rises" to "the light of argument as the star of justice rises", when the traveller reaches the Day of Judgement. Each vision refers back to the previous one and leads to the next. Ibn 'Arabi's disciple Ibn Sawdakin says the work is inseparable from the later Kitab al-Isra' (The Book of the Night Journey). Both connect to the Sura of the Star, "By the star, when it sets" (Q 53:1), which Ibn 'Arabi relates to Abraham: he saw a star, then the moon, then the sun, and as each set he said "I love not those that set", turning to the single Truth that is the source of all things.
The point of ascension is not to reach God, who is never apart from us, but for Him to show some of His signs. "No place can hold Me," God says in the Futuhat; only "the heart of My servant, the man of true faith, encompasses Me". The tradition of the hidden treasure ("I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known, so I created the world") is read here as a constantly unfolding revelation, not a static goal. In Contemplation 6 the knower is told that seventy thousand mysteries pass through his heart every day, never to return, and that he is God's mirror, house and hidden treasure. Yet the same voice reminds him: "Your knowledge is scattered dust. Your qualities are nothing. Your reality is only a metaphor in a corner of My being."
Symbolic forms both reveal the beauty of spiritual meanings and conceal their magnificence, protecting the meanings and the reader alike. Saints, he writes, journey in the intermediate world, where spiritual realities are embodied in forms that the imagination can perceive. The journey is also inward and personal: "Each person has a path that no one else but he travels." Still, he is told again and again to tell others, "so that you awaken their longing for Me ... and you will be a mercy for them."
The book closes with a warning that whether the contemplator follows what he is told or not, he must perish: wake from the illusion of a separate existence and then persist in being true to his Reality. In Ibn 'Arabi's own ascension a mysterious youth tells him, "You are yourself the cloud veiling your own sun!"
The author and the moment
He wrote more than 300 works; Osman Yahia counts about 700 attributed and about 400 extant. In Tunis he entered "God's Vast Earth", a spiritual world "that is infinite and has no borders", and from then on knew himself as heir to the Muhammadian knowledge. In the Fez ascension he received the meaning of all the Divine Names and saw that they referred to one Named and one Essence: "I had only journeyed in myself ... I was a pure servant, without the least trace of sovereignty." Through Qunawi's friendship with Rumi, two strands meet; Corbin's words: "Both are inspired by the same theophanic sentiment."
The edition and its guides
The translation rests on the critical edition by Souad Hakim and Pablo Beneito (Spanish and Arabic, Murcia, 1994; revised 1996). Twinch, asked to translate from Spanish, learned Arabic to work from the original. The notes are simplified for English readers; Arabists are sent to the Spanish edition. The manuscript's preface and epilogue are summarized, not translated; the preface had circulated as a separate Risala fi 'l-walaya (Treatise on Sainthood). Both defend the authenticity of inspiration and conversation with the Real.
Sitt al-'Ajam bint al-Nafis (d. c. 1288): a great mystic of Baghdad. She wrote within fifty years of his death and opens with a vision in which she conversed with Ibn 'Arabi before a company of prophets, so her knowledge came in a visionary way.
A brief commentary appended to the book manuscript may go back to Ibn 'Arabi himself.
Style, number and letter
The style recalls Niffari (d. 965), "the author of the Mawaqif", with his "And then He said to me". The Contemplations differs by its continuous narrative. The translators drop many of these formulas and put each statement on a new line, since the manuscript has no punctuation. The visions are active: seeing with one's own eyes and then bearing witness, as in the answer to "Am I not your Lord?" and the testimony of the Day of Judgement. Paradox runs throughout: a statement holds at one level and its opposite at another, and Truth originates where opposites unite.
- Letters: the 28 letters, articulated by the human breath as the world is by the Breath of the All-Compassionate, are 14 solar and 14 lunar; "it is the twenty-eight sounds which determine the lunar mansions".
- Moon: the 14th night is the full moon; in the Tarjuman "a maid of fourteen" is the perfect soul; 14 = 4 + 10, and 10 = 1+2+3+4.
- Cosmos: twice seven, the seven heavens and seven earths (Q 65:12), of which Ibn 'Abbas said "If I explained this verse, you would stone me!"
- Prophet: ta'-ha' (Q 20:1), a name of Muhammad, sums to 9 + 5 = 14; there are 14 enigmatic letters opening the suras.
- Quran: the Fatiha, "the seven doubled", holds the seven attributes of the Essence: Knowing, Willing, Able, Living, Speaking, Seeing, Hearing.
The Perfect Man (al-insan al-kamil) is to the human level what the Breath is to the cosmos, and "the Total Man ... is the incomparable Quran". Prayer is divided between God and His servant, and in Contemplation 6 the Real says, "I have brought into being in you the attributes and qualities by which I wish you to know Me." The seventy veils of Contemplation 3, the 70,000 mysteries of Contemplation 6 and the voyage into the seventh millennium in Contemplation 9 all point to the science of numbers and letters, where the stars are signs on the horizon of a wisdom waiting within.
Twinch and Beneito framing (deepening)
Cecilia Twinch's introduction, written for the Anqa English of 2001, places the Contemplations as one of Ibn 'Arabi's first major works, composed on return from Tunis in 1194 and dedicated to Mahdawi's companions and to his cousin 'Ali b. al-'Arabi. She stresses that what look like private visions are given a public charge: take them with strength, make them known, verify and scrutinize. The themes she names as perennial are existence, relation to the all-encompassing Reality, the limits by which we define ourselves and the Truth, and the way to happiness. The human being is the secret of existence: "If it were not for you, the mysteries would not exist nor would the lights shine."
The translation rests on Souad Hakim and Pablo Beneito's Spanish and Arabic critical edition (Murcia 1994; revised 1996). Twinch, asked to translate from Spanish, learned Arabic to work from the original. Notes are simplified for English readers; Arabists are sent to the Spanish edition. The manuscript preface and epilogue are summarized, not translated; the preface had also circulated as a separate Risala fi 'l-walaya (Treatise on Sainthood). Both defend the authenticity of inspiration and conversation with the Real after the close of prophecy.
Vision frame and the science of fourteen (deepening)
Ibn Sawdakin links the Contemplations to the Sura of the Star (Q 53:1) and to Abraham's turning from star, moon and sun to the single Truth. The point of ascension is not to reach a distant God. "No place can hold Me," God says in the Futuhat; only "the heart of My servant, the man of true faith, encompasses Me". The hidden treasure tradition ("I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known") is read as constantly unfolding revelation. Symbolic forms both reveal and conceal; saints journey in the intermediate world where meanings take forms the imagination can perceive. Each person has a path no one else travels, yet the visionary is told again and again to tell others, "so that you awaken their longing for Me."
Contemplations 1-4: Existence, Taking, Veils, Intuition
The opening sequence sets out the grammar of the whole book. A servant who calls himself "apparent non-existence" learns that finding and losing God are his, not God's. He is taken, stripped to darkness, made to lift seventy veils and weigh a Stone against the Throne, and finally told to ride the mule between transcendence and similarity.
1. The light of existence, as the star of direct vision rises
"Who are you?" the Real asks. "Apparent non-existence," comes the reply: apparent to God, not to the servant. Apparent non-existence is the possible (mumkin); hidden non-existence is the impossible. The "first existence" is in divine omniscience, the "second" in concrete entities, like universals and particulars. Light stands for existence because it is perceived and is also the means of perceiving. In Arabic wujud means both existence and finding, and the chapter plays on that double sense.
Asked whether he is Muslim by tradition or by his own judgement, he refuses both: "I am not a [blind] imitator nor do I follow my own [rational] opinion." "Then you are no thing." He answers, "I am the thing without likeness and You are the thing with likeness," reading Q 42:11 as "there is nothing like His likeness". That likeness without likeness is the Universal Man made in the form of the Compassionate. The servant's perfection is to be "named without name"; God's is to be named by the name.
Ibn Sawdakin resolves the paradoxes by level: whoever attributes existence to the servant loses God; whoever does not, finds Him. Limited existence is the servant's; absolute existence is God's. Primordial pre-existence "is not [really] existence", since true existence is differentiated and visible. Existence comes from God but is "not for My sake", which IS reads as a refutation of causality in creation. The chapter ends pointing to "taking", the covenant of Q 7:172.
2. The light of taking, as the star of affirmation rises
The taking is God drawing Adam's descendants from their backs to answer "Am I not your Lord?" with "Yes, indeed!" It happens "from behind, since if it were from in front nobody would go astray": God manifests in taking and hides in letting go. Sitt al-'Ajam counts three takings, of the unified, the differentiated and the union of the unified. Inanimate beings answer "Yes" by their glorification.
The darkness is the book "from which the lights rise", the matter of the elements. Through an opening "like the eye of a needle" he sees a dazzling light whose darkness is so intense he cannot see his own hand: "This is My light, in which none but Me can see himself." He alone was created from darkness, which SA reads as the singularity of the gnostic of his time. Closing line: "If you want to see Me, lift the veils from My face."
3. The light of the veils, as the star of strong backing rises
God has veiled him with seventy veils (the hadith of seventy veils of light). Raising or not raising them, he will and will not see God: he sees God in non-existence and in existing forms. "You are My sight, so have faith. You are My Face, so veil yourself." He is to lift them, keep God in the hidden treasuries, and tell the servants what he has seen "so that you awaken their longing for Me".
He lifts them one by one, from non-existence, existence and the covenants through letters, milk (knowledge), knocking (asking for more knowledge), love and annihilation, to "the imperceptible, the inaudible, the incomprehensible, the incommunicable, symbolic allusion, the whole". "What I have hidden from you is even more magnificent." Then God burns the remaining veils and he sees the Throne.
What follows is a "Letter from the First Existence to the Second Existence", a cosmogony addressed to "you": the covenant in the Presence of Oneness, the return, the sea of knowledge, the darknesses of nature, the company of the Soul given to the Intellect as Eve to Adam, prohibition and permission, the Pen and the Guarded Tablet, the messengers sent into "the prison" of the world. One is singled out (Muhammad), purified and given intercession, and carried on the Buraq "in the instant" to the Dome of Arin, the point of equilibrium. He is told to let his son succeed him, to contemplate God in the attributes but not in the essences, which would imply incarnation (hulul), and that whatever he knows, "he will not comprehend Me".
4. The light of intuition, as the star of transcendence rises
Intuition (shu'ur) is integrating, synthetic knowledge, sharing a root with poetry (shi'r) and hair (sha'r). God hides "in evidence and intuition from the people of veils", readers of surfaces. The secret of things lies "in the intensity of clarity". "See Me in the sun (plain meanings), look for Me in the moon (places of manifestation), but avoid Me in the stars (the Names)." "Do not be like the bird of Jesus": do not stay with the secondary cause.
| Mount | Doctrine | Fate in the flood |
|---|---|---|
| Donkey (theoretical knowledge) | Absolute transcendence, e.g. the Mu'tazilites | Perishes |
| Horse (imagination) | Absolute immanence, the anthropomorphists and pantheists | Perishes |
| Mule, a barzakh | Union of opposites: tanzih and tashbih reconciled | Crosses; "the water will not reach your saddlebow" |
To cross, cover your eyes (stop imagination and speculation) and let your hair fall forward (interior vision). Staying in intuition makes him the middle degree, between intelligible meanings and physical things. "Light is a veil and darkness is a veil": follow the line between them to its origin, dissolve it in the sunset prayer, the isthmus of day and night, and sleep after the odd prayer. At dawn "the legal obligation will be lifted": per IS, not abolished but no longer a burden, performed as joy. "If the Command descends, do not give up ... If you ride, stay silent."
Contemplations 1-4: argument map
Q&A dynamics: Contemplation 1
| The Real asks / says | The servant answers / hears |
|---|---|
| "Who are you?" | "Apparent non-existence." |
| "How can non-existence change into existence?" | Apparent (possible) versus hidden (impossible) non-existence |
| "Are you a Muslim by tradition or by your own judgement?" | "I am not a [blind] imitator nor do I follow my own [rational] opinion." |
| "Then you are no thing." | "I am the thing without likeness and You are the thing with likeness." |
| "Whoever finds you finds Me..." / reverse | "Finding and losing are yours, not Mine." |
Q&A and scene map: Contemplation 2
Sitt al-'Ajam counts three takings: of the unified, of the differentiated, and of the union of the unified. The taking is "from behind, since if it were from in front nobody would go astray": God manifests in taking and hides in letting go. Inanimate beings answer "Yes" by their glorification. Across the desert of transcendence, scorpions and snakes (misleading doubts) are healed with the water. Through an opening "like the eye of a needle" he sees a dazzling light whose darkness is so intense he cannot see his own hand: "This is My light, in which none but Me can see himself." Closing line of the vision: "If you want to see Me, lift the veils from My face."
Veils, Stone and Letter: Contemplation 3 (deepening)
| Move | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Seventy veils lifted one by one | From non-existence and covenants through letters, milk, knocking, love, annihilation to "the whole" |
| "What I have hidden is even more magnificent" | Remaining veils burned; Throne appears |
| Throne into the sea; Stone drawn out | Stone of Similarity = Perfect Man (Q 42:11) |
| Balance | Throne and all it contains weigh less than the Stone |
| alif + nun (50) + ta' (400) | Spells anta, "you" |
| Letter First Existence to Second | Cosmogony: covenant, return, Pen, Tablet, messengers, Buraq to Arin |
He is told to contemplate God in the attributes but not in the essences, which would imply incarnation (hulul), and that whatever he knows, "he will not comprehend Me".
Contemplation 4 deepening: how the middle way works
Contemplations 5-9: Silence, Elevation, Leg, Rock, Rivers
The middle visions turn from what the servant is to what he must do with what he has seen. Silence becomes the root of speech, the Watchtower teaches him to stay within his limit, the Leg and the Rock test whether he can hold the Order, and the rivers end in treasure houses that are empty and a sea of perplexity.
5. The light of silence, as the star of negation rises
He is made speechless, yet "there did not remain a single place in the whole universe where my word was not inscribed". "Silence is your essential reality," a negative attribute that "is nothing other than you, although it does not belong to you." To worship "the silent", meaning idols and things without speech, would be the way of the calf and of the sun and moon worshippers.
6. The light of elevation, as the star of unveiling rises
The longest vision. "You have ascended from the limit and yet you have not separated from it, for if it were not for the exterior, the interior would not be known." Things are known by their opposites: light rising is witnessed by darkness. "Beware of Me in the Watchtower!" Whoever claims divinity from the height is sent down to the exterior; whoever stays within his limit is sought, and "the Watchtower will want you to stay".
There follow thirty-one risings, each "X rises and Y bears witness to it": glory and the world's magnificence, the Instant and time-suspension, death and predestination, the name and the veil, forgiveness and transgression, oneness and non-existence, servanthood and staying in obedience, trembling and worship. "Will there be an end to all this?" "Not whilst eternity lasts."
| The servant exalted | The servant humbled |
|---|---|
| "You are My mirror, My house, My dwelling-place, My hidden treasure and the seat of My knowledge." | "Your knowledge is scattered dust. Your qualities are nothing. Your reality is only a metaphor in a corner of My being." |
| "Whoever sees you, has seen Me." He speaks with God's tongue while silent, moves while still. | "Come back, for you cannot go beyond your rank." The weakest creeping thing could destroy him. |
| "Your essence is My essence and your attributes are My attributes," since no essence exists but the Divine. | "So how do you claim and maintain that you are Me and I am you. You have claimed the impossible." |
Seventy thousand mysteries pass through the gnostic's heart daily, and one would consume an unprepared person. He will ascend "quicker than the blinking of an eye" through stations he never returns to, which remain in him. He cannot measure his own worth, "and, in reality, you have no limits", so he should keep good form and not seek God's. Every declaration of transcendence refers back to the servant, since only what can have shortcomings can be cleared of them; God is transcendent "in Myself, for Myself and through Myself".
7. The light of the Leg, as the star of the summons rises
The Leg (saq) of Q 68:42, "the day the leg will be revealed and they will be summoned to prostrate", is per IS the Order (amr) that supports what is built on it. "Rely on it ... Beware when it appears!" Hold it only when the sky folds and the mountains move and "only the living remains". If it appears, "beware of negation": do not deny what lies beyond what can be held. Some were distracted from it by thoughts of the happiness to come. When it appears, the sun (God's Order) intensifies, the moon (the prophets) vanishes and the stars (analytical sciences) scatter.
8. The light of the Rock, as the star of the sea rises
The Rock of Moses and his companion (Q 18:63) stands for the body and its knowledges. God interrogates it about the fish: half was eaten (the apparent, "dead", exoteric knowledge) and half "disappeared into the sea", alive. "Was it lawful?" "Lawful." "Then say it was alive." The sitters on the Rock are the heirs from Adam's pact to now.
The Green Sea (knowledge of essential Reality) covers the Rock by night with "lunar matter", and recedes when it sees the sun. Then a series of commands to the moon, divine knowledge of nature: rise from the Sea of the West (esoteric knowledge), sink on the Dome of Arin, do not set in the East; sink into the Green Sea and show yourself only to its fishes, those with a life like yours. The Sea must not swell or roar, that is, such knowledge must not be displayed out of place, or a "beast" of the exoteric law will drink it up. Twelve springs (the zodiac) pour from the rock; the moon must rise as a half-moon at Arin, an isthmus, to "know the secret of the rivers".
9. The light of the rivers, as the star of degrees rises
Figure 20. Contemplation 9: rivers, seas and ocean. Little streams water "the crops of the sowers", the traditional practice of the learned.
"This ocean is My ocean and those seas are My seas, but the shores claim that they belong to them," the restrictions on which the law depends. The order of seeing ranks the knower:
| Order of contemplation | Rank |
|---|---|
| Ocean before seas and rivers | Veracious (Abu Bakr: "I have not seen anything without first seeing God") |
| All at once | Witness (the station of 'Umar) |
| Rivers, then ocean, then seas | Follower of proof, with rational evidence |
| Seas, then rivers, then ocean | Has defects, but saved by following the messengers |
A boat of symbolic transposition carries those in God's care to the ocean; those above "the brought close" sail a thousand years and land in an endless desert of perplexity, where they wander as long as eternity lasts.
"Everything you have seen is created and everything created is incomplete. Ascend until you do not see creation." He throws himself into the sea of perplexity and is left swimming, a word whose root also means praising.
Contemplations 5-9: argument map
Contemplation 5 deepening: silence that speaks
| Saying | Sense in the notes |
|---|---|
| "Silence is your essential reality" | A negative attribute "nothing other than you, although it does not belong to you" |
| "Through you I speak ... through you I am known" | God's acts run through the servant |
| "If I had remained silent, you would not exist; if you had spoken, I would not have been known" | Speak so that God may be known |
| "The letters are Moses and the alif is the staff" | Articulated speech versus silence that works |
| "Rise beyond and you will discover" | The introduction's motto line |
Contemplation 6 deepening: Watchtower and the thirty-one
Things are known by their opposites: light rising is witnessed by darkness. Sample risings named in the lean reading include glory and the world's magnificence, the Instant and time-suspension, death and predestination, the name and the veil, forgiveness and transgression, oneness and non-existence, servanthood and staying in obedience, trembling and worship. Every declaration of transcendence refers back to the servant, since only what can have shortcomings can be cleared of them; God is transcendent "in Myself, for Myself and through Myself".
Contemplation 7-8 deepening
On the Rock (C8), God interrogates about the fish: half eaten (apparent, "dead", exoteric) and half into the sea (alive, hidden). "Was it lawful?" "Lawful." "Then say it was alive." The Green Sea covers the Rock by night with lunar matter and recedes when it sees the sun. Commands to the moon (divine knowledge of nature): rise from the Sea of the West, sink on the Dome of Arin, do not set in the East; show yourself only to the fishes of the Green Sea. The Sea must not swell or roar out of place, or a "beast" of the exoteric law will drink it up. Twelve springs (the zodiac) pour from the rock; the moon must rise as a half-moon at Arin to "know the secret of the rivers".
Contemplation 9 deepening: orders of seeing and empty treasure
"This ocean is My ocean and those seas are My seas, but the shores claim that they belong to them," the restrictions on which the law depends. Beyond "the brought close", a thousand-year sail lands in an endless desert of perplexity. In the three abodes: Actions (open houses, rabble), Attributes (locked with keys, "Take what you need" / "I have no need"), Essence (no keys; thrown into the ocean; seventh millennium; loincloth of trustworthiness; empty inside). "Everything you have seen is created and everything created is incomplete. Ascend until you do not see creation." He throws himself into the sea of perplexity and is left swimming, a word whose root also means praising.
Contemplations 10-14: Perplexity to Judgement
The last five visions go past speech. Perplexity is named the reality of reality, Divinity leaves nothing to report, Uniqueness and servanthood are joined like lam and alif, the dome of the world falls on those who cling to its parts, and on the Day of Judgement the people of argument are judged by their own arguments.
10. The light of perplexity, as the star of non-existence rises
Those who "stop" are lost in it; the heirs are realized in it; the veracious speak from it; it is where the envoys are sent from and where prophets' aspirations ascend. A chain follows: whoever is perplexed unifies, whoever unifies exists (or "finds"), whoever exists passes away, whoever passes away remains. He is to keep people in perplexity, tell them about God's place, which IS says is their own existence, without pointing God out. Then God's garment, His Names and attributes: whoever puts it on is "of Me"; thrown in the fire, if it burns (stained by pretension) it is or is not His garment, depending on the level. The vision ends with Q 20:14, "I am God; there is no god but I", said to Moses.
11. The light of Divinity, as the star of lam-alif rises
The shortest vision. "Explanation is not adequate for it and symbolic language falls short." Name, description, "He said", "I said" and "you" all cease. "Each thing became clear to me, yet I saw nothing."
Lam-alif is written as one stroke but pronounced as two letters, like Divinity, one in essence and relational in its creative aspect. Joined in that order they give la, "no".
12. The light of Uniqueness, as the star of servanthood rises
Uniqueness is joined to servanthood "with the connection of lam-alif". "I am the root and you are the branch" in existence; "the root is you and the branch is 'I'" in knowledge, since God is known through the servant. "You are the one and I am the Unique": the one (wahid) is composite and divisible, the Unique (ahad) is not. Hadiths on the odd prayer ("Only sleep after the odd prayer"; "There are not two odd prayers in a night") carry the point: only one of the two subsists.
A chain of dependence runs from delight to food, fruit, branches, trunk, earth, water, clouds, wind, the order and "the Lordly Presence": "Ascend from here, look, enjoy yourself, but do not speak." "Preserve the intermediaries." Ta'-ha' is written on the stars of Ursa Minor, where the Pole lies. "If there were two Axes the celestial sphere would not turn; and if there were not two Poles, the structure would collapse." Lam-alif, two strokes joined below, is both. "Look at what is hidden in the negation and then say whatever you like, that they are two, or that they are one."
13. The light of the Support, as the star of singularity rises
"Be with the companions of the Support. If you are not with them you will perish and if you are their companion, you will perish": be with the One they are with, not with them. "Whoever sees the Support has been veiled" if he stays with him, since the human being is made for travelling. "Beware of argument, for it brings perdition!"
14. The light of argument, as the star of justice rises
The earth is flattened and empty: the plain of the Day of Judgement. A pavilion stands with a support of fire and sides and ropes of tar. "Am I to be an object of dispute? Or can I be spoken of by anyone but Myself?" He must choose a faction and share its fate.
| Called group | Charge | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Rationalists (philosophers) | Knew what pleases God "through our intellects alone" | Fire; punished by "their intellect, since that is what they worshipped" |
| Naturalists | Worshipped the elements and took actions to come from them | Four rough angels (the elements) throw them in |
| Materialists (dahriyya) | "Only Time can destroy us" (Q 45:24); denied the envoys | "You have no excuse" |
| Mu'tazilites | Claimed lordship: "we do as we like" (independent human will) | Cast into the fire |
| Spiritualists, seven groups | Seduced by passions; "Where is your divine nature now?" | Fall between layers of fire |
| Eighth group | Under the protection of prophets and the veracious | Enter the Garden |
God reveals Himself to each of the eighth group "in the form of [their own] knowledge", and the visions differ in excellence. "This is your form, show yourself to them in it." "Enter the pavilion and its fire will revert to light." Who is saved? "Whoever did not have an argument." God corrects him: "To God is the decisive argument" (Q 6:149), so whoever follows God's argument is saved. He is sent back to warn: "Magnify [Me]! And cleanse your garments" (Q 74:3-5), "be warned and pass beyond". Last words: "Do not do anything that I have told you to do. If you do not do it, you will perish and if you do it, you will perish. So be on your guard and do not depart from the Order!"
Contemplations 10-14: argument map
Contemplation 10 deepening: chain of perplexity
| Command | Result |
|---|---|
| "Return!" "Approach!" "Stop!" "Do not withdraw!" | "I did not find where"; absorbed; perplexed |
| "You are you and I am I" / "You are Me and I am you" / "You are not Me..." | Contradictory identities by level |
| Names side / Essence side | Servant takes on God's traits / God takes on none of his |
| "The I-ness is one and the He-ness is many" | aniyya one; huwiyya many |
| Perplexed -> unifies -> exists/finds -> passes away -> remains | The chain of knowing |
God's garment is His Names and attributes: whoever puts it on is "of Me"; thrown in the fire, if it burns (stained by pretension) it is or is not His garment, depending on the level. The vision ends with Q 20:14, "I am God; there is no god but I", said to Moses.
Contemplations 11-12 deepening
is written on the stars of Ursa Minor, where the Pole lies. "If there were two Axes the celestial sphere would not turn; and if there were not two Poles, the structure would collapse." Lam-alif, two strokes joined below, is both. "Look at what is hidden in the negation and then say whatever you like, that they are two, or that they are one."
Contemplation 13-14 deepening: dome and Judgement
On the plain of Judgement (C14), a pavilion stands with a support of fire and sides and ropes of tar. "Am I to be an object of dispute?" He must choose a faction and share its fate. Rationalists, naturalists, materialists, Mu'tazilites and seven groups of spiritualists fall; an eighth group under prophets and the veracious enters the Garden. God reveals Himself to each of the saved "in the form of [their own] knowledge". "Enter the pavilion and its fire will revert to light." Who is saved? First answer: "Whoever did not have an argument." God corrects: "To God is the decisive argument" (Q 6:149), so whoever follows God's argument is saved.
Last words: "Do not do anything that I have told you to do. If you do not do it, you will perish and if you do it, you will perish. So be on your guard and do not depart from the Order!" Twinch's introduction reads the paradox as: wake from the illusion of a separate existence, then persist in being true to his Reality.
Appendices: Manuscripts, Preface, Epilogue, Veils
| Copy | Library and date | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Base text | Manisa 1183, fols. 47b-83b, AH 686/1287 | Good condition, unvocalized; ends with brief notes that may be dictated by Ibn 'Arabi |
| B | Fatih 5322, fols. 201a-214a | Ibn Sawdakin's commentary, AH 646/1248, from Ibn 'Arabi's oral explanations, paired with the Kitab al-Isra' |
| J | Ayasofia 2019, fols. 100a-392b, AH 686/1287 | Sitt al-'Ajam's Kashf al-kunuz; she declines to explain the work's structure |
All three were written within fifty years of Ibn 'Arabi's death. A French and Arabic edition by S. Ruspoli (1999), based on a Dublin manuscript with Qunawi's commentary, differs from this one in many places.
The preface: a defence of inspiration
A letter to Mahdawi's companions, praising his saying that "the knowledgeable ones of this community are the prophets of other communities". Its aim is to head off objections to "God made me contemplate ... and He said to me". Gabriel no longer descends after the prophetic cycle, but inspiration (ilham) has not ceased on the hearts of the saints; its illuminations are "like oceans without shores".
- Diversity: as God sent the Torah, Gospels, Pages and Quran in turn, He inspires saints differently, some more completely.
- Transmission: private, uncommunicable illumination would end mutual understanding and let any ignorant person preach nonsense as revelation; tested experience (dhawq) is the check.
- Speech without voice: divine words are meanings in the soul, not voices or letters, "speech of the self"; "speech is in the heart, the tongue only indicates what is in it."
- The heart: "Neither My heavens nor My earth encompass Me but the heart of My servant contains Me."
The epilogue: proofs from tradition
The epilogue corroborates the visions from the Quran ("Revere God and He will teach you", Q 2:282), the hadith of supererogatory works ("I am the hearing with which he hears"), "Knowledge is a light which God puts in the heart", and 'Ali striking his chest: "Here are knowledges in abundance, if only I could find someone to bear them." The heart is a mirror of many facets, "an indefinite number of aspects", each polished until free of "the rust of otherness". "Someone who speaks of wisdom without its effects being evident in him is not called wise."
Appendix 4 lines up the seventy veils of Contemplation 3 with the phrases of the "Letter from the First Existence to the Second Existence": non-existence, existence and the existent, the covenants, the return, the seas, the darknesses, matched by shared roots, meaning or symbol. Morris counts sixty-nine kinds of knowledge in the spiritual ascension.
Appendices deepening: preface defence and epilogue proofs
Epilogue proofs (expanded)
The epilogue corroborates the visions from the Quran ("Revere God and He will teach you", Q 2:282), the hadith of supererogatory works ("I am the hearing with which he hears"), "Knowledge is a light which God puts in the heart", and 'Ali striking his chest: "Here are knowledges in abundance, if only I could find someone to bear them." The heart is a mirror of many facets, "an indefinite number of aspects", each polished until free of "the rust of otherness". "Someone who speaks of wisdom without its effects being evident in him is not called wise."
Appendix 4: seventy veils lined up
Appendix 4 lines up the seventy veils of Contemplation 3 with the phrases of the "Letter from the First Existence to the Second Existence": non-existence, existence and the existent, the covenants, the return, the seas, the darknesses, matched by shared roots, meaning or symbol. Morris counts sixty-nine kinds of knowledge in the spiritual ascension. Sitt al-'Ajam declines to explain the work's structure; the Manisa base ends with brief notes that may be dictated by Ibn 'Arabi himself.
Synthesis
A revision map of the Contemplations: takeaways, frameworks, closer look, Who's Who, and practice points that stay inside the book's own spiritual distinctions.
Across the book
The introduction places the Mashahid in Ibn 'Arabi's early life after Tunis (1194), in its textual tradition (Hakim and Beneito; Twinch), and in the science of letters and numbers that shapes the choice of fourteen. Twinch stresses the first instruction: take the book with strength, make it known, verify and scrutinize it. The underlying theme is the epilogue's line: stay with the image and you are lost; rise from image to reality and you are guided.
Contemplations 1-4 set the grammar: the servant as apparent non-existence; the covenant-taking and the sea-water discipline; seventy veils and the Stone named anta; the mule that alone crosses the flood between transcendence and similarity.
Contemplations 5-9 turn from identity to carrying: silence as the root of speech; the Watchtower's demand to stay within the limit; the Leg as the Order; the Rock and the living half of the fish; rivers, seas and an empty treasure of the Essence that ends in the sea of perplexity.
Contemplations 10-14 go past speech: perplexity as the reality of reality; Divinity where the address stops; Uniqueness joined to servanthood with "Preserve the intermediaries"; the dome that falls on those who cling to its parts; Judgement where each group is judged by its own argument.
The appendices keep the manuscript map, the preface's defence of continuing inspiration (ilham), the epilogue's proof-texts, and the lining-up of the seventy veils with the Letter from First to Second Existence.
Twenty takeaways
| # | Takeaway |
|---|---|
| 1 | The book is a witnessing, not a reverie. Mashahid are places where one is present and testifies. |
| 2 | Its first instruction is to publish. "Take it with strength and make it known," while verifying closely. |
| 3 | The servant is "apparent non-existence". Existence and finding are God's; limited existence is lent. |
| 4 | God is found by losing the self. Finding and losing are the servant's states. |
| 5 | Stripping comes before seeing. "Cast off your clothes ... Now you are you." |
| 6 | Knowledge must keep its water. Gems turn to stones on dry land unless sea-water is carried. |
| 7 | The Perfect Man outweighs the Throne. The Stone of Similarity is named anta, "you". |
| 8 | The middle way crosses the flood. The mule unites tanzih and tashbih; donkey and horse drown. |
| 9 | Silence grounds speech. The alif is silent and present in every letter. |
| 10 | Stay within the limit. From the Watchtower, whoever claims divinity is sent down. |
| 11 | Exaltation and humbling come together. Mirror and hidden treasure is also "scattered dust". |
| 12 | The literal stands. Denying Garden, Fire, Balance and resurrection as mere images earns the gravest threat. |
| 13 | All the created is incomplete. The treasure of the Essence is empty: "Now you have seen." |
| 14 | Perplexity is the summit of knowing. "He who does not remain in perplexity does not know Me." |
| 15 | Words end. In Divinity "the address stopped", "annihilation annihilated from annihilation". |
| 16 | Preserve the intermediaries. Delight depends on fruit, earth, rain, wind and the Lordly Presence. |
| 17 | Clinging to parts brings the dome down. Beauty, stakes and ropes veil; even the Support veils. |
| 18 | Each judges himself. The rationalists are punished by "their intellect, since that is what they worshipped". |
| 19 | God appears in the form of each one's knowledge. The visions of the saved differ in excellence. |
| 20 | The last command is a paradox. Obey or not, "you will perish": wake from separate existence, then keep to the Order. |
Frameworks and mental models
| Framework | Where | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Fourteen lights and stars | Preface, all | Each vision pairs a light with a rising star; fourteen links letters, moon, heavens and earths, and ta'-ha' |
| First and second existence | C1 | Existence in divine knowledge versus in concrete entities |
| Three takings | C2 | Of the unified, the differentiated and the union of the unified |
| Seventy veils and the Letter | C3, App. 4 | Veils matched to stages of a cosmogony |
| Donkey, horse, mule | C4 | Transcendence, immanence, and their union |
| Alif and the letters | C5 | Silence articulating speech |
| Watchtower and thirty-one risings | C6 | Stay within the limit; exaltation with humbling |
| Five classes of servant | C7 | Pen, heart, secret, hidden mystery, wanderers |
| Two halves of the fish | C8 | Apparent "dead" knowledge and living hidden knowledge |
| Four orders of seeing | C9 | Veracious, witness, follower of proof, saved |
| Three abodes | C9 | Actions, attributes, Essence |
| Dome, support, stakes, ropes | C13 | World, Pole, saints, secondary causes |
| Arrivers and returners | Preface | Waqif, knower, heir |
- Interpretive layers. Much of the meaning rests on IS and SA. IS claims to transmit Ibn 'Arabi's own words; SA's knowledge came in vision. The translators adopt both, so readers should keep the text and the gloss apart.
- Textual variance. Three copies are used, with some MS. B and J variants noted; the Ruspoli edition "differs in many places".
- Omitted formulas. Many "And He said to me" are cut and marked by line breaks, which smooths the Niffari-like rhythm.
- Preface and epilogue summarized. The book's own defence and proof-texts reach English only through the Hakim and Beneito summary.
- Harsh passages. The Judgement scenes condemn whole schools; the introduction balances them with Ibn 'Arabi's stress on all-encompassing Mercy.
Who's Who
| Name | Role in this book |
|---|---|
| Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240) | Author; wrote the work in 1194 after Tunis |
| 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Mahdawi | Tunis shaykh, disciple of Abu Madyan; his companions receive the preface |
| 'Ali b. al-'Arabi | Ibn 'Arabi's paternal cousin, named in the dedication |
| Ibn Sawdakin (1181-1248) | Close companion; commentary (MS. B) from oral explanations |
| Sitt al-'Ajam (d. c. 1288) | Baghdad mystic; visionary commentary (MS. J) |
| Niffari (d. 965) | Author of the Mawaqif, model for the style |
| Souad Hakim, Pablo Beneito | Critical edition, Murcia 1994, revised 1996 |
| Cecilia Twinch | Translator and author of the introduction (Oxford, 2000) |
| Sadruddin Qunawi | Stepson and disciple; a commentary of his follows the Dublin copy |
| Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Ali | Companions cited for veracity, witnessing and abundant knowledge |
Applying It (inside the book's own distinctions)
2. Carry sea-water. Keep knowledge joined to its source.
3. Ride the mule. Hold transcendence and similarity together.
4. Stay within the limit. The Watchtower rewards rank kept.
5. Preserve the intermediaries. Do not tear out what bears the dome.
6. Remain in perplexity. It is the reality of reality (C10).
7. Drop your own argument. Follow God's argument; keep to the Order.
Glossary of Key Terms
Arabic keys as Twinch and Beneito use them in this volume. Meanings stay inside the Contemplations and their notes.
| Term | Meaning in this book |
|---|---|
| mashhad / mashahid | Place of witnessing; contemplation, vision; from sh-h-d, to see and testify |
| asrar | Mysteries, secrets |
| matla' / matali' | Rising of a star; in C6, the Watchtower of Elevation |
| al-haqq | The Real, Truth, God; the speaker in the visions |
| 'abd / 'ubudiyya | Servant; servanthood, the human condition (joined to Uniqueness in C12) |
| wujud | Existence, Being; also finding; light of C1 |
| 'adam | Non-existence; "apparent" (possible) or "hidden" (impossible) |
| mumkin | The possible, "no thing" until given existence |
| akhdh | Taking; God's drawing out of Adam's progeny (Q 7:172); light of C2 |
| sutur | Veils; seventy veils of light in C3 |
| shu'ur | Intuition, synthetic knowledge; shares root with poetry and hair (C4) |
| tanzih / tashbih | Transcendence (incomparability) / similarity; the mule unites them |
| barzakh | Isthmus between two orders, like the mule, the half-moon or the sunset |
| samt | Silence, a negative attribute; light of C5 |
| saq | The Leg (Q 68:42); the Order (amr) that supports (C7) |
| sakhra | The Rock of Moses and his companion (Q 18:63); body and its knowledges (C8) |
| anhar | Rivers; four seas returning to one ocean (C9) |
| hayra | Perplexity, bewilderment; "the reality of reality" (C10) |
| aniyya / huwiyya | I-ness / He-ness, hidden Identity; the book comes from huwiyya |
| uluhiyya | Divinity; the address stops (C11) |
| ahad / wahid | The Unique (indivisible) / the one (composite) (C12) |
| lam-alif | One written stroke, two sounds; the particle "no"; star of C11 |
| 'amd / qutb | Support / Pole, the Perfect Man at the dome's centre (C13) |
| awtad / asbab | Stakes (a rank of saints) / ropes (secondary causes) of the dome |
| hijaj | Argument, proofs; light of C14, Judgement of the sects |
| al-insan al-kamil | The Perfect Man, Complete Human Being; the Stone of Similarity |
| ma'iyya | "Withness" (Q 57:4); after dropping the mim of ma'a-hum |
| ilham | Inspiration of the saints, distinct from prophetic wahy (preface) |
| dhawq | Taste, tested mystical experience; check on false claims (preface) |
| waqif / 'arif / warith | One who stops / knower / heir (arrivers and returners) |
| Arin | Dome of the point of equilibrium; where the Buraq arrives |
| hadd | Limit, boundary; "stay within My limit" (C6) |
| amr | The Order, Command; what the Leg supports; "do not depart from the Order" |
| anta | "You"; alif-nun-ta' naming the Stone of Similarity (C3) |
| IS / SA | Ibn Sawdakin / Sitt al-'Ajam; the two early commentators in the notes |
About this book
Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries and the Rising of the Divine Lights by Ibn 'Arabi, 2001. This is a chapter-by-chapter study of the book, with summaries, maps, tables and diagrams; short quotations keep their page references. It is shared free for personal study, is not for sale, and is not endorsed by the author or publisher. Please read and buy the original.
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