The Supreme Barzahh

Reality is not existent, that the Real

should have brought us into existence from an eternally existent thing and we should be called eternal. In the same order of things, you should
know that this Reality is nor described as prior to rhc cosmos, nor is the cosmos described .15 posterior to it. But it is the root of all existent things. It is the root of substance, the Sphere of Life ({<llak al-havdt), the Real Through Whom Creation Takes Place, and so forth. It is the all-cncompassmg intelligible sphere. If YOll say that it is the cosmos, you are correct; that it is not the cosmos, you arc correct; that it is the Real or not the Real, you arc correct. It accepts all of that. At till' same time it becomes plural through the plurality of the individual things of the cosmos, and it is declared incomparable through God's

incompnrability.

(1 119.3)

"Have you seen him who has taken his caprice to be his god?" (25:43). "Who is further astray than he who follows his caprice without guidance from God?" (28:50). Caprice is an airiness and lightheadedness that turns a person away from right guidance. In what follows Ibn al-'Arabl employs the term ahwii", which is the plural of both "air" and "caprice;" to bring out one of the implications of the air mentioned in the hadith of the Cloud. I translate the term as "airs," hoping to call to mind that a person who "puts on airs" is acting merely for the sake of appearance and outward show, not because the reality of things would demand it. That God should "put on airs" is diametrically opposed to the idea that He creates "through the Heal."
The Prophet said that our Lord is in a Cloud, neither above which nor below which is any air . Thereby he declared God incomparable with the idea that He turns things about because of airs. He alludcd to that Being with a word which denotes a cloud, which is the place where airs turn things about. Then he denied that there should be any air above or below that Cloud. Hence it possesses everlasting immutability. It is neither on air nor lJl :ur. ... God described Himself among His creatures with the words, "H<.: governs the a [fair, lie differentiates the signs" (Koran 13:2). In the same way He said, "We turn about the signs" (6:105). H.e who has no understanding imagines that God's St3tl~S undergo change. But He is high exalted and far too holy for change. Rather. the states change, but He does not change with them. For He rules over properties. Nothing rules over Him. Hence the Lawgiver mentioned [in this hadith] the attribute of immutability which docs not accept change, for the hand of airs docs not turn about His signs, since the Cloud docs not accept airs. This Cloud is that which we have mentioned as eternal in the eternal and temporall y originated in the temporally originutcd. This is like your words, or idcntical with your words, concerning Being/ existence. When you attribute it to the Real, you say it is Eternal, but when you

The Reality of Realities possesses ternpOl'JI origination in the temporally originatcd thing and eternity in the Eternal. This becomes manifest in the sharing (ishtir . fk) of names. He has named you with what He has named Himself. Bur He has not named you, rather [He has named] the Universal Reality which brillgs together the Real and creation. So [for example] you an! the knower, and He is th~ Knower. However, you are tempor311y originated, so the arrriburion of knowledge to you is temporally originated, while He is Eternal, so the artribution of knowledge to Him is eternal. Bur knowledge in itself is a sin~1c thing; which has come to be qualified by the arrrihutc of him who is described by it. (lV :111.26)

In the following passage lbn al-' Arabi is discussing rhe symbolism of the Cloud, which he shows to he identical with the Universal Reality, though he docs not mention the latter by name. Tht: word for "air" (lwwii') employed in the hadirb of the Cloud is closely connected in origin and meaning to the word "caprice" (fraU/a), which is a Koranic term sigllifying the self-centered and ignor:mt willfulness of those who follow their own

desires :IS another god, thus becoming guilty of the only unforgivable sin, $hirk, or "associating another reality with God."

137