Believing and Understanding God

ai02294

Hikmah 1

Dr. Francisco Luis

Habib University

Karachi

April 2018
 Islamic theology is deeply invested in the study of names and attributes of God. These

names and attributes help disclose our true self and nature to us. In order to be nearer to God and

to receive True Knowledge, I believe it is imperative to take this path of self-actualization. Thus,

the objective of this research paper is to explore the very fundamental questions asked in the

Islamic tradition; what the human self is and, what it means to be human. In order to shed some

light on these two questions and, to discuss why asking these questions become vital for a human

being, I aim to draw a contrast between a 12th century philosopher and scholar of Islam, Ibn

Arabi, and a 19th century psychoanalyst, Carl Gustav Jung.

However, preliminary to the question of Self are the two notions; Consciousness and The

Intellect that are to be discussed in detail, without which the Self remains incomplete. In order to

explain these two terms, I will discuss how an individual understands oneself through a

psychological and also, a philosophical lens and how, that gives way to the idea of Self

Knowledge which, in turn, relates to an individual’s understanding of God. However, the belief

in God and the understanding of God are two coexisting phenomenons that create an individual’s

relationship with God on which the entire basis for the creation of the universe and, the

foundation of our existence, is dependent upon.

According to Carl Jung, a man’s psyche, developed throughout his past, is his self

regulating system that is responsible for all the conscious and unconscious thoughts and

processes. However, it is the consciousness of the psyche that is exclusively responsible for

reflecting upon the world and its existence. In fact, for Jung, consciousness is a precondition of

being1. Without the conscious psyche, man will not be able to comprehend the world that it

experiences and thus, will not be able to express it through his psyche. The psyche then becomes

1
Carl Jung, ‘The Undiscovered Self’ (2002) pg 33
the totality of all psychic contents2 that has been constructing itself in humans with the process of

evolution throughout civilizations. The unconscious, however, for Jung is a psychological

concept rather than a philosophical one, and is detached from all the perceptible, conscious

experiences of the ego of a man. For him, the unconscious has two fractions; personal

consciousness and collective consciousness. The personal unconsciousness is the portion that has

all the repressed and forgotten memories. However, the collective unconscious is what is

common among beings through the process of history. The innateness of some qualities and

attributes in a man has been a result of evolution. These attributes are known as Archetypes,

according to Jungian psychology.

However, for Ibn Arabi, no universe is thinkable without the primacy of life and

awareness, the presence of consciousness in the underlying stuff of reality3. However, it is the

concept of divinity in a man that can grasp reality in its true form. This is presented to us in the

form of the Divine Intellect or the Aql. In fact, according to William Chittick:

In the usage of the Qur’an and Islamic sources in general, the heart designates not the

emotive and affective side of human nature, but the center of consciousness,

awareness, and intelligence. The heart is the human faculty that can embrace God in

the fullness of his manifestation. (Chittick 2005: pg 15)

Since, “the realities” are things as they truly are, that is, as they are known by God4, the Divine

Intellect becomes a part of our psyche that is provided to us by God instead of being a fraction of

us that is learned over history through cultures and through the process of evolution and

2
Carl Jung, ‘Psychological Types, The Collected Works of C.G Jung (1921) pg 535-536
3
William C. Chittick, ‘Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets’ (2005) pg 38
4
William C. Chittick, ‘Ibn Arabi: Heir to the Prophets’ (2005) pg 13
socialization. God is the cause of the intellect, the intellect the cause of the soul5, however, while

all other existences depend upon each other, God is the cause of everything.

The role of Intellect, nevertheless, is restricted as the human mind has a restricted capacity

to understand Reality. Our sensory world is the only perceptible reality for our mind, however,

the existence of the Imaginal World where everything happens contrary to the evidence of

ordinary consciousness6 is not comprehensible to us by our Aql. It is a world between the

heavens and the Earth, also known as the Alm al-mithal, and is beyond any physical perceptions

of the world that our mind has developed for us. In this world, our consciousness and sensory

perceptions collapse and incomprehensible realities are shaped. Thus, through Aql we can only

believe in the existence of God and other realities, our consciousness then plays the role of

further understanding God, and hence, understanding our Selves

Nevertheless, in order to comprehend God, it is first imperative to believe in God’s

inaccessibility. This is known as negative theology in which we first establish that God cannot be

known entirely within the limitations of the human mind. However, it is only through the notion

of the Self, the Universe and the Scripture that He can be known to us within the boundaries of

our Selves. It is through these aspects of creation that we understand that God’s creation is the

manifestation of His mystery to Himself.7 In other words, we are His manifestation of Himself to

us. This notion is evident to us through a verse from the Quran; We will show them Our signs in

the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth.8 Other than

5
William C. Chittick ‘The Heart of Islamic Philosophy’ (2001) pg 75
6
Henry Corbin ‘Mundus Imaginalis’ (1972) pg 8
7
Peter Coates, ‘Ibn Arabi and Modern Thought’ (2004) pg 124
8
The Quran, Surah Fussilat Verse 53
that, the most used Hadith in the context of Sufism9 also describes this notion of understanding

God through us; He who recognizes himself will recognize his Lord.10 This implies the

importance of understanding the relationship that we have with God in order to know ourselves

and our relationship with the cosmos, at large. For Ibn Arabi, and for most Sufi scholars, the

relationship of a man with his Creator is that of a servant to his Master. Through gnosis, or as

known as self-actualization, we can truly understand our relationship with God, who discloses

Himself through everything that is present, has been present or will ever be present. In fact, all

that is absent is also a disclosure of Him that we are yet unaware of.

Other than the restrictiveness of the human intellect, it is also the nature of God that does

not allow us to truly grasp His existence. Each disclosure of God has the quality of being Unique

and that is why, we cannot explain God through our intellect. As soon as we start describing

God, we limit Him and His essence but, He is beyond any perceptible and/or intangible

experiences. His manifestation in us and his detachment from us indicates towards His presence

and absence in this world. His wujud11 is to be perceived as both absent, because it is none other

than the Divine Essence, and present, because it is none other than God’s self-disclosure as the

selfhood of the knower.12

It is because of this notion of Him being Unique that while understanding scripture,

different meanings and interpretations occur. For Ibn Arabi, each interpretation is provided by

God. This is what he calls Self Knowledge where your experience of God and understanding

9
Sufism is defined as the relationship between Man and his God, or in other words, relationship between the
Creator and His Creation which is similar to the relationship of a slave with his Lord or of a Lover yearning for his
Beloved. (Taken from Annemarie Shimmel, ‘The Mystical Dimensions of Islam’ (1975) pg 5
10
William C. Chittick, ‘Heir to the Prophets’ (2005) pg 85
11
Wujud is a term Ibn Arabi uses for the reality of finding, which is to say that it is awareness, consciousness,
understanding, and knowledge. William C. Chittick, ‘Heir to The Prophets’ (2005) pg 35
12
William C. Chittick, ‘Heir to the Prophets’ (2005) pg 37
your Self, the universe and the scripture is entirely your own. Each moment of self-knowledge

represents a new perception of God’s manifestation in the soul and the world.13 In Ibn Arabi’s

philosophy, it is the consciousness of a man that is working with this notion of Self Knowledge

through which any of the knowledge of God is comprehensible. However, for Carl Jung, it is the

unconscious that is the only accessible source of religious experience.14 Unconsciousness, for

Jung, is how a man experiences religion in his life. Thus, through this understanding, knowing

God becomes a matter of transcendence only which negates any theory about the Self being a

manifestation of God in the form of His attributes.

Nevertheless, for Ibn Arabi, He is both transcendent and immanent, in nature. Through

this belief comes the notion of attributes of God without which understanding God, within the

capacity of the mind, is not possible. It is, indeed, His attribute of being Unique that is the

foundation of our belief in Him and, it is this attribute of being Unique that He is not entirely

comprehensible to anyone. His transcendent and immanent nature is the foundation of

understanding His creation as well and thus, understanding Him. He reveals Himself to us

through us and, it is this bi-unity which forms the relationship of Love, another attribute of God,

between man and his Creator; a love whose only aim is to satisfy the Beloved, proceeds from the

spiritual nature of the soul.15 This Divine Love begins with creation itself and, is the reason due

to which He wanted to be revealed through creation. What we know of God’s attributes are also

a manifestation of Him in this world through us and for us, however, the actual essence of those

attributes are still unknown to us and is presented to us in the form of nonknowledge.16 It was His

13
William C. Chittick, ‘Heir to the Prophets’ (2005) pg 22
14
Carl Jung, ‘The Undiscovered Self’ (2002) pg 63
15
Henry Corbin, ‘Alone with the Alone’ (1998) pg 150
16
Henry Corbin ‘Alone with the Alone’ (1998) pg 184
Sigh of Compassion, Rahma, that led to creation and, this is how the attribute of God, Al

Raheem, is presented to us.

In addition to this, an additional attribute of God that I will be focusing on in this paper is

the Divine Feminine. To look at it from a psychological lens, Carl Jung presents his theory of the

Anima and the Animus, in which the archetype of anima is designated in the man and, animus in

the woman. These archetypes are said to be the mirror images of our biological Self. However,

first it is important to understand that for Jung, there is a distinction between the ego and the Self

as well. Ego, for him is only the subject of his consciousness17 while the Self includes the totality

of his conscious and unconscious psyche along with all those general human qualities the

conscious attitude lacks18.

Another aspect in the entirety of a man is the aspect of persona which is defined as the

outer personality of a person that interacts with the world and, has come into existence for

reasons of adaptation or necessary convenience.19 Persona is what is seen in our everyday

interaction and life and is developed starting from the childhood. Thus, these archetypes of

anima and animus are only molded through a man’s past experiences with members of the

opposite sex. This theory suggests that a man’s persona may seem very masculine or a woman’s

persona may seem too feminine, however, their inner self; their soul, carry feminine and

masculine traits, respectively.

However, for Ibn Arabi, since, God is best manifested in the form of humans and

creation, these archetypes are then a reflection of not just our biological Self but are mirror

images of God Himself. Especially the Feminine Divine is the attribute of God that is said to be

17
Carl Jung, ‘Psychological Types, The Collected Works of C.G Jung (1921) pg 540
18
Carl Jung, ‘Psychological Types, The Collected Works of C.G Jung (1921) pg 594
19
Carl Jung, ‘Psychological Types, The Collected Works of C.G Jung (1921) pg 591
the best out of all in order to describe Compassion, Beauty and Love. Woman reveals, for Ibn

Arabi, the secret of the compassionate God.20 To know and love God through Women, thus, is

accounted to be the same as actualizing his attributes that are presented to us in the highest form

in its immanent nature.

The Divine Feminine is not just another theory that is formed and provided only by the

man, in fact, has its roots deep in theology, especially the Islamic theology. It is through the

notion of Self Knowledge that we can recognize the aspect of Divinity in the feminine and, the

aspect of femininity in the Divine. This concept is recognized through most of the Sufi scholars

who are invested in understanding the mirror images of God in this world. In fact, in Jalaluddin

Rumi’s words, Women are not only the mirror image of God’s attribute, they are defined as:

Woman is a beam of the divine Light.

She is not the being whom sensual desire takes as its object'

She is Creator, it should be said.

She is not a Creature.21

Other than the attributes of Compassion, it is the attribute of Beauty as well that is

emanated from the feminine beings. It is Beauty in the form of the Creative Feminine that God

loves and thus, it is His own Beauty that He loves, that is manifested through the Divine

Feminine. However, beauty in this context is not beauty for “temptation” but, is the Beauty of

God that we see around us.

Other than that, Beauty has spread its importance in the Adab aspect of Islam as well

through which we come to know about the proper actions to perform in Islam. Other than that, it
20
Annemarie Shimmel, ‘The Mystical Dimensions of Islam’ (1975) pg 431

21
Henry Corbin, ‘Alone with the Alone’ (1998) pg 160
also has its connotations under the theme of knowledge which is, in my opinion, necessary for

both believing and understanding God. The following lines of poetry enhance the importance of

knowing God’s Beauty through Scripture:

You are a copy of God's own book,

you are a mirror of the King's own beauty22

Thus, through these lines we understand that to understand Scripture, which is the God’s

speech, is to understand God. It is in the knowledge of Scripture that we can find all the

knowledge of the cosmos and, of how God is manifested in every single aspect of it. Once we

have learned that, it can be guided to us what our relationship with the entire cosmos, and hence,

with our God is. Our Self then constitutes of everything that is God and, also not God. By

understanding our Selves, we can only begin to understand why God is the indiscernible Being.

Therefore, to summarize all that has been said in this paper, it can be concluded that

through the attainment of knowledge, we can comprehend the realities of the worlds and, be

closer to. The crux of knowledge, then, is to understand one’s own soul.23 It is only through

knowing our Self, in its entirety, that we can understand who our God is and, how a form of Him

is being mirrored through us while maintaining the attribute of being Unique. Nevertheless, from

the point of view of a modern psychoanalyst; Carl Jung, it is not the uniqueness of the Being that

is being reflected by the Self, it is the collective inheritance of human species which has led to all

the shared higher cultural experiences.

22
William C. Chittick ‘The Heart of Islamic Philosophy’ (2001) pg 131
23
William C. Chittick, ‘Heir to the Prophets’ (2005) pg 58
Reference List

Corbin, Henry, 1998: Alone with the Alone (New Jersey: Princeton University Press)

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Seriously (Lahore: Sohail Academy)

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Chittick, William: 2001: The Heart Of Islamic Philosophy: The Quest for Self-Knowledge in the

Teachings of Afdal al-Din Kashani (New York: Oxford University Press)

Jung, Carl: 1921: Psychological types: The Collected Works of C.G Jung (T. and A. Constable

Ltd)

Jung, Carl: 2002: The Undiscovered Self (London: Routledge Classics)

Murata, Sachiko, 1992: The Tao of Islam: A Sourcebook On Gender Relationships in Islamic

Thought (Albany: State University of New York Press)

Shimmel, Annemarie, 1975: The mystical dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: The University of

North Carolina Press)

A dangerous method, 2011 [film]. Directed by David Cronenberg. Italy: Recorded Picture

Company