Damascus. Tomb of Ibn 'Arabi
الشام. ضريح الشيخ الأكبر محيي الدين بن عربي
أنا الكعبة؛
التي خضعت إليَّ رقاب الجبابرة
I am the Kaaba; to me
the potent wardens submit.¹
Ibn 'Arabi
Voice of gong at night me roused,
Calling gong at night aloud,
"Spirit, thus arise, and hark
To the mysteries of heart!"
Light is shimmering and fading,
Voice of gong revolves vibrating...
With a candle I am going
'Mid the billows heaving, rolling;
Stormy wind is still repeating,
"Wake and rise, the spirit sleeping!"
Pealing gong by surges high
Does perturb affrighted night...
With a candle I am going
On the street, the wind is blowing;
Though fire only throbs...
Candle's flame itself forgot
In the storm nocturnal; Sounds
Voice of storm 'mid mystic clouds:
I am gale and gate and seal
Of Eternity concealed,
The Kaaba golden; Pole,
'Round me, O seeker, flow!
I transformed in breathing fair,
I become a gust of air
Driven by the stream around
The coffín in crystal shrowd,
Standing on the water roaring;
Waves are dashing, clashing, rolling...
Turn by turn I made and felt
That I were a whirling gale...
- Thus I raise a wind to tempest,
I am mystery that changeth
Star into the Sphere hid -
Houri in tent concealed...
Then engravings sacred hand
On the heart of gale has made;
And the Water restless said,
"Hide yourself in galley, and
Drift whereto shall carry waves, -
Be the galley with My names..."
- What Ocean said, I do repeat,
To God the pole does lead;
To myself I raise you not,
I raise you to thyself and God...
Took the desert galley mine,
Yellow sand, and yellow time...
- What you hear to me say...
"Loneliness around stray..."
To the desert I replied;
In the wheel are reeling nights...
Ah, my calendar, alack,
Took the wind, and did forget...
- What you hear, say to me...
"All around voice of sea..."
To the desert I replied,
But where are sands? Around me brine...
Had melted vision, underneath
The dome I woke; Walls as if
Of letters made and glyphs...
The dome is turning always; In
The mid of chamber stands
The lord Sufi with staff-as-axe...
Me: O master, please, reply,
This mystic tempest why..?
Sufi lord: Abundance of Divine
Mysteries and revelations...
Me: About the Names, and galley say...
Sufi lord:
أنظر إلى العرش على مائه
سفينة تجري بأسمائه
Look upon His throne on waves, -
The keel is sailing with His names.²
Ibn 'Arabi
In waters odd the boat did sail,
The third of night had passed away;
In net the sailor nothing caught,
But names, got strange the boat...
قال بعضهم: العرش ظل الله والإنسان العرش
Said one of them:
The throne is a shadow of God,
the throne is a man.³
Ibn 'Arabi
Only in desert silence speak;
Itself in desert hid the sea...
In wasteland galley found waves,
Or maybe waves have found sail...
No more the sunken keel is ship, -
But sea...
غرقِ حَقْ، خواهد که باشد غَرقتَر
هَمچو موجِ بَحرِ جان زیر و زَبَر
Drowned in God, is longing to be more drowned,
As a wave of the sea of Spirit, up and down...
Rumi, Masnavi 1:1748
The sea and keel in reeling dance,
A moth is whirling 'round lamp...
In the maelstrom of abyss
The boat is whirling from His kiss...
عين تجلي الرحمن، على قلب الإنسان
بالفيض الأقدس، والتجلي الأنفس، فقلب
الإنسان الكامل مظهر الكمالات الإلهية
The essence of manifestation is Rahmān,
in the heart of man, by efflux
of sanctity, and manifestation of the breaths;
So the heart of a perfect man
is the revealer of Divine perfections.⁴
Ibn 'Arabi
Jesus saith: I am the vine, ye are
the branches: He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same beareth much fruit: for
apart from me ye can do nothing.
John 15:5
He saith:
I am enigma of arcanum-Nun,
The mirror I have made to look
At it, My beauty to reveal...
The image of My Face...
O mirror Mine, thou art My Name.
I am Eternity, so you
In Me eternal too...
While you are looking on Me, I
In thee reflect, in the abide...
But ah, if thou will turn from Me,
Then broken glass, and heart, and dream...
وهو الاسم الرحمن الذي وسعت
رحمته كل شيء وجوباً ومنه،
ولما سافر هذا الاسم الرحمن سافرت
معه جميع الأسماء المتعلقة بالكون
And this Name Rahmān encompasses by His
compassion everything, and all is from Him.
When travels this Name Rahmān, with Him
travel all the names related to being.⁵
Ibn 'Arabi
At night to me Enigma came,
"Unriddle Me, I am a maze..."
To me He said, I made a step,
And lost from dizziness the track...
"O Maze, astray I gone..."
- What would you from Me to know?
Where are Thy beginning and Thine end?
- I do not have...
Where should I go, say...
- Where I shall open gate...
How many are..?
- How many stars upon the sky...
But where does it lead?
- To uniqueness thine in Me,
My gates - expressions of infinitude
Mysterious of Me; And you
Will too become My gate,
If thou dost obey the way
I lead...
And they, who outside do live?
- They are asleep, as if not be...
But where Thou art?
- In heart...
My gates are names of Me...
ليس بأيدينا على الحقيقة
من الحق تعالى إلا أسماؤه
Verily, from God, exalted is He,
we have only His Names.⁶
Ibn 'Arabi
These names signify the divine substance,
and are predicated substantially of God,
although they fall short of a full representation of Him.
Thomas Aquinas
'Tis one o'clock, the chalk He took,
And circle on the water drew...
"I have pronounced, underlined,
Upon the water made the sign;
This water - heart of Me..."
In vision this I bade Him, "Please,
Thy Name reveal'st..."
Enigma:
No man hath seen God at any time;
the only begotten Son, who is in
the bosom of the Father, he
hath declared him.
John 1:18
Marvellous it is...
Then vision shrank, but left
This dizzinéss...
Sufi lord:
فَقَوْلُهُ: اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَدًا،
وَأَنَا الْأَحَدُ الصَّمَدُ، لَمْ أَلِدْ وَلَمْ أُولَدْ،
وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لِي كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ
The saying: God hath ta'en a son;
But I am One, the Everlasting, I
begot not, nor was begotten, and
there is none like unto Me.
Hadith Qudsi
Two antinómies these, ye say,
Are running from each other ways...
The West and East each other, why,
Only deny, deny...
The mystery this who can solve?
Who doth not look upon the form,
But on the pith...
Here are the keys:
The Son and Father - symbols are
Of One.
March 2020
1 Ibn 'Arabi, The Crown of Epistles
تاج الرسائل ومنهاج الوسائل
2 Ibn 'Arabi, The Abode of Stars
مواقع النُجوم ومطالع أهلة الأسرار والعلوم
3 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of Signs of Those of Revelation
كتاب الإعلام بإشارات أهل الإلهام
4 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of the Veil of the Men of Mystery
كتاب الستر لأهل السر
5 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of Journeys
كتاب الإسفار عن نتائج الأسفار
6 Ibn 'Arabi, The Book of Questions
كتاب المسائل
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I Q 13.2
Translations from Arabic and Farsi
by Denis Bezmelnitsin
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