The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-ʿArabī's CosmologyThe Self-Disclosure of God offers the most detailed presentation to date in any Western language of the basic teachings of Islam's greatest mystical philosopher and theologian. It represents a major step forward in making available to the Western reading public the enormous riches of Islamic teachings in the fields of cosmology, mystical philosophy, theology, and spirituality. The Self-Disclosure of God continues the author's investigations of the world view of Ibn al-ʿArabī, the greatest theoretician of Sufism and the "seal of the Muhammadan saints." The book is divided into three parts, dealing with the relation between God and the cosmos, the structure of the cosmos, and the nature of the human soul. A long introduction orients the reader and discusses a few of the difficulties faced by Ibn al-ʿArabī's interpreters. Like Chittick's earlier work, The Sufi Path of Knowledge, this book is based primarily on Ibn al-ʿArabī's monumental work, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīyah "The Meccan Openings." More than one hundred complete chapters and subsections are translated, not to mention shorter passages that help put the longer discussions in context. There are detailed indices of sources, Koranic verses and hadiths. The book's index of technical terminology will be an indispensable reference for all those wishing to delve more deeply into the use of language in Islamic thought in general and Sufism in particular. |
Contents
1 Wujud and the Entities | 3 |
Selves and Horizons | 6 |
Wujud | 12 |
The One Hundred and Third Question | 16 |
Gods Knowledge | 20 |
Gods Waymarks | 22 |
The Precedent Book | 25 |
Gods Form | 27 |
The Sixth Deputyship | 196 |
The Storehouse of the Servants Posteriority | 198 |
6 Divine and Cosmic Relations | 201 |
The First and the Last | 202 |
The Presence of Firstness | 203 |
The Manifest and the Nonmanifest | 205 |
The Presence of Manifestation | 208 |
The Presence of Nonmanifestation | 210 |
The Nonexistent Entities | 29 |
The Third Pole | 33 |
New Arrival | 34 |
The Storehouse of Lights | 36 |
The Entities and the Names | 39 |
Nothing Has Become Manifest | 40 |
The Stairs | 42 |
Thingness of Fixity | 44 |
2 Perpetual SelfDisclosure | 47 |
The Thirtieth Question | 49 |
The Presence of the Creation and the Command | 50 |
SelfDisclosure | 52 |
Unending Renewal | 57 |
The Presence of Bringing Back | 65 |
Infinity | 66 |
The AllMerciful Breath | 69 |
Gods Infinite Words | 70 |
The One Entity | 72 |
The Ninth Deputyship | 76 |
The TwentyFirst Tawhid | 78 |
Bewilderment in the Many and the One | 79 |
Blindness | 81 |
The QuickFlowing Course | 82 |
Bewilderment in Arrival | 83 |
Annihilation and Subsistence | 84 |
Your God Is One God | 86 |
Trotting around the Kaabah | 89 |
3 The Face of God | 91 |
Perishment | 92 |
Realization | 96 |
The NinetySeventh Question | 98 |
Discerning the Face | 99 |
Desiring the Face | 101 |
The Veil | 104 |
The Curtain | 108 |
Revelation | 109 |
Mutual Waystations | 112 |
4 Veils of Light | 120 |
Occasions | 123 |
The TwentyFifth Tawhid 127From Chapter 198 The ThirdSecond Tawhid | 127 |
The Identity of the Veil and the Face | 128 |
The Path of Exaltation | 132 |
Trust in God | 134 |
The Specific Face | 135 |
Depending on What Falls Short | 139 |
Witnessing the Specific Face | 140 |
The Servant of the Praiseworthy | 146 |
The Arriver | 148 |
The Veils of Knowledge | 150 |
The Storehouse of Teaching | 152 |
Glories | 155 |
The Facial Glories | 158 |
The Presence of Light | 159 |
The Station of Fear | 161 |
The Station of Abandoning Fear | 162 |
II The Order of the Worlds | 165 |
5 The Roots of Order | 167 |
Unity and Totality | 170 |
The Even and the Odd | 173 |
The Presence of Bringing Together | 178 |
Ranking in Excellence | 181 |
Gods Choices | 186 |
The FiftyFirst Question | 190 |
Eating the Forbidden | 191 |
The TwentyThird Tawhid | 192 |
Order | 193 |
The Shining of the Full Moon | 212 |
Witnessing the Nonmanifest | 214 |
Following the Most Beautiful | 216 |
Manifest Mercy | 219 |
Arrival through Courtesy | 221 |
The Center and the Circumference | 223 |
The Circle of Mercy | 225 |
Circles of Wujud | 227 |
The Two Arcs | 233 |
Two Bows Length | 236 |
Modalities of Wujud | 237 |
7 The Worlds of the Cosmos | 241 |
Absent and Witnessed | 243 |
Knowledge of the Absent | 245 |
The Storehouse of Nature | 247 |
Command and Creation | 250 |
Heaven and Earth | 254 |
The FortyThird Question | 255 |
The Presence of the FoodGiver | 256 |
Two and Three Worlds | 258 |
On the Mysteries of the Night Salat | 262 |
III The Structure of the Mocrocosm | 267 |
8 Spirits and Bodies | 269 |
The Soul | 270 |
The Divine Spirit | 271 |
Governance | 273 |
Essential Governance | 274 |
The Spirit from the Command | 276 |
The Casting of Knowledge | 277 |
Bodies | 279 |
Corporeous Bodies | 281 |
The Rationally Speaking Soul | 286 |
The Subtlety | 291 |
The Wisdom of the Inheritors | 294 |
The Souls Ascent | 301 |
9 The Natural Constitution | 303 |
Increases | 307 |
The Light of Guidance | 309 |
Fasting on Sunday | 314 |
Understanding | 315 |
The Twelfth Question | 317 |
Weakness | 318 |
Constitution | 322 |
The Presence of AllEmbracingness | 329 |
10 The Imaginal Barzakh | 331 |
Imagination | 332 |
Appetite | 339 |
Imagination and Understanding | 345 |
Bodies Forever | 349 |
The Tenth Deputyship | 355 |
The Trumpet | 357 |
The Spirits Subsistence | 359 |
The Storehouse of the Final Issue | 364 |
The Storehouse of Humanity | 365 |
The Real Situation | 368 |
Ibn Views on Certain Sufis | 371 |
Translation of Technical Terms | 387 |
Notes | 389 |
Bibliography | 409 |
413 | |
Index of Koranic Verses | 421 |
433 | |
443 | |
447 | |
455 | |
Other editions - View all
The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-ʿArabī's Cosmology William C. Chittick Limited preview - 1998 |
The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-'Arabi's Cosmology William C. Chittick No preview available - 1997 |
The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-ʿArabī's Cosmology William C. Chittick No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
Abd al-Qadir absent affair affirmed All-Merciful angels Arabi ascribed attributes barzakh becomes manifest belongs bestows body Breath brings called Chapter command companion concerning configuration cosmos created thing creation creatures curtain differentiated discloses diverse divine names earth ence engendered existence entity Essence everything existent thing eyesight faculties faith fixity given gives gnostics God's godwariness hadith heart heaven Hence human Ibn al-'Arabi identical imagination Islamic knower knowl Koranic verse last world light locus Lord manyness means mentioned mercy Messenger Muhammad Muhyiddin ibn Arabi mutual waystation nature ness newly arrived nonexistence nonmanifest occasion path perceived perfect possible things Prophet ranking in excellence rationally speaking soul Real Real's reality relation respect root ruling property salat says self-disclosure sensory servant Shariah Shaykh signifies someone specific face spirit station Sufi surah tanzih tawhid term tion traces translated true knowledge unity unveiling veil vicegerent waymarks witnessed words worship wujud