Longing for Knowledge and Union:
An Analysis of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Conceptions of Mercy

The Beloved longs to see me.
And I long even more to see Him,
The hearts beat fast, but destiny bars the way,
I groan in complaint and so does He.
-Ibn al-Arabi, “The Wisdom of Singularity in the Word of Muhammad”

Taken out of context, the above lines may be confused for verses of erotic poetry. This poem, however, does not speak of a physical intimacy between lovers. Instead it presents the mutual longing of Allah and humans to know and unite with one another. In all religions large theological debates center on the process by which God and humans come develop knowledge of each other. For Ibn al-‘Arabi, the journey from knowledge to union, from creation to annihilation, is expressed in Allah’s constant and eternal mercy. His conceptions of mercy function on two levels. At the most basic and most literal, it is a device for understanding the duality of Allah. Mercy also serves as a vivid expression of the divine’s desire for self knowledge and self union. More critically, in each of his discussions, Ibn al-‘Arabi paints mercy as an interdependent relationship which requires active participation and mutual recognition on the part of both Allah and his human creation.

The sheer vastness of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s work and the complexities of his thought make any scholarly attempt at an analysis of his theories a truly daunting task. The intricacies of his texts and their tapestry-like qualities require a broad reading in order to approach an understanding of his philosophy. Therefore, this essay’s analysis of Ibn al-'Arabi’s conceptions of mercy draw from a wide selection of readings, rather than a single chapter. The primary work examined is The Bezels of Wisdom, a fairly accessible piece in which each chapter is devoted to one or two themes. However, here too the chapters are not meant to be read in isolation because each one implicitly or explicitly references the others. In that sense there is a narrative quality to The Bezels of Wisdom that requires the scholar to read from beginning to end in order to follow Ibn al-‘Arabi’s theological explorations.

Though references to mercy are scattered throughout the bezels, the reader is first formally introduced to Mercy in the “Wisdom of Compassion in the Word of Solomon.” A vital difference exists between what Ibn al-‘Arabi terms as “compassion” and “mercy.” The first is referred to as the “mercy of unobligating giving” while the latter is the “mercy of binding obligation.” Ibn’ al-Arabi writes, “As the Compassionate He [Allah] gives freely, while as the Merciful He binds by obligation, although the latter precedes from the former, the Merciful being implicit within the Compassionate” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 189). The reader should note the each form of mercy requires a different set of consciousness in the relationships between Allah and humans. Humans are receptors of Allah’s Compassion in his unobligating giving. However, the binding obligation of Mercy rests upon a reciprocal relationship between humans and Allah in which both entities are connected and obliged to one another through their actions. The most valued gift, the ultimate Compassion, which we received from Allah, is the blessing of existence; thus Compassion is intimately and irreversibly linked to ideas of creation. In exchange, though humans may devote themselves to the worship of Allah, only in death do we fulfill our obligation to return to Him.

Ibn al-‘Arabi’s use of the term “obligation” immediately directs the reader to recall the arguments of Divine Will and Divine Wish. The relation between Divine Will and Divine Wish parallels the relation between Compassion and Mercy: with the latter being a part of the all encompassing former. Additionally, while the Divine Will represents Allah’s ordained cosmic plan, the Divine Wish guides proper human interactions with Allah. The translator of The Bezels of Wisdom, R.W. J. Austin summarizes of the Divine Will (also crucially referred to as the Creative Command), “everything it wills comes into existence, there being no question, in the case of Will, of obedience or disobedience . . . [The Divine Wish, the] Obligating Command has everything to do with obedience or disobedience, since conformity is the sine qua non of salvation” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, Introduction, 31). Again, the levels of human agency are clearly demarcated. As with creative Compassion, Divine Will operates irrespective of human involvement, however the obligating Mercy of the Divine Wish calls for humans to return to Allah through salvation.

The strength of Ibn al-’Arabi’s thought and writings is that they are equally derived from sources more accessible and familiar to his less philosophically minded contemporaries, specifically, the Qur’an. In addition to the contemplations of mercy contained in the Divine Revelations, the very act of the recitation of the Qur’an reminds the worshipper of the dual natures of mercy. Each sura opens with a single declaration, the “bismillah” stating, “In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.” Though the terms “gracious” and “merciful” derive from the same Arabic root r/H/m, a clear distinction is made between the two. In his Qur’anic commentary, Abdullah Yusuf Ali defines Mercy to be acts of patience and understanding, which can be performed by either Allah or humans. However, Allah alone is endowed with Grace: the preservation and protection of all creation (footnote 19, Qur’an I:1). Though Ibn al-‘Arabi’s ideal of mercy are defined along slightly different lines, the bismillah guarantees that every Muslim is familiar with theories for the multiple natures of mercy.

The scriptural foundation for Ibn al-’Arabi’s imaginings of mercy is based upon the Qur’anic verse “My Mercy encompasses every thing” (Qur’an VII: 156). This line is part of Allah’s larger promise to Moses. As his followers turned against the proper worship of Allah, Moses prayed for forgiveness on behalf of his people. Allah replied, “With My Punishment I visit whom I will; But my Mercy extendeth to all things. That I shall ordain for those who do right, and practice regular charity, and those who follow Our signs.” Allah assures Moses that His mercy and forgiveness supersedes His decision for punishment.

Ibn al-‘Arabi significantly reinterprets this verse to suggest that not only is mercy present in all things, but that all beings originate from Allah’s mercy. Instead of relating to acts of forgiveness, the word “encompass” is used to express the notions of origin and embrace. The line can then be translated as “My Mercy produces and embraces all things.” Ibn al-‘Arabi evokes this passage to refer to Allah’s mercy upon the Divine Names. Even before created physical beings experienced the unobligated giving of Allah, He had bestowed creative Compassion upon the Names. Thus mercy truly encompasses all and exceeds the temporal bounds as we understand them. Allah “unleashes the Mercy of his giving in His saying ‘My Mercy encompasses every thing’ even the Divine Names, which are the real relationships. Indeed He bestows on them by us, since we are the result of the Mercy of giving on the Divine Names and dominical relationships” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 190). Allah’s Compassion manifests itself in Allah as Creator and our existence serves as a constant reminder of His giving.

The physical act of Allah’s Compassion and Creative Mercy is captured in the imagery of the phrase “Breath of the Merciful.” According to Ibn al-‘Arabi, essences are made manifest through the breath of Allah. He writes, “The Cosmos is manifested in the divine Breath by which God relieved the divine Names from the distress they experienced by the nonmanifestation of their effects” (Ibn al-’Arabi, 181). Compassion, as bestowing of sympathy and grace upon someone or something, is clearly exhibited as the divine breath of Allah moves the nonmanifest essences or Names from a state of agitation to one of contented existence.

An examination of the etymology of the term “Breath of the Merciful,” (nafas al-raHman) sheds light onto the complexities of Ibn al-‘Arabi’s theory. The consonant root n/f/s is primarily used to denote breath, however it also means soul or spirit. Therefore, nafas possesses an essence of its own. Allah’s breath should not be understood as empty air or even an empty creative force. For the informed reader, nafas evokes both the medium of transference and the substance. As breath, nafas transmits the creative force of Allah; but as soul or spirit, nafas manifests and contains an intrinsic element of Allah that is bestowed upon us.

Spelling variations of raHman yield nuanced definitions of mercy; however, its consonant root is also used in surprising ways. RaHman may imply an intimate relationship. An hadith reports Allah as saying, “I am al-raHmaan [the Relater] and thou art al-raHma [the Related]: I have derived thy name from my name: therefore whoso maketh thee close, I will make him close; and who severeth thee, I will sever him.” (“r/H/m” Annotated Dictionary). The importance of this passage is to illustrate both the alliance between Allah and his creation, and more importantly, the unity of the names of Allah and man. Recalling that Allah’s many essences are manifested in his Divine Names, the connection of names suggests more than a mere relationship between two disparate beings and instead implies a linkage between the very existences of Allah and humans. This unity is made even more explicit in the final definition of raHman: the womb, or place of origin. The dual attributes of existence and (re-)creation are rightly located within the nurturing concept of a womb. In this sense, raHman is not a character trait or a way of relating to one another, but a space (physical or figurative) for the gifts of existence to be given. Utilizing this definition, the foundational Qur’anic phrase, “My Mercy encompasses every thing,” must be read on two levels. Mercy (raHman) is not simply a trait of benevolence that expands across the Cosmos, it is the very plane on (and in) which the entire Cosmos comes into being and plays out its existence.

Breath, as a creative force, is the greatest gift that the Cosmos receives from Allah. Ibn al-‘Arabi’s insists that the gnostic continually acknowledge the blessing of existence. His bezel of wisdom focusing on Seth gives instructions on how to approach and ask Allah for particular gifts or talents. Ibn al-’Arabi puts forth that there are three types of supplicants to Allah: those who make requests out of impatience, those make requests in hopes of fulfilling Allah’s plan for them, and “those who ask, not because of any natural impulse, nor yet through knowledge of the possibilities, but simply to conform with God’s command, Call upon Me and I will answer you” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 62-63). Uniting all of this is the title of the bezel: “The Wisdom of Expiration in the Word of Seth.” Though never mentioning the Breath of the Merciful directly, the title reminds the reader that the ultimate gift, which they received without making a request, is life itself. However conscious a gnostic might be, “He cannot know what is in the knowledge of God, nor can he know his own eternally determined position to receive, for to be, at each instant, aware of one’s predisposition is one of the most difficult kinds of knowledge” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 62). Though we cannot comprehend the magnitude of the gifts we receive, we must strive to achieve a partial awareness of these blessings. Unobligated giving implies that we are constant receptors to Allah’s mercy, whether we make direct requests or not.

However ignorant we may be of the totality of Allah’s giving, our own act of breathing serves as a reminder of the creative and destructive aspects of mercy. When one draws a breath, she is filled with the oxygen necessary for life (creation) and as one breathes out the life force exits the body. The cyclical process of inhalation and exhalation keeps all beings in a continuous motion of creation and destruction. Strangely, Ibn al-‘Arabi does not have much confidence that humans are aware of the vital exchanges taking place within the body. When speaking of this “renewal of creation by breaths” he says, “No one has any knowledge of this decree, indeed no one is aware of the fact in himself that, which each breath, he is not and yet comes into being again” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 193). There are two possible interpretations of this phrase. One, that humans are ignorant of continuous creation. Or two, because breathing is controlled by the subconscious, humans have no direct control or knowledge of their creation. What remains clear is that though our bodies are engaged in constant acts of creation and destruction, these acts are directed by Allah and not by us.

Ibn al-‘Arabi is careful to point out that a temporal space does not exist between breathing in and breathing out, both exist and draw upon one another simultaneously. He instructs, “Therefore do not say ‘then,’ which implies a lapse of time . . . with the renewal of creation by breaths the moment of the nonexistence of the thing is the very moment of its like, as with the renewal of accidents according to the Ash’arites” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 193). At each instant our beings are simultaneously manifest and non manifest. Therefore, we do not occupy a position of stable, static existence, nor do we alternate between being and non-being. Instead we inhabit a space of constant creation and reformation. The theological and metaphysical philosophies of the Ash’arites approached creation in a similar manner. Their teaching maintained that each object or creature in the Cosmos was recreated from moment to moment. Therefore, one could not construct viable predictions of future events. Though a previous pattern of behavior or events may have been observed, the Cosmos exists as a series of unpredictable accidents. This is not the space to discuss the relation between the Ash’arite conception of accidents with Ibn al-‘Arabi’s views on Free Will. However, his reference to the Ash’arites in his comments upon individual breathing serves to unite the personal act of re-creation with the cosmic one.

The divine creation of some of the prophets provides more vivid pictures of the act of the Breath of the Merciful. In his bezel entitled, “The Wisdom of Divinity in the Word of Adam,” Ibn al-‘Arabi briefly relates the physical and spiritual origins of Adam as based upon the Qur’an. Sura 38 Section 5 contains the story of the fall of Satan when he refuses to bow down before Adam who has been named Vice-Regent of the Earth. In verse 75, Allah chastises Satan, “said, ‘oh Iblis! What prevents thee from prostrating thyself to one whom I have created with My hands?” At the textual level, Allah is suggesting that because Adam was formed by His hands, he holds a station that is exalted over Iblis and the other angels. More abstraclty, this statement may also imply that the creation of Adam began and was completed by the hands of Allah. Alternately, Ibn al-‘Arabi uses this verse to suggest that only the physical form of Adam, and not his essence, was shaped by the hands of Allah.

An additional creative step is needed to endow Adam (and all physical forms) with the spirit of Allah. The Bezel of Adam opens with a description of the two step process of creation: “The Reality gave existence to the whole Cosmos as an undifferentiated thing without anything of the spirit in it, so that it was like an unpolished mirror” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 50). The careful act of polishing is in fact the transmission of the Divine Spirit into a willing receptacle. The bezel continues, “It is the nature of the divine determination the He does not set out a location except to receive a divine spirit, which is also called the breathing into him . . . Thus the Command required the reflective characteristic of the mirror of the Cosmos, and Adam was the very principle of reflection for that mirror and the spirit of the form” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 50-51). This argument makes it clear as to why Ibn al-‘Arabi terms Adam the “Complete Man:” for he is both the physical representation of Allah and the vessel for the Divine Spirit. However, it must be noted that “the breathing into him” is not a Qur’anic reference to Adam at all, but a line borrowed from the narrative of the conception of Jesus. Ibn al-‘Arabi has skillfully united two accounts of divine intervention in human creation. Specifically, he placed this new narrative within the larger frame of the creation of the Cosmos. As descendents of Adam, all humans possess the potential for his completeness.

Ibn al-‘Arabi’s full exploration of the Breath of the Merciful appears in “The Wisdom of Prophecy in the Word of Jesus,” a bezel which contains a wealth of procreative imagery. He opens the bezel with a few lines of poetry: “From the water of Mary or from the breath of Gabriel/ In the form of a mortal fashioned of clay/ The Spirit came into existence in an essence/ Purged of Nature’s taint, which is called Sijjin” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 174). No such words are found in the Qur’an. The act of his conception is void of all physical elements (Qur’an XIX: 16-22). The angel announces the gift of a son to Mary and instantly it becomes so. “Thy Lord saith, ‘That is easy for Me: and to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from us’: It is a matter decreed. So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place” (Qur’an XIX: 21-22).

The theory of the “Breath of the Merciful,” as evidenced in Ibn al-‘Arabi’s poem, expands the infinitesimal moment in which Allah commands: “Be” and such a thing exists. The moment of breathing is an instant of perfect union between Allah and creation, in which the two exist together before the created becomes a part of the earthly Cosmos. In speaking of Gabriel’s blowing, Ibn’al-‘Arabi writes, “Indeed, the first effect of the Breath is experienced only in the Divine Presence, after which it continues its descent by a universal release, down to the last thing to be created” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 181). All processes by which humans and Allah seek knowledge of one another are directed towards the return of that moment of simultaneous existence and union.

Just as Adam was a willing receptor of Allah’s Spirit, Austin explains that Mary’s characteristic of water renders her as, “passive, dark, and receptive, that primordial matrix which is ever ready to receive the determining impress of the Spirit” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 173). In an interesting attempt to “normalize” the conception of Jesus, Ibn al-‘Arabi also attaches the water characteristic to the breath of Gabriel. He claims, ‘The body of Jesus was created from the actual water of Mary and the notional water of Gabriel inherent in the moisture of that blowing, since breath frame the vital body is moist owing to the element of water in it. In this way the body of Jesus was brought into being from a notional and an actual water . . . since all creation in this human species occurs in the usual way” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 175-176). On one level, this statement seems to reduce the fantastical act of creation from womb and breath to the normal merger of womb and semen. Viewed from another angle, this account may serve to relate Allah’s creative acts to system of human procreation.

It is crucial to note the difference between Allah’s merciful breath and humans’ creative breaths. As evidenced by the creative and conception accounts of the “blowing into” of Adam and Jesus, existence is manifested through Allah’s exhalation. Additionally, the bezel concerning the request for divine gifts points to the act of exhaling in its title: “The Wisdom of Expiration in the Word of Seth.” Our own process of breathing suggests the reverse relationship. Human existence rests upon the intake of breath and it is upon our exhalation that we “experience the moment of nonexistence.” Thus a perfectly reciprocal relationship is established between Allah and His creation. His blowing provides the possibility of existence and we receive and fill ourselves with His breath through our inhalation. However we are not passive vessels waiting to be filled with the breath of Allah. The mood or color of our state affects the ways in which the Creative Mercy is manifested. Retelling the moment of Jesus’s conception, Ibn al-‘Arabi warns, “Had he [Gabriel] blown into her at this moment, Jesus would have turned out too surly for any to bear, because of his mother’s state . . . her anxiety subsided and she relaxed. It was at this moment that he blew Jesus into her” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 175). Only when Mary had recovered from her fear of the angel Gabriel, was her body fit to properly receive the creative breath. The resulting creation is a product of the Divine Spirit and the temper of our form. Therefore, though we do not direct the process of creation, we play an active role in its specific manifestations.

Ibn al-‘Arabi’s primary concentration on the creative aspects of Compassion is due to it’s precedence over the destructive obligating Mercy, in which all creation is returned to Allah. As the predominant force of Allah’s mercy, Creative Compassion is often discussed without any reference to its counterpart. However, mentions of the obligating Mercy do not appear alone and are always coupled with the reminder that Allah’s Compassion is more expansive and powerful than his Mercy. In these arguments, the Cosmos’s inherent shift from a physical manifestation to a reunion with Allah is often equated with the term Divine Wrath. Austin suggests that this second type of mercy “Is wrathful in the sense that it seeks to annihilate the existence of creatures and inflict on them the pain of being, after all ‘nothing worth mentioning’” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 187). Austin doesn’t reveal the origins of the quote, however the language is clear: in its destruction created existence will come to realize its ultimate inferiority in the face of Allah.

Religious theorist William Chittick takes an extreme position on the functions of Divine Wrath. His detailed book, Imaginal Worlds: Ibn al-‘Arabi and the Problem of Religious Diversity, places Ibn al-‘Arabi’s conceptions of Compassion and Wrath within the context of Heaven and Hell. According to Chittick’s interpretation, obligating Mercy is not merely the pain of death, but the wrathful punishment of an eternity spent without the presence of the Compassion of Allah. He writes, “The difference between heaven and hell goes back to their divine roots, which are the two hands of God, or the names of mercy and wrath” (Chittick, 111). Chittick describes a celestial setup in which Allah sits upon a throne inscribed with the precedence of Allah’s mercy over his wrath. At the feet of Allah is a footstool which “embraces the heavens and the earth” (Qur’an II: 256 qtd in Chittick, 111). Chittick concludes that complete mercy exists above the footstool, while the Cosmos experience Divine Wrath below it. He then maintains that in both life and death we feel the effects of Allah’s wrath: “The similarity between this world and hell goes back to the fact that the attributes of wrath become fully manifest in both, but these attributes have only limited access to paradise” (Chittick, 112). This statement strongly contrasts with Ibn al-‘Arabi’s positive notions of the paramount blessing of existence presented earlier. According to Ibn al-‘Arabi, the compassion of Allah’s unobligated giving is to be received with acceptance and joy. In the Cosmos’ reception of its gifts, Ibn al-‘Arabi does not acknowledge the presence of wrath.

Ultimately, Chittick’s argument of Divine Wrath opposes the very concepts of obligating Mercy that are set forth by Ibn al-‘Arabi. Chittick concludes, “Wrath is bound up with the limiting characteristics of created things, such as distance, separation, ignorance, multiplicity, dispersion, differentiation, and deviation. To the extent that people are dominated by attributes of wrath, they remain far from God and hence far from mercy and felicity” (Chittick, 148). Yet, it is the very distance from Allah that obligating Mercy seeks to bridge. As Austin summarizes, “He [Allah] rigorously obliges the Cosmos to recognize that, in itself, it is nothing other than He and to yield its being back to its sources in Him” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 187). Clearly obligating Mercy is not a separation from Allah, but a reunion. Insomuch as wrath is distance from Allah and multiplicity, obligating Mercy cannot be Divine Wrath because its very process reaffirms the Oneness of Allah. From an agitated state of nonexistence, Compassion moves the Cosmos to a multiplicity of existences, and finally Mercy returns all creation to the union with Allah.

Therefore Compassion and Mercy are two forces in tension with one another, but they are not true opposites. Allah’s desire to see and know Himself was manifested in the creation of Adam as an unpolished mirror through which the essences of Allah would be reflected. However, Allah’s love for His creation compels Him to return the Cosmos to Himself. Ibn al-‘Arabi quotes the mystic Bukhari, who spoke of Allah’s hesitation; “I [Allah] do not hesitate in what I do as much as in the taking the soul of My faithful servant. He hates death as much as I hate to hurt him; but he must meet Me” (Bukari qtd in Ibn al-‘Arabi, 273). These lines appropriately appear in the bezel, “The Wisdom of Singularity in the Word of Muhammad.” Though Allah can be known in all aspects of creation, as the Seal of the Prophets, “Muhammad was the most obvious evidence of his Lord” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 272). The example of Muhammad serves as a bridge through which both Allah and humans can become aware of one another. Ibn al-‘Arabi expounds on Bukari’s words in writing, “Since He [Allah] has explained that He breathed into man of His spirit, He is yearning for Himself” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 273). Thus Allah seeks to know Himself in two ways; one through a position of separation in which His essences are reflected and finally through a position of union in which His creation is brought back into Himself.

Just as Allah longs to know us, the gnostic’s quest for knowledge of Allah can only be found in the acts of creation. Ibn al-‘Arabi instructs, “Whoever wishes to know the divine Breath, then let him know the Cosmos, for ‘Who knows himself, knows his Lord,’ Who is manifest in him” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, 181). Of all his teachings, this is perhaps the most difficult to follow. Knowledge and intimacy with Allah cannot be approached through an examination of intangible spirits or celestial spheres. Through the transmission of breath we inhale and receive the spirit of Allah. Just as He created us, so that He might view himself more clearly, to know Him we must examine the Cosmos which was, and is, created of Allah in continuous moments of mercy.