Quotes (http://www.ibnularabifoundation.

org/)




!

O my God, gift me with a heart by which I may be

devoted to You in utter poverty, led by yearning and
driven by desire, [a heart] whose provision is fear [of
You] and whose companion is restlessness, whose aim
is [Your] closeness and acceptance! In Your Nearness
lies the consummation of those who aim, and the
fullment of the desire of those who search.
Ibn al-Arab, Sunday Eve Prayer

The Slave of Passion

I am the slave of passion and the slave of the Beloved.
The fire of passion burns my heart and the One I love is
in my mind. Passion has seized hold of the reins of my
heart So wherever I turn my gaze Passion is facing me.
Ibn al-Arab

I know not
I clung to the one I love so passionately, though I know
not how, nor do I know for certain who it is that says, "I
know not."
Futuhat al-Makkiyya, Traslated by R.W.J. Austin

The knot of persistence and stubborn

insistence
You must strive to loosen the knot of persistence and
stubborn insistence in your heart.
Ibn al-Arabi

God's Mercy embraces everything

God appeared to me in the inmost heart of my being and
said to me: "Make known to My servants that which you
have verified of My generosity... Why do My servants
despair of My Mercy when My Mercy embraces
everything?
Futuhat al-Makkiyya

MIA

O my God, gift me with a heart

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The light of the veils

The Real made me contemplate the light of the veils as
the star of strong backing rose, and He said to me, Do
you know how many veils I have veiled you with?
No, I replied.
He said, With seventy veils. Even if you raise them
you will not see Me, and if you do not raise them you
will not see Me. If you raise them you will see Me
and if you do not raise them you will see Me. Take
care of burning yourself! You are My sight, so have
faith. You are My Face, so veil yourself.
Ibn al-Arab, Contemplation of the Light of the Veils

My heart can take on any form:

My heart can take on any form:
A meadow for gazelles,
A cloister for monks,
For the idols, sacred ground,
Ka'ba for the circling pilgrim,
The tables of the Torah,
The scrolls of the Quran.
My creed is Love;
Wherever its caravan turns along the way,
That is my belief, My faith.
Ibn al-Arab, Turjumn al-Ashwq

I am in love with no other than myself,

I am in love with no other than myself,
and my very separation is my union ...

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Quotes (http://www.ibnularabifoundation.org/)
I am my beloved and my lover;
I am my knight and my maiden.

Ibn al-Arab, The book of veils.

Shaykh al-Akbar Mohyiddn Ibn al-Arab

O lover whosoever you are

The light of Perplexity (hayra)
The Real made me contemplate [the light of] perplexity
and He said to me, Return! But I did not find where
to. He said to me, Approach! But I did not find where.
He said to me, Stop! But I did not find where. He
said, Do not withdraw! And I was perplexed.
Then He said to me, You are you and I am I.
You are Me and I am you.
You are not Me and I am not you.
I am not you and you are Me.
You are not you, and you are not other than you.
The I-ness is one and the He-ness ( huwiyya) is many.
You are in the He-ness and I am in the I-ness.

O lover whosoever you are know that the veils

between you and your beloved whosoever he might be
are nothing save your halt with things, not the things
themselves; as said by the one who hasnt tasted the
flavour of realties. You have halted with things because
of the shortcoming of your perception; that is, lack of
penetration, expressed as the veil; and the veil is
nonexistence and nonexistence is nothingness. Thus
there is no veil, If the veils were true, then who got
veiled from you, you should also have been in veil from
him.
Ibn al-Arab, The book of veils

From me to myself
Ibn al-Arab, Contemplation of the Light of Perplexity

The Sigh of Compassion flows

The Sigh of Compassion Nafas al-Rahman flows
through the things of the world like the waters of a river
and is unceasingly renewed.

Neither my Heaven nor my Earth

contains me
"Neither my Heaven nor my Earth contains me, but the
heart of my faithful believer contains me," this because
the heart is a mirror in which the manifested "Form of
God" is at each moment reflected on the scale of the
microcosm.

Were I to see myself when I came to myself by myself,

secretly or openly,
And said, Greetings and answered, At your service,
And if my turning were from me to me,
My very Here I am! would annihilate me from
myself,
From my enemies and my trusty friends,
From my threat [of punishment] and my surplus [grace],
From my delight and my promises [of paradise],
From my witnessing and my testimony.
What wonderful favour would be mine through myself!
Oh I! Return me by me to me until I see my stability.
He returned me by me to me from me, and only my
qualities subsisted in me.
My palm grasped my stick, my staff smote my rock;
The river of constellations flowed from it: Twelve
heralds!
Ibn al-Arab,

All praise belongs to God

All praise belongs to God, who veiled us by Him-self,
for the jealousy that anyone may know his core, He
appeared as light (nr) and then got veiled from sights
by His light, He manifested, but got concealed from
insights (Basir) by virtue of His manifestation. Thus
light entered in light, and self-manifestation got
concealed in manifestation. So no sight falls but onto
Him; no out-comer comes out but from Him, and no
goal-seeker eventually ends up but to Him. So O people
of intellect; where is absence or veil?
MIA

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I am no one in existence but myself

From my incompleteness to my completeness, and from
my inclination to my equilibrium
From my grandeur to my beauty, and from my
splendour to my majesty
From my scattering to my gathering, and from my
exclusion to my reunion
From my baseness to my preciousness, and from my
stones to my pearls

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Quotes (http://www.ibnularabifoundation.org/)
From my rising to my setting, and from my days to my
nights
From my luminosity to my darkness, and from my
guidance to my straying
From my perigee to my apogee, and from the base of
my lance to its tip
From my waxing to my waning, and from the void of
my moon to its crescent
From my pursuit to my flight, and from my steed to my
gazelle
From my breeze to my boughs, and from my boughs to
my shade
From my shade to my bliss, and from my bliss to my
wrath
From my wrath to my likeness, and from my likeness to
my impossibility
From my impossibility to my validity, and from my
validity to my deficiency.
I am no one in existence but myself
Ibn al-Arab,

Your Knowledge embraces all that is

knowable
O my God, Your Knowledge embraces all that is
knowable. Your Awareness encompasses the interior
[meaning] of all that is understandable. You are
sanctified in Your exaltedness from all that is
blameable. The spiritual aspirations ascend to You, and
the words soar to You.
Ibn al-Arab,

The Opening Prayer

In the name of God, the all-compassionate and most
merciful
Praise be to God for His bringing the most excellent
success! I ask Him for:
guidance to follow His Path; inspiration to verify His
Reality;
a heart certain of His Truth; a mind illumined by the
providential awareness of His Precedence; a spirit taken
up with ardent desire of Him; a soul at peace from
ignorance; an understanding radiating with the flashes
of thought and its brilliance; an innermost heart
flourishing with the spring-waters of illumination and its
pure nectar; speech strewn upon the carpet of expansion
and its clarification; thought exalted above the apparent
finery of the ephemeral and its embellishment; insight
able to witness the secret mystery of Being in the setting
of creation and its rising; senses maintained in full
health by the constant coursing of [Divine] refreshment;
a natural constitution purified from the dominion of lack
and its consequences; a disposition completely
responsive to the reins of Divine Law and its authority;
a [state at each] instant conducive to His uniting and His
distinguishing.
And may blessings and peace be upon Muhammad and
his family and his company, and the successors who
came after him and the community of those who follow
his path may they be greeted with peace.
The One desired is God, both in Being and in
witnessing, and He is the One intended, without any
[possibility of] denial or disclaimer. For He suffices me,
the most beneficent Trustee.
Ibn al-Arab

Prayer
I ask of You, O my God, an eloquent tongue and
truthful speech; appropriate understanding and an
innermost centre of taste; a truly receptive heart and a
discerning mind; radiant thought and insatiable
yearning; eyes that are lowered [before You] and a
burning desire. Grant me a hand of [total] empowerment
and a strength that brooks no resistance; a soul at peace
and supple limbs for obeying You. Purify me that I may
come to You, and grant that I may be brought before
You.

I wonder at a lover in conceit of his

merits
She said: "I wonder at a lover in conceit of his merits,
walking proudly among flowers in a garden."
I replied: "Do not wonder at what you see, for, indeed,
you have beheld yourself in the mirror of a man!"
Ibn al-Arab,

Ibn al-Arab,

Why Ibn al-Arabi Left Army

MIA

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Quotes (http://www.ibnularabifoundation.org/)
"The reason for my withdrawal from and repudiation of
the army, as well as my following this path [of Sufism]
and my propensity toward it was [as follows]: When I
went out in the company of my Lord (makhdumi), the
[Almohad] Prince, Abu Bakr Yusuf b. 'Abd al-Mu'min
b. Ali, to the great mosque in Cordoba,15 and I saw [the
Prince] bowing and prostrating and humbly abasing
himself in supplication to God (To Him belong Might
and Majesty!), an idea (khatir) stirred in me [so that] I
said to myself: 'If this, the ruler of the land, is so humbly
submissive and does this before God (Be He exalted! To
Him belong Might and Majesty!), then this world is
worth nothing.' So I left him on that very day, and never
saw him again. There- after, I followed this path."

O My servants, all of you go hungry except the one

whom I feed. Ask Me for food, and I shall feed you.

Ibn al-Arab,

O My servants, if all of you first and last, man and

jinn were like the one among you with the most
devout heart, that would add nothing to My kingdom.

Hadith Qudsi (28)

God, ever mighty and majestic is He, says: O child of
Adam, as long as you beseech Me and hope for Me, I
shall forgive you whatever you have done, without
minding in the slightest. O child of Adam, were your
sins to reach up to the clouds of Heaven and then you
asked forgiveness of Me, I should forgive you, without
minding in the slightest. O child of Adam, even if you
were to bring Me enough sins to ll the earth, but then
you met Me without associating anything with Me, I
should bring to you the selfsame measure of
forgiveness.
Ibn al-Arab, 101 Hadith Qudsi

O My servants, all of you go naked except the one

whom I clothe. Ask Me for clothing, and I shall clothe
you.
O My servants, you transgress by day and night, but I
forgive all misdeeds. Ask forgiveness of Me, and I shall
forgive you.
O My servants, harming Me is beyond you, so you
cannot harm Me; and benefiting Me is beyond you, so
you cannot benefit Me.

O My servants, if all of you first and last, man and

jinn were like the one among you with the most
ungodly heart, that would take nothing away from My
kingdom.
O My servants, if all of you first and last, man and
jinn were to stand on the same level and address Me
with your requests, and if I were to give each one what
he had requested, that would not diminish what is with
Me, any more than a needle diminishes the sea when it
enters it.
O My servants, it is solely your deeds that I take
account of, and it is by virtue of them that I will repay
you. So let him who nds good, praise God, and let him
who nds other than that, hold none but himself to
blame.

Hadith Qudsi (10)

Ibn al-Arab, 101 Hadith Qudsi

God, ever mighty and majestic is He, says: I am with

My servant when he remembers Me and when his lips
move in mention of Me.
Ibn al-Arab, 101 Hadith Qudsi

Hadith Qudsi (1)

O My servants, I have forbidden injustice to Myself
and I have made it forbidden amongst you. So be not
unjust
to
one
another.
O My servants, all of you go astray except the one
whom I guide. Ask guidance of Me, and I shall guide
you.
MIA
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When I write a book

When I write a book, nothing is abrogated nor is it in
my own words, for me to change it. I do not
comprehend it, nor do i reject it; but it is obscure and
unknown to me.
Poem by Ibn al-Arabi in the margin of Veliyuddin 51
Translated by Denis McAuley

A moment
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Quotes (http://www.ibnularabifoundation.org/)
The seeker continues to say with every breath "My lord,
increase me in knowledge" as long as the sphere of the
universe turns in His breath So that he attempts to make
his moment his/His breath ... The moment lengthens or
shortens in relation to the presence of its master.
The moment of some is an hour of others a day, a week,
a month, a year, or once in a lifetime and some have no
moment at all.
Ibn al-Arab

He saw the lightning in the east

He saw the lightning in the east and he longed for the
east; but if it had flashed in the west, he would have
longed for the west.
My desire is for the lightning and its gleam, not for the
places and the earth.
Ibn al-Arab, Tarjuman al-ashwaq

He and you
You are not He But you are He
You see Him in the essence of things
Boundless and limited.
Ibn al-Arab, Fusus al-Hikam

When my Beloved appears,

With what eye do I see Him?
with His eye, not with mine,
For none sees Him except Himself.

Belief and Truth

The Truth which resides in the belief is that whose form
the heart encompasses, what reveals itself to the heart to
be known.
The eye sees nothing but the Truth of its belief, and
there is no secret about the variety of beliefs
Whoever binds Him [in a belief] denies Him in any
belief other than that in which he has bound Him And
affirms Him in the belief in which he bound Him in His
manifestation,But whoever liberates Him from binding,
denies Him not at all But affirms Him in every image
into which He transforms Himself He/he gives him/Him
of Himself/himself in accordance with the image in
which He/he appears to him/Him Infinitely,
since the forms of manifestation have no end at which to
stop
And, likewise, knowledge of Allah has no limit for the
knower at which he might stop Rather, the knower asks
in every moment for an increase in his knowledge of
Him "My lord, increase me in knowledge" [Qur'an
20:116]
"My
lord,
increase
me
in
knowledge"
"My
lord,
increase
me
in
knowledge"
So it continues, perpetually, from both sides.

Editor and Translator of more than 25

Books and Rasail's of Shaykh al-Akbar
Ibn al-Arabi. Working full time for this
cause.
Abrar Ahmed Shahi
Head of Ibn al-Arabi Foundation

Ibn al-Arab, Fusus al-Hikam

MIA

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