Here is a pdf version of
this page.
In my opinion, the Sufi Islam of Ibn Arabi can be seen as a
culmination of the cultivation of human wisdom, with African
IFA = Vodou as its fundamental origin and including (but
not necessarily limited to) Vedism,
Taoism, Buddhism,
Judaism, and Christianity.
Here are
The One (ahadiyah) the empty set
or Absolute Unity
which needs no Names
Oneness (wahidiyah) binary separation into opposites
or Absolute possessing described by
characteristics which are all real Clifford Algebras
the Divine Names Cl(N)
thabita are archetypes structures of Cl(8) = Cl(1,7)
or fixed prototypes that are fundamental components
of all Cl(8N)
Cl(8N) = Cl(1,7) x...(Ntensors)...x Cl(1,7)
The 256 elements of Cl(8) correspond
to the 256 Odu.
The structures of Cl(8) include
+/- half-spinor fermion particles
and antiparticles
vector spacetime
bivector gauge bosons
The 256 elements of Cl(8) correspond
to the 256 Odu
mumkinat are possible things possible configurations of archetypes
forming quantum possibilities
i.e., worlds of the Many-Worlds
and Bohmian beables
qada is a decisive judgment dechoherence of a quantum superpostion
of possibilities, i.e.,
choice of which World of the Many-Worlds
at an event, or
choice made by Bohm Guiding Potential
qadar is the outcome of qada the World or State that is seen to
come into physical existence at an event
al-khalq al-jadid is the the branching of the Worlds
new world that is created at of the Many-Worlds at each event
the occurrence of every event
himmah is the spirtual power quantum consciousness resonant connection
of an arif, or knower
taskhir bi-al-iradah is Sarfatti post-Bohm Quantum Back-Reaction
constraining by will
whereby a higher order
constrains a lower,
taskhir bi-al-hal is
constraining by the state
or situation in which
a lower order constrains
a higher, and
both together form a cycle
wujudiyah is the cyclic ontology Quantum Game of Many Fates
of Divine self-manifestations by
new world creations
Here are some of
Ibn Arabi's Ideas leading to the Correspondences:
According to the book Sufism and Taoism, by Toshihiko Izutsu
(California 1983):
"... Ibn Arabi (born in Spain in 1165 a.D.) died in
Damascus in 1240. Fusus al-Hikam ... the Bezels of Wisdom ...
written in 1229 ... has often been described as his opus magnum
... Abs al-Razzaq a-Qashani (d. 1330) is one of the greatest
figures in the school of Ibn Arabi. ...
... the absolute, pure Unity (ahadiyah)
...[is]... the Unity of Divine Essence ...
... the Unity of multiplicity at the
ontological stage of Divine Names and Attributes, is specifically
called wahidiyah 'Oneness (of Many)' ...
... The archetypes are 'permanent' or
'permanently subsistent' (thabitah), i.e., they have been fixed
once for all in the eternal past and are, therefore, absolutely
unalterable and immovable. ...
... Ibn Arabi often refers to the
permanent archetypes as 'essences of the possible things' (ayal
al-mumkinat) ...
... Ibn Arabi ...[says]... that the
'predetermination' (qada) is a decisive judgment (hukm, or decree)
of God concerning the things ... given in strict accordance with
His Knowledge of ... themselves and their properties ..."
... It is the qadar that assigns to every
event its peculiar time ... Ibn Arabi ....[says]... the
'allotment' (qadar) is the specification of the appointed time at
which each of the things should actually occur in accordance with
its archetypal state ...
... Ibn Arabi says that the world goes on
being created anew at every single moment ... 'new creation'
(al-khalq al-jadid) ... ordinary people are not aware of the
process ... the Absolute is continually manifesting itself in the
infinity of 'possible' things. This is done by .... 'descent'
(nuzul) of the Absolute towards the lower levels of Being ...
... According to Ibn Arabi,
a 'knower' ... (arif) ... Perfect man ... can, if he
likes, affect any object by ... concentrating all his spiritual
energy upon it; he can even bring into existence a thing which
is not actually existent ... This extraordinary power is known
as himmah, meaning a concentrated spiritual energy ...
[an] object ... created by himmah continues to exist
only so long as the himmah maintains it ... In brief, a
'knower' is ... endowed with the power of taskhir ...[Ibn
Arabi says]... A true "knowledge" does not allow himmah to
be freely exercised. And the higher the knowledge, the less
possibility there is for a free exercise of himmah ...
... even the most perfect of all Apostles (akmal al-rusul),
Muhammad, did not exercise himmah ... For, being the highest
'knower', he knew better than anybody else that 'miracles' were,
in truth, ineffective ...
... Ibn Arabi distinguishes between two
kinds of taskhir.
- One ... is called 'constraining by will' (taskhir
bi-al-iradah). It refers to a descending order of taskhir, in
which a higher being constrains a lower ...
- the second is an ascending order of taskhir, in which a
lower being ... constrains a higher being. ... the higher being
is constrained by the ... state in which the lower being is
found. It is ... called 'constraining by the state (or
situation)' (taskhir bi-al-hal). Here the 'constraining' occurs
by the ... fact that the lower and the higher happen to be in a
certain relationship with each other.
... Al-Qashani ...[says]...
... all the modes of the archetypes are things that
have been known to God (from eternity), permanently fixed in
potentiality, and God brings them out to actuality incessantly
and perpetually ... He goes on transforming the possibilities
(isti dadat, lit. 'preparednesses') that have been there from
the beginningless past and that are (tehrefore) essentially
uncreated, into infinite possibilities that are actually
created. Thus everything is in the state of ascending
[ascent (taraqqi)] at this very moment because it is
perpetually receiving the endlessly renewed ontonlogical
(wujudiyah) Divine self-manifestations, and at every
self-manifestation the thing goes on increasing in its
receptivity for another (i.e., the next) self-manifestation.
...
... The world in its entirety is perpetually changing. And
every thing (in the world) is changing in itself from moment to
moment. Thus every thing becomes determined at every moment
with a new determination which is different form that with
which it was determined a moment ago. ... Thus the Absolute
reveals itself perpetually in these successive
self-manifestations, while the world is perpetually being lost
due to its annihilation at every moment and its renewed birth
at the next moment. ... But (ordinary) people do not know the
reality of this phenomenon ...
... In this world-view ... of Ibn Arabi ... nothing remains
static; the world in its entirety ... transforms itself
kaleidoscopically from moment to moment, and yet all these
movements of self-development are the 'ascending' movements of the
things toward the Absolute-One, precisely because they are the
'descending' self-expression of the Absolute-One. ... The 'new
creation' he speaks of in ...[his book Fusus]... concerns
the concrete things of the sensible world ...[and]... not
the permanent archetypes [themselves] ... Thus in Ibn
Arabi's thought, everything in the world (and therefore the world
itself) is constantly changing, but underlying this universal flux
of changing things there is Something eternally unchanging. ...
The Descent is followed by its reversal, that is, Ascent. ... thus
the whole process of creation forms a huge ontological circle in
which there is in reality neither an initial point nor a final
point. ... the whole circle ... is a trans-temporal or a-temporal
phenomenon. ... Everything is an occurence in an Eternal Now
...".
According to an
Islamic esotericism web page [[ my comments are set off
by ]]:
"... Ibn Arabi saw the cosmos as being ruled by an
invisible spiritual hierarchy, consisting of
2N Graded Total Algebra
Structure Dimension Structure
(depends on signature)
0 1 2^0 = 1= 1x1 (Real numbers)
2 1 2 1 2^2 = 4= 2x2 (Quaternions
or 2x2 real matrices)
4 1 4 6 4 1 2^4 = 16= 4x4 (2x2 Quat matrice
or 4x4 real matrices)
6 1 6 15 20 15 6 1 2^6 = 64= 8x8 (4x4 Quat matrices
or 8x8 real matrices)
8 1 8 28 56 70 56 28 8 1 2^8 = 256=16x16 (8x8 Quat matrices
or 16x16 real matrices)
include the Cl(8) fundamental
component of Cl(8N) and the D0 to D4 Lie algebras with
dimensions 0, 1, 6, 15, and 28.
Also, there are five known Fermat Primes (2^k + 1):
- 2^1 + 1 = 2 + 1 = 3
- 2^2 + 1 = 4 + 1 = 5
- 2^4 + 1 = 16 + 1 = 17
- 2^8 + 1 = 256 + 1 = 257
- 2^16 + 1 = 65,536 + 1 = 65,537. ]]
perhaps because of the Divine Presence in each one, or the
five Descents (tanazzulut) or Worlds (alam). Although there are
always five levels, there is some difference in detail between
the different interpretations, and the levels are usually given
different names as well; so in fact more than five are referred
to [see e.g. Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the
Sufism of Ibn Arabi, pp. 225, 260-61]. ...".
According to a
web page on Ibn 'Arabi and the Mystical Journey: A First Attempt to
Understand Ibn 'Arabi's The Journey to the Lord of Power by John G.
Sullivan Department of Philosophy Elon College prepared as part of
NEH 1999 Summer Seminar for College Teachers on "The Literature of
Islamic Mysticism" held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill [[ my comments are set off by ]]:
"... Ibn 'Arabi speaks of three basic sources of knowing
-- prophetic reports, rational investigation, and unveiling (a
knowing from the heart with strong ties to imagination). Some
modern religious sensibilities might rate "knowing through
reports" as lowest and either rational investigation or unveiling
as higher (as both of the latter appeal to some form of
experience). For Ibn 'Arabi, on the contrary, prophetic revelation
is the strongest and most solid yet he believes we need both
rational investigation and unveiling to have complete knowing of
that which the Prophet reveals to us. ...
... Ibn 'Arabi speaks of the two categories of the names of God
-- correlated with the "two hands of God."
- The left hand tends to dispersion, ignorance, darkness (at
least in a sense). More positively it reminds us that we do not
know God (tanzih) -- stressing incomparability. So that the
rational investigation would be useful to hold that
aspect.
- The right hand would tend to unity and self-awareness --
stressing what is similar (tashbih). ...
[[ Compare mirror image half-spinors and
the Taoist idea of
left-handed
__
|__|__
__| |
and
right-handed
__
__|__|
| |__
swastikas that represent expansion and contraction
(somewhat like breathing). ]]
... The "qutb" or axis or pivot is the highest station in the
Sufi hierarchy. "The qutb is directly responsible for the welfare
of the entire world. The qutb is said to be the spiritual
successor of Muhammad." (Glossary, Journey to the Lord of Power,
p.114) All that has been seen before is, Ibn 'Arabi says, from the
world of the left hand. From this station onward, we witness the
world of the right hand "and this is the place of the heart." (43)
As mentioned above, consider the right hand as representing mercy
and unity; the left as representing punishment and separation.
From hereon, we more and more realize the unity perspective of the
qutb and the mercy flowing from it. .... the qutb harmonizes both
aspects ... the incomparableness of the Divine (tanzih) and the
similarity of the Divine (tashbih), being able to hold both the
universal perspective of timelessness and the "moving image of
eternity" in which humans dwell. ...
... Appendix II: 'Arabi's Cosmic Order using 28 letters of
alphabet (from William Chittick Self-Disclosure of God, pp.
xxix-xxxii )
[[ The Cl(8) Clifford algebra has
a 28-dimensional bivector Lie algebra. ]]
The Intellective World
- 1. Hamza -- the First Intellect (Highest Pen)
- 2. Ha' -- Universal Soul (Preserved Tablet)
- 3. 'Ayn -- nonmanifest Nature -- what underlies the
"four natures" -- (heat and cold) + (dry and wet)
- 4. Ha' (dot below H) -- the Last or Dust Substance
(Prime Matter) -- like nature, remains unknown except
through traces -- fills the Void and is underlying
matter/potential of everything in universe except Intellect
and Soul
Higher Realm of Imagination
- 5. Ghayn -- The All Body, the Manifest -- a corporeal
substance from which every corporeal and imaginal body is
shaped and formed.
- 6. Kha -- Shape, the Wise -- through shape, the bodily
things of the universe become distinct from one another
- 7. Qaf -- the Throne, the All-Encompassing -- mentioned
in Qu'ran (20:5) as where the All Merciful sat. First bodily
thing that assumes a specific shape. Encompasses the entire
manifest universe including world of imagination.
- 8. Kaf -- the Footstool, the Grateful -- the first
imaginal thing -- locus of where God lets down his "two
feet" which are the foot of mercy and the foot of mercy
mixed with wrath. Above footstool, only mercy -- Footstool
embraces the heavens and the earth (2:255) -- the
manifestation of cosmos demands good and evil, suffering and
happiness, commands and prohibitions. "True gratitude
[is] possible only after this division, . . . true
gratitude [recognizes and accepts] God's mercy and
guidance and [thanks] Him in every state, whether we
consider the state beneficial or harmful." Self -Disclosure
of God, xxx)
Bodily World starts here with the Celestial Spheres
- 9. Jim -- the starless sphere -- the black satin sphere,
the Independent -- free of the specific stars or planets
that designate the lower spheres. (In Dante, the Primum
Mobile -- source of motion)
[Paradise is located here between the starless
sphere and the sphere of fixed stars]
- 10. Shin -- sphere of fixed stars, the Determiner. The
twelve constellations of the zodiac appear here and this
sphere can be divided into the twenty-eight waystations of
the moon. This disequilibrium 12/28 = 6/14 = 3/7 drives the
constant movement and change in the lower realms.
- 11. Ya -- the [7th] or highest heaven -- the
Lord -- Saturn (Saturday) -- Abraham
- 12. Dad (dot under D) -- [6th heaven] -- the
Knowing -- Jupiter (Thursday) -- Moses
- 13. Lam -- the [5th heaven] -- the Subjugating
-- Mars (Tuesday) -- Aaron
- 14. Nun -- the [4th heaven] -- Light -- holds a
central spot in bodily/imaginative worlds SUN (Sunday) --
Idris (Enoch)
- 15. Ra' -- the [3rd heaven] -- Form-giver --
Venus (Friday) -- Joseph
- 16. Ta' (dot under T) -- the [2nd heaven] --
Enumerator Mercury (Wed.) -- Jesus
- 17. Dal -- the [1st or lowest heaven] --
Clarifier Moon (Monday) -- Adam
- [[ The 7 heavens correspond to the 7 real
Clifford algebras between Cl(0) and Cl(8) that describe
the possible structures of the 8-fold periodicity tensor
factorization of Cl(N) for large N.
They also correspond to the 7 different independent E8
lattices. There is a natural 8th lattice that is
dependent, so each Cl(8) in a tensor product
Cl(8N) = Cl(8) (x) ...n times tensor... (x) Cl(8)
can be written in 7 different ways, isomorphic to the
7 imaginary Octonions i,j,k,E,I,J,K plus one additional
way corresponding to the 8th E8 lattice, which
corresponds to 1. Denote those 8 E8 lattices by
iE8,jE8,kE8,EE8,IE8,JE8,KE8 and 1E8. Then each Cl(8) can
be written with lattice structure in 8 ways
- Cl(81E8)
- Cl(8iE8)
- Cl(8jE8)
- Cl(8kE8)
- Cl(8EE8)
- Cl(8IE8)
- Cl(8JE8)
- Cl(8KE8)
so that there are effectively 8 ways that you can
"break down" a given Cl(8) into an E8 lattice structure
and if you look at
Cl(8N) = Cl(8) (x) ...n times tensor... (x) Cl(8)
there are 8^N ways (8 for each Cl(8)) that you can
break it down into E8 lattice structures.
(Compare the
construction of a String Theory containing Gravity and
the Standard Model.)
Now, based on the octonionic structure of the 8-dim
vector space, if you subdivide its E8 lattices into
smaller sub-lattices where the links are shorter, you see
that you can get a fractal self-similar nesting into
smaller and smaller lattice structures, like Onar Aam
described, sort of like this image 
taken from the paper of Battaner at astro-ph/9801276.
By doing that, you see that Cl(8) can not only be the
basis of a nesting of larger and larger superstructures,
but also that Cl(8) can be subdivided into a nesting of
smaller and smaller substructures, so that Cl(8) is the
key structure of nested super and sub-systems.
]]
The Elemental Globes -- pictured as four concentric globes
within the influence of moon
- 18. Ta' -- the fire -- the Gripper [The 4 elements
can be seen as giving
- 19. Za' -- the air -- the Alive rise to the progeny or
kinds of beings
- 20. Sin -- the water -- the Life-giver in the spiritual
(though less than God),
- 21. Sad -- the earth -- the Death-giver. in the imaginal
and in the bodily worlds.]
The Progeny -- children of the fathers (celestial spheres)
and mothers (the 4 elements)
- 22. Za' (dot under Z) minerals -- the Exalted the
Spirituals
- 23. Tha' -- plants -- the All-Provider
- 25. Fa' -- the angels (made of light) -- the Strong
- 24. Dhal -- animals -- the Abaser
- 26. Ba' -- the jinn (made of fire) -- the Subtle
- 27. Mim -- human beings (made of clay) -- the
All-Comprehensive
- 28. Waw -- the levels, stations -- the Uplifter of
degrees ...".
According to an
Ibn Arabi Society web page:
"... The Occult Tradition of the Tarot in Tangency with
Ibn 'Arabi's Life and Teachings by Jereer El-Moor. ... the author
reviews the known facts of the history of playing cards (and the
related history of the Tarot). He sets out to present "a credible
case for regarding the Tarot as of Near Eastern provenance", and
gives a personal view of its interpretation through the centuries.
In the second part he goes on to interpret one of the trumps in
the light of Ibn 'Arabi's 'Anqa' mughrib. ...".
[[ The structure of the 78 cards of Tarot are
closely related to the structure of the Cl(8) Clifford algebra.
For example, the 52-card subset of the 78 Tarot cards naturally
corresponds to the 8 vectors plus the 28 D4 bivectors plus the
8+8 spinors. ]]
Kent Palmer,
in e-mail correspondence, said:
"... With respect to Quran the numbers just don't work
out directly. The place where the trigrams appear the number eight
is not mentioned. ... The trigrams are in the Quran definitely.
... the references to Ilm al Raml are in doubtful hadith. ... The
evidences for the I Ching are in the coherences of the structure
of the book ...
... in ... the relation between Arabic and Ancient Egyptian ...
Maat is like Maut. So Truth is like Death ...
... we will step out into a place where the rainbow descends to
earth. We will be lost in the wonder of ... the rainbow of fate
......"
[[ The hieroglyph for Maat (meaning truth,
justice, and order) is an ostrich feather because the god Thoth
would judge the fate of each deceased Egyptian by weighing the
heart against an ostrich feather (Maat), so Truth was indeed
what determined the judgment faced at death. ]]
Ibn Arabi and Sufi Islam
According to an
Ibn Arabi Society web page:
"... Muhammad Ibn Arabi is one of the world's great
spiritual teachers. Known as Muhyiddin (the Revivifier of
Religion) and the Shaykh al-Akbar (the Greatest Master), he was
born in 1165 AD into the Moorish culture of Andalusian Spain, the
center of an extraordinary flourishing and cross-fertilization of
Jewish, Christian and Islamic thought, through which the major
scientific and philosophical works of antiquity were transmitted
to Northern Europe. Ibn Arabi's spiritual attainments were evident
from an early age, and he was renowned for his great visionary
capacity as well as being a superlative teacher. He travelled
extensively in the Islamic world and died in Damascus in 1240 AD.
...".
Although Ibn Arabi was Sunni, his work transcends Islamic
sectarian boundaries. For example, according to a
web page of Ted Thornton:
"... Ruhollah Khomeini was the first Muslim cleric in
modern times to create an Islamic government based solely on his
personal conception of what such a government should entail.
... Khomeini was descended from the Mussavi Sayyeds, a family
tracing its lineage from the Prophet Muhammad through the Shiite
seventh imam, Musa al-Kazem. Khomeini's father, Mustapha, a
well-known clergyman in Iran, was murdered seven months after
Ruhollah's birth. His mother died when he was 16.
Ruhollah's education reflected a strong Persian dualist outlook on
the world: a tendency to draw sharp boundaries between the
worlds of light and darkness, between black and white, between haq
("truth") and batel ("falsehood"). This approach to the
world, under girded by a traditional Iranian Shia conviction that
the world is unsafe for Shiites, that neither the Prophet
Muhammad, his family, nor any of the twelve Shia imams died a
natural death ("We are either poisoned or killed."), contributed
to the construction within Khomeini of the uncompromising
personality of one who feels relentlessly
persecuted. Growing up intelligent and introverted in a
climate where the religious establishment was losing ground in the
face of modernist secular challenges, Khomeini took refuge in
mysticism, especially in the works of Ibn Arabi and Rumi
[1207-1273] and their notion of the "Perfect Man" who will
guide society from multiplicity to unity, from blasphemy to faith
and from corruption to a life of absolute perfection. ... On
June 5,1963, Khomeini was arrested by SAVAK, the Shah's secret
police. Ten months later, in April, 1964, he was released
unrepentant. This led the Shah in November, 1964 to send him
into exile, first to Turkey, then in October, 1965, to the holy
Shia city of Najaf in Iraq, burial place of the fourth caliph and
first Shia Imam Ali (the tomb is located four miles from Kufa
where Ali was felled by Kharijite assassins in 661).
Khomeini moved to Paris in October, 1978. Throughout 1978,
demonstrations against the Shah's regime took place in Iran.
Ailing from cancer, the Shah departed Iran on January 16,
1979. Two weeks later, Khomeini's supporters recalled him
from exile in Paris, and on February 1, 1979, he returned to
construct his revolutionary "reign of virtue" according to his
principle of the velayet e-faqih ("vice regency of the
theologian"). Iran became a pure theocracy ... [By
2003,] Khomeini's own grandson, Sayyid Hussein Khomeini, ...
from his home in Baghdad, described the American invasion of Iraq
as a "liberation," and said that people in the region welcomed
freedom wherever it came from, even a country which his
grandfather had dubbed "the Great Satan." He predicted that unless
reforms occurred in Iran, there would be an exodus of Shia
scholars from Qom to Najaf, one of the major centers of Shiite
learning in Iraq and the burial place of the Shia Imam
Ali. ...".
Therefore, I like to see the work of Ibn Arabi as useful for all
humans.
According to the book Sufism and Taoism, by Toshihiko Izutsu
(California 1983):
"... Ibn Arabi remarks that 'the mystery of qadar is one
of the highest knowledges, which God grants only to (a small
number of) men who are privileged with a perfect mystical
intuition'. If a man happens to obain the true knowldege of qadar,
the knowledge surely brings him a perfect peace of mind and an
intolerable pain at the same time.
- The unusual peace of mind arises from the consciousness
that everything in the world occurs as it has been determined
from eternity. ... Instead of struggling in vain for obtaining
what is not in his capacity, he will be happy ...
- He must be tormented, on the other hand, by an intense pain
at the sight of all the so-called 'injustices', 'evils', and
'sufferings' that reign rampant around him, being keenly
conscious that it is not in his 'preparedness' to remove them
from the world. ...".
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