Ibn ’arabī on the ultimate model of the ultimate

Abstract

Ibn ’arabī’s vast corpus of writings analyzes a great variety of templates that allow seekers of understanding to grasp the Necessary Being and the entire realm of contingency. By the necessity of its very nature the Necessary Being gives rise to three complementary images of itself—the universe, the human self, and scripture. It discloses itself in each in keeping with its inherent attributes, both the ‘natural,’ such as life, consciousness, desire, power, speech; and the ‘moral,’ such as compassion, love, justice, forgiveness, and pardon. The goal of human existence is to actualize these attributes in perfect harmony. No human model can possibly embrace the infinity of the Necessary Being, but each model will necessarily reveal something of its nature. Ibn shows why each model must be simultaneously affirmed and denied if we are to achieve the full potentiality of our human existence.