Ibn Arabi on God

A significant part of my conversion to Islam was the realization that my concept of God (naturally) was not so much a Nicene construction formulated by Byzantine imperial decree, nor was it a Scholastic Tridentine definition. Rather, it was much closer to anything Ibn Arabi has to say on the subject.

Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165–1240) was a mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, and one of the greatest spiritual teachers in Islam.

“Know that God is never in anything, nor is anything in Him. He is neither inside nor outside anything. None can see Him, whether with the eyes of the head or … with the inner eye; nor can any conceive Him with senses, knowledge, mind, intelligence or imagination. Only He can see Himself; only He can conceive Himself. None can know Him; only He can know Himself. He sees Himself by Himself; He conceives Himself by Himself; He knows Himself by Himself. None other than He can see Him. None other than He can know Him. That which hides Him is His oneness. None but He can hide Him. The veil that hides Him is His own being.”

— Ibn Arabi

“As for the theorists and thinkers, and the scholastic theologians, with their talk about the soul and its properties, none of them have grasped the Reality; such speculation can never grasp it. He who seeks to know the Reality through theoretical speculation is flogging a dead horse; … for he who seeks to know It by any means other than the one proper to It, will never grasp It.”

— Ibn Arabi