Ib’n Arabi – Alone with the Alone

Hear, O my beloved!

You are the reason for the being of the world
You are the center-point of the sphere and its encompassing
You are its complexity and simplicity
You are the order brought down between heaven and earth
I did not create for you realizations
except that you realize Me in themAnd when you realize Me, you realize yourself
Do not strive to realize Me in the realization of yourself

By My eye you will see Me and yourself
You will not see Me by the eye of yourself

Beloved,

How often have I called you and you do not hear
How often have I stood before you and you do not witness Me

How often have I embodied Myself in sense and you do not inhale
and in the flavors and you do not savor the taste for My sake

What is the matter with you that you do not feel Me when you touch?
Why do you not recognize Me in the fragrances of musk?
Why do you not see Me? Why do you not hear Me?

What is the matter with you!
What is the matter with you!

I am your most heady rupture beyond any delight
My craving for you is more intense than any born for an object of desire

I am better for you than any good thing

I am the beautiful
I am the elegant

Love Me, Love Me
Love Me alone

Desire Me ardently
Be consumed in Me,
Not engrossed in other than Me

Take Me in,
Receive Me
You will not find an intimate like Me

Everything wants you for itself but I want you for your sake
But you, you avoid Me

Beloved,

You can not meet Me half-way in your drawing close to Me
My drawing close to you outweighs a hundredfold
of means by which you approach Me

I am closer to you than your self
And your self, which performs these acts, is other than Me, created.

Beloved,

I am jealous of you, from you
I can not bear to see you with otherness or with yourself
Be with Me in Me
With yourself just as you are with Me
Then, My Beloved
you will not even feel the Union.
The Union!

Had we found a path towards separation
We would let the separation savor separation

Beloved,
Come, hand in hand,
enter reality that it may decide between us with a judgment of eternity

Beloved antagonist,
Pleasure can not be found in dispute between lovers
Pleasure is in the converse

O heart,

O heart

 

Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi

Mystic, philosopher, poet, sage, Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi is one of the world’s great spiritual teachers. Ibn ‘Arabi was born in Murcia, Al-Andalus, in 1165 and his writings had an immense impact throughout the Islamic world and beyond. The universal ideas underlying his thought are of immediate relevance today.