The mirror that the One projects forth is not uniformly polished. The created being in which the absolute becomes the most fully conscious of itself is man. And there is in every generation al-insan al-kamil, "the Perfect Human Being", who is the link between the Absolute Being and the created realm. Through the mediacy of the Perfect Human Being the dynamic process of emanation and return takes place. In fact, the process would be impossible without that being, the most perfect Sufi, the qutb ("pole"), the axis around which the cosmos revolves.

Ibn 'Arabi's emanationist view of creation reinterprets, moreover, the traditional understanding of the goal of mysticism in Islam. Many early Sufis described the path as a growth in a loving union between a soul, which retains its essential independence, and the beloved who, while being the source of creation, is distinct from it. For Ibn 'Arabi and his followers, the goal is not primarily love but wisdom, to move from the illusion of plurality to the gnostic insight that one has always been, and will continue to be, totally united with the source of all being.

Wahdat al-wujud has enormous implications, furthermore, for the Sufi understanding of human freedom and ethics. Nothing manifests itself in creation unless God wills it. This is an axiom of both Ibn 'Arabi and traditional Islam. In Ibn 'Arabi's system, the archetypes of all potential beings exist in the One. When these potential realities are actualized in the illusory realm of plurality, they function completely in accord with their celestial archetypes. In the realm of the created world, therefore, individual free choice is illusory. All change is predetermined by the archetype of the particular reality. Freedom exists only insofar as all creatures participate in the freedom of the One, with which they are ultimately identified.

Ethics, in addition, must be seen in the light of the determinative power of the celestial archetypes. In the realm of creation, the law (shari'ah) delineates what actions are in accord with God's revelation. From the perspective of the One, however, all actions are good since they are manifestations of the divine creative imagination and are in accord with the celestial archetypes. Culpability is relative because it is operative only in the realm of created illusion. Eventually all return to the undifferentiated One; thus there is no eternal reward or punishment in the traditional sense.

The complexity of Ibn 'Arabi's thought defies summation in a few brief paragraphs. Nor have scholars in field have gained sufficient mastery of his work to unravel his convoluted and sometimes contradictory ideas. What is clear, however, is the pervasiveness of Ibn 'Arabi and his school on later Sufism. Disciples such as Sadr al-Din Qunawi (d. 1274) in Anatolia and commentators on his work such as 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad Jami (d. 1492) in Persia disseminated his ideas through out the Islamic world.

© Nasim Fatima