The Universal Tree and the Four Birds
135
The Universal Tree and the Four Birds
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781905937165 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Anqa Publishing |
| Publication date: | 10/28/2006 |
| Series: | Mystical Treatises of Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 135 |
| File size: | 5 MB |
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The Universal Tree and the Four Birds
Treatise on Unification (al-Ittihad al-kawni)
By Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, Angela Jaffray
Anqa Publishing
Copyright © 2006 Angela JaffrayAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-905937-16-5
CHAPTER 1
Treatise on Unification
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Blessings upon our master, Muhammad, and upon his family and companions. This is a noble treatise in which I have consigned a tremendous discourse.
From my incompleteness to my completeness, and
from my inclination to my equilibrium
From my grandeur to my beauty, and from my
splendour to my majesty
From my scattering to my gathering, and from my
exclusion to my reunion
From my baseness to my preciousness, and from my
stones to my pearls
From my rising to my setting, and from my days to
my nights
From my luminosity to my darkness, and from my
guidance to my straying
From my perigee to my apogee, and from the base of
my lance to its tip
From my waxing to my waning, and from the void of
my moon to its crescent
From my pursuit to my flight, and from my steed to
my gazelle
From my breeze to my boughs, and from my boughs
to my shade
From my shade to my bliss, and from my bliss to my
wrath
From my wrath to my likeness, and from my likeness
to my impossibility
From my impossibility to my validity, and from my
validity to my deficiency
I am no one in existence but myself, so -
Whom do I treat as foe and whom do I treat as
friend?
Whom do I call to aid my heart, pierced by a
penetrating arrow,
When the archer is my eyelid, striking my heart
without an arrow?
Why defend my station? It matters little to me; what
do I care?
For I am in love with none other than myself, and
my very separation is my union.
Do not blame me for my passion. I am inconsolable
over the one who has fled me.
In this book I never cease addressing myself about myself and returning in it to myself from myself.
From my heaven to my earth, from my exemplary
practice to my religious duty,
From my pact to my perjury, from my length to
my breadth.
* * *
From my sense to my intellect and from my intellect
to my sense,
- From whence derive two strange sciences, without
doubt or confusion.
From my soul to my spirit and from my spirit to my
soul,
- By means of dissolution and coagulation, like the
corpse in the tomb.
From my intuition to my knowledge and from my
knowledge to my intuition,
- Continuous is the light of knowledge; ephemeral
the light of intuition.
From my sanctity to my impurity and from my
impurity to my sanctity,
- Sanctity is in my present and impurity is in
yesterday.
From my human–nature to my jinn–nature, and from
my jinn–nature to my human–nature,
- For my jinn–nature seeks to disquiet me and my
humannature seeks to set me at ease.
From the narrowness of my body to the vastness of my
soul, And from the vastness of my soul to the
prison of my body,
- For my soul denies my intellect and my intellect my
soul.
From my entity to my nonentity, and my nonentity
to my entity,
- Where I rejoice to find my composition and lament
to find my dispersion.
From my likeness to my opposite and from my
opposite to my likeness,
- Were it not for Baqil no light of excellence would
shine in Quss.
From my sun to my full moon and from my full
moon to my sun,
- So that I might bring to light what lies hidden in
night's core.
From Persian to Arab and from Arab to Persian,
- To explain the mysteries' roots and express the
realities' enigmas.
From my root to my branch and from my branch to
my root,
- For the sake of a life that was buried in death,
animate or inanimate.
Pay no heed, my soul, to the words of that jealous
spite–monger,
Or to the remarks of that ignorant presumer, O
myrtle of my soul!
How many ignoramuses have slandered us spiritual
beings!
While my revelation descends from the Spirit of
inspiration and sanctity,
He is like a man possessed by a demon whose touch
makes him tremble.
On the matter of spiritual realization mankind does
not cease to err,
For God's secret is poised between the shout and the
whisper.
I have called this treatise "Cosmic unification in the presence of essential witnessing, through the assembling of the Human Tree and the Four Spiritual Birds." I have dedicated it to Abu al–Fawaris sakhr ibn Sinan, master of the reins of generosity and eloquence. I seek help from God. He is my support and my assistance, glory be to him!
Dedication
To the third and the second — the master of the triads and dyads — the one alluded to in the doubled words of praise, the evanescent conqueror who restrains his mount, the one who turns toward his shadow and bows his head in humility; the generous one whose generosity never runs dry, the perfect being whose existence is not known, the one who is sent from the two divine presences and the envoy of the two powers; he whose foundations are certain, whose possibility is discounted, and whose place is known; channel of subtle graces, reality of time, goal of faith, seat of Mercy, subtlety of the moment, sultan of men and jinn, Jann son of jinn, pupil of man's eye, beneficent giver, Abu al–Fawaris Sakhr b. Sinan, master of the reins of generosity and eloquence. I ask God to give him the most perfect and elevated of ranks.
May he receive the scent of the most perfect and the most pure of greetings, as well as the mercy and benedictions of God, the most Exalted.
I praise God who has "fashioned" me and "balanced" me, and cast me in "the most beautiful of constitutions". For he made me know myself through myself and caused me to appear to myself, so that I became enamoured of only myself. Between my distance and my proximity I have become mad with love for myself, and I address myself alone.
Were I to see myself when I came to myself by
myself, secretly or openly,
And said, "Greetings" and answered, "At your
service",
And if my turning were from me to me,
My very "Here I am!" would annihilate me from
myself,
From my enemies and my trusty friends,
From my threat [of punishment] and my surplus
[grace],
From my delight and my promises [of paradise],
From my witnessing and my testimony.
What wonderful favour would be mine through
myself!
Oh I! Return me by me to me until I see my stability.
He returned me by me to me from me, and only my
qualities subsisted in me.
My palm grasped my stick, my staff smote my rock;
The river of constellations flowed from it: Twelve
heralds!
I said to myself: Oh I! Add constancy to my
constancy!
These are the sciences of life, scattering light from
all that grows upon my being.
Where in me does that subtle secret reside that God
has placed within my essences?
I was filled with what I sought from myself, but my
desire for death remained.
I took to complaining to myself of my passion so
that my signs would appear
Upon my eyelids from the essence of my creation.
Then he lavished gathering on my scattering.
My essence conjoined passionately with my essence,
for my essence, my whole life long.
I did not hold my harshness against myself,
Or the length of my abandonment or my misdeeds–
I am my beloved and my lover; I am my knight and
my maiden.
This book came to me from the city situated on the equator, assigned to the temperate clime, fortified by [spiritual] powers: Mount Sinai, the Land Made Safe,fashioned of water and clay, uniting the "most beautiful of constitutions" with the "lowest of degrees". This treatise informed me of what passed between myself and myself and what my existence contemplated of my existence.
When the signs of witnessing were lifted from me and the suffering of spiritual combat was removed, and harmony and succour began to flow through me, I mounted the Buraq of my spiritual aspiration and departed from the cycle of this grief. I fell into the sea of hylic matter, and beheld the next world and the present one. I said: "May he perish, whoever denies the gardens and the abode of life, the sporting boys and embracing houris, and the union of bodies with bodies! He who sees the Preserver affirms the existence of the Speaker, for the line of equilibrium does not waver." I understood here that those who deny the resurrection of the body will continue to waver and will never be rid of the noose of the four and the two.
Then I shouted: "Oh alas!" and "Alas, my burning heart. I fled from the universe and here I am in it. Where is what I seek?"
I heard a voice coming from me — but neither inside me nor outside me — say: "Why do you demand a high station when you are on the road? What have you to do with the sittings [on the Throne]? What have you to do with the celestial couches and sublime litters? What have you to do with the uppermost horizon? What have you to do with the screens of splendour? What have you to do with the radiant curtain? What have you to do with the Cloud? What have you to do with the impenetrable Veil of Sublimity? What have you to do with the absolute ipseities? What have you to do with the confirmed realities? What have you to do with the presence of allusions? What have you to do with the conversations? What have you to do with the nightly confidences? What have you to do with the sublime Tree? What have you to do with the branches of the world? What have you to do with the strange 'Anqa'? What have you to do with the Ringdove? What have you to do with the Jet–Black Crow? What have you to do with the Royal Eagle? O you who are veiled, how can you ask 'where?' about the Essence, when you are in a station that does not admit lies!"
I answered: "Oh you who rebuke me, your words have wounded me. Do you not know that you speak from your own station? You are in the presence of the Essence, divested of time and place, while I am in this dark abyss, in this black gloom and this fearful calamity, in this mine of lies and doubt, this place of faults and defects. Does the prisoner of quantity and the one confined to wise maxims not cry out: Woe! If you extract me from the crashing waves and deliver me from the struggles of this gloomy night I will never more pronounce an adverb or stop at a particle."
Through his irresistible power he attracted me to himself and said to me: "You are vanquished, so seek help!"
I said: "I will save myself by your right hand, for both your hands are right hands. For he is the powerful, the trustworthy, the faithful, and the true one who never lies."
He said: "How can one mock me whose hope abides in me?" I said: "Just like one who praises you bestows favour upon you." When he attracted me to himself I saw myself in another form than my previous one. I established myself there and took a firm position.
I said: "Oh I!"
He said: "I, welcome!"
I said: "No welcome, no greetings, no make yourself at ease!" He said: "Oh eye–balm, what is disquieting you? Oh prisoner of creation, what is afflicting you?"
I answered: "You do not cease from veiling me from myself. Unveil me to myself so that I can know myself! Here is my tablet outspread, my banner is raised, my knowledge is delimited, my station is praised, my secret self is witnessed, my heart is found, the goal I seek is lost, and I, in my world, am what is sought. I am called the word of existence. If these entities were to become annihilated, if these creatures were to vanish, and if I were to retreat from the Throne of Mercy and the lordly name, I would be able to enjoy the divine regard and not be harmed by this favour."
He said: "The pens have been spent, the signs have gone away, the names have departed, the Throne has been veiled, the tablets have been put away, and the hearts and spirits have been lost. But these are necessary: the dark–green gloom of the Garden, the sphere of water, the Supreme Pen, the first step, the hidden letter nun, and the guarded right hand."
When I heard that there was still a trace of createdness before me, I feared that it would cut me off from my cognizance. So I rose from that gloomy darkness, leaving the Buraq of my aspiration in it. I was transported to the thrones of subtle grace and the couches of the celestial cushions, until I reached the station of rejoicing where I set myself to oscillate like a hanging lamp. 1 said: "What have I to do with the state of audition?" Someone said: "It is the beauty of the rhythm that has set you in motion."
I said: "I didn't feel it."
Someone said to me: "Be careful! For you are with yourself and not with him!"
I said: "Reality is beyond the rhythms of song. What it demands is extinction within extinction."
Then a veil was lowered between my essence and its Essence and a state came between me and it.
Then he said to me: "Where are you, do you belong to the world or to me?"
I said: "[I am] between drudgery and desire. My goal is the blinding Cloud while I am in the water. My spirit is in the heavens while my throne is in the primordial Dust and my family is in Saba. My kingdom is in the Throne and my authority in the two feet of equivalence. My constellation is in the celestial sphere, my veil is in the angel, my obscurity is in prime matter, and my trial is in this world. My beginning is the first state while my end is the next world. My intimacy is in the intimate friend Abraham; my conversations are in Moses, who spoke with God; my vicegerency is in Aaron, the sage; my elevation is in Idris; my form is in Joseph; my knowledge in its diversity and multiplicity is in Jesus; my body is in Adam, the father of mankind; my heart is from Abraham, the greatest of masters; and my physical frame is in the four elements."
He said: "That is your portion from my creation, but where is your portion from my essence?"
I said: "Oh you, who speak by allusion! Relationship exists either with something contrary or something similar, and when the similar is inherent [to this relationship] it is inherent essentially and necessarily."
The one who speaks by allusion said: "I mean the relationship of the similar."
I said: "My trace is yours and my attribute is yours. Summation is better than particularization in this manner, for the sake of the Wayfarers."
He said: "You've spoken correctly. But where is the relationship of the contrary, according to reality, not according to equivocation?"
I said: "In my non–existence is your existence and in my avarice is your generosity; in your speech is my muteness and in your discourse is my bell–peal. In my impossibility is your eternity and in my beginning is your precedence."
He said: "I know now that you know. How excellent is your judgement!"
Then the Universal Tree of the garden, described as the Likeness, was unveiled to me. I observed a tree "whose root is firm and whose branches are in the heavens." Its fruit is in the hand of the Deity, who sits upon the Throne. Among its branches sat the Crow and the strange 'Anqa', and in the shelter of its boughs perched the Eagle and the Ringdove. I greeted the Tree and it answered, greeting me even more finely It said: "Listen, O wayfarer, O king."
Discourse of the Universal Tree, Described as the Likeness
I am the Universal Tree of synthesis and likeness. I have deep roots and my branches are lofty. The hand of the One planted me in the garden of eternity, protected from the vicissitudes of time. I have spirit and body. My fruit is gathered with no hand touching it. These fruits contain more sciences and knowledge than sound intellects and subtle hearts can bear. My leaves are "raised couches", my fruits are not "out of reach nor yet forbidden". My centre is the desired goal. My branches perpetually draw nigh and come down. Some come down to provide benefit and aid, while some draw nigh gradually to bestow favour. My constitution is like the celestial sphere in roundness and my branches are homes to the winged spirits. My flowers are like the stars whose course engenders the minerals, flowing in their bodies.
I am the Tree of light, speech, and the eye–balm of Moses, upon whom be peace. Of directions mine is the most excellent righthanded one, of places mine is the holy valley. Of times mine is the instant. Of dwelling places, mine is the equator and the temperate climes. 1 have perpetuity, everlastingness, and felicity without misery. The fruits of my two gardens are near to hand and my bough sways loftily as if intoxicated. It bestows grace and tenderness on all living creatures. My branches always offer frankincense to the spirits of the Guarded Tablet, and my foliage is a protection for them against the diurnal rays. My shade extends over those whom God envelops in his solicitude and my wings are spread over the people of sainthood. The spirit–winds blow on me from many different directions and disarrange the order of my branches. From this entanglement one hears such melodious sounds. They enrapture the supreme intellects in the utmost heights and set them running on the course inscribed upon their scroll.
I am the music of wisdom that removes care through the beauty of its rhythmic song. I am the luminous light. Mine is the green carpet and the most resplendent round face. Assisted by the powers and ennobled by the one who is seated on the Throne, I have become like prime matter, receiving all forms in the afterworld and the present one. I am not too narrow to bear anything! I am never apart from a faithful light that shines upon me; it consoles the one who leans upon me.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Universal Tree and the Four Birds by Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, Angela Jaffray. Copyright © 2006 Angela Jaffray. Excerpted by permission of Anqa Publishing.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements,Of the Tree and its Four Birds, by Rafi Zabor,
Biography of Ibn 'Arabi,
Introduction,
Overview,
Stylistic Considerations,
Treatise on Unification,
Dedication,
Discourse of the Universal Tree,
Discourse of the Ringdove,
Discourse of the Royal Eagle,
Discourse of the Strange 'Anqa',
Discourse of the Jet–Black Crow,
Commentary,
The Title,
The Proemial Poems,
The Dedicatee,
The Fourth Poem,
Meetings in the Barzakh,
Soliloquies of the Universal Tree and the Four Birds,
Cosmic Marriage and the Genealogy of the Birds,
Appendix: The Edition of the Text,
Bibliography,
Index of Qur'anic Citations,
Index of Names and Terms,
Arabic text,