Ibn 'Arabī on the 'Barzakh'

Divine "imagination" and the intermediate world: Ibn 'Arabī on the 'Barzakh' Author: James Winston Morris Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/2208 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Published in Postdata, vol. 2. época:15, pp. 104-109, Verano 1995 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. DIVINE "IMAGINATION" dens of paradise (chapters 65-65) (3). The Resurrection, Ibn 'Arabi begins to deve- AND THE INTERMEDIATE chapter translated here (4) is therefore the lop [III] the mysterious correspondences centerpiece of this broader eschatologi- between the universal, ontological dimen- WORLD: IBN 'ARABI ON cal section and focuses relatively more sions of this plane of Imagination and the THE BARZAKH on the "theoretical" dimension of the Ima- manifestations of its "Light" in the expe- gination, on the ontological and episte- riences of each individual. And finally, For centuries after the time of the An- mological underpinnings of the spiritual the Shaykh returns [IV] to the more ex- dalusian mystic Ibn 'Arabi, his remarka- experiences and phenomena discussed in plicitly eschatological implications of his ble discussions and conceptions of the greater detail in many other sections of earlier discussions, developing the para- "Imagination" (al-khayal) were elabora- the Futuhat. llels between this universal reality of the ted by Islamic philosophers, poets, artists It is always a challenge, and often a Imagination and our more familiar expe- and critics in order to explain, interpret near-impossibility, to attempt to outline rience of sleep and dreams -an approach and justify the full range of artistic and the structure of any of Ibn 'Arabi wri- to which he later returned in a number of creative activities carried on within later tings in a linear and straightforward fa- famous passages in his Fusus al-Hikam Islamicate cultures, as far away as India shion. (And serious attempts to convey However, even the most cursory and and Indonesia (1). Modern western stu- something of their deeper inner structure uninformed reading of this chapter would dents of Ibn 'Arabi writing on such the- inevitably require an involved commen- make quickly make it evident that Ibn mes have tended to focus on the deve- tary much longer than the mystic's own 'Arabi's intention was not to "clarify" in lopment of those ideas in his celebrated original text). However, a few such indi- any sort of rational, conceptual and logi- Fusus al-Hikam ("The Bezels of Wis- cations have been added here for the be- cal form the different ways in which we dom") and its long line of traditional phi- nefit of those who may be encountering can speak of and understand the Imagi- losophic commentaries (2). But another his distinctive style of writing for the nation -however broadly or narrowly one major source of those classical Islamic first time. Like almost all chapters of the might define that term- and all its mani- understandings of the Imagination was in Futuhat, chapter 63 opens with a short festations. In this respect, chapter 63 is the Shaykh's many discussions of the es- and highly allusive metaphysical-didac- an excellent, highly typical introduction chatological "Barzakh" or "intermediate tic poem summarizing virtually all the to Ibn 'Arabi's unique rhetoric and style, world" of the divine Imagination -as well themes treated in the rest of the chapter; an inimitable form of writing which is as his accounts of his own striking expe- the remainder of this eschatological chap- always intimately linked to his larger spi- riences and decisive spiritual encounters ter, quite typically, is an extended and (at ritual and didactic intentions. As readers there- which are scattered throughout his first glance) apparently somewhat disor- familiar with other texts of his may more magnum opus, al-Futuhat al-Makkiya dered commentary on the topics sugges- quickly recognize, the recurrent mixture ("The Meccan Illuminations"). ted by those opening verses. In this case, of -and sudden shifts between- a whole One of his most extensive and widely Ibn 'Arabi begins his exposition with [I] spectrum of contrasting approaches, ima- influential discussions of the Imagina- an explanation -at once linguistic, sym- ges, perspectives and technical vocabula- tion/Barzakh, in all its humanly relevant bolic and philosophic- of the basic notion ries is not accidental or the result of "bad dimensions, was in the set of five escha- of a barzakh, or "limit" between two me- writing" (or fuzzy thinking), but instead tological chapters (61-65) within the long taphysical realms: here, the domains of forms a complex, highly self-conscious opening section of the Futuhat-chapters purely physical and purely intelligible/ rhetorical technique. The Shaykh's ulti- first brought to the attention of a wider noetic being, and the mysterious eschato- mate aim here, as so often throughout his Western audience in the famous studies logical realm of Imagintion that lies bet- writings, is not simply heightened in- by Asm Palacios of Islamic themes in ween them. The exposition then moves tellectual understanding nor a more dee- Dante's Divine Comedy. Those chapters from the ontological-theological mode of ply grounded religious faith and practice whose arrangement follows the traditio- discourse to [II] an openly epistemologi- -although both of those outcomes may nal popular ordering of the symbolic cal and experiential evocation of the kinds also result from serious study of his wri- "events" and "places" of the Resurrection of experience (and scriptural allusions) ting. Rather, as one can see most clearly mentioned in Islamic scriptures, begin which begin to reveal more clearly the at those moments where he suddenly with descriptions of Gehenna and the central existencial importance of this shifts to the singular imperative ("Know!", "Fires" and other torments of its resi- realm of being. Next, working through "Realize!", etc.) it is to bring about in the dents (chapters 61-62) and conclude with the rich symbolism of a famous Prophe- properly prepared and attentive reader a the stages of redemption and eventual tic statement comparing this reality to the suddenly transformed state of immediate bliss of souls who have reached the Gar- "Horn" that is blown to announce the realization and awareness, in which each of the implicit dualities (or paradoxes) of deeper appreciation of Ibn 'Arabi's me- translated works as our The Wisdom our usual perception of things -the re- aning and intentions here often requires a of the Throne: An Introduction to current categorical suppositions of sub- degree of acquaintance with Islamic scrip- the Philosophy of Mulla Sadra (Prin- ject and object, divine and human, spiri- tures and classical forms of religious lear- ceton, 1981) and Shah Waliullah's tual and material, earthly and heavenly- ning that can rarely be assumed among Lamahat, tr. G.N. Jalbani (Hydera- is directly transcended in an enlightened, modern readers. Thus any effort to com- bad, 1970). revelatory moment of unitive vision. His municate fully that web of allusions and (2) The classic study from this perspec- ultimate aim in this chapter, as throu- assumptions to a modern audience natu- tive (including as well many impor- ghout his writings, is to bring his readers rally requires a body of notes and com- tant sections of the Futuhat) remains Henryto see -not just to acknowledge intellecCorbin's- mentar y several times longer thaL'Imaginationn Ibn crea - tually or theologically- everything as on- 'Arabi's text itself. In this case, given the trice dans le Soufisme d'Ibn 'Arabi (Paris,going theophany (tajalliyat)1958), an translatedd "ever- (byconstraint R. Man-s of article length, we have cho- renewed" divine creation. sen to translate as much of the chapter heim) as Creative Imagination in the In the case of this chapter, Ibn 'Arabi's itself as possible (omitting only a few Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi (Princeton, efforts to break through his readers' ordi- repetitive or highly technical sections), at 1969). narily unquestioned separations between the price of eliminating all such explana- (3) See our forthcoming study (with what is "divine" and "human", or "objec- tory notes (6) -apart from the basic iden- complete, fully annotated transla- tive" and "subjective", or "this-worldly" tification of Qur'anic quotations and allu- tions and annotations of these and and "other-worldly", are repeatedly sus- sions, which are so often indispensable other eschatological chapters), Ibn tained by certain basic features of the for understanding the Shaykh's inten- Arabi's Divine Comedy: an Intro- Arabic language that cannot easily be tions. duction to Islamic Eschatology and reproduced in a western tongue. For Cosmology. A considerable range of example, his most basic term and under- James W. Morris representative translations on this lying subject here, the Arabic expression Oberlin College (USA) subject are already included in our al-khayal, refers most often, in ordinary contributions to Ibn 'Arabi: Les Illu- contexts, to what we would ordinarily minations de la Mecque/The Mec- call an "image" or "object of imagina- can Illuminations, ed. M. Chod- tion", and ultimately to the actual under- NOTAS kiewicz (Paris, 1989) and in the arti- lying reality of all the "imaginal" (not cle "Seeing Past the Shadows: Ibn "imaginary") objects of our perception in (1) Thus the incomparable architectural 'Arabi's Divine Comedy", JOURNAL virtually all forms and domains. Given accomplishments of the Taj Mahal OF THE MUHYIDD1N IBN 'ARABI this primacy of the ontic, "objective" di- turn out to have been inspired, from SOCIETY, XII (1992), pp. 50-69. mension of the term al-khayal -whether the overall plan down to sometimes (4) Vol. IV, pp. 406-425 in the new cri- that is expressed in theological or cosmo- minute details, by the elaborate es- tical edition of al-Futuhat al-Makkiya, by Dr.

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