Each Name is a way of describing the relationship between God and the world or ‘what is other than God’, because to say Creator is already to say creation, and to say Giver of Life is already to say living beings. They are relationships insofar as they signify the relationship between God and the world, such as the Names the Creator and the Giver of Life. Ibn al-’Arabi calls the Names relationships or attributions, both of which are conveyed by the Arabic word nisbah. The phrase “Most Beautiful Names” refers the verse of the Quran, To God belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call by them.1 Each Name is a Name of the one and unique Essence, without the Essence thereby undergoing any division or multiplicity.
“The Real willed, by virtue of his Most Beautiful Names, which are innumerable.” Beginning with the Essence, we are then introduced to the Divine Names and Qualities. The economy of the use of the Name Allah and other Essence-denoting Names such as al-Haqq expresses a recognition that one does not talk about God the way one talks about other conceptual categories. Ibn al-’Arabi’s use of al-Haqq in instances where the divinity and creature seem to be changing places in the text is an expression of the operative and lived presence which the Name Allah evokes for the author of such a work and traditionally for most of its readers. It is not a question of the use of the Name Allah as such, but of using it with poor adab and with a pseudo-mystical self-indulgence. In almost all cases where some sort of identity is implied or stated between the Divine 1Īnd its manifestations, a Name other than Allah is used. Through employing a Name such as the Real, one is able to evoke the all-comprehensiveness and totality of God without abusing the Name Allah. Allah carries with it a tremendum not only by virtue of God’s omnipotence and utter transcendence but also as a result of the awesome proximity that it owns by virtue of being the allencompassing Name. Among the Sufis, not only is the Name Allah the Supreme Name that encompasses all other Names, but it is also the personal Name of God, as it is for all believers. Rather, the use of the Name Allah invokes a presence that is, in a sense, too much for certain contexts to bear. This is not to say that the use of the Name Allah as such is considered a blasphemy or an act of taking the Divine Name in vain. Ibn al-’Arabi employs al-Haqq, as do other Islamic metaphysicians, not only as an alternate expression for Allah, but also out of a sense of spiritual propriety or adab. The Essence or Self is neither this or that, nor is it not this or not that, being beyond all qualifications. It signifies the Essence of God, the Ultimate Reality beyond all distinctions, polarities, and relativizations.
INTRODUCTION The Ringstone of Adam begins with the Real (al-Haqq), which might also be rendered as the Truth or the Reality. Translation, Introduction, and Glosses by Caner K. The Ringstones of Wisdom The Fusus al-Hikam of Ibn al-‘Arabi