4.4.4.2  Day-time and Night-time

Ibn al-Arabi not only extends the concept of the known day to the orbs and divine Names as we have seen above, but also he suggests that every orb and divine Name has a corresponding day-time and night-time like our normal day-time and night-time, caused by the motion of the Sun. Likewise, those other infinitely varied day-times and night-times are all caused through the manifestation of the primary divine Name “the Light” [III.201.35], which brings into manifest existence in the world all the transient images or likenesses of the infinite divine Names: ‘When the divine Name “the Light” is considered (from the perspective of) the existence of the exalted shadow imaged forth (in the cosmos: i.e., the First Intellect or Perfect Human Being) and (from the perspective of) its rising upon those who are in the world, then the (entities of the) world which are in this image will call this rising, until the time it sets for them, a “day-time”, and from the time it sets for them, they call it a “night-time”. But that (divine) Light is still present for this shadow, just as the Sun is still present in respect to the Earth both in its rising and in its setting (though it is only visible to us in its rising) ... so in reality (that appearance of night) is (only) a shadow, although they call it “darkness”. ... So know that!

... Then Allah made these days which we know, that are caused by the motion of the isotropic orb, and the day-time and night-time that are caused by the heart (of the cosmos), I mean the Sun, in order to determine through them the effects of the divine Days that belong to the Names.’ [III.202.6]

Thus, as we have just seen, every divine Name has a specific Day, with a corresponding day-time and night-time, and when the Day of one divine Name appears to be over, a Day of another Name starts, and so on; and all these are included in the eternal Day of the divine Name “the Age”: ‘Every divine Name, known or unknown, has a (specific) Day in the Age, and these are the “Days of Allah”, and all, in reality, are the Days of Allah, but most people don’t know that. So if we descend from the divine Names to the Day of the First Intellect, we find that its effect in the Universal Soul divided it into day-time and night-time: its night in respect to the Soul is when the Intellect turns away from her when he approaches his Lord to benefit (by receiving knowledge from Him), and its day-time in respect to this Soul is when he approaches her to benefit her, so that is her day-time. And through this effect Allah made in the Soul two forces: the intellective force, which is her night in the world below her; and the active force, which is her day-time in the world below her, and that (contrast of those two universal powers) is called unseen and seen, letter and meaning, abstract and sensed. So this causes in the Soul a Day that has no day-time and night-time (withe respect to herself), while in the world it has (what we perceive as) day-time and night-time. The same applies to the Day of the Universal Matter: its day-time is its essence, and its night-time is its form, while it is in itself a Day with no day-time and night-time.’ [III.202.20]

Likewise, the Day in every orb is a Day with no day-time and night-time for that orb, but with the appearance of a day-time and night-time for (some of) the world below it. Ibn al-Arabi even gives an excellent example, using a detailed scientific explanation about something that we are familiar with nowadays, which is the phenomena of day-time and night-time on the Earth: ‘Allah caused the (normal) day-time and night-time by creating the Sun and its (apparent) rising and setting on the Earth, whereas in the sky it is all light, with no day-time and night-time. The outlet of the night from the sphere of the Earth where the Sun sets is cone-shaped.’ [III.203.22]

So with regard to us, we are necessarily either under the effect of the day-times of particular divine Names of Allah or under the effect of their nights, depending on Allah’s manifestation for each one of us and in everything else. But these Names in themselves have no day-time and night-time, rather are all light. Ibn al-Arabi explains this differing influence of the different divine Names further by saying: ‘So its night is the “unseen”, which is what is hidden away from us, but at the same time affects the high Spirits which are above Nature and also the roaming Spirits; and its day-time is the “seen”, which is its effect in natural bodies down to the last elementary body.’ [III.201.15] Ibn al-Arabi also gives more details about the different manifestations of God to different kinds of bodies and spirits, by dividing the day-time and night-time each into three thirds: ‘When Allah divided His Days like that, He made the night-time three parts and the day-time three parts; so He, the Exalted, descends down to His servants in the last third of the night of His Days (according to a famous Hadith), and that is when He is manifested to the natural spirits that manage the material bodies; and in the middle third He manifests to the subjected spirits (or the angels of each heavenly sphere), and in the first third He manifests to the dominating spirits.

And He divided the day-time of these days into three parts, and in every part He is manifested to the world of bodies, for they are always praising Allah. So in the first third He is manifested to the subtle bodies which are unseen by (normal) sight, in the middle third He is manifested to the transparent materials, and in the last third He is manifested to the dense materials. Without this manifestation, they wouldn’t be able to know Whom they are praising.’ [III.201.24]

This division is actually related to the dimensions of space, so there are three types or levels of matter and three levels of spirits. We will see later in chapter V how this might be related to the three generations of fundamental particles as we have seen according to the standard model described in chapter III, see section 5.18 and Figure III.2 in particular.