5.1. 'The First Day' of Creation (al-ahad, Sunday):
The Arabic name for Sunday, al-ahad, is also a Qur anic name of Allah (112:1, etc.) which means 'the One', 'the Unique', the indivisible Unit. It is the first Day in which Allah started the Creation, so it is the first Day in the world [IV.11.31]. As we explained in section II.3, the entities of the world were already eternally determined in Allah's fore-knowledge, and by this state of pre-existence they gained the first fundamental divine attribute of 'hearing'. So the motion of 'Sunday was created from the Attribute of Hearing; that is why everything in the world hears the divine Command (Be! Kun) (even) in its state of non-existence' [II.438.8]. Allah said in the Qur an: But His Command, when He intendeth a thing, is only that He saith unto it: Be, and (then) it is (36:82). Therefore Allah creates by saying the command 'Be' unto the things even before their actual existence. Ibn Arabi, however, carefully distinguishes between the divine 'Saying' (qawl) and 'Speaking' (kalam): 'By "Saying" the non-existent hears. (This is) like His saying and our Command when We intend a thing is to say unto it 'Be' (16:40). And by "Speaking" the existent hears, as in His saying and Allah spoke to Moses, speaking (4:164).' [II.400.7]
As we have already explained in earlier chapters, Ibn Arabi affirms that the motion of the Isotropic Orb determines only one Day, which is a one cycle starting from when the first degree of Gemini is matching the Foot in the Pedestal (see section II.4). So because the divine Pedestal is above the Isotropic Orb, which has no distinguishing signs, the length of the day cannot be known [II.437.34]. Although we on earth normally measure the day by hours and minutes or by the time of the earth motion around itself, this is a mere convention while the actual length of the day/Day is only known to Allah [I.122.28].
Ibn Arabi elsewhere explains that the sun and its heavenly orb were created on Sunday [I.155.6, I.466.6, II.445.15]. This is because the sun resembles the spirit [I.55.8, I.275.26], and the absolute Spirit (i.e. 'the real through whom creation takes place': SDK: 132-4) is the first appearance of the divine Real (in the Creation), so with the initial creative motion of this First Day, the 'point' (nukta) or zero-dimension (0-D, as we shall discuss the dimensions in detail in section VII.10) was defined. The sun is in the central, fourth heaven from the earth, and this heaven was created by the self-disclosure (SDK: 91, 103, also SDG: 47-57) of the divine Name 'the Light' (al-Nur). Hence:
(the sun) is the heart of the world and the heart of the (seven) heavens. Allah created it on Sunday, and He made it a place for the Pole of human spirits, Idris peace be upon him. And Allah called this heaven 'a high place' (19:57) because it is a heart, although the heaven that is above it is higher (in physical place). But Allah meant the highness of status (makana), so the place (makan) (of the fourth, central heaven) is high because of its status, and Allah created it in al-simak (which is the central, fourteenth station of the twenty-eight stations or 'mansions' of the moon), and created its planet (the sun) and its orb, and created the letter nun ( ) out of it.
[II.445.15]
Ibn Arabi then explains the relation and correspondence between the fourth heaven (celestial sphere) of this Day and the particular geographical clime on the earth that was appointed to the corresponding figure from among the seven Substitutes (abdal), and what are the particular 'affairs' that happen on i.e., through the higher influences associated with this Day:
Every affair of knowledge in the First Day is from the matter of Idris, peace be upon him! And every higher (celestial) effect on that Day in the elements of air and fire is from the orbiting of the sun and its supervision which is entrusted to it by Allah, the Exalted. As for what comes from the effect on the elements of water and earth on that Day, (it) is from the motion of the fourth orb (containing the sun). The (earthly) place of the (spiritual) person (badal) who upholds that influence among the climes is the fourth clime. So what is acquired, among the (divinely inspired) knowings, by this particular person among the abdal (residing) in this region are the knowing of the secrets of the spiritual entities (ruhaniyyat: i.e., directing the heavenly spheres), the knowing of light and radiance, the knowing of the lightning and the rays (of light), and the knowing of every luminous material body why it becomes illuminated, what is the (distinctive) constitution that gave it this receptivity (to luminosity).
[I.155.6]
Also in chapter 46 of al-Tanazzulat al-Mawsiliyya, Ibn Arabi mentioned many mysterious details about this Day and his visit to the Pole of all spirits, the prophet Idris, in the orb of the sun. This chapter (46) of the Tanazzulat together with its following few chapters, and taken in conjunction with related passages from chapters 15 and 198 of the Futuhat deserves a separate specialized study which is beyond the scope of this book. I have just mentioned some related passages for the 'First Day' above as an illustration of those mysterious allusions in the Tanazzulat, but in the shorter summaries from the Futuhat below will have to pass over Ibn Arabi's corresponding remarks for the other Days.