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The Single Monad Model of the Cosmos

Ibn al-Arabi’s Concept of Time and Creation

Mohamed Haj Yousef

6. The Kinds of Events:

Now in each 'Day of event' that is intertwined with the outwardly observable (normal earthly) 'circulated days' as described above, Ibn Arabi explains that Allah constantly inspires the Universal Soul to act upon the orbs below it encompassing and giving rise to all the manifest, material cosmos so that they move in a specific manner that will cause one particular kind of event in the cosmos. But the effects of this complex composite motion of the orbs will be different, depending on the capabilities and characteristics of individual creatures [Ayyam Al-Sha n: 11-12].

For example, when Allah inspires the Soul to move the element of fire in order to heat the world, the effects of this single event depends greatly on the individual creatures: those which are ready to burn will burn, and those which accept heat will be heated, and so on [Ayyam Al-Sha n: 6], and he explains further in the Futuhat that: 'the (divine creative) "Event", in relation to the Real (i.e., God/al-haqq), is one from Him; but with relation to the acceptors of the world it is many events that we would call infinite, were they not confined by (their shared quality of) existence.' [II.82.6]

 

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