The Single Monad Model of the Cosmos

The cosmos is only imagined, though it is in reality real.

And the only one who understands this fact has surely accomplished all the secrets of the path.

(Fusus: 157)

The knowings of the Real are not hidden from anyone,

except for someone who does not know the One/one.[100]

[IV.181.31]

For Ibn Arabi, a true understanding of time is the key to realising and understanding the origin and structure of the world, by providing the link between its ultimate unity and apparent multiplicity. In this chapter we shall outline an integrated cosmological model based on Ibn Arabi's view of the oneness of being explained in Chapter V, together with his understanding of the flow of time as explained in Chapter IV and his unique view of creation in the Week as explained in Chapter III. We shall call this model the 'Single-Monad model'. Under this model, Ibn Arabi views the entire created world, both spiritual and manifest, as imaginal forms perpetually re-created by the Single Monad (al-jawhar al-fard) (Al-Mu jam Al-Sufi: 297), which alone has real existence. This Monad continuously and perpetually appears in different forms creating the phenomena of the visible and invisible worlds.