4.2.4  Structure of the Monad

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At the beginning of the first chapter of Divine Policies, Ibn al-Arabi says: “The first existent originated by Allah is a simple spiritual single monad, embodied according to some doctrines and not-embodied according to others ...”. As this remark indicates, Ibn al-Arabi was well aware that there has long been a debate amongst philosophers whether the monad is a physical or metaphysical entity, or whether it is embodied or not [see also I.47.22]. Although he mostly prefers the second choice, Ibn al-Arabi sometimes doesn’t rule out either case, perhaps because the argument should be meaningless, since the reality must necessarily encompass all manifestations of creation, both spiritual and manifest, and if we recall that there is in reality only one Single Monad, then all the physical and metaphysical properties are its phenomena. Many times, though, he affirms that the Single Monad is embodied and indivisible, especially when the manifest world is concerned [II.438.2]. On the other hand, the essences of the spirits and souls are not likely to be embodied [II.309.25], though both the manifest and the spiritual are only reflections of the Single Monad that itself can neither be described as solely physical nor as metaphysical, because it is necessarily the whole of creation.

In the very long chapter 198 of the Meccan Revelations, in which Ibn al-Arabi talks in detail about the various aspects of divine creation, he summarizes the various divisions or types of physical and metaphysical entities. He also states the difference between the essences, or monads, and their accidents, or forms. This is shown in the following long passage in which Ibn al-Arabi also shows the basis of the Single Monad model, while pointing out the difference between the approaches of the Sufis and the philosophers or scientists in studying the world, or the way of the heart and that of the mind, as we explained in chapter I.

The following passage summarizes Ibn al-Arabi’s fundamental view of the world: ‘You must know that the world is one in substance and many in form (appearance). So since it is one in substance, it doesn’t transmute (from one thing into another entirely different one). And also the form itself isn’t transmuted, since otherwise this would lead to “reversing the realities”, for heat may not (at the same time) be coldness, dryness may not be moistness, whiteness may not be blackness, and the triangle may not be a square. But something that is hot can come to exist as cold, though not at the same time when it is hot; and also what is cold can come to exist as hot, but not in the same time when it is cold. Likewise what is white may become black, and the triangle may become a square.

Therefore, there is no transmutation, but the earth, water, air, the (celestial) orbs, and all the generated existents (of the sub-lunar world) are (only) forms in the (Single) Monad. Some (certain) forms are bestowed upon it, and that (process of bestowing forms) is called, with respect to their specific shape: “generation”, and some (certain) forms are taken off of it so that a (particular) name (i.e., attribute or property) is removed, and that is (called): “corruption”. In reality, therefore, there is no transmutation, in the sense that the actual entity of a thing changes into another (entirely different) actual entity, but it is only (by an entirely new creation) as we have explained.

Henceforth, the world is continually being generated and corrupted (or annihilated) at every single instance of time. Otherwise there would be no persistence for the actual entity of the substance (Monad) of the world, were it not for its receptivity to this “creative formation” in itself. The world is always continually in need (of the divine creative force); the forms are in need (of Allah’s creation) in order to come out from non-existence into existence, and the Monad is also in need of preserving its existence through that (creative Act), because its existence is unavoidably conditioned upon the existence of the creative formation of that (i.e., the infinite forms) for which it is a substrate.

Likewise (with the dependency on the Creator) of the (purely spiritual) self-subsistent contingent (existent) that is not embodied: it is (still) the substrate for the spiritual attributes and perceptions that it supports, so that its own individual reality may not continue without them. But those spiritual attributes and perceptions are continually renewed in that (spiritual existent) just like the accidents (forms) are continually renewed in the bodies.

In the same way, the contingent thing that exists by itself and is not embodied, is the substrate of what it carries of spiritual descriptions and perceptions (that is the bearer of meanings) that its essence may not remain without them. And they are renewed on it just like the renewal (or the re-creation) of the forms in the bodies; the image of the body is a form in the monad but the terms (by which the object is described) are related to the images (of the body, and not to the body itself). So the images are the ones which are defined, and one of these terms is the monad in which these images appear. That is why they (i.e. the philosophers) call the images monad(s) because they take the monad in the term of the image (while the actual single Monad has passed to create other forms which are continuously becoming its images but we imagine them individual monads).’ [II.454.14]

In his Insha al-Dawair (“Constructing the Circles”), Ibn al-Arabi explains the different categories or types of existence and he represents that schematically as depicted in Figure 4.2.

Figure 4.2: The Different Divisions of Existence.

The first digit in the inside circle describes whether the corresponding division is localized (1) or not localized (0); and the second digit describes whether it is self-subsistent (1) or not self-subsistent (0). For example, spirits are self-subsistent but not localized (10), while attributes, such as color, are not self-subsistent but localized (01). Abstract relations, such as directions: left, right, etc., are neither localized nor self-subsistent (00). Finally, substances or bodies are both localized and self-subsistent (11). As we shall explain further in chapter V, this “Dual”, or binary, description is a fundamental property covering all things in existence, and it is actually related to the real flow of time, or more precisely, to the complex-time hyperbolic geometry, where the first digit denotes the real part, and the second denotes the imaginary part:. Sois the real part which is the real flow of time that is creating space and matter at the speed of light, thus:, whileis the imaginary part which is the normal level time that we encounter, in which the physical motion occurs. So for example, vacuum is described in terms of this complex-time geometry as having only the real part, which corresponds to absolute flat, but real, space: this corresponds to (10) or. This is unlike our common conception of vacuum as absolutely empty, that is actually called “void”, which corresponds to (00). Physical objects are in space-time because they are perpetually being re-created at the speed of light in the inner level and then they evolve in the outer level of time, thus they are described by (11). In other words: vacuum is space without time, matter is space with time, spirit is time without space, and void is no space and no time; nothing. This simplified description will be elaborated in the coming chapters.

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