Bewildered by God

Morning, Aug 24, 2019

“…we come to know that God has bewildered the faithful, which is His testing of them . . . There only remains which of the two correct views is better for the servant, though both are good. And this is a place of bewilderment (hayra).” Chittick translating Ibn al’Arabi, p. 211, Sufi Path of Knowledge.

     While this explanation and attribution of bewilderment is not entirely comforting, it does offer a possible alternative to feeling bothered about being wishy-washy. Chittick places this quotation from Ibn al’Arabi in the context of dealing with the paradox of human freedom/responsibility alongside predestination. Two particular considerations support our ability to find peace in this perplexity.

     First, the attitude we take toward God is of utmost importance. Even when bewildered, it’s important we address the Divine with courtesy. My previous blog concluded with a brief explanation on courtesy: “The revealed religions (al-shara i) are God’s rules of courtesy (adab Allah) which He set up for His servants. He who gives God’s Law its full due (haqq) has gained the courtesy of the Real (al-haqq) and come to know the friends of the Real,” (Chittick translating Ibn al-‘Arabi, p. 175). One of the tests of faith seems to be in dealing with good and bad acts. While realizing that everything belongs to and comes from God, we are best to enter the Presence with courtesy.  

“. . . only good and beautiful acts be ascribed to God, while evil and ugly acts must be ascribed to the servants. Man must see all good as belonging to God and all evil as belonging to himself, thereby putting everything in its proper place and becoming qualified by justice, wisdom, and courtesy” (pp. 209-210).

     The second crucial matter concerns the nature of knowing and involves a contrast set up between the mind and the heart. While we are gifted with our ability to think and to construct rational understanding, the pathway is distinguished by surrendering our presumption of such knowing, at least at certain moments, in favor of the heart. 

“God has a faculty in some of his servants which bestows a judgment different from what the rational faculty bestows in certain affairs, while it agrees with reason in others. This is a station which is outside the stage of reason, so reason cannot perceive it on its own. No one has faith in [what reason holds to be impossible] except him who has this faculty in his person. He knows reason’s incapacity and the truth of what it denies.” Chittick translating Ibn al’Arabi, p. 203.

     As we know within our bodies, the healthy heart is continually beating and thus offers embodied knowing to believe in persistent change, for continual creation, for holding a rhythm of contrast, even opposition. 

“Knowledge can be acquired through reflection, unveiling, or scripture. The human subtle reality (al-latifat al-insaniyya), also called the ‘soul’ (nafs), knows in a variety of modes. When it knows through reflection, the mode of its knowing is called ‘reason’ (‘aql). When it knows directly from God, the mode of knowing is called the ‘heart’ (qalb), which is contrasted with reason. Whatever the means whereby the soul acquires knowledge, the knowing subject is one. There are not two different entities known as ‘reason’ and ‘heart,’ though there is a real difference between the modalities of knowing. As we have already seen, reason knows through delimitation and binding, while the heart knows through letting go of all restrictions. ‘Aql, as shown by its root meaning, is that which limits the free and ties down the unconstricted. Qalb means fluctuation, for the heart undergoes constant change and transmutation in keeping with the never-repeating self-disclosures of God.” Chittick translating Ibn al’Arabi, p. 159.

     And, of course, perhaps most importantly, the heart stands for love, and in that power it offers the highway to God. Chittick summarizes:

“. . . we love God in everything that we love. The love of God that is made possible through revelation and the divine reports has a salvific function, leading to felicity. But even without revelation, love of God is a fact of existence, though it cannot lead to our felicity unless we are aware of Him whom we love. God reveals Himself in every form, thus making it necessary that we love Him in any form which we love.” (Chittick, pp. 180-181)

Then Chittick translates Ibn al’Arabi:

“Though no one loves any but his own Creator, he is veiled from Him by the love for Zaynab, Su’ad, Hind, Layla, this world, money, position, and everything loved in the world. Poets exhaust their words writing about all these existent things without knowing, but the gnostics never hear a verse, a riddle, a panegyric, or a love poem that is not about Him, hidden beyond the veil of forms.”