Start
Volume I
Volume II
Volume III
Contact
Welcome to the Sun from the West ( Please log in or register!)
introductions
chapters
contents

0.3.4.2 - The Second Testimony:

The second part of this doctrine is the testimony that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. So, Ibn al-Arabi adds:

As I have testified before Allah and his angels and all of His creation and yourself for His Unity, so I testify before Him, the Almighty, and his angels and all of His creation and yourself, that I believe in the one He has selected and chosen and brought forward from his existence; this is our master Muhammad, peace be upon him, whom He sent to all people, as a preacher, warning and calling to Allah, with His permission, and an illuminating lamp [Quran, 33:46], so he, peace be upon him, conveyed what was sent down from his Lord to him, and fulfilled his charge. He advised his nation, and he stood in the farewell Hajj before all those who attended from his followers and delivered to them and reminded them, and frightened and warned them, and preached and forearmed them, and promised and threatened them, and rained and thundered, and he did not single out in this reminder anyone from others, by a permission of the Supreme Provider One, then he said: Did I not conveyed? They said: You did convey O Messenger of Allah! He, peace be upon him, said: Allah bear witness.

So, I believe in everything he, peace be upon him, brought both which I know and that I did not know.

Some of what he brought forward and declared is that death, for a term defined by Allah, so when it comes it would not be delayed. So, I utterly believe this with no doubt, as I also believe and admit that the questioning of the two grave tempting angels (Munkar and Nakir: the Denied and the Denier) is true, and the torment in the grave is true, and the resurrection of bodies from the graves is true, and the display before Allah is true, and the Pond is true, and the Balance is true, and the dispersion of papers is true, and the Path is true, and Paradise is true, and Fire is true, and a party in Paradise and a party in the Fire is true, and the distress of that day is true, on one party, while for the other party this great fear will not annoy them, and the intercession of angels and prophets and believers, and the taking out from the fire by the most Merciful whomever He wills after the intercession, all this is true, and a group of those with major sins of the believers will enter Hell and then they get out of it by intercession and gratitude is true, and eternal bliss for the believers and monotheists in Paradise is true, and eternal stay in Hell for the people of Hell is true, and all that brought forward in divine books and by messengers from Allah, known or unknown, is true.

Ibn al-Arabi then continued saying: ”Thus, this is my testimony against myself; it is a charge before anyone it reached him to return when he is asked about it. May Allah reward you and us for this faith, and affirm on that when we move from this house to the living house, and may He put us there in the house of dignity and content, and may He save us from the house whose rooms are full of tar, and make us amongst the gang who took their books by the right-hand, and who returned from the Pond is irrigated, and their weighing is made heavy in the Balance, and affirm our feet on the Path, He is the Giver and the Bounteous, praise be to Allah Who guided us to this and we were not to be guided if Allah did not guide us, the messenger of our Lord brought the truth.”

What is then the argument for those who accuse the Greatest Shaykh with disbelief and heresy, without even looking at his books and his clear statements to search for the truth, whereas Allah says: (O you who have believed, if there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate first, lest you harm some people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful [Quran, 49:6]), and He says: (And those who harm the believing men and believing women for something other than what they have earned have certainly born upon themselves a slander and manifest sin [Quran, 33:58]).