04.14.06
A Lover’s Tale
An interesting story I read attributed to Shaykh Ibn al-Arabi in my current reading of “The Knowing Heart” by Kabir Helmeniski,
“One day, one of God’s lovers goes to the home of his shaikh. The shaikh begins to speak to him about love. Little by little, as the shaikh speaks, the lover begins to melt, becoming more and more subtle until he just flows like a trickling stream. His whole physical being dissolved in front of the shaikh, until there was nothing but some water on the floor.
Just then a friend of the shaikh enters the room and asks, “Where is that fellow who just arrived?” The shaikh points to the water on the floor and says, “The man is that water.”
This kind of melting is an astonishing transformation of state. The man lost his destiny in such a way that he became what he originally was: a drop of liquid. Originally he had arrived at human form from water, for as God has said, “We created all of life from water.”
The lover merely returned to his original essence, the water that is the source of life. And so we may draw the following conclusion: A lover is that being whom everything is brought to life.”
maneeza Said:
April 15, 2006 at 9:39 pm
niiiiiice ibn arabi.
Abbas Said:
April 18, 2006 at 11:23 am
Once a great scholar said, “ibn Arabi is the amongst the best of scholars, but only two, three people understand him…”
nazan Said:
April 29, 2006 at 12:22 pm
yes, and i guess we are one of the two, three people.
i love ibn arabi!!! i have something similar about the melting by Mawlana Jelaluddin Rumi. Its pretty cool stuff!
naqvia Said:
April 29, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I don’t know Nazan.. We may understand him to a certain degree, but not completely. Very few people do. His ideas were simple, but at the same time complex.
nazan Said:
April 30, 2006 at 1:40 am
i was kidding lol. Ofcourse, not everyone can understand the secrets hidden behind these great gnostics words. I wish we did. There were times when Ibn Arabi would wake up and (he would have some papers next to his bed) he would start writing whatever Allah(SWT)poured in to his heart. Sometimes he didnt even know the meanings behind his words. Too deep!!