: .

CREATION 67

they are eternally ; in the Divine Knowledge all possi-
bilities are contained such as they are with whatever
each of them implies of permanent or relative actually,
™ and thus the choice of possibilities of manifestation
coincides with their very nature; or again, from an as-
pect which is the complement of this, the Divine Being
manifests Himself according to all possible modes,!
and there is no limit to the Divine possibilities.

VA ———

From all these different points of view the world is
essentially the manifestation of God to Himself. Thus
it is expressed in the sacred saying (hadith qudsi)? which
brings back the idea of creation to the idea of Know-
ledge: “I was an hidden treasure; I wished to be
known (or, to know) and I created the world.” 1In the
same sense Sufis compare the Universe to a combina-
tion of mirrors in which the Infinite Essence contemp-
lates Itself in a multiplicity of forms, or which reflect
in differing degrees the irradiation (at-tajalli) of the
One Being. These mirrors symbolise the possibilities
of the Essence (adh-Dhat) to determine Itself, possibili-
ties which It contains by virtue of Its Infinity (Kamal).
Such at least is the purely principial meaning of the
mirrors, but they also have a cosmological meaning,
that of receptive substances (gawabil) passive in rela-
tion to the pure Act (al-Amr). In either case we have

1. In conformity with this every “ theory of knowledge *’ comes to two
complementary ‘ definitions ’, both equally valid : either things appear in a
unique knowledge, principially present in every being or every individual
being ‘ subjectivises > after its own fashion a unique and universal Being,
Apart from oneness in principle, there is no kn.oyvledge atall, In his Furzhat
al-Makkiyah 1bn ‘Arabi writes that the principial possibilities (al-a‘yan) are

reflected in the Divine Being (al-Wujud), or that the Divine Beiog is reflected
in the principial possibilities according to the point of view adopted.

2. A saying of the Prophet that is divinely inspired,