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CONTEMPLATION, ACCORDING TO
MUHYI-D-DIN IBN ‘ARABI

CCORDING to Ibn ‘Arabi the “spiritual state”’
(al-hal), the sudden illumination of the heart, is
brought about by the reciprocal action of the divine
“irradiation” (at-tajalli),! and the “ predisposition” of
the heart (al-isti‘dad). According to the point of view
adopted, one or the other of these two poles will appear
as the determining factor and the other as the deter-
mined.

In face of the Divine, Formless and Omnipresent
Reality, which no quality could define, the particular
character of a spiritual state could only be attributed to
the predisposition of the heart, that is, to the basic and
intimate receptivity of the soul, according to the well-
known parable of al-Junayd: ‘“the colour of water is
the colour of the vessel containing it.”

On the other hand the predisposition of the heart
is only pure potentiality. It cannot be known apart
from the divine irradiation, for potentiality can only be
fathomed in so far as its contents are actualised. Now

1. Ithas already been pointed out that az-tajalli means both ““irradiation®’
and ‘‘ revelation ”’ and also *‘ unveiling.”” To understand the relationship link-
ing the ideas of *“ unveiling *’ and “‘ irradiation > we must recall the image of
the sun which radiates immediately the clouds are dispersed. The same
ambivalence of aspects is to be found in this verse of the Quran: ‘‘ By the
night when it covers and by the day when it unveils (or : when it irradiates)
(tajalla), (the Surat of the Night, XCII).