CONTEMPLATION, ACCORDING TO IBN ARABI 143

content. What is manifested in it, and, in a sense,
because of it, is nothing other than a Divine Quality
(Sifah) or Reality (Hagiqah) included in the one and
Infinite Essence. The two points of view contradict one
another in appearance because the one relates to the
manifestation of God in Universal Qualities, a manifes-
tation which is in a sense ‘‘ objective,’”” whereas the other
is turned towards the ‘“subjective” reality of the Essence.
Ibn ‘Arabi writes as follows on this subject in the
chapter on Jethro of the book already quoted : * . . .
the heart of the gnostic (al-‘arif)! has an amplitude
such that Abu Yazid al-Bustami said of it that if the
Divine Throne with all It surrounds were to be found a
hundred million times in a corner of the gnostic’s heart
he would not feel it. And Junayd says in the same
sense that, if the ephemeral and the eternal are joined,
there remains no trace of the former ; how then should
the heart which contains the eternal feel the existence
of the ephemeral ?—But the divine irradiation may vary
in its form; so the heart must enlarge or contract at the
will of this irradiation, for in no respect could it with-
draw from the modalities of the irradiation . .. This is
the opposite of what the men of our Way envisage when
they say that God reveals Himself according to the
measure of the predisposition of the worshipper, for it is
not thus that we understand it. It is the worshipper who
manifests himself to God according to the “form” in
which God reveals (fajalla) Himself to him.” The

1. The term ‘“ gnostic’’ is used according to its etymological sense, in

which it was also taken by Qhristial} Fathers such as St. Clement of Alex-
andria, and without regard to its application to certain sects,