Week 34 · mystical

Ibn Arabi

Ibn Arabi was born in Moorish Spain in the 12th century and became the most influential Sufi philosopher in history. His writings fill hundreds of volumes, and scholars are still unpacking them eight centuries later. His central concept, wahdat al-wujud (or "the unity of being"), says that there is only one reality, and everything you see...every person, rock, star, and thought...is that reality showing itself to itself.

“"My heart has become capable of every form...it is a pasture for gazelles and a monastery for monks, a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka'ba." He wrote that in the 13th century. It's the most inclusive statement about faith any mystic has ever made.”