khidr paper

7/30/2019 Khidr Paper

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THE MANTLE OF KHIDR1

MYSTERY, MYTH AND MEANING ACCORDING TO MUHYIDDIN IBN ARABI

Stephen Hirtenstein

Presented at ARAM conference on Iconography and Mythology of Prophet Elijah, St George

and al-Khodor in the Syrian Orient, July 46 2006, Oxford

Introduction

At first sight there seems to be little connection between Elijah, George and Khidr, apart from the

fact that in the Middle East they are frequently associated with the same place by different

religious traditions. Is it then a simple case of overlapping traditions, Jewish, Christian and

Muslim, all of whom focus on the Holy Land as part of their own heritage and take Abraham as

their forefather? Certainly there is a view which suggests that Khidr is to Muslims what Elijah is

to Jews, in respect of them both acting as initiator to the true believer, and which in itself is

testimony to attempts to find common ground between the three traditions. The sacred sites

associated with them over centuries seem to have accumulated worship in various forms, so that

one sits quite literally on top of or next to another. The sites often exhibit similar attributes: for

instance, the presence of water and greenness, suggesting fertility in a barren land; or perhaps a

cave, which represents a meeting-place of two worlds, the manifest and the hidden (and on

occasion both elements are present, as at Banyas). Then there is the ancient theme of the spiritual

side of man being dominant over the material, as suggested in the stories by the holy rider on a

chariot or horse (or in the case of Khidr, a fish2). This is a clear picture of the divinised human,

who comes to deliver mankind: Elijah is zealous for God and the destroyer of false prophets,

while St George is the conqueror of animality in the form of the dragon; Khidrs role is rather less

vividly martial he brings real self-knowledge, delivering the individual from the false and base

nature of the soul. In all three cases one can remark the polarity of the monotheist or true believer

and the pagan or ignorant: Elijah and the prophets of Baal, St George and the emperor Diocletian,

1His original name seems to have been al-Khadir (the green one), which over time in many places

became al-Khidr or Khidr or Hizr. In the modern Middle East the spelling is Khodor is often used as a

person's name. For the purposes of this paper I shall use the shortened form, Khidr.2 This image is well-known in the Indian sub-continent, for example.


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and perhaps most strikingly in this respect, Khidr who points out the interior meaning of this

opposition and is thus the educator of Moses3.

However, we should note significant differences in their status, which in part reflect the religious

context in which they appear: Elijah is a prophet, in a long line of prophecy; St George is a saint,

martyred for his faith in the tradition of Christianity; Khidr, however, is almost a nobody he is

neither saint nor prophet, but an ordinary person graced with immortality and initiatic

significance. While the first two are usually portrayed as mounted, Khidr has his feet upon the

ground (or just above it in some stories) or walks on water; as we shall see, he has a most

particular role to play in mystical teaching.

This paper will focus on some of the ways in which the figure of Khidr has been treated by the

great master of Islamic spirituality, Muhyiddin Ibn Arab (1165-1240). Like his near-

contemporary Maimonides, Ibn Arab was an Andalusian who spent his early years in the

Maghrib and then moved to the Mashriq, especially Damascus where he is buried. His life

coincided with the flowering of three empires, Almohad, Ayyubid and Rum Seljuk, a time of

Arab power and confidence prior to the catastrophe of the Mongol invasion. He has often been

bracketed with Meister Eckhart and Shankaracharya as the greatest exponent of non-dualistic

unity (The Unity of Being orwahdat al-wujudas his school later became known). His numerous

and profound writings have influenced most subsequent spiritual authors in the Islamic world;

even the ground-plan of one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, the Taj Mahal, is based

upon one of his drawings representing the Resurrection. He acted as a bridge between oral and

written esoteric tradition, as well as between Western and Eastern forms of Islamic spirituality,

and in our own times he has been seen as one of the founders of what can be called the wider

ecumenism, i.e. a universal human spiritual teaching not confined to any one tradition.4

Ibn

Arab provides a spiritual and psycho-cosmological context for viewing each of these three

figures, which allows us to see how they may be related to each other as typologies of men of

God.

3It might at first sight seem outrageous to suggest that Moses is spiritually pagan or ignorant, but in the

context of the Khadir myth this is indeed how he is portrayed.4

The 'narrow ecumenism' refers to the interface between the three monotheistic traditions of Judaism,

Christianity and Islam. It is not my focus here to look at the ways in which the representation of these

figures have influenced each other, but rather to explore Ibn 'Arabi's treatment of them as universal

meanings.


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Khidr and the Quran

There is a rich tradition in Islam surrounding the figure of Khidr. Customarily he is associated

with the story in the 18th Sura, the Sura of the Cave (kahf), which relates the mysterious meeting

between Moses and one of Our servants, on whom We have bestowed mercy from Ourselves

and whom We have taught knowledge from Our own Presence ( ladun).5

In this story we find

Moses, the great prophet of his time, the one who spoke with God and saw Him face to face,

utterly at a loss in the face of the Truth which this "servant" propounds. Despite promising

compliance, he cannot bear the apparent contradictions in the actions of this unnamed person:

holing a perfectly serviceable boat, killing a young boy, and rebuilding a wall without payment

for people who had withheld the customary hospitality. In every other situation, whether dealing

with the Pharaoh or the troublesome Israelites, Moses is presented as confident in God,

knowledgeable and capable of speech and action. Here he appears as impatient, uncomprehending

and incapable of holding his tongue or keeping his promise. Some authorities, perturbed by this

account, have even questioned whether the Musa mentioned in this Sura was actually a different

Moses6. This story disturbs precisely because Moses, one of the greatest of Gods prophets,

should surely not behave like this, and because Sacred Scripture itself is pointing to another kind

of teaching than the one brought by a prophet, one which by implication only the Quran as all-

embracing revelation can contain.

Now clearly this is intended as a great teaching story, not bald historical fact. This is not to

suggest that it is untrue on the contrary, it is of the nature of myth and shows a truth and reality

that may be far more important than our worldly truths. For this reason some have said that this

figure who instructs Moses is really a meaning who is not part of this world. The unnamed figure,

one of Our servants, is traditionally known as Khidr, the mysterious person who is not a

prophet and yet is in the position of being instructor to a prophet7.

Ibn Arab discusses the figure of Khidr under four different headings:

a) the figure himself, his post-diluvian origins and the story of his achieving immortality

5Q.18.65ff

6They mention Musa b. Misha (= Manasseh) b. Yusuf b. Yaqub, ie a grandson of the prophet Joseph (for

example, see al-Razi,Mafatih al-ghayb iv.333).7

This is the only case where such an apparent anomaly happens in the Western tradition, as far as I am

aware: while angels can readily be accepted as bringers of inspiration, as they are beings made of light, not

clay, it is much more problematic to accept a human being who is said to have received special Divine

knowledge, as being in a position to teach something to a prophet who brings a new Divine dispensation.


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b) his role as the spiritual teacher of Moses, which provides a textual basis for the doctrine of an

esoteric, inner teaching within Islam: this provides many important doctrines, including the

creative tension between the outer and the inner or between conformity and realisation, how the

knowledge of divine mysteries is unacceptable to the ordinary human mind, and so on8

c) his spiritual status as one of the four Supports (awtd) of the world: according to Ibn Arab,

there are four ever-living guides, who have not tasted death (Enoch/Idris; Elijah/Ilyas; Jesus/Isa;

Khidr), of whom two are heavenly, having ascended (Enoch and Jesus), and two are earthly

(Elijah and Khidr). Amongst other things, each of these is associated with one of the corners of

the Ka ba, the House of God9

c) his function as initiator of saints, and thus Ibn Arabs own personal encounters with him; in

Sufism it should be noted that Khidr is not simply associated with miracles (karamt) as in the

popular mythologies, but is depicted more as a teacher, an initiator into the Divine mysteries of

the self. This reflects the Quranic passage quoted earlier, whom We have taught knowledge

from Our own Presence".

The Servant of God: a spiritual typology

The Quranic description of Khidr as one of Our servants recalls one of Ibn Arabs lesser-

known but highly important works,Kitb al-Abdilah (The Book of Abd Allahs, i.e. Gods

servants)10

, in which he provides an astonishing overview of spiritual types, which is relevant to

our theme. This typology is based upon the notion of the true servant of God, one who has

achieved full realisation and can therefore properly be called abd Allh, servant of the All-

inclusive One. The book contains the purported sayings of 117 people or spiritual modalities,

each one usually called Abd Allah son of X (a prophet) son of Y (a divine name): for example,

Abd Allah b. Ilyas b. Abd al-Hayy, or Abd Allah b. Muhammad b. al-Muhsin. The sayings

reflect a combination of the prophets wisdom and the particular divine name mentioned.

Within this grouping of 117 there appear to be three kinds of prophetic and saintly figures:

Quranic/biblical (eg Idris, Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Yasa/Joshua, David, Solomon,

Job, Zakariyya, including Khidr); Jewish/biblical (Seth, Samuel); and Christian (Yuhanna/John

the Baptist, Jirjis/George). In itself this combination of sources covering the three religious

traditions seems to be quite unique in Ibn Arabs writing, which normally utilises the traditional

8This is a complex topic which Ibn 'Arabi treats in some detail in the Chapter on Moses in his Fuss al-

Hikam.9

There is thus a connection to the square that holds up the circle, as depicted in panels on the floor of

various synagogues.10 This work is currently being critically edited by Prof. Souad al-Hakim and Prof. Pablo Beneito.


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bases of Muslim exegesis, the Quran and the Sunna, and I have not found any similar or

comparable treatment in other Sufi authors. It is as if he was experimenting with explaining his

teachings in as broad a spiritual and religious tapestry as possible, utilising the innumerable

elements found in the Levantine traditions.

When we look at our three figures in theK. al-Abdilah, we find some interesting entries. There

are several kinds of Abdallah b. Ilyas: there are those with the Names Bsit (the Expander) or

Hayy (Life), suggesting his well-known association with resuscitation, water, life and death, the

Name Al (The High), suggesting his asceticism and spiritual elevation, the Name Shahd (the

Witness) (perhaps connected to his presence at the table or in the circumcision ceremony?), and

the Name Rahmn (the All-Compassionate), showing him as mercy to the believers. Apparently

we are dealing here with a kind of summary of Elijah aspects, those qualities which he embodied

being given a universal dimension for all to participate in.11

In the case of Khidr there is only one

entry, coupled with the Name Wahhb (the gift-Giver), which recalls the Quranic quotation one

of Our servants to whom We have given knowledge, and suggests that the overriding quality

Khidr depicts is that direct knowledge of God (al-ilm al-ladun) which is freely given without

demanding anything in return, except total compliance to its requirements, and which is

diametrically opposed to the knowledge of the ordinary human mind as Khidr says to Moses in

the Quranic story, God has taught me a knowledge which He did not teach you, and He has

taught you a knowledge which He did not teach me. Finally, there is one entry for Jirjis/George12

under the rubric of the Name Shahd (the martyr/witness): this association is by no means

surprising of course, since the Middle Eastern story of St George certainly focuses on his

martyrdom (unlike the English version which only considers him as a military success-story and

patriotic hero). More intriguingly, he is the only personage who speaks solely in poetry,

suggesting a connection between the horse which he rides (khayl) and the realm of imagination

(khayl) which as Ibn Arab explains elsewhere can only be expressed in poetry, not prose. What

appears in this work makes it clear that having lived several years in Damascus, Aleppo and

southern Anatolia, Ibn Arab must have been well-aware of traditions associated with St George.

What is most important to stress here is that all these characters are seen as servant of God,

whether they be prophet or saint. They are not tied to a particular Divine Name or Quality, except

after having been qualified by the Total All-inclusive Divine Name, Allah. This, in Ibn Arabs

view, is the fundamental premise of the complete human being or Perfect Man (al-insn al-

11

According to Ibn 'Arabi's stepson and heir, Sadruddin al-Qunawi, Elijah/Ilyas represents "an isthmus

between the angelic and the human".12 As far as I know, this is the only reference in Ibn 'Arabi's writings to this Christian figure.


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kmil), who knows his reality as imago dei, created in the image of God: the image is in every

respect identical to its origin except that it is totally dependent upon the origin for its being. Since

everything comes from the original, the image has nothing of its own apart from its inherent and

unlimited capacity to reflect and manifest whatever is put into it.

Encountering Khidr

Direct encounters with Khidr are part and parcel of the Sufi tradition, beginning with tales of a

meeting between Khidr and Muhammad himself. In all cases they are deeply personal events, a

transmission of self-knowledge from one apparently 'other' to the subject. For this reason it has

been said "treat everyone you meet as Khidr", alluding to the possibility of self-realisation in any

of life's encounters. The Central Asian master Abd al-Khliq Ghudjawn, whose father was said

to be on intimate terms with Khidr, was brought by Khidr to his earthly master, Ysuf al-

Hamadn. Farduddn Attr speaks of many masters who had connections to Khidr, such as

Ibrhm al-Khawss or Ibn al-Daqqq.13

Water often features prominently in these stories: Hakm

al-Tirmidh, who had daily lessons from Khidr, is reputed to have had one of his students throw a

book into the River Oxus that Khidr might read it. There is also the famous uwaysOttoman

Shaykh Yahy Efendi (c.1492-1570), who is said to have received the ilm ladunfrom Khidr and

was adviser to both Suleyman the Magnificent and Selim II: in a boat-crossing of the Bosphorus

with the Sultan, the Shaykhs companion, a young man (subsequently identified as Khidr),

suddenly grabs the sultans own tesbih and to the sultans horror, hurls it into the water, only to

miraculously retrieve it later.

Several of Ibn Arabs contemporaries were favoured with meetings: Rzbehn Baql, for

example, who describes Khidr as one of those special servants of God who fly in love, tells of

his first meeting at an early age, when he was given an apple by Khidr: he ate it all, as instructed,

and I saw as it were an ocean from the Throne to the earth, and I saw nothing but this: it was like

the radiance of the sun. My mouth opened involuntarily and all of it entered into my mouth. I

drank until not a single drop of it remained.14

One of Ibn Arabs own masters, Abl-Abbs Ahmad al-Harrr, also spoke of several meetings

with Khidr. One of them depicts the awesomeness of the presence of Khidr: We left Seville as a

group desiring to journey, one of our company being Muhyddn Ibn al-Arab. We appointed

someone called Ibn Ammr as amr al-sunna, to lead our party. While we were walking through

13This should not simply be conflated, however, with an Uways affiliation, where someone possesses a

direct connection to an invisible master, for Khidr is very much a living physicalpresence.14The Unveiling of Secrets, Rzbehn Baql, trans. Carl Ernst, p.14.


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a waterless area, we saw the figure of Khidr coming towards us: he was lifting up his clothing

above his ankles, and his feet were not touching the ground. As soon as we saw him, we

recognised who it was, and the group was plunged into a state of paralysis and preoccupation. He

came up to us and greeted us, but no-one except me was able to return his greeting, since they

were affected by traces of their individual pretensions.15

Of all these masters, only Ibn Arab seems to have discussed in detail Khidrs place and spiritual

significance within the prophetic/saintly hierarchy. His autobiographical accounts are no less

particular. In chapter 25 of theFutht16

, which is dedicated to the spiritual knowledge of the

Support who was singled out for long life, Ibn Arab echoes the Quranic story of three lessons

for Moses by speaking of three separate occasions on which he met and benefited from Khidr: the

first in Seville, the second in the Bay of Tunis and the third near the coast south of Cadiz.17

In a

similar manner to the Moses story, two episodes emphasise a breaking of the rules, in the form of

miraculous demonstrations of power, and one depicts an ordinary action that goes against the

grain. This is followed by a description of a meeting he had in Mosul, where he was invested with

a cap in the manner of Khidr, and then the rest of the chapter seems to be entirely unrelated,

devoted to the teaching of one of his masters in Granada and finishing with a short section of

metaphysical explanation. It would be tempting to view this chapter as discrete sections which

have no bearing on each other, and this would be to miss out on the more comprehensive view

which Ibn Arab is only alluding to, the pearls on the ocean floor which he is encouraging his

readers to delve for. This is a specific problem when dealing with Ibn Arabs writings, where

certain passages can appear quite clear to the reader, but the links to what comes before or after

may remain impenetrable.

Chapter 25 of theFutht al-Makkiyya

(a) the meetings

There are two accounts of the first meeting, in which the youthful Ibn Arab is shown the

requirement to submit to spiritual masters and not contradict them.

15La Risla de Saf al-dn Ibn Ab al-Mansr Ibn Zfir, translated by Denis Gril, p.10 (Arabic) and p. 93

(French). As Gril points out, this story would appear to be also a way of suggesting al-Harrrs superiority

to Ibn Arab, at least in the eyes of his disciple.16

Fut.I.185-88, Beirut n.d. The full title is the 25th chapter regarding the knowledge of a Support who hasbeen singled out and had his life prolonged, and the mysteries of the Poles who are distinguished by 4 kinds

of knowledge, and the secret of the spiritual abode and abodes (manzil wa-manzil) and one who enters it

from the world17

One suspects that there may have been other meetings, but by only mentioning three, the Shaykh does

not pretend to a greater station than that of Moses.


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I met him in Seville, and he taught me to submit to spiritual masters and not to contradict them. I

had on that day contradicted the master on a particular topic, and left his presence. I met Khidr in

the Qaws al-Haniyya quarter [of Seville], and he told me: Submit to what the shaykh says! So I

went straight back to the master and when I got to his house, he spoke to me before I could say

anything: O Muhammad, does this mean that every time you contradict me on some matter, I

have to ask Khidr to tell you to submit to the master? I said: Master, are you saying that the

person who instructed me was Khidr? Yes indeed, he replied. Then I said: Praise be to God for

this teaching! Even so, the matter is in fact as I have said to you

This is a succinct and delicate example of proper behaviour in an educational setting (whether

that be spiritual, religious or academic). Was Ibn Arab correct in his opinion? Yes: as far as we

can tell, the disagreement was over the identity of the Mahdi, and he had a strong intuition which

was later proved correct. Was he correct in the way he expressed his opinion? Evidently not: we

can imagine the tone of the exchange between a very bright young man in his early twenties and a

venerable old shaykh. For teaching to take place, it is essential for the student to respect the

teacher and accept their external authority, even when the latter appears to be in the wrong.

Without that bowing of the head to the master, how can there be progress on the spiritual Path? In

Ibn Arabs case the challenge was clearly more subtle. He himself remarks that had it been a

matter of religious prescriptions, he would not have been entitled to contradict his master at all.

One can see elsewhere how much importance he attached to good behaviour towards superiors:

invoke God in favour of rulers and those in authority, not against them, even when they are

oppressive.18

What is important about this principle of submission to masters as here depicted by Ibn Arab is

how the lesson is taught by the ever-living guide himself, as if to emphasise the strength of inner

obedience in Ibn Arabs own life. While Ibn Arab was, in certain respects, a perfect example

of the Uwaysite mysticus autodidactus, with no (visible) master among men19

, we should also

stress the apparent paradox that this inner reliance on God alone does not exclude obedience to

spiritual masters on the contrary, it reinforces it. This instruction is identical to St Benedicts

rule that obedience to superiors is obedience to God.

The second meeting took place at night on the sea, under a full moon above the Bay of Tunis in

the year 590/1194, when Ibn Arab was nearly thirty. Ibn Arab was returning from a visit to

18From The Descent of the Mantle of Initiation (Nasab al-khirqa), translated by Gerald Elmore,JMIAS

XXVI, 1999, p.18.19

The Uwaysi Spirit of Autodidactic Sainthood as the Breath of the Merciful, Gerald Elmore, JMIAS

XXVIII, 2000.


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one of his shaykhs, al-Kinn, at La Marsa, a village close to Tunis; as he looked out over the sea

from his boat, while everyone else was asleep, he saw a man walking across the water towards

him. On reaching the boat, he stood on one leg and raised the other, so that I could see his foot

was not wet. Then he raised the other leg, and I saw the same. After that he conversed with me in

a language which is special to him. Then he took his leave and went off in the direction of the

lighthouse which stood on top of a hill a good two miles away. It took him just two or three paces

to cover the distance. I could hear him on top of the lighthouse, glorifying God. Sometimes he

went to visit Shaykh Ibn Khams al-Kinn.

The next morning Ibn Arab was asked about his night with Khidr, suggesting either that at the

time he did not fully recognise who it was or that one needs external confirmation of his identity.

Again we find a Mosaic motif, that of the boat, although this time it is not holed. If the first

encounter demonstrated the wrong use of intuitive power in not conforming to external authority,

the second shows the real power of inner faith in the form of apparently miraculous events:

Khidrs ability to walk on water and traverse distances in the blinking of an eye, and his special

way of communicating.

The third and final episode took place in a ruined mosque somewhere on the Atlantic coast near

present-day Cape Trafalgar at the end of the same year. Travelling in the company of a young

man who denied the possibility of miracles, Ibn Arab arrives at the mosque in time to perform

the prayer:

A group of wandering pilgrims who seclude themselves arrived, also intending to perform the

prayer. Among them was the one who had talked to me on the sea, who I had been told was

Khidr. Among them also was a man of great worth, who was greater than him in rank. I had met

him before and was friends with him. I rose and greeted him; he greeted me and was pleased to

see me. Then he went forward to do the prayer. At the end of the prayer I stood talking to him

at the door to the mosque, when the man who I had been told was Khidr took a prayer-rug from

the mihrab of the mosque, stretched it out in the air seven cubits above the ground, and got onto it

to perform the supererogatory prayers. I asked my friend: Have you seen this man and what he is

doing? and he told me to go over and ask him about it When Khidr had finished praying, I

greeted him and recited some verses to him He told me: I only did what you saw for the sake

of that denier over there, pointing to my travelling-companion who had denied miracles and who

was sitting in the courtyard of the mosque, watching him, in order that he might know that God

does what He wishes with whomsoever He wishes. I went back over to the denier and asked him

what he had to say, and he replied: What is there to say after seeing that?!


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This story demonstrates very clearly the power of Khidr, not simply as someone who can perform

miracles but also as one who communicates directly and irresistibly, rendering others speechless.

Even the one who denies the possibility of miracles is stopped in his tracks. Khidr demands non-

objection, as Ibn Arab says, but he may equally be said to render objection useless through the

power of incontrovertible knowledge.

There are two evident motifs in these meetings: first of all, the presence of one of Ibn Arabs

spiritual masters: al-'Uryn, al-Kinn and the unnamed man whose rank exceeded that of Khidr.

This suggests that for Ibn Arab the appearance of Khidr is directly linked to spiritual

companionship with masters and not simply, as some suppose, to spiritual practice in solitary

retreat or to his being, as Corbin phrased it, master of the masterless. His appearance coincides

with the person needing to hear something regarding their inner condition in a totally direct and

unequivocal manner. And secondly, on each occasion it issomeone else who confirms that this

person was in fact Khidr, suggests that one must be very careful in assuming anything about this

figure on ones own. In all these accounts, it should be stressed, Khidr is presented not as an

imaginary/imaginal character who appears only in dreams or visions, but as an actual physical

human being visible to others.

(b) the fourth episode, investment with the khirqa

The fourth episode briefly describes an investiture that Ibn 'Arab received just outside Mosul in

601/1204, where he was formally clothed in the mantle of Khidr, in the form of a cap.

The shaykh [Al b. Abdallh b. Jmi] invested me with the khirqa in the very same place in

his garden that Khidr had invested him and in the same form of spiritual state that had come to

him in it

The investiture with an article of clothing, transposing the inner state of the shaykh in order to

perfect a companion, was well-known among spiritual masters, but the importance given to it by

Khidr persuaded Ibn Arab to openly advocate it as well as confer it upon others, including many

women disciples. Like a judge who dons the robes of his office in the court in order to represent

justice in action, this ceremony identifies the recipient with the spiritual state of Khidr, so that he

not only meets Khidr in person but in some sense actually becomes or represents him. The

transmission of spiritual grace is guaranteed when transposed to other people, so long as it is done

in exactly the same manner, in full consciousness and receptivity. Such transmission immediately

recalls the story of Elisha's remarkable transformation through the mantle of Elijah, left behind in

the prophet's ascension on the chariot, whereby he became his full spiritual heir. In turn, Khidr is


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sensibility (lit: smelling,shamm) and discernment, who are released from attributes for

they possess no attribute, and Ab Yazd al-Bistm was one of them;

4. men who, when God calls them to Him, come to Him on foot (rijlan)21, hastening toanswer, without a mount: Proclaim among mankind the pilgrimage, they will come to

you on foot (Q.22.27), and these are the men of the rising.

These four degrees conjure up the image of a medieval fort, such as those which can still be

found in Andalusian towns like Almeria or Granada: a tall protective stone wall that separates the

town into those outside the medina and those inside, the battlements on the top of the wall that

allow soldiers to look down over both sides, and the great watch-towers (called in Arabic

muttala, meaning a high vantage-point from which one looks down) that rise up at intervals

along the wall. When outside the wall, one cannot see into the town inside, and vice versa, one

cannot see the outside world from inside the medina. Only by standing on the wall can one look

onto both outer and inner. The wall itself is released from attributes, i.e. it belongs to neither

one side nor the other, but it is that which defines the two sides and is "elevated" above them

without the wall there is no distinction between inside and outside. The watch-towers that occur

at intervals along the battlements are no longer on the surface of the land, but rise up in a

different, vertical dimension. This image depicts most vividly the four degrees of outer, inner, the

line that joins and yet separates them, and the elevated position that oversees all.22

Ibn Arab then amplifies what he means by these four degrees: the people of the exterior are

those who manifest their spiritual action and power (tasarruf) in the outer visible world, while

those of the interior do the same in the world of the inner, the Unseen (ghayb). The men of the

limiting have the spiritual power to dispense in the world of the Isthmus (barzakh), and

experience the greatest happiness as they witness the lines imagined between every pair of

opposites men of the Compassion that includes everything. They can enter into every presence

and see with complete vision (istishraf)23

. The final group, those of the rising, have power over

all the Divine Names, and embrace the three other categories: the greatest of men, the people of

blame (malmya) who appear to be the same as ordinary people. This latter group for Ibn

21There is an untranslatable play on words here, as the Arabic root r-j-lmeans both to go on foot and to

behave as a man. To be man signifies total response to the Divine call.22

This fourness is also manifest in geometric forms such as a simple circle: the centre, the domain

included, the boundary and the domain excluded.23

The word implies that they are able to look at something even when it is in the brightest sunlight, by

shading their eyes.


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'Arab represents the pinnacle of sainthood, those who have truly realised the meaning of

servanthood.24

In the way that this chapter is constructed, Ibn Arab has demonstrated one of the peculiar

characteristics of his writing: that the text is not simply what it appears but presents a series of

layered riddles. When deciphered, these provide a key to the readers own inner experience.

Instead of explaining Reality, Ibn Arab encourages us to venture deeper and explore the

allusions he lays before us. As we read the chapter as a whole, we are presented with a feeling of

disjunction between different parts and a resulting question: what is the connection between his

personal meetings with Khidr and types of spirituality? Ibn Arab does not explain who Khidr is.

Instead, he makes a subtle link between four dramatic episodes from his own life and four

categories of spiritual men. This is the key to a much deeper understanding of Khidr himself:

his daytime instruction in a Sevillean backstreet when he was told to submit to mastersdemonstrates the power of the people of the exterior, ie shaykhs;

his solo night with Khidr in the Bay of Tunis demonstrates the power of the people of theinterior;

his watching the flying carpet episode in the mosque, the miracle within the ritual prayer,demonstrates the power of the people of the limiting, the vision from the battlements;

and finally, the investiture with the cap in Mosul shows how an apparently ordinaryaction can be of paramount spiritual significance, since it demonstrates the power of thepeople of blame. This is a full participation in the state of Khidr which goes beyond the

level of seeing him act in fact here the very form of Khidr entirely disappears.

What is the role of Khidr in these four episodes and degrees? As an individual human figure in

the world, he interacts with the seeker and guides him into these levels, closer and closer to the

full annihilation. Those who attain to their reality in this manner, such that they may be

considered men of God, have been Khidratised, brought into the immediate, inner life of the

spirit. Each one of these men of God participates in the state of Khidr as immortal guide. As

Henri Corbin once expressed it, to become Khidr is to have attained an aptitude for theophanic

vision, for the encounter with the Divine Alter Ego, for the ineffable dialogue which the genius of

24 For further details, see my The Unlimited Mercifier(Oxford 1999), pp. 13536.


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Ibn Arab will nonetheless succeed in recounting.25

Khidr is a living symbol of this perpetual

newness of spirit that permeates all levels, active in the four degrees.

The chapter ends with a short summary of the reality of this world, as "the manifestation of God

by being revealed in the forms of everything other than Him... Through His manifestation and

revelation the world is in a state of remaining (i.e. not in annhilation). Our companions are

according to this Path, and it is the Path of the prophets."

So the real mystery or secret is the essential paradox that it is God who manifests in what

appears as other, without Him becoming other than Himself or other becoming Him. It is the One

who appears in number, without Him becoming multiple or multiplicity becoming One. This is

not the Hallajian cry of I am the Truth (an'l-haqq), which destroys the apparent existence, but

the immeasurable profundity of the transfiguring and transfigured Truth of Man, which lies at the

heart of all prophetic tradition. The Divine Manifestation in other is also described by Ibn

Arab in a more interior sense as Gods own putting on the Heart of His Servant26

: not only

does the heart of My faithful servant contain Me, in the words of the hadth quds27

, but God

may be said to wear the mantle of the servants heart.

By implication this is also the path of Khidr himself. Thus Khidr is not only a man of mystery

and myth he is a mantled meaning that signifies the living Divine revelation in form, the

unveiling of the whole world as theophanic, the inner truth which is directly manifest. What

seems to be an outer universe becomes an inner experience. Khidrs peerless singularity is mirror

to our own peerless true reality. If he seems hidden from view, that only serves to underline that

we have not yet understood what his presence means for us. His form and mantle remain in

existence solely as an everlasting demonstration of the Divine Love and Desire to reveal the Face

of the Real to and in each human heart.

25Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi, London 1970, p.62.

26Nasab al-khirqa, translated by Elmore,JMIASXXVI, p.10.

27 "Neither My heavens nor My earth can contain, but the heart of My believing servatn contains Me."

khidr paper

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