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As is always the case with Ibn Arabi’s writings...

he soon gets around to explaining whý we should be concerned about the fact that all things have knowledge from God, and that all things express their knowledge through speech.

Here I can mention one basic lesson, and this is that the awareness of all things should encourage us to have shame!

'Shame' [hay’a]...

is not considered a great virtue nowadays in the West, but it certainly has had an honorable role to play in many civilizations, not least Islam. The Prophet said, 'Every religion has its character trait [khuluq], and the character trait of Islam is shame' [Ibn Måja, Zuhd 17].

Shame is a close ally of ihsån, 'doing the beautiful', which the Prophet described as 'worshipping God as if you see Him'. If one acts as if one sees God, shame will be a constant companion.

And, if we understand that all things are aware and all have the ability to speak, this can only increase our sense of shame. Everything is watching us, and everything has the ability to speak to God about our activities! 

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Once someone comes to witness the life of all things...

he will be full of shame !

Not only when he is in jalwa, that is, in public with other people.

But also when he is in khalwa, that is, alone in a private retreat.

He will see that in fact he is never alone, for he can never escape a location that surrounds him.

And, even if he could escape his surroundings, he would still have shame before his bodily members and organs, for they are the means whereby he does what he does. He knows that on the Day of Resurrection, his bodily members will be called to witness, and they will bear witness truthfully.

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So, someone like this can never be in khalwa.

'When someone achieves this state', Ibn Arabi writes, 'he has joined the degree of the dumb beasts', who áre aware of the presence of God.

In short...

Ibn Arabi maintains that dumb beasts possess an exalted knowledge and understanding from God, and he concludes that anyone who considers himself superior to the beasts is ignorant of his own situation.

He stresses that such ignorance is characteristic of the philosophical and theological approaches to Islamic learning – not to speak of the modern scientific disciplines.


~bron~