4.4.4  The Seven Cosmic Days

Ibn al-Arabi argues that although we encounter many days due to the rotation of the Earth around its axis, which all appear to be similar to each other, ultimately we can reduce them to only seven distinctive cosmic Days, depending on the kinds of events that happen in them. He argues that in each Day of the seven Days of this actual cosmic Week, Allah orders the heavenly orbs to act in a special unique manner that causes unique events and motions to appear in the entire cosmos. However, the seven Days of these divine, creative events or tasks are intertwined with our normal days of the apparent earthly week in a special manner that we shall explain in section 4.10.3, and that is why we see multiple events appearing every day.

In various sections of the Meccan Revelations, Ibn al-Arabi goes on to explain the importance of the divine Week and the different meanings of its seven Days, which are related to the meanings of the Arabic names for each of those Days, running from the First Day, corresponding to Sunday, to the Day of Rest, corresponding to Saturday. He also shows that Saturday is therefore the Day of eternity and that all the Days of the Week of creation, including Saturday itself, are actually occurring on this “last” Day of eternity. These distinctive conceptions can only be fully understood after investigating Ibn al-Arabi’s view of the actual flow of time, which we shall explain in the following sections; but we want first to explain the origin and the meaning of these seven Days of the divine creative Week, why they have to be seven and not more or less, and what is the significance of each Day.

Also we want to explain Ibn al-Arabi’s unique understanding of the process of creation of the world by Allah “in six Days”, from Sunday to Friday, as the three dimensional space, which then appears on Saturday as an instance of time. In this way the cosmic or divine Week is indeed the unit of the space-time container of the world, that is actually the Age both as space and time together.

As we have seen in section 4, time is imaginary and exists only as the Creator’s Days that are indeed indivisible moments, as described in section 4.3, while all other divisions of time are conventional, including those which are multiples of days, such as months and years, and those which are divisions of it, such as hours, minutes and seconds. For this reason we find that in the Quran the word time was never used, while a great deal of attention is given there to mentioning different sorts of day-times and nights and the various complex relations between them, that will be explained in sections 4.10.1, 4.10.2 and 4.10.3. Likewise, we find that Ibn al-Arabi pays considerable attention to describing the actual meaning of the days and the relation between their different types.

As usual, the terms “day-time” and “night-time” are used by Ibn al-Arabi to measure time, where the day-time extends from sunrise to sunset, while the night is from sunset to sunrise: both of those together, always beginning with the night-time, are called a day, which is conventionally divided into twenty-four hours. We must notice, however, that the above conventional definitions are only approximate for our practical use here on Earth, since considerable differences appear as soon as we begin to measure the length of the day, for example, with relation to the Sun or to distant stars.

In the following passage Ibn al-Arabi gives a precise definition of these various units of time, some of which are simply for practical use for the purpose of determining prayer times. At the very beginning of the extremely long chapter 69, in which Ibn al-Arabi talks about “the secret meanings of prayer”, he devoted a full section to detailed explanations about timing. For the purpose of demonstration and simplification, he employs a hypothetical observer who is considered as a local frame of reference. He says there: ‘Timing is an expression for (our approximate) estimation concerning a thing that doesn’t accept the actual reality of what is estimated. It is an (approximate) supposition, just like we suppose and estimate a beginning, middle and an end in a spherical shape which in itself and in its actual reality doesn’t accept a beginning, middle or end. We construe all of this in it (only) by what we construe through the effect of our supposition and estimation concerning it.

Likewise, timing is an estimated supposition with regard to time, and since time is circular (as we explained in section 4), as Allah created it in its beginning like a circle. The Prophet Muhammad, may Allah have peace and mercy upon him, said: ‘time has circulated [i.e., has come back to the same point] like its form was on the day when Allah created it’. So he mentioned that Allah created it circular, and timings are (only) estimations with regard to it.

When Allah created the Isotropic Orb and it started to move, the day was not specifically determined and no (temporally defining) reality had (yet) appeared in (that orb). It was like the water of the pitcher when it is (still) in the river, before it comes into the pitcher. Then when the twelve (equal zodiacal regions) were supposed in it (and subsequently appeared in the second orb of the fixed stars, which has in it the zodiacal constellations, as depicted in Figure 4.5), it was given the specific timings, and He called them the ‘(zodiacal) constellations’ in that (isotropic) orb, which is (referred to in) Allah’s swearing: by the heaven that has the (twelve) zodiacal constellations [85:1]. So they are these suppositions used for timing.

When a person stands (on the Earth) and this (isotropic) orb (including all the orbs of stars) rotates around him, and this person has been given sight to look at these (spatial) suppositions, through the distinguishing signs (of the zodiacal constellations) that were determined in (the outermost sphere), then (that person) can distinguish some of its parts from others, by these distinguishing signs that are made to be references pointing to it. So (this person) fixes his eye on one supposed (zone) of it, I mean on the distinguishing sign (of this or that constellation), and then the (zodiacal) orb rotates with this supposed distinguishing sign that this observer has fixed his eye on, until it disappears (from his sight). This continues, as long as he continues standing in his place, until (eventually) this sign comes back to him (in the same position). Then at that point he knows that this (zodiacal) orb had completed one revolution with respect to this observer, not with respect to the orb itself. Then we called this cycle a “day”.

Then after that, Allah created in the fourth Heaven (celestial sphere) of the seven Heavens a lighted planet that has a huge body, and it was called in the Arabic tongue “Shams” (Sun). It rose in the sight (of this observer) from behind the veil (of the horizon) of the Earth where this observer stands, so he called this place of rising ‘the shining-place’ (or east, orient), and he called the rising a ‘shining-forth’, because this bright planet rose up from it and lighted up the atmosphere above this observer.

As the sight of this observer kept following the motion of that planet (the Sun) until it was opposite him (in the middle of the sky), so he called this (state of) opposition ‘the meridian’. Then the planet began to descend from its meridian with respect to this observer, seeking the right side of him, not with respect to the planet itself, as we said. So he called the beginning of this descending from its meridian a ‘decline’ and disposition. Then the sight of this observer kept following it until the body of this planet set down, so he called its going down ‘setting’, and he called the place where his sight saw that it went down its ‘setting-place’ (or ‘west’).

Then the atmosphere became dark for him, so he called the duration of the lightning of the atmosphere, from the rising of this planet till its setting, a ‘day-time’. (This name is) derived from (the Arabic word) ‘al-nahr’ (which means: the river), because the spreading out of the light in (that day-time) is like the spreading out of water in the bed of the river.

So this observer remained in the dark until that planet that is called the Sun (again) rose from the place that he called the orient, in the sight of this observer, (but) from another (different) place, close to this place that it rose from yesterday, (by a distance) which is called a ‘degree’. So he called the duration of the darkness in which he was from the time of the setting of the Sun till its rising a night-time. So the day is the sum of the day-time and the night-time. And he called the positions where this planet rises everyday ‘degrees’.

Then he saw that this bright planet, that is called the Sun, moves between those estimated suppositions (marked by the different zodiacal signs) in the (Isotropic) circumferential orb, one degree after another, until it cuts through that (first supposed position) through these risings called days, such that when it completes cutting through one supposed (position), it starts cutting through another supposition, until it completes (going through all) the twelve suppositions by cutting (them all). Then it starts another cycle by cutting through these supposed positions (again). So he called (the time) from the beginning of cutting each supposed position till the end of cutting that (particular zodiacal) supposed position a ‘month’; and he called (the Sun’s) cutting through all those (twelve zodiacal) suppositions a ‘year’.

Thus it has become clear to you that the night-time, day-time, day, month and year, are called ‘timings’, and (also) it gets shorter till what is called hours and less, but all that doesn’t have (real) existence in essence, but only relations and relative ratios. What is (actually) existing is (only) the essence of the orb and the planet, not the essence of the timing and time, since they, I mean the times, are only suppositions within it. You see now that time is (only) an expression for something (humanly) imagined, in which these timings are mere suppositions.’ [I.387.30-388]

Therefore, the day for Ibn al-Arabi is like our usual day: the full revolution of the heavens as we see it from the Earth, which is conventionally measured according to the motion of the Sun. This definition of the day works perfectly for practical issues, such as determining prayer times. But if we want to be more accurate, the day indeed is the full revolution of the orb of the fixed stars which is in reality a single full cycle of the motion of the Earth around itself with relation to far-away stars, not with relation to the Sun. That is why Ibn al-Arabi affirms that the day actually existed even before the creation of the seven planets including the Sun and the Earth, while the earthly day-time and night-time were defined only after the creation of the Earth and the Sun. He says that: ‘When Allah caused these higher orbs to rotate, He created the day in the first orb and defined it in relation to the second orb, which has the apparently fixed planets (stars). ... Then He created also the Sun, so the day-time and night are caused by the creation of the Sun (that appears) in the day. But the day [i.e., the sidereal day; defined by the rotation of the highest sphere(s)] existed before (the Sun’s motion) ... When the orb of the zodiac rotates one cycle, this is called the day, in which Allah created the heavens and the Earth (in six days, as the three dimensions of space, and the He mounted on Throne, as time).’ [I.140.30]

To be more accurate, we have to measure the day not relative to the Sun but relative to stars, the constellations “from Nath (Sharatayn) to Nath, from Butain to or from Pleiades to Pleiades” [Ayyam al-Shaan: 6], since it is not possible to measure it relative to the Isotropic Orb which doesn’t have any distinguishing feature. In astronomy, this is called the “sidereal day”, which is about four minutes longer than the normal (rotational) day. The difference is due to the Earth’s rotation around the Sun at the same time when it is spinning around its axis, which causes the sidereal day to become slightly longer. Although Ibn al-Arabi accept the usual concept of the day that is our normal day (from sunrise to sunrise) for daily needs, such as knowing the time of prayers [I.388.14], but he clearly distinguishes between the sidereal day and the normal day when it comes to critical issues such as the “intertwined days” and the “taken out days” that we shall explain in sections 4.10.3 and 4.10.2.

The real meaning of day comes from the fact that in this day Allah creates the whole manifest world, the whole 360 degrees of the orb of the outermost celestial sphere, the Pedestal. This doesn’t at all contradict the many verses in Quran and other holy Books stating that Allah created the Heavens and the Earth “in six days”, and then, on the seventh day, He mounted on the Throne, because, as we shall explain in section 4.9, we only witness the last day, Saturday’, out of these seven days, while the other six days of creation are actually included in it as space, rather than time. Therefore, unlike some other Muslim theologians, Ibn al-Arabi doesn’t find any difficulty in explaining those verses in the Quran that talk about Allah’s creating the Heavens and the Earth in six days. Most religious scholars suggested that Allah meant “assumed days”, such that if days had actually existed then, the time of this creation would have been six days, because they could not conceive of days before the creation of the Sun and the Earth. But Ibn al-Arabi affirms that the creation of the Sun only divided the day into day-time and night-time. So he gives a dramatically different cosmological meaning to the process of creation in a cosmic “Week”, that is six days from Sunday to Friday, as three dimensional space, and then Saturday as time, all this as the creation of space-time at every moment, and not the commonly understood meaning that it took Allah as long a time as a current earthly week to finish the creation.

However, as already noted, Ibn al-Arabi did observe that there was a difference between the Arabs and some non-Arab groups in their conventional definitions of the day, in that the Arabs considered the day to extend from sunset to sunset, while others considered it to extend from sunrise to sunrise. So for the Arabs, the night precedes day-time, while for non-Arabs it is the reverse. This matter has no effect on the length of the whole day itself, but its implications do have an effect on the actual unit of day and especially on its spiritual and symbolic meanings, because: ‘For the Arabs and the Arabic timing, it has been traditionally agreed that the night-time precedes day-time, since originally the Creator of time, Allah the Exalted, says: and a token unto them is night; We strip the day out of it... [36:37]. So He made the night as the origin and took the day out of it, just as the skin is stripped off the sheep. So the (initial) appearance is to the night, and the day was hidden in it, just as the skin of the sheep appears and covers the sheep until it is stripped off. This means tat the witnessed world was stripped off the unseen realm, and our existence was stripped off the non-existence.’ [I.716.9, also in Ayyam al-Shaan, 7]