The Duality of Time Theory

We have already discussed the unique Unity of Allah and the diversity of His divine Names in section 1.3, but in Ibn al-Arabi’s wider metaphysical perspective, the divine Names, just like the spiritual world of the angels, prophets and saints, are also arranged in a corresponding specific hierarchy. We will see in section 4.8, how the four and seven fundamental divine Names, which correspond to the four Pillars and the seven Substitutes, mentioned above, are the divine origin of the four elements of Nature and the seven Days of the Week which are actually the seven levels of space-time that we shall explain in chapter V. Ibn al-Arabi talks about this hierarchy of the divine Names in more detail early on in chapter four of the Meccan Revelations. Here we only want to draw the attention to his explanation of the difference between the two key divine Names “Allah” and “the All-Merciful” and how they are related to the world.

Ibn al-Arabi compares the relation between those two Names with the cosmological, or metaphysical, relation between the Throne and the Single Monad. Because the Single Monad is itself also a “throne”, on which Allah established His direct authority, from the aspect of this personal divine Name: “Allah”, while the All-Merciful established His authority, or mounted, on the Throne (following the literal Quranic verses). So the relation between these two Names is like the relation between the two divine “Thrones”. It is to be noted here that the Name “the All-Merciful” is more specifically described by all the multiplicity of the divine Names, just like the Name Allah, as He said in Quran: (Call upon Allah or call upon the All-Merciful, Whoever you call upon, to Him belong the most beautiful Names) [17:110]. So the Name Allah is also described by all the divine Names, but the Name “the All-Merciful” is closer to the multiplicity of the world through those diverse divine Names. Likewise, the Throne that encompasses the heavens and the Earth is a place of manifest multiplicity, whereas the Single Monad is more described by the transcendent divine qualities of unity and oneness.

Again, this special theological example of the hierarchy of divine Names is also quite relevant to the atomic world of chemical elements, but this also requires more detailed investigation outside the scope of this book.