Know Yourself

Cecilia Twinch, the translator, is a Senior Research Fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society in Oxford, UK. She also made an English translation of one of Ibn ‘Arabi’s earliest works, Contemplation of the Holy Mysteries [/].

The first translation of this work (Know Yourself) appeared in English in 1901, using language that strongly echoed the King James Bible, which has become a hinderance to many readers. This new translation is in modern English.

The text uses the vocabulary of Sufism, but the issues confronted are common to people everywhere. The translator has provided useful background information in an unobtrusive way at the end of the book.

This is a translation of the first complete work attributed to Ibn ‘Arabi to appear in a western language. The earlier translation was instrumental in making Ibn ‘Arabi’s name known in the West over the last century, even though the author of the book is now considered by many scholars to be Balyani, a near contemporary, who may well have been influenced by his thought. Cecilia Twinch’s notes also go into the history of previous translations.

If someone then says, “I see myself as other than God and I do not see God as myself,”

The answer is as follows: The Prophet meant, by the word ‘self’, your being and your essential reality and not the self which is called the blaming self or the egotistical self or the self which is known as the confident or peaceful self; by the self, he was alluding to everything that is other than God, like when he said, “O God, show me things as they are.” He meant by things whatever is other than God; so this prayer means, “Make me know what is other than You, so that I may know what things really are – whether they are You or other than You, whether they are eternal and subsistent, or newly happening and temporal.”

Then God showed him what is other than Him as Himself, without the existence of what is other than Him. So he saw things as they are, that is, he saw them as the essence of God, exalted is He, without how or where. The word ‘things’ may equally well be applied to the self or to other things, the existence of the self being similarly in the category of things. When you know the things, you know yourself and when you know yourself, you know the Lord: because what you think is other than God is not other than God but you do not know it. You see Him and you do not know that you see Him.

When this secret is revealed to you, you will know that you are not other than God but that you yourself are the object of your quest. You do not need to pass away. You have not ceased nor will you cease to exist, without time and without moments, as we have already mentioned. You will see His attributes as your attributes, your exterior as His exterior, your interior as His interior, your first as His first and your last as His last, without any doubt or uncertainty. You will see your attributes to be His attributes and your essence to be His essence, without your having to become Him and without His having to become you in the least degree.

“Everything passes away except His Face”, both outwardly and inwardly. This means that there is no existent but Him. Nothing other than Him has being and therefore has to pass away so that His Face remains. There is nothing except His Face.

It is like when someone who previously did not know something, knows it. The unknowing being does not vanish to be replaced by another, nor is there a mixing nor interpenetration of the being of the ignorant person and the one who knows: ignorance simply disappears.