"In A World of Universal Poverty..."

Everything other than God is an image, so nothing whatsoever can be known in and of itself. The selfness of each thing is precisely the fact that it is an image of something else. Moreover, God cannot be known in himself, because none knows God but God, and no image of God can ever coincide with God in every respect. This means that, in the last analysis, nothing can truly be known. Only the image can be known--not in itself, but as image, as in-between, as a sign in the soul pointing to the divine names. Ibn 'Arabi makes the point in an often-quoted verse:

I have not perceived the reality of anything--
How can I perceive a thing in which You are? (D. 96)

Ibn 'Arabi's approach ends up in an admission of utter ignorance in face of the Real. This is why he often tells us that the ultimate, final knowledge is the knowledge of unknowingness, or what he likes to call hayra, "bewilderment" or "perplexity."

--William C. Chittick, Ibn 'Arabi: Heir to the Prophets, 110.

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