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10 Ibn al-ʿArab¥ on the Benefit of Knowledge At the heart of Ibn al-ʿArab¥’s teachings lies the problem of the nature and significance of knowledge, a question to which he constantly returns.1 In these discussions, he typically uses the term ʿilm, not its near synonym maʿrifa. In general, he considers ʿilm the broader and higher term, not least because the Koran attributes ʿilm, but not maʿrifa, to God. Nonetheless, he usually follows the general usage of the Sufis in employing the term ʿårif or “gnostic” to designate the highest ranking knowers. The gnostics are those who have achieved the knowledge designated by the hadith, “He who knows [ʿarafa] himself knows [ʿarafa] his Lord.”2 According to Ibn al-ʿArab¥, there is no goal beyond knowledge: There is no level more eminent [ashraf] than the level of knowledge.3 There is no eminence higher than the eminence of knowledge, and there is no state above the state of understanding [fahm] from God.4 There is no blessing [niʿma] greater than the blessing of knowledge , even though God’s blessings cannot be counted.5 The most excellent [afḍal] thing through which God has shown munificence to His servants is knowledge. When God bestows knowledge on someone, He has granted him the most eminent of attributes and the greatest of gifts.6 God said, commanding His Prophet—upon him be blessings and peace—Say: “My Lord, increase me in knowledge” [20:114], for it is the most eminent attribute and the most surpassing [anzah] quality.7 Knowledge is the cause of deliverance. . . . How eminent is the rank of knowledge! This is why God did not command His Prophet to seek increase in anything except knowledge.8 Given the extraordinary importance that Ibn al-ʿArab¥ accords to knowledge and the vast extent of his literary corpus, it is beyond the scope of this 101 102 / In Search of the Lost Heart essay to even begin a survey of his views on its nature and significance. Instead, I try to suggest his understanding of knowledge’s “benefit.” I have in mind the famous hadith, “I seek refuge in God from a knowledge that has no benefit.” According to another well-known hadith, “Seeking knowledge is incumbent on every Muslim.” What is the benefit to be gained by seeking it, and what sorts of knowledge have no benefit and should be avoided? Ibn al-ʿArab¥ agrees with the standard view that there is nothing clearer or more self-evident than knowledge, so it cannot be defined in the technical sense of the term “definition” (ḥadd). Nonetheless, he sometimes offers brief, descriptive definitions, often with a view to those offered by other scholars. Thus, he says: Knowledge is simply the perception [dark] of the essence [dhåt] of the sought object [maṭl¶b] as it is in itself, whether it be existent or nonexistent; a negation or an affirmation; an impossibility, a permissibility , or a necessity.9 In a similar way, he says, “Knowledge is not knowledge until it is attached to what the object of knowledge [maʿl¶m] is in itself.”10 It would not be unfair to say that Ibn al-ʿArab¥’s writings are an attempt to expose the full range of the “objects of knowledge” available to human beings— not exhaustively, of course, but inasmuch as these may be “beneficial.” After all, as Ibn al-ʿArab¥ says, “The sciences are not sought for themselves; they are sought only for the sake of that to which they attach,”11 that is, for the sake of their object. Thus we must ask which object or objects of knowledge, once known, are useful and profitable for human beings. In Islamic terms, benefit must be defined by ultimate issues, not the passing phenomena of this world. Beneficial knowledge can only be that which profits man at his final homecoming, which is the return to God. Any knowledge that does not yield benefit in these terms— whether directly or indirectly—is not Koranic knowledge, so it is not Islamic knowledge, and, one might argue, it is beneath human dignity to devote oneself to it. Although acquiring various sorts of knowledge may be unavoidable on the social and individual levels, one should actively strive to avoid searching after any knowledge that does not prepare oneself for the greater knowledge. As the well-known formula puts it, secondary knowledge should only be sought bi-qadr al-ḥåja, “in the measure...

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