, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his caliphs, they claim an exception, evade the question, or become perplexed. This is because they have judged all people by their own experience.

Thus, some of them say that when the Real manifests Himself, it is impossible to hear His speech. It is related that when Ibn Arabī was told that Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī considered both experiences possible together, he said: “We are speaking to him about perceiving the Essence, while he is telling us about perceiving the attributes.”

Shihāb al-Dīn was correct, for his belief concerning the distinction between the Lord and the servant was sound. Ibn Arabī merely based his view on his premise, which constitutes disbelief, that the Real is the existence flowing into contingent beings. It is evident that perceiving this involves no speech addressed to the perceiver; such speech occurs only at the station of the intellect (1).

In this state of passing away, a person may say, “I am the Real,” “Glory be to me,” or “There is nothing within this robe but Allah.” This happens when absorption in the One he perceives makes him lose awareness of his own perception; absorption in the One whose existence he apprehends, of his own existence; absorption in the One he remembers, of his own remembrance; and absorption in the One he knows, of his own knowing.

They relate, for example, that a man was so absorbed in his love for another that, when his beloved fell into the sea, he threw himself in after him. The beloved asked, “What made you throw yourself in after me?” He replied, “I was so lost in you that I forgot myself and thought that you were me.”

In such a state, an intoxication occurs that abolishes discernment, even in the presence of