Thread; trying to understand the theology of Ibn Arabi. Mainly citing al-Jami's al-Durrah al-fakhirah, al-Lari's commentary on al-Durrah al-fakhirah, Ibn Arabi's Fusus al-hikam & Ismail Hakki Bursevi's commentary on Fusus al-hikam.

Al-Jami writes "Praise be to God, Who became manifest through His essence to His essence", al-Lari's commentary on this that God knows His essence through His essence rather than through a knowledge superadded to His essence. This is an allusion the the First Individuation.

Ismail Hakki Bursevi writes that the Divine Unknowableness is divided into two halves, the first half is free from all qualification, all determination, and transcended from all comprehensible relationships. The reason why it is called 'half' is not ...

... because of any relationship (to another half), but rather that when the second half, which is called the First Individuation, is individuated, it takes on the form of an indication (pointer) because that was its origin. The First Individuation which ...

... becomes individuated from the first half proves that It (the origin) was unindividuated. The First Individuation is the first Self-distinguishing from the Absolute Unknowable, compared the to the That, the First Individuation is manifest, yet it is still in the Unknowable.

Al-Husaynabadi writes that First Individuation (al-ta'ayyun al-awwal) is identical with the Most Exalted Pen and with the First Effect (al-malul al-awwal) or First Intellect (al-'aql al-awwal) of the philosophers.

al-Hindi defines seven states of Being, where the first state is Transcendent Unity (al-ahadiyya), one of pure nondetermination, nothing can be said or known about this state. The Second state is Divine Solitude (al-wahda), this is the First Individuation, it represents ...

... God's knowledge of his Essence, attributes, and all existents in their nondifferentiated, indistinctive mode of being. The First Individuation mediates between al-ahadiyya and al-wahdaniyya and is also referred to as the of "Muhammadan Reality" (al-haqiqa al-muhammadiyya).

For now a short interlude, we are still at the First Individuation, and I can't really conceptualize these ideas yet. I also have a few questions, I am reading that the Muhammadan Reality is identical to the First Individuation, but also that the Pen is, how does that work?

In Arabic "unity" is denoted by two terms: ahad, as in "Say: he is God, the One (ahad)" (112:1); and wahid, as in "Your God is One (wahid) God". The unmanifest state of Transcendent Unity is designated by the term al-ahadiyya, from ahad, while the two manifested states of ...

... the divine Solitude and Uniqueness are designated by the terms al-wahda and al-wah-daniyya, respectively, from wahid. The two manifest states of Being share the same etymological root with the number 1, wahid, whereby they are deliberately distinguished ...

... from al-ahadiyya, whose root, ahad, connotes the idea of unity, signifies unity without likeness, not even in numbers.

Ismail Hakki Bursevi writes that the reality of a thing other than Him is an order of accretion, and the Reality of the Being is from all eternity in the Devin Knowledge and is nothing other than His relationship to His individuation, which is ...

... also called the established potentiality (a'yan-i-thabita), quiddities (mahiyya), the known unknowables (ma'lum-i-ma-dum) and the established things (shay'-i-thabit).

al-Qunawi said that the single entity which emanates first is general existence (al-wujud al-'amm) which is poured forth upon the individual essences of contingents (a'yan al-mumkinat), that is, upon their fixed essences (a'yan-i-thabita). This existence is common both to ...

... the Most Exalted Pen, which is the First Existent according to the philosophers and is also called the First Intellect.

Again an interlude, a quick recap. The Absolute Unknowable essence manifests Itself through the First Individuation, which may or may not be identical to the Pen and the Muhammadan Reality. In this First Individuation exist the fixed essences of contingent beings.

Continuing with the al-Jami citation we started this thread with, the second sentence; Praise be to God, Who became manifest through His essence to His essence, so that the manifestations of His essence and of His attributes became individuated in His inner knowledge.

We learned earlier that is to manifest though His essence to His essence is alluding to the First Individuation. al-Lari's commentary states that the second part of the sentence is about the fixed essences we learned about earlier: that is, became individuated after that as ...

... fixed essences (ta'ayyana ta'ayyunan thubitiyan) in His inner knowledge. This is knowledge of particulars ('ilm tafsili) and by that the author (al-Jami) has alluded to the Second Individuation (al-ta'ayyun al-thani).