Ibn Arabi On The Problem of Divine Hiddenness (original) (raw)

2013, Journal of Ibn Arabi Society (MIAS)

Many people are perplexed that God should permit a situation in which human beings live in incomprehension and bewilderment regarding His existence, while all the time He could save humanity from such a predicament. The problem of ‘divine hiddenness’ refers to the epistemic situation where we human beings live in a world in which God is transcendent, we have limited cognitive faculties, and that knowledge of God is essential for our flourishing in this-worldly and otherworldly life; and where in addition it is supposed that God, the omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly loving, has permitted us to live in bewilderment and perplexity regarding His attributes and existence, all the while knowing that it is essential for our well-being during our eternal life to believe in His existence and so to act according to His commandments. In this paper I focus on Ibn 'Arabi’s ideas regarding the problem of divine hiddenness. Nowadays it seems an undeniable fact that there are many people who have searched for evidence of existence of God whole-heartedly, but did not succeed in finding a solid point on which to construct their faith; or that there are some truth-seekers who have found other non-theistic religions to be true religions and so converted to them; or as the result of their search have reached the belief that there is no true religion at all and that it is rational to be an atheist or at least agnostic. Seeing these facts and recognizing them as a problem is one thing; deducing an atheistic argument from them is another. While an atheist philosopher may derive an atheistic argument from the existing problem of evil or hiddenness , it is worth mentioning that there are some thoughtful mystics who put another gloss on the phenomenon and see the world in a completely different manner. They recognize the problem of divine hiddenness; but according to their view, divine hiddenness is caused by God’s manifestation. Their view seems paradoxical, but I shall try to explain it by focusing on the ideas of Ibn 'Arabi, the most thoughtful and insightful author on Islamic mysticism. In order to understand his claim, I shall first show how, according to Ibn 'Arabi, divine manifestation (showing His signs through creation), which is His revelation through His creation, is itself a veil of God and so we human beings who live in the earth (the world containing all levels of God’s manifestations) could not normally perceive God through divine appearance (via religious experience or other similar ways). He teaches us that one should go through the Sufi path to unveil the face of the beloved and then God will appear to his consciousness. Second, in order to answer the question, which seems to be what atheist arguer ultimately demands (that is, a demand for God’s appearance to the extent that all normal human beings who are not resisting God and are capable of having a meaningful relationship with God also believe that God exists), I shall stress that God’s purpose for the creation of the universe and mankind is contrary to such a sort of divine appeared presence.