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الفتوحات المكية في معرفة الأسرار الملكية والمالكية

FUTMAK · Primary-text excerpts

The heart and changing self-disclosures

All annotated passages · Arabic source record · Open in the parallel reader

al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya · Cairo / Maymaniyya · volume 1, page 289 · chapter 58
Site passage ID: fm-p0004

Arabic source excerpt

فإن القلب معلوم بالتقليب في الأحوال دائما فهو لا يبقى على حالة واحدة فكذلك التجليات الإلهية فمن لم يشهد التجليات بقلبه ينكرها فإن العقل يقيد وغيره من القوي إلا القلب فإنه لا يتقيد وهو سريع التقلب في كل حال ولذا قال الشارع إن القلب بين أصبعين من أصابع الرحمن يقلبه كيف يشاء فهو يتقلب بتقلب التجليات والعقل ليس كذلك

English translation draft

The heart is known for continually turning through states: it does not remain in one state. So too are the divine self-disclosures. Whoever does not witness the self-disclosures with his heart denies them. Reason confines, as do the other faculties except the heart, which is not confined and turns swiftly in every state. Therefore the Lawgiver said that the heart is between two fingers of the All-Merciful, who turns it as He wills. It turns with the turning of the self-disclosures; reason is not like that.

Terminology and context

  1. Qalb, heart, and taqallub, turning, form a word relationship central to this explanation.
  2. Tajalliyat is rendered “self-disclosures”. The comparison concerns their reception; it should not be made into a biological account of the heart.
  3. The prophetic saying is reported as it appears in Ibn al-Arabi’s paragraph. This edition of the excerpt does not independently grade its transmission.

Cite this draft

Ibn al-Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, Cairo / Maymaniyya, 1:289, chapter 58. Futmak, “The heart and changing self-disclosures”, editorial translation draft (AI-assisted), 2026-10-25, fm-p0004.

https://www.futmak.com/english/passages/?id=fm-p0004

The source reference belongs to the printed edition; the passage ID belongs to this website.