Knowledge

علم

Knowledge ('ilm) in its most fundamental sense, as applied to Allah Most High, is not a quality superadded to the Divine Essence — it is identical with the Essence Itself. The Divine 'Alim (Knower) is not one who possesses knowledge as a separate attribute, but rather the Divine Essence is pure, self-luminous Knowledge.

Three stations of Divine Knowledge are distinguished: (1) At the level of Ahadiyya (Absolute Oneness) — this is Self-Knowledge in pure undifferentiated unity; there is no twoness here, no object distinct from the knower. (2) At the level of Wahdat (Unity) — the Divine Knowledge of Its own attributes begins to emerge, though still in an undifferentiated unity. (3) At the level of Wahidiyya (Singular Unity) — Knowledge manifests as awareness of the multiplicity of Divine Names and Attributes and of all possible things (ma'lumāt).

The Known (ma'lūm) in relation to Divine Knowledge includes everything that exists or could possibly exist. The Divine Knowledge encompasses all things from eternity, prior to their coming into external being (wujūd khārijī), in the form of fixed archetypes (aʿyān thābita) within the Divine Knowledge.

The Greatest Known (Ma'lūm A'zam): The most comprehensive and supreme object of Divine Knowledge is the all-inclusive Divine Name 'Allah' — which is the maqām of Ulūhiyya (the station of Divinity). This corresponds to what Ibn 'Arabi calls the 'Ayn al-Muhammadī (the Muhammadan Archetype), the greatest of all fixed archetypes, through which all other realities are known and manifested.