July 12, 2026

The Reality wanted to see the essences of His most beautiful Names, or to see His own Essence, in an all-inclusive being which, since it comprised the whole Command, would show forth to Him His own mystery.

Ibn Arabi wrote these lines in the opening chapter of the Fusus al-Hikam, composed in Damascus near the end of his life, in a section devoted to Adam as the first human being. He is answering the oldest question there is: why does anything exist at all. His answer is that the world, and each of us within it, exists so that the Real can come to know itself through a living, conscious form. That claim still matters now, because it reframes an ordinary day not as empty repetition but as one more chance for something true to show itself through you.