One is to accept the Quran based on faith. Unveiling adds nothing but fills in the details- We cannot be sure that unveiling is from God and there is no satanic intervention; rationality is important, but cannot override God’s word- the friend is always a follower of the prophet and never independent. Knowledge is of two kinds- reports and rulings. Reports deal with faith, i.e. God, the angels, the last day; rulings embrace the sharia proper, i.e. information concerning all dimensions of life and practice. Unveiling adds clarity to reports but add nothing to rulings. The practitioner should listen to the authorities of hadith and not accept it from anyone else. The law and the reality are directly related. Thus Ibn al-Arabi- in contrast to many Sufis- denies a distinction between sharia and haqiqa. Some people suppose with divine presence, multiplicity is overcome and no more distinctions can be drawn. Ibn al-Arabi overcomes this by affirming manyness at the level of divinity. To reinforce the law, al-Arabi mentions the angels which are known as the casters. The prophets received the law through the angels, with Muhammed, this revelation came to an end. “States” include the experiences that accompany the wayfarer in the science of tasting; they are ephemeral but can be permanent; states are bestowals while stations are earnings; al-Arabi frequently also uses state to mean breaking of habit. States are rarely positive and represent trials to undergo. In the rest of the chapter, al-Aarabi discusses deceptions that can affect the spiritual seeker. The relationship between shaykh and disciple is complex since the path is only possible through guidance; sometimes the disciple can impart knowledge to the master.1
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