“ Know that the whole creation is an imagination, and that you are an imagination in that imagination, and that whatever you think is an imagination, in that imagination, in that imagination ”
Ibn 'Arabi (1165 – 1240)
Ibn Arabi, the 12th century Sufi mystic from Moorish Spain is considered as the greatest of Islamic metaphysical thinkers. He traveled throughout the Islamic world of his time and wrote extensively on metaphysical subjects.
I read his above quote on imagination nearly two decades ago and wrote it in my diary. There is still a strange feel to it. What was he talking about? He considered the knowledge attained through reason as inferior to the one coming directly from God and acquired through mystic training. So it is plausible that it is about the mind of God and the whole of creation coming out of His imagination. But remove that context and these lines may also look akin to the present-day speculation about the whole creation living inside a gigantic computer simulation…
In his book Futuhat-e-Makkiyya (The Meccan Revelations), besides elaborating his Sufi doctrine, he also mentions visiting several alien worlds in visions or dreams. He names great cities, having technologies far advanced to the ones that existed in his days…
Was he speculating like ancient Greek thinkers on the subject or was there a proto science fiction writer or a dreamer at its heart...?
In his book Futuhat-e-Makkiyya (The Meccan Revelations), besides elaborating his Sufi doctrine, he also mentions visiting several alien worlds in visions or dreams. He names great cities, having technologies far advanced to the ones that existed in his days…
Was he speculating like ancient Greek thinkers on the subject or was there a proto science fiction writer or a dreamer at its heart...?
