JESUS........................christianity is founded on the worship of Jesus Christ ('Jesus the Messiah') as Son of God, the unique self-revelation of God to the human race. At the same time it remembers this same Jesus as a real historical figure, a man of insignificant social standing who during his life was unknown outside the obscure corner of the Roman Empire where he lived and died.Almost all we know about Jesus comes from the four accounts of his life (Gospels) which we find in the New Testament. The account that follows is based on those Gospels. Although scholars disagree at some points about the historical value of the Gospel records, the following general picture is widely agreed.Looking for liberationBom just before the death of Herod the Great, king ofJudea, in 4 bce, Jesus lived for a little over thirty years, scarcely travelling outside Palestine throughout his life.The Jews were a subject people, living either under local princes appointed by the Roman emperor, or under the direct rule of Rome itself. A priestly party, the Sadducees, accepted Roman rule, to which they owed their influence. The Pharisees, who later became the dominant party, were mostly less concerned with politics, and concentrated on the study and application of the Old Testament Law. Some stricter Jews, Essenes, opted out of Jewish society and set up isolated communities—such as Qumran—where they could devote themselves to preserving their religious purity. But there were many Jews who resented Roman rule, and from time to time revolts broke out leading eventually to the disastrous 'Jewish War' of CE 66-73.The Jews had long hoped for 'the day of the Lord', when God would act to save his people. There were several different hopes of a 'Messiah', a saviour, whom God would send, and such hopes ran high at the time of Jesus. Some saw the Messiah in more spiritual terms, as a priestly or prophetic figure, but in popular expectation he was to be a political liberator, and there were occasional 'messianic' movements centred on popular leaders. Galilee was known as fertile ground for such movements.Jesus was born at Bethlehem in Judea, but was brought up in Galilee, and most of his public activity was in that region. Judean Jews regarded Galilee as an uncultured, half-pagan area: Jesus' distinct 'northern accent' would have been conspicuous in Jerusalem.His family was respectable, if not affluent: he was a 'carpenter', or general builder, an important figure in village life. But Nazareth was an obscure village, and Jesus' background was remote from urban culture.The birth and early life of Jesus Despite its provincial obscurity, Jesus' family had an honourable pedigree. So his birth took place in King David's town of Bethlehem. Owing to the overcrowding of the town for the Roman census, however, the circumstances were not very regal;Luke's account of the baby, cradled in a manger in a stable, visited by shepherds, has become one of the best-known stories in the world.But, along with the very down-to-earth circumstances of his birth, the Christian Gospels record the fact that it was far from ordinary. Angels proclaimed him the promised saviour, and it was maintained that he was not conceived by human intercourse, but by the power of God. This bringing together of earthly poverty and obscurity with a miraculous birth is typical of the Gospels' portrait of Jesus, as truly human but also uniquely the Son of God.Virtually nothing is known of Jesus' life from his infancy until about the age of thirty. He clearly received a sound education in the Old Testament scriptures, presumably in the local synagogue school. However, his upbringing was not in academic studies, but in the practical work of the carpenter. The event which launched Jesus on his public ministry was the mission of his relative, John 'the Baptist', down in Judea. John called Israel to return to God, and baptized those who responded in the River Jordan. He attracted a large following, and Jesus joined him, was baptized, and himself began preaching. When John was put in prison, Jesus moved back to Galilee, and continued to preach in public.Healing and preachingThe Gospels summarize Jesus' activity as 'preaching, teaching and healing', and that is how he would have appeared to his contemporaries during the three years or so of his public ministry.He and his closest followers deliberately adopted a wandering and dependent style of life. They had no permanent home, but moved around as a group, accepting gifts and hospitality when offered. Jesus spoke frequently of the danger of becoming preoccupied with possessions, and called his followers instead to an almost reckless generosity.As a preacher he drew large crowds, who followed him constantly. He taught with a vivid simplicity and an authority which contrasted sharply with other Jewish religious teachers. We shall consider the content of his preaching later.Jesus was clearly well-known as a healer from the beginning of his public activity. The Gospels record his curing of many different types of illness and deformity, usually by a simple word and a touch, sometimes by a word alone. There is no elaborate ritual, nor any search for patients;rather a power which responded to physical need as he met it. He is also recorded as an exorcist, driving out demons by a word of command. It was apparently as much for his healing power as for his teaching that he was sought out by the Galilean crowds.Most of Jesus' recorded miracles are healings, but a number of incidents are recorded where he displayed a supernatural control over nature. Again these were in response to actual needs, not mere arbitrary displays of power, as when he multiplied a little food to feed a hungry crowd, or calmed a dangerous storm on the lake by a command. The Gospels present him as one who did not go out of his way to gain a reputation as a miracle-worker, but whose personal authority extended beyond his words to a practical control over nature which inevitably made a deep impression on those around him.Like many other Jewish teachers Jesus quickly gathered a group of committed followers, known as his 'disciples'. He demanded of them an absolute commitment to the ideals he preached, and to himself personally, and a total dependence on God to supply all their needs. They acted as his spokesmen, going out on preaching and healing missions of their own. An inner group of twelve disciples were his constant companions. An increasing amount of time was spent in teaching his disciples privately, preparing them to continue his mission. He told them that he would soon be killed, and expected them to be the focus of the new community created by his work. He taught them to see themselves as distinct from other people, and to make it their aim to win others to be his disciples.OppositionWhile Jesus was, at least at first, popular with the ordinary people of Galilee, he very quickly aroused the opposition of the leaders. His attitude was in many respects unconventional, and he posed a threat to the Jewish religious establishment.He refused to recognize the barriers which divided people from one another in society. His habit of mixing with the ostracized classes, and even of eating with them, earned him the name of 'friend of tax-collectors and sinners'. Women held an unconventionally high place in his following, and not all of them were very respectable. He seemed to delight in reversing accepted standards, with his slogan: 'The first shall be last, and the last first.'He did not share the general Jewish disdain for Samaritans—a despised minority of mixed blood. He even made a Samaritan the hero of one of his most famous stories, at the expense of respectable Jewish clerics. Although he seldom travelled outside Jewish territory, he welcomed the faith of a non-Jewish soldier and a Syrian woman, and declared that non-Jews, the Gentiles, would even displace Jews in the kingdom of God. As for economic barriers, Jesus deliberately gave up a secure livelihood, and made no secret of his contempt for affluence. It is no wonder that the establishment found him uncomfortable.On religious questions he was equally radical. He clashed with the religious authorities because of his free attitude to the observance of the Sabbath, the day of rest, and his declaration that ritual purification mattered less than purity of heart. His bold reinterpretation of the Old Testament Law moved consistently away from an external keeping of rules to a deeper and more demanding ethic. He declared the will of God with a sovereign assurance which cut through centuries of evolving tradition, and set him on a collision course with the scribes and Pharisees whose heartless legalism he denounced.Nor could he please the Sadducees, the priestly rulers. He taught that the Jewish nation was ripe for God's judgement, and predicted even the destruction of the temple on which their national religion was centred. In a symbolic gesture he 'purified' the temple by violently expelling the traders whose presence the priests encouraged. Moreover his enthusiastic popular following threatened to upset the delicate balance of their co-operation with Rome. All this, we may be sure, did not diminish Jesus' popularity with the ordinary people, who soon came to see him as the expected deliverer, and even on one occasion tried to force him to be their king in rebellion against Rome. But Jesus made it clear that his idea of salvation was not a political one. So gradually his popular following dwindled, as those who wanted a military Messiah became disillusioned. Even one of his twelve closest disciples betrayed him in the end, and none of them understood his real purpose until after his death.Death and resurrectionThe opposition to Jesus came to its climax at the Passover festival in Jerusalem. Jesus rode into the city in a deliberately 'messianic’ gesture— though on a peaceable donkey, not a war-horse—and was enthusiastically welcomed by the crowds, who probably expected him now to declare himself their national leader. Instead he carried out his demonstration against the temple regime, and engaged in a series of increasingly bitter exchanges with the religious authorities; but he showed no sign of acting against Rome. Eventually he was arrested by the Jewish leaders with the help of Judas, his disillusioned disciple, and was tried according to Jewish law on a charge of blasphemy, because he claimed to be the Messiah and the Son of God. A death sentence was passed, but a Roman conviction was required to make it effective. This , was secured by a charge of sedition, , pressed upon the Roman governor ' by the religious leaders with a show of popular support. So, ironically, the Jesus who had forfeited his popular following by his refusal to take up arms against Rome was executed by Rome as a political rebel, 'the king of the Jews'.He was executed by crucifixion, the barbaric method reserved by Rome for slaves and rebels. Some highly-placed followers obtained his body and buried it in a nearby tomb.The cross has rightly become the symbol of Christianity. In that death, with all its cruelty and injustice, is the focus of salvation, and Jesus had already taught his disciples to see it that way, little as they had yet understood him. But the cross alone could have no such significance. It was the sequel that gave it meaning.Two days later his disciples found the tomb was empty. Their failure to understand this is not surprising— there was much about Jesus they had not understood. But the meaning of it was brought home to them by a series of encounters with Jesus himself alive and real, though no longer bound by the limitations of time and space (he could appear and disappear suddenly, even inside a closed room).For a few weeks they met him in a variety of situations, sometimes one or two alone, more often in a larger group. He explained to them again the meaning of his life and death, and the mission he had entrusted to them. Then he left them, and they began to preach to the world that Jesus, triumphant even over death, was Lord and Saviour. It was the resurrection of Jesus which formed the focus of the earliest Christian preaching, it was the risen Lord whom they worshipped.What Jesus taughtThe Gospels sum up Jesus' preaching in Galilee in the challenge: 'The time has come; the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!' This summary is a convenient framework for setting out some of the main points of his message.'The time has come' The Old Testament pointed forward to God's great work of judgement and salvation, when all Israel's hopes and the promises of God would be fulfilled. Jesus saw his mission as this time of fulfilment. In other words, however little he shared popular ideas of a political deliverer, he saw himself as the Messiah, come to save God's people. He called himself the Son of man, echoing a figure in the Old Testament book of Daniel who represented the ultimate deliverance and triumph of the true people of God.'The kingdom of God is near' The kingdom of God (more accurately the 'reign of God'; it is an activity, not a place or a community) is central in Jesus' teaching. It means that God is in control, that his will is done. So he called people to enter God's kingdom, to accept his sovereignty and to live as his subjects. He taught them to look forward to the day when this kingship of God, already inaugurated by Jesus ('Yours is the kingdom'), would find its fulfilment when everyone acknowledged God as king ('Your kingdom come'), when Jesus himself would return in glory, and share the universal and everlasting dominion of his Father.'Repent' Jesus' call was issued primarily to his own people, Israel. He called them to return to their true loyalty to God. He warned them of God's judgement if they refused. There was an urgency in his appeal, and as it was increasingly rejected he spoke of God calling others to be his people instead. Finally, after his resurrection, he sent his disciples to call all nations into the kingdom of God. God's demands are absolute, and disobedience or disloyalty would not be overlooked.'Believe the good news' Now was the time for deliverance. Jesus preached this not in a political sense, but in terms of the restoration of a true relationship with God. Those who repented would find forgiveness and a new life. And as Jesus predicted his own suffering and death, he saw this as the means of restoration; he was the servant of God whom Isaiah had foretold, 'by whose wounds we are healed'. So he came 'to give his life as a ransom for many', to institute 'the new covenant in my blood', a new people of God redeemed from sin, as Israel had been redeemed from slavery in Egypt, to be God's special people. This was the focus of Jesus' teaching, the call to repentance, to membership of a new people of God, forgiven and restored through his atoning death. His famous ethical teaching takes second place, for it is primarily an ethic for disciples, for those who have thus entered the kingdom of God.For them life is new. It is focused on God, their king, but also their Father, for Jesus taught his disciples to depend on God with a childlike trust. Their relations with one another were to be those of members of the same family, inspired by an unselfish, uncalculating love. In this new community many of the world's standards would be reversed, and a concern for material security and advancement would be swallowed up in an overriding longing to see God's kingdom established. It is an otherÂworldly ethic which has profound this-woridly implications. Jesus expected his disciples to be clearly different, the 'light of the world', showing the world what life was meant to be like. They were to be like God their Father.Who was Jesus?He was hailed as a prophet, a man sent by God. In his preaching, teaching and healing he matched up to that role, and as such he is one of a long and noble sequence of God's people before and since. But Christians believe, and his own life and teaching suggest, that he was much more than that.In his appeal to Israel there was a clear note of finality. This was not just another prophetic warning, but God's last call. Its rejection would spell the end of Israel as God's special people;its acceptance would create a new people of God in whom all God's purposes would reach their climax.The criterion was not only the response to Jesus' message, but the response to Jesus himself. He called for faith in and loyalty to himself, and presented himself as the final arbiter of people's destiny. He not only proclaimed forgiveness and salvation:by his own life and suffering and death he achieved it. He is the messenger but he is also the heart of the message. He calls people to God, but he is also himself the way to God.During Jesus' earthly life his disciples only dimly understood all this though they understood enough to make them tenaciously loyal to him. But after his resurrection they quickly came to speak of him as more than just a man, and to worship him as they worshipped his Father. And even during his earthly teaching Jesus had prepared the way for this by speaking of himself as the Son of God in a unique sense, and of God as his Father in an exclusive relationship quite different from the sense in which his disciples could use the term. 'All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.' The worship of Jesus the man as the Son of God did not have its origin in some fanciful piety long after his death, but in the impression he made on his disciples during the three years of his ministry. His resurrection deepened that impression and confirmed it. Without in the least doubting his real humanity, they realized that they had been walking with God.
MAN IN THE COSMIC CALENDAR................... This Essay was published in the monthly "Popular Science" and June ’99 issue of the monthly "SignGraphic"According to famous astronomer and biologist Carl Sagan, one of the most popular scientists of the twentieth century and who died of bone cancer, there are 400 billions of suns in the system known as Galaxy. In comparison with the other Galaxies ours is said to be medium in size. There are bigger ones too. Our Galaxy, together with Andromeda, the South Triangle Spirals and nearly with thirty other galaxies make up the local series of galaxies.When we think that in each galaxy there are billions of stars together with their satellites, the human being comes to encounter figures and magnitudes beyond the reach of his logic.Sagan, in his last book "The Pale Blue Point" accepts our world as a tiny bit of dust which doesn’t have any mathematical wholeness among the other galaxies and the solar system. From a distance it can not be noticed even as a pale blue point.In this incredible extention, the brief information about the history of our solar system and its creation are as follows:Regarding the expansion of the universe the scientists went backwards like squeezing the inflated balloon or like the film machine winding the film backwards. As a result they found out that the Universe was born by an explosion 15 billions of years ago from a structure which was very high in temperature and of a very high density.The famous astronomer Hubble says: "If the Universe is expanding continuously, then one comes to the conclusion that this mass, which is impossible to describe, was quite small once upon a time. There is a special moment when the Big bang has started. That special moment is the birth of the universe".Another observation which helps to explain the Big bang is the existence of cosmic rays in the distant part of the space 15 billion years after the Big Bang. These cosmic rays have very short wavelenghts, and they travel like radio waves or the microwaves. They have given very important clues to the scientist about the birth of the universe.The genius scientist Hawking, in his new bok reflects the view that before the Big Bang the Universe was the size of a bean. However, in my opinion the Universe is not limited with only one Big Bang; it has been created out of an infinite number of big bangs or "booms". Therefore, the universe exists in an infinite and Limitless form.These notes are pertaining to the times before the existence of man in our world. Our world is 149 million, 596 thousand kilometers away from the Sun. According to the radioactive measurements, it is exactly 4.6 billion years old. At the same time this is the age of the planets of the Solar System which end up with the planet Pluto.Yes:As a result of the turns in certain rythms, in other words the world with its turns around its own axis puts forth the concepts of day and night and with its tour around the Sun it makes up the year.From the point of Astronomy, time and measurements are infinite. In spite of this fact, the concept of time is relative, there is no change in this. And, we, the human beings are unable to determine our place in time.The length of our life-time is offered to us by the creating power which is free from the concepts of "time and place"; as a section with globalized Limits. This offer comes to light with the concept of "Asr" (century).At this moment the world can be considered in the middle age group. In the coming phases the Sun, being a star will burn up the hydrogen in its center, afterwards it will start to expand and will swallow(!) our world. Now, it is said that the fuel of the Sun which is hydrogen is fifty percent consumed. Therefore, there are around 4.5 billion years for the Sun to expand fully and become a "supernova", to say it in short for its death.At the same time this will be the death of the world too. It is not known definitely when the human beings came into existence, and started to live on this Earth. The researches and the findings point out that the history of humanity goes back to 200 millions of years.Since the second half of the 19th century, with the avaible scientific data it was understood that man was not created by supernatural powers. The life of man was the natural result of a certain evolutionary phase, a Universal formation which takes place in every creature. In other words man came into existence with the evolution which took place in a certain order starting from minerals, then evolving into plants then into animals then into men. Among various ideas, the "Darwinistic theory" which defends the fact that man has started to generate from monkeys has not found much prestige. When we examine the phases of evolution we can see that man was at the beginning a Homo erectus (walking straight on his two feet, with a straight back) then Homo faber (making tools), Homo Lingua (which speaks, which has a special tongue), Homo symbolicus (which can make abstractions), Homo curious (which can research, investigate) and at last become the Homo Sapiens (which has a mind). None of the other prime mates have these qualities belonging to the human being.Another interesting point to note is that there has been a generation of dynasours which have lived 75 billion years ago have disappeared completely afterwards.Now, lets come to the information covering the period after the existence of men on this earth.The interesting aspect is, the length of a man’s life in the time span called "The Cosmic Calendar". Now, let us try to find this out with mathematical calculations.Since the moment of the Big Bang which is accepted as the instant that the Universe has started to exist; 15 billion worldly years have passed.This is equal to one "Cosmic Year". The Sun is 4.5 billion years old according to the worldly years, whereas with respect to its own calendar it is only 8 years old. Because, it could make only 8 tours to the center of the Galaxy/the Milky Way in which it is placed.One tour of the Sun lasts 255 millions of worldly years. (As a result of the calculations, the age of the Sun ahould be 2.040 billions of years.When the period that has passed with thermonuclear reactions and the proto-planet phase is added to this, the age of the Sun becomes 4.500 millions of years).Now, let us make calculations in the light of these astronomical data. If we assume the age of the Universe which is 15 billion worldly years as 12 months, then the age of the Sun is 3.6 (approximately 4) months!When we assume the time elapsed since the existence of man on earth as two hundred millions of years and the fifteen billion worldly years as 8766 hours (365 days x 24 hours = 8760 + 6 = 8766), then the life of the man kind which has been existing 200 millions of worldly years fits in a period of five days with respect to the cosmic calendar.With a similar calculation we find out that a man with an average life of seventy worldly years lives approximately 8.6 or 9 seconds with respect to the cosmic calendar (in other words 70 worldly years equals to 8.6 or 9 cosmic seconds).And we are continuing our lives with endless struggles, ego conflicts, with ordinary conditionings and value judgements and comments which are not proper for the honour and dignity of mankind. While we are going on in this manner, we must carefully evaluate how we are going to make use of our lives which fit in a period which can be called "nothing". We must think once more how we can make use of the sections of our life which can be told in instants and which fit in this.This is the correct way.Ahmet F. Yuksel
TO LOVE IBN-I ARABI............................. Known as an Islamic scholar, Ibn-I Arabi was born in Murcia, Spain in the year 1165. With his approximate 500 written works, he opened a new road to explain "oneness" (uniqueness) matter which is known as the main purpose of Islam by declaring his new theory called Vahdet-I Vücud. The way he approaches Sufism (Islamic mysticism, Tasavvuf) was genetic. (?) He completed his education in Sevilla. Arabi who spent most of his life alone has become the foundation stone of the Vahdet-I Vücud theory by concentrating on the knowledge based on the essence of Quran (the holy book of Islam). He was also influenced by Ebu Medyen’s (one of the famous Sufies) opinions. CrAnolOgically, he went to Tunis, then to Morocco and back to Tunis again, and later on he went on a pilgrimage to Hejaz. After having completed his sacret duty, he stayed in Mecca for two years, past through Anatolia, and went to Egypt via Jerusalem where he had to face with a great opposition, due to the fact that his thoughts and ideas didn’t coincide with what Sheriat (anonical obligations) said. And finally, the words he said in Damascus caused his being killed. What Muhiddin Arabi said as his last words were "The Gog you worship is under my feet". Being one of his great admirer, Ottoman Sultan Yavuz Selim dig the place he was murdered on the way back from the Egypt cruise and found jars of gold ornaments and jewelry. That’s what he mentioned with his last words (i.e. the God they worship was gold, money and jewelry etc.). Later on, he was burried in a tomb on a slope of the Kasiun Mountain.Two of his well-known books are namely, Futuhat-y Mekkiye (conquest of Mecca) containing 560 chapters, and Fusus’ul Hikem ( ? ) describing the thoughts being represented by the prophets ranging St. Adam to Holy Muhammed.According to Arabi, universe and it’s essence is an observation which starts, goes on and ends in Allah. According to him, starting from Allah, with the guidence of a trainer, the reality of the Holy Muhammed is finally reached. According to him, every being is programmed in a certain way. As a result of the changes on their programs and beings becoming mature, the "self" identification is released from the being. Actually, the "self" identification is relative. To release itself from the relative "self" acceptance of the being means to succeed in reaching the aim of Sufism. The so-called life style of Fenafillah is also known as Vahdet-i Vücud.Definitely, there is no correspondance between Vahdet-i Vücud and pantheism which rather projects a superstitious approach. That is to say, according to the Vahdet-i Vücud concept, every single moment Allah observes his own meanings, as an obvious result of this observation, all existing things which are originally visionary, and in reality don’t exist emerge.All the existing thing come from absence, and disappear again. Therefore, "the universe -as a whole- is Allah" approach is completely wrong. A visionary being or a being limited with five senses can not be the origin, however, takes his existence from Allah.Pantheist approach, having pretty much narrow perspective, on the other hand, claims that all the existing things form Allah. An explanation of a whole being formed by the separate unites is far from reflecting the reality.Actually, Muhittin Arabi was not the only one who claimed the Vahdet-i Vücud theory. Imam-i Gazali also discussed the subject in his written work called Mi?katül Envar (lamp of the spiritual light). All the prophets, and the saints living even today -although being rejected by the ones who don’t examine the matter in details- mention that there is only one God, namely Allah, and besides nothing else exists.The concept of Vahdet-i Vücud migth sound a little odd to you, but you can find the evidences in Quran and hadiths (sayings of the Holy Muhammed). Here, it’s also necessary to state that the Holy Muhammed has the consept of Vahdet-i buhud which is above the Vahdet-i Vücud concept.Muhiddin Arabi, at that time, was a saint belonging to a group of fours (evtad). In order to be appreciated fully while reading his books, a great deal of knowledge about Sufism has to be know and comprehended. Sufism is not an unessential ideology. It’s the knowledge of Allah. The metaphorical names indicated in the vocabulary of Sufism are the steps in order to reach the levels of perception leading to Allah.Arabi’s written works, however, were translated without remaining accurate to the original text, and as a consequence, it caused misinterpretations which, I suppose, might closely be related with the translator’s lack of knowledge either on the Arabic and Persian languages or on the conception of Sufism, besides that it might even have a commercial purposes.I want to clarify my point with an example. According to the translator, Muhiddin Arabi says that "knowledge depends on malum" (all known and unknown things that had been created and will be created -universe).Let’s first examine what "knowledge depends on all created things" means. The explanation of "all created things informing the knowledge, and Allah having taken the knowledge from all created things, and therefore determining the destiny of the beings" supports the acceptance of cüz-i irade (will-power of the beings). Here malum, as a meaning, includes all existing infinitive things in the universe. According to this approach, knowledge is Allah’s knowledge. Since Allah observed everything that had happened and might happen, Allah knew all about that. As a consequence, Allah determined their fate accordingly. In other words, those beings informed Allah about their capacity and skills which would be the basis of their formation, and Allah depending on these information wrote their destiny. (This is the explanation of "the knowledge depends on the all created thing".) Briefly, before the universe had been created, what would happen from the past eternity to the future eternity and what the created beings would do and their disposition were pre-known, and therefore predestinated accordingly by Allah.Second approach is all created things depend on knowledge. That is to say, Allah created being depending on the existing meanings in his knowledge. To say in another way, Allah’s knowledge didn’t exist depending on the names forming all known created beings. Allah’s knowledge accomplishes infinitive numbers of meaning in itself, thus, it doesn’t take any meaning from the beings, and therefore all created things depends on Allah’s knowledge.Under the light of all the information given above, first of all, it’s necessary to mention that for a saint who has the Vahdet (uniqueness, oneness) knowledge, and especially who reaches that level without any effort, it’s definitely impossible to approve the "knowledge depends on created things" approach.Because in the knowledge of nübüvvet (prophethood) belonging to a Velayet-i Kübra ( ? ) level what’s valid is Allah’s condescension to people, what happens is a descent, rather then an ascent. The level of unity is the level of attribute and at this level, there is no obligation of depending on the names, therefore, in the knowledge of that level, all created things depend on the knowledge.After having realized all these matters, although what St. Abdülkadir Ceyli (the grand child of the Holy Muhammed) who is the author of the book called Insan-i Kamil (universal man) and who himself belongs to the Insan-i Kamil level said about Muhiddin Arabi and his explanations about Vahdet (uniqueness, oneness) and Sufism reflect the trueth, the interpretation of Ceyli about Arabi’s acceptance of knowledge depending on all created things is a misunderstanding originating from the translator of the book, namely Abdülkadir Akçiçek, rather than Ceyli himself who, I believe, has no bad intentions, however, has done some other mistakes in the mentioning book. Consequently, according to Ibn-i Arabi it’s not the knowledge which dependes on all created thing but the created thing depend on knowledge. This fact is also very well known by the ones who are profoundly aware of the matter.Muhiddin Arabi also has original ideas about Astrology depending the knowledge brought by St. Lucy. It goes like this:"Now, the earth is under the influence of the Cancer Sign. The state of Berzah (between post-death and pre-judgement), however, is under the influence of Virgo Sign. During the period of the earth transforming to the fire, Cancer Sign’s dominancy replaces itself to the Libra Sign. When the sufferings of the ones condemned to hell completed, on the other hand, Gemini Sign takes the control in hand. Furthermore, the right to accompany the residents of heaven and hell is given to the twelve sign and the commands of the heaven are taken out from the twelve sign, as well."Another point here I want to mention is the strong opposition and severe criticism of the Sufi’s towards Ibn-i Arabi. We are terribly sorry about those offensive criticisms pointing at Ibn-i Arabi who is known as the author of the Islamic constitution. However, it should not be forgotten that the mentality sentenced Galileo due to his thoughts about the earth being round at the courts of the Inquisition, now sentences Ibn-i Arabi.There is a beautiful saying:If you can not reach the high levels of perception, then at least,release yourself from the simplicity of denial.May Allah be your helper, good bye.AHMET F. YUKSEL
Quran, bible, el Insan-i-kamil, Fusul al Hikam ibn ul arabi,