Munib Alam

“When a man loves a woman, he desires union, that is, the goal of union which exists in love.
In the elemental form, there is no greater union than marriage. (10) By this appetite
encompasses all parts. For that reason, complete ritual washing is prescribed after
intercourse. Purification envelops him as annihilation in the woman was complete in the
obtainment of appetite. Allah is very jealous of His slave if He believes that he finds pleasure
in other than Him. So man purifies himself by ritual washing in order to return to Him in
whom he was annihilated, since that is all there is.”
― Ibn Arabi, The Bezels of Wisdom

“You only know the universe according to the amount you know the shadows, and you are
ignorant of the Real according to what you do not know of the person on which that shadow
depends. Inasmuch as He has a shadow, He is known, and inasmuch as one is ignorant of
what is in the essence of the shadow of the form which projects the shadow, he is ignorant of
Allah. For that reason, we say that Allah is known to us from one aspect and not known to us
from another aspect.”
― Ibn Arabi, The Bezels of Wisdom