Most of these introductory articles are exracted from Volume I of the Single Monad Model of the Cosmos: Ibn al-Arabi's View of Time and Creation... more on this can be found here.
Oneness versus Multiplicity
The perpetually recurring alternation of the indivisible Single Monad is the origin of the seven Cosmic Days, with their contrasting daytimes and nighttimes (explained in Chapter IV of Volume I), and it is acutely prevailing in the symmetrical aspects of all levels of creation, as well as the ultimate symmetry of divine attributes, that we shall discuss further in Chapter IV. This is indeed the origin of the duality nature of time itself, which then becomes ``genuinely-complex'', with real and imaginary parts, and this also makes the final dimensions of space-time geometry fractal, as we shall describe in Chapter I. Actually, this supreme reality behind the apparent multiplicity is the source of all dualities in nature, including the wave-particle, mass-energy and space-time dualities, as well as the contrasting and mutually exclusive concepts of continuity and discreteness.
Despite these various phenomenological dualities, the essence of all things is only one indivisible unit, and that is the Single Monad. So it is not that particles are associated with waves, or any of the other traditional interpretation of Quantum Mechanics; but both are two aspects of the same ultimate reality of metaphysical oneness, that is taking the discrete and localized particle form in the outward normal level of time, and spreading in the continuous wave form in the inner levels that is creating space. Both space and time themselves are two aspects of this same reality, whose perpetual recurrence is triggering the original complex-time, whose inner real levels are forming the complete dimensions of space, and its outer level is the imaginary and fractal dimension of the normal time that we encounter.
Furthermore, as the genuine fractality of our space-time implies, there must always be a symmetrical counterpart with corresponding dimensions that complement the fractal geometry, in order to make together a higher level of symmetry, which constitute the encompassing homogeneous space, with complete integer dimensions. In the normal sense, since we appear to be living in this physical world, the complementary world is the psychical realm that we can apprehend in various abstract ways, though in reality it has the same atomic structure as the material world itself. These two physical and psychical domains together form the super-symmetry that we shall investigate in Chapter II, and they subsequently form together the hyper-symmetry with the spiritual world that will be explored in Chapter III, while the final absolute symmetry of the divine presence of God, and His Beautiful Names, will be summarized in Chapter IV.
Because of acquiring new degrees of freedom, with each level of symmetry, more and more divine attributes are granted to the creation to make them realize into their presence the unlimited and eternal possibilities of Time, or the Age, as the divine Name of Allah. As we explained in Volume I, the Age is an endless eternal circle that does not have a beginning nor an end for itself, but it is all an eternally ongoing present, or the continuous existence [II.69.13, IV.362.32]. In terms of the Duality of Time Theory, the Age is the absolute space without time, so it is the absolute light, or the super-energy state (c, c). Conversely, with every breaking of symmetry, the creations descend down to the physical world, described by heaviness and inertia, which is eventually the absolute or super-mass state (0, 0). Practically, however, the creations are alternating between these two extreme states, and this happens in terms of the sequential splitting and pairing between the two extreme states of super-fluid (c, 0) and super-gas (0, c), according to the equation: (c, 0)+(0, c) <=> (c, c)+(0, 0), which is the same matter-antimatter creation and annihilation. These four primordial states are also the same classical four elements of Nature: water, air, earth and fire, as we shall describe further in Chapter I.
Whenever two opposite arrows of time are complemented, a new dimension of space is created with a higher level of symmetry, and inversely, when any spatial dimension is split into two arrows of time, symmetry is lowered down closer to the physical world. Nevertheless, each individual point of space has exactly the same ultimate symmetrical properties of the whole space, and that's why Ibn al-Arabi stresses that: ``in everything there is everything, even if you do not recognize that'' \cite[CH. V]{hajyousef2014}, which means, amongst other things, that the internal structure of the Single Monad is as complicated as the world itself, and this is one of the key properties of fractals, such as Mandelbrot set, Julia set and Sierpinski triangle, where the structure keeps repeating itself on any larger or smaller scale.
Therefore, in the absolute sense, symmetry is a property of absolute space, and it is broken only with the flow of time, and that is why there must always be two orthogonal arrows of time, which are the same complementary states of super-fluid $(c, 0)$ and super-gas $(0, c)$ described above. In each one of these two sides time is causing the illusory sense of real existence, while in reality, the creations are imaginary and the real existence is attributed only to God. In this Real Being, every point of space is itself the whole changeless and ultimately symmetrical space, without flowing time. This mysterious fact has been nicely expressed by Ibn al-Arabi in his Kitab al-Tajalliyat, the Book of Theophanies, from which we choose the ``Theophany of Perfection'', which has been roughly translated by Henri Corbin into French, and then into English by Ralph Manheim, in ``Alone with the Alone''. Based on this translation, we provide in the following a more accurate alternative, and the pronouns are capitalized here because Ibn al-Arabi is attributing this discourse to Allah, the Exalted:
I am the conclusive entity of the World.
I am the center of the circle (of existence) and its circumference.
I am its simple point and its compound whole.
I am the Word descending between heaven and earth.
I have created perceptions for you only to perceive Me.
If you then perceive Me, you perceive yourself.
But don't ever crave to perceive Me through yourself!
It is through My Eyes that you see Me and see yourself.
But through your own eyes you can never see Me!
My dear beloved!
How often have I called you, and you have not heard Me!
How often I am revealing Myself to you, but you are not seeing Me!
I have made Myself into fragrances, but you do not smell Me!
And in delicious food, but you have not tasted!
Why can you not discover Me through the objects you are touching!
Or breathe Me through fragrant odors?
Why do you not see Me in the things you observe?
Why do you not hear Me in everything you hear?
Why? Why? Why?
For you, My delights surpass all other delights.
The pleasure I procure to you surpasses all other pleasures.
I am superior than all other honorable things to you.
I am Beauty, I am Grace.
My beloved, love Me, love Me alone!
My beloved, desire Me, attach yourself to Me!
Do not attach yourself to others!
Embrace Me, kiss Me, for you will never find anyone closer to you than I.
Others love you for their own sakes, and I love you for yourself.
And you, you flee from Me!
My dear beloved!
You cannot treat Me fairly.
For if you approach Me, I approach you multiple folds.
I am nearer to you than yourself, than your soul, than your breath.
Who among creatures would treat you as I do?
My dear beloved!
I am jealous over you of your own self.
I want you to belong to no other, not even to yourself.
Be Mine, and I will be for you as you are for Me, when you are not even aware of it.
My dear beloved!
Let us go toward Union.
And if we find the road that leads to separation.
We will destroy the separation.
Let us go hand in hand.
Let us enter the presence of Love.
Let it be our mediator.
And imprint its seal upon our union.
For ever...
This Theophany of Perfection summarizes the Ultimate Symmetry between the single point and the encompassing space. This also summarizes the instantaneous process of creation, or re-creation, which is breaking this symmetry into the two arrows of time, and then restoring it through each subsequent annihilation. This reunion is also the fundamental cause of motion, as the Principle of Love which leads to the stationary action that is the initial assumption of most physics theories. We have introduced these concepts in Volume II, and the one-to-many relation is already depicted in Figure IV.1, but we want to reproduce it here in another manner, in the Figure above, to stress this ongoing alternation between the point of the Real and the circumference of the World.