ABSTRACT
The elements are four mothers, and they are the daughters of the world of (the heavenly) orbs. We are born out of them, so our (ultimate, spiritual) being is in the world of (spiritual) principles (arkân) and (spiritual) rulers. The God has made our sustenance from the ears of grain (sanâbil), 1 from the influence of Sunbula (Virgo), 2 without sharing. 3 And He also multiplied our reward by ‘the seven ears of grain’, as it was said in a saying (2:261) by One Who does not lie. 4 So our time (zamân) is seven thousands (of years), that come through the recurrence of (moments) of radiance and intense darkness. So see, with your intellect, seven in seven, from seven that are not kings. [I.292.31–293.3] As Ibn ‘Arabî suggests in this cryptic opening poem of his key cosmological chapter 60 of the Futûhât (explained at the end of section 3.1), although we encounter many visible, apparent ‘days’ due to the rotation of the Earth around its axis, which all appear to be similar to each other, ultimately we can reduce them to only seven distinctive Days 5 depending on the kinds of events that happen in them. Ibn ‘Arabî argues that in each Day of the seven Days of the (actual, cosmic) ‘Week’, Allah orders the heavenly orbs to act in a special unique manner that causes unique events and motions to appear in the entire cosmos. However, the seven Days of these divine, creative ‘events’ or ‘tasks’ (shu’ûn)are intertwined with our normal days of the apparent earthly week in a special manner that we shall explain in the coming chapter – and that is why we see multiple events appearing every day.
