You yourself are the object of your quest

“In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Praise belongs to God, before whose oneness there is no before unless the before is He and after whose singleness there is no after unless the after is He. He is, and there is not with Him any before or after, above or below, closeness or distance, how or where or when, time or moment or duration, manifested existence or place. And He is now as He has always been. He is the one without oneness and the single without singleness. He is not composed of name and named, for His name is Him and His named is Him and there is no name or named other than Him. He is the first without firstness and the last without lastness. He is the apparent without appearance and the hidden without hiddenness. I mean that He is the very existence of the letters of the names the first and the last, the hidden and the apparent. There is no first or last, apparent or hidden except Him, without the letters which form these divine names becoming Him or His becoming these letters.

Understand this so as not to make the mistake of those who believe in incarnation. He is not in anything and no thing is in Him, whether entering into Him or coming out of Him. It is in this way that you should know Him and not through theoretical knowledge, reason, understanding or conjecture, nor with the senses, the external eye or interior sight or perception. No one sees Him except Himself, no one reaches Him except Himself and no one knows Him except Himself. He knows Himself through Himself and He sees Himself by means of Himself. No one but He sees Him. His veil is His oneness since nothing veils Him other than Him. His own being veils Him. His being is concealed by His oneness without any condition.

No one other than He sees Him. No sent prophet, perfect saint or angel brought close knows Him. His prophet is He, His messenger is He, His message is He and His word is He. He sent Himself from Himself, through Himself to Himself. There is no intermediary or means other than Him. There is no difference between the sender, that which is sent and the one to whom it is sent. The very existence of the prophetic message is His existence. There is no existence to any other who could pass away, or have a name or be named.

…When the secret of an atom is discovered, the secret of all created things is made clear, whether they are apparent or hidden. You do not see the two worlds as other than God, without the existence of the two worlds and their names and what they name – or rather, their names and what they name and their existence are Him, without any doubt. You do not see God as having ever created anything but as being every day in a different configuration which sometimes reveals Him and sometimes conceals Him, without any condition, since He is the first and the last, the apparent and the hidden and He has knowledge of everything.

He manifests Himself in His oneness and hides Himself in His singularity. He is the first in His essence and His self-subsistence and the last in His everlastingness. He is the very being of the name the first and the name the last, of the name the apparent and the name the hidden. He is His own name and what is named. Just as His existence is necessary, the nonexistence of what is other than Him is necessary. What you think is other than Him is not other than Him. He is free from there being any other than Him. Indeed, other than Him is Him without any otherness, whether this is with Him or in Him, inwardly or outwardly.”

Translation from the Arabic by Cecilia Twinch

Extract from: Know Yourself:
an explanation of the oneness of being
Ibn ‘Arabi, Balyani

Beshara Publications 2011, Translation by Cecilia Twinch