Reflections on Ibn ‘Ata’illah — From Shaykh Muhammad bin Yahya al-Ninowy
Introduction: When you realize that everything you’ve been using to “find” Allah was actually veiling you from Him
This Hikmah cuts straight through the spiritual fog:
“What a difference between the one who uses Allah to prove the existence of others,
and the one who uses others to prove the existence of Allah.”
It sounds abstract at first.
But Shaykh Ninowy unpacks it until it becomes painfully clear — a mirror so sharp that it leaves no illusions standing.
There are two kinds of people:
- The seeker (murīd).
- The sought (murād).
Both walk toward Allah…
but from completely different starting points.
This article explains that difference.
1. Every human being is born knowing absolutely nothing
Allah says:
“Allah brought you out of your mothers’ wombs not knowing anything.
He gave you hearing, sight, and intellect so you may be thankful.”
(Qur’an 16:78)
You come into the world:
- blank
- impressionable
- veiled
- dependent
And yet, some people — through Allah’s special generosity — are carried from ignorance into illumination by Him directly.
Others walk the long road, step by step.
Both routes are legitimate.
But they are not the same.
2. The “Sought” (al-murād): Those whom Allah chooses before they choose Him
Allah says:
“He loves them, then they love Him.”
(Qur’an 5:54)
His love comes first.
Not theirs.
This is the defining feature of the murād:
They were pulled by Allah before they ever began seeking.
He places:
- light in their hearts
- insight in their inner sight
- recognition in their soul
- longing in their chest
They do not find Allah through the world.
They do not discover Him through signs.
They do not “reason” themselves to Him.
They know Him because of Him.
As Shaykh Ninowy puts it:
“They see creation only because Allah made creation visible to them.
Their awareness of the world comes through Him.”
They don’t use things to reach Allah.
They use Allah to understand things.
This is the highest state.
3. The “Seeker” (al-murīd): Those who find Allah through signs because they cannot yet see Him directly
The seeker looks at the world, the creation, the causes, the movements — and from these signs, attempts to infer the Creator.
He uses:
- evidence
- nature
- blessings
- events
- intellectual proofs
- spiritual experiences
…to “arrive” at Allah.
Nothing wrong with that.
This is the natural path.
But it comes with a veil:
the seeker sees creation as “apparent” and Allah as “unseen.”
He knows Allah exists
but does not witness Him.
He sees the creation clearly,
and Allah conceptually.
He uses the apparent (creation)
to point him to the Hidden (the Creator).
Yet Ibn ‘Ata’illah says — this is spiritually inverted.
Why?
Because creation is:
- contingent
- temporary
- unnecessary
- dependent
- non-existent by itself
And Allah is:
- necessary
- eternal
- self-subsisting
- the source of every existence
- the Only truly Real
So how can the unnecessary lead you to the Necessary?
How can the non-existent lead you to the Ever-Existent?
How can illusion guide you to Reality?
This is the heart of the Hikmah.
4. The mistake: Using the unknown to guide you to the Known
Shaykh Ninowy explains:
Your existence is conditional.
You didn’t have to exist.
You come and go.
You fade.
You vanish.
You are — spiritually speaking — a “dead person walking.”
So how can you, who is non-necessary, use other non-necessary beings to infer the One who is Absolute?
This is why he says:
“How dare you use the unknown to lead you to the known?
How can the non-existent lead you to the Ever-Existent?”
This entire approach reveals one thing:
You’re still veiled.
You still see:
- reasons
- causes
- people
- events
- powers
- influences
…as “real” in their own right.
You still think creation is more “visible” than the Creator.
This is the fundamental veil.
5. The Awliya see the world through Allah, not Allah through the world
Shaykh Ninowy explains the other group — the illuminated ones:
“They know Him because of Him.
They see creation because of the Creator, not the other way around.”
This is the state of:
- Musa عليه السلام (“I cast My love over you”)
- those enveloped by divine care
- the heirs of the prophets
- the people of ma‘rifah
- the people of mushāhadah (witnessing)
They see Allah first.
Creation is merely an afterglow.
They don’t walk from creation to the Creator.
They walk from the Creator to creation.
Because once Allah opens Himself to you —
you see everything through His light.
6. You don’t need objects to prove the sun when the sun is shining on everything
Ibn ‘Ata’illah is basically saying:
Allah is too Apparent to need proof.
He is:
- the Zahir (the Most Apparent)
- the One who gives visibility to all things
- the One through whom everything becomes evident
The Qur’an echoes this:
“Say: Allah.
Then leave them playing in their distractions.”
(Qur’an 6:91)
Meaning:
Once you witness Him,
everything else becomes trivial background noise.
If the world is your evidence,
you haven’t seen Him yet.
When He is your evidence,
the world becomes a footnote.
7. The next Hikmah: Your eagerness to discover your faults is better than your eagerness to discover the unseen
This is a spiritual punch.
“Your eagerness to know the faults hidden within you
is better than your eagerness to know the unseen hidden from you.”
Translation:
Stop obsessing over:
- karamat
- unveiling
- spiritual powers
- metaphysical secrets
- rare knowledge
And turn inward.
Because:
- the rust on your heart veils you more than ignorance of the unseen
- purifying your flaws brings you closer to Allah
- seeking mystical knowledge often feeds the ego
- but seeking your flaws destroys it
And only a destroyed ego can approach His presence.
This is why the Sufis said:
“Seek istiqamah, not karamah.”
Steadfastness is the real miracle.
8. How to actually purify your hidden faults (according to Ghazali)
Shaykh Ninowy quotes Imam al-Ghazali’s four methods:
1. Sit with a Shaykh who can diagnose the diseases of your heart
Not a motivational speaker.
Not a social influencer.
A real physician of the soul.
2. Keep one sincere friend who acts as your mirror
Not ten.
One.
A single sincere friend is a treasure.
3. Listen to your enemies
Your enemies often exaggerate —
but exaggerations begin from something real.
Extract the truth.
4. Observe people’s flaws and assume you have the same tendencies
Human nature reflects itself.
What disgusts you in others is probably inside you too.
These four disciplines reveal your inner faults more accurately than any mystical unveiling ever could.
9. Istiqamah is better than karamah, because istiqamah is the root of karamah
Everyone wants insights.
Gifts.
Unveilings.
Experiences.
But the people of Allah want something else:
Consistency in obedience.
Steadfastness in presence.
Sincerity in servitude.
This is the real miracle.
Because istiqamah takes:
- years
- struggle
- mujahadah
- humility
- surrender
- dying to ego
Whereas karamah can appear even for people Allah is testing.
The awliya want Him.
Not His gifts.
10. The final Hikmah in this session: Allah is never veiled — only you are veiled
Ibn ‘Ata’illah says:
“It is never Allah who is veiled from you.
It is you who are veiled from seeing Him.”
If Allah were veiled:
- the veil would have to be stronger than Him
- the veil would have to confine Him
- the veil would have to overshadow Him
- the veil would have to “cover” the One who covers all things
Impossible.
The one who veils himself
is the self.
You think you’re looking for Allah.
In reality, you’re looking through veils that you placed upon your own heart:
- ego
- attachments
- distractions
- blame
- obsession with creation
- reliance on causes
- indulgence in dunya
- scars
- restlessness
- self-importance
Remove these…
and you will see what has always been there.
For as the Shaykh says:
“When was He ever absent,
that you needed something present to point you to Him?”
Conclusion: Stop using creation to find Allah.
Use Allah to understand creation.
If there is one sentence that captures this whole session, it’s this:
Allah is too apparent to require proof
and too near to require distance.
Seeking Him through creation is valid —
but it keeps you in the realm of signs.
Seeking Him through Him
is the state of the awliya.
And the door to that state
opens only when:
- the ego dies
- the heart purifies
- reliance shifts
- sincerity becomes real
- faults are uprooted
- causes dissolve
- witnessing dawns
This is the difference between the seeker and the sought.
May Allah make us from the latter.
Ameen.