Visual Interpretation of Nature in Ibn ʿArabi’s Mysticism and Kabbalah: The World as a Divine Work of Art

Abstract

This study examines how nature is transformed from a collection of sensible forms into a meaningful and interpretable text in the mysticism of Ibn ʿArabi and Kabbalah, and comparatively investigates the relationship between visual perception, the manifestation of meaning, and aesthetic experience in the two traditions. The central question is how natural forms can convey significations that transcend their outward appearance and on what ontological and epistemological foundations human beings are capable of interpreting such significations. The study adopts a fundamental-theoretical methodology with a comparative-analytical approach and is based on library and documentary research into primary texts and interpretive scholarship. In Ibn ʿArabi’s thought, the cosmos is regarded as the “Book of Creation,” and its beings constitute divine signs; consequently, the interpretation of nature entails discovering the relationship between sensible forms and the self-disclosure of the Divine Names and Attributes. Imagination, unveiling, intuitive witnessing, and the human being’s ontological capacity play essential roles in this process, while the Perfect Human is conceived as the “living interpretation of existence.” In Kabbalah, likewise, the world acquires the capacity for spiritual interpretation through its relation to Ein Sof, divine light, and the Sefirot, while letters, numbers, and symbolic language play a significant role in the production of meaning. The findings indicate that both traditions conceive of the world as possessing multiple layers of meaning; nevertheless, they differ fundamentally in their ontological vocabularies, sources of knowledge, and modes of interpretation. From this perspective, in both traditions the world is simultaneously a text to be read and a form to be seen; however, the notion of the “divine work of art” is understood in this article as an aesthetic interpretation of the structure of divine self-disclosure and the meaningfulness of the cosmos.