"The potential infinity of the objects of human knowledge goes back to the fact that the creatures have already been “taught” this knowledge, for it is latent in the cosmos through God’s nearness or self-disclosure to all things. Since we already know everything, coming to know is in fact a remembrance or recollection (tadhakkur). In the process of explaining this, Ibn al-‘Arabi refers to the “taking (of Adam's seed) at the Covenant” (akhdh al-mithaq), when the children of Adam bore witness to God’s Lordship over them before their entrance into the sensory world. The Koran says, “When thy Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify touching themselves: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes, we testify’” (7:172)."
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Philosophers from the United StatesEducators from the United StatesTranslators from the United StatesMuslims from the United StatesIslamic scholars
Original Language: English
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The Sufi Path of Knowledge, (1989) p. 54.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Chittick
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William Chittick
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