Visions of the Reality of God the Similarity between the ideas of Divine Energies of Gregory Palmas, and Divine Attributes of Ibn ´Arabī

For the Byzantine-Christian theologian and mystic Gregorios Palamas, one of the most important proponents of Hesychasm, and the Islamic mystic and Sufi master, Ibn'Arabī, the knowledge of God's reality refers only to the divine energies or qualities, and not to the inaccessible and hidden nature of God, which transcends all being and thus also all knowledge in unspeaka-ble ways. The divine essence and the divine energies or properties, howev-er, are not separated from each other, but only distinguished within the divine reality; and, despite this difference, they form an indissoluble unit. These doctrines of divine difference form the basis for their mystical vision of God in both Gregorios Palamas and Ibn'Arabī. In this paper, the princi-ples of these teachings are presented and compared. The juxtaposition should above all serve the purpose of mutual elucidation. It should be not-ed that these two mystics belong to different religions and thus to different revelatory circles, which may not be compared externally. Rather, it is about showing the inner structure of the inner divine distinction between divine essence and divine energies or properties of Gregorios Palamas and Ibn'Arabī in their fundamental importance for the correctness of the spiritu-al path to the divine vision with a view to the inner and transcendent unity of religions.

کلیدواژه ها:

Gregorios Palamas ، Ibn'Arabī ، divine energies ، Divine essence ، the Reality of God