Alam al-Mithal (عالم المثال) — The Imaginal World
Sufism

Alam al-Mithal (عالم المثال) — The Imaginal World

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Alam al-Mithal (عالم المثال) — the Imaginal World — is, in Ibn Arabi's ontology, the intermediate realm (barzakh) where pure meanings (ma'ani) take on subtle forms and material things are refined into their spiritual essences. Henry Corbin, drawing on Suhrawardi and Ibn Arabi, translated this as mundus imaginalis to distinguish it sharply from the merely imaginary: alam al-mithal is an objective ontological domain, not a psychological fantasy. It is the realm accessed through kashf (unveiling) and ru'ya (visionary experience), where the prophets received revelation in symbolic form. Ibn Arabi in the Futuhat al-Makkiyya locates this world between alam al-arwah (the world of spirits) and alam al-ajsam (the world of bodies), making it the domain where true ta'wil (hermeneutic interpretation) becomes possible.

Cross-Tradition Resonances

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The Moon

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