In a series of newly highlighted passages from the *Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya*, the great Andalusian mystic Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi presents a teaching that challenges conventional religious understanding: only God loves God. This startling assertion, drawn from Book 12 of his magnum opus, reframes all human affection as a veiled encounter with the Divine.

“The lover of God does not disapprove of the lover loving whomever he loves,” Ibn Arabi writes, “because the lover of God sees no lover but God in whatever site of manifestation.” For the Shaykh al-Akbar, the heart alone possesses the capacity for this variegated love—not the intellect, which he likens to a camel’s hobble, binding and restricting. The senses, too, belong to “the world of confining,” unable to grasp love’s fluid nature.

Ibn Arabi employs a striking metaphor: the lover changes like a glass cup, taking on the color of whatever liquid it holds. “The color of the lover is the color of his beloved,” he explains, suggesting that authentic spiritual love demands a radical adaptability. Those who lack this “Divine love” find themselves disapproving of others’ loves, trapped in the narrow confines of their own understanding.