Sufism

The Breath of the All-Merciful (Nafas al-Rahman) brings forth all forms

Drawing on how a human voice needs breath before it can take shape as words, Ibn Arabi imagines all of creation as a single divine exhalation in which each individual thing is one distinct "word."

In the Fusus al-Hikam's closing chapter, devoted to the Prophet Muhammad, Ibn Arabi extends an image drawn from Arabic grammar: a voice must ride on an exhaled breath before it can take the shape of distinct letters and words, and in the same way the single reality of Being must be "breathed out" before it can take the shape of distinct created things. He names this outbreathing the Nafas al-Rahman, tying it directly to the divine name al-Rahman, the All-Merciful, because for Ibn Arabi the sheer fact that anything gets to exist at all is itself an act of mercy. Every individual thing in the cosmos becomes one "word" articulated within that single breath, shaped the way a letter is shaped by breath passing through the mouth. The image lets him hold unity and multiplicity together without contradiction: one breath, endlessly many words.

Fusus al-Hikam