| Summary: | The extremely influential mystic, Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī (d. 634/1240), believes that the most advanced gnostics are imbued with a special power that turns their religious experience into reality. This is the power of <i>himma</i>—the power of existentiation that elite gnostics derive from God’s absolute power of existentiation. Ibn ‘Arabī and his followers assert that this power, which is exercised by the gnostics through an intense and unremitting concentration, actually shapes and forms external phenomenal reality as long as the concentration of the gnostic persists. This paper explores the different types of <i>himmas</i> that can exist, what kind of reality they allow the gnostics to perceive, and what relationship the objects created by <i>himma</i> have with the gnostic who exercised this power.
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