الباب الخامس والثلاثون في الفرقان
On the Furqān (the Criterion / the Discrimination)
editorial & collation note
Two-witness collated as part of the scriptural arc (Bāb 34-35, the Qurʾān and the Furqān), staged 2026-06-02. No lossy drop. The witness-2 capture carried the site's navigation chrome both above and below the text; only the genuine chapter (lines from the title to 'wa-ilayhi l-marjiʿu wa-l-maʾāb') is rendered. Opens with five of al-Jīlī's own verses (§2-§6).
صفات اللَّه فرقان ..... وذات اللَّه قرآن
The Attributes of God are Furqān (discrimination) / and the Essence of God is Qurʾān (gathering).
وفرق الجمع تحقيق ..... وجمع الفرق وجدان
And the differentiation of the gathering is verification / and the gathering of the differentiation is [ecstatic] finding.
وتفرقة الصفات على ..... اختلاف النعت جمعان
And the separating-out of the Attributes, upon / the difference of the descriptions, is a gathering.
وحكم الذات في ..... أحدية التوحيد فرقان
And the ruling of the Essence, in / the Oneness of tawḥīd, is a discrimination.
لأن الوصف لا ينفك ..... وهو لذاته شان
Because the description does not detach [from Him] / and it, for His Essence, is a [proper] affair.
اعلم أن الفرقان عبارة عن حقيقة الأسماء والصفات على اختلاف تنوعاتها.
Know that the Furqān is an expression for the reality of the Names and Attributes, upon the difference of their varieties.
فباعتباراتها تتميز كل صفة واسم عن غيرها، فحصل الفرق في نفس الحق من حيث أسماؤه الحسنى وصفاته.
So by their regards each Attribute and Name is distinguished from another; so differentiation (farq) came to be in the very [being] of the Real, from the standpoint of His Beautiful Names and His Attributes.
فإن اسمه الرحيم غير اسمه الشديد، واسمه المنعم غير اسمه المنتقم، وصفة الرضا غير صفة الغضب.
For His Name the Merciful (al-Raḥīm) is other than His Name the Severe (al-Shadīd), and His Name the Bestower (al-Munʿim) is other than His Name the Avenger (al-Muntaqim), and the attribute of good-pleasure (al-riḍā) is other than the attribute of wrath (al-ghaḍab).
وقد أشار إليه في الحديث النبوي عن الله تعالى أنه يقول: «سبقت رحمتي غضبي».
And He pointed to it in the Prophetic hadith [reporting] from God (exalted is He) that He says: "My mercy has outstripped My wrath."
لأن السابق أفضل من المسبوق.
Because the outstripping is more excellent than the outstripped.
وكذلك في الأسماء المرتبة، فالمرتبة الرحمانية أعلى من المرتبة الربية.
And likewise in the ranked Names: the All-Merciful rank is higher than the Lordly rank.
ومرتبة الألوهية أعلى من الجميع.
And the rank of Divinity is higher than all.
فتميزت الأسماء بعضها عن بعض فحصل الفرق فيها، فكان الأعلى أفضل ممن له الحكم عليه.
So the Names were distinguished one from another, and differentiation came to be in them; so the higher was more excellent than that over which it has the ruling.
فاسمه الله أفضل من اسمه الرحمن.
So His Name "Allāh" is more excellent than His Name "the All-Merciful."
واسمه الرحمن أفضل من اسمه الرب.
And His Name "the All-Merciful" is more excellent than His Name "the Lord."
واسمه الرب أفضل من اسمه الملك.
And His Name "the Lord" is more excellent than His Name "the King."
وكذلك بواقي الأسماء والصفات، فإن الأفضلية ثابتة في أعيانها، لا باعتبار أن في شيء منها نقصا ولا مفضولية.
And likewise the remaining Names and Attributes -- for the excelling is established in their very entities, not by way of there being in any of them a deficiency or [a state of] being-excelled,
بل لما اقتضته أعيان الأسماء والصفات في أفضليتها، ولهذا حكمت بعضها على بعض.
but by what the entities of the Names and Attributes required in their excellence; and for this some of them have the ruling over some.
فقيل: أعوذ بمعافاتك من عقوبتك، وأعوذ برضاك من سخطك.
So it was said: "I take refuge in Your pardon from Your punishment, and I take refuge in Your good-pleasure from Your displeasure,"
وأعوذ بك منك لا أحصى ثناء عليك.
"and I take refuge in You from You; I cannot enumerate praise of You."
فهذا فرقان في نفس الذات.
So this is a discrimination (furqān) in the very [being] of the Essence.
فأعاذت المعافاة من العقوبة والمعافاة مفاعلة، وكان العفو أفضل من فعل العقوبة، ولهذا أعاذه منه وأعاذ الرضا من السخط.
So the pardon (al-muʿāfāt) took refuge from the punishment -- and "muʿāfāt" is [a noun of] reciprocity -- and the pardoning was more excellent than the act of punishment; and for this He took refuge in it from it, and [had] the good-pleasure take refuge from the displeasure.
فقلنا: إن صفة الرضا أفضل من صفة الغضب. وأعاذه بذاته من ذاته.
So we said: the attribute of good-pleasure is more excellent than the attribute of wrath. And He took refuge by His Essence from His Essence.
فكما أن الفرق حاصل في الأفعال فكذلك في الصفات، وكذلك في نفس واحدية الذات التي لا فرق فيها.
So just as differentiation is realized in the acts, so likewise [it is] in the Attributes, and likewise in the very Oneness of the Essence in which there is no differentiation.
لكن من غرائب شئون الذات جمع النقيضين من المحال والواجب، فكل ما يستحيل في العقل ويسوغ في العبارة والنقل فإنها تشهده من الأحكام الواجبة في الذات.
But of the wonders of the affairs of the Essence is the gathering of the two contradictories -- of the impossible and the necessary; for everything that is impossible in the intellect yet is permissible in expression and in transmission, [the gnostic] witnesses it among the necessary rulings in the Essence.
وإلى ذلك أشار الإمام أبو سعيد الخراز بقوله: عرفت الله بجمعه بين الضدّين.
And to that the Imām Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz pointed by his saying: "I knew God by His gathering between the two contraries."
ولا تظن بأنه مطلق جمعه للأول والآخر والظاهر والباطن.
And do not suppose that it is [merely] His absolute gathering of the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward.
بل الحق والخلق وعدم التفاضل والمستحيل والواجب والمعدوم والموجود والمحدود وما لا يتناهى إلى غير ذلك من النقائض، بالضاد المعجمة، والأضداد.
Rather, the Real and the created, and the absence of mutual preference, and the impossible and the necessary, and the non-existent and the existent, and the delimited and what has no end, and other than that of the contradictions (naqāʾiḍ, with the dotted ḍād) and the contraries (aḍdād).
فإنه سبحانه وتعالى يجمعها بالشأن الذاتي، وهويته عبارة عن جميع ذلك، وهذا معنى قوله: فافهم.
For He (glory be His and exalted) gathers them by the essential affair, and His Ipseity (huwiyya) is an expression for all of that; and this is the meaning of His saying. So understand.
وإذا عرفت فالزم.
And when you have known, then hold fast.
والله يقول الحق وهو يهدي للصواب، وإليه المرجع والمآب.
And God says the truth, and He guides to what is right; and to Him is the return and the homecoming.