al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 2 -- The Name, Absolutely
full parallel manuscript · complete bitext
الإنسان الكامل · الباب الثاني في الاسم مطلقاً
The second chapter of al-Insān al-Kāmil, rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line. Where Bāb 1 held that the Essence cannot be reached, this chapter answers how it is approached at all — by the Name. The name is what fixes the named in understanding, imagination, and intellect; the relation of name to named is that of outward to inward; and so the Name “Allāh” is the one path to the Named, the prime-matter (hayūlā) of all the perfections and the mirror in which the human comes to know that “God was, and nothing was with Him.” The heart of the chapter is a letter-by-letter mystical reading of the five letters of the Name — the first alif as Oneness, the two lāms as Majesty and Beauty, the silent alif as unlimited Perfection, and the hāʾ as the divine Ipseity (huwiyya) that al-Jīlī identifies with the inmost reality of the human. It closes with the long, famous theopathic qaṣīda that begins “Mine is the kingdom in both abodes; I saw in them none but myself.”
Editorial note. This chapter contains some of the boldest first-person-divine language in the whole book, and it is also the chapter that most carefully fences it. Three guardrails are al-Jīlī’s own, not editorial additions. First, the “loan and metaphor” rule (§15, §17): when the servant’s hearing, sight, life, and power are called God’s, this is true of the servant only “by loan (ʿāriya) and figure (majāz),” and of God “by ownership and in reality” — the same logic as the ḥadīth al-nawāfil. Second, the dual pole (§75, §79): the human is “circular,” at once the abject creature (servanthood, incapacity) and the bearer of “the form of the All-Merciful,” never God simpliciter. Third, and decisively, the abasement turn of the closing qaṣīda (§99): after “I am nothing but He” (§83) and “I am a Lord for mankind” (§97), the poem pivots — “and here I am, of my own essence, a servant returning toward his Master,” poor, lowly, a captive of his sins, begging the Prophet’s intercession. The theopathic “I” is thus sealed, by the author, as the language of fanāʾ and divine self-disclosure, not a claim of a man’s own godhood. There is also a guardrail on the perpetual-ascent (taraqqī) doctrine (§68): the “ascent” is in the disclosure, never in the Essence, which is “above increase and decrease.” These verses and prose are recorded in al-Jīlī’s voice and framed against the mainstream; a second-reader pass is advisable.
الباب الثاني في الاسم مطلقاً
Chapter Two: On the Name, absolutely (al-Ism muṭlaqan)
حيِّ لهندٍ ممنّعَ الأعتاب ....... عالي المكان شامخ الأبواب
Greet, for Hind's sake, an abode whose thresholds are forbidden, / lofty of place, towering of gates --
من دونه ضربُ الرقاب وكلُّ ما ....... لا تستطيع الخلقُ من إعراب
before [reaching] which necks are struck, and all that / the creation is unable to [utter in] clear speech.
لو أن نشراً هبّ من أرجائها ....... سلب العقولَ وطاش بالألباب
Were a fragrant breeze to waft from its quarters, / it would rob the intellects and send the minds reeling.
The chapter's opening nasīb, in the classical mode where 'Hind' is the cipher for the unreachable Beloved -- here the divine Presence approached through the Name. It is the 'thumma qāla' poem whose lead-in dangled at the end of the Bāb 1 digital witness.
الاسم ما يعين المسمى في الفهم، ويصوّره في الخيال، ويحصره في الوهم، ويدبره في الفكر، ويحفظه في الذكر، ويوجده في العقل، سواء كان المسمى موجوداً أو معدوماً، حاضراً أو غائباً، فأول كمال تعرّف المسمى نفسه إلى من يجهله بالاسم.
The name is that which fixes the named in the understanding, pictures it in the imagination, confines it in the estimation, orders it in the cogitation, preserves it in the remembrance, and brings it to be in the intellect -- whether the named be existent or non-existent, present or absent. So the first perfection by which the named makes itself known to one ignorant of it is by the name.
glossary: khayal, wahm, fikr
فنسبته من المسمى نسبة الظاهر من الباطن، فهو بهذا الاعتبار عين المسمى، ومن المسميات ما تكون معدومة في نفسها، موجودة في اسمها كعنقاء مغرب في الاصطلاح.
So its relation to the named is the relation of the outward to the inward; and by this consideration it is the very [reality of] the named. And among named [things] are those non-existent in themselves, [yet] existent in their name -- like the ʿAnqāʾ Mughrib [the phoenix] in convention.
فإنها لا وجود لها إلاَّ في الاسم، وهو الذي كسبها هذا الوجود، منه أُعلمت صفاتها التي تقتضيها لذات هذا الاسم، وهو أعني الاسم غير المسمى.
For it has no existence except in the name; and it is the name that gained it this existence -- from it were made known its attributes, which the very [reality] of this name requires; and it -- I mean the name -- is other than the named.
باعتبار أن مفهوم عنقاء مغرب في الاصطلاح: هو الشيء الذي يغرب عن العقول والأفكار، وكان بنقشه على هيئة مخصوصة غير موجودة المثال لعظمها، وليس هذا الاسم بنفسه على هذا الحكم، فكأنه ما وُضع على هذا المعنى إلاَّ وضعاً آلياً على معقول معنى ليحفظ رتبته في الوجود كيلا ينعدم، فتحسب أن الوجود في ذاته ما هو بهذا الحكم.
[This is] by the consideration that the concept of ʿAnqāʾ Mughrib, in convention, is the thing far-removed (yaghrub) from the intellects and the thoughts, [subsisting] by its [verbal] image in a particular configuration that has no existent likeness, on account of its grandeur; and this name is not, in itself, [governed] by this rule -- it is as though it were assigned to this meaning only by an instrumental assignment, upon an intelligible meaning, to preserve its rank in existence lest it become non-existent. So you suppose that existence, in its [own] essence, is not [governed] by this rule.
فهو السبيل إلى معرفة مسماه، ومنه يصل الفكر إلى تعقل معناه، فألقِ الإلف من الكلام، واستخرج الورد من الكِمام، وعنقاء مغرب في الخلق مضادٌّ لاسمه الله تعالى في الحق، فكما أن مسمى عنقاء في نفسه عدم محض، فكذلك مسمى الله تعالى في نفسه وجود محض.
So it [the name] is the way to the knowledge of its named, and through it cogitation reaches the conceiving of its meaning. So cast off [mere] familiarity from the speech, and draw out the rose from its calyx. And the ʿAnqāʾ Mughrib, in [the realm of] creation, is the counterpart of His name 'Allāh' (exalted is He) in [the realm of] the Real: for just as the named of 'ʿAnqāʾ,' in itself, is pure non-existence, so the Named of 'Allāh' (exalted is He), in Himself, is pure existence.
glossary: fikr
فهو مقابل لاسم الله باعتبار أن لا وصول إلى مسماه إلا به، فهو أي عنقاء مغرب بهذا الاعتبار موجود، فكذلك الحق سبحانه وتعالى لا سبيل إلى معرفته إلا من طريق أسمائه وصفاته.
So it [ʿAnqāʾ] is the counterpart of the name 'Allāh' by the consideration that there is no reaching its named except through it; so it -- that is, the ʿAnqāʾ Mughrib -- is, by this consideration, [treated as] existent. And likewise the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He): there is no way to His knowledge except by the path of His Names and His Attributes.
glossary: asma, sifat
إذ كل من الأسماء والصفات تحت هذا الاسم، ولا يمكن الوصول إليه إلاَّ بذريعة أسمائه وصفاته، فحصل من هذا أن لا سبيل إلى الوصول إلى الله إلاَّ من طريق هذا الاسم.
Since each of the Names and the Attributes is under this Name [Allāh], and reaching Him is not possible except by the means of His Names and His Attributes -- so it follows from this that there is no way to reach God except by the path of this Name.
واعلم أن هذا الاسم هو الذي اكتسب الوجود بحقيقته، وبه اتضحت له سبيل طريقته، فكان ختماً على المعنى الكامل في الإنسان.
And know that this Name is the one that acquired existence by its [own] reality, and by it the way of its path became clear to it; so it was a seal upon the perfect meaning in the human.
وبه اتصل المرحوم بالرحمن، فمن نظر نقش الختم فهو مع الله تعالى بالاسم، ومن عبر المنقوشات فهو مع الله تعالى بالصفات، ومن فكّ الختم فقد جاوز الوصف والاسم، فهو الله بذاته غير محجوب عن صفاته، فإن أقام الجدار الذي يريد أن ينقضّ، وأحكم الختم الذي يريد أن ينفضّ، بلغ يتيمٌ حقّه، وبلغ خلقُه أشدّهما، واستخرجا كنزهما.
And by it the recipient-of-mercy is joined to the All-Merciful. So whoever looks at the engraving of the seal is with God (exalted is He) by the Name; whoever crosses over the engravings is with God (exalted is He) by the Attributes; and whoever unfastens the seal has passed beyond description and name -- so he is God by His Essence, unveiled to His attributes. So if he sets upright the wall that is about to collapse, and makes firm the seal that is about to scatter, [then] an orphan attains his right, his creation reaches its full strength, and the two bring out their treasure.
The closing image folds in the Moses-Khiḍr story (al-Kahf 18:77-82): the wall about to collapse, set upright so the two orphans beneath it might later attain their buried treasure. 'He is God by His Essence' is recorded in al-Jīlī's voice and is qualified two segments on (§15): the divine attributes belong to the servant only 'by loan and figure,' to God 'by ownership and in reality.'
واعلم أن الحق سبحانه وتعالى جعل هذا الاسم مرآة للإنسان، فإذا نظر بوجهه فيها علم حقيقة "كان الله ولا شيء معه"، وكُشف له حينئذ أن سمعه سمع الله، وبصره بصر الله، وكلامه كلام الله، وحياته حياة الله، وعلمه علم الله، وإرادته إرادة الله، وقدرته قدرة الله تعالى.
And know that the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) made this Name a mirror for the human; so when he looks with his face into it, he knows the reality of 'God was, and nothing was with Him,' and it is unveiled to him then that his hearing is the hearing of God, his sight the sight of God, his speech the speech of God, his life the life of God, his knowledge the knowledge of God, his will the will of God, and his power the power of God (exalted is He).
'God was, and nothing was with Him' (kāna Allāhu wa-lā shayʾa maʿah) is sound (Bukhārī). The sevenfold identification of the servant's faculties with God's echoes the ḥadīth al-nawāfil and is immediately qualified in §15.
كل ذلك بطريق الأصالة، ويعلم حينئذ أن جميع ذلك إنما كان منسوباً إليه بطريق العارية والمجاز، وهي لله بطريق المُلك والتحقيق.
All of that [is His] by way of [original] authenticity; and he knows then that all of that was ascribed to him [the servant] only by way of loan (ʿāriya) and figure (majāz), while it belongs to God by way of [true] ownership and realization.
The decisive guardrail of the chapter: the divine attributes are the servant's only 'by loan and metaphor' and God's 'by ownership and in reality.' This is what keeps the preceding identification (§14) from being a claim of the servant's own divinity -- it is the language of fanāʾ and divine self-disclosure, not substance-sharing.
قال تعالى: {وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمْ وَمَا تَعْمَلُونَ} [الصافات: 96]، وقال في موضع آخر: {إِنَّمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَوْثَانًا وَتَخْلُقُونَ إِفْكًا} [العنكبوت: 17].
He (exalted is He) said: 'And God created you and what you do' (37:96, al-Ṣāffāt); and He said in another place: 'You worship, apart from God, [only] idols, and you fabricate a falsehood' (29:17, al-ʿAnkabūt).
Qurʾān 37:96: al-Ṣāffāt 37:96, verbatim; the witness OCR 'khalafakum' is a scribal slip for the Qurʾanic 'khalaqakum'Qurʾān 29:17: al-ʿAnkabūt 29:17, the opening clause 'innamā taʿbudūna min dūni llāhi awthānan wa-takhluqūna ifkā'
فكأن ذلك الشيء الذي يخلقونه هو الشيء الذي يخلقه الله، فكأن الخلق منسوباً إليهم بطريق العارية والمجاز، وهو لله بطريق المُلك والنسبة.
So it is as though that thing which they create is the [very] thing that God creates; so it is as though creating is ascribed to them by way of loan and figure, while it belongs to God by way of [true] ownership and attribution.
والناظر وجهه في مرآة هذا الاسم يكتسب هذا العلم ذوقاً، يكون عنده من علوم التوحيد علم الواحدية، ومن حصل له هذا المشهد كان مجيباً لمن دعا الله، فهو إذن مظهر لاسمه الله، ثم إذا ترقّى وصفا من كدر العدم إلى العلم بوجود الواجب، وزكّاه الله بظهور القِدم من حيث الحَدَث، صار مرآة لاسمه الله.
And the one who looks at his face in the mirror of this Name acquires this knowledge as [direct] tasting; he has, of the sciences of [divine] unity, the science of unicity (ʿilm al-wāḥidiyya). And whoever attains this witnessing becomes one who answers the one who calls upon God -- so he is, then, a locus of manifestation (maẓhar) for His Name 'Allāh.' Then, when he ascends and is clarified from the turbidity of non-existence to the knowledge of the existence of the Necessary [Being], and God refines him by the appearing of pre-eternity through origination, he becomes a mirror for His Name 'Allāh.'
glossary: wahidiyya, tawhid
فهو حينئذ مع الاسم كمرآتين متقابلتين توجد كل منهما في الأخرى.
So he is then, with the Name, like two facing mirrors, each of which is found in the other.
ومن حصل له هذا المشهد كان الله مجيباً لمن دعاه، يغضب الله لغضبه ويرضى لرضاه، ويوجد عنده من علوم التوحيد علم الأحدية فما دونها.
And whoever attains this witnessing, God becomes the answerer of the one who calls upon him; God grows wrathful at his wrath and content at his contentment; and he has, of the sciences of [divine] unity, the science of oneness (ʿilm al-aḥadiyya) and what is below it.
glossary: tawhid The reciprocity -- God answering the one who calls the friend, His pleasure and wrath following the friend's -- is the logic of the ḥadīth al-nawāfil; recorded in al-Jīlī's voice and framed.
وبين هذا المشهد والتجلي الذاتي لطيفة، وهي أن صاحب هذا المشهد يتلو الفرقان وحده، والذاتي يتلو جميع الكتب المنزلة، فافهم.
And between this witnessing and the essential self-disclosure (al-tajallī al-dhātī) there is a subtlety: namely, that the possessor of this witnessing recites the Furqān [the Criterion] alone, whereas [the possessor] of the essential [self-disclosure] recites all the revealed books. So understand.
glossary: tajalli, dhat
واعلم أن هذا الاسم هيولى الكمالات كلها، لا يوجد كمال إلاَّ وهو تحت فلك الاسم، ولهذا ليس لكمال الله من نهاية، لأن كل كمال يُظهره الحق من نفسه فإن له في غيبه من الكمالات ما هو أعظم من ذلك وأكمل، فلا سبيل إلى الوقوع على نهاية الكمال من الحق بحيث أن لا يبقى مستأثراً عنده.
And know that this Name is the prime-matter (hayūlā) of all the perfections; no perfection is found but that it is under the sphere of the Name. And for this reason the perfection of God has no end -- because every perfection that the Real makes manifest of Himself, He has, in His unseen, of perfections [something] greater than that and more perfect; so there is no way to come upon an end of perfection in the Real, such that nothing would remain reserved with Him.
وكذلك الهيولى المعقولة أيضاً لا سبيل إلى بروز جميع صورها بحيث أن لا يبقى فيها قابلية صورة أخرى، هذا لا يمكن البتة، فلا يُدرك لما في الهيولى من الصور غاية.
And likewise the intelligible prime-matter, too: there is no way for all its forms to come forth such that no receptivity for another form would remain in it -- this is impossible, ever; so no end is grasped for the forms that are in the prime-matter.
وإذا كان هذا من المخلوق فكيف في الحق الكبير المتعال.
And if this is [so] of the created, then how [much more] in the Real, the Great, the Most High!
ومن حصل من تجليات الحق في هذا التجلي قال: بأن دَرْك العجز عن الإدراك إدراك.
And whoever attains, of the self-disclosures of the Real, this self-disclosure, says: that the apprehending of [one's own] incapacity to grasp is [itself] a grasping.
glossary: tajalli The saying 'incapacity to attain apprehension is [itself] apprehension' (al-ʿajzu ʿan dark al-idrāk idrāk) is classically attributed to Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq.
ومن تجلّى له الحق في تجلي معناه عين الله حيث علمه وتحققه حيث عينه، فهو لا يقول بالعجز عن الإدراك ولا بما ينافي ذلك، بل يتداعاه الطرفان، فيكون مقامه المقام الذي لا يمكن عنه تعبير.
And the one to whom the Real discloses Himself in the self-disclosure of His meaning -- [who is] the very [reality of] God inasmuch as He knew him, and [whom He] realized inasmuch as He individuated him -- says neither [that there is] incapacity to grasp, nor what is contrary to that; rather, the two extremes lay claim to him, so that his station becomes the station of which no expression is possible.
وهو أعلى مشهد في الله، فاطلبه ولا تكن عنه لاهٍ، وقال فيه رحمه الله تعالى:
And it is the highest witnessing in God; so seek it, and do not be heedless of it. And he (may God, exalted is He, have mercy on him) said concerning it:
اللهُ أكبرُ هذا البحرُ قد زخرا ....... وهيّج الريحَ موجاً يقذف الدُّرَرا
God is greatest! This sea has surged, / and the wind has stirred up a wave that hurls forth pearls.
فاخلع ثيابك واغرق فيه عنك ودع ....... عنك السباحةَ ليس السبحُ مفتخرا
So strip off your clothes and drown in it, [away] from yourself, and leave / aside the swimming -- swimming is no thing to boast of.
ومُتْ فميتُ بحرِ اللهِ في رغدٍ ....... حياتُه بحياةِ اللهِ قد عَمَرا
And die -- for the dead one of the sea of God is in ease; / his life, by the life of God, has been made to flourish.
The fanāʾ-poem: annihilation ('drown, die') as the gate to subsistence-by-God (baqāʾ) -- the same doctrine the chapter states in prose, that the servant's attributes are the Real's 'by loan' until the self is effaced.
واعلم أن الحق سبحانه وتعالى جعل هذا الاسم هيولى كمال صور المعاني الإلهية.
And know that the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) made this Name the prime-matter (hayūlā) of the perfection of the forms of the divine meanings.
وكان كل من تجليات الحق التي لنفسه في نفسه داخلاً تحت حيطة هذا الاسم وما بعده، إلاَّ الظلمة المحضة التي تسمى بطون الذات في الذات.
And each of the self-disclosures of the Real -- those that are for Himself, in Himself -- falls under the encompassment of this Name and what is after it, except for the pure darkness that is called the inwardness of the Essence within the Essence (buṭūn al-dhāt fī al-dhāt).
glossary: tajalli, dhat
وهذا الاسم نور تلك الظلمة، فيه يبصر الحق نفسه، وبه يتصل إلى معرفة الحق، وهو باصطلاح المتكلمين علمٌ على ذاتٍ استحقت الألوهية.
And this Name is the light of that darkness; in it the Real sees Himself, and by it [the creature] is connected to the knowledge of the Real. And it is, in the convention of the [dialectical] theologians, a proper name (ʿalam) for an Essence that merited Divinity (al-ulūhiyya).
glossary: dhat
وقد اختلف العلماء في هذا الاسم، فمن قائل يقول: إنه جامد غير مشتق، وهو مذهبنا، لتسمّي الحق به قبل خلق المشتق منه.
And the scholars have differed concerning this Name. One [group] says that it is a primitive [noun], underived -- and this is our school, because the Real named Himself by it before the creation of that from which it [would supposedly] be derived.
ومن قائل: إنه مشتق من أَلِهَ يَأْلَه إذا عَشِق، بمعنى تعشُّق الكون لعبوديته بالخاصية في الجري على إرادته والذلة لعزة عظمته، فالكون به من حيث هو هو لا يستطيع مدافعة لذلك، لما نزل ماهية وجوده عليه من التعشيق لعبودية الحق سبحانه وتعالى، كما يتعشق الحديد بالمغناطيس تعشقاً ذاتياً.
And [another] says that it is derived from 'aliha, yaʾlahu' [meaning] 'when he loved passionately' -- in the sense of the cosmos's passionate love for its servanthood, by the [innate] property, in [its] running upon His will and [its] lowliness before the might of His grandeur. So the cosmos, in that it is what it is, is unable to repel that, because of what the quiddity of its existence brought down upon it of passionate love for the servanthood of the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) -- as the iron is enamored of the magnet, with an essential enamorment.
وهذا التعشق من الكون بعبوديته هو تسبيحه الذي لا يفهمه الكلُّ "العاجز".
And this passionate love of the cosmos, by its servanthood, is its glorification (tasbīḥ), which the [merely] incapable do not understand at all.
Alludes to 'and there is nothing that does not glorify Him with praise, but you do not comprehend their glorification' (al-Isrāʾ 17:44).
وله تسبيح ثانٍ، وهو قبوله لظهور الحق فيه. وتسبيح ثالث، وهو ظهوره في الحق باسم الخلق.
And it has a second glorification, which is its receptivity to the appearing of the Real in it; and a third glorification, which is its appearing in the Real under the name of 'creation.'
وتسبيحات الكون كثيرة لله تعالى، فلها بنسبة كل اسم لله تسبيح خاص يليق به بذلك الاسم الإلهي، فهي تسبيح لله تعالى باللسان الواحد في الآن الواحد بجميع تلك التسبيحات الكثيرة المتعددة التي لا يبلغها الإحصاء.
And the glorifications of the cosmos to God (exalted is He) are many: it has, by the relation of each Name of God, a particular glorification befitting it through that divine Name. So it glorifies God (exalted is He), with a single tongue in a single instant, by all those many, multiple glorifications that enumeration cannot reach.
وكل فردٍ من أفراد الوجود بهذه الحالة مع الله. فاستدلّ من قال بأن هذا الاسم مشتق بقولهم: إله ومألوه، فلو كان جامداً لما تصرّف.
And every individual of the individuals of existence is in this state with God. So the one who held that this Name is derived adduced as proof their saying 'ilāh' [a god] and 'maʾlūh' [one toward whom love is directed]: for were it a primitive [noun], it would not be inflected [/disposed of so].
ثم قالوا: إن هذا الاسم لما كان أصله إله، ووُضع للمعبود، دخله لام التعريف فصار "الإله"، فحُذف الألف الأوسط منه لكثرة الاستعمال فصار "الله".
Then they said: since the origin of this Name was 'ilāh,' and it was assigned to the Worshipped, the definite article (lām al-taʿrīf) entered it, so it became 'al-Ilāh'; then the middle alif was elided from it, on account of frequency of use, so it became 'Allāh.'
وفي هذا الاسم لعلماء العربية كلام كثير، فلنكتفِ بهذا القدر من كلامهم للتبرّك.
And concerning this Name the scholars of Arabic have much discourse; let us content ourselves with this measure of their discourse, for the sake of blessing.
واعلم أن هذا الاسم خماسيّ، لأن الألف التي قبل الهاء ثابتة في اللفظ، ولا يُعتدّ بسقوطها في الخط، لأن اللفظ حُكمٌ على الخط.
And know that this Name is five-lettered -- because the alif that is before the hāʾ is fixed in pronunciation, and its falling-away in the script is not counted, since pronunciation is the [governing] rule over the script.
The five letters al-Jīlī reads are alif, lām, lām, the (written-silent but pronounced) alif, and hāʾ -- analyzed one by one across §43-§74 as Oneness, Majesty, Beauty, unlimited Perfection, and the divine Ipseity (= the human).
واعلم أن الألف الأولى عبارة عن الأحدية التي هلكت فيها الكثرة، ولم يبقَ لها وجود بوجه من الوجوه.
And know that the first alif is an expression for Oneness (al-aḥadiyya), in which plurality has perished, and no existence remains for it in any respect whatever.
ذلك حقيقة قوله تعالى: {كُلُّ شَيْءٍ هَالِكٌ إِلاَّ وَجْهَهُ} [القصص: 88]، يعني وجه ذلك الشيء، وهو أحدية الحق فيه ومنه، له الحكم، فلا يتقيد بالكثرة، إذ ليس لها حكم.
That is the reality of His saying (exalted is He): 'Everything is perishing except His Face' (28:88, al-Qaṣaṣ) -- meaning the face of that thing, which is the oneness of the Real in it and from it; to it belongs the rule, so it is not bound by plurality, since plurality has no rule [/standing].
Qurʾān 28:88: al-Qaṣaṣ 28:88, the clause 'kullu shayʾin hālikun illā wajhah'
ولما كانت الأحدية أول تجليات الذات في نفسه لنفسه بنفسه، كان الألف في أول هذا الاسم، وانفراده بحيث لا يتعلق به شيء من الحروف تنبيهاً على الأحدية التي ليس للأوصاف الحقيقية ولا للنعوت الخلقية فيها ظهور.
And since Oneness is the first of the self-disclosures of the Essence -- in Himself, for Himself, by Himself -- the alif [stands] at the beginning of this Name; and its standing-alone, such that nothing of the [other] letters attaches to it, is an indication of the Oneness in which neither the real qualities nor the creaturely attributes have any appearing.
glossary: tajalli, dhat
فهي أحدية محضة اندحضت فيها الأسماء والصفات والأفعال والتأثيرات والمخلوقات، وإليه إشارة بسائط هذه الحروف باندحاضها فيه، إذ بسائط هذا الحرف ألفٌ ولامٌ وفاء، فالألف من البسائط يدلّ على الذات الجامعة.
So it is a pure Oneness in which the Names, the Attributes, the acts, the effects, and the creatures are [all] obliterated; and to it the constituent-spellings (basāʾiṭ) of these letters point, by their obliteration in it -- for the constituents of this letter [alif, spelled out] are alif, lām, and fāʾ, and the alif of the constituents indicates the all-comprehending Essence.
glossary: dhat, asma, sifat
وثَمَّ نكتة أخرى: وهي النقطة التي في رأس الفاء، كأنها هي التي دائرة رأس الفاء محلها، وهنا إشارة لطيفة إلى الأمانة التي حملها الإنسان، وهي -- أعني الأمانة -- كمال الألوهية، كما أن السماء والأرض وأهليهما من المخلوقات لم تستطع حمل هذه الأمانة.
And there is another subtle point: namely, the [diacritical] dot at the head of the fāʾ -- as though it were that whose locus is the loop at the head of the fāʾ; and here is a delicate allusion to the trust (al-amāna) that the human bore -- and it, I mean the trust, is the perfection of Divinity (kamāl al-ulūhiyya), just as the heaven and the earth and their inhabitants, of the creatures, were unable to bear this trust.
The 'trust' (al-amāna) alludes to al-Aḥzāb 33:72: 'We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it... and the human bore it.'
وكذلك جميع الفاء ليس محلاً للنقطة سوى رأسها المجوّف الذي هو عبارة عن الإنسان.
And likewise the whole of the fāʾ is not a locus for the dot, except its hollowed head, which is an expression for the human.
وذلك لأنه "أول ما خلق الله روح نبيك يا جابر": رئيس هذا العالم، وفيه قيل. فكذلك القلم من يد الكاتب أول ما يصوّر رأس الفاء، فتحصّل من هذا الكلام وما قبله أن أحدية الحق يبطن فيها حكم كل شيء من حقائق أسمائه وصفاته وأفعاله ومؤثراته ومخلوقاته.
And that is because [of the saying]: 'The first thing God created was the spirit of your Prophet, O Jābir' -- the chief of this world; and concerning him it was said [this]. And likewise the pen, from the hand of the writer, the first thing it forms is the head of the fāʾ. So it results, from this discourse and what precedes it, that within the oneness of the Real is concealed the rule of everything -- of the realities of His Names, His Attributes, His acts, His effects, and His creatures.
glossary: haqiqa-muhammadiyya, asma, sifat The 'Jābir hadith' ('awwalu mā khalaqa Allāhu rūḥa [/nūra] nabiyyika yā Jābir') is foundational to the doctrine of the Muhammadan Reality (al-ḥaqīqa al-muḥammadiyya) and is everywhere in Sufi literature, but it is not established as sound in the ḥadīth-critical tradition. Invoked, not graded here.
ولا يبقى إلاَّ صفة ذاته المعبَّر عنها من وجه بالأحدية. وقد تكلمنا في هذا الاسم بعبارة أبسط من هذا في كتابنا المسمى بـ[الكهف والرقيم، في شرح بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم]، فلينظر هناك.
And there remains nothing but the attribute of His Essence, expressed -- from one aspect -- as Oneness. And we have spoken of this Name in a plainer expression than this, in our book named al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm fī sharḥ Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm [The Cave and the Inscription: a commentary on 'In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate']; so let [the reader] look there.
glossary: dhat A self-citation: al-Jīlī's al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm is a genuine work of his, an esoteric commentary on the basmala -- a useful internal cross-reference for dating and for the authenticity of the corpus.
والحرف الثاني من هذا الاسم: هو اللام الأول، فهو عبارة عن الجلال، ولهذا كان اللام ملاصقاً للألف، لأن الجلال أعلى تجليات الذات، وهو أسبق إليها. وقد ورد في الحديث النبوي: "العظمة إزاري، والكبرياء ردائي"، ولا أقرب من الإزار والرداء إلى الشخص، فثبت أن صفات الجلال أسبق إليه من صفات الجمال.
And the second letter of this Name is the first lām; it is an expression for Majesty (al-jalāl). And for this the lām is contiguous to the alif -- because Majesty is the highest of the self-disclosures of the Essence, and is the most precedent to it. And it has come in the prophetic hadith, [in God's words]: 'Grandeur (al-ʿaẓama) is My loincloth, and Pride (al-kibriyāʾ) is My cloak' -- and nothing is nearer to the person than the loincloth and the cloak; so it is established that the attributes of Majesty are more precedent to Him than the attributes of Beauty.
glossary: tajalli, dhat 'Grandeur is My loincloth, and Pride is My cloak' is a sound ḥadīth qudsī (Muslim, Abū Dāwūd). Invoked, not graded here.
ولا يناقض هذا قوله تعالى: "سبقت رحمتي غضبي"، فإن الرحمة السابقة إنما هي شرط العموم، والعموم من الجلال.
And this is not contradicted by His saying (exalted is He): 'My mercy has preceded My wrath' -- for the preceding mercy is [so] only in respect of the condition of [its] generality, and generality is of [the order of] Majesty.
'My mercy has preceded [/overcome] My wrath' is a sound ḥadīth qudsī (Bukhārī, Muslim).
واعلم أن الصفة الواحدية الجمالية إذا استوفت آمالها في الظهور أو قاربت، سُمّيت جلالاً، لقوة ظهور سلطان الجمال، فمفهوم الرحمة من الجمال، وعمومها وانتهاؤها هو الجلال.
And know that the beautiful, unific attribute, when it fulfills its aims in appearing -- or [nearly] approaches [that] -- is named 'Majesty,' on account of the strength of the appearing of the sovereignty of Beauty. So the concept of mercy is of [the order of] Beauty, while its generality and its [reaching its] utmost is Majesty.
glossary: wahidiyya
الحرف الثالث هو اللام الثاني: وهو عبارة عن الجمال المطلق الساري في مظاهر الحق سبحانه وتعالى، وجميع أوصاف الجمال راجعٌ إلى وصفين: العلم واللطف.
The third letter is the second lām; it is an expression for the absolute Beauty (al-jamāl al-muṭlaq) flowing in the loci-of-manifestation of the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He). And all the qualities of Beauty go back to two qualities: knowledge (al-ʿilm) and gentleness (al-luṭf).
كما أن جميع أوصاف الجلال راجعٌ إلى وصفين: العظمة والاقتدار.
Just as all the qualities of Majesty go back to two qualities: grandeur (al-ʿaẓama) and overpowering might (al-iqtidār).
ونهاية الوصفين الأولين إليهما، فكأنهما وصفٌ واحد، ومن ثم قيل:
And the utmost of the first two qualities [returns] to them, so that they are as though a single quality; and from here it was said:
إن الجمال الظاهر للخلق إنما هو جمالٌ هو الجلال، والجلال إنما هو جمال الجمال، المتلازم كل واحد منهما الآخر.
that the Beauty appearing to the creation is [in fact] a beauty that is [itself] the Majesty; and the Majesty is [in fact] the beauty of Beauty -- each of the two being inseparable from the other.
فتجليتهما في المثل كالفجر الذي هو أول مبادئ طلوع الشمس إلى نهاية طلوعها، فنسبة الجمال نسبة الفجر، ونسبة الجلال نسبة شروقها.
So their disclosure, in the likeness, is as the dawn, which is the first of the beginnings of the rising of the sun unto the completion of its rising: so the relation of Beauty is the relation of the dawn, and the relation of Majesty is the relation of its [full] sunrise.
glossary: tajalli
وهذا الإشراق من ذلك الفجر، وذلك الفجر من ذلك الإشراق، فهذا معنى جمال الجلال وجلال الجمال.
And this radiance is from that dawn, and that dawn is from that radiance: this is the meaning of 'the beauty of Majesty' and 'the majesty of Beauty.'
ولما كان هذا اللام إشارة إلى هذين المظهرين، لكن باختلاف المراتب، وكانت بسائطه لام ألف ميم، وجملة هذه الأعداد أحدٌ وسبعون عدداً، وتلك هي عدد الحجب التي أسدلها الحق دونه بينه وبين خلقه.
And since this lām is an indication of these two loci-of-manifestation [Beauty and Majesty], but with a difference of ranks, and its constituent-spelling is lām, alif, mīm, and the sum of these numbers is seventy-one -- and that is the number of the veils that the Real let down below Himself, between Himself and His creation.
By the abjad reckoning: lām = 30, alif = 1, mīm = 40, totaling 71 -- the 'seventy-odd veils' of the following hadith.
وقد قال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم: "إن لله نيّفاً وسبعين حجاباً من نور -- وهو الجمال -- وظلمة -- وهو الجلال --، لو كشفها لأحرقت سبحاتُ وجهه ما انتهى إليه بصره".
And the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) said: 'Truly God has seventy-odd veils of light -- which is the Beauty -- and of darkness -- which is the Majesty --; were He to lift them, the glories of His Face would burn up [everything] that His sight reached.'
The core 'the glories of His Face (subuḥāt wajhihi) would burn whatever His sight reached' is sound (Muslim). The 'seventy [or seven hundred] veils of light and darkness' framing is a widely transmitted variant; the parenthetical light=Beauty / darkness=Majesty gloss is al-Jīlī's. Invoked, not graded here.
يعني الواصل إلى ذلك المقام لا يبقى له عينٌ ولا أثر، وهي الحالة التي يسمّيها الصوفية المحق والسحق. فكل عددٍ من أعداد هذا الحرف إشارة إلى مرتبة من مراتب الحجب التي احتجب الله تعالى بها عن خلقه، وفي كل مرتبة من مراتب الحجب ألف حجاب من نوع تلك المرتبة، العزّة مثلاً، فإنها أول حجاب قيّد الإنسان في المرتبة الكونية، ولكن له ألف وجه.
Meaning: for the one who reaches that station there remains neither trace nor mark; and it is the state the Sufis call 'the effacing' (al-maḥq) and 'the crushing' (al-saḥq). So each number of the numbers of this letter is an indication of a rank of the ranks of the veils by which God (exalted is He) veiled Himself from His creation; and in each rank of the veils are a thousand veils of the kind of that rank -- [the veil of] Might (al-ʿizza), for example: it is the first veil that bound the human in the cosmic rank, but it has a thousand faces.
وكل وجه حجاب، وكذلك بواقي الحجب، ولولا قصد الاختصار لشرحناها على أتمّ الوجوه وأكملها وأخصّها وأفضلها.
And every face is a veil; and likewise the rest of the veils. And were it not for the aim of brevity, we would have expounded them in the fullest, most complete, most particular, and most excellent manner.
الحرف الرابع من هذا الاسم: هو الألف الساقط في الكتابة، ولكنه ثابت في اللفظ، وهو ألف الكمال المستوعب الذي لا نهاية ولا غاية له، وإلى عدم غايته الإشارة بسقوطه في الخط، لأن الساقط لا تُدرك له عينٌ ولا أثر.
The fourth letter of this Name is the alif that falls away in writing yet is fixed in pronunciation; it is the alif of all-encompassing Perfection, which has no end and no limit. And to the absence of its limit is the indication [given] by its falling-away in the script -- because the fallen-away has neither trace nor mark to be grasped.
وفي ثبوته في اللفظ إشارة إلى حقيقة وجود نفس الكمال في ذات الحق سبحانه وتعالى، فعلى هذا الكامل من أهل الله في أكمليّته يترقّى في الجمال.
And in its being fixed in pronunciation is an indication of the reality of the existence of Perfection itself in the Essence of the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He). And upon this [pattern], the perfect one among the people of God ascends, in his ever-greater-perfection, in Beauty.
glossary: dhat
والحق سبحانه وتعالى لا يزال في تجليات، وكل تجلٍّ من تجلياته في ترقٍّ في أكمليّته، فإن الثاني يجمع الأول، فعلى هذا تجلياته أيضاً في ترقٍّ.
And the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) does not cease to be in self-disclosures, and every one of His self-disclosures is in an ascent in its ever-greater-perfection -- for the second gathers up the first; so, upon this [pattern], His self-disclosures too are in [perpetual] ascent.
glossary: tajalli
ولهذا قال المحققون: إن العالم كله ترقٍّ في كل نفس، لأنه أثر تجليات الحق وهي في الترقي، فلزم من هذا أن يكون العالم في الترقي.
And for this the verifiers said: the whole world is in ascent, in every breath -- because it is the trace of the self-disclosures of the Real, and they are in [perpetual] ascent; so it follows from this that the world is in [perpetual] ascent.
glossary: tajalli
فإن قلت بهذا الاعتبار: إن الحق سبحانه وتعالى في ترقٍّ، وأردت بالترقي ظهوره لخلقه، جاز هذا الحديث في الجناب العالي الإلهي. تعالى الله سبحانه عن الزيادة والنقصان، وجلّ أن يتصف بأوصاف الأكوان.
So if you say, by this consideration, that the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) is in [perpetual] ascent, and you mean by 'ascent' His appearing to His creation, this discourse is permissible concerning the lofty divine Side. [But] exalted is God (glory be to Him) above increase and decrease, and too majestic to be qualified by the qualities of the beings.
The guardrail on the taraqqī (perpetual-ascent) doctrine: the 'ascent' is in the self-disclosure and its appearing to creation, never in the divine Essence, which is 'above increase and decrease.' al-Jīlī states this limit explicitly to forestall the charge that he makes God change.
الحرف الخامس من هذا الاسم: هو الهاء، فهو إشارة إلى هوية الحق الذي هو عين الإنسان. قال الله تعالى: {قُلْ} يا محمد -- أي الإنسان -- {هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ}، فهاء الإشارة في "هو" راجعةٌ إلى فاعل "قل"، وهو أنت، وإلا لا يجوز إعادة الضمير إلى غير مذكور، أُقيم المخاطب هنا مقام الغائب التفاتاً بيانياً، إشارة إلى أن المخاطب بهذا ليس نفس الحاضر وحده، بل الغائب والحاضر في هذا على السواء.
The fifth letter of this Name is the hāʾ; it is an indication of the Ipseity (huwiyya) of the Real, which is the very [reality of] the human. God (exalted is He) said: 'Say' -- O Muhammad, that is, O human -- 'He is God, [the] One' (112:1, al-Ikhlāṣ). So the hāʾ of indication in 'He' (huwa) refers back to the agent of 'Say,' which is you; otherwise it would not be permissible to refer a pronoun to an unmentioned [antecedent]. The one addressed was here set in the place of the absent [third person], by a rhetorical turning (iltifāt bayānī), as an indication that the one addressed by this is not the present [speaker] alone, but the absent and the present, in this, are equal.
Qurʾān 112:1: al-Ikhlāṣ 112:1, 'qul huwa Allāhu aḥad' A bold grammatical-mystical reading: the 'He' (huwa) of the Oneness-sūra is parsed as pointing back, through the imperative 'Say,' to the human addressee -- so that the divine Ipseity is 'the very reality of the human.' Recorded in al-Jīlī's voice and framed against the mainstream; the dual-pole guardrail follows at §75 and §79 (the human as creature-and-image, not God simpliciter).
قال الله تعالى: {وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذْ وُقِفُوا} [الأنعام: 27]
God (exalted is He) said: 'And if you [could] see, when they are made to stand [before the Fire]' (6:27, al-Anʿām) --
Qurʾān 6:27: al-Anʿām 6:27, the opening clause 'wa-law tarā idh wuqifū ʿalā l-nār'
ليس المراد به محمداً وحده، بل كل راءٍ.
what is intended by it is not Muhammad alone, but every seer.
فاستدارة رأس الهاء إشارة إلى دوران رحى الوجود الحقّي والخلقي على الإنسان، فهو في عالم المثال كالدائرة التي أشار الهاء إليها، فقل ما شئت.
So the roundness of the head of the hāʾ is an indication of the turning of the millstone of existence -- the Real's and the creaturely -- upon the human; so he is, in the world of similitudes (ʿālam al-mithāl), like the circle to which the hāʾ pointed. So say what you wish:
إن شئت قلت: الدائرة حق وجوفها خلق،
if you wish, say: the circle is the Real and its hollow is the creation;
وإن شئت قلت: إن الدائرة خلق وجوفها حق، فهو حق وهو خلق.
and if you wish, say: the circle is the creation and its hollow is the Real -- so he is [at once] Real and creation.
The reversible circle is a compact emblem of waḥdat al-wujūd: Real and creation as concentric, mutually defining, neither reducible to the other. Recorded in al-Jīlī's voice; the very reversibility ('say what you wish') marks it as a perspectival, not a substantial, identity.
وإن شئت قلت: الأمر فيه بالإلهام، فالأمر في الإنسان دوريٌّ بين أنه مخلوق له ذلّ العبودية والعجز، وبين أنه على صورة الرحمن، فله الكمال والعزّ.
And if you wish, say: the matter in him is [known] by [divine] inspiration. For the matter, in the human, is circular -- between his being a creature, to whom belong the lowliness of servanthood and incapacity, and his being upon the form of the All-Merciful, to whom belong perfection and might.
The dual pole that governs the whole anthropology: the human is at once the abject creature (servanthood, incapacity) and the bearer of the divine form ('upon the form of the All-Merciful'). This two-sidedness is itself the guardrail -- the human is never God simpliciter, but creature-and-image held together.
قال الله تعالى: {وَاللَّهُ هُوَ الْوَلِيُّ} [الشورى: 9]، يعني الإنسان الكامل الذي قال فيه: {أَلَا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاءَ اللَّهِ لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ} [يونس: 62]، لأنه يستحيل الخوف والحزن وأمثال ذلك على الله.
God (exalted is He) said: 'And God -- He is the Protecting Friend (al-Walī)' (42:9, al-Shūrā) -- meaning [in the inner sense] the Perfect Human, concerning whom He said: 'Behold, truly the friends of God (awliyāʾ Allāh) -- no fear is upon them, nor do they grieve' (10:62, Yūnus) -- because fear, grief, and the like are impossible for God.
Qurʾān 42:9: al-Shūrā 42:9; al-Jīlī cites 'wa-llāhu huwa al-walī' where the muṣḥaf reads 'fa-llāhu huwa al-walī' -- a minor connective variantQurʾān 10:62: Yūnus 10:62, verbatim; witness OCR 'awliyāʾ' slightly garbled, restored glossary: insan-al-kamil
لأن الله هو الوليّ الحميد، {وَهُوَ يُحْيِي الْمَوْتَى وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ} [الشورى: 9]، أي الوليّ.
because God is the Praiseworthy Protecting Friend: 'and He gives life to the dead, and He is powerful over everything' (42:9, al-Shūrā) -- that is, [in the inner reading, this is realized through] the [Perfect Human as] Friend.
Qurʾān 42:9: al-Shūrā 42:9, the second clause 'wa-huwa yuḥyī al-mawtā wa-huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr' al-Jīlī reads the life-giving clause, in the bāṭin, as realized through the Perfect Human (the walī) as the Real's locus of disposal -- the same nawāfil-logic as §14, where the friend's acts are God's 'by ownership' and his own only 'by loan.' Framed.
فهو حقٌّ متصوّرٌ في صورة خلقية، أو خلقٌ متحقّقٌ بمعانٍ إلهية.
So he is a Real imaged in a creaturely form, or a creation realized by divine meanings.
فعلى كل حال وتقدير، وفي كل مقال وتقرير، هو الجامع لوصفي النقص والكمال، والساطع في أرض كونه بنور شمس المتعال، فهو السماء والأرض، وهو الطول والعرض.
So in every state and supposition, and in every saying and affirmation, he is the gatherer of the two qualities of deficiency and perfection, and the one shining, in the earth of his being, by the light of the sun of the Most High. So he is the heaven and the earth, and he is the length and the breadth.
The summary formula of the chapter's anthropology: the Perfect Human gathers 'deficiency and perfection' -- creatureliness and the divine image -- in one. The theopathic qaṣīda that follows (§81-105) speaks from the side of perfection; the chapter has already fixed the other side so the verses are read in balance.
وفي هذا المعنى قلتُ:
And in this meaning I said:
The chapter's closing qaṣīda (§81-105) speaks from the side of perfection -- the theopathic 'I' of the Perfect Human as the Real's self-disclosure -- and then, at §99, turns hard to the side of creatureliness ('a servant returning to his Master'). The two movements must be read together: the poem is built so that the divine 'I' is sealed by abasement and a plea for the Prophet's intercession, exactly as the prose fixed the dual pole at §75 and §79.
لي الملكُ في الدارين لم أرَ فيهما ....... سواي فأرجو فضلَه أو فأخشاهُ
Mine is the kingdom in the two abodes; I saw in them / none but myself -- so that I might hope for His grace, or fear Him.
ولا قبلُ من قبلي فألحقَ شأنَه ....... ولا بعدُ من بعدي فأسبقَ معناهُ
And there is no 'before' before me, that I should overtake his rank, / nor any 'after' after me, that I should outstrip his meaning.
وقد حُزتُ أنواعَ الكمالِ وإنني ....... جمالُ جلالِ الكلِّ ما أنا إلاَّ هو
And I have won the kinds of perfection; and truly I / am the beauty of the majesty of the All -- I am nothing but He.
The theopathic apex, 'I am nothing but He' (mā anā illā huwa). It is the voice of the Perfect Human as the Real's self-disclosure (the mirror of §14, §19), not a man claiming godhood -- and §99 re-subordinates that very 'I' to abject servanthood. Recorded in al-Jīlī's voice and framed against the mainstream.
فمهما ترى من معدنٍ ونباتِه ....... وحيوانِه مع أُنسِه وسجاياهُ
So whatever you see of mineral and its plant, / and its animal, together with its humankind and their natures --
ومهما ترى من عنصرٍ وطبيعةٍ ....... ومن هباءٍ للأصلِ طِيبَ هيولاهُ
and whatever you see of element and nature, / and of [the finest] dust -- the sweetness of the prime-matter belonging to the Origin --
ومهما ترى من أبحرٍ وقِفارِه ....... ومن شجرٍ أو شاهقٍ طال أعلاهُ
and whatever you see of seas and their deserts, / and of tree, or of a towering [peak] whose summit rose high --
ومهما ترى من صورةٍ معنويةٍ ....... ومن مشهدٍ للعينِ طاب مُحَيّاهُ
and whatever you see of a meaning-bearing form, / and of a sight, fair of countenance, for the eye --
ومهما ترى من فكرةٍ وتخيّلٍ ....... وعقلٍ ونفسٍ أو فقلبٍ وكحَشاهُ
and whatever you see of thought and imagining, / and intellect and soul, or heart and what is within it --
glossary: fikr, khayal, nafs
ومهما ترى من هيئةٍ مَلَكيةٍ ....... ومن منظرِ إبليسَ قد كان معناهُ
and whatever you see of an angelic configuration, / and of the aspect of Iblīs -- his meaning, too, has [been there] --
ومهما ترى من شهوةٍ بشريةٍ ....... لطبعٍ وإيثارٍ لحقٍّ تعاطاهُ
and whatever you see of a human appetite, / belonging to [created] nature, and of a preferring of a right that one pursued --
ومهما ترى من سابقٍ متقدّمٍ ....... ومن لاحقٍ بالقومِ لفّاه ساقاهُ
and whatever you see of a foremost one, going before, / and of a follower with the people, whom his own driving-on gathered in --
ومهما ترى من سيّدٍ ومسودٍ ....... ومن عاشقٍ صبٍّ صبا نحو ليلاهُ
and whatever you see of a master and a mastered, / and of a passionate lover, yearning, inclined toward his Laylā --
ومهما ترى من عرشِه ومحيطِه ....... وكرسيِّه أو رفرفِ عزٍّ مجلاهُ
and whatever you see of His Throne and its encompassing [sphere], / and His Footstool, or a Rafraf [cushion] of might -- His disclosure-site --
ومهما ترى من أنجمٍ زهريةٍ ....... ومن جنةِ عدنٍ لهم طاب مثواهُ
and whatever you see of bright-blossoming stars, / and of the Garden of Eden, whose abode was made pleasant for them --
ومهما ترى من سدرةٍ لنهايةٍ ....... ومن جرسٍ قد صلصلا منه طرفاهُ
and whatever you see of a Lote-Tree of the [farthest] boundary, / and of a bell whose two ends have rung out --
Folds in the Lote-Tree of the Boundary (sidrat al-muntahā) and 'the ringing of the bell' (ṣalṣalat al-jaras), the mode of revelation that titles Bāb 32 -- the catalogue gathers the whole cosmos, from mineral to the Throne to revelation, as the 'All' the next verse claims.
فإني ذاك الكلُّ والكلُّ مشهدي ....... أنا المتجلِّي في حقيقتِه لا هو
-- then truly I am that All, and the All is my witnessing-place; / I am the One disclosed in its reality -- not it [itself].
glossary: tajalli 'I am the One disclosed in its reality, not it' -- the self-disclosure (tajallī) speaking: the All is the locus, the disclosed 'I' is the Real shining through it. Theopathic, recorded in al-Jīlī's voice; the poem's own §99 caps it with servanthood.
وإني ربٌّ للأنامِ وسيّدٌ ....... جميعُ الورى اسمٌ وذاتي مسمّاهُ
And truly I am a Lord for mankind, and a master; / all creatures are a name, and my essence is their named [reality].
Among the chapter's most extreme first-person formulations ('I am a Lord for mankind'); spoken in the theopathic register of the Perfect Human, and bounded by the abasement of §99-§100. Framed against the mainstream.
لي الملكُ والملكوتُ نسجي وصنعتي ....... لي الغيبُ والجبروتُ منّي منشاهُ
Mine are the kingdom (al-mulk) and the dominion (al-malakūt), my weaving and my making; / mine are the unseen and the omnipotence (al-jabarūt) -- from me is their arising.
glossary: mulk-malakut-jabarut
وها أنا فيما قد ذكرتُ جميعَه ....... عن الذاتِ عبدٌ آيبٌ نحو مولاهُ
And here I am, in all of what I have mentioned -- / [yet] of [my own] essence a servant, returning toward his Master.
glossary: dhat THE TURN, and the interpretive key to the whole qaṣīda: having voiced the divine 'I,' al-Jīlī immediately declares that, of his own essence, he is 'a servant returning to his Master.' The theopathy is thus framed from within as the language of fanāʾ and self-disclosure, sealed by a creaturely servanthood that the next verses deepen into abject poverty and a plea for the Prophet's intercession. This is the built-in guardrail, not an editorial gloss.
فقيرٌ حقيرٌ خاضعٌ متذلّلٌ ....... أسيرُ ذنوبٍ قيّدته خطاياهُ
Poor, lowly, submissive, abased, / a captive of sins whom his own faults have shackled.
فيا أيها العربُ الكرامُ ومن هُمُ ....... لصبِّهمُ الولهانِ أفخرُ ملجاهُ
So O noble Arabs, and they who are, / for their distracted, love-sick one, the most glorious refuge --
قصدتُكم أنتم قُصارى ذخيرتي ....... وأنتم شفيعي في الذي أتمنّاهُ
I have aimed for you; you are the utmost of my store, / and you are my intercessor in that which I long for.
ويا سيّداً حاز الكمالَ بأَسرِه ....... فأضحى له بالسبقِ شأوُ تعالاهُ
And O master who won perfection in its entirety, / so that, by [his] precedence, the reach of his exaltation became his --
لأستاذِ شيخِ العالمين وشيخِهم ....... ونورٍ حواه الأكملون ولألاؤهُ
to the teacher, the master of the worlds and their shaykh, / and a light that the most-perfect ones contained -- and its radiance --
The address turns to the Prophet (the 'master who won perfection in its entirety,' the first-created light) -- so that the poem ends not on the theopathic 'I' but on the seeker's plea for the Prophet's intercession.
عليكم سلامي كلَّ يومٍ وليلةٍ ....... تزيدُ على مرِّ الزمانِ تحاياهُ
upon you be my peace, every day and night, / its greetings increasing with the passage of time.
Collation. Two-witness collated, staged 2026-06-03. Bāb 2 of the foundational opening band (al-Ism, the Name absolutely). Witness-2 (ibnalarabi.com id=5) clean of navigation chrome; the trailing asterism rule ('* * *') and the site-search widget 'al-baḥth fī naṣṣ al-kitāb' EXCLUDED. This chapter OPENS with a 3-verse nasīb-qaṣīda (§2-4, 'ḥayyi li-Hind') whose lead-in 'thumma qāla' was the dangling tail of the Bāb 1 digital-witness page -- confirming the Bāb 1 collation decision that it belonged here. Two further qaṣīdas: the 'Allāhu akbar, this sea has surged' fanāʾ-poem (§28-30) and the long ~25-verse theopathic qaṣīda (§81-105, 'lī al-mulk fī al-dārayn'). Several witness OCR typos restored from the verified Qurʾān text (37:96 khalafakum→khalaqakum; 42:9 wa-llāhu→fa-llāhu, al-Jīlī's citation variant; 10:62 awliyāʾ). The letter-by-letter mystical analysis of the Name 'Allāh' (alif/lām/lām/silent-alif/hāʾ) is the structural spine of the chapter. No lossy drop of authorial prose.
Qurʾān. Eight loci verified verbatim, all tags correct. al-Ṣāffāt 37:96 (§16; witness OCR 'khalafakum' corrected to the Qurʾanic 'khalaqakum'); al-ʿAnkabūt 29:17 (§16); al-Qaṣaṣ 28:88 'kullu shayʾin hālikun illā wajhah' (§44); al-Ikhlāṣ 112:1 (§69); al-Anʿām 6:27 (§70); al-Shūrā 42:9, quoted twice (§76 the walī clause, §77 'wa-huwa yuḥyī al-mawtā...') -- al-Jīlī cites it as 'wa-llāhu huwa al-walī' where the muṣḥaf reads 'fa-llāhu', a minor connective variant noted; Yūnus 10:62 (§76). Sayings flagged, not graded here: 'kāna Allāhu wa-lā shayʾa maʿah' (§14, sound, Bukhārī); the nawāfil-logic of the divine answering the friend (§20); 'al-ʿaẓamatu izārī wa-l-kibriyāʾu ridāʾī' (§51, sound qudsī, Muslim); 'sabaqat raḥmatī ghaḍabī' (§52, sound qudsī); the 'seventy-odd veils of light and darkness' (§61, the sabuḥāt-wajhihi core sound in Muslim, the 70/700-veils framing a known variant); 'awwalu mā khalaqa Allāhu rūḥa nabiyyika yā Jābir' (§49, the 'Jābir hadith,' widely cited in Sufi literature but not established as sound); 'al-ʿajzu ʿan dark al-idrāk idrāk' (§25, attributed to Abū Bakr). Cross-reference to al-Jīlī's own al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm fī sharḥ Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm (§50). The wall/orphan/treasure allusion (§13) is to the Moses-Khiḍr story (al-Kahf 18:77-82); the 'trust' (§47) to al-Aḥzāb 33:72.