al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 4 -- Divinity
full parallel manuscript · complete bitext
الإنسان الكامل · الباب الرابع في الألوهية
The fourth chapter of al-Insān al-Kāmil, rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line. After the Essence, the Name, and the Attribute, al-Jīlī turns to Divinity (al-ulūhiyya) — the all-encompassing rank that “gives to each reality of existence its due,” gathers the whole descending hierarchy beneath it (Oneness, Unicity, All-Mercifulness, Lordship, Sovereignty), and unites the two contraries themselves: pre-eternal and originated, Real and creation, existence and non-existence. It is the rank in which “the Real appears in the form of the creation, and the creation in the form of the Real”; the rank whose bewilderment is the bewilderment of the perfect, before which even the Prophet, “the most knowing of God,” was “the most fearful of Him.” The chapter carries two of the book’s most concentrated theopathic qaṣīdas — the love-poem that becomes “all that is in existence other than me is from me,” and the litany “I am that Holy One veiled in the Cloud… I am His creation, and the Real is my essence… I am both the forgiver and the sinner.”
Editorial note. This is one of the chapters where the first-person-divine language runs hottest, and it is essential to read it with the fences al-Jīlī builds into the chapter itself. First, and decisively, he forbids in advance the very thing a careless reader might hear: “the people of God forbade the self-disclosure of Oneness” (§10), because pure Oneness admits no attribute, “let alone that a creature should appear in it,” so its ascription to a creature “is precluded from every aspect.” Second, he locates all the “you are He / He is you” language precisely: it belongs to the self-disclosure of Unicity (the relational rank where two terms can be named), never to absolute Oneness, “in which neither the mention of ‘you’ nor of ‘He’ is permissible” (§12). Third, the theopathy fences itself from within: the second qaṣīda says “I am His creation and the Real is my essence” (§86, the dual pole), then “my self I declare transcendent above my saying” (§87, a tanzīh-check), then “God is worthy of the heights, and the lightning of my creation is empty” (§88). All of this stands on the flat declaration of the preceding chapter (Bāb 3 §24): “there is no union and no indwelling; the servant is servant and the Lord is Lord.” Two contested reports are recorded and flagged, not endorsed: “I saw my Lord in the form of a beardless youth” (§15, much-disputed) and “Adam was created upon His form” (§16, sound but variously interpreted). A second-reader pass is advisable.
الباب الرابع في الألوهية
Chapter Four: On Divinity (al-Ulūhiyya)
اعلم أن جميع حقائق الوجود وحفظها في مراتبها تسمى الألوهية، وأعني بحقائق الوجود أحكام المظاهر مع الظاهر فيها -- أعني الحق والخلق -- فشمول المراتب الإلهية وجميع المراتب الكونية، وإعطاء كل حقه من مرتبة الوجود، هو معنى الألوهية.
Know that all the realities of existence, and their preservation in their ranks, are called Divinity (al-ulūhiyya). And I mean by 'the realities of existence' the rulings of the loci-of-manifestation together with the One appearing in them -- I mean the Real and the creation. So the comprehending of the divine ranks and all the cosmic ranks, and the giving to each of its due of the rank of existence -- that is the meaning of Divinity.
والله اسمٌ لربّ هذه المرتبة، ولا يكون ذلك إلاَّ لذات واجب الوجود، تعالى وتقدّس. فأعلى مظاهر الذات مظهر الألوهية، إذ له الحيطة والشمول على كل مظهر، وهيمنة على كل وصف أو اسم، فالألوهية أمّ الكتاب.
And 'Allāh' is a name for the Lord of this rank; and that is for none but the Essence of the Necessary-of-Existence (exalted and hallowed is He). So the highest of the loci-of-manifestation of the Essence is the locus of Divinity, since to it belong the encompassment and comprehensiveness over every locus-of-manifestation, and a dominion over every quality or name. So Divinity is the Mother of the Book (umm al-kitāb).
glossary: dhat, umm-al-kitab
والقرآن هو الأحدية، والفرقان هو الواحدية القرآنية، والكتاب المجيد هو الرحمانية -- كل ذلك باعتبار. وإلاَّ فأمّ الكتاب، باعتبار الأول الذي عليه صلاح القوم، هو ماهية كنه الذات.
And the Qurʾān is the Oneness (al-aḥadiyya), and the Furqān [the Criterion] is the Qurʾanic Unicity (al-wāḥidiyya), and the Glorious Book (al-kitāb al-majīd) is the All-Mercifulness (al-raḥmāniyya) -- all of that [is so] by a [particular] consideration. Otherwise, the Mother of the Book, by the first [consideration], upon which is the well-being of the folk, is the quiddity of the innermost reality of the Essence.
glossary: dhat, umm-al-kitab
والقرآن هو الذات، والفرقان هو الصفات، والكتاب هو الوجود المطلق، وسيأتي بيان هذه العبارات من هذا الكتاب في محله إن شاء الله تعالى.
And [by another consideration] the Qurʾān is the Essence, and the Furqān is the Attributes, and the Book is absolute existence; and the exposition of these expressions, in this book, will come in its place, if God (exalted is He) wills.
glossary: dhat, sifat
وإذا عرفت الاصطلاح، وعرفت حقيقة ما أشرنا إليه، علمت أن هذا عين ذلك، ولا خلاف في القولين إلاَّ في العبارة، والمعنى واحد. فإذا علمت ما ذكرناه، تبيّن لك أن الأحدية أعلى الأسماء التي تحت هيمنة الألوهية، والواحدية أول تنزّلات الحق من الأحدية.
And when you know the convention, and know the reality of what we have indicated, you know that this is the very [same as] that; and there is no difference in the two statements except in the expression, while the meaning is one. So when you know what we have mentioned, it becomes clear to you that Oneness is the highest of the names that are under the dominion of Divinity, and Unicity is the first of the descents of the Real from Oneness.
glossary: asma
فأعلى المراتب التي شملتها الواحدية المرتبة الرحمانية، وأعلى مظاهر الرحمانية في الربوبية، وأعلى مظاهر الربوبية في اسمه الملك.
So the highest of the ranks that Unicity comprehends is the All-Merciful rank; and the highest of the loci-of-manifestation of All-Mercifulness is in Lordship (al-rubūbiyya); and the highest of the loci-of-manifestation of Lordship is in His name 'the Sovereign' (al-Malik).
فالملكية تحت الربوبية، والربوبية تحت الرحمانية، والرحمانية تحت الواحدية، والواحدية تحت الأحدية، والأحدية تحت الألوهية.
So Sovereignty is under Lordship, and Lordship is under All-Mercifulness, and All-Mercifulness is under Unicity, and Unicity is under Oneness, and Oneness is under Divinity.
The governing hierarchy of the chapter, ascending: Sovereignty (al-Malik) < Lordship (al-Rubūbiyya) < All-Mercifulness (al-Raḥmāniyya) < Unicity (al-Wāḥidiyya) < Oneness (al-Aḥadiyya) < Divinity (al-Ulūhiyya) -- Divinity being the all-encompassing rank that gathers them all, and each of these the title of a later chapter in the band.
لأن الألوهية إعطاء حقائق الوجود وغير الوجود حقها، مع الحيطة والشمول.
because Divinity is the giving to the realities of existence -- and of [what is] other than existence -- their due, together with encompassment and comprehensiveness.
والأحدية حقيقة من جملة حقائق الوجود، فالألوهية أعلى، ولهذا كان اسمه الله أعلى الأسماء، وأعلى من اسمه الأحد. والأحدية أخصّ مظاهر الذات لنفسها، والألوهية أفضل مظاهر الذات لنفسها ولغيرها. ومن ثَمَّ منع أهل الله تجلّي الأحدية ولم يمنعوا تجلّي الألوهية، فإن الأحدية ذاتٌ محض لا ظهور لصفة فيها، فضلاً عن أن يظهر فيها مخلوق، فامتنع نسبتها إلى المخلوق من كل وجه.
And Oneness is [but] one reality of the sum of the realities of existence; so Divinity is higher. And for this His name 'Allāh' was the highest of the names, and higher than His name 'the One' (al-Aḥad). And Oneness is the most particular of the loci-of-manifestation of the Essence for itself, while Divinity is the most excellent of the loci-of-manifestation of the Essence for itself and for another. And from here the people of God forbade [the claim of] the self-disclosure of Oneness, [though] they did not forbid the self-disclosure of Divinity -- for Oneness is pure Essence, in which no attribute appears, let alone that a creature should appear in it; so its ascription to the creature is precluded from every aspect.
glossary: dhat, sifat, tajalli, asma A key bound on the identity-language: 'the people of God forbade the self-disclosure of Oneness (aḥadiyya)' -- because pure Oneness admits no attribute, still less a creature, so it can never be ascribed to a creature 'from any aspect.' The theopathic 'you are He' is therefore never a claim about the absolute Essence; §12-13 locate it precisely at the lower, relational rank of Unicity.
فما هي إلاَّ للقديم القائم بذاته، ولا كلام في ذات واجب الوجود، فإنه لا يخفى عليه شيء من نفسه. فإن كنت أنت هو، فما أنت أنت، بل هو هو؛ وإن كان هو أنت، فما هو هو، وإنما أنت أنت.
For it [Oneness] is for none but the Pre-eternal, the Self-subsistent; and there is no discourse [to be had] concerning the Essence of the Necessary-of-Existence, for nothing of Himself is hidden from Him. So if you are He, then you are not you, but He is He; and if He is you, then He is not He, but rather you are you.
The identity-language as a strict either/or, never a fused third thing: 'if you are He, you are not you (He is He); if He is you, He is not He (you are you).' One pole always cancels, which is the anti-union (anti-ittiḥād) logic of Bāb 3 §24 in poetic-logical form -- there is no merger in which both subsist together as one substance.
فمن حصل في هذا التجلي فليعلم أنه من تجليات الواحدية، لأن تجلي الأحدية لا يسوغ فيها ذكر أنت ولا ذكر هو، فافهم.
So whoever comes to be in this self-disclosure, let him know that it is of the self-disclosures of Unicity (al-wāḥidiyya) -- because, in the self-disclosure of Oneness (al-aḥadiyya), neither the mention of 'you' nor the mention of 'He' is permissible. So understand.
glossary: tajalli, wahidiyya The precise doctrinal placement of all the book's theopathic identity-talk: 'you are He / He is you' belongs to the self-disclosure of Unicity (the relational rank where two terms can be named), never to pure Oneness, where no 'you' or 'He' can even be uttered. This is al-Jīlī's own technical fencing of the language the qaṣīdas of this very chapter will use.
وسيجيء الكلام عن الواحدية في موضعه من هذا الكتاب إن شاء الله.
And the discourse on Unicity will come in its place in this book, if God wills.
glossary: wahidiyya
واعلم أن الوجود والعدم متقابلان، وفلك الألوهية محيط بهما، لأن الألوهية محيطٌ يجمع الضدّين، من القديم والحديث، والحق والخلق، والوجود والعدم.
And know that existence and non-existence are two opposites, and the sphere of Divinity encompasses them both -- because Divinity is an encompassing [reality] that gathers the two contraries: the pre-eternal and the originated, the Real and the creation, existence and non-existence.
فيظهر فيها الواجب مستحيلاً بعد ظهوره واجباً، ويظهر فيها المستحيل واجباً بعد ظهوره فيها مستحيلاً، ويظهر الحق فيها بصورة الخلق، مثل قوله: "رأيتُ ربي في صورة شابٍّ أمرد".
So in it the Necessary appears as impossible, after its appearing as necessary; and in it the impossible appears as necessary, after its appearing in it as impossible; and the Real appears in it in the form of the creation -- as in his saying: 'I saw my Lord in the form of a beardless youth.'
The report 'I saw my Lord in the form of a beardless youth' (raʾaytu rabbī fī ṣūrat shābb amrad) is much-disputed: rejected as unsound or even fabricated by many traditionists, it was a flashpoint in the medieval controversy over the divine 'form' (ṣūra) reports. Recorded here as al-Jīlī cites it, illustrating the Real's appearing in creaturely form; NOT endorsed as sound.
ويظهر الخلق بصورة الحق، مثل قوله: "خلق آدم على صورته".
And the creation appears in the form of the Real -- as in his saying: 'Adam was created upon His form.'
'Adam was created upon His form' (khalaqa Ādam ʿalā ṣūratih) is sound (Bukhārī, Muslim), though commentators dispute whether the pronoun 'His' refers to God or to Adam himself; al-Jīlī takes the former in service of his point about the creation appearing in the Real's form.
وعلى هذا التضاد، فإنها تعطي كل شيء مما شملته من هذه الحقائق حقه، فظهور الحق في الألوهية على أكمل مرتبة وأعلاها، وأفضل المظاهر وأسماها.
And upon this [pattern of] contrariety, it gives everything of these realities that it comprehends its due: so the appearing of the Real in Divinity is upon the most perfect rank and the highest of it, and the most excellent of the loci-of-manifestation and the most sublime.
وظهور الخلق في الألوهية على ما يستحقه الممكن من تنوّعاته وتغيّراته وانعدامه ووجوده.
And the appearing of the creation in Divinity is upon what the possible deserves of its variations, its changes, its non-existence, and its existence.
وظهور الوجود في الألوهية على كمال ما تستحقه مراتبه، من جميع الحق والخلق وأفراد كل منهما.
And the appearing of existence in Divinity is upon the perfection of what its ranks deserve -- of the whole of the Real and the creation, and the individuals of each of the two.
وظهور العدم في الألوهية على بطونه وصرافته وانمحاقه في الوجه الأكمل، غير موجود في فنائه المحض. وهذا لا يُعرف بطريق العقل ولا يُدرك بالفكر.
And the appearing of non-existence in Divinity is upon its inwardness, its sheerness, and its effacement, in the most perfect aspect -- [it is] not existent, in its pure annihilation. And this is not known by way of the intellect, nor grasped by cogitation.
glossary: fikr
ولكنه من حصل في هذا الكشف الإلهي علم هذا الذوق المحض، من هذا التجلي العام المعروف بالتجلي الإلهي.
But whoever attains this divine unveiling knows this pure tasting, [which comes] from this general self-disclosure known as the divine self-disclosure.
glossary: kashf, tajalli
وهو موضع حيرة الكمَّل من أهل الله تعالى، وإلى سرّ هذه الألوهية أشار صلى الله عليه وسلم: "أنا أعرفكم بالله وأشدّكم خوفاً منه".
And it is the place of the bewilderment of the perfect ones among the people of God (exalted is He); and to the secret of this Divinity he (may God bless him and grant him peace) pointed: 'I am the most knowing of you about God, and the most intense of you in fear of Him.'
Sound (Bukhārī, Muslim, in close wordings); invoked, not graded here. al-Jīlī reads the Prophet's combination of supreme knowledge and supreme fear as the mark of the all-encompassing rank of Divinity, which gathers even the contraries.
فما خاف صلى الله عليه وسلم من الربّ ولا من الرحمن، وإنما خاف من الله، وإليه الإشارة بقوله: {مَا أَدْرِي مَا يُفْعَلُ بِي وَلَا بِكُمْ} [الأحقاف: 9].
For he (may God bless him and grant him peace) did not fear [in respect of] the Lord, nor the All-Merciful, but rather feared [in respect of] 'Allāh'; and to it points his saying: 'I do not know what will be done with me, nor with you' (46:9, al-Aḥqāf).
Qurʾān 46:9: al-Aḥqāf 46:9, the clause 'wa-mā adrī mā yufʿalu bī wa-lā bikum'; al-Jīlī cites it as the Prophet's utterance, which it is -- the verse opens 'qul' (Say)
على أنه أعرف الموجودات بالله تعالى وبما يبرز من ذلك الجناب الإلهي، أي: لا أدري أيّ صورةٍ أظهر بها في التجلي الإلهي، ولا أظهر إلاَّ بما يقتضيه حكمها، وليس لحكمها قانونٌ لا نقيض له.
[This] although he is the most knowing of the existents about God (exalted is He), and about what comes forth from that divine Side -- that is: 'I do not know in what form I shall appear in the divine self-disclosure, and I appear only by what its ruling requires; and its ruling has no [single] law without a counter to it.'
glossary: tajalli
فهو يعلم ولا يعلم، ويجهل ولا يجهل، إذ ليس التجلي الإلهي حدّاً يُوقَف عليه في التفصيل.
So he knows and does not know, is ignorant and is not ignorant -- since the divine self-disclosure is not a limit at which one [can] halt, in detail.
glossary: tajalli
فلا يقع عليها الإدراك التفصيلي بوجه من الوجوه.
So detailed grasping does not fall upon it in any respect.
لأنه محالٌ على الله أن يكون له نهاية، ولا سبيل إلى إدراك ما ليس له نهاية. لكن الحق سبحانه وتعالى قد يتجلّى بها على سبيل الكلية والإجمال.
because it is impossible for God to have an end, and there is no way to the grasping of what has no end. But the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) may disclose Himself by it [Divinity] by way of the universal and the summary.
والكمَّل متفاوتون في الحظّ من ذلك التجلي، كلٌّ على قدر ما فصّل من ذلك الإجمال، وبحسب ما ذهب إليه الكبير المتعال، وبحكم ما ظهر من ذلك على حدّه من آثار الكمال.
And the perfect ones vary in [their] share of that self-disclosure -- each according to the measure of what he has detailed of that summary, and according to what the Great, the Most High, carried him to, and by the rule of what appeared of that, in its measure, of the traces of perfection.
glossary: tajalli
بلِّغي يا نسيمَ أهل الديار ....... خبرَ الصبّ بين ماءٍ ونار
Convey, O breeze of the people of the dwellings, / the tidings of the love-stricken one, [caught] between water and fire.
وانزلي تلكمُ الديارَ بليلٍ ....... ما تطيقي نزولَها بنهار
And alight at those dwellings by night -- / you could not bear to alight at them by day.
فهناك الظبا تصيد أسوداً ....... وهناك الأسودُ ليست ضواري
For there the gazelles hunt down lions, / and there the lions are not predators.
قد فقدنا القرارَ عنهم فباتوا ....... ورضينا لهم ببُعد المزار
We lost [all] rest for [longing of] them, so they passed the night [at ease], / and we were content, for their sake, with the distance of the visit.
كتب الحسنُ في الفؤاد قرآناً ....... أنزلوه عليه بالاقتدار
Beauty wrote in the heart a Qurʾān, / which they sent down upon it with [overpowering] might.
فتلا القلبُ آيةَ العشق حتى ....... كمل السرُّ سورةَ الاشتهار
So the heart recited the verse of passionate love, until / the secret completed the sūra of [its becoming] renowned.
فتبدّى من النقاب جمالٌ ....... قتل الناظرين بالاستتار
So there appeared, from behind the veil, a beauty / that slew the onlookers by [its very] hiddenness.
نطق الثغرُ منه عجباً لحسنٍ ....... أسكرت ريقَه بخمرٍ خماري
The [smiling] mouth of it spoke -- a wonder, for [such] beauty! -- / [whose very] saliva was made drunk by a heady wine.
قال لما رأى القلوبَ أسارى ....... قد غُنيتم بصحة الافتقار
It said, when it saw the hearts [as] captives: / 'You have been made rich by the soundness of [your] neediness.'
كلُّ ما في الوجود غيري فمنّي ....... هو ذاتي نوّعتُه باختياري
'All that is in existence, other than me, is from me; / it is my essence, which I have diversified by my choice.
The qaṣīda turns here into the divine/Perfect-Human voice. By the chapter's own placement (§12), this 'I' is the self-disclosure of Unicity (al-wāḥidiyya), where 'you' and 'He' can be named -- not a claim about the absolute Oneness, whose ascription to a creature §10 has already precluded 'from every aspect.' Read with Bāb 3 §24: no union, no indwelling.
أنا كالثوب إن تلوّنتُ يوماً ....... باحمرارٍ وتارةً باصفرار
I am like the garment: if I take on color one day / with redness, and at another time with yellowness --
ومحا الحمرةَ البياضُ وجاءت ....... كثرةٌ فهي للتلوّن طاري
and the whiteness effaces the redness, and there came / a multiplicity -- so it [the multiplicity] is incidental to [my] coloration.
فمحالٌ عليَّ انقسامي ....... ومحالٌ عليّ فيّ دثاري
for [any] division of me is impossible for me, / and [any] enveloping of me, within me, is impossible for me.
إنما الدثرُ في التلوّن حقٌّ ....... إنما السترُ فيه لا فيّ جاري
The covering is, in truth, [only] in the coloration; / the veiling runs [only] in it [the form], not in me.
كلُّ ما في عوالمي من جمادٍ ....... ونباتٍ وذاتِ روحٍ معاري
All that is in my worlds -- of mineral, / and plant, and ensouled [being] -- are my borrowed garments;
صورٌ لي تعرّضت وإذا ما ....... أزلتُها لا أزولُ وهي جواري
they are forms of mine that presented themselves; and when / I remove them, I do not pass away -- they being my handmaids.
اتفاقُ جميعها باختلافٍ ....... رتبةٍ قد علت مطارَ مدار
The agreement of them all is by a difference / of rank that has risen [above] the flight of [any] orbit.
لي معنىً إذا بدا كنتَ معنىً ....... من معانيه ذا غناءٍ افتقاري
I have a meaning [such that], when it appears, you become a meaning / of its meanings -- [and] my neediness is, by it, a richness.
وإذا زال لم أزل في لباسٍ ....... لم أكن منه منذ ما كنتُ عاري
And when it passes away, I do not pass away [but remain] in a garment / of which I was never, from the first, bereft.
وعليها تركّبت كلُّ معنىً ....... لي من ذاتي العزيزِ المنار
And upon them [the forms] was assembled every meaning / belonging to me, from my essence, the Mighty of beacon.
فألوهيّتي لذاتي أصلٌ ....... بل هو الفرعُ فاعلمَنْ شعاري
So my Divinity is, for my essence, a root -- / nay, it [my Divinity] is [rather] the branch: so know, then, my emblem.
The root/branch play (between Divinity and Essence) voiced from the side of perfection: the Essence is the root, Divinity its branch or manifestation. al-Jīlī's point is that even 'Divinity,' the most encompassing rank-name (§8), is a manifestation of an Essence more inward still -- consistent with Bāb 1's unreachable Essence. Framed.
عجباً للذي هو الأصلُ حكماً ....... أن يسيرَ لفرعه فهو ساري
A wonder, that the one who is, by [its] ruling, the root, / should travel to its branch -- so it is [the one] coursing [there]!
لا يهولنّك المقالُ فإني ....... لم أكن فرعَه سوى في استتاري
Let not the saying dismay you, for I / was not its branch except in my [self-]veiling.
وعليه مؤصَّلٌ كلُّ فرعٍ ....... هو أصلٌ لباطني وظِهاري
And upon it [the root] is every branch made-rooted; / it is a root for my inward and my outward.
وإذا ما بدا تجلّيتُ فيه ....... وإذا ما أُزيل فهو خماري
And when it [the form] appears, I am disclosed in it; / and when it is removed, it is [yet] my [hidden] wine.
glossary: tajalli
فهو تدريه لا تراه وإني ....... قد تراني ولم تكن لي داري
So it [the inward], you know [it but] do not see it; while as for me, / you may [indeed] see me, though you have not comprehended me.
سُنّةٌ لي جرت بذاك وإني ....... لغنيٌّ بأن أُرى أو أُواري
[It is] a way of mine that has run with that; and truly I / am rich enough [whether] I be seen or be hidden.'
فالألوهية مشهودة الأثر، مفقودة في النظر، يُعلم حكمها ولا يُرى رسمها. والذات مرئية العين، مجهولة الأين، تُرى عياناً ولا يُدرك لها بياناً.
So Divinity is witnessed in [its] effect, absent in [direct] regard: its ruling is known, but its [outward] trace is not seen. And the Essence is seen of [its very] eye, unknown of [its] 'where': it is seen by direct vision, yet no exposition of it is grasped.
glossary: dhat
ألا ترى أنك إذا رأيت رجلاً تعلم أنه موصوفٌ مثلاً بأوصافٍ متعددة، فتلك الأوصاف الثابتة له إنما تقع عليها بالعلم والاعتقاد أنها فيه، ولا تشهد لها عيناً.
Do you not see that, when you see a man, you know that he is qualified, for example, by multiple qualities? Yet those qualities established for him -- you only come upon them by knowledge and belief that they are in him, [and] you do not witness them with [your] eye.
وأما ذاته فأنت تراها بجملتها عياناً، ولكن تجهل ما فيها من الأوصاف التي لم يبلغك علمها، إذ يمكن أن يكون لها ألف وصفٍ مثلاً، وما بلغك منها إلاَّ بعضها.
But his essence -- you see it, in its [whole] sum, by direct vision; yet you are ignorant of what is in it of the qualities whose knowledge has not reached you, since it is possible that it has, for example, a thousand qualities, and there has reached you, of them, only some.
فالذات مرئية، والأوصاف مجهولة، ولا تُرى من الوصف إلاَّ الأثر، أما الوصف نفسه فهو الذي لا يُرى أبداً البتّة.
So the essence is seen, and the qualities are unknown; and nothing of the quality is seen except the trace -- as for the quality itself, it is that which is never, ever seen.
glossary: dhat The same epistemology as Bāb 3 (§59-63 there): the essence is what is seen, the attributes only ever inferred from their traces. Here it grounds the claim of §56 that the Essence is 'seen' while Divinity is known only 'in its effect.'
مثله: ما تُرى من الشجاع عند المحاربة إلاَّ إقدامه، وذلك أثر الشجاعة لا الشجاعة.
Its like: you see nothing of the brave one, at the [time of] battle, except his advancing -- and that is the trace of courage, not the courage [itself].
ولا تُرى من الكريم إلاَّ إعطاءه، وذلك أثر الكرم لا نفس الكرم.
And you see nothing of the generous one except his giving -- and that is the trace of generosity, not generosity itself.
لأن الصفة كامنة في الذات، لا سبيل إلى بروزها، فلو جاز عليها البروز لجاز عليها الانفصال عن الذات، وهذا غير ممكن، فافهم.
because the quality is latent in the essence, [and] there is no way to its coming-forth; for were its coming-forth [ever] permissible, its separation from the essence would [also] be permissible -- and this is not possible. So understand.
glossary: dhat, sifat
وللألوهية سرّ، وهو أن كل فردٍ من الأشياء التي يُطلق عليها اسم الشيء -- قديماً كان أو محدثاً، معدوماً كان أو موجوداً -- فهو يحوي بذاته جميع بقية أفراد الأشياء الداخلة تحت هيمنة الألوهية.
And Divinity has a secret: namely, that every individual of the things upon which the name 'thing' is applied -- whether pre-eternal or originated, non-existent or existent -- contains, by its [own] essence, all the rest of the individuals of things [that are] entering under the dominion of Divinity.
The witness reads 'the name of the like' (al-shabīh); read here as 'the name thing' (al-shayʾ), which the argument requires (everything that can be called a 'thing'). The 'secret' is the holographic principle of §64-69: each existent mirrors the whole.
فمثل الموجودات كمثل مرايا متقابلاتٍ، يوجد جميعها في كل واحدٍ منها.
So the likeness of the existents is as the likeness of facing mirrors: all of them are found in each one of them.
فإن قلت: إن المرايا المتقابلات قد وُجد في كل منها ما وُجد في الأخرى، فما جمعت الواحدة من المرايا إلاَّ ما هي عليه، وبقي الأفراد المتعددات من المرايا التي تحت كل فردٍ منها جميع المجموع --
So if you say: the facing mirrors -- there is found in each of them what is found in the other; [yet] the single mirror gathered only what it [itself] is upon, and there remained the multiple individuals of the mirrors, under each individual of which is the whole sum --
ساغ بها الاعتبار أن نقول: ما حوى كل فردٍ من أفراد الوجود إلاَّ ما استحقته ذاته، لا زائداً على ذلك.
[then] the consideration is, by it, made valid, that we say: each individual of the individuals of existence contains only what its [own] essence deserves, not [anything] additional to that.
وإن قلت، باعتبار وجود الجميع من المرايا في كل واحدة، أن كل فردٍ من أفراد الوجود فيه جميع الموجودات، جاز لك ذلك.
And if you say -- by the consideration of the presence of the whole [set] of the mirrors in each one -- that every individual of the individuals of existence has in it all the existents, that is [also] permissible for you.
وعلى الحقيقة، فهذا أمرٌ كالقشر على المراد، وما وُضع لك إلاَّ شَرَكٌ، عسى أن يقع طيرك في شبكة الأحدية، فتشهد في الذات ما استحقته من الصفات. فاترك القشر وخذ اللبّ، ولا تكن ممن عمي عن الوجه وتراءى الحجب.
And in reality, this is a matter like the husk over the intended [kernel]; and it was set [before] you only [as] a snare, in the hope that your bird might fall into the net of Oneness, so that you may witness, in the Essence, what it deserves of the Attributes. So leave the husk and take the kernel, and be not of those blinded to the Face who [instead] see [only] the veils.
glossary: dhat, sifat
قلبي بكم متصلّبٌ ....... متسكّنٌ متقلّبٌ
My heart, for you, is made firm, / [yet] stilled, [yet] ever-turning;
وخيالُ حبّكمُ به ....... أبداً يجيء ويذهبُ
and the phantom of your love, within it, / forever comes and goes.
glossary: khayal
ما أنتمُ منّي سوى ....... نفسي فأين المهربُ
You are nothing to me but / my [own] self -- so where is the escape?
ألقيتُ نفسي فاغتدت ....... ممّا لكم أتقلّبُ
I cast off my self, and it came to be / [such] that, for what is yours, I [now] turn about.
وتركتني فوجدتُني ....... لا أمَّ ثَمَّ ولا أبُ
And you left me, so I found myself / [with] neither mother there nor father.
وجحدتُ ما قبلي وما ....... بعدي ولا أترّيبُ
And I denied what is before me and what / is after me -- and I do not doubt.
ونفيتُ عنّي الاختصا ....... صَ بوجهه يتقرّبُ
And I negated from myself [all] singling-out -- / [for] by His Face one draws near.
أنا ذلك القدّوسُ في ....... قُدس العماء محجّبُ
I am that Holy One (al-Quddūs), in / the holiness of the Cloud (al-ʿamāʾ), veiled.
The second qaṣīda speaks again from the divine/Perfect-Human voice and is to be read by the same fencing the chapter itself supplies: §12 places all such 'I' at the rank of Unicity, not the absolute Oneness; §86-90 below supply the dual pole and a tanzīh-check from within the poem. al-ʿamāʾ ('the Cloud') is the primordial divine self-veiling of the cosmogony (cf. Bāb 62).
أنا ذلك الفردُ الذي ....... فيه الكمالُ الأعجبُ
I am that Single One in whom / is the most wondrous perfection.
أنا قطبُ دائرةِ الرحى ....... وأنا العلا المستوعِبُ
I am the pole of the circle of the millstone, / and I am the all-encompassing height.
وأنا العجيبُ ومن به ....... ممّا حوى ذا المُعجِبُ
And I am the wondrous one, and the one by whom -- / of what He has comprehended -- this marvel [is].
فلكُ المحاسنِ فيه شمسٌ ....... مشرقٌ ولا مغربُ
The sphere of beauties -- in it a sun, / a place of rising, and no place of setting.
لي في العلا فوق المكا ....... ن مكانةٌ لا تُقرَبُ
Mine, in the heights, above [all] place, / is a rank that is not [to be] approached.
في كل منبتِ شعرةٍ ....... منّي كمالٌ مُعرِبُ
In every place where a [single] hair sprouts / from me is a perfection [eloquently] declaring [itself];
وبكل صوتِ طائرٍ ....... في كل غصنٍ يطربُ
and in every voice of a bird / that, on every branch, sings with delight;
وبكل مرأى صورتي ....... تبدو وقد تتحجّبُ
and in every sight my form / appears -- and [at times] it is veiled.
حُزتُ الكمالَ بأسره ....... فلأجل ذا أتقلّبُ
I have won perfection in its entirety; / and for the sake of that I turn about [in forms].
وأقول إني خلقُه ....... والحقُّ ذاتي فاعجبوا
And I say: I am His creation -- / and the Real is my essence; so wonder!
The dual pole, voiced from within the theopathy: 'I am His creation AND the Real is my essence' -- both held at once, exactly the creature-and-image structure of Bāb 2 §75/§79. Not 'I am the Real simpliciter'; the creaturely side is affirmed in the same breath.
نفسي أنزّهُ عن مقا ....... لتيَ التي لا تكذبُ
My [own] self I declare transcendent / above my saying -- [a saying] that does not lie.
glossary: tanzih A tanzīh-check from inside the poem: even the truthful first-person claim falls short of the self it would name. The theopathic 'I' confesses its own inadequacy -- the same self-limiting gesture as Bāb 1's closing doxology and Bāb 2's abasement turn.
اللهُ أهلٌ للعلا ....... وبروقُ خلقي خُلّبُ
God is worthy of the heights -- / and the lightning-flashes of my creation are [but] empty [of rain].
A self-deflating turn: 'khullab' is lightning that promises rain and gives none. Against God's worthiness of the heights, the speaker's own 'creation' is empty show -- the servanthood-pole reasserting itself, as in Bāb 2 §99-100.
أنا لم أكن هو لم يزل ....... فلأيّ شيءٍ أُطنِبُ
I -- was I not [always] He? He has never ceased [to be]; / so for what thing should I be prolix?
ضاع الكلامُ فلا كلا ....... مٌ ولا سكوتٌ مُعجِبُ
Speech was lost -- so [there is] neither speech / nor a [fitting] silence that pleases.
جمعتُ محاسنيَ العلا ....... أنا غافرٌ والمذنبُ
I gathered my beauties, the lofty ones; / I am [both] the forgiver and the sinner.
The closing paradox seals the chapter on Divinity as the rank that 'gathers the two contraries' (§14): forgiver and sinner, Real and creation, held in one -- the coincidence of opposites of Bāb 1, now in the register of al-Ulūhiyya. The whole poem is fenced by the chapter's own placement of such speech at the rank of Unicity (§12), its dual pole (§86), and its tanzīh-check (§87), and by Bāb 3 §24's flat denial of union and indwelling.
Collation. Two-witness collated, staged 2026-06-03. Bāb 4 of the foundational opening band (al-Ulūhiyya, Divinity). Witness-2 (ibnalarabi.com id=7) clean of navigation chrome; the trailing asterism rule ('* * *') and the site-search widget 'al-baḥth fī naṣṣ al-kitāb' EXCLUDED. Divinity is the most encompassing rank-name of the opening sequence: it gathers the whole hierarchy (Ulūhiyya > Aḥadiyya > Wāḥidiyya > Raḥmāniyya > Rubūbiyya > Malik) and the two contraries (existence/non-existence, Real/creation). Two long theopathic qaṣīdas (§29-55, 27 verses; §69-91, 23 verses). Several witness OCR garbles where kāf is mis-scanned as an alif-like glyph (lihadha→lihādhā, wakn→wa-kāna; 'ant'/'kunt' confusions in the poems) are restored to sense. No lossy drop of authorial prose.
Qurʾān. One Qurʾān locus verified verbatim, tag correct: al-Aḥqāf 46:9 'mā adrī mā yufʿalu bī wa-lā bikum' (§23), which al-Jīlī cites as the Prophet's saying -- it is the clause the Prophet is commanded to 'say' (qul) in the verse. Sayings flagged, not graded here: 'I saw my Lord in the form of a beardless youth' (raʾaytu rabbī fī ṣūrat shābb amrad, §15) -- a much-disputed report, rejected as unsound by many traditionists and central to the medieval controversy over the 'form' (ṣūra) hadiths; recorded in al-Jīlī's voice, not endorsed; 'Adam was created upon His form' (khalaqa Ādam ʿalā ṣūratih, §16) -- sound (Bukhārī, Muslim), though the referent of 'His' is debated by the commentators; 'I am the most knowing of you about God and the most intense of you in fear of Him' (§22, sound, Bukhārī/Muslim). The Qurʾān/Furqān/Kitāb correspondences (§4-5) are al-Jīlī's technical metaphysical usage, not scriptural citations.