الباب الخامس في الأحدية
Chapter Five: On Oneness (al-Aḥadiyya)
§2 الأحدية عبارة عن مجلى الذات، ليس للأسماء ولا للصفات ولا لشيء من مؤثراتها فيه ظهور، فهي اسمٌ لصرافة الذات المجرّدة عن الاعتبارات الحقية والخلقية.
Oneness (al-aḥadiyya) is an expression for the disclosure-site (majlā) of the Essence, in which there is no appearing for the Names, nor the Attributes, nor anything of their effects; so it is a name for the sheerness of the Essence (ṣarāfat al-dhāt), stripped of the Real and the creaturely considerations.
glossary: dhat, asma, sifat
§3 وليس لتجلي الأحدية في الأكوان مظهرٌ أتمّ منك، إذا استغرقتَ في ذاتك ونسيتَ اعتباراتك، وأخذتَ بك فيك عن ظواهرك، فكنتَ أنت في أنت، من غير أن يُنسب إليك شيءٌ مما تستحقه من الأوصاف الحقية، أو هو لك من النعوت الخلقية. فهذه الحالة من الإنسان أتمّ مظهرٍ للأحدية في الأكوان، فافهم.
And the self-disclosure of Oneness has, in the beings, no locus-of-manifestation more complete than you -- when you are immersed in your essence, and forget your considerations, and are taken, by yourself, into yourself, away from your outward [aspects], so that you are 'you in you,' without anything being ascribed to you of what you deserve of the Real qualities, or what is yours of the creaturely attributes. So this state, on the part of the human, is the most complete locus-of-manifestation for Oneness in the beings. So understand.
glossary: tajalli, dhat The human's self-immersion is the fullest mirror (maẓhar) of Oneness -- but a mirror is precisely not the thing it reflects. §9-10 below make the limit explicit: the creature is qualified by Oneness in no respect; he is its most complete locus of manifestation, not a sharer in it.
§4 وهو أول تنزّلات الذات من ظلمة العماء إلى نور المجالي، فأعلى تجلياتها هو هذا التجلي، لتمحّضها وتنزّهها عن الأوصاف والأسماء والإشارات والنسب والاعتبارات جميعاً، بحيث وجودُ الجميع فيها، لكن بحكم البطون في هذا التجلي لا بحكم الظهور.
And it [Oneness] is the first of the descents of the Essence, from the darkness of the Cloud (al-ʿamāʾ) to the light of the disclosure-sites; so the highest of its self-disclosures is this self-disclosure, on account of its sheerness and its transcendence above the qualities, the names, the allusions, the relations, and the considerations -- all of them -- [in such a way] that the existence of [them] all is in it, but by the rule of inwardness (buṭūn) in this self-disclosure, not by the rule of appearing (ẓuhūr).
glossary: dhat, tajalli, asma, sifat
§5 وهذه الأحدية في لسان العموم هي عين الكثرة المتنوعة، فهي في المثل كمن ينظر من بُعدٍ إلى جدارٍ قد بُني ذلك الجدار من طينٍ وآجرٍ وجصٍّ وخشب، ولكنه لا يرى شيئاً من ذلك، ولا يرى إلاَّ جداراً فقط. فكانت أحدية هذا الجدار مجموعَ ذلك الطين والآجر والجصّ والخشب، لا على أنه اسمٌ لهذه الأشياء، بل على أنه اسمٌ لتلك الهيئة المخصوصة الجدارية.
And this Oneness, in the tongue of the common folk, is the very [reality of] the diversified multiplicity. So it is, in the likeness, as one who looks from afar at a wall -- that wall having been built of clay, baked brick, plaster, and wood -- yet he sees nothing of that, and sees nothing but a wall only. So the 'oneness' of this wall was the sum of that clay, brick, plaster, and wood -- not as [the word 'wall'] being a name for these things, but as it being a name for that particular wall-configuration.
The wall-from-afar is al-Jīlī's image for the 'oneness of the common folk' (the unity of a composite seen as one), which he distinguishes from the true essential Oneness: the latter is not the sum of parts named together, but the bare Essence prior to all parts and considerations.
§6 كما أنك مثلاً في مشهدك واستغراقك في أنيّتك التي أنت بها أنت، لا تشاهد إلاَّ هو، ولا يظهر لك في شهودك منك في هذا المشهد شيءٌ من حقائقك المنسوبة إليك، على أنك مجموع تلك الحقائق.
Just as you, for example, in your witnessing and your immersion in your I-ness, by which you are you, witness nothing but Him, and there appears to you, in your witnessing of yourself in this witnessing, nothing of your realities ascribed to you -- [even] though you are the sum of those realities.
§7 فتلك هي أحديتك، على أنها اسمٌ لمجلاك الذاتي باعتبار هويتك، لا باعتبار أنك مجموع حقائق منسوبة إليك. فإنك ولو كنتَ تلك الحقائق المنسوبة، فالمجلى الذاتي الذي هو مظهر الأحدية فيك إنما هو اسمٌ لذاتك باعتبار عدم الاعتبارات.
So that is your oneness -- as it being a name for your essential disclosure-site, by the consideration of your ipseity (huwiyya), not by the consideration that you are the sum of realities ascribed to you. For even though you are those ascribed realities, [yet] the essential disclosure-site that is the locus-of-manifestation of Oneness in you is only a name for your essence, by the consideration of the absence of [all] considerations.
glossary: dhat
§8 فهي في الجناب الإلهي عبارة عن صرافة الذات المجرّدة عن جميع الأسماء والصفات، وعن جميع الأثر والمؤثرات. وكان أعلى المجالي، لأن كل مجلىً بعده لا بد أن يتخصّص، حتى الألوهية، فهي متخصّصة بالعموم.
So it [Oneness], in the divine Side, is an expression for the sheerness of the Essence, stripped of all the Names and the Attributes, and of all effect and the effecting-agents. And it is the highest of the disclosure-sites -- because every disclosure-site after it must specialize, even Divinity: for it [Divinity] is specialized by [its] generality.
glossary: dhat, asma, sifat
§9 فالأحدية أول ظهورٍ ذاتيّ. وامتنع الاتصاف بالأحدية للمخلوق، لأن الأحدية صرافة الذات المجرّدة عن الحقيّة والمخلوقية، وهو -- أعني العبد -- قد حُكم عليه بالمخلوقية، فلا سبيل إلى ذلك.
So Oneness is the first essential appearing. And being-qualified by Oneness is precluded for the creature -- because Oneness is the sheerness of the Essence, stripped of [both] Real-ness and creature-ness; and he -- I mean the servant -- has been adjudged with creatureliness; so there is no way to that.
glossary: dhat The keystone guardrail of the opening band, stated without hedging: 'being-qualified by Oneness is precluded for the creature.' Pure Oneness is stripped of creatureliness as such, so the servant -- who is, by definition, a creature -- can never be qualified by it. This is the doctrinal floor under every theopathic line in the book.
§10 وأيضاً الاتصاف افتعالٌ وتعمّل، وذلك مغايرٌ لحكم الأحدية، فلا يكون للمخلوق أبداً، فهي لله تعالى مختصّةٌ به. فإن شهدتَ نفسك في هذا التجلي، فإنما شهدتَ من حيث إلهك وربك، فلا تدّعِه بخلقيتك، فليس هذا المجال مما للمخلوق فيه نصيبٌ البتّة. فهو لله وحده، أول المجالي الذاتية.
And also: being-qualified is an act and a contriving, and that is contrary to the rule of Oneness; so it is never for the creature -- it is God's (exalted is He), particular to Him. So if you [do] witness yourself in this self-disclosure, you have witnessed [it] only from the side of your God and your Lord; so do not claim it by your creatureliness -- for this domain is not one in which the creature has any share at all. So it is God's alone, the first of the essential disclosure-sites.
glossary: tajalli The guardrail in its sharpest form, and the interpretive key to the band's theopathy: even when the gnostic 'witnesses himself' in the disclosure of Oneness, that witnessing is 'from the side of your God and your Lord' -- never a property the creature may claim 'by his creatureliness.' 'This domain is not one in which the creature has any share at all.' Every 'I am He' is read against this.
§11 فأنت بنفسك قد علمتَ أنك المرادُ بالذات، والحقُّ بالخلق. فاحكم على الخلق بالانقطاع، واشهد للحق سبحانه وتعالى بما يستحقه في ذاته من أسمائه وصفاته، ممّن شهد لله بما شهد لنفسه:
So you yourself have [now] known that you are the one intended by the Essence, and the Real [is intended] by the creation. So judge the creation with cutting-off, and witness for the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) what He deserves in His Essence, of His Names and His Attributes -- [being] of those who witnessed for God what He witnessed for Himself:
glossary: dhat, asma, sifat The proper stance that follows from the guardrail: not 'claim divinity,' but 'witness FOR the Real what He deserves.' The verb is to bear witness on God's behalf, ascribing the perfection to Him, while 'judging the creation with cutting-off' -- the precise inverse of a self-deifying claim.
§12 عَيِّني لنفسِك، نزّهتُ في ذاتها ....... وتقدّستُ في اسمها وصفاتها
[Turn] my eye toward your[own true] Self: I declared [It] transcendent in Its Essence, / and hallowed [It] in Its Name and Its Attributes.
glossary: tanzih
§13 فاشهد لها ما تستحق، ولا تقل ....... نفسي استحقّت حُسنها بثباتها
So witness for It what It deserves, and do not say: / 'My self deserved its beauty by its [own] steadfastness.'
§14 واشرب مدامك بالكؤوس، ولا تقل ....... يوماً بترك الراح في حاناتها
And drink your wine by the cups, and do not say, / one day, [that you are] for abandoning the wine in its taverns.
§15 ماذا يضرّك لو جعلتَ كناية ....... عنك اسمَها، وحفظتَ حرمةَ ذاتها
What would harm you, if you made Its name a metonym / for you -- and [yet] kept the sanctity of Its Essence?
§16 وجعلتَ مجلى الذات لاسمك مظهراً ....... والعزّ مظهرَ اسمها وسماتها
and made the disclosure-site of the Essence a locus-of-manifestation for your name, / and [made] might the locus-of-manifestation of Its name and Its marks?
glossary: dhat
§17 وأقمتَ فوق الكنز منك جدارها ....... كي لا يشاهد جاهلٌ حرماتها
and set up, over the treasure [that is] from you, Its wall, / so that no ignorant one might behold Its sanctities?
The wall-over-the-treasure recalls the Moses-Khiḍr wall (al-Kahf 18:82) and the Hidden-Treasure motif: the gnostic guards the secret of the Essence behind the 'wall' of proper reticence, lest the unworthy violate its sanctity.
§18 هذي الأمانة، كن بها نِعمَ الأمي ....... ن، ولا تدع أسرارها لوُشاتها
This is the Trust (al-amāna): be, with it, the best of trustees, / and do not abandon Its secrets to Its slanderers.
The chapter seals on the Trust (al-amāna, al-Aḥzāb 33:72) and the discipline of secrecy: the doctrine of Oneness is a trust to be guarded, not broadcast to 'its slanderers' -- the same reticence-injunction that closes Bāb 1's point (§64-65 there) and recurs across the book. The adab of Aḥadiyya is silence and witnessing-for-God, not claim.
Collation. Two-witness collated, staged 2026-06-03. Bāb 5 of the foundational opening band (al-Aḥadiyya, Oneness) -- a short but pivotal chapter. Witness-2 (ibnalarabi.com id=8) clean of navigation chrome; the trailing asterism rule and the site-search widget EXCLUDED. This is the keystone guardrail-chapter of the band: it states flatly that being-qualified by Oneness is PRECLUDED for the creature and that 'this domain is not one in which the creature has any share at all' (§9-10) -- grounding Bāb 4's reference (§10 there) to the people of God forbidding the self-disclosure of al-aḥadiyya. The chapter closes with a 7-verse qaṣīda (§12-18) counselling the soul to witness perfection FOR God rather than claim it, keep the sanctity of the Essence, and guard the Trust. A few kāf-as-alif OCR garbles restored to sense. No lossy drop of authorial prose.
Qurʾān. No verbatim Qurʾān citations in this chapter. Allusions noted: 'the Trust' (al-amāna, §18) to al-Aḥzāb 33:72; the 'treasure' guarded behind a 'wall' (§17) echoes both the Hidden-Treasure motif and the Moses-Khiḍr wall (al-Kahf 18:82), recurring from Bāb 2.