الباب السادس في الواحدية
Chapter Six: On Unicity (al-Wāḥidiyya)
§2 الواحديةُ مظهرٌ للذاتِ ....... تبدو مجمَّعةً لِفَرْقِ صفاتي
Unicity is a locus-of-manifestation for the Essence; / it appears [as] a gathering for the dispersal of My attributes.
§3 الكلُّ فيها واحدٌ متكثّرٌ ....... فاعجبْ لكثرةِ واحدٍ بالذاتِ
The All, in it, is one [yet] made-many; / so wonder at the multiplicity of one that is single in [its] Essence.
§4 هذاك فيها عينُ ذا، وكمثلِ ....... ما تياك في حكمِ الحقيقةِ آتي
That, in it, is the very [reality of] this; and like[wise] / are those, in the ruling of reality, coming [to be as one].
§5 فهي العبارةُ عن حقيقةِ كثرةٍ ....... في وحدةٍ من غير ما أشتاتِ
So it is the expression for the reality of a multiplicity / in a unity, without [any] scatterings.
§6 كلٌّ بها في حكمِ كلِّ واحدٍ ....... فالنفيُ في ذا الوجهِ كالإثباتِ
Each, by it, is in the ruling of every [other] one; / so negation, in this aspect, is as affirmation.
§7 فُرقانُ ذاتِ اللهِ صورةُ جمعِه ....... وتعدُّدُ الأوصافِ كالآياتِ
The Furqān [Criterion] of the Essence of God is the form of its gathering, / and the multiplicity of the attributes is as the [Qurʾanic] verses.
§8 فاتلُوه واقرأْ منك سرَّ كتابِه ....... أنت المبينُ وفيك مكنوناتي
So recite it, and read, from yourself, the secret of His book; / you are the Clear [Exposition], and in you are My hidden things.
The human as the locus where the divine 'hidden things' are read -- the mirror/maẓhar of Bāb 5 §3, not a claim of sharing in Oneness, which Bāb 5 §9-10 precluded. The whole qaṣīda speaks at the rank of Unicity (the relational level), exactly where Bāb 4 §12 placed such address.
§9 واعلم أن الواحدية عبارة عن مجلى ظهورٍ، الذات فيها صفةٌ، والصفة فيها ذاتٌ، فبهذا الاعتبار ظهر كلٌّ من الأوصاف عينَ الآخر، فالمنتقم فيها عين الله، والله عين المنتقم، والمنتقم عين المنعم.
And know that Unicity (al-wāḥidiyya) is an expression for a disclosure-site of appearing, [in which] the Essence is [an] attribute, and the attribute is [the] Essence. So by this consideration, each of the attributes appears [as] the very [reality of] the other: so the Avenger (al-Muntaqim), in it, is the very [reality of] 'Allāh,' and 'Allāh' is the very [reality of] the Avenger, and the Avenger is the very [reality of] the Bestower (al-Munʿim).
glossary: dhat, sifat
§10 وكذلك ظهرت الواحدية في النعمة نفسها والنقمة عينها، فكانت النعمة التي هي عبارة عن الرحمة عينَ النقمة التي هي عبارة عن العذاب، والنقمة التي هي العذاب عبارة عن النعمة التي هي عين الرحمة. كل هذا باعتبار ظهور الذات في الصفات وفي آثارها، وفي كل شيء مما ظهر فيه الذات بحكم الواحدية، هو عين الآخر.
And likewise Unicity appeared in the blessing itself and the affliction itself: so the blessing -- which is an expression for mercy -- was the very [reality of] the affliction, which is an expression for torment; and the affliction, which is the torment, is an expression for the blessing, which is the very [reality of] mercy. All of this [is] by the consideration of the appearing of the Essence in the attributes and in their traces; and in everything in which the Essence appears by the rule of Unicity, it is the very [reality of] the other.
glossary: dhat, sifat The identity of opposites (mercy and torment, Bestower and Avenger) holds at the unific level of consideration only -- bounded immediately by §11: it is the unific self-disclosure, NOT the level at which each gets its due. al-Jīlī is careful that this is a statement about how the one Essence underlies both, not a collapse of the moral difference between mercy and punishment.
§11 ولكن باعتبار التجلي الواحدي، لا باعتبار إعطاء كل ذي حقٍّ حقه، وذلك هو التجلي الذاتي.
But [this is] by the consideration of the unific self-disclosure, not by the consideration of the giving to each possessor-of-a-right his right -- and that [latter] is the essential self-disclosure.
glossary: tajalli The decisive qualifier on §9-10: the identity of opposites is true only 'by the consideration of the unific self-disclosure.' At the level where each thing is given its due (Divinity, §13-14), the Bestower and the Avenger, mercy and torment, are genuinely distinct. The unity is of underlying Essence, not of moral or ontological rank.
§12 واعلم أن الفرق بين الأحدية والواحدية والألوهية: أن الأحدية لا يظهر فيها شيءٌ من الأسماء والصفات، وذلك عبارة عن محض الذات الصرف في شأنها الذاتي.
And know that the difference between Oneness (al-aḥadiyya), Unicity (al-wāḥidiyya), and Divinity (al-ulūhiyya) is: that [in] Oneness nothing of the Names and the Attributes appears -- and that is an expression for the pure, sheer Essence, in its essential affair.
glossary: dhat, asma, sifat
§13 والواحدية تظهر فيها الأسماء والصفات مع مؤثراتها، لكن بحكم الذات لا بحكم افتراقها، فكل منها فيه عين الآخر. والألوهية تظهر فيها الأسماء والصفات بحكم ما يستحقه كل واحدٍ من الجميع.
And Unicity -- the Names and the Attributes appear in it, together with their effects, but by the rule of the Essence, not by the rule of their separation; so each of them, in it, is the very [reality of] the other. And Divinity -- the Names and the Attributes appear in it by the rule of what each one of [them] all deserves.
glossary: asma, sifat, dhat The three-rank schema in one sentence: Oneness = no Names appear (sheer Essence); Unicity = Names appear but undifferentiated, 'each the very reality of the other'; Divinity = Names appear differentiated, 'by what each deserves.' This is the structural key to the whole opening band.
§14 ويظهر فيها أن المنعم ضدّ المنتقم، والمنتقم فيها ضدّ المنعم، وكذلك باقي الأسماء والصفات، حتى الأحدية فإنها تظهر في الألوهية بما يقتضيه حكم الأحدية وبما يقتضيه حكم الواحدية. فتشمل الألوهية بمجلاها أحكامَ جميع المجالي، فهي مجلى إعطاء كل ذي حقٍّ حقه، والأحدية مجلى "كان الله ولا شيء معه".
And there appears in it [Divinity] that the Bestower is the opposite of the Avenger, and the Avenger, in it, is the opposite of the Bestower; and likewise the rest of the Names and the Attributes -- even Oneness, for it appears in Divinity by what the rule of Oneness requires and by what the rule of Unicity requires. So Divinity, by its disclosure-site, comprehends the rulings of all the disclosure-sites: so it is the disclosure-site of the giving to each possessor-of-a-right his right; and Oneness is the disclosure-site of 'God was, and nothing was with Him.'
glossary: asma, sifat The digital witness garbles the middle of this line (a phrase around the kāna-Allāh hadith is dropped/transposed); reconstructed to sense from the parallel structure. 'God was, and nothing was with Him' is sound (Bukhārī).
§15 والواحدية مجلى قوله: "وهو الآن على ما عليه كان".
And Unicity is the disclosure-site of his saying: 'And He is now as He [ever] was.'
'And He is now as He [ever] was' (wa-huwa l-ʾāna ʿalā mā ʿalayhi kān) is a famous addendum that Sufi authors (al-Junayd among them) append to the sound 'God was, and nothing was with Him' -- it is NOT found in the canonical collections and is generally regarded as an interpretive accretion, not a sound transmission. al-Jīlī reads it as naming the unific disclosure: the eternal 'was' holding in the 'now.' Recorded, not graded.
§16 قال الله تعالى: {كُلُّ شَيْءٍ هَالِكٌ إِلَّا وَجْهَهُ} [القصص: 88]. فلهذا كانت الأحدية أعلى من الواحدية،
God (exalted is He) said: 'Everything is perishing except His Face' (28:88, al-Qaṣaṣ). And for this, Oneness was higher than Unicity --
Qurʾān 28:88: al-Qaṣaṣ 28:88, the clause 'kullu shayʾin hālikun illā wajhah'; text verified in Bāb 3
§17 لأنها ذاتٌ محض. وكانت الألوهية أعلى من الأحدية، لأنها أعطت الأحدية حقها، إذ حكم الألوهية إعطاء كل ذي حقٍّ حقه. فكانت أعلى الأسماء وأجمعها، وأعزّها وأرفعها، وفضلها على الأحدية كفضل الكل على الجزء.
because it [Oneness] is pure Essence. And Divinity was higher than Oneness, because it gave Oneness its due -- since the rule of Divinity is the giving to each possessor-of-a-right his right. So it [Divinity] was the highest of the names and the most comprehensive of them, the mightiest and the most exalted; and its excellence over Oneness is as the excellence of the whole over the part.
glossary: asma
§18 وفضل الأحدية على باقي المجالي الذاتية، كفضل الأصل على الفرع.
And the excellence of Oneness over the rest of the essential disclosure-sites is as the excellence of the root over the branch.
§19 وفضل الواحدية على باقي التجليات، كفضل الجمع على الفرق.
And the excellence of Unicity over the rest of the self-disclosures is as the excellence of the gathering (al-jamʿ) over the dispersal (al-farq).
glossary: tajalli
§20 فانظر أين هذه المعاني منك، وتأمّلها فيك.
So look at where these meanings are in you, and ponder them within you.
§21 اجنِ الثمارَ فإنما ....... غُرست لكي تجنيها
Harvest the fruits, for they were / planted only that you might harvest them.
§22 ودعِ التعلّلَ بالشواهدِ ....... فهي لا تهديها
And leave off occupying yourself with the [external] proofs, / for they do not guide [her].
§23 واشربْ من الثغرِ المدامَ ....... فخمرُها فيها
And drink the wine from the [beloved's] mouth, / for her wine is [there] within her.
§24 وأدِرْ كؤوسَك راشداً ....... رغمَ الذي يطويها
And pass round your cups, rightly-guided, / despite the one who would fold them away.
§25 أبدتْ محاسنَها سعادُ ....... فلا تكن مخفيها
Suʿād [the beloved] revealed her beauties; / so be not the one who hides them.
§26 ودعْ اغترارَك بالسِّوى ....... ليس السِّوى يدريها
And leave your being-deceived by the other-than [Her]; / the other-than does not know [Her].
§27 وكُلِ اللُّبابةَ، وارمِ ....... بالقشرِ الذي يُبديها
And eat the kernel, and cast away / the husk that [merely] makes her appear.
§28 واحذرْ من الواشي الثقيلِ ....... فأنت من واشيها
And beware the heavy slanderer -- / for you [yourself] are [one] of her slanderers.
The closing self-implication seals the chapter on the same adab as Bāb 5 §18: the chief obstacle to the secret of Unicity is one's own tongue and self-regard -- 'you are [one] of her slanderers.' Guard the kernel, discard the husk, and beware the slanderer who is, in part, oneself.
Collation. Two-witness collated, staged 2026-06-03. Bāb 6 of the foundational opening band (al-Wāḥidiyya, Unicity) -- the complement to Bāb 5 (al-Aḥadiyya) and the chapter Bāb 4 (§13 there) explicitly promised. Witness-2 (ibnalarabi.com id=9) clean of navigation chrome; the trailing asterism rule and the site-search widget EXCLUDED. The chapter opens and closes with a qaṣīda (7 and 8 verses). Unicity is the relational disclosure-rank in which the Names and Attributes appear but 'each is the very reality of the other' -- precisely the level at which Bāb 4 (§12 there) located all 'you are He' identity-language. Witness §14 is garbled (a dropped/transposed phrase around the kāna-Allāh hadith); reconstructed to sense and noted. A few kāf-as-alif OCR garbles restored. No lossy drop of authorial prose.
Qurʾān. One Qurʾān locus, tag correct (text verified in Bāb 3): al-Qaṣaṣ 28:88 'kullu shayʾin hālikun illā wajhah' (§16). Sayings flagged, not graded here: 'God was, and nothing was with Him' (kāna Allāhu wa-lā shayʾa maʿah, §14, sound, Bukhārī); its addendum 'and He is now as He [ever] was' (wa-huwa l-ʾāna ʿalā mā ʿalayhi kān, §15) -- a famous Sufi accretion (cited by al-Junayd and others) NOT found in the sound collections, recorded in al-Jīlī's voice as the marker of the unific disclosure. The Furqān/āyāt imagery of the opening qaṣīda (§7) is metaphorical, not a scriptural citation.