الباب الحادي عشر في التشبيه
Chapter Eleven: On Likening (al-Tashbīh)
§2 التشبيه الإلهي عبارةٌ عن صورة الجمال، لأن الجمال الإلهي له معانٍ -- وهي الأسماء والأوصاف الإلهية -- وله صورٌ -- وهي تجليات تلك المعاني فيما يقع عليه من المحسوس أو المعقول.
Divine likening (al-tashbīh al-ilāhī) is an expression for the form of [the divine] Beauty -- because the divine Beauty has meanings (and they are the divine Names and qualities) and it has forms (and they are the self-disclosures of those meanings in whatever they fall upon, of the sensible or the intelligible).
glossary: tashbih, asma, tajalli
§3 فالمحسوس كما في قوله: "رأيت ربي في صورة شابٍّ أمرد"؛ والمعقول كقوله: "أنا عند ظنّ عبدي بي، فليظنّ بي ما شاء". وهذه الصورة هي المرادة بالتشبيه. ولا شك أن الله تعالى في ظهوره بصورة جماله باقٍ على ما استحقه من تنزيه. فكما أعطيتَ الجناب الإلهي حقه من التنزيه، فكذلك أعطه من التشبيه الإلهي حقه.
So the sensible [is] as in his saying: 'I saw my Lord in the form of a beardless youth'; and the intelligible [is] as in His saying: 'I am as My servant thinks of Me, so let him think of Me what he will.' And this form is what is meant by likening. And there is no doubt that God (exalted is He), in His appearing in the form of His Beauty, remains upon what He deserves of transcendence. So, just as you gave the divine Side its due of transcendence, likewise give it its due of divine likening.
glossary: tashbih, tanzih The chapter's governing balance: likening is given 'its due' exactly as transcendence was (Bāb 10), and God 'remains upon what He deserves of transcendence' even in the form of His Beauty. The two reports stand for the two registers: 'the form of a beardless youth' (much-disputed; the sensible likening) and 'I am as My servant thinks of Me' (sound qudsī; the intelligible likening).
§4 واعلم أن التشبيه في حق الله حكمٌ بخلاف التنزيه، فإنه في حقه أمرٌ عينيٌّ. وهذا لا يشهده إلاَّ الكُمَّل من أهل الله تعالى؛ وأما من سواهم من العارفين، فإنه لا يدرك ما قلناه إلاَّ إيماناً وتقليداً لما تقتضيه صور حسنه وجماله.
And know that likening, in God's case, is a rule unlike transcendence -- for, in His case, it is a direct-vision matter (amr ʿaynī). And none witnesses this except the perfect ones among the people of God (exalted is He); as for those other than them, of the gnostics, [each] grasps what we have said only by faith and imitation, by what the forms of His comeliness and His beauty require.
glossary: tashbih, tanzih
§5 إذ كل صورةٍ من صور الموجودات هي صورة حسنه. فإن شهدتَ الصورة على الوجه التشبيهي، ولم تشهد شيئاً من التنزيه، فقد أشهدك الحق حسنه وجماله من وجهٍ واحد.
since every form of the forms of the existents is a form of His comeliness. So if you witnessed the form upon the likening-aspect, and witnessed nothing of transcendence, then the Real has shown you His comeliness and His beauty from one face [only].
glossary: tashbih, tanzih
§6 وإن أشهدك الصورة التشبيهية وتعلّق فيها التنزيه الإلهي، فقد أشهدك الحق جماله وجلاله في وجهي التشبيه والتنزيه: {فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللَّهِ} [البقرة: 115]. فنزّه إن شئت، وشبّه إن شئت، فعلى كل حالٍ أنت غارقٌ في تجلياته، ليس لك عنه منفك، إذ أنت وما عليه هويتك من حالٍ وعملٍ ومعنىً، بأجمعك، صورةٌ لجماله.
And if He showed you the likening-form, and the divine transcendence was [also] attached in it, then the Real has shown you His beauty and His majesty in the two faces of likening and transcendence: 'So wherever you turn, there is the Face of God' (2:115, al-Baqara). So declare [Him] transcendent if you wish, and liken if you wish; for in every case you are drowned in His self-disclosures -- there is no [way] for you to be disjoined from Him -- since you, and what your ipseity is upon, of state and work and meaning, [are], in your entirety, a form of His beauty.
Qurʾān 2:115: al-Baqara 2:115, the clause 'fa-aynamā tuwallū fa-thamma wajh Allāh' glossary: tanzih, tashbih, tajalli
§7 فإن بقيتَ على تشبيهك الخلقي، فأنت تشهد صورة حسنه؛ وإن فُتح لك عينُ التنزيه فيك على تشبيهك، فأنت صورة حسنه وجماله ومعناه؛ وإن ظفرتَ بما وراء التشبيه والتنزيه منك، فأنت وراء التشبيه والتنزيه، وذلك الذات.
So if you remain upon your creaturely likening, you witness the form of His comeliness; and if the eye of transcendence in you is opened upon your likening, [then] you are the form of His comeliness, His beauty, and His meaning; and if you win what is beyond likening and transcendence in you, [then] you are beyond likening and transcendence -- and that is the Essence.
glossary: tashbih, tanzih, dhat Three ascending stations of seeing: creaturely likening (you witness His comeliness as form), likening-with-the-eye-of-transcendence (you are the form of His comeliness and meaning), and beyond both (the Essence). Read with Bāb 10 §8: the 'you are' is the face of the Essence named by that name, not the creature claiming the Essence simpliciter.
§8 فاختر لنفسك في الهوى مَن تصطفي. واعلم أن للحق تشبيهين:
So choose for yourself, in love, whom you would select. And know that the Real has two likenings:
glossary: tashbih
§9 تشبيهٌ ذاتيٌّ، وهو ما عليه من صور الموجودات المحسوسات، أو ما يشبه المحسوسات في الخيال.
An essential likening (tashbīh dhātī) -- and it is what He is upon, of the forms of the sensible existents, or what resembles the sensibles in the imagination.
glossary: tashbih, khayal
§10 وتشبيهٌ وصفيٌّ، وهو ما عليه صور المعاني الأسمائية المنزَّهة عما يشبه المحسوس في الخيال. وهذه الصورة تُتعقَّل في الذهن، ولا تتكيّف في الحس.
And a qualitative likening (tashbīh waṣfī) -- and it is what is upon [it] of the forms of the name-meanings, transcendent of what resembles the sensible in the imagination. And this form is conceived in the mind, [but] is not given modality in the senses.
glossary: tashbih, asma, khayal
§11 فمتى تكيّفت التحقت بالتشبيه الذاتي، لأن التكيّف من كمال التشبيه، والكمال بالذات أولى. فبقي التشبيه الوصفي، وهذا لا يمكن التكيّف فيه بنوعٍ من الأنواع، ولا جنسٍ، بضرب المثل.
So whenever it [the qualitative form] is given modality, it joins the essential likening -- because modalization is of the perfection of likening, and perfection by the Essence is prior [/more fitting]. So the qualitative likening remains, and this cannot be given modality, by any kind of the kinds, nor [any] genus -- [it is given form only] by the striking of a likeness.
glossary: tashbih, dhat
§12 ألا ترى الحق سبحانه وتعالى كيف ضرب المثل عن نوره الذاتي بالمشكاة والمصباح والزجاجة؟ وكان الإنسان صورة هذا التشبيه الذاتي، لأن المراد بالمشكاة صدره، وبالزجاجة قلبه، وبالمصباح سرّه، وبالشجرة المباركة الإيمانُ بالغيب -- وهو ظهور الحق في صورة الخلق، والإيمان هو الإيمان بالغيب -- والمراد بالزيتونة الحقيقةُ المطلقة التي لا نقول بأنها من كل الوجوه حق، ولا بأنها من كل الوجوه خلق. وكانت الشجرة الإيمانية {لَا شَرْقِيَّةٍ} -- فتوجب التنزيه المطلق بحيث ينفي التشبيه -- {وَلَا غَرْبِيَّةٍ} -- فنقول بالتشبيه المطلق حتى ينفي التنزيه -- فهي تُعصَر بين قشر التشبيه ولبّ التنزيه. وحينئذٍ {يَكَادُ زَيْتُهَا} الذي هو يقينُها {يُضِيءُ} -- فتُرفع ظلمة الزيت بنوره -- {وَلَوْ لَمْ تَمْسَسْهُ نَارٌ} بالمعاينة التي هي نورٌ عيانيٌّ، وهو {نُورٌ} [أي] التشبيه {عَلَى نُورٍ} إيمانيٍّ، وهو نور التنزيه؛ {يَهْدِي اللَّهُ لِنُورِهِ مَن يَشَاءُ وَيَضْرِبُ اللَّهُ الْأَمْثَالَ لِلنَّاسِ وَاللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ} [النور: 35].
Do you not see the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He), how He struck a likeness for His essential light by the niche, the lamp, and the glass? And the human was the form of this essential likening -- because what is meant by the niche is his breast, and by the glass his heart, and by the lamp his secret; and by the blessed tree, faith in the unseen -- which is the appearing of the Real in the form of the creation, and [true] faith is faith in the unseen; and what is meant by the olive[-tree] is the absolute Reality, which we do not say is, from every aspect, Real, nor that it is, from every aspect, creation. And the tree of faith was 'neither of the east' -- so [it] requires absolute transcendence, such that it negates likening -- 'nor of the west' -- so we hold to absolute likening, such that it negates transcendence -- so it is pressed between the husk of likening and the kernel of transcendence. And then 'its oil' -- which is its certitude -- 'would almost give light' -- so the darkness of the oil is lifted by its light -- 'even if no fire touched it' -- by the direct-vision which is direct-vision light, and it is 'a light' [namely, of] likening 'upon a light' of faith, which is the light of transcendence -- 'God guides to His light whom He wills, and God strikes the likenesses for the people, and God is knowing of everything' (24:35, al-Nūr).
Qurʾān 24:35: al-Nūr 24:35, the Light Verse; al-Jīlī quotes its phrases in sequence (mishkāt, miṣbāḥ, zujāja, shajara mubāraka zaytūna, lā sharqiyya wa-lā gharbiyya, yakādu zaytuhā yuḍīʾ wa-law lam tamsashu nār, nūr ʿalā nūr, yahdī llāhu li-nūrihi man yashāʾ ...) -- all verbatim, interwoven with his gloss glossary: tashbih, tanzih al-Jīlī's celebrated reading of the Light Verse as the 'essential likening' written into the human: niche = breast, glass = heart, lamp = secret, blessed tree = faith in the unseen, olive = the absolute Reality (neither wholly Real nor wholly creation). 'Neither of the east' = it demands tanzīh that would negate tashbīh; 'nor of the west' = it demands tashbīh that would negate tanzīh -- so the certitude (the 'oil') is pressed between 'the husk of likening and the kernel of tanzīh,' and 'light upon light' is the light of tashbīh upon the light of tanzīh. The via media of the two preceding chapters, read out of a single verse.
§13 وكان هذا التشبيه تشبيهاً ذاتياً. وهو وإن كان ظاهراً بنوعٍ من ضرب المثل، فذلك المثل أحدُ صور حسنه، كما لو ظهر العلم في صورة اللبن في عالم المثال. فكانت المشكاة والمصباح والزجاجة والشجرة والزيت -- لا شرقية ولا غربية -- والإضاءة والنار، والنور الذي هو نورٌ على نور، جميعها بظواهر مفهومها صورٌ ذاتيةٌ لجمال ذات الله تعالى. {وَاللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ}، وهو معنى جماله، لأن العلم معنىً في العالِم بالشيء، فافهم.
And this likening was an essential likening. And though it appears by a kind of likeness-striking, that likeness is one of the forms of His comeliness -- as if knowledge appeared in the form of milk in the world of similitude. So the niche, the lamp, the glass, the tree, and the oil -- neither of the east nor of the west -- and the giving-of-light, and the fire, and the light that is 'light upon light': all of them, by the outwards of their concept, are essential forms of the beauty of the Essence of God (exalted is He). 'And God is knowing of everything' -- and it is the meaning of His beauty, because knowledge is a meaning in the knower of the thing. So understand.
glossary: dhat The 'knowledge in the form of milk' alludes to the Prophet's dream (Bukhārī): he was given milk to drink and interpreted it as knowledge -- al-Jīlī's example of an intelligible meaning taking sensible form in the 'world of similitude' (ʿālam al-mithāl), the same mechanism by which the Light Verse's images are 'essential forms of the beauty of the Essence.'
§14 والله يقول الحق، وهو أعلم.
And God speaks the truth, and He is most knowing.
Collation. Two-witness collated, staged 2026-06-03. Bāb 11 of the foundational opening band (al-Tashbīh, Likening) -- the paired complement to Bāb 10 (al-Tanzīh), which forward-referenced it. Witness-2 (ibnalarabi.com id=14) clean of navigation chrome; the trailing asterism rule and the site-search widget EXCLUDED. The chapter is built on the Light Verse (al-Nūr 24:35) read as the 'essential likening' mapped onto the human (niche = breast, glass = heart, lamp = secret), with the olive-tree 'neither of the east nor of the west' as the tanzīh/tashbīh via-media. The §12 segment preserves al-Jīlī's interwoven Qurʾān-and-commentary verbatim. A few kāf-as-alif OCR garbles restored. No lossy drop of authorial prose.
Qurʾān. Two loci verified verbatim against alquran.cloud, all tags correct: al-Baqara 2:115 'fa-aynamā tuwallū fa-thamma wajh Allāh' (§6); al-Nūr 24:35, the Light Verse, quoted in interwoven fragments through §12 (mishkāt / miṣbāḥ / zujāja / shajara mubāraka zaytūna lā sharqiyya wa-lā gharbiyya / yakādu zaytuhā yuḍīʾ wa-law lam tamsashu nār / nūr ʿalā nūr / yahdī llāhu li-nūrihi man yashāʾ wa-yaḍribu llāhu l-amthāla li-l-nās wa-llāhu bi-kulli shayʾin ʿalīm) -- all verbatim. Sayings flagged, not graded here: 'I saw my Lord in the form of a beardless youth' (§3, much-disputed; cf. Bāb 4 §15, Bāb 10 §5), the sensible instance of likening; 'I am as My servant thinks of Me, so let him think of Me what he will' (§3) -- the core 'anā ʿinda ẓanni ʿabdī bī' is sound qudsī (Bukhārī, Muslim), the 'fa-l-yaẓunna bī mā shāʾ' clause found in Aḥmad and Ibn Ḥibbān -- the intelligible instance. The 'knowledge as milk' image (§13) alludes to the Prophet's milk-and-knowledge dream (Bukhārī).