al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 13 -- The Self-Disclosure of the Names
full parallel manuscript · complete bitext
الإنسان الكامل · الباب الثالث عشر في تجلّي الأسماء
The thirteenth chapter of al-Insān al-Kāmil, rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line. This is the second of the four self-disclosure chapters, and the ascending counterpart to the act-disclosure of Bāb 12. When God discloses Himself to a servant in one of His Names, “the servant is overwhelmed under the lights of that name,” so that to call the Real by that Name is to have the servant answer. al-Jīlī maps the ascent through the Names — the Existent, the One, Allāh (at which “his mountain is crushed to dust” and the Real calls, from the Sinai of his reality, “I am God”), then the All-Merciful, the Lord, the Sovereign, on toward the Self-Subsisting — and lays out a principle that governs the whole: in disclosure to a servant, “the self-disclosure of the Real in detail is mightier than in summary,” so the more particular Name is the loftier, exactly the reverse of the order in which the Essence discloses itself to itself. He then gives a typology of disclosures by specific Names (the Pre-eternal, the Real, the One, the All-Holy, the Manifest, the Inward, Allāh, the All-Merciful), each with its experiential “path,” and two theopathic poems.
Editorial note. This chapter is more ascending and luminous than Bāb 12, and its theopathic language runs high — “I was she, and she was I”; “my essence is her essence”; “whoever remembers God has remembered him.” It is to be read in the same apophatic register the band has fixed, and the chapter fences itself: the first poem’s fifth verse is al-Jīlī’s own flat denial of substantial union — “we are not, in verification, two essences for one thing; but rather it is the very self of the lover that is the beloved” (§15) — the poetic form of “no union, no indwelling” (Bāb 3 §24), and there were never two essences to merge. The Name-disclosures, moreover, are disclosures in which the friend “witnesses nothing but the sheer Essence” (§16), so the “I am she” is the friend as the Essence’s locus, not the creature as God — and it falls under al-Jīlī’s own reading-key (Bāb 10 §8): what is said of “the face named by that name” is not said of the creature as such. The al-Quddūs disclosure, read from “I breathed into him of My spirit” (15:29) as “his spirit is His own,” is likewise a disclosure of the Holy, not a fragment of God lodged in the body. al-Jīlī also makes his governing epistemological claim here (§18): everything in the book is reported from his own unveiling and direct vision. The second poem is textually difficult in the digital witness and rendered to its evident sense, flagged accordingly. A second-reader pass is advisable.
الباب الثالث عشر في تجلّي الأسماء
Chapter Thirteen: On the Self-Disclosure of the Names (Tajallī al-Asmāʾ)
إذا تجلّى الله تعالى على عبدٍ من عبيده في اسمٍ من أسمائه، اصطلم العبدُ تحت أنوار ذلك الاسم. فمتى ناديتَ الحقَّ بذلك الاسم، أجابك العبدُ، لوقوع ذلك الاسم عليه. فأول مشهدٍ من تجليات الأسماء أن يتجلى الله لعبده في اسمه الموجود، فيُطلق هذا الاسم على العبد.
When God (exalted is He) discloses Himself to a servant of His servants in a name of His names, the servant is overwhelmed [/effaced] under the lights of that name. So whenever you call upon the Real by that name, the servant answers you -- because of the falling of that name upon him. So the first witnessing of the self-disclosures of the Names is that God discloses Himself to His servant in His name 'the Existent' (al-Mawjūd), so that this name is applied to the servant.
glossary: asma, tajalli
وأعلى منه: تجلّيه له في اسمه الواحد. وأعلى منه: تجلّيه له في اسمه الله، فيصطلم العبدُ لهذا التجلي، ويندكّ جبلُه،
And higher than it: His disclosing Himself to him in His name 'the One' (al-Wāḥid). And higher than it: His disclosing Himself to him in His name 'Allāh' -- so the servant is overwhelmed at this self-disclosure, and his mountain is crushed to dust,
'His mountain is crushed to dust' (yandakku jabaluh) draws on the Sinai theophany (al-Aʿrāf 7:143), where God's disclosure to the mountain crushed it and Moses fell senseless -- the figure for the self's annihilation under the disclosure of the Name 'Allāh.'
فيناديه الحقُّ على طور حقيقته: إنه أنا الله. هنالك يمحو الله اسمَ العبد، ويثبت له اسمَ الله تعالى.
So the Real calls to him, upon the Sinai (ṭūr) of his [own] reality: 'Truly, I am God.' There, God erases the name of the servant, and affirms for him the name of God (exalted is He).
'Truly, I am God' (innī anā Allāh) is the burning-bush theophany (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:30; cf. Ṭā Hā 20:14), spoken to Moses 'from the tree' -- here, from 'the Sinai of his reality.' The erasure of the servant's name and the affirming of the divine Name is annihilation (fanāʾ) and the abiding-by-God (baqāʾ) that follows.
فإن قلتَ: يا الله، أجابك هذا العبدُ: لبيك وسعديك.
So if you say: 'O God!', this servant answers you: 'At Your service, and at Your pleasure!'
فإن ارتقى، وقوّاه الله، وأبقاه بعد فنائه، كان الله مجيباً لمن دعا هذا العبد.
And if he ascends, and God strengthens him, and makes him abide after his annihilation, [then] God becomes the answerer of whoever calls upon this servant.
The abiding-after-annihilation (baqāʾ baʿd al-fanāʾ) and the nawāfil-reciprocity: God answers the one who calls upon the friend -- the same logic as Bāb 2 §20 and the ḥadīth al-nawāfil, and the inverse of §5 (where the friend answers the one who calls God).
فإن قلتَ مثلاً: يا محمد، أجابك الله: لبيك وسعديك. ثم إذا قوي العبدُ في الترقي، تجلى الحقُّ له في اسمه الرحمن، ثم في اسمه الربّ، ثم في اسمه الملك، ثم في اسمه العليم، ثم في اسمه القادر. وكلما تجلى الله في اسمٍ من هؤلاء الأسماء المذكورة، فإنه أعزُّ مما قبله في الترتيب.
So if you say, for example: 'O Muhammad!', God answers you: 'At Your service, and at Your pleasure!' Then, when the servant grows strong in the ascent, the Real discloses Himself to him in His name 'the All-Merciful,' then in His name 'the Lord,' then in His name 'the Sovereign,' then in His name 'the Knower,' then in His name 'the Powerful.' And whenever God discloses Himself in [any] one of these mentioned names, it is mightier than what is before it in the [descending] order.
glossary: asma, tajalli
وذلك لأن تجلي الحق في التفصيل أعزُّ من تجلّيه في الإجمال. فظهورُه لعبده في اسمه الرحمن تفصيلٌ لإجمالٍ ظهر به عليه في اسمه الله؛ وظهورُه لعبده في اسمه الربّ تفصيلٌ لإجمالٍ ظهر به عليه في اسمه الرحمن؛ وظهورُه في اسمه الملك تفصيلٌ لإجمالٍ ظهر به عليه في اسمه الربّ؛ وظهورُه في اسمه العليم والقادر تفصيلٌ لإجمالٍ ظهر به عليه في اسمه الملك.
And that is because the self-disclosure of the Real in detail is mightier than His self-disclosure in summary. So His appearing to His servant in His name 'the All-Merciful' is a detailing of a summary by which He appeared upon him in His name 'Allāh'; and His appearing to His servant in His name 'the Lord' is a detailing of a summary by which He appeared upon him in His name 'the All-Merciful'; and His appearing in His name 'the Sovereign' is a detailing of a summary by which He appeared upon him in His name 'the Lord'; and His appearing in His names 'the Knower' and 'the Powerful' is a detailing of a summary by which He appeared upon him in His name 'the Sovereign.'
glossary: asma, tajalli
وكذلك بواقي الأسماء. بخلاف تجلياته الذاتية، فإن ذاته إذا تجلّت لنفسه بحكم مرتبةٍ من هذه المراتب، كان الأعمُّ فوق الأخصّ، فيكون الرحمن فوق الربّ، وفوقهما الله، فافهم.
And likewise the rest of the names. [This is] unlike His essential self-disclosures: for when His Essence discloses itself to itself by the rule of [some] rank of these ranks, the more-general is above the more-particular -- so the All-Merciful is above the Lord, and above them both is 'Allāh.' So understand.
glossary: dhat, tajalli, asma A precise inversion: in the Name-disclosures TO a servant, the more-detailed (more-particular) Name is the mightier, because it is a fuller, more concrete manifestation; whereas in the Essence's disclosure to ITSELF, the more-general is above the more-particular (Allāh > al-Raḥmān > al-Rabb, as in Bāb 4 §8). The two orderings run opposite, depending on the direction of disclosure.
وذلك بخلاف التجليات الأسمائية المذكورة. فينتهي العبدُ في هذه التجلّيات الأسمائية إلى حقيقتها الذاتية، إلى أن تطلبه جميعُ الأسماء الإلهية طلبَ وقوعٍ، كما يطلب الاسمُ المسمّى. فحينئذٍ يُغرّد طائرُ أنسه على فننِ قدسه، قائلاً:
And that is unlike the mentioned Name-disclosures. So the servant arrives, in these Name-disclosures, at their essential reality -- until all the divine Names seek him, [with] the seeking of [their] falling [upon him], as the name seeks the named. And then the bird of his intimacy warbles upon the bough of his holiness, saying:
glossary: asma, tajalli
يُنادي المنادي باسمها فأجيبُه ....... وأُدعى فليلى عن ندائي تُجيبُ
The caller calls by her name, and I answer him; / and I am called, and [for me] Laylā answers my call.
The first poem (§11-15) voices the Name-disclosure's identity in love-lyric: the friend answers when 'Laylā' (the Beloved) is called, and the Beloved answers when he is called -- the reciprocity of §5-6 in verse. Its fifth verse fences it (§15).
وما ذاك إلا أننا روحٌ واحدٌ ....... تداولَنا جسمان وهو عجيبُ
And that is only because we are a single spirit, / [whom] two bodies have passed back and forth -- and it is a wonder.
كشخصٍ له اسمان والذاتُ واحدٌ ....... بأيٍّ تنادي الذاتَ منه تُصيبُ
Like a person who has two names, while the essence is one: / by whichever [name] you call the essence of him, you hit [the mark].
فذاتي لها ذاتٌ واسمي اسمُها ....... وحالي بها في الاتحاد غريبُ
For my essence has [in] her an essence, and my name is her name; / and my state, in her, in [this] union, is strange.
al-Jīlī uses 'union' (ittiḥād) here in the love-sense -- which the very next verse defines so as to exclude the substantialist union (two essences merging) that he condemns as Iblīsian in Bāb 59 and denies throughout.
ولسنا على التحقيق ذاتين لواحدٍ ....... ولكنه نفسُ المحبِّ حبيبُ
And we are not, in verification, two essences for one [thing]; / but rather it is the very self of the lover [that is the] beloved.
The fencing verse, and al-Jīlī's own denial of substantial union: 'we are not, in verification, two essences' -- there were never two to merge. The 'union' of §14 is the love-identity in which the lover's very self is found to be the Beloved (the mirror of Bāb 3 §24), not a fusion of two substances. This is the poetic form of 'no ittiḥād, no ḥulūl.'
والعجبُ في التجليات الأسمائية أن المتجلَّى له لا يشهد إلاَّ الذاتَ الصرفَ، ولا يشهد الاسم. لكن المميِّز يعلم سلطانه من الأسماء التي هو بها مع الله تعالى، لأنه استدلّ على الذات بذلك الاسم. فعلم مثلاً منه أنه الله، أو أنه الرحمن، أو أنه العليم، أو أمثال ذلك. فذلك الاسم هو الحكمُ على وقته، وهو مشهدُه من الذات.
And the wonder, in the Name-disclosures, is that the one to whom [the disclosure comes] witnesses nothing but the sheer Essence, and does not witness the name [itself]. But the discerning one knows his [own present] state from the names by which he is with God (exalted is He) -- because he inferred the Essence by that name. So he knows from it, for example, that it is 'Allāh,' or that it is 'the All-Merciful,' or that it is 'the Knower,' or the like of that. So that name is the rule over his [present] moment (waqt), and it is his witnessing-site of the Essence.
glossary: dhat, asma
والناس في تجليات الأسماء على أنواع. وسنذكر طرفاً منها، إذ لا سبيل إلى إحصاء جميع الأسماء. ثم كلُّ اسمٍ يتجلى به الحق، فإن الناس فيه مختلفون، وطرقُ وصولهم إليه مختلفة.
And the people, in the self-disclosures of the Names, are of [several] types. And we will mention a portion of them, since there is no way to enumerate all the Names. Then, [for] every name by which the Real discloses Himself, the people in it differ, and the paths of their reaching it differ.
glossary: asma, tajalli
ولا أذكر من جملة طرق كل اسمٍ إلاَّ ما وقع لي في خاصة سلوكي في الله. بل جميع ما أذكره في كتابي -- بطريق الحكاية عن غيري كان أو عني -- فإني لا أذكره إلاَّ على حسب ما فتح الله به عليَّ في زمان سيري في الله وذهابي فيه، بطريق الكشف والمعاينة.
And I mention, of the sum of the paths of each name, only what occurred to me in the particular [course] of my [own] wayfaring in God. Indeed, all that I mention in my book -- whether by way of relating [it] from another or from myself -- I mention only according to what God opened to me, in the time of my journeying in God and my going-onward in Him, by way of unveiling and direct vision.
glossary: kashf al-Jīlī's epistemological self-statement: the whole book rests on his own kashf and direct vision (muʿāyana), not on transmitted lore -- a useful datum for the work's character and its authorship.
فلنرجع إلى ما أنا بصدده، من ذكر الناس في تجليات الأسماء، وهم على أنواع:
So let us return to what I am engaged in, of mentioning the people in the self-disclosures of the Names; and they are of [several] types:
glossary: asma, tajalli
فمنهم من تجلى الحقُّ عليه من حيث اسمه القديم. وكان طريقه إلى هذا التجلي أن كشف له الحقُّ عن كونه موجوداً في علمه قبل أن يخلق الخلق. إذ كان موجوداً في علمه بوجود علمه، وعلمُه موجودٌ بوجوده سبحانه، فهو قديم؛ والعلمُ قديم، والمعلومُ لاحقٌ بالعلم، فهو قديم.
Of them is one upon whom the Real disclosed Himself from the standpoint of His name 'the Pre-eternal' (al-Qadīm). And his path to this self-disclosure was that the Real unveiled to him his [own] being existent in His [God's] knowledge, before He created the creation. Since he was existent in His knowledge by the existence of His knowledge, and His knowledge is existent by His [own] existence (glory be to Him) -- so it [the known] is pre-eternal; and the knowledge is pre-eternal, and the known is annexed to the knowledge, so it is pre-eternal.
glossary: kashf
لأن العلم لا يكون علماً إلاَّ إذا كان له معلوم. فالمعلومُ هو الذي أعطى العالِمَ اسمَ العالمية. فلزم من هذا الاعتبار قِدَمُ الموجودات في العلم الإلهي.
because knowledge is not knowledge except when it has a known. So the known is what gave the knower the name of 'knower-hood.' So there follows, from this consideration, the pre-eternity of the existents in the divine knowledge.
The pre-eternity of the existents 'in the divine knowledge' is the doctrine of the fixed entities (al-aʿyān al-thābita): the things are eternally known to God, and their being-known is what makes Him 'Knower.' This is a knowledge-pre-eternity, not an existence-pre-eternity -- the things are originated in being, eternal only as objects of God's knowing.
فمرجعُ هذا العبد إلى الحق سبحانه وتعالى من حيث اسمه القديم. فعندما تجلى له من ذاته القِدَمُ الإلهي، اضمحلّ حدثُه، فبقي قديماً بالله تعالى، فانياً عن حدثه.
So the reference of this servant is to the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) from the standpoint of His name 'the Pre-eternal.' So when the divine pre-eternity disclosed itself to him from His Essence, his origination dwindled away, and he abided [as] pre-eternal by God (exalted is He), annihilated from his [own] origination.
glossary: dhat, tajalli
ومنهم من تجلى له من حيث اسمه الحق. وكان طريقه إلى هذا التجلي بأن كشف له سبحانه وتعالى عن سرّ حقيقته، المشار إليها بقوله: {وَمَا خَلَقْنَا السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ إِلاَّ بِالْحَقِّ} [الحجر: 85].
And of them is one to whom He disclosed Himself from the standpoint of His name 'the Real' (al-Ḥaqq). And his path to this self-disclosure was that He (glory be to Him, exalted is He) unveiled to him the secret of his [own] reality, pointed to by His saying: 'And We created not the heavens and the earth save by the Real' (15:85, al-Ḥijr).
Qurʾān 15:85: al-Ḥijr 15:85; al-Jīlī abbreviates the verse, dropping 'wa-mā baynahumā' (and what is between them)
فعندما تجلّت به ذاته من حيث اسمه الحق، فنى منه الخلقُ، وبقي مقدَّسَ الذات، منزَّهَ الصفات.
So when His Essence disclosed itself by him [/to him] from the standpoint of His name 'the Real,' the creation was annihilated from him, and he abided [as] hallowed of essence, transcendent of attributes.
glossary: dhat, sifat
ومنهم من تجلّى له الحقُّ سبحانه وتعالى من حيث اسمه الواحد. وكان طريقه إلى هذا التجلي بأن كشف الحقُّ له عن مَحْتِد العالم وبروزه من ذاته سبحانه وتعالى، كبروز الموج من البحر. فشهد ظهورَه سبحانه وتعالى في تعدّد المخلوقات بحكم واحديته. فعند ذلك اندكّ جبلُه، وصُعق كليمُه، فذهبت كثرتُه في وحدة الواحد سبحانه وتعالى، وكانت المخلوقاتُ كأن لم تكن، وبقي الحقُّ كأن لم يزل.
And of them is one to whom the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) disclosed Himself from the standpoint of His name 'the One' (al-Wāḥid). And his path to this self-disclosure was that the Real unveiled to him the origin [/root-stock] of the world, and its emergence from His Essence (glory be to Him, exalted is He) -- like the emergence of the waves from the sea. So he witnessed His appearing (glory be to Him, exalted is He) in the multiplicity of the creatures, by the rule of His unicity. And at that, his mountain was crushed to dust, and his [inner] Moses was struck senseless; and his multiplicity went away in the unity of the One (glory be to Him, exalted is He), and the creatures were as though they had never been, and the Real abided as though He had never ceased.
glossary: dhat, kashf, wahidiyya The waves-from-the-sea image of the world's emergence from the Essence is al-Jīlī's recurring figure for waḥdat al-wujūd (the wine of Bāb 2, the snow/water of Bāb 7); the 'inner Moses struck senseless' again invokes the Sinai theophany (7:143).
ومنهم من تجلّى له الحقُّ سبحانه وتعالى من حيث اسمه القدوس. وكان طريقه بأن كشف له عن سرّ {وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِي} [الحجر: 29]. فأعلمه أن روحه نفسه لا غيره، وروحُ الله مقدَّسةٌ منزَّهة. فعند ذلك تجلى له الحقُّ في اسمه القدوس، ففني من هذا العبد نقائضُ الأكوان، وبقي بالله تعالى منزَّهاً عن وصف الحدثان.
And of them is one to whom the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) disclosed Himself from the standpoint of His name 'the All-Holy' (al-Quddūs). And his path was that He unveiled to him the secret of 'And I breathed into him of My spirit' (15:29, al-Ḥijr). So He made known to him that his spirit is His [own] self, not another, and the spirit of God is hallowed [and] transcendent. So at that the Real disclosed Himself to him in His name 'the All-Holy,' and the deficiencies of the beings were annihilated from this servant, and he abided by God (exalted is He), transcendent of the description of origination.
Qurʾān 15:29: al-Ḥijr 15:29, the clause 'wa-nafakhtu fīhi min rūḥī' (the breathing of the spirit into Adam) glossary: kashf al-Jīlī reads 'of My spirit' (min rūḥī) as the human spirit being God's own breathed-spirit, 'hallowed and transcendent' -- the basis for the al-Quddūs disclosure. Read with Bāb 10 §8's reading-key (the named face of the Essence) and the standing 'without indwelling' frame: the breathed-spirit is a disclosure of the Holy, not a piece of God lodged in the body.
ومنهم من تجلى له سبحانه وتعالى من حيث اسمه الظاهر. فكشف له عن سرّ ظهور النور الإلهي في كثائف المحدثات، ليكون طريقاً له إلى معرفة أن الله هو الظاهر. فعند ذلك تجلى له بأنه الظاهر، فبطن العبدُ ببطون فناء الخلق في ظهور وجود الحق.
And of them is one to whom He (glory be to Him, exalted is He) disclosed Himself from the standpoint of His name 'the Manifest' (al-Ẓāhir). So He unveiled to him the secret of the appearing of the divine light in the densities of the originated [things], that it might be a path for him to the knowledge that God is the Manifest. So at that He disclosed Himself to him [as] the Manifest, and the servant went inward, by the inwardness of the annihilation of the creation in the appearing of the existence of the Real.
glossary: kashf
ومنهم من تجلى له الحقُّ سبحانه وتعالى من حيث اسمه الباطن. وكان طريقه بأن كشف له عن قيام الأشياء بالله، ليعلم أنه باطنُها. فعند أن تجلى له ذاته من حيث اسمه الباطن، طُمس ظهورُه بنور الحق، وكان الحقُّ له باطناً، وكان هو للحق ظاهراً.
And of them is one to whom the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) disclosed Himself from the standpoint of His name 'the Inward' (al-Bāṭin). And his path was that He unveiled to him the subsistence of things by God, that he might know that He is their Inward. So when His Essence disclosed itself to him from the standpoint of His name 'the Inward,' his [own] appearing was effaced by the light of the Real, and the Real was [his] Inward, and he was the Outward for the Real.
glossary: kashf, dhat The al-Ẓāhir and al-Bāṭin disclosures form a pair (§27-28): in the first, the servant goes inward as the creation is annihilated in the Real's appearing; in the second, his appearing is effaced and the Real becomes his inward while he becomes the Real's outward -- the human as the manifest 'face' of the hidden Real.
ومنهم من تجلّى له الحقُّ سبحانه وتعالى من حيث اسمه الله. فالطريق إلى هذا التجلي غير منحصر، بل إلى تجلي كل اسمٍ من أسماء الله تعالى، كما سبق، بأنها لا تنضبط، لاختلاف المظاهر باختلاف القوابل. فإذا تجلى الحقُّ لعبده من حيث اسمه الله، فني العبدُ عن نفسه، وكان الله عوضاً عنه له فيه. فخلص هيكلُه من رقّ الحدثان، وفُكّ قيدُه من قيد الأكوان. فهو أحديُّ الذات، أحديُّ الصفات، لا يعرف الآباءَ والأمهات. فمن ذكر الله فقد ذكره، ومن نظر الله فقد نظره. وحينئذٍ أنشد لسانُ حاله، بغريبٍ عجيبٍ مقالُه:
And of them is one to whom the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) disclosed Himself from the standpoint of His name 'Allāh.' And the path to this self-disclosure is not confined -- rather, [it is] toward the self-disclosure of every one of the names of God (exalted is He), as has preceded -- [in] that they are not [exhaustively] bounded, on account of the difference of the loci-of-manifestation by the difference of the receptacles. So when the Real discloses Himself to His servant from the standpoint of His name 'Allāh,' the servant is annihilated from himself, and God becomes a substitute for him, [belonging] to him, in him. So his frame is freed from the bondage of origination, and his fetter is unbound from the fetter of the beings. So he is one-of-essence (aḥadī al-dhāt), one-of-attributes (aḥadī al-ṣifāt), [and] knows not the fathers and the mothers. So whoever remembers God has [thereby] remembered him, and whoever looks upon God has [thereby] looked upon him. And then the tongue of his [spiritual] state recited -- its saying strange [and] wondrous:
glossary: asma, tajalli, dhat, sifat The disclosure of the Name 'Allāh' is the summit of this chapter (the all-gathering Name, Bāb 2): the servant annihilated and 'God a substitute for him, in him.' The strong formula 'whoever remembers God has remembered him' is read by the chapter's own grammar -- a Name-disclosure in which the friend witnesses 'nothing but the sheer Essence' (§16) -- and by Bāb 10 §8 (the named face) and §15 ('not two essences'); it is the friend as God's locus, not the creature as God.
خبّأتني فكنتُ فيَّ عنّي نيابةً ....... أَجَلَّ عِوَضاً بلى عينُ ما أنا واقعُ
You concealed me, so I became, within myself, a deputy in place of myself; / [too] glorious [to be merely] a substitute -- nay, [I am] the very reality of what I am, as occurring.
The second poem (§30-37) is textually difficult in the digital witness (several words uncertain); rendered to its evident sense -- the self/God substitution announced in the prose of §29 ('God a substitute for him, in him'). It is read, as the whole chapter is, in the apophatic register fenced by §15 ('we are not, in verification, two essences').
فكنتُ أنا هي وهي كنتُ أنا وما ....... لها في وجودٍ مفردٍ من ينازعُ
So I was she, and she was I; and there is not, / for her, in a single existence, any contender.
بقيتُ بها فيها ولا تاء بيننا ....... وحالي بها ماضٍ كذا ومضارعُ
I abided by her, in her, with no [letter] 'tāʾ' between us; / and my state, in her, is [now] past and likewise present.
A grammatical pun: the 'tāʾ' is the consonant of the second-person pronoun (anta / anti, 'you'), whose removal collapses the 'you'-and-'I' into one address -- the same effacement of the address that Bāb 4 §11-12 located at the relational rank of Unicity.
ولكن رفعتُ النفسَ فارتفع الحِجا ....... ونبّهتُ من نومي فما أنا ضاجعُ
But I raised up [/removed] the [lower] self, so the [veiling] intellect was lifted; / and I was roused from my sleep, so I am not [now] lying down.
وشاهدتُني حقاً بعين حقيقتي ....... فلي في جبين الحُسنِ تلك الطلائعُ
And I witnessed myself, truly, by the eye of my [own] reality; / so mine, upon the brow of beauty, are those first-gleams.
جلوتُ جمالي فاجتليتُ مرائياً ....... ليُطبَع فيها للكمالِ مطابعُ
I polished my beauty, so I beheld [it in] mirrors, / that there might be imprinted in them, for perfection, [its] imprints.
The mirror-polishing image: the one Beauty disclosing itself in the many mirrors of the creatures, each receiving the imprint of perfection -- the same cosmology as the facing-mirrors of Bāb 2 §19 and Bāb 4 §64.
فأوصافُها وصفي وذاتي ذاتُها ....... وأخلاقُها لي في الجمالِ مطالعُ
So her qualities are my quality, and my essence is her essence; / and her traits are, for me, in beauty, [risen] horizons.
واسمي حقاً اسمُها واسمُ ذاتها ....... لي اسمٌ، ولي تلك النعوتُ توابعُ
And my name, truly, is her name; and the name of her essence / is, for me, a name; and those attributes are, for me, followers.
ومنهم من تجلّى له الحقُّ سبحانه وتعالى من حيث اسمه الرحمن. وذلك أنه لما تجلى له الحقُّ سبحانه وتعالى من حيث اسمه الله، دلّه بذاته على مرتبة العلية الكبرى، الشاملة لأوصاف المجد السارية في جميع الموجودات.
And of them is one to whom the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) disclosed Himself from the standpoint of His name 'the All-Merciful.' And that is because, when the Real (glory be to Him, exalted is He) disclosed Himself to him from the standpoint of His name 'Allāh,' He pointed him, by His Essence, to the great lofty rank, which comprehends the qualities of glory flowing in all the existents.
glossary: asma, dhat
وكان ذلك طريقاً له إلى الوصول لذي التجلّي الذاتي من حيث اسمه الرحمن. وشأنُ العبد في هذا التجلي أن تنزل عليه الأسماء الإلهية اسماً اسماً، فلا يزال يقبل منها على قدر ما أودع الله في هذا العبد من نور ذاته، إلى أن ينزل عليه اسم الربّ.
And that was a path for him to the arrival at the essential self-disclosure from the standpoint of His name 'the All-Merciful.' And the [characteristic] affair of the servant in this self-disclosure is that the divine Names descend upon him, name by name; and he does not cease to receive of them, according to the measure of what God deposited in this servant of the light of His Essence, until the name 'the Lord' descends upon him.
glossary: asma, tajalli, dhat
فإذا قبله وتجلى له الحقُّ فيه، تنزّلت عليه الأسماءُ النفسية المشتركة التي هي تحت هيمنة الربّ، كالعليم والقدير وأمثالهما، حتى ينزل عليه اسم الملك.
So when he receives it [the name 'the Lord'], and the Real discloses Himself to him in it, the self-related, shared Names that are under the dominion of 'the Lord' descend upon him -- like the Knower (al-ʿAlīm) and the Powerful (al-Qadīr) and their like -- until the name 'the Sovereign' descends upon him.
glossary: asma, tajalli
فإذا قبله وتجلى له الحقُّ في ذاته، تنزّلت عليه بواقي الأسماء بكمالها، اسماً فاسماً، إلى أن ينتهي إلى اسمه القيوم. فإذا قوّاه الله وتجلى له الحقُّ في اسمه القيوم، انتقل من تجليات الأسماء إلى تجليات الصفات.
So when he receives it [the name 'the Sovereign'], and the Real discloses Himself to him in his [own] essence, the rest of the Names descend upon him, in their completeness, name by name, until he reaches His name 'the Self-Subsisting' (al-Qayyūm). So when God strengthens him, and the Real discloses Himself to him in His name 'the Self-Subsisting,' he passes from the self-disclosures of the Names to the self-disclosures of the Attributes.
glossary: asma, sifat, tajalli The chapter's closing transition: the name al-Qayyūm (the Self-Subsisting) is the threshold from the Name-disclosures to the Attribute-disclosures of the next chapter (Bāb 14). The four-disclosure ascent (acts, names, attributes, Essence) climbs one rung.
Collation. Two-witness collated, staged 2026-06-03. Bāb 13 of the foundational opening band (Tajallī al-Asmāʾ, the Self-Disclosure of the Names) -- the second of the four self-disclosure chapters, the ascending counterpart to Bāb 12 (acts). Witness-2 (ibnalarabi.com id=16) clean of navigation chrome; the trailing asterism rule and the site-search widget EXCLUDED. Maps the soul's ascent through the Names (al-Mawjūd > al-Wāḥid > Allāh > al-Raḥmān > al-Rabb > al-Malik > al-Qayyūm, the threshold to the Attribute-disclosures), with a typology of disclosures by specific Names (al-Qadīm, al-Ḥaqq, al-Wāḥid, al-Quddūs, al-Ẓāhir, al-Bāṭin, Allāh, al-Raḥmān). Two theopathic poems (§11-15, 5 verses; §30-37, 8 verses). Carries al-Jīlī's autobiographical note (§18) that all his paths are reported from his own kashf and direct vision. A few kāf-as-alif OCR garbles restored. No lossy drop of authorial prose.
Qurʾān. Two loci verified verbatim against alquran.cloud, tags correct: al-Ḥijr 15:85 'wa-mā khalaqnā al-samāwāt wa-l-arḍ... illā bi-l-ḥaqq' (§23; al-Jīlī abbreviates, dropping 'wa-mā baynahumā'); al-Ḥijr 15:29 'wa-nafakhtu fīhi min rūḥī' (§26). Allusions noted: the mountain crushed to dust at the Sinai theophany (al-Aʿrāf 7:143, §3-4); the burning-bush 'innī anā Allāh' (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:30 / Ṭā Hā 20:14, §4). The talbiya formula 'labbayka wa-saʿdayk' (§5, §7) is the pilgrim's response, here turned to the divine call. The two poems (§11-15, §30-37) are al-Jīlī's own; the fifth verse 'we are not two essences' (§15) is his explicit denial of substantial union.