الباب الثاني والعشرون في البصر
Chapter Twenty-Two: On Sight
§1 وفيه قال:
And in it he said:
§2 بصرُ الإلهِ محلُّ ما هو عالمٌ ... ويرى سواءً نفسَه والعالمُ
The Sight of the God is the locus of what He knows; and He sees, alike, His own Self and the world.
§3 فجميعُ معلومٍ له عينٌ له ... وعيانُه لجميع ذلك دائمُ
So every object-of-knowledge has, for Him, an entity belonging to Him; and His beholding of all of that is perpetual.
§4 فالعلمُ عينٌ باعتبار بروزِه ... عند الشهودِ وذاك أمرٌ لازمُ
So knowledge is sight in respect of its emergence at the witnessing, and that is a necessary matter.
§5 فيشاهدُ المعلومَ منه لذاتِه ... وشهودُه هو علمُه المتعاظمُ
So He witnesses the known, from Himself, by His Essence; and His witnessing is His knowledge, magnified.
§6 وهما له وصفانِ هذا غيرُ ذا ... إذ ما البصيرُ بواحدٍ والعالمُ
And they are two attributes for Him, this other than that, since the Seeing is not one with the Knowing.
§7 اعلم، وفَّقنا الله وإياك، أن بصر الحق سبحانه وتعالى عبارة عن ذاته باعتبار شهوده للمعلومات، فعلمه سبحانه وتعالى عبارة عن ذاته باعتبار مبدأ علمه، لأنه بذاته يعلم وبذاته يبصر، ولا تعدد في ذاته، فمحلُّ علمه محلُّ عينه فهما صفتان.
Know, may God grant success to us and to you, that the Sight of the Real, glory be to Him and Most High, is an expression for His Essence in respect of His witnessing of the objects-of-knowledge; and His knowledge, glory be to Him and Most High, is an expression for His Essence in respect of the origin of His knowledge; for by His Essence He knows, and by His Essence He sees, and there is no multiplicity in His Essence. So the locus of His knowledge is the locus of His sight: thus they are two attributes.
glossary: dhat, ilm
§8 وإن كنا على الحقيقة شيئاً واحداً، فليس المراد ببصره إلاَّ تجلي علمه له في هذا المشهد العياني، وليس المراد بعلمه إلاَّ الإدراك بنظره له في العلم العيني.
And though we are, in reality, a single thing, nothing is meant by His sight except the self-disclosure of His knowledge to Him in this seeing-witness; and nothing is meant by His knowledge except the perception, by His regard of it, in the concrete knowledge.
glossary: tajalli
§9 فهو يرى ذاته بذاته، ويرى مخلوقاته أيضاً بذاته، فرؤياه لذاته عين رؤياه لمخلوقاته، لأن البصر وصف واحد.
For He sees His Essence by His Essence, and He sees His creatures likewise by His Essence; so His seeing of His Essence is the very seeing of His creatures, because Sight is a single attribute.
§10 وليس الفرق إلاَّ في المرائي.
And the difference is only in the things-seen (al-marāʾī).
§11 فهو سبحانه وتعالى لا يزال يبصر الأشياء، ولكنه لا يوقع نظره على شيء إلاَّ إذا شاء.
For He, glory be to Him and Most High, does not cease to see the things; yet He does not let His regard fall upon a thing except when He wills.
Witness 'sabkhānahu / lā yantaẓir ilā shayʾ' restored to 'subḥānahu / lā yūqiʿ naẓarahu' to the sense the next segment confirms.
§12 وهنا نكتةٌ شريفةٌ فافهمها، فالأشياء غير محجوبة عنه أبداً، لكنه لا يوقع نظره على شيء إلاَّ إذا شاء ذلك.
And here is a noble subtle point, so understand it: the things are never veiled from Him, but He does not let His regard fall upon a thing except when He wills that.
§13 ومن هذا القبيل ما ورد عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أنه قال: "إن لله كذا وكذا نظرةً في اليوم إلى القلب في كل يوم".
And of this sort is what has come from the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, that he said: 'God has such-and-such a number of regards, each day, toward the heart.'
The witness itself cites this ḥadīth from Ibn al-Jawzī's al-ʿIlal al-Mutanāhiya (2/297), i.e. it is graded defective/weak; flagged.
§14 أو ما في معنى ذلك، وقوله سبحانه وتعالى: {وَلَا يُكَلِّمُهُمُ اللَّهُ وَلَا يَنْظُرُ إِلَيْهِمْ}،
or what is in the meaning of that. And His saying, glory be to Him and Most High: 'And God will not speak to them, nor look at them' (a portion of Āl ʿImrān 3:77) --
Qurʾān 3:77: Āl ʿImrān 3:77, the clause 'wa-lā yukallimuhumu Allāhu wa-lā yanẓuru ilayhim'; a portion of the verse, the muṣḥaf continues 'yawma al-qiyāmati...'. Verified, tag correct.
§15 ليس من هذا القبيل، بل النظر هنا عبارة عن الرحمة الإلهية التي رحم بها من قرَّبه إليه، بخلاف النظر الذي له إلى القلب، فإنه على ما ورد ليس الأمر مخصوصاً بالصفة النظرية وحدها، بل سار في غيرها من الأوصاف.
is not of this sort; rather the 'looking' here is an expression for the divine mercy by which He has mercy on the one He brought near to Him, unlike the regard that He has toward the heart; for that, according to what has come, the matter is not restricted to the attribute of regarding alone, but runs into others of the attributes.
§16 ألا ترى إلى قوله سبحانه وتعالى: {وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ حَتَّى نَعْلَمَ الْمُجَاهِدِينَ مِنْكُمْ}؟
Do you not see His saying, glory be to Him and Most High: 'And We shall surely test you, until We know the strivers among you' (a portion of Muḥammad 47:31)?
Qurʾān 47:31: Muḥammad 47:31, the clause 'wa-la-nabluwannakum ḥattā naʿlama al-mujāhidīna minkum'; a portion of the verse (continues 'wa-l-ṣābirīna wa-nabluwa akhbārakum'). Verified, tag correct.
§17 ولا تظنَّ أنه يجهلهم قبل الابتلاء، تعالى الله، وكذلك في النظر إلى القلب، فهو لا يفقد القلب الذي ينظر إليه كل يوم كذا وكذا نظرة.
And do not suppose that He is ignorant of them before the trial, exalted is God; and likewise in the regard toward the heart, He does not lose the heart which He regards each day, so-and-so number of regards.
§18 لكن تحت ذلك أسرار لا يمكن كشفها بغير هذا التنبيه، فمن عرف فليلزم، ومن ذهب إلى التأويل فإنه لا بد أن يقع في نوع من التعطيل فافهم.
But beneath that are secrets that cannot be unveiled save by this notice; so whoever knows, let him hold fast, and whoever goes to interpretation (taʾwīl), he must fall into a kind of nullifying (taʿṭīl). Understand.
glossary: kashf
§19 واعلم أن البصر في الإنسان هو المُدرِكة البصرية الناظرة من شحمة العين إلى الأشياء، فهي إذا نظرت إلى الأشياء من محلها القلبي لا من شحمة العين كانت مسمَّاة بالبصيرة، وهي بعينها بنسبتها إلى الله تعالى بصرُه القديم.
And know that sight (al-baṣar) in the human is the seeing, beholding faculty, from the fat of the eye to the things; so when it looks at the things from its heart-locus, not from the fat of the eye, it is named insight (baṣīra); and it, in its very self, in its ascription to God Most High, is His pre-eternal Sight.
§20 وإذا كُشف لك عن سرّ ذلك، ولا يُكشف إلاَّ بالله تعالى، رأيت حقائق الأشياء على ما هي عليه، ولم يحتجب عن بصرك شيء.
And when the secret of that is unveiled to you -- and it is unveiled only by God Most High -- you see the realities of things as they are, and nothing is veiled from your sight.
glossary: kashf
§21 فافهم هذا السرَّ العجيب الذي أشرت إليك به في هذه الكلمات، وارفع عن عرش معانيها ذيول الستارات، وردَّ أمرك إلى الله تعالى.
So understand this wondrous secret to which I have pointed you in these words; and lift, from the throne of their meanings, the trains of the veils; and return your affair to God Most High.
§22 وكن أنت بلا أنتَ ولا أنتَ، بل يكون الله هو المدبِّر لك كيفما شاء، أعني كما تقتضيه أوصافه والأسماء، فارمِ بهذا القشر الساتر، وكُلِ اللبابَ الزاهرَ، وافهم حقيقة {وَجَّهْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّذِي فَطَرَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ حَنِيفًا وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ}.
And be you, without you and without you -- rather let God be the one who governs you however He wills, I mean as His attributes and the Names require. So cast away this veiling husk, and eat all the radiant pith, and understand the reality of: 'I have turned my face to Him who originated the heavens and the earth, a ḥanīf, and I am not of those who associate.'
Qurʾān 6:79: al-Anʿām 6:79 (Abraham's words). The witness opens at 'wajjahtu' and drops the muṣḥaf's leading 'innī'; otherwise verified verbatim, tag correct. glossary: asma, sifat 'be you, without you' (annihilation) glossed by al-Jīlī himself as governance-by-God 'as His attributes and Names require,' not as merger; read with the laṭīfa keystone (Bāb 14 §4-5).
Collation. Bāb 22, al-Baṣar (Sight), the seventh of the dedicated attribute-chapters. Structure: a 5-verse opening qaṣīda (Sight as the locus of the known; knowledge and sight two attributes of the one Essence), then the doctrine of Sight as the Essence in respect of its witnessing of the objects-of-knowledge: God sees His Essence and His creatures by one undivided Sight, 'the difference only in the things-seen.' The chapter's substance is a careful theology of the divine regard (naẓar): the things are never veiled from God, yet He directs His regard 'only when He wills' (the basis of the ḥadīth of the daily regards toward the heart, which the witness itself flags as defective). al-Jīlī then guards divine foreknowledge against the apparent sense of 'until We know' verses ('do not suppose He is ignorant before the trial'), while warning that interpretation (taʾwīl) which empties the attributes falls into nullifying (taʿṭīl) -- a via-media on the attributes parallel to the tanzīh/tashbīh chapters. It closes with the baṣar/baṣīra (eye/insight) teaching, the seeing of 'the realities of things as they are' by unveiling, and a safe statement of annihilation ('be you, without you', glossed as governance-by-God, not merger), sealed with Abraham's 'I have turned my face' (6:79). Witness handling: 'sabkhānahu' (§11) restored to 'subḥānahu'; 'yantaẓir' restored toward 'yūqiʿ naẓarahu'; several kāf-as-alif OCR garbles restored.
Qurʾān. Three Qurʾān loci verified verbatim against alquran.cloud, all tags correct, each quoted as a partial clause. (1) Āl ʿImrān 3:77 (§14), 'wa-lā yukallimuhumu Allāhu wa-lā yanẓuru ilayhim' -- a portion of the verse (the muṣḥaf continues 'yawma al-qiyāmati...'). (2) Muḥammad 47:31 (§16), 'wa-la-nabluwannakum ḥattā naʿlama al-mujāhidīna minkum' -- a portion (continues 'wa-l-ṣābirīna wa-nabluwa akhbārakum'). (3) al-Anʿām 6:79 (§22), the witness opens at 'wajjahtu' and drops the muṣḥaf's leading 'innī'; restored note recorded. Allusion flagged: the ḥadīth of God's daily 'regards toward the heart' (§13) -- the witness itself cites Ibn al-Jawzī's al-ʿIlal al-Mutanāhiya (2/297), i.e. graded defective/weak; flagged accordingly.