al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 26 -- Ipseity

ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (b. 767 AH / 1365 CE; d. c. 1422-1428 CE)

full parallel manuscript · complete bitext

الإنسان الكامل · الباب السادس والعشرون في الهوية

canonical early 15th c. (author d. c. 1408-1428 CE) Arabic ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (b. 767 AH / 1365 CE; d. c. 1422-1428 CE) tr. Hekhal Targum engine (claude-opus-4-8[session]); AI-assisted draft, editor review pending

The twenty-sixth chapter of al-Insān al-Kāmil, rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line. The eleventh chapter treats Ipseity (al-Huwiyya, the divine “He-ness”) as “His Unseen, which cannot appear — except in consideration of the totality of the Names and Attributes,” and so “as though a pointing to the inward of Unicity.” Ipseity, al-Jīlī says, is not singled out to any name or rank; it points to all of them “by way of the totality and singly,” and signals hiddenness, “taken from the word ‘huwa,’ which is for pointing to the absent.”

Editorial note. Two features give this short chapter its interest. First, its letter-mysticism, a companion to Bāb 2 (al-Ism): al-Jīlī reads the Name “Allāh” as concealing “Huwa” within it, recovered by stripping its letters one by one (Allāh, li-llāh, lahu, hu), the final hāʾ being the kernel and the wāw of “huwa” a mere prolongation, so that “Huwa” is “the most excellent of the Names.” This is contemplative orthography, an aid to dhikr, not an etymological claim about the divine name. Second, the chapter carries a rare datable biographical marker: al-Jīlī records meeting “one of the people of God at Mecca… at the end of the year 799 [AH]” (1397 CE), who held the Greatest Name to be “Huwa” — a fixed point for dating the author’s life. The chapter’s metaphysical payload is its apophatic identification of Ipseity with “pure, unambiguous existence” that is Unseen precisely because it “cannot be exhausted, nor comprehended”; and its closing non-dual claim that, for the Real (unlike every creature, whose unseen and witnessed are “by an aspect”), “His Unseen is the very reality of His Witnessed,” knowable as it is by none but Him. A second-reader pass is advisable.

الباب السادس والعشرون في الهوية

Chapter Twenty-Six: On Ipseity (al-Huwiyya)

هوية الحق: غيبه الذي لا يمكن ظهوره، ولكن باعتبار جملة الأسماء والصفات، فكأنها إشارة إلى باطن الواحدية.

The Ipseity of the Real is His Unseen, which cannot appear -- except in consideration of the totality of the Names and Attributes; so it is as though a pointing to the inward of Unicity (bāṭin al-Wāḥidiyya).

glossary: wahidiyya, asma, sifat

وقولي: فكأنها، إنما هو لعدم اختصاصها باسم أو وصف أو نعت أو مرتبة أو مطلق ذات بلا اعتبار أسماء أو صفات، بل الهوية إشارة إلى جميع ذلك على سبيل الجملة والانفراد.

And my saying 'as though' is only because it is not singled out to a name, or an attribute, or a qualification, or a rank, or an absolute essence apart from the consideration of names or attributes; rather Ipseity is a pointing to all of that, by way of the totality and singly.

glossary: dhat

وشأنها الإشعار بالبطون والغيبوبية، وهي مأخوذة من لفظة هو الذي للإشارة إلى الغائب.

And its function is the signaling of hiddenness and absence; and it is taken from the word 'huwa' (He), which is for pointing to the absent.

وهي في حق الله تعالى إشارة إلى كنه ذاته باعتبار أسمائه وصفاته، مع الفهم بغيبوبية ذلك.

And in the regard of God Most High it is a pointing to the innermost (kunh) of His Essence, in consideration of His Names and Attributes, together with the understanding of the hiddenness of that.

glossary: dhat, asma, sifat

ومن ذلك قولي:

And of that is my saying:

إنَّ الهويةَ غيبُ ذاتِ الواحدِ ... ومن المحالِ ظهورُها في الشاهدِ

Ipseity is the Unseen of the Essence of the One; and it is of the impossible that it appear in the witnessed.

فكأنَّها نعتٌ وقد وقعت على ... شأنِ البطونِ وما لذا من جاحدِ

It is as though a qualification, and it has fallen upon the matter of hiddenness -- and of this there is no denier.

واعلم أن هذا الاسم أخصّ من اسمه الله، وهو سرٌّ للاسم الله.

And know that this Name is more particular than His Name 'Allāh,' and it is a secret of the Name 'Allāh.'

ألا ترى أن اسم الله ما دام هذا الاسم موجوداً فيه كان له معنى يرجع به إلى الحق.

Do you not see that the Name 'Allāh,' so long as this Name [huwa] is present within it, has a meaning by which it returns to the Real?

وإذا فُكَّ عنه بقيت أحرفه مقيَّدة المعنى.

And when it is undone, its letters remain restricted in meaning.

مثلاً: إذا حذفت الألف من اسم الله بقي "لله" ففيه الفائدة.

For example: when you remove the alif from the Name 'Allāh,' there remains 'li-llāh' (to God), and in it is a benefit.

وإذا حذفت اللام الأولى يبقى "له" وفيه فائدة.

And when you remove the first lām, there remains 'lahu' (His / to Him), and in it is a benefit.

وإذا حذفت اللام الثانية يبقى "هـ".

And when you remove the second lām, there remains 'hu' (the letter hāʾ).

والأصل في "هو" أنها هاء واحدة بلا "واو"، وما لحقت بها الواو إلاَّ من قبيل الإشباع، والاستمرار العادي جعلهما شيئاً واحداً.

And the origin in 'huwa' is that it is a single hāʾ, without a wāw; the wāw only attached to it by way of prolongation (ishbāʿ), and habitual usage made the two a single thing.

فاسم "هو" أفضل الأسماء.

So the Name 'Huwa' (He) is the most excellent of the Names.

glossary: asma

اجتمعتُ ببعض أهل الله بمكة زادها الله تعالى شرفاً في آخر سنة تسع وتسعين وسبعمائة، فذاكرني في الاسم الأعظم الذي قال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أنه في آخر سورة البقرة وأول سورة آل عمران، وقال كلمة "هو"، وأن ذلك مستفاد من ظاهر كلام النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم، لأن الهاء آخر قوله سورة البقرة، والواو أول قوله وأول سورة آل عمران، وهذا الكلام وإن كان مقبولاً فإني أجد للاسم الأعظم رائحة أخرى.

I met one of the people of God at Mecca -- may God Most High increase it in honor -- at the end of the year 799 [AH]; and he conferred with me concerning the Greatest Name (al-ism al-aʿẓam), which the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, said is at the end of Sūrat al-Baqara and the beginning of Sūrat Āl ʿImrān; and he said it is the word 'Huwa,' and that this is derived from the outward of the Prophet's speech, because the hāʾ is the end of his phrase 'Sūrat al-Baqara,' and the wāw the beginning of his phrase 'and the beginning of Sūrat Āl ʿImrān.' And this speech, though it be acceptable, yet I find for the Greatest Name another scent.

Records a Mecca encounter dated end of 799 AH (1397 CE), a datable biographical marker. The Greatest-Name ḥadīth is ḥasan (Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah), usually referred to al-Baqara 2:163 and Āl ʿImrān 3:1-2.

وما أوردتُ ما قاله هذا العارف إلاَّ تنبيهاً على شرف هذا الاسم،

And I have only adduced what this knower said as a notice of the nobility of this Name,

وكون الإشارة النبوية وقعت عليه من الجهة المذكورة أنه أعظم الأسماء.

and that the prophetic indication fell upon it, from the angle mentioned, that it is the greatest of the Names.

glossary: asma

واعلم أن اسم "هو" عبارة عن حاضر في الذهن يُرجع إليه بالإشارة من شاهد الحسّ إلى غائب الخيال.

And know that the Name 'Huwa' is an expression for something present in the mind, to which one returns by pointing, from the witnessed of sense to the absent of imagination.

glossary: khayal

وذلك الغائب لو كان غائباً عن الخيال لما صحَّت الإشارة إليه بلفظة "هو" إلى الحاضر.

And that absent one -- were it absent from the imagination, the pointing to it by the word 'huwa,' toward the present, would not be valid.

glossary: khayal

ألا ترى إلى الضمير لا يرجع إلاَّ إلى مذكور، إما لفظاً وإما قرينةً وإما حالاً كالشأن والقصة، وفائدة هذا أن "هو" يقع على الوجود المحض الذي لا يصحّ فيه عدم.

Do you not see that the pronoun returns only to something mentioned -- whether by an utterance, or by a contextual indication, or by a state, as in 'the affair' and 'the story'? And the benefit of this is that 'huwa' falls upon pure existence, in which no non-existence is valid,

ولا يشابه العدمَ من الغيبوبية والفناء.

and does not resemble non-existence in [the manner of] absence and passing-away.

لأن الغائب معدوم عن الجهة، أي لم يكن مشهوداً فيها، فلا يصحّ هذا في المشار إليه بلفظة "هو".

because the absent is non-existent in respect of the direction, that is, it was not witnessed in it; and this is not valid for the one pointed to by the word 'huwa.'

فعُلم من هذا الكلام أن الهوية هي الوجود المحض الصريح المستوعب لكل كمال وجودي شهودي.

So it is known from this speech that Ipseity is the pure, unambiguous existence, encompassing every existential, witnessing perfection.

لكن الحكم على ما وقعت عليه الغيبة هو من أجل ذلك غير ممكن بالاستيفاء، فلا يمكن استيفاؤه ولا يُدرك.

Yet the ruling upon that which the absence fell upon is, for that reason, not possible by exhaustion; so it cannot be exhausted, nor comprehended.

فقيل: إن الهوية غيبٌ لعدم الإدراك لها، فافهم.

So it was said: Ipseity is Unseen, for the absence of comprehension of it. So understand.

لأن الحق ليس غيبه غير شهادته، ولا شهادته غير غيبه، بخلاف الإنسان.

because the Real -- His Unseen is not other than His Witnessed, nor His Witnessed other than His Unseen -- unlike the human.

وكل مخلوق كذلك، فإن له شهادة وغيباً، ولكن شهادته من وجه وباعتبار، وغيبه من وجه واعتبار.

And every creature is thus: it has a witnessed and an unseen, but its witnessed is by an aspect and a consideration, and its unseen by an aspect and a consideration.

وأما الحق فغيبه عين شهادته، وشهادته عين غيبه، فلا غيب عنده من نفسه ولا شهادة.

But as for the Real, His Unseen is the very reality of His Witnessed, and His Witnessed the very reality of His Unseen; so there is, with Him, no Unseen apart from Himself, nor Witnessed.

بل في نفسه غيبٌ يليق به، وشهادةٌ تليق به، كما يعلم ذلك من لنفسه.

Rather, in Himself there is an Unseen befitting Him, and a Witnessed befitting Him, as that is known by One who is for Himself.

ولا يصحّ تعقُّل ذلك لنا، إذ لا يعلم غيبه ولا شهادته على ما هو عليه إلاَّ هو سبحانه وتعالى.

And the conceiving of that is not valid for us, since none knows His Unseen, nor His Witnessed, as it is, but He, glory be to Him and Most High.

Collation. Bāb 26, al-Huwiyya (Ipseity, the divine 'He-ness'), the eleventh chapter. Huwiyya = His Unseen (ghayb) which cannot appear except in consideration of the totality of the Names and Attributes, 'as if a pointer to the inward of Unicity (bāṭin al-Wāḥidiyya)'; it signals concealment, derived from the word 'huwa' (He) which points to the absent, and in God's regard points to the innermost (kunh) of His Essence with the understanding of its hiddenness. A 2-verse poem caps the opening. The chapter's centre is a letter-mysticism of the Name 'Allāh' parallel to Bāb 2 (al-Ism): removing alif yields lillāh, removing the first lām yields lahu, removing the second lām yields hu (a single hāʾ), the wāw of 'huwa' being only for prolongation (ishbāʿ) -- so 'Huwa' is 'the best of names.' al-Jīlī records a Mecca encounter (end of 799 AH / 1397 CE) with a knower who held the Greatest Name (al-ism al-aʿẓam) to be 'Huwa,' read from the prophetic indication that it lies 'at the end of al-Baqara and the start of Āl ʿImrān'; al-Jīlī grants the point but 'finds another scent' for the Greatest Name. The chapter closes apophatically: 'Huwa' falls upon pure existence in which no non-existence is valid, so Ipseity is 'pure, sheer existence' that is Unseen precisely because it cannot be exhausted; and for the Real, unlike the creature, His Unseen is the very reality of His Witnessed, 'no Unseen from Himself nor Witnessed,' knowable as it is by none but Him. Witness handling: several kāf-as-alif OCR garbles restored; the letter-removal sequence preserved exactly.

Qurʾān. No Qurʾān verse is quoted in this chapter (the witness contains no Qurʾānic citation), so none required verification. Allusion flagged: the ḥadīth of the Greatest Name (al-ism al-aʿẓam) lying in two verses, 'at the end of al-Baqara and the start of Āl ʿImrān' (§17; the report is graded ḥasan -- Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah -- and is usually referred to al-Baqara 2:163 and the opening of Āl ʿImrān 3:1-2, 'Allāhu lā ilāha illā Huwa al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm').

Apparatus

Ipseity as the divine Unseen, the letter-mysticism of “Huwa,” and the non-dual ghayb-shahāda

Bāb 26 treats Ipseity (al-Huwiyya) as “His Unseen, which cannot appear except in consideration of the totality of the Names and Attributes,” and so “as though a pointing to the inward of Unicity (bāṭin al-Wāḥidiyya)” — not singled out to any name, attribute, rank, or bare essence, but pointing to all “by way of the totality and singly,” its function “the signaling of hiddenness.” A 2-verse poem caps the opening (“Ipseity is the Unseen of the Essence of the One; and it is of the impossible that it appear in the witnessed”). The chapter’s centre is a letter-mysticism of the Name “Allāh,” companion to Bāb 2: removing alif yields “li-llāh,” removing the first lām “lahu,” removing the second lām “hu,” the final hāʾ being the kernel and the wāw of “huwa” only a prolongation (ishbāʿ), so that “Huwa” is “the most excellent of the Names.” al-Jīlī records a dated Mecca encounter (end of 799 AH / 1397 CE) with a knower who read the Greatest Name as “Huwa” from the prophetic indication that it lies “at the end of al-Baqara and the start of Āl ʿImrān” — granting it as “acceptable,” while finding “another scent” for the Greatest Name himself. The chapter then turns apophatic: “huwa” falls upon “pure existence in which no non-existence is valid,” so Ipseity is “the pure, unambiguous existence, encompassing every existential, witnessing perfection,” yet Unseen because it “cannot be exhausted, nor comprehended.” It closes with the non-dual identity of the Real’s Unseen and Witnessed: unlike the creature (whose two are “by an aspect”), the Real’s “Unseen is the very reality of His Witnessed,” with “in Himself an Unseen befitting Him and a Witnessed befitting Him,” knowable as it is by none but Him. Recorded in al-Jīlī’s voice and framed against the mainstream; the letter-mysticism presented as contemplative orthography.

Model: claude-opus-4-8[session]. Glossary: akbarian-sufism-v0.27. Frame: zahir-batin. Drafted: 2026-06-03. Edition: full parallel manuscript (32 segments, complete; one 2-verse poem).

Source-text attestation: base from the ibnalarabi.com digital matn (kamil.php?id=29), clean of navigation chrome; the trailing site-search widget excluded. Qurʾān: no Qurʾānic verse appears in this chapter, so none required verification. Allusion flagged: the ḥadīth of the Greatest Name (al-ism al-aʿẓam) lying “at the end of al-Baqara and the start of Āl ʿImrān” (§16) — ḥasan (Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah), usually referred to al-Baqara 2:163 and Āl ʿImrān 3:1-2. Biographical datum: the dated Mecca encounter (end of 799 AH / 1397 CE, §16) is preserved as a marker for the author’s chronology. Witness handling: the letter-removal sequence (§11-14) preserved exactly; several kāf-as-alif garbles restored. Doctrinal framing: the letter-mysticism (§8-15) is framed as contemplative orthography (an aid to dhikr), cross-linked to Bāb 2 (al-Ism); the non-dual ghayb-shahāda close (§27-31) is read as standard apophatic theology guarding divine transcendence. Glossary terms engaged: wāḥidiyya, dhāt, asmāʾ, ṣifāt, khayāl.

Status: AI-assisted draft, editor review pending; a second-reader pass is advisable (the Ipseity-as-Unseen doctrine, the letter-mysticism, the dated Mecca encounter, and the non-dual ghayb-shahāda close). The twenty-sixth chapter of the full-manuscript edition of al-Insān al-Kāmil.