الباب السابع والعشرون في الإنية
Chapter Twenty-Seven: On I-ness (al-Inniyya)
§1 إنية الحق تحديده بما هو له، فهي إشارة إلى ظاهر الحق تعالى باعتبار شمول ظهوره لبطونه، قال الله تعالى: {إِنَّنِي أَنَا اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنَا}.
The I-ness (Inniyya) of the Real is His delimiting Himself by what is His; so it is a pointing to the outward (ẓāhir) of the Real Most High, in consideration of the encompassing of His outwardness over His inwardness. God Most High said: 'Verily I am God; there is no god but I.'
Qurʾān 20:14: Ṭāhā 20:14, the address to Moses. The muṣḥaf reads 'innanī'; the witness writes 'innahu,' restored. Verified, tag correct.
§2 يقول: إن الهوية المشار إليها بلفظة "هو" هي عين الإنية المشار إليها بلفظة "أنا"، فكانت الهوية معقولة في الإنية.
He says: the Ipseity (huwiyya) pointed to by the word 'huwa' (He) is the very I-ness (inniyya) pointed to by the word 'anā' (I); so the Ipseity is intelligible within the I-ness.
§3 وهذا معنى قولنا: إن ظاهر الحق عين باطنه، وباطنه عين ظاهره، لا أنه باطن من جهة وظاهر من جهة أخرى.
And this is the meaning of our saying that the outward of the Real is the very reality of His inward, and His inward the very reality of His outward -- not that He is inward from one aspect and outward from another aspect.
§4 ألا ترى لقوله سبحانه وتعالى كيف أكَّد الجملة بـ"إنَّ" فأتى بها مؤكَّدة، لأن كل كلام يتردَّد فيه ذهن السامع فإن التأكيد مستحسن فيه،
Do you not see His saying, glory be to Him and Most High, how He emphasized the sentence with 'inna' (verily), and brought it emphasized? -- for every speech in which the mind of the hearer wavers, emphasis is fitting in it,
§5 كما أن كل كلام ينكره السامع يجب التأكيد فيه، بخلاف ما كان لو السامع خالي الذهن، فإنه لا يحتاج فيه إلى تأكيد.
just as every speech the hearer denies must be emphasized, unlike the case were the hearer empty of mind, for then it needs no emphasis.
§6 ولما كان اعتبار البطون والظهور بالوحدة يحصل فيه للعقل تردُّد، وهو استيفاؤه:
And since the consideration of inwardness and outwardness by oneness produces in the intellect a hesitation -- which is its exhausting of it:
§7 كيف يكون الأمر باطنه ظاهره وظاهره باطنه،
as to how the matter's inward can be its outward, and its outward its inward,
§8 وما فائدة التقسيم بالظاهر والباطن فيه؟ فللنفس في هذه المسألة إما تردُّد وإما إنكار، فلهذا أكَّده الحق بلفظة "إنَّا".
and what is the benefit of the division by outward and inward in it? -- the soul, in this question, has either hesitation or denial; and for this the Real emphasized it with the word 'verily.'
§9 فقال لموسى: "إنه هو"، يعني أن الأحدية الباطنة المشار إليها بالهوية هي الإنية الظاهرة المشار إليها بلفظة "أنا".
So He said to Moses, 'Verily He is He' -- meaning that the inward Oneness (al-aḥadiyya al-bāṭina) pointed to by Ipseity is the outward I-ness (al-inniyya al-ẓāhira) pointed to by the word 'anā.'
§10 فلا تزعم أن بينهما تغايراً أو انفصالاً أو انفكاكاً بوجه.
So do not claim that between the two there is any otherness, or separation, or disjunction, in any respect.
§11 ثم فسَّر الأمر بالبدلية، وهو العلم الذاتي، أعني اسم الله، إشارة إلى ما تقتضيه الألوهية من الجمع والشمول.
Then He explained the matter by the substitution, which is the essential knowledge -- I mean the Name 'Allāh' -- a pointing to what Divinity (ulūhiyya) requires of gathering and encompassing.
glossary: asma
§12 لأنه لما قال إن بطونه وغيبه عين ظهوره وشهادته، نبَّه على أن ذلك من حقيقة ما هو عليه الله.
because, when He said that His inwardness and His Unseen are the very reality of His outwardness and His Witnessed, He gave notice that that is of the reality of what Allāh is.
§13 فإن الألوهية في نفسها تقتضي شمول النقيضين وجميع الضدَّين بحكم الأحدية، وعدم التغاير في نفس حصول المغايرة.
For Divinity, in itself, requires the encompassing of the two contradictories and all the two opposites, by the rule of Oneness, and the absence of otherness in the very occurrence of otherness.
§14 وهذه مسألة حيرة.
And this is a question of bewilderment.
§15 ثم الجملة بقوله: "لا إله إلا أنا"، يعني الإلهية المعبودية ليست إلا أنا.
Then the sentence, by His saying 'there is no god but I,' means: the worshipped Divinity is nothing but I.
§16 فأنا الظاهر في تلك الأوثان والأفلاك والطبائع، وفي كل ما يعبده أهل كل ملة ونحلة، فما تلك الآلهة كلها إلا أنا.
So I am the One appearing in those idols, and the spheres, and the natures, and in all that the people of every religion and sect worship; for those gods, all of them, are nothing but I.
The chapter's most contested claim; read with al-Jīlī's own guardrails below (§22-23, §37, §39-41): the objects are loci-of-appearance, the idolaters strayed, and the worship demanded is of God through ALL loci (pure tawḥīd), not through a partial one. This is a metaphysics of the sole divine reality manifest in all loci, not an endorsement of idolatry.
§17 ولهذا أثبت لهم لفظة الآلهة، وتسميته لهم بهذه اللفظة من جهة ما هم عليه في الحقيقة تسمية حقيقية لا مجازية،
And for this He affirmed for them the word 'gods'; and His naming them by this word, from the aspect of what they are in reality, is a real naming, not a metaphorical one,
§18 ولا كما يزعم أهل الظاهر أن الحق إنما أراد بذلك من حيث إنهم سمَّوهم آلهة، لا من حيث إنهم في أنفسهم لهم هذه التسمية.
and not, as the people of the outward (ahl al-ẓāhir) claim, that the Real meant by that only in respect of their [the worshippers'] having named them gods, not in respect of their having, in themselves, this naming.
§19 وهذا غلط منهم وافتراء على الحق، لأن هذه الأشياء كلها، بل جميع ما في الوجود، له من جهة ذات الله تعالى في الحقيقة.
And this is an error on their part, and a slander upon the Real, because all these things -- indeed all that is in existence -- belong to Him, from the aspect of the Essence of God Most High, in reality.
glossary: dhat
§20 هذه التسمية تسمية حقيقية، لأن الحق سبحانه وتعالى عين الأشياء، وتسميتها بالإلهية تسمية حقيقية، لا كما يزعم المقلِّد من أهل الحجاب أنها تسمية مجازية.
This naming is a real naming, because the Real, glory be to Him and Most High, is the very entities of the things, and the naming of them with Divinity is a real naming -- not, as the blind imitator (muqallid) of the people of the veil claims, that it is a metaphorical naming.
glossary: dhat The strongest wujūdī formulation in the band ('the Real is the very entities of the things'). Per the chapter's own logic this is ontological (the divine reality is what appears in all loci), and is immediately qualified: the objects are maẓāhir (§22) and the idolaters are astray (§37). Flagged for editor review as contested Akbarian metaphysics.
§21 ولو كان كذلك لكان الكلام: أن تلك الحجارة والكواكب والطبائع والأشياء التي تعبدونها ليست بآلهة،
For were it so, the speech would be: that those stones, and stars, and natures, and things you worship are not gods,
§22 وأن لا إله إلا الله أنا فاعبدوني، لكنه إنما أراد الحق أن يبيِّن لهم أن تلك الآلهة مظاهر، وأن حكم الألوهية فيهم حقيقة،
and that 'there is no god but Allāh, I, so worship Me' -- but rather the Real meant only to make clear to them that those gods are loci-of-appearance (maẓāhir), and that the rule of Divinity in them is real,
Key guardrail: al-Jīlī's point is that the worshipped objects are loci (maẓāhir) of the one divine reality, not independent deities.
§23 وأنهم ما عبدوا في جميع ذلك إلا هو.
and that they worshipped, in all of that, nothing but Him.
§24 فقال: "لا إله إلا أنا"،
So He said: 'there is no god but I,'
§25 أي: ما ثَمَّ ما يُطلق عليه اسم الإله إلا وهو أنا، فما في العالم ما يعبد غيري، وكيف يعبدون غيري وأنا خلقتهم ليعبدوني، ولا يكون إلا ما خلقتهم له.
that is: there is nothing upon which the name 'god' is cast but that it is I; so there is in the world nothing that worships other than Me. And how should they worship other than Me, when I created them to worship Me, and there occurs nothing but what I created them for?
§26 قال عليه الصلاة والسلام في هذا المقام: "كلٌّ ميسَّر لما خُلق له".
He, upon him be blessing and peace, said in this station: 'Each is made easy for that for which he was created.'
Sound ḥadīth (Bukhārī, Muslim).
§27 أي: لعبادة الحق، لأن الحق تعالى قال: {وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنْسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ}.
that is, for the worship of the Real; because the Real Most High said: 'And I created the jinn and mankind only to worship Me.'
Qurʾān 51:56: al-Dhāriyāt 51:56. Verified verbatim, tag correct.
§28 وقال تعالى: {وَإِنْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ}.
And He Most High said: 'And there is nothing but that it glorifies His praise.'
Qurʾān 17:44: al-Isrāʾ 17:44, the clause 'wa-in min shayʾin illā yusabbiḥu bi-ḥamdihi' (a portion of the verse). Verified, tag correct.
§29 فنبَّه الحق موسى عليه السلام على أن أهل تلك الآلهة إنما عبدوا الله تعالى، ولكن من جهة ذلك المظهر.
So the Real gave Moses, peace be upon him, notice that the people of those gods worshipped only God Most High -- but from the aspect of that locus.
§30 فطلب من موسى أن يعبده من جهة جميع المظاهر.
So He asked of Moses that he worship Him from the aspect of all the loci.
§31 فقال: "لا إله إلا أنا"،
So He said: 'there is no god but I,'
§32 أي: ما ثَمَّ إلا أنا، وكل ما أطلقوا عليه اسم الإله فهو أنا،
that is: there is nothing but I, and all that they cast the name 'god' upon is I --
§33 بعدما أعلمه أن "أنا" عين "هو" المشار إلى مرتبته بالاسم الله.
after He had informed him that 'I' (anā) is the very 'He' (huwa), whose rank is pointed to by the Name 'Allāh.'
glossary: asma
§34 فاعبدني يا موسى من حيث هذه الإنية الجامعة لجميع المظاهر التي هي عين الهوية.
So worship Me, O Moses, in respect of this I-ness gathering all the loci, which is the very Ipseity.
The resolution: the worship demanded is of God through ALL loci (comprehensive tawḥīd), the opposite of worshipping Him through one partial locus (which is the idolaters' error).
§35 فهذا عناية منه سبحانه وتعالى بنبيه موسى وعنايته به، لئلا يعبده من جهة دون جهة أخرى،
This is a care from Him, glory be to Him and Most High, for His prophet Moses, and His solicitude for him, lest he worship Him from one aspect and not another,
§36 فتفوته الحق من الجهة التي لم يعبده فيها فيضلَّ عنه،
so that the Real would escape him from the aspect in which he did not worship Him, and he would stray from Him,
§37 ولو اهتدى من جهة، كما ضلَّ أهل الملل المتفرقة عن طريق الله تعالى،
even if he were guided from an aspect -- as the people of the divided religions strayed from the path of God Most High,
Explicit guardrail: the idolaters/divided-religions 'strayed (ḍallū) from the path of God.' The doctrine does not vindicate their worship.
§38 بخلاف ما لو عبده من حيث هذه الإنية المنبَّه عليها بجميع المظاهر والتجليات والشؤون والمقتضيات والكمالات المنعوتة المعقولة في الهوية، المندرجة في الإنية، المفسَّرة بالله، المشروحة بأنه ما ثَمَّ إله إلا أنا.
unlike if he worshipped Him in respect of this I-ness, alerted-to by all the loci-of-appearance, and the self-disclosures, and the affairs, and the requisites, and the qualified perfections intelligible within the Ipseity, included within the I-ness, explained by 'Allāh,' expounded as: there is no god but I.
glossary: tajalli, asma, sifat
§39 فإنه تكون عبادته حينئذ كما ينبغي، وإلى هذا المعنى أشار بقوله تعالى: {وَأَنَّ هَذَا صِرَاطِي مُسْتَقِيمًا فَاتَّبِعُوهُ وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا السُّبُلَ فَتَفَرَّقَ بِكُمْ عَنْ سَبِيلِهِ}.
for then his worship would be as it ought to be. And to this meaning He pointed by His saying, Most High: 'And [know] that this is My path, straight, so follow it, and do not follow the [other] paths, lest they divide you from His path.'
Qurʾān 6:153: al-Anʿām 6:153, the clause 'wa-anna hādhā ṣirāṭī mustaqīman fa-ttabiʿūhu wa-lā tattabiʿū al-subula fa-tafarraqa bikum ʿan sabīlihi.' Verified, tag correct. The 'one straight path' against 'the divided paths' is al-Jīlī's scriptural fence: comprehensive worship of God = the straight path; partial/divided worship = the error to avoid.
§40 فأهل السبل المتفرقة، ولو كانوا على صراط الله، فقد تفرَّقوا ودخل عليهم الشرك والإلحاد،
For the people of the divided paths, even though they were upon the path of God, yet they divided, and association (shirk) and unbelief (ilḥād) entered upon them,
Guardrail: shirk and ilḥād are named as real errors that 'entered upon' the people of the divided paths.
§41 بخلاف المحمديين الموحِّدين، فإنهم على صراط الله، فإذا كان العبد على صراط الله ظهر له سرُّ قوله عليه الصلاة والسلام: "من عرف نفسه فقد عرف ربه".
unlike the Muḥammadan monotheists (al-Muḥammadiyyūn al-muwaḥḥidūn), for they are upon the path of God. And when the servant is upon the path of God, there appears to him the secret of his saying, upon him be blessing and peace: 'Whoever knows himself has known his Lord.'
glossary: haqiqa-muhammadiyya The Muḥammadan monotheists are the standard against which the strayed are measured. 'man ʿarafa nafsahu...' is widely cited among the Sufis but is not an established prophetic ḥadīth (no sound isnād); flagged.
§42 فيُطالَب بعد هذا أن يعبده حق عبادته، وهو التحقُّق بحقائق الأسماء والصفات، لأنه إذا عبده بتلك العبادة علم أنه عين الأشياء الظاهرة والباطنة.
Then he is required, after this, to worship Him the due of His worship, which is the realization of the realities of the Names and Attributes; because when he worships Him with that worship, he knows that He is the very entities of the things, the outward and the inward.
glossary: asma, sifat
§43 ويعلم أنه إذ ذاك إنيةٌ عين المعبَّر عنه بموسى، فيطلب له موسى ما أعلمه الحق سبحانه وتعالى أنه يستحقه من الكمالات المقتضية للأسماء والصفات ليجد ذلك، فيعبده إذ ذاك حق عبادته.
And he knows that he is then an I-ness that is the very reality of what is expressed by 'Moses'; so Moses seeks for him what the Real, glory be to Him and Most High, informed him he deserves of the perfections requiring the Names and Attributes, that he may find that, and worship Him then the due of His worship.
§44 ولا يمكن استيفاء ذلك، فلا يمكنه أن يعبده حق العبادة،
But the exhausting of that is impossible; so it is not possible for him to worship Him the due of worship,
§45 لأن الله لا يتناهى، فليس لأسمائه وصفاته، وليس لحق عبادته، نهاية.
because God is without end; so His Names and Attributes have no end, and the due of His worship has no end.
§46 وفي هذا المقام قال عليه الصلاة والسلام: "ما عرفناك حق معرفتك، ولا عبدناك حق عبادتك، أنت كما أثنيت على نفسك".
And in this station he, upon him be blessing and peace, said: 'We have not known You the due of Your knowledge, nor worshipped You the due of Your worship; You are as You have praised Yourself.'
A well-known supplication; not in the canonical collections in this wording (the closing clause echoes a sound ḥadīth of the Prophet's prostration). Flagged.
§47 وقال الصدِّيق رضي الله عنه: العجز عن درك الإدراك إدراك.
And al-Ṣiddīq, may God be pleased with him, said: 'Incapacity to attain comprehension is comprehension.'
Attributed to Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq.
§48 وقد نظمت هذا المعنى في:
And I have versified this meaning in [the following]:
§49 يا صورةً حيَّر الألبابَ معناكَ ... يا دهشةً أذهلَ الأكوانَ منشاكَ
O form whose meaning has bewildered the intellects! O astonishment whose origination has stupefied the worlds!
§50 يا غايةَ الغايةِ القصوى وآخرَ ما ... يلقى الرشيدُ ضلالاً بينَ مغناكَ
O utmost goal of the furthest goal, and the last of what the rightly-guided one meets -- [finding only] perplexity amid Your domain!
§51 عليكَ أنتَ كما أثنيتَ من عظمٍ ... نزَّهتَ في الحمدِ عن ثانٍ وإشراكِ
Upon You [be praise], as You have praised Yourself, of [Your] grandeur; You have declared Yourself, in the praise, beyond any second and any association.
Witness 'min ārim' (line 53) is OCR-garbled; rendered to the sense 'of grandeur' (min ʿaẓam) and flagged.
§52 فليس يُدرِكُ منكَ المرءُ بغيتَهُ ... حاشاكَ عن غايةٍ في المجدِ حاشاكَ
Man attains not of You his desire; far be You from any limit in glory, far be You!
§53 فبالقصورِ اعترافي فيكَ معرفتي ... فالعجزُ عن دركِ الإدراكِ إدراكي
So by shortcoming is my confession; in You is my knowledge; for the incapacity to attain comprehension is my comprehension.
§54 وقد يُطلق القوم الإنية على معقول العبد، لأنها إشعار بالمشاهد الحاضر، وعلى مشهود، فالهوية غيبه.
And the folk sometimes apply 'I-ness' (inniyya) to the intelligible of the servant, because it is a signaling of the present, witnessed one, and upon a witnessed [object]; so the Ipseity is His Unseen.
§55 فأطلقوا الهوية على الغيب، وهو ذات الحق،
So they applied Ipseity (huwiyya) to the Unseen, and it is the Essence of the Real;
glossary: dhat
§56 والإنية على الشهادة، وهو معقول العبد، وهنا نكتةٌ فافهم.
and I-ness (inniyya) to the Witnessed, and it is the intelligible of the servant. And here is a subtle point, so understand.
Collation. Bāb 27, al-Inniyya (I-ness, the divine 'I'), the twelfth chapter and the most theologically charged of the opening band. I-ness = the outward (ẓāhir) of the Real, the counterpart of the Ipseity (huwiyya, His inward) of Bāb 26: 'the I-ness pointed to by anā is the very Ipseity pointed to by huwa,' so 'the outward of the Real is the very reality of His inward.' The chapter is built as an exegesis of the address to Moses, 'Verily I am God; there is no god but I' (20:14): the emphatic inna answers the intellect's bewilderment at oneness encompassing inward and outward; ulūhiyya 'requires the encompassing of the two contradictories by the rule of Oneness.' Its contested core (here surfaced and framed, NOT endorsed) is al-Jīlī's wujūdī reading of 'there is no god but I': that the idols, spheres, and 'all that the people of every religion and sect worship' are 'nothing but I,' and that naming them 'gods' is 'a real naming, not metaphorical,' 'because the Real is the very entities of the things.' Crucially, the chapter fences this itself: those gods are loci-of-appearance (maẓāhir), the idolaters 'strayed from the path of God' and 'shirk and ilḥād entered upon them' (worshipping God through ONE locus, not all), against the Muḥammadan monotheists who are 'upon the path of God' (6:153, the one straight path); the worship demanded of Moses is of God through ALL the loci, which is pure tawḥīd, not the partial worship that is idolatry. It closes with the impossibility of worshipping the infinite God His due, a 5-verse apophatic qaṣīda, and the inniyya/huwiyya summary. Witness handling: line 53 of the poem is OCR-garbled ('min ārim'), rendered to sense and flagged; several kāf-as-alif garbles restored.
Qurʾān. Four Qurʾān loci verified verbatim against alquran.cloud, all tags correct. (1) Ṭāhā 20:14 (§1), the address to Moses -- the muṣḥaf reads 'innanī anā Allāhu lā ilāha illā anā fa-ʿbudnī'; the witness writes 'innahu' for 'innanī,' restored to the muṣḥaf and noted (al-Jīlī's discussion turns on the interplay of huwa/anā, but the Qurʾānic text is 'innanī'). (2) al-Dhāriyāt 51:56 (§27), 'wa-mā khalaqtu al-jinna wa-l-insa illā li-yaʿbudūn.' (3) al-Isrāʾ 17:44 (§28), the clause 'wa-in min shayʾin illā yusabbiḥu bi-ḥamdihi' (a portion of the verse). (4) al-Anʿām 6:153 (§39), the clause 'wa-anna hādhā ṣirāṭī mustaqīman fa-ttabiʿūhu wa-lā tattabiʿū al-subula fa-tafarraqa bikum ʿan sabīlihi.' Ḥadīth/sayings flagged: 'each is made easy for that for which he was created' (§26, sound, Bukhārī/Muslim); 'whoever knows himself has known his Lord' (§41, widely cited among Sufis but not an established prophetic ḥadīth, no sound isnād); 'we have not known You the due of Your knowledge...' (§46, a well-known supplication, not in the canonical collections in this wording); 'incapacity to attain comprehension is comprehension' (§47, attributed to Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq).