al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 35 -- The Furqān (the Criterion)

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

full parallel manuscript · complete bitext

الإنسان الكامل · في الفرقان

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 complete chapter on the Furqān (the Criterion), rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line, opening with five of al-Jīlī’s own verses. It is the counterpart to the preceding chapter on the Qurʾān: where the Qurʾān is the gathering (the undifferentiated Essence), the Furqān is the discrimination — the reality of the Names and Attributes in their difference, by which “differentiation came to be in the very being of the Real.” al-Jīlī ranks the Names (Allāh above the All-Merciful above the Lord above the King), reads the refuge-supplications as God taking refuge “by His Essence from His Essence,” and closes on the supreme paradox: the Essence gathers the very contradictories the intellect forbids.

How to read this. Use the view switcher: Split shows Arabic and English side by side; English and Original give each alone; Annotated attaches the inline Targum data — glossary terms and the flagged hadith — to each segment. Digital-draft edition: two-witness collated, glossary-locked, labeled AI-assisted with editor review pending.

الباب الخامس والثلاثون في الفرقان

Chapter Thirty-Five: On the Furqān (the Criterion / the Discrimination)

صفات اللَّه فرقان ..... وذات اللَّه قرآن

The Attributes of God are Furqān (discrimination) / and the Essence of God is Qurʾān (gathering).

glossary: furqan, quran-ontological al-Jīlī's opening verse (1 of 5). The wordplay pairs Furqān (f-r-q, separation) = the Attributes, with Qurʾān (read as q-r-ʾ, gathering) = the Essence.

وفرق الجمع تحقيق ..... وجمع الفرق وجدان

And the differentiation of the gathering is verification / and the gathering of the differentiation is [ecstatic] finding.

glossary: jam, farq Opening verse 2 of 5.

وتفرقة الصفات على ..... اختلاف النعت جمعان

And the separating-out of the Attributes, upon / the difference of the descriptions, is a gathering.

glossary: sifat Opening verse 3 of 5.

وحكم الذات في ..... أحدية التوحيد فرقان

And the ruling of the Essence, in / the Oneness of tawḥīd, is a discrimination.

glossary: dhat, ahadiyya, furqan Opening verse 4 of 5.

لأن الوصف لا ينفك ..... وهو لذاته شان

Because the description does not detach [from Him] / and it, for His Essence, is a [proper] affair.

glossary: sifat, dhat Opening verse 5 of 5.

اعلم أن الفرقان عبارة عن حقيقة الأسماء والصفات على اختلاف تنوعاتها.

Know that the Furqān is an expression for the reality of the Names and Attributes, upon the difference of their varieties.

glossary: furqan, asma, sifat

فباعتباراتها تتميز كل صفة واسم عن غيرها، فحصل الفرق في نفس الحق من حيث أسماؤه الحسنى وصفاته.

So by their regards each Attribute and Name is distinguished from another; so differentiation (farq) came to be in the very [being] of the Real, from the standpoint of His Beautiful Names and His Attributes.

glossary: farq, asma, sifat

فإن اسمه الرحيم غير اسمه الشديد، واسمه المنعم غير اسمه المنتقم، وصفة الرضا غير صفة الغضب.

For His Name the Merciful (al-Raḥīm) is other than His Name the Severe (al-Shadīd), and His Name the Bestower (al-Munʿim) is other than His Name the Avenger (al-Muntaqim), and the attribute of good-pleasure (al-riḍā) is other than the attribute of wrath (al-ghaḍab).

glossary: asma, sifat

وقد أشار إليه في الحديث النبوي عن الله تعالى أنه يقول: «سبقت رحمتي غضبي».

And He pointed to it in the Prophetic hadith [reporting] from God (exalted is He) that He says: "My mercy has outstripped My wrath."

Hadith qudsī, sound (Bukhārī 7422 / Muslim 2751); flagged for grading.

لأن السابق أفضل من المسبوق.

Because the outstripping is more excellent than the outstripped.

وكذلك في الأسماء المرتبة، فالمرتبة الرحمانية أعلى من المرتبة الربية.

And likewise in the ranked Names: the All-Merciful rank is higher than the Lordly rank.

glossary: asma

ومرتبة الألوهية أعلى من الجميع.

And the rank of Divinity is higher than all.

فتميزت الأسماء بعضها عن بعض فحصل الفرق فيها، فكان الأعلى أفضل ممن له الحكم عليه.

So the Names were distinguished one from another, and differentiation came to be in them; so the higher was more excellent than that over which it has the ruling.

glossary: asma, farq

فاسمه الله أفضل من اسمه الرحمن.

So His Name "Allāh" is more excellent than His Name "the All-Merciful."

glossary: asma

واسمه الرحمن أفضل من اسمه الرب.

And His Name "the All-Merciful" is more excellent than His Name "the Lord."

glossary: asma

واسمه الرب أفضل من اسمه الملك.

And His Name "the Lord" is more excellent than His Name "the King."

glossary: asma

وكذلك بواقي الأسماء والصفات، فإن الأفضلية ثابتة في أعيانها، لا باعتبار أن في شيء منها نقصا ولا مفضولية.

And likewise the remaining Names and Attributes -- for the excelling is established in their very entities, not by way of there being in any of them a deficiency or [a state of] being-excelled,

glossary: asma, sifat

بل لما اقتضته أعيان الأسماء والصفات في أفضليتها، ولهذا حكمت بعضها على بعض.

but by what the entities of the Names and Attributes required in their excellence; and for this some of them have the ruling over some.

glossary: asma, sifat

فقيل: أعوذ بمعافاتك من عقوبتك، وأعوذ برضاك من سخطك.

So it was said: "I take refuge in Your pardon from Your punishment, and I take refuge in Your good-pleasure from Your displeasure,"

From the Prophet's supplication in prostration (Muslim 486, sound); flagged for grading.

وأعوذ بك منك لا أحصى ثناء عليك.

"and I take refuge in You from You; I cannot enumerate praise of You."

Continuation of the same supplication (Muslim 486).

فهذا فرقان في نفس الذات.

So this is a discrimination (furqān) in the very [being] of the Essence.

glossary: furqan, dhat

فأعاذت المعافاة من العقوبة والمعافاة مفاعلة، وكان العفو أفضل من فعل العقوبة، ولهذا أعاذه منه وأعاذ الرضا من السخط.

So the pardon (al-muʿāfāt) took refuge from the punishment -- and "muʿāfāt" is [a noun of] reciprocity -- and the pardoning was more excellent than the act of punishment; and for this He took refuge in it from it, and [had] the good-pleasure take refuge from the displeasure.

فقلنا: إن صفة الرضا أفضل من صفة الغضب. وأعاذه بذاته من ذاته.

So we said: the attribute of good-pleasure is more excellent than the attribute of wrath. And He took refuge by His Essence from His Essence.

glossary: sifat, dhat

فكما أن الفرق حاصل في الأفعال فكذلك في الصفات، وكذلك في نفس واحدية الذات التي لا فرق فيها.

So just as differentiation is realized in the acts, so likewise [it is] in the Attributes, and likewise in the very Oneness of the Essence in which there is no differentiation.

glossary: farq, sifat, wahidiyya, dhat

لكن من غرائب شئون الذات جمع النقيضين من المحال والواجب، فكل ما يستحيل في العقل ويسوغ في العبارة والنقل فإنها تشهده من الأحكام الواجبة في الذات.

But of the wonders of the affairs of the Essence is the gathering of the two contradictories -- of the impossible and the necessary; for everything that is impossible in the intellect yet is permissible in expression and in transmission, [the gnostic] witnesses it among the necessary rulings in the Essence.

glossary: dhat, jam

وإلى ذلك أشار الإمام أبو سعيد الخراز بقوله: عرفت الله بجمعه بين الضدّين.

And to that the Imām Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz pointed by his saying: "I knew God by His gathering between the two contraries."

glossary: jam Saying of Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz (d. 286/899), a Baghdad Sufi master; cited as a maxim, not a hadith.

ولا تظن بأنه مطلق جمعه للأول والآخر والظاهر والباطن.

And do not suppose that it is [merely] His absolute gathering of the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward.

glossary: asma

بل الحق والخلق وعدم التفاضل والمستحيل والواجب والمعدوم والموجود والمحدود وما لا يتناهى إلى غير ذلك من النقائض، بالضاد المعجمة، والأضداد.

Rather, the Real and the created, and the absence of mutual preference, and the impossible and the necessary, and the non-existent and the existent, and the delimited and what has no end, and other than that of the contradictions (naqāʾiḍ, with the dotted ḍād) and the contraries (aḍdād).

فإنه سبحانه وتعالى يجمعها بالشأن الذاتي، وهويته عبارة عن جميع ذلك، وهذا معنى قوله: فافهم.

For He (glory be His and exalted) gathers them by the essential affair, and His Ipseity (huwiyya) is an expression for all of that; and this is the meaning of His saying. So understand.

glossary: jam, dhat

وإذا عرفت فالزم.

And when you have known, then hold fast.

والله يقول الحق وهو يهدي للصواب، وإليه المرجع والمآب.

And God says the truth, and He guides to what is right; and to Him is the return and the homecoming.

Collation. Two-witness collated as part of the scriptural arc (Bāb 34-35, the Qurʾān and the Furqān), staged 2026-06-02. No lossy drop. The witness-2 capture carried the site's navigation chrome both above and below the text; only the genuine chapter (lines from the title to 'wa-ilayhi l-marjiʿu wa-l-maʾāb') is rendered. Opens with five of al-Jīlī's own verses (§2-§6).

Qurʾān. No tagged verse citations in this chapter. Two hadith are rendered and flagged: the hadith qudsī 'My mercy outstripped My wrath' (Bukhārī 7422 / Muslim 2751, sound) and the refuge-supplication 'I take refuge in Your pardon from Your punishment... I cannot enumerate praise of You' (Muslim 486, sound). The closing saying is Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz's, not a hadith.

Apparatus

The Furqān: differentiation in the Essence

The Furqān (the Qurʾānic name meaning “the Criterion,” from the root f-r-q, “to separate”) is paired by al-Jīlī with the Qurʾān (read as “gathering,” q-r-ʾ): the Qurʾān is the undifferentiated Essence, the Furqān the differentiation of the Names and Attributes. By their regards the Names are distinguished — the Merciful is not the Severe, good-pleasure is not wrath — so “differentiation came to be in the very being of the Real.” This grounds a hierarchy among the divine Names (Allāh above the All-Merciful above the Lord above the King), not because any bears a deficiency but by what each entity requires, supported by “My mercy outstripped My wrath” (the outstripping more excellent than the outstripped). The refuge-supplications (“I take refuge in Your pardon from Your punishment… in You from You”) are read as a discrimination within the Essence itself — God taking refuge “by His Essence from His Essence.” The chapter ends on the wonder al-Jīlī (citing Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz, “I knew God by His gathering of the two contraries”) places at the summit: the Essence gathers the contradictories the intellect forbids — Real and created, necessary and impossible, existent and non-existent — “by the essential affair,” His Ipseity being “an expression for all of that.”

Model: claude-opus-4-8[session]. Glossary: akbarian-sufism-v0.27. Frame: zahir-batin. Drafted: 2026-06-02. Edition: full parallel manuscript (32 segments, complete; opens with five authorial verses).

Source-text attestation: base from the ibnalarabi.com digital matn (kamil.php?id=38); the witness-2 capture carried navigation chrome both above and below the text, stripped to the genuine chapter. Two-witness collated against the archive.org OCR (Bāb 34-35 cluster), no lossy drop. No tagged Qurʾānic verse citations. Two hadith flagged (both sound): the hadith qudsī “My mercy outstripped My wrath” (Bukhārī 7422 / Muslim 2751) and the refuge-supplication (Muslim 486). The closing maxim is Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz’s, not a hadith. Glossary terms engaged: furqān, quran-ontological, asmāʾ, ṣifāt, dhāt, jamʿ, farq, aḥadiyya, wāḥidiyya, tawḥīd.

Status: AI-assisted draft, editor review pending; not deployed. Part of the full-manuscript edition of al-Insān al-Kāmil.