al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 36-38 -- The Three Prior Books (Torah, Psalms, Gospel)

al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 36 (al-Tawrāt) + 37 (al-Zabūr) + 38 (al-Injīl) · ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (b. 767 AH / 1365 CE; d. c. 826-832 AH / 1422-1428 CE)

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About al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 36-38 -- The Three Prior Books (Torah, Psalms, Gospel)

al-Insan al-Kamil ("The Universal Man," or the Perfect Human) is the masterwork of Abd al-Karim al-Jili (1366-1424), the great systematizer of the Akbarian school of Ibn al-Arabi. Across sixty-three chapters (abwab) it ascends from the bare divine Essence, through the Names, attributes, scriptures, and cosmic realities, to the figure of the Perfect Human, the microcosm in whom the whole of reality is gathered. Hekhal's edition is the first complete Arabic-and-English parallel rendering of the work, produced with controlled-vocabulary editorial discipline and provisional pending a credentialed Arabic reviewer.

This chapter gathers the chapters on the prior scriptures, the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel, each read as a station of the one descending divine Word. This page is the Targum apparatus edition, carrying the controlled-vocabulary translation and its full provenance.

al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 36-38 -- The Three Prior Books (Torah, Psalms, Gospel)

al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 36-38

الإنسان الكامل · في التوراة · في الزبور · في الإنجيل

canonical early 15th c. (author d. c. 1408-1428 CE) Arabic ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (b. 767 AH / 1365 CE; d. c. 826-832 AH / 1422-1428 CE) tr. Hekhal Targum Project (machine-assisted, provisional)

The three chapters that complete al-Jīlī’s treatment of scripture, following on the Qurʾān and the Furqān. Where those two named the Essence (gathering) and the Names-and-Attributes (discrimination), these three place the prior revealed Books on a single ontological ladder, stated as a schema in Bāb 37: the Zabūr (Psalms) is the self-disclosure of the Attributes of the Acts; the Tawrāt (Torah) of the Names of the Attributes; the Injīl (Gospel) of the Names of the Essence; the Furqān of all the Names and Attributes together; and the Qurʾān of the pure Essence. Each Book discloses the divine at a different depth, and al-Jīlī reads each prophet’s powers as the signature of his Book’s level.

Editorial note on a sensitive text. These chapters carry, in al-Jīlī’s own voice, two things a careful reader should meet with their context named in advance: (1) a supersessionist framing standard in classical Islamic theology — that the Qurʾān is the most excellent Book and that Muḥammad’s message completes and abrogates the prior ones; and (2) in Bāb 38, a striking monist allegoresis of the Trinity (the Gospel’s “Father, Mother, Son” read as the Name Allāh / the Essence-quiddity / the Book), together with al-Jīlī’s claim that the Christians’ error was restriction (ḥaṣr) rather than the underlying intuition. Per Hekhal’s editorial law, the text is rendered faithfully in the canonical tier and these readings are framed in the apparatus as al-Jīlī’s 15th-century Akbarian theologoumena — recognized as their own doctrine by neither orthodox Islamic theology (which rejects the Trinity outright) nor Christian theology (for whom the divine Persons are not Name, Essence, and Book). Hekhal records the reading; it does not endorse it. Genuine first-public-domain-English; full scoping at hekhal-targum/docs/JILI-INSAN-AL-KAMIL-SCOPING.md.

Bāb 36 — al-Tawrāt (The Torah: the Names of the Attributes)

أنزل الله تعالى التوراةَ على موسى في تسعة ألواح، وأمره أن يبلّغ سبعةً منها ويترك لوحين، لأن العقول لا تكاد تقبل ما في ذينك اللوحين، فلو أبرزهما موسى انتقض عليه ما يطلبه ولم يؤمن به رجلٌ واحد. وكانت الألواح السبعة التي أُمر بتبليغها من حجر المرمر، بخلاف اللوحين فإنهما كانا من نوره؛ ولهذا قست قلوبُهم لأن الألواح من الحجارة. وأما اللوحان المخصوصان بموسى: فاللوح الأول لوح الربوبية، والثاني لوح القدرة.
God, exalted is He, sent the Torah down upon Moses on nine tablets, and commanded him to convey seven of them and to withhold two — for minds can scarcely accept what is in those two tablets, and had Moses brought them out, what he sought would have come undone and not one man would have believed in him. The seven tablets he was commanded to convey were of marble stone, unlike the two tablets, which were of his light — and for this reason their hearts hardened, because the tablets were of stone. As for the two tablets singled out for Moses: the first is the tablet of Lordship (rubūbiyya), the second the tablet of Power (qudra).
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
وجميع ما تضمنته الألواح مشتمل على سبعة أنواع من المقتضيات الإلهية على عدد الألواح: فاللوح الأول النور، والثاني الهدى — قال الله تعالى: «إنا أنزلنا التوراة فيها هدى ونور يحكم بها النبيون» — والثالث الحكمة، والرابع القوى، والخامس الحكم، والسادس العبودية، والسابع وضوح طريق السعادة من طريق الشقاوة وتبيين ما هو الأولى.
All that the tablets contained comprises seven kinds of divine requisites, on the number of the tablets: the first tablet is Light; the second, Guidance — God said, “We sent down the Torah, in which is guidance and light, by which the prophets judged” (5:44); the third, Wisdom; the fourth, the Powers; the fifth, the Rulings; the sixth, Servanthood; the seventh, the clarifying of the path of felicity from the path of wretchedness, and the showing of what is more fitting.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
اعلم أن التوراة عبارةٌ عن تجليات الأسماء الصفاتية، وذلك ظهورُ الحق سبحانه وتعالى في المظاهر الحقية؛ فإن الحق تعالى نصب الأسماء أدلةً على صفاته، وجعل الصفات دليلاً على ذاته في مظاهره. والتورية في اللغة: حملُ المعنى على أبعد المفهومين؛ فالحق عند العارفين حقيقةُ ذواتهم، فهم المراد به، وهذا اللسان هو لسانُ الإشارة في التوراة.
Know that the Torah is an expression for the self-disclosures of the Names of the Attributes — that is, the appearing of the Real (glory and exaltation be His) in the loci of His truth; for the Real set up the Names as indicators of His Attributes, and made the Attributes an indicator of His Essence in His loci of manifestation. And tawriya, in the language, is the carrying of a meaning to the farther of two senses; so the Real, for the knowers, is the very reality of their own selves — they are what is meant by Him. This is the tongue of allusion in the Torah.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)

Bāb 37 — al-Zabūr (The Psalms: the Attributes of the Acts)

الزبور لفظةٌ سريانيةٌ بمعنى الكتاب، واستعملها العربُ حتى أنزل الله: «وكل شيء فعلوه في الزبر»، أي في الكتب. وأُنزل الزبور على داود آياتٍ مفصّلات. واعلم أن كل كتاب أُنزل على نبيٍّ ما جُعل فيه من العلوم إلا قدرَ ما يعلمه ذلك النبي، حكمةً إلهيةً لئلا يجهل النبيُّ ما أتى به؛ فالكتب يتميز بعضها على بعض في الأفضلية بقدر تميُّز المُرسَل بها على غيره عند الله، ولهذا كان القرآنُ أفضلَ كتب الله المنزَّلة لأن محمداً صلى الله عليه وسلم كان أفضل المرسلين.
Zabūr is a Syriac word meaning “book,” which the Arabs took into use — until God sent down, “and everything they did is in the scriptures (al-zubur)” (54:52), that is, in the books. The Zabūr was sent down upon David as detailed verses. And know that every book sent down upon a prophet was given of the sciences only the measure that prophet knew — a divine wisdom, lest the prophet be ignorant of what he brought. So the Books are distinguished one over another in excellence, by the measure of the excellence, in God’s sight, of the one sent with each over the others; and for this the Qurʾān is the most excellent of God’s sent-down Books, because Muḥammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) was the most excellent of the messengers.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
واعلم أن الزبور في الإشارة عبارةٌ عن تجليات صفات الأفعال، والتوراة عبارةٌ عن تجليات جملة أسماء الصفات فقط، والإنجيل عبارةٌ عن تجليات أسماء الذات فقط، والفرقان عبارةٌ عن تجليات جملة الصفات والأسماء مطلقةِ الذاتية والصفاتية، والقرآن عبارةٌ عن الذات المحض.
And know that the Zabūr, in its inner allusion, is an expression for the self-disclosures of the Attributes of the Acts; the Torah, an expression for the self-disclosures of the whole of the Names of the Attributes alone; the Gospel, an expression for the self-disclosures of the Names of the Essence alone; the Furqān, an expression for the self-disclosures of the whole of the Attributes and Names, the essential and the attributive without restriction; and the Qurʾān, an expression for the pure Essence.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
وكون الزبور عبارةً عن تجليات صفات الأفعال فإنه تفصيل التفاريع الفعلية الاقتدارية الإلهية، ولذلك كان داود عليه السلام خليفةً على العالم، فكان يُسيِّر الجبال الراسيات ويُلين الحديد ويحكم على أنواع المخلوقات. وإليه الإشارة في قوله تعالى: «ولقد كتبنا في الزبور من بعد الذكر أن الأرض يرثها عبادي الصالحون»، يعني الصالحين للوراثة الإلهية.
And since the Zabūr is an expression for the self-disclosures of the Attributes of the Acts, it is the detailing of the active, all-powerful divine ramifications — and for this David (peace be upon him) was a vicegerent (khalīfa) over the world: he set the firm mountains moving, softened iron, and ruled over the kinds of creatures. To this points His saying, “And We wrote in the Zabūr, after the Reminder, that the earth shall be inherited by My righteous servants” (21:105) — meaning those fit for the divine inheritance.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)

Bāb 38 — al-Injīl (The Gospel: the Names of the Essence)

أنزل الله الإنجيلَ على عيسى باللغة السريانية، وأوّلُ الإنجيل «باسم الأب والأم والابن»، كما أن أول القرآن «بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم». فأخذ قومُه هذا الكلام على ظاهره، فظنوا أن الأب والأم والابن عبارةٌ عن الروح ومريم وعيسى، فحينئذٍ قالوا: إن الله ثالثُ ثلاثة. ولم يعلموا أن المراد بالأب هو اسم الله، وبالأم كُنهُ الذات المعبَّر عنها بماهية الحقائق، وبالابن الكتابُ، وهو الوجود المطلق لأنه فرعٌ ونتيجةٌ عن ماهية الكُنه؛ قال الله تعالى: «وعنده أم الكتاب».
God sent the Gospel down upon Jesus in the Syriac tongue, and the Gospel’s opening is “In the name of the Father, the Mother, and the Son,” just as the Qurʾān’s opening is “In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Compassionate.” His people took this saying upon its outward sense, and supposed that the Father, the Mother, and the Son were an expression for the Spirit, Mary, and Jesus — and then they said: “God is the third of three.” They did not know that what is meant by “the Father” is the name Allāh; by “the Mother,” the inmost of the Essence, expressed as the quiddity of the realities; and by “the Son,” the Book, which is Absolute Existence, for it is a branch and a result of the inmost quiddity. God said: “and with Him is the Mother of the Book” (13:39).
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
وإليه أشار عيسى بقوله: «ما قلت لهم إلا ما أمرتني به» — أن أبلّغه إياهم — ثم قال: «أن اعبدوا الله ربي وربكم»، لينتفيَ ما توهّموه أنه هو الربُّ وأمُّه والروح. فلما بلّغهم كلامَه حملوه على ما ظهر لهم، فكان شِركُهم عينَ التوحيد، لأنهم فعلوا ما علموه بالإخبار الإلهي في أنفسهم، فمثلُهم كمثل المجتهد الذي اجتهد فأخطأ فله أجرُ الاجتهاد. فطلب عيسى لقومه المغفرةَ بقوله: «إن تغفر لهم فإنك أنت العزيز الحكيم»، ولم يقل «إن تعذبهم فإنك شديد العقاب»، بل ذكر المغفرة، لأنهم لم يخرجوا عن الحق فيما فهموه. وقال: «فإنهم عبادك»، فشهد لهم عيسى أنهم عباد الله. ولذلك قال الله عقيب هذا الكلام: «هذا يوم ينفع الصادقين صدقهم».
To this Jesus pointed in his words, “I said to them only what You commanded me” — that I convey it to them — then he said, “that you worship God, my Lord and your Lord” (5:117), so as to negate what they had supposed: that he was the Lord, and his mother, and the Spirit. But when he had conveyed his speech to them, they bore it upon what appeared to them; so their associationism (shirk) was the very essence of the affirmation of oneness (ʿayn al-tawḥīd) — for they acted upon what they knew by the divine address within themselves, and their likeness is the likeness of the diligent jurist (mujtahid) who exerts himself and errs, and has the reward of his exertion. And so Jesus sought pardon for his people: “If You forgive them, then You are the Mighty, the Wise” (5:118); he did not say “If You punish them, then You are severe in punishment,” but mentioned pardon, because they had not departed from the truth in what they understood. And he said, “for they are Your servants” — bearing witness for them that they are God’s servants. Therefore God said, just after this speech: “This is the day on which the truthful are profited by their truthfulness” (5:119).
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
فكان الإنجيلُ عبارةً عن تجليات أسماء الذات. وأما خطؤهم فكونهم ذهبوا إلى حصر ذلك في عيسى ومريم وروح القدس؛ وأما ضلالُهم فكونهم قالوا بالتجسيم المطلق والتشبيه المقيَّد في هذه الواحدية، وليس من حكمها ما قالوه على التقييد. وعلى الحقيقة ما قام بما في الإنجيل إلا المحمديون، لأن الإنجيل بكماله في آية من آيات القرآن، وهو قوله تعالى: «ونفخت فيه من روحي»؛ ثم أيّده بقوله: «سنريهم آياتنا في الآفاق وفي أنفسهم حتى يتبين لهم أنه الحق»، وقوله: «فأينما تولوا فثم وجه الله». والله يقول الحق وهو يهدي السبيل.
So the Gospel is an expression for the self-disclosures of the Names of the Essence. As for their error: it was that they went to restricting (ḥaṣr) that disclosure to Jesus, Mary, and the Holy Spirit. As for their straying: it was that they spoke of absolute corporealization (tajsīm) and a restricted likening (tashbīh muqayyad) within this oneness — and what they said by way of delimitation is not among its rulings. In reality, none fulfilled what is in the Gospel except the Muḥammadans, for the Gospel in its perfection is in a single verse of the Qurʾān: His saying, “and I breathed into him of My spirit” (15:29). Then He confirmed it with His saying, “We shall show them Our signs upon the horizons and within themselves, until it is clear to them that it is the Real” (41:53), and His saying, “wherever you turn, there is the Face of God” (2:115). And God speaks the truth, and He guides the way.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
An orientation

This edition sets the verbatim original-language text beside a fresh English rendering and a critical apparatus: a running commentary on the passage, notes on the controlled vocabulary and the rendering chosen for each term, and cross-references to the lexicon and to related sections. It is a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor.

Apparatus
Tradition
islamic-sufism
Language
Arabic
Period
early 15th c. (author d. c. 1408-1428 CE)
Attribution
ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (b. 767 AH / 1365 CE; d. c. 826-832 AH / 1422-1428 CE)
Translator
Hekhal Targum Project (machine-assisted draft; pending scholarly review)
License
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Provenance
The underlying text is in the public domain by age. The original-language text is reproduced verbatim from an openly-licensed digital transcription (credited on the page), and this English rendering and its apparatus are a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor.
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ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (b. 767 AH / 1365 CE; d. c. 826-832 AH / 1422-1428 CE). "al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 36-38 -- The Three Prior Books (Torah, Psalms, Gospel)." Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition. Last modified May 2, 2026. https://hekhal.org/texts/jili-insan-al-kamil-bab-36-38-prior-books-targum.