al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 39 -- The Descent of the Real (Nuzūl al-Ḥaqq)
full parallel manuscript · complete bitext
الإنسان الكامل · في نزول الحق إلى سماء الدنيا
The complete chapter on the Descent of the Real (Nuzūl al-Ḥaqq), rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line. al-Jīlī takes the descent hadith — “God descends, in the last third of every night, to the lowest heaven” — one of the most anthropomorphic-seeming reports in the tradition, and reads it on three ascending registers: the descent as the Real’s appearing in every atom (the night, the lowest heaven, and the last third as the threefold Kingdom / Dominion / Omnipotence of each thing); as the appearing of the Essence “in the latter parts” of each disclosed Attribute; and, in regard to the Perfect Ones, as the divine tasting that pervades the saint until “the Real is his outward, while He is the Inward.”
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, the verified Qurʾān locus, and the flagged hadith — to each segment. Digital-draft edition: two-witness collated, glossary-locked, Qurʾān-verified, labeled AI-assisted with editor review pending.
الباب التاسع والثلاثون في نزول الحق جل جلاله إلى سماء الدنيا في الثلث الأخير من كل ليلة
Chapter Thirty-Nine: On the Descent of the Real (mighty is His Majesty) to the lowest heaven in the last third of every night
وقوله صلى الله عليه وسلم: إن الله ينزل في الثلث الأخير من كل ليلة إلى سماء الدنيا فيقول: «هل هل» حديث صحيح مسلم.
And his saying (God bless him and grant him peace): "God descends, in the last third of every night, to the lowest heaven, and says: Is there [any...]? Is there [any...]?" -- a sound hadith [in] Muslim.
glossary: nuzul The descent hadith (ḥadīth al-nuzūl), sound (Bukhārī 1145 / Muslim 758). A focus of the anthropomorphism debates; al-Jīlī reads it through tanzīh-in-tashbīh (§9). Rendered in his voice, framed.
الحديث يدل بإشارته إلى ظهور الحق سبحانه وتعالى في كل ذرة من ذرات الوجود، فالمراد بالليلة هي الظلمة الخلقية.
The hadith indicates, by its allusion, the appearing of the Real (glory be His and exalted) in every atom of the atoms of existence. So what is intended by "the night" is the created darkness.
والمراد بسماء الدنيا ظاهر وجود الخلق، وبالثلث الأخير حقيقته، لأن كل شيء من أشياء الوجود مقسم بين ثلاثة أقسام:
And what is intended by "the lowest heaven" is the outward of the existence of creation; and by "the last third," its reality -- because everything of the things of existence is divided among three divisions:
قسم ظاهر ويسمى بالملك.
a division [that is] outward, called the Kingdom (al-mulk);
glossary: mulk-malakut-jabarut
وقسم باطن ويسمى بالملكوت.
and a division [that is] inward, called the Dominion (al-malakūt);
glossary: mulk-malakut-jabarut
والقسم الثالث القسم الجبروت.
and the third division, the division of the Omnipotence (al-jabarūt).
glossary: mulk-malakut-jabarut
هو المنزه عن القسم الملكي والملكوتي فهو الإلهي المعبر عنه القسم الجبروتي بالثلث الأخير بلسان الإشارة في هذا الحديث.
It is [the division] transcendent above the Kingdom-division and the Dominion-division; so it is the divine [division], expressed -- the Omnipotence-division -- as "the last third," by the tongue of allusion, in this hadith.
glossary: mulk-malakut-jabarut, tanzih
ولا انقسام لأن الشيء الواحد إذا اعتبرت عدم انقسامه لا بد أن تتعقل له ظاهرا وهو صورته، وباطنا وهو نفسه، ولا بد أن يكون له حقيقة يقوم بها، فظهرت الإشارة بالثلث الأخير، فتنزل الحق هو ظهوره بتنزيهه في نفس التشبيه الخلقي.
And there is no [real] division -- for the single thing, if you consider its non-division, you must [still] conceive for it an outward, which is its form, and an inward, which is its self; and it must have a reality by which it subsists. So the allusion by "the last third" appeared; and the descent of the Real is His appearing by His transcendence (tanzīh) in the very created likening (tashbīh).
glossary: tanzih, tashbih al-Jīlī's own guardrail: the descent is no spatial motion but 'His appearing by His transcendence in the very created likening' -- the tanzīh that governs the reading of the anthropomorphic hadith.
ولهذا الحديث اعتبار آخر بإشارة أخرى أعلى من هذه الإشارة الأولى.
And this hadith has another consideration, by another allusion, higher than this first allusion.
وذلك أن تعلم أن المراد بالثلث الأخير هو الصفة الإلهية التي تجلى بها على عبده.
And that is that you know that what is intended by "the last third" is the divine Attribute by which He discloses Himself to His servant.
glossary: sifat, tajalli
فحقيقة ظهور الذات إنما هو في أواخر تلك الصفة لا في مبدئها ولا في أوسطها، وهذا أمر ذوقي لا يعرف إلا بالكشف.
So the reality of the appearing of the Essence is only in the latter [parts] of that Attribute -- not in its beginning nor in its middle; and this is a tasting-matter, known only by unveiling (kashf).
glossary: dhat, sifat, kashf
أعني ظهور الذات في أواخر ظهور الصفة، ولا انتهاء الشيء من الصفات، وهذا الانتهاء هو حكم الذات.
I mean the appearing of the Essence in the latter [parts] of the appearing of the Attribute, and [in] the ending of the thing's [coming-forth] from the Attributes; and this ending is the ruling of the Essence.
glossary: dhat, sifat
فظهرت الذات في الثلث الأخير ليلة الصفات.
So the Essence appeared in the last third of the night of the Attributes.
glossary: dhat, sifat
وقوله: «إلى السماء الدنيا» يعني إلى صفاته التي عرفه بها خلقه في الأسماء وهم الدنيا، لأن له الصفات العلا، وهم لهم العبودية، فهي الدنيا من الدناءة، وأسماؤه هي سماؤه الدنيا التي قامت بها عبوديتهم.
And His saying "to the lowest heaven" means: to His Attributes by which His creation knew Him among the Names -- and they are "the lowest" (al-dunyā), because His are the lofty Attributes and theirs is servanthood, so it is "the lowest" (al-dunyā), from lowness (al-danāʾa); and His Names are His "lowest heaven" (samāʾuhu al-dunyā) by which their servanthood subsisted.
glossary: sifat, asma
فالحاصل من هذه الاعتبارات أن الحق سبحانه وتعالى يظهر على عباده في صفاته التي عرفوه بها عند تناهي ظهور تلك الصفات.
So the upshot of these considerations is that the Real (glory be His and exalted) appears to His servants in His Attributes by which they knew Him, at the ending of the appearing of those Attributes.
glossary: sifat
يعني أنهم قبل كمال ظهور تلك الصفة معها لا معه، فإذا أخذت في تناهي الظهور كانوا مع ذاته لا مع صفاته فافهم.
Meaning that, before the completion of the appearing of that Attribute, they are with it, not with Him; so when it takes to the ending of [its] appearing, they are with His Essence, not with His Attributes. So understand.
glossary: dhat, sifat
ولهذا الحديث إشارة أخرى بطريق السر وهي في حق الكمل، وذلك إذا علمت أن المراد بالليلة الذات الإلهية، وبالثلث الأخير كمال المعرفة الجائزة للذات.
And this hadith has another allusion, by way of the secret, and it is in regard to the Perfect Ones (al-kummal). And that is when you know that what is intended by "the night" is the divine Essence, and by "the last third" the perfection of the knowing of the Essence that is permissible.
glossary: insan-al-kamil, dhat
لأن للحق تعالى معرفتين:
Because the Real (exalted is He) has two [kinds of] knowing:
معرفة يجوز أن يدرك كمالها.
a knowing whose perfection may be apprehended,
ومعرفة لا يجوز أن يدرك كمالها.
and a knowing whose perfection may not be apprehended.
وقولي إن كمال المعرفة الجائزة هو المراد بالثلث الأخير، لأن للولي ثلاث معارف بالله:
And my saying that the perfection of the permissible knowing is what is intended by "the last third" [is] because the saint (walī) has three knowings of God:
المعرفة الأولى هي:
The first knowing is:
«من عرف نفسه فقد عرف ربه» وقد سبق بيانه فيما مضى.
"whoever knows himself knows his Lord" -- and its exposition has [already] preceded.
A widely-cited Sufi maxim, attributed to the Prophet but graded weak / not established as a hadith; flagged.
والمعرفة الثانية معرفة الألوهية وهي تعرف الذات جمالها من الصفات، وهذه المعرفة بعد معرفة الرب المقيدة بمعرفة النفس.
And the second knowing is the knowing of Divinity, and it is that the Essence knows its beauty from the Attributes; and this knowing is after the knowing of the Lord [that is] restricted by the knowing of the self.
glossary: dhat, sifat
والمعرفة الثالثة هو الذوق الإلهي الذي يسري في وجود العبد فينزل بها في حقه من غيبه إلى شهادته.
And the third knowing is the divine tasting (al-dhawq al-ilāhī) that pervades the existence of the servant; so He descends by it, in [the servant's] regard, from His unseen to His witnessed [domain].
يعني تظهر آثار الربوبية في جسده فيكون يده لها القدرة، ولسانه له التكوين، ورجله له الخطوة، وعينه لا يحجب عنها شيء، وسمعه يصغي به إلى كل متكلم في الوجود.
Meaning: the traces of Lordship appear in his body, so his hand has [the divine] power, his tongue has [the divine] bringing-into-being, his foot has the [divine] step, his eye -- nothing is veiled from it, and his ear -- by it he gives ear to every speaker in existence.
glossary: qudra
وإلى هذا المعنى أشار عليه الصلاة والسلام بقوله: «حتى أكون سمعه الذي يسمع به، وبصره الذي يبصر به» الحديث، فيكون الحق ظاهره وهو الباطن.
And to this meaning he (peace be upon him) pointed by his saying: "until I am the hearing by which he hears, and the sight by which he sees" -- the hadith. So the Real is his outward, while He is the Inward.
The ḥadīth al-nawāfil (Bukhārī 6502), sound; flagged for grading.
فالحاصل من هذا الكلام:
So the upshot of this discourse is:
أن المراد بنزول الرب ظهور آثاره وصفاته التي هي من مقتضيات الربوبية، والمراد بسماء الدنيا ظاهر جسم الولي.
that what is intended by "the descent of the Lord" is the appearing of His traces and Attributes which are of the requisites of Lordship; and what is intended by "the lowest heaven" is the outward of the body of the saint.
glossary: nuzul, sifat
والثلث الأخير المعرفة الذوقية الإلهية السارية في وجود العبد التي بها يصح محقه وبها يتم سحقه، فيتحقق حقه.
And "the last third" is the tasting, divine knowing that pervades the existence of the servant -- by which his effacement (maḥq) is made valid and by which his crushing (saḥq) is completed, so that his [true] right is realized.
والمراد بقوله: «في كل ليلة» من كل ظهور ذاتي في كل ولي إلهي فافهم.
And what is intended by His saying "in every night" is: of every essential appearing in every divine saint. So understand.
glossary: dhat
ولا تخرج العبارة في الحديث بما أشرنا إليه عن ظاهر مفهوم الحديث بل تحقق بما نبهناك عليه.
And the expression in the hadith does not depart, by what we have pointed to, from the outward sense of the hadith; rather, realize what we have alerted you to.
ولا تترك أيضا ظاهر مفهوم الحديث، فإن كلامه صلى الله عليه وسلم يحتوي على أسرار لا تتناهى، ولكلامه ظاهر وباطن، ولكل باطن ظاهر، ولكل ظاهر باطن إلى سبعة بطون.
And do not leave the outward sense of the hadith either, for his speech (God bless him and grant him peace) contains secrets without end; and his speech has an outward and an inward, and every inward has an outward, and every outward an inward, to seven inner [depths].
كما قال صلى الله عليه وسلم: إن للقرآن سبعة بطون وكلامه شعبة من كلام الله تعالى، لأنه لا ينطق عن الهوى: «إن هو إلا وحي يوحى»، وشرف وعظم، ومجد وكرم.
As he (God bless him and grant him peace) said: "The Qurʾān has seven inner meanings"; and his speech is a branch of the speech of God (exalted is He), because "he does not speak from caprice: it is naught but a revelation revealed" (53:3-4) -- and [he is] ennobled and magnified, glorified and honored.
Qurʾān 53:3: al-Najm 53:3-4, verbatim glossary: quran-ontological The 'seven inner meanings (buṭūn) of the Qurʾān' is a widely-circulated saying of contested grade (often traced to Ibn Masʿūd as a statement, not a marfūʿ hadith); flagged.
Collation. Two-witness collated as part of the descent/Fātiḥa cluster (Bāb 39-40), staged 2026-06-02. No lossy drop. The witness-2 capture carried the site's navigation chrome above the text; only the genuine chapter is rendered.
Qurʾān. One locus, verified verbatim: al-Najm 53:3-4 (he does not speak from caprice; it is naught but a revelation revealed). The chapter expounds the descent hadith (ḥadīth al-nuzūl, Bukhārī 1145 / Muslim 758, sound) and cites the ḥadīth al-nawāfil (Bukhārī 6502, sound); two sayings ('whoever knows himself knows his Lord'; 'the Qurʾān has seven inner meanings') are flagged as contested/non-canonical.