al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 44 -- The Two Feet and the Two Sandals (al-Qadamayn wa-l-Naʿlayn)
full parallel manuscript · complete bitext
الإنسان الكامل · في القدمين والنعلين
The complete chapter on the Two Feet and the Two Sandals (al-Qadamayn wa-l-Naʿlayn), rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line. al-Jīlī reads the “two feet” of the anthropomorphic reports as two opposed essential rulings of the Essence (origination and pre-eternity, likening and transcendence), and the “two sandals” as the opposed descriptions that pass over into the creatures (mercy and vengeance, wrath and good-pleasure). On this he unlocks the Fire-foot hadith and, finally, the two “form” hadith — read literally in wording but “on the condition of divine transcendence, exalted above corporealization and likening.”
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 — including the flags on the three anthropomorphic hadith and al-Jīlī’s own tanzīh caveat. Digital-draft edition: two-witness collated, glossary-locked, labeled AI-assisted with editor review pending.
الباب الرابع والأربعون في القدمين والنعلين
Chapter Forty-Four: On the Two Feet and the Two Sandals (al-Qadamayn wa-l-Naʿlayn)
اعلم هدانا الله وإياك، وآتاك من الحكمة ما آتانا أن القدمين عبارة عن حكمين ذاتيين متضادين.
Know -- may God guide us and you, and give you of wisdom what He has given us -- that the Two Feet are an expression for two opposed essential rulings.
glossary: qadamayn-nalayn, dhat
وهما من جملة الذات بل هما عين الذات، وهذان الحكمان، هما ما ترتبت الذات عليهما كالحدوث والقدم والحقية والخلقية والوجود والعدم والتناهي وعدم التناهي والتشبيه والتنزيه وأمثال ذلك.
And the two of them are of the totality of the Essence -- nay, they are the very Essence; and these two rulings are those upon which the Essence is ordered, like origination and pre-eternity, Real-ness and created-ness, existence and non-existence, finitude and the absence of finitude, likening (tashbīh) and transcendence (tanzīh), and the likes of that.
glossary: dhat, tashbih, tanzih
مما هو للذات من حيث عينها ومن حيث حكمها الذي هو لها ولذلك عبر عن هذا الأمر، لأن القدمين من جملة الصورة.
[All] of what belongs to the Essence from the standpoint of its very self and from the standpoint of its ruling that is [proper] to it; and for this [reason] this matter is expressed [thus], because the Two Feet are of the totality of the form.
glossary: dhat, qadamayn-nalayn
وأما النعلان فالوصفان المتضادان كالرحمة والنقمة والغضب والرضا وأمثال ذلك، والفرق بين القدمين والنعلين
And as for the Two Sandals, [they are] the two opposed descriptions, like mercy and vengeance, wrath and good-pleasure, and the likes of that. And the difference between the Two Feet and the Two Sandals
glossary: qadamayn-nalayn
أن القدمين عبارة عن المتضادات المخصوصة بالذات، والنعلان عبارة عن المتضادات المتعدية إلى المخلوقات.
is that the Two Feet are an expression for the contraries proper to the Essence, and the Two Sandals are an expression for the contraries that pass over to the creatures.
glossary: qadamayn-nalayn, dhat
يعني أنها تطلب الأثر في المخلوقات، فهي نعلان تحت القدمين، لأن الصفات العقلية تحت الصفات الذاتية.
Meaning that they seek the trace in the creatures, so they are two sandals beneath the Two Feet, because the intellectual descriptions are beneath the essential descriptions.
glossary: qadamayn-nalayn, sifat
وكون النعلين من ذهب، هو نفس طلبها للأثر، فهي ذاهبة:
And the being of the Two Sandals of gold is the very seeking of the trace by them, so they are going (dhāhiba):
glossary: qadamayn-nalayn
أي سارية الحكم في الموجودات، فلها الحكم في كل موجود وجد، بأي نوع كان من الموجودات.
that is, their ruling pervades the existents, so they have the ruling in every existent that exists, of whatever kind of the existents it be.
وإذا علمت معنى النعلين وعلمت المراد بالقدمين، ظهر لك سر الحديث النبوي وهو أن الجبار يضع قدمه في النار فتقول: قط قط، وأنها تفنى حينئذ، فينبت موضعها شجر الجرجير، أو كما قال.
And when you have known the meaning of the Two Sandals and known what is intended by the Two Feet, the secret of the Prophetic hadith appears to you -- namely, that the Compeller (al-Jabbār) sets His foot in the Fire, and it says: "Enough, enough" (qaṭ qaṭ), and that it is annihilated thereupon, so that in its place grows the rocket-plant (shajar al-jarjīr) -- or as he said.
glossary: qadamayn-nalayn The 'foot in the Fire' hadith (cf. Bukhārī 4848 / Muslim 2848); the rocket-plant detail is al-Jīlī's version. Sound in the canonical collections; the anthropomorphic 'foot' is read by al-Jīlī through the qadamayn doctrine and the tanzīh caveat. Flagged for grading.
وسنومئ إلى ذلك في آخر الكتاب في الباب الذي نذكر فيه جهنم، حسبما أمكن من التصريح أو الكناية، فافهم هذا المعنى.
And we shall hint at that at the end of the book, in the chapter in which we mention Hell, as far as is possible of declaration or allusion. So understand this meaning.
The forward reference lands in Bāb 61 (the eschatology), where the cessation of the Fire is treated.
واعلم أن الرب له في كل موجود وجه كامل، وذلك الوجه على صورة روح ذلك الموجود، وروح ذلك الموجود على صورة محسوسة وجسد.
And know that the Lord has, in every existent, a complete Face, and that Face is upon the form of the spirit of that existent, and the spirit of that existent is upon a sensory form and a body.
وهذا الأمر للرب أمر ذاتي، استوجبه لذاته، لا ينتفي عنه باعتبار، لأنه ما ثبت له باعتبار.
And this matter, for the Lord, is an essential matter, which He merits for His Essence; it is not negated from Him by [any] regard, because it is not established for Him by [any] regard.
glossary: dhat
لأن كل ما نسب إلى الحق باعتبار تنتفي تلك النسبة عنه بضد ذلك الاعتبار.
Because everything that is attributed to the Real by [some] regard, that attribution is negated from Him by the contrary of that regard.
وكل ما نسب إليه لا باعتبار، فإنه لا تنتفي نسبته عنه بشيء من الاعتبارات، فافهم ذلك.
And everything attributed to Him not by [some] regard -- its attribution is not negated from Him by any of the regards. So understand that.
وإذا كان الأمر فإن كان كذلك، كانت الصورة للرب أمرا ذاتيا، وإلى ذلك الإشارة في قوله:
And since the matter is so -- if it is thus -- the form, for the Lord, is an essential matter; and to that is the pointing in his saying:
«خلق آدم على صورة الرحمن» وقوله: «خلق آدم على صورته».
"God created Adam upon the form of the All-Merciful," and his saying: "God created Adam upon His form."
glossary: asma The two 'form' hadith. "Khalaqa llāhu Ādama ʿalā ṣūratihi" is sound (Bukhārī 6227 / Muslim 2841); the "ʿalā ṣūrat al-Raḥmān" variant is contested in its wording and grading. Both are central to the anthropomorphism debates; al-Jīlī reads them literally but under tanzīh (§19). Flagged for grading and framed.
وهذان الحديثان وإن كانا يقتضيان معاني قد تحدثنا عليهما في كتابنا المسمى
And these two hadith, even though they require meanings that we have discussed in our book named
«الكهف والرقيم في شرح بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم» فإن الكشف أعطانا أنهما على ظاهر اللفظ، كما أشرنا إليه أولا ولكن بشرط التنزيه الإلهي، تعالى عن التجسيم والتمثيل،
"al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm fī sharḥ Bismillāh al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm" -- the unveiling gave us that they are upon the outward [literal] sense of the wording, as we pointed to first, but on the condition of the divine transcendence (tanzīh), [He being] exalted above corporealization (tajsīm) and likening (tamthīl),
glossary: kashf, tanzih, tashbih al-Jīlī names his own commentary on the Basmala (al-Kahf wa-l-Raqīm) and supplies, in his own voice, the tanzīh guardrail that governs the whole anthropomorphic-hadith reading: literal in wording, but exalted above corporealization and likening.
والله يقول الحق وهو يهدي السبيل.
And God says the truth, and He guides to the way.
Collation. Two-witness collated as part of the cosmic-symbol cluster (Bāb 41-44), 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. No verse citations in this chapter. Three hadith (the Compeller's foot in the Fire; 'God created Adam upon the form of the All-Merciful'; 'God created Adam upon His form') are rendered and flagged; al-Jīlī reads the form-hadith literally but 'on the condition of divine transcendence' (§19).