al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 53 -- The First Intellect (al-ʿAql al-Awwal)
full parallel manuscript · complete bitext
الإنسان الكامل · في العقل الأول
The complete chapter on the First Intellect (al-ʿAql al-Awwal), rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line. al-Jīlī distinguishes three intellects — the First Intellect (the Supreme Pen, “the Clear Leader,” which “receives from the Real by itself”), the Universal Intellect (the “upright scale” that reads the Guarded Tablet), and the everyday intellect (ʿaql al-maʿāsh, which weighs only “by the canon of thought,” with one pan and one measure). On this he mounts a sharp polemic against “the conjecturers” (al-kharrāṣūn) who weigh divine matters by mere discursive reason — the intellect knows God “only by the light of faith” — and closes by deriving Jibrīl himself from the Muhammadan First Intellect, so that “Muhammad was a father to Jibrīl, and a root for the whole world.”
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الباب الثالث والخمسون في العقل الأول وأنه محتد جبريل عليه السلام من محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم
Chapter Fifty-Three: On the First Intellect (al-ʿAql al-Awwal), and that it is the wellspring of Jibrīl (peace be upon him) from Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace)
اعلم وفقنا الله وإياك ودلك على نفسك وإلى التحقيق به هداك.
Know -- may God grant us and you success, and direct you to your [own] self and guide you to the realizing of it --
أن العقل الأول هو محل الشكل العلمي الإلهي في الوجود.
that the First Intellect is the place of the divine knowledge-form (al-shakl al-ʿilmī al-ilāhī) in existence.
glossary: aql-awwal
لأنه القلم الأعلى ثم ينزل منه العلم إلى اللوح المحفوظ، فهو إجمال اللوح واللوح تفصيله.
Because it is the Supreme Pen; then knowledge descends from it to the Guarded Tablet, so it is the summary [version] of the Tablet, and the Tablet is its detailing.
glossary: qalam-ala, lawh-mahfuz
بل هو تفصيل علم الإجمال الإلهي واللوح هو محل تعينه وتنزله.
Nay, it is the detailing of the knowledge of the divine summary, and the Tablet is the place of its determination and its descent.
glossary: lawh-mahfuz
ثم في العقل الأول من الأسرار الإلهية ما لا يسعه اللوح، كما أن في العلم الإلهي ما لا يكون العقل الأول محلا له، فالعلم الإلهي هو أم الكتاب.
Then, in the First Intellect, of the divine secrets, is what the Tablet cannot hold -- just as, in the divine Knowledge, is what the First Intellect is not a place for; so the divine Knowledge is the Mother of the Book (umm al-kitāb).
glossary: aql-awwal, lawh-mahfuz, umm-al-kitab
والعقل الأول هو الإمام المبين، واللوح هو الكتاب المبين فاللوح مأموم بالقلم تابع له، والقلم الذي هو العقل الأول حاكم على اللوح مفصل للقضايا المجملة في دولة العلم الإلهي المعبر عنها بالنون.
And the First Intellect is the Clear Leader (al-imām al-mubīn), and the Tablet is the Clear Book (al-kitāb al-mubīn); so the Tablet is led by the Pen, following it, and the Pen -- which is the First Intellect -- rules over the Tablet, detailing the summarized matters in the realm of the divine Knowledge expressed by the [letter] Nūn.
glossary: aql-awwal, qalam-ala, lawh-mahfuz, qada-qadar
والفرق بين العقل الأول والعقل الكلي وعقل المعاش.
And the difference between the First Intellect, the Universal Intellect, and the everyday intellect [is]:
glossary: aql-awwal
أن الفعل الأول هو نور علم إلهي ظهر في أول تنزلاته التعيينية الخلقية، وإن شئت قلت أول تفصيل الإجمال الإلهي.
that the First [Intellect] is a light of divine knowledge that appeared in the first of its created, determining descents -- and if you wish, say: the first detailing of the divine summary.
glossary: aql-awwal
ولهذا قال عليه الصلاة والسلام: «إن أول ما خلق الله العقل»، فهو أقرب الحقائق الخلقية إلى الحقائق الإلهية، ثم إن العقل الكلي هو القسطاس المستقيم، فهو ميزان العدل في قبة اللوح الفصل. وبالجملة فالعقل الكلي هو العاقلة: أي المدركة النورية التي ظهر بها صور العلوم المودعة في العقل الأول، لا كما يقول من ليس له معرفة بهذه الأمور.
And for this he (peace be upon him) said: "Truly the first thing God created was the intellect"; so it is the nearest of the created realities to the divine realities. Then the Universal Intellect (al-ʿaql al-kullī) is the upright scale (al-qisṭās al-mustaqīm), so it is the balance of justice in the dome of the deciding Tablet. And in sum, the Universal Intellect is the reasoning-faculty (al-ʿāqila): that is, the luminous apprehending [faculty] by which the forms of the sciences deposited in the First Intellect appeared -- not as one without knowledge of these matters says.
glossary: aql-awwal, qada-qadar, lawh-mahfuz Hadith 'awwal mā khalaqa llāhu l-ʿaql' -- widely cited but graded weak/forged (cf. Bāb 47); flagged.
لأن العقل الكلي عبارة عن شمول أفراد الجنس للعقل من كل ذي عاقلة وهذا منقوض، لأن العقل لا تعدد له، إذ هو جوهر فرد.
Because [to take] the Universal Intellect [to be] an expression for the comprehending of the individuals of the genus "intellect," from every possessor of a reasoning-faculty -- this is refuted, because the intellect has no multiplicity, since it is a single indivisible substance (jawhar fard).
glossary: jawhar-fard
وهو في المثل العنصر الأرواح الإنسانية والملكية والجنية، لا للأرواح البهيمية، ثم إن العقل المعاش هو النور الموزون بالقانون الفكري.
And it is, in the likeness, the element of the human, angelic, and jinn spirits -- not of the bestial spirits. Then the everyday intellect (ʿaql al-maʿāsh) is the light weighed by the canon of thought (al-qānūn al-fikrī).
glossary: fikr
فهو لا يدرك إلا بآلة الفكر ثم إدراكه بوجه من وجوه العقل الكلي فقط لا طريق له إلى العقل الأول، لأن العقل الأول منزه عن القيد بالقياس وعن الحصر بالقسطاس.
So it apprehends only by the instrument of thought; then its apprehending is by [only] one of the aspects of the Universal Intellect -- it has no way to the First Intellect, because the First Intellect is transcendent above the bond of analogy and the confinement of the scale [of discursive reason].
glossary: fikr, aql-awwal
بل هو محل صدور الوحي القدسي إلى مركز الروح النفسي. والعقل الكلي هو الميزان العدل للأمر الفصلي، وهو منزه عن الحصر بقانون دون غيره، بل وزنه للأشياء على كل معيار.
Rather, it is the place of the issuing of the holy revelation to the center of the self-spirit. And the Universal Intellect is the just balance for the deciding matter, and it is transcendent above being confined by one canon rather than another; rather its weighing of things is by every measure.
glossary: qada-qadar
وليس لعقل المعاش إلا معيار واحد وهو الفكر، وليست له إلا كفة واحدة وهي العادة، وليس له إلا طرف واحد وهو المعلوم، وليس له إلا شوكة واحدة وهي الطبيعة.
And the everyday intellect has only one measure, which is thought; and it has only one pan, which is habit; and it has only one extremity, which is the known; and it has only one prong, which is nature.
glossary: fikr
بخلاف العقل الكلي، فإن له كفتين إحداهما الحكمة، والثانية القدرة. وله طرفان: أحدهما الاقتضاءات الإلهية والثاني القوابل الطبيعية. وله شوكتان: إحداهما الإرادة الإلهية، والثانية المقتضيات الخلقية. وله معايير شتى. ومن جملة معايره أن لا معيار، ولهذا كان العقل الكلي هو القسطاس المستقيم، لأنه لا يحيف ولا يظلم.
Unlike the Universal Intellect, for it has two pans: one of them Wisdom, the second Power. And it has two extremities: one the divine requisites, the second the natural receptivities. And it has two prongs: one the divine Will, the second the created requisites. And it has various measures; and of its measures is that there is no measure -- and for this the Universal Intellect is the upright scale, because it does not deviate and does not wrong,
glossary: qudra, qada-qadar
على كفة واحدة ولا يفوته شيء بخلاف عقل المعاش فإنه قد يحيف ويفوته أشياء كثيرة وطرف واحد.
[weighing not] upon [just] one pan, and nothing escapes it -- unlike the everyday intellect, for it may deviate and many things may escape it, and [it has only] one extremity.
فقياس عقل المعاش لا على التصحيح، بل على سبيل الخرص.
So the analogy of the everyday intellect is not upon verification, but by way of conjecture (khars).
وقد قال الله تعالى: قتل الخراصون وهم الذين يزنون الأمور الإلهية بعقولهم فيبخسون، لأنهم لا ميزان لهم وإنما هم خراصون. والخرص بمعنى الفرض،
And God (exalted is He) said: "Perish the conjecturers" (51:10) -- and they are those who weigh the divine matters by their [discursive] intellects, so they fall short, because they have no balance; rather they are [mere] conjecturers. And conjecture (khars) has the meaning of supposition,
Qurʾān 51:10: al-Dhāriyāt 51:10, verbatim
فنسبة العقل الأول مثلا نسبة الشمس، ونسبة العقل الكلي نسبة الماء الذي وقع فيه نور الشمس، ونسبة عقل المعاش نسبة شعاع ذلك الماء إذا وقع على جدار.
So the relation of the First Intellect, for example, is the relation of the sun; and the relation of the Universal Intellect is the relation of the water upon which the light of the sun fell; and the relation of the everyday intellect is the relation of the ray of that water when it falls upon a wall.
glossary: aql-awwal
فالنظر مثلا في الماء يأخذ هيئة الشمس على صحة، ويأخذ نوره على جلية، كما لو رأى الشمس لا يكاد يظهر الفرق بينهما.
So looking, for example, into the water takes the form of the sun soundly, and takes its light clearly -- as though, were he to see the sun, the difference between the two would hardly appear.
إلا أن الناظر إلى الشمس يرفع رأسه إلى العلو، والناظر إلى الماء ينكس رأسه إلى أسفل، فكذلك العقل الكلي ينكس بنور قلبه إلى محل الكتاب، فيأخذ منه العلوم المتعلقة بالأكوان.
Except that the one looking at the sun raises his head upward, and the one looking at the water lowers his head downward; so likewise the Universal Intellect lowers, by the light of its heart, to the place of the Book, and takes from it the sciences connected to the existents.
glossary: qalb
وهو الحد الذي أودعه الله تعالى في اللوح المحفوظ.
And it is the limit that God (exalted is He) deposited in the Guarded Tablet.
glossary: lawh-mahfuz
بخلاف العقل الأول فإنه يتلقى عن الحق بنفسه.
Unlike the First Intellect, for it receives from the Real by itself.
glossary: aql-awwal
ثم إن العقل الكلي إذا أخذ من اللوح وهو الكتاب إنما يأخذ علمه إما بقانون الحكمة وإما بمعيار القدرة على قانون وغير قانون.
Then the Universal Intellect, when it takes from the Tablet -- which is the Book -- takes its knowledge either by the canon of Wisdom or by the measure of Power, by [some] canon or without [a] canon.
glossary: lawh-mahfuz, qudra
فهذا الاستقراء منه انتكاس، لأنه من اللوازم الخلقية الكلية لا يكاد يخطئ، إلا فيما استأثر الله به.
So this inductive [reading] from it is a lowering; because [the Tablet] is of the universal created necessities, [the Universal Intellect] hardly errs, except in what God has kept to Himself.
فإن الله إن أنزله إلى الوجود لا ينزله إلا إلى العقل الأول فقط، هكذا سنة الله فيما استأثر به من علومه، إلا أن لا يوجد في اللوح المحفوظ:
For God, if He sends it down to existence, sends it down only to the First Intellect -- thus is the way (sunna) of God in what He keeps to Himself of His sciences, [namely] that it is not [to be] found in the Guarded Tablet:
glossary: aql-awwal, lawh-mahfuz
واعلم أن العقل الكلي قد يستدرج به أهل الشقاوة فيفتح به عليهم في مجال أهويتهم لا في غيرها.
And know that the Universal Intellect may [serve to] lure on the people of wretchedness, so that it is opened to them in the field of their caprices, not in other than it.
فيظفرون على أسرار القدرة من تحت سجف الأكوان، والأفلاك والنور والضياء، وأمثال ذلك.
So they gain [insight] into the secrets of Power from beneath the curtains of the existents, the spheres, the light, the radiance, and the like of that.
glossary: qudra
فيذهبون إلى عبادة هذه الأشياء، وذلك بمكر الله بهم والنكتة فيه.
So they go to the worship of these things; and that is by God's stratagem with them, and the subtle point in it [is]:
أن الله سبحانه يتجلى في لباس هذه الأشياء التي يعبدونها فيدركها هؤلاء بالعقل الكلي فيقولون بأنها هي الفاعلة.
that God (glory be His) discloses Himself in the garb of these things which they worship, so these [people] apprehend [them] by the Universal Intellect and say that they are the agent[s].
glossary: tajalli
لأن العقل الكلي لا يتعدى الكون فلا يعرفون الله به.
Because the Universal Intellect does not pass beyond the cosmos, so they do not know God by it.
لأن العقل لا يعرف الله إلا بنور الإيمان، وإلا فلا يمكن أن يعرفه العقل من نظره وقيامه، سواء كان عقل معاش أو عقلا كليا.
Because the intellect does not know God except by the light of faith (nūr al-īmān); otherwise it is not possible that the intellect know Him by its consideration and its standing -- whether it be an everyday intellect or a Universal Intellect.
على أنه قد ذهب أئمتنا إلى أن العقل من أسباب المعرفة، وهذا من طريق التوسع لإقامة الحجة، وهو مذهبنا. غير أني أقول: إن هذه المعرفة المستفادة بالعقل منحصرة مقيدة بالدلائل والآثار، بخلاف معرفة الإيمان فإنها مطلقة، فمعرفة الإيمان متعلقة بالأسماء والصفات، ومعرفة العقل متعلقة بالآثار.
Granting that our imāms went to [the view] that the intellect is of the means of knowledge -- and this is by way of latitude, for the establishing of the proof, and it is our school. Except that I say: this knowledge gained by the intellect is confined, restricted by the proofs and the traces; unlike the knowledge of faith, for it is absolute. So the knowledge of faith is connected to the Names and Attributes, and the knowledge of the intellect is connected to the traces.
glossary: asma, sifat
فهي ولو كانت معرفة لكنها ليست عندنا بالمعرفة المطلوبة لأهل الله تعالى.
So it, even if it be a knowledge, is yet not, with us, the knowledge sought by the people of God (exalted is He).
ثم نسبة عقل المعاش إلى العقل الكلي نسبة الناظر إلى الشعاع، ولا يكون الشعاع إلا من جهة واحدة، فهو لا يتطرق إلى هيئة الشمس ولا يعرف صورته، ولا يعلم النور المتشكل في الماء لا طوله ولا عرضه.
Then the relation of the everyday intellect to the Universal Intellect is the relation of the one looking to the ray; and the ray is not [present] except from one direction, so it does not reach the form of the sun, nor know its shape, nor know the light shaped in the water -- neither its length nor its breadth.
بل يخرص بالفرض والتقدير فتارة يقول بطوله لما يزعم أنه دليل على الطول، وتارة يقول بعرضه كذلك، فهو على غير تحقيق من الأمر.
Rather it conjectures by supposition and estimation; so once it says [the light is] long, by what it supposes is evidence of length, and once it says [it is] broad likewise -- so it is upon no verification of the matter.
وكذلك عقل المعاش فإنه لا يضيء إلا من جهة واحدة، وهي وجهة النظر والدليل بالقياس في الفكر.
And likewise the everyday intellect, for it shines only from one direction, which is the direction of consideration and proof by analogy in thought.
glossary: fikr
فصاحبها إذا أخذ في معرفة الله به فإنه لا يخطىء.
So its possessor, when he takes to knowing God by it, does not err.
As the witness reads ('lā yukhṭiʾ', does not err); but this runs against the chapter's whole argument and against §40 (which says God is NOT apprehended by the everyday intellect). A dropped negation-particle or an affirmative-of-error ('yukhṭiʾ', he errs) is the likely original. Flagged for print-scan collation.
ولهذا متى قلنا بأن الله لا يدرك بالعقل أردنا به عقل المعاش، ومتى قلنا أنه يعرف بالعقل أردنا به العقل الأول.
And for this, whenever we say that God is not apprehended by the intellect, we mean by it the everyday intellect; and whenever we say that He is known by the intellect, we mean by it the First Intellect.
glossary: aql-awwal
فلهذا قال الله تعالى: قتل الخراصون الذين هم في غمرة ساهون.
And for this God (exalted is He) said: "Perish the conjecturers, who are heedless in a flood [of ignorance]" (51:10-11).
Qurʾān 51:10: al-Dhāriyāt 51:10-11, verbatim
وإنما قتلوا لقطعهم بما خرصوه. وحكمهم على الأمر بأنه على ذلك فهلكوا.
And they were "perished" only for their deciding by what they conjectured, and their ruling upon the matter that it is so -- so they perished.
لأنهم قطعوا بما يهلكهم ويطمس على أنوارهم فقتلوا.
Because they decided by what destroys them and effaces their lights, so they were slain.
وهم القاتلون لأنفسهم إذ خرصوا عليها بانتفاء بدنها وقطعوا عليها أن لا حياة لها بعد مماتهم.
And they are the slayers of themselves, since they conjectured upon themselves the non-existence of their body, and decided upon themselves that there is no life for them after their death.
ثم عاندوا المخبر الصادق الذي يجرهم إلى سعادتهم فلم يؤمنوا به، فلهذا هلكوا وقتلوا، وما أهلكهم إلا أنفسهم، وما قتلهم إلا ما هم عليه، فافهم.
Then they opposed the truthful Informer who draws them to their felicity, so they did not believe in him; and for this they perished and were slain, and nothing destroyed them but themselves, and nothing slew them but what they were upon. So understand.
ثم اعلم أن العقل الأول والقلم الأعلى نور واحد فنسبته إلى العبد يسمى العقل الأول، ونسبته إلى الحق يسمى القلم الأعلى. ثم إن العقل الأول المنسوب إلى محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم خلق الله جبريل عليه السلام منه في الأزل.
Then know that the First Intellect and the Supreme Pen are one light; so its relation to the servant is called the First Intellect, and its relation to the Real is called the Supreme Pen. Then the First Intellect attributed to Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace) -- God created Jibrīl (peace be upon him) from it in pre-eternity.
glossary: aql-awwal, qalam-ala, haqiqa-muhammadiyya
فكان محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم أبا لجبريل وأصلا لجميع العالم.
So Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace) was a father to Jibrīl, and a root for the whole world.
glossary: haqiqa-muhammadiyya
فاعلم إن كنت ممن يعلم فديت من يعقل فديت من يفهم.
So know -- if you are of those who know; may he be ransomed who reasons, may he be ransomed who understands.
ولهذا وقف عنه جبريل في إسرائه وتقدم وحده، وسمي العقل الأول بالروح الأمين لأنه خزانة علم الله وأمينه.
And for this Jibrīl halted [short] of him in his Night-Journey, and [Muhammad] advanced alone; and the First Intellect was named "the Trustworthy Spirit" (al-Rūḥ al-Amīn) because it is the storehouse of the knowledge of God and His trustee.
glossary: aql-awwal, ruh-al-quds
ويسمى بهذا الاسم جبريل من تسمية الفرع باسم أصله فافهم والله أعلم.
And Jibrīl is named by this name [the Trustworthy Spirit] from the naming of the branch by the name of its root. So understand. And God knows best.
glossary: ruh-al-quds
Collation. Two-witness collated as part of the four archangel-faculties cluster (Bāb 52-55), staged 2026-06-02. No lossy drop. The witness-2 file for this chapter was clean (no navigation chrome).
Qurʾān. One locus, verified verbatim: al-Dhāriyāt 51:10-11 (perish the conjecturers, who are heedless in a flood). The 'first thing God created was the intellect' hadith (contested/weak, cf. Bāb 47) is rendered and flagged.