al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 55 -- Spiritual Aspiration (al-Himma)
full parallel manuscript · complete bitext
الإنسان الكامل · في الهمة
The complete chapter on Spiritual Aspiration (al-Himma), rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line, opening with seven of al-Jīlī’s own verses. He calls Aspiration “the most precious thing God placed in the human” — the one light, of all the lights, that was “occupied with God” — “the Burāq of the gnostics” by which the spirit ascends. He sets out the two signs of its standing-firm (certainty, and acts that fit the aim), tells the parable of the dervish who emptied the sea for the king’s daughter, warns that Aspiration is itself a veil one must finally pass beyond, and grounds the archangel Mīkāʾīl, dispenser of provision and measure, in the Aspiration of the Muhammadan Reality.
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الباب الخامس والخمسون في الهمة وأنها محتد ميكائيل من محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم
Chapter Fifty-Five: On Aspiration (al-Himma), and that it is the wellspring of Mīkāʾīl from Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace)
فيها قال رحمه الله تعالى: لنا في ذرى العليا جواد مقدّس ...... به نرتقي نحو المعالي الرفيعة
Concerning it he (may God have mercy on him) said: We have, in the heights of the lofty, a sanctified steed / by which we ascend toward the exalted summits.
glossary: himma al-Jīlī's opening verse (1 of 7); 'he, may God have mercy on him' is the digital matn's editorial framing of the deceased author.
يسمى براق العارفين إلى العلا ...... عليه صعود الروح نحو الحقيقة
It is called the Burāq of the gnostics to the heights / upon it is the ascent of the spirit toward the Reality.
Opening verse 2 of 7.
له من ضياء الحق عينان أحلى ...... فبالسحر أولى ثم أخرى بقدرة
It has, from the radiance of the Real, two eyes most sweet / the one more apt for enchantment, the other for power.
Opening verse 3 of 7.
جناحاه إحداهن للسعد طائر ...... وأخرى إلى بعد الشقاوة جرت
Its two wings: one of them flies to felicity / and the other ran to the distance of wretchedness.
Opening verse 4 of 7.
ولا عجب في أنه كل ما يرى ...... من الصعب يلقاه بأحسن صنعة
And no wonder that everything it sees / of the difficult, it meets with the finest craft.
Opening verse 5 of 7.
وما دققت عيناه فيه فإنه ...... له موقع الحافر درك بخطوة
And what its two eyes scrutinize in it -- then / it has the footing of the hoof, [an] attainment by a [single] step.
Opening verse 6 of 7.
ألا إنه نور من اللَّه منزّل ...... تستر للإنسان في اسم همّة
Indeed it is a light sent down from God / veiled, for the human, under the name of Aspiration (himma).
glossary: himma Opening verse 7 of 7.
واعلم وفقنا الله وإياك، ودلك عليك وهداك، أن الهمة أعز شيء وضعه الله في الإنسان.
And know -- may God grant us and you success, and direct you to yourself, and guide you -- that Aspiration (al-himma) is the most precious thing God placed in the human.
glossary: himma
وذلك أن الله تعالى لما خلق الأنوار وقفها بين يديه، فرأى كلا منها مشتغلا بنفسه، ورأى الهمة مشتغلة بالله.
And that is because God (exalted is He), when He created the lights, halted them before Him; so He saw each of them occupied with itself, and saw Aspiration occupied with God.
glossary: himma
فقال لها: وعزتي وجلالي لأجعلنك أرفع الأنوار ولا يحظى بك من خلقي إلا الأشراف الأبرار، ومن أراد الوصول إلي فلا يدخل إلا بدستورك علي، أنت معارج المريدين وبراق العارفين وميدان الواصلين.
So He said to it: By My Might and My Majesty, I shall make you the loftiest of the lights, and none of My creation shall attain you but the noble, the pious; and whoever wishes to arrive at Me shall enter only by your leave. You are the ascending-ways of the aspirants, the Burāq of the gnostics, and the field of those who arrive.
glossary: himma
فبك سباق السابقين وبك لحاق اللاحقين، وفيك تنزه المحققين، وتعالى المقربين، ثم تجلى عليها باسمه القريب ونظر إليها باسمه السريع المجيب، فأكسبها ذلك التجلي أن تستقرب كل ما بعد على القلوب، وأفادها ذلك النظر سرعة حصول المطلوب؛ فلهذا أن الهمة إذا قصدت شيئا ثم استقامت على ساقها نالته على حسب وفاقها.
For by you is the racing of the racers, and by you the catching-up of those who follow, and in you is the transcendence of the verifiers and the elevation of the brought-near. Then He disclosed Himself upon it by His Name the Near (al-Qarīb), and gazed upon it by His Name the Swift, the Responsive (al-Sarīʿ al-Mujīb); so that self-disclosure gained for it [the power] to bring near everything far from the hearts, and that gaze profited it the swiftness of the attainment of the sought. And for this, when Aspiration aims at a thing and then stands firm upon its shank, it attains it according to its accord [with it].
glossary: himma, tajalli, asma
ولاستقامتها علامتان: العلامة الأولى: حالية، وهو قطع اليقين بحصول الأمر المطلوب على التعيين. العلامة الثانية: فعلية، وهي أن تكون حركات صاحبها وسكناته جميعها مما يصلح لذلك الأمر الذي يقصده بهمته، فإن لم يكن كذلك لا سمي صاحب همة بل هو صاحب آمال كاذبة وأماني خائبة.
And for its standing-firm there are two signs. The first sign: a state-sign (ḥāliyya), which is the cutting [-off] of certainty by the attainment of the sought matter in particular. The second sign: an act-sign (fiʿliyya), which is that the movements and stillnesses of its possessor be, all of them, of what is fit for that matter he aims at by his aspiration; for if it be not so, he is not called a possessor of aspiration, but is a possessor of false hopes and disappointed wishes.
glossary: himma, hal
فهو كمن يروم المملكة ولا يفارق المزبلة.
So he is like one who seeks the kingdom yet does not part from the dunghill.
وهذا لا يقع على مطلوبه ولا يظفر بمحبوبه.
And this one does not fall upon his sought, nor gain his beloved.
لأنه كمن يطلب أن يكون بلا قلم ولا مداد ولا معرفة بوضع الخط.
Because he is like one who seeks to write with no pen, no ink, and no knowledge of the forming of the script.
فالمداد بمثابة قصد الهمة للشيء.
So the ink is at the place of the aspiration's aiming at the thing.
glossary: himma
والقلم بمثابة اليقين بحصوله.
And the pen is at the place of the certainty of its attainment.
ومعرفة وضع الخط بمثابة الأعمال الصالحة للأمر المقصود.
And the knowledge of the forming of the script is at the place of the acts fit for the aimed-at matter.
فمن لم يكن على هذا الوصف لا يعرف ما هي الهمة، إذ ليس لديه منها أثر، فلا يكون عنده منها خبر.
So whoever is not upon this description does not know what Aspiration is, since there is no trace of it with him, so there is no report of it with him.
glossary: himma
بخلاف من كانت أفعاله مما يلائم ما يطلبه، وخصوصا إذا أخذ فيها بالجد والاجتهاد فأسرع ما يكون لديه نيل المراد.
Unlike one whose acts are of what suits what he seeks -- especially if he takes to them with earnestness and striving -- so the swiftest thing for him is the attainment of the desire.
ولقد حكي لنا عن فقير أنه سمع شيخه يقول يوما: من قصد شيئا وجد وجده.
And it was related to us of a poor man (faqīr) that he heard his shaykh say one day: "Whoever aims at a thing and is earnest, finds it."
A Sufi maxim of the shaykh, not a hadith.
فقال: والله لأخطبن بنت الملك، وأبلغن فيها غاية الجد والاجتهاد، فذهب إلى الملك فخطبها منه، وكان الملك لبيبا عارفا عاقلا فكره أن يحقره أو يقول له الست بكفء لها. فقال له: اعلم أن مهر بنتي جوهرة تسمى بالبهرمان لا توجد إلا في خزائن كسرى أنوشروان.
So he said: "By God, I shall ask for the hand of the king's daughter, and reach in her the utmost of earnestness and striving." So he went to the king and asked her of him; and the king was intelligent, knowing, and reasonable, so he disliked to belittle him or to say to him, "You are not a match for her." So he said to him: "Know that the dowry of my daughter is a jewel called al-bahramān, found only in the treasuries of Kisrā Anūshirwān."
فقال له: يا سيدي، وأين معدن هذا الجوهر؟ فقال له: معدنه بحر سيلان، فإن جئتنا بصداقها المطلوب مكناك من هذا النكاح المخطوب، فذهب الفقير إلى البحر وأخذ يغرف بقصعته منه ويفرغه في البر.
So he said to him: "O my master, and where is the mine of this jewel?" So he said to him: "Its mine is the sea of Ceylon (Sīlān); so if you bring us its required bride-price, we will enable you [to have] this sought marriage." So the poor man went to the sea and began to scoop from it with his bowl and empty it onto the land.
فمكث على ذلك مدة لا يأكل ولا يشرب وهو معتكف على ذلك المطلب ليلا ونهارا، فأوقع صدقه خوف انتزاح البحر في قلوب الحيتان فاشتكت إلى الله تعالى.
So he remained upon that for a while, neither eating nor drinking, devoted to that quest night and day; so his sincerity cast the fear of the sea's depletion into the hearts of the fish, so they complained to God (exalted is He).
فأمر الله تعالى الملك الموكل بذلك البحر أن يذهب إلى ذلك الرجل بنفسه ويسأله عن حاجته فيسعفه ببغيته.
So God (exalted is He) commanded the angel entrusted with that sea to go to that man himself and ask him of his need and supply him with his desire.
فلما سأله عن مقصده وأجابه الرجل أمر البحر أن يقذف بأمواجه إلى البر ما عنده من جنس ذلك الجوهر فامتلأ الساحل جواهر ولآلئ.
So when he asked him of his aim, and the man answered him, he commanded the sea to cast forth with its waves onto the land what it had of the kind of that jewel; so the shore was filled with jewels and pearls.
فحملها وذهب بها إلى الملك وتزوج ابنته، فانظر يا أخي ما فعلت الهمة.
So he carried them and went with them to the king and married his daughter. So look, O my brother, at what Aspiration did.
glossary: himma
ولا تظن بأن هذا الأمر غريب أو شيء عجيب، فقد شاهدنا والله بل جرى لنا في أنفسنا ما هو أعظم من ذلك مما لا يحد ولا يحصى، والله على ما نقول وكيل.
And do not suppose that this matter is strange or a wondrous thing; for we have witnessed -- by God, nay, there has befallen us in our own selves -- what is greater than that, of what cannot be bounded nor numbered; and God is, over what we say, a Trustee.
ولم أحلف لك إلا خوفا عليك من ردة الإنكار أن تنزع بقلبك عن سلم الهدى ومعارج الأسرار.
And I swore to you only out of fear for you, of the recoil of denial, that you tear your heart from the ladder of guidance and the ascending-ways of the secrets.
glossary: qalb
فإن القلوب إذا جال فيه الخناس وألبسها ثوب الوسواس يوشك أن تجول في مهامه الإياس فتحرم نور اليقين بظلمة الالتباس.
For the hearts, when the Slinking [Whisperer] (al-khannās) ranges in them and clothes them in the garment of whispering, are near to ranging in the deserts of despair, so they are deprived of the light of certainty by the darkness of confusion.
glossary: qalb, iblis
ثم اعلم وفقك الله أن زجاجة الهمة قبل امتلائها يكسرها كل حصاة مخالفة ويهريق ما فيها كل هيئة منافية.
Then know -- may God grant you success -- that the glass of Aspiration, before its filling, every contrary pebble breaks it, and every opposing form spills what is in it.
glossary: himma
وأما إذا امتلأت وأخذت حدها في البلوغ وانتهت، فإنها لا تحركها الرياح العواصف، ولا تكسرها المطارق والمخاوف.
And as for when it is filled and takes its limit in reaching and ends [in completion], then the gusting winds do not move it, and the hammers and the fears do not break it.
فالحازم اللبيب والعارف المصيب إذا ابتدأ في هذا الأمر وأخذ في خوض هذا البحر لا يلتفت إلى وعر المسالك ولا يبالي بما يظهر فيها من المهالك.
So the resolute, intelligent one, and the right-aiming gnostic, when he begins in this matter and takes to plunging into this sea, does not turn to the ruggedness of the ways, nor heed what appears in them of the perils.
فإنما جل ما يراه بل كل ما يلقاه نزغة من العدو والشيطان ليمنعه بذلك عن حضرة السلطان.
For indeed most of what he sees -- nay, all that he meets -- is a goading from the enemy and Satan, to bar him thereby from the Presence of the Sultan.
glossary: hadra
فليحذر من الالتفات ولا يبالي بما حصل أو فات، فإنها طريقة كثيرة الآفات، محفوفة بالقواطع مشوبة بالموانع.
So let him beware of turning [aside], and not heed what has been attained or missed; for it is a way of many banes, hedged with cutters-off, mingled with impediments.
آثارها دوامس وأطلالها دوارس ولياليها طوامس، طريقها هو الصراط المستقيم، وقريبها أناس يستعذبون العذاب الأليم.
Its traces are effacing, its ruins worn away, and its nights dark; its road is the straight path (al-ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm), and near it are people who find the painful torment sweet.
glossary: sirat
وما يلقاها إلا الذين صبروا وما يلقاها إلا ذو حظ عظيم.
"And none is granted it but those who are patient, and none is granted it but a possessor of mighty fortune" (41:35).
Qurʾān 41:35: Fuṣṣilat 41:35, verbatim
ثم اعلم وفقك الله تعالى: أن الهمة في محتدها الأول ومشهدها الأفضل، لا تعلق لها إلا بالجانب الإلهي لأنها نسخة ذلك الكتاب المكنون ومفتاح ذلك السر المصون المخزون.
Then know -- may God (exalted is He) grant you success -- that Aspiration, in its first wellspring and its most excellent witnessing-place, has no attachment except to the divine side, because it is a copy of that Hidden Book and the key of that guarded, treasured secret.
glossary: himma
فلا التفات لها إلى سواه ولا تشوق لها إلى ما عداه.
So it has no turning to other than Him, and no longing for what is besides Him.
لأن الشيء لا يرجع إلا إلى أصله، ونوى التمر لا ينبت من غرسه إلا كعود نخله.
Because the thing returns only to its root, and the date-stone grows from its planting only as the branch of its palm.
وكل من تعلق بالأكوان تعلقة ما فإن تعلقه لا يسمى همة بل هما.
And everyone who attaches to the existents [by] any attachment -- his attachment is not called himma (aspiration) but hamm (anxious care).
glossary: himma
وفائدة هذا الكلام أن الهمة في نفسها عالية المقام ليس لها بالأسافل إلمام فلا تتعلق إلا بجناب ذي الجلال والإكرام.
And the benefit of this discourse is that Aspiration, in itself, is lofty of station, having no acquaintance with the lowest, so it attaches only to the side of the Possessor of Majesty and Honor.
glossary: himma, maqam
بخلاف الهم فإنه اسم لتوجه القلب إلى أي محل كان، إما قاص، وإما دان.
Unlike hamm (care), for it is a name for the turning of the heart to any place whatever -- whether far or near.
glossary: qalb
فإذا فهمت ما أشارت إليه العبارة وعرفت ما عبرت عنه الإشارة، فاعلم أيضا أن الهمة وإن علا مكانها وعظم شأنها هي الحجاب للواقف معها.
So when you have understood what the expression pointed to, and known what the allusion expressed, then know also that Aspiration -- even though its place be high and its affair mighty -- is the veil (al-ḥijāb) for the one who halts with it.
glossary: himma, hijab
فلا يرتقي حتى يدعها، والسيد من يرتقي عنها قبل معرفة أسرارها وذوق ثمارها.
So he does not ascend until he leaves it; and the master is he who ascends beyond it before the knowing of its secrets and the tasting of its fruits.
فإنها قاطعة مانعة أعني لمن وقف مع محصولها، قاطعة لمن جفاها قبل وصولها، أعني لا سبيل إلا إليها ولا طريق إلا عليها.
For it is cutting-off, barring -- I mean for the one who halts with its yield; cutting-off for the one who shuns it before arriving by it -- I mean there is no way except to it, and no road except upon it.
glossary: himma
ولكن لا مقام عندها ولديها، بل ينبغي الجواز عنها بعد قطع المجاز منها.
But there is no [abiding] station at it or with it; rather one ought to pass beyond it after cutting the crossing-place from it.
glossary: maqam
فالحقيقة من ورائها والطريقة على فضائها، لأن الحصر لا حق لها والحد واثق بها، والله منزه عن الحد والحصر، مقدس عن الكشف والستر.
So the Reality is beyond it, and the Way is upon its open space; because confinement (al-ḥaṣr) has no claim to it [the Reality] and limit (al-ḥadd) [thinks itself] sure of it -- yet God is transcendent above limit and confinement, sanctified above unveiling and veiling.
glossary: haqiqa, tanzih
ولما كان محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم أم الكتاب، والمعنى دون غيره بالخطاب، فافهم إن كنت من أولي الألباب.
And since Muhammad (God bless him and grant him peace) was the Mother of the Book (umm al-kitāb), and the meaning [intended], rather than other than him, by the address -- so understand, if you are of those of [sound] minds.
glossary: umm-al-kitab, haqiqa-muhammadiyya
وخلق الله منه جميع العالم كانت كل رقيقة منه أصلا الحقيقة من حقائق الأكوان، وكان بجملته مظهرة لجملة الرحمن.
And God created from him the whole world; every subtlety of him was a root of a reality of the realities of the existents, and he, in his entirety, was a locus of disclosure for the entirety of the All-Merciful.
glossary: haqiqa-muhammadiyya
خلق الله روحا من نور همته اللاحق وسعها وسع رحمته.
God created a spirit from the light of his Aspiration, [a spirit] whose attendant breadth is the breadth of His mercy.
glossary: himma
فصير ذلك الروح ملكا وجعل مقادير القوابل له فلكا، ثم وكله بإيصال كل مرزوق رزقه وإعطاء كل ذي حق حقه.
So He made that spirit an angel, and made the measures of the receptivities a sphere for it; then He entrusted it with the conveying of every provisioned one's provision and the giving of every possessor of a right his right.
لأنه الرقيقة المحمدية المخلوقة من الحقيقة الأحدية، فلما استقام مقام الموكل الوكيل، وأقسط في إعطاء كل ذي حق حقه قسط من يزن أو يكيل.
Because it is the Muhammadan subtlety created from the One Reality (al-ḥaqīqa al-aḥadiyya); so when the place of the entrusted trustee stood firm, and it dealt justly in giving every possessor of a right his right, [with] the justice of one who weighs or measures,
glossary: haqiqa-muhammadiyya, ahadiyya
إذ بالخطاب الجميل، من المقام الجليل، يسمى هذا الروح ميكائيل.
since [it was] by the beautiful address, from the majestic station, this spirit is named Mīkāʾīl.
glossary: maqam
فهو من الأزل إلى الأبد يحصر المقادير ويعرف العدد ويمد كلا بما استحقه من المدد.
So it, from pre-eternity to post-eternity, reckons the measures, knows the number, and supplies each with what it merits of the supply.
أجلسه الله على منبر الفضل فوق الفلك الخامس، وأعطاه قسطاس العدل وقانون المقاييس، ويكنى عن المنبر بالفيض المقابل بالقسطاس بما استحقه القوابل.
God seated it upon the pulpit of grace above the fifth sphere, and gave it the scale of justice (qisṭās al-ʿadl) and the canon of the measures; and the pulpit is a metonym for the effusion that is set against the scale [giving] the receptivities what they merit.
glossary: qada-qadar, fayd
فتأمل رموز هذه العبارات، واستخرج ما فيها من كنوز الإشارات تحظ بالحكمة وفصل الخطاب.
So ponder the symbols of these expressions, and draw forth what is in them of the treasures of allusions, [that] you may win wisdom and the decisive word.
والله يقول الحق وهو يهدي إلى الصواب.
And God says the truth, and He guides to what is right.
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). Opens with seven of al-Jīlī's own verses (§2-§8) and contains a narrative parable (the dervish and the king's daughter, §22-§28).
Qurʾān. One locus, verified verbatim: Fuṣṣilat 41:35 (none is granted it but those who are patient, and none but a possessor of mighty fortune). The shaykh's maxim 'whoever aims at a thing and is earnest finds it' (§22) is a saying, not a hadith.