al-Insān al-Kāmil, Bāb 60 -- The Perfect Human (al-Insān al-Kāmil)
full parallel manuscript · complete bitext
الإنسان الكامل · في الإنسان الكامل وأنه محمد
The title-chapter of the book, rendered as a full parallel manuscript: every segment, aligned line by line. al-Jīlī opens it by declaring it “the pillar of the chapters of this book; indeed the whole book, from its beginning to its end, is a commentary upon this chapter.” It identifies the Perfect Human with Muhammad as cosmic principle (“the unqualified expression ‘the Perfect Human,’ wherever it occurs in my writings, by it I intend only Muhammad”), carries al-Jīlī’s signature qaṣīda al-Durra al-Waḥīda (“The Unique Pearl,” 59 verses), records his dated vision of the Prophet in the form of his own master in Zabīd in 796 AH, and then develops the book’s great “counterpart” (muqābala) doctrine: the Perfect Human as the counterpart of every reality of existence — the Throne by his heart, the heavens and planets by his faculties, the elements and humours and animals by his nature, the classes of society by his powers, and finally the Names and Attributes themselves. It closes with the three “isthmuses” (barāzikh) of realization and the station of the Seal.
Editorial note. This is the doctrinal center of the book and its most concentrated waḥdat al-wujūd. The qaṣīda’s central verses (the cosmos as “bubbles his wine-jars overflow,” “he is the point of realization and its circumference,” the letter-mysticism of §55-§56) and the prose claims that the Perfect Human is “the mirror” in which the Real sees Himself (§145-§148), and that the realized knower “knows in existence nothing but his ipseity” (§154), are contested-Akbarian metaphysics, recorded faithfully in al-Jīlī’s voice and framed against the mainstream. Two guardrails al-Jīlī himself raises are preserved and surfaced: his explicit disavowal of metempsychosis (“beware of imagining anything in my words of the doctrine of tanāsukh — God forbid that that should be my intent,” §88), and his refusal to “give expression” to the highest counterparting (§142-§143). A second-reader framing pass is advisable.
الباب الموفى ستين في الإنسان الكامل وأنه محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم وأنه مقابل للحق والخلق
Chapter Sixty: On the Perfect Human (al-Insān al-Kāmil), and that he is Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace), and that he is the counterpart of the Real and the creation
اعلم أن هذا الباب عمدة أبواب هذا الكتاب.
Know that this chapter is the pillar of the chapters of this book.
بل جميع الكتاب من أوله إلى آخره شرح لهذا الباب، فافهم معنى هذا الخطاب.
Indeed, the whole book, from its beginning to its end, is a commentary upon this chapter. So understand the meaning of this address.
ثم إن أفراد هذا النوع الإنساني كل واحد منهم نسخة للآخر بكماله، لا يفقد في أحد منهم مما في الآخر شيء إلا بحسب العارض.
Now, the individuals of this human species are each of them a [complete] copy of the other in his perfection; nothing of what is in the one is missing in another, except in accordance with an accidental impediment --
glossary: insan-al-kamil
كمن تقطع يداه ورجلاه، أو يخلق أعمى لما عرض له في بطن أمه، ومتى لم يحصل العارض فهم كمرآتين متقابلتين يوجد في كل واحد منهما ما يوجد في الأخرى.
such as one whose hands and feet are cut off, or who is created blind by reason of something that befell him in his mother's womb. And whenever the impediment does not occur, they are like two mirrors set facing each other: there is found in each one of them what is found in the other.
ولكن منهم من تكون الأشياء فيه بالقوة، ومنهم من تكون فيه بالفعل وهم الكمل من الأنبياء والأولياء.
But among them is one in whom the things are [present] potentially, and among them one in whom they are [present] actually -- and these are the perfected ones among the prophets and the friends [of God].
ثم إنهم متفاوتون في الكمال فمنهم الكامل والأكمل.
Then they are of differing degrees in perfection: among them is the perfect and the more perfect.
ولم يتعين أحد منهم ما تعين به محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم في هذا الوجود من الكمال الذي قطع له بانفراده فيه.
And none of them has been singled out by what Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) was singled out by, in this existence, of the perfection in which it has been decided that he stands alone.
شهدت له بذلك أخلاقه وأحواله وأفعاله وبعض أقواله، فهو الإنسان الكامل والباقون من الأنبياء والأولياء والكمل صلوات الله عليهم ملحقون به لحوق الكامل بالأكمل،
His character-traits, his states, his deeds, and some of his sayings have borne witness to that for him. So he is the Perfect Human, and the rest of the prophets, the friends, and the perfected ones (the blessings of God be upon them) are joined to him, the joining of the perfect to the more perfect,
glossary: insan-al-kamil
ومنتسبون إليه انتساب الفاضل إلى الأفضل.
and ascribed to him, the ascription of the excellent to the more excellent.
ولكن مطلق لفظ الإنسان الكامل حيث وقع في مؤلفاتي إنما أريد به محمدا صلى الله عليه وسلم، تأدبا بمقامه الأعلى ومحله الأكمل الأسنى.
But the unqualified expression "the Perfect Human," wherever it occurs in my writings, by it I intend only Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace), out of courtesy toward his most lofty station and his most perfect, most resplendent rank.
glossary: insan-al-kamil
ولي في هذه التسمية له إشارات وتنبيهات على مطلق مقام
And I have, in this naming of him, allusions and intimations toward the unqualified station of
الإنسان الكامل، لا يسوغ إضافة تلك الإشارات
the Perfect Human; it is not permissible to ascribe those allusions,
ولا يجوز إسناد تلك العبارات إلا لاسم محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم، إذ هو الإنسان الكامل بالاتفاق.
nor is it permissible to attribute those expressions, except to the name of Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace), since he is the Perfect Human by consensus.
glossary: insan-al-kamil
وليس لأحد من الكمل ما له من الخلق والأخلاق، وفيه قلت هذه القصيدة المسماة بالدرة الوحيدة في اللجة السعيدة:
And no one of the perfected ones has what he has of [created] form and of character-traits. And concerning him I said this qaṣīda, named "The Unique Pearl in the Felicitous Deep" (al-Durra al-Waḥīda fī l-lujja al-saʿīda):
قلب أطاع الوجد فيه جنانه ....... وعصى العواذل سرّه ولسانه
A heart whose inmost being has obeyed the ecstasy within it, / and whose secret and tongue have disobeyed the reproachers.
عقد العقيق من العيون لأنه ....... فقد العقيق ومن همو أعيانه
It has strung carnelian [tears] from the eyes, because / it lost the carnelian, and those who were its very eminences.
ألف السهاد وما سها فكأنها ....... نظم السهى في هدبه إنسانه
It grew used to sleeplessness and was never heedless, as though / the pupil of its eye had strung the faint star Suhā upon its lashes.
يبكي على بعد الديار بمدمع ....... سل عنه سلعا أم روت غدرانه
It weeps over the distance of the abodes with a tear -- / ask the hill of Salʿ about it, or did its pools relate it?
فحنينه رعد ونار زفيره ....... برق ومزن المنحنى أجفانه
Its yearning is thunder, and the fire of its sighing / is lightning; and the rain-clouds of the winding vale are its eyelids.
فكأن بحر الدمع يقذف درّه ....... حتى نفدن وقد بدا مرجانه
As though the sea of tears casts up its pearls, / until they were spent and its coral appeared.
ولئن تداعى فوق أيك طائر ....... داعي الحمام بأنه خفقانه
And if a bird upon a thicket cries out -- / the summoner of the doves -- that [cry] is its own [heart's] throbbing.
ويزيده شجوا حنين مطية ....... رقلت بها نحو الحمى ركبانه
And the yearning of a mount increases its grief -- / a mount with which its riders pressed on toward the protected sanctuary.
يا سائق العيس المعمم في الثرى ....... قف للذي تحدوكم أشجانه
O driver of the camels, turbaned [in dust] upon the earth, / halt for the one whose griefs urge you on.
بلِّغ حديثا قد روته مدامعي ....... إذ عنعنته مسلسلا فيضانه
Convey a tradition (ḥadīth) that my tears have related, / when its overflowing transmitted it, chain-linked (musalsal).
أسند لهم ضعفي وما قد صح من ....... متواتر الخبر الذي جريانه
Trace back to them my weakness, and what has been soundly established / of the mass-transmitted (mutawātir) report, whose flowing
يرويه عن عبراته عن مقلتي ....... عن أضلعي عما روت نيرانه
is related on the authority of its tears, from my eye, / from my ribs, from what its fires have related,
عن مهجتي عن شجوها عن خاطري ....... عن عشقتي عما حواه جنانه
from my life-blood, from its grief, from my mind, / from my passion, from what its heart contained,
عن ذلك العهد القديم عن الهوى ....... عمن همو روحي وهم سكانه
from that ancient covenant, from love, / from those who are my spirit and its dwellers.
واسأل سلمت أحبتي بتلطف ....... المسكين عند همو وهم سلطانه
And ask -- may my beloveds be kept safe -- gently / about the poor wretch before them, while they are its sovereign.
واستنجد العرب الكرام تعطفا ....... لمضيِّع في هجرهم أزمانه
And seek the aid of the noble Arabs, in tenderness, / for one who has wasted his ages in their estrangement.
لا يوحشنك عزّهم وعلوهم ....... تلك الديار لوفدها أوطانه
Let not their might and their loftiness leave you forlorn: / those abodes are homelands for their visiting delegation.
ألا ولا تنس الحديث فحبهم ....... قصص الصبابة لم تزل قرآنه
Lo, do not forget the tradition, for their love -- / the tales of ardent longing -- its recitation has never ceased.
ما آيسوا المقطوع من إيصالهم ....... بل آنسوه بأنهم خلانه
They did not make the severed one despair of reaching them; / rather, they comforted him that they are his intimate friends.
قد آنت أعهد منهم حفظ الودا ....... د فليت شعري هل هم إخوانه
The time has come -- I knew of them the keeping of affection (wadād); / would that I knew: are they his brothers?
ولقد أنزّه عن خيانة عهدنا ....... شأن الحبيب وإن يكن هو شأنه
And I hold the rank of the Beloved far above any betrayal of our covenant -- / even if [betrayal] should be the way of others.
حيا الإله أحبتي وسقاهمو ....... غيثا يجود بويله سكبانه
May God give life to my beloveds and water them / with a rain whose downpour pours its flood generously,
يحيا به الربع الخصيب ولم يزل ....... حيا يميس بورقه أغصانه
by which the fertile quarter comes to life, and which has not ceased / to be alive, its boughs swaying with their foliage.
عجبا لذاك الحيّ كيف يهمه ....... قحط السنين وأحمد نيسانه
How strange of that living quarter -- how should the drought of the years / concern it, when Aḥmad is its spring-rain (Nīsān)?
أو كيف يظمأ وفده ولديهمو ....... بحر يموج بدرّه طفحانه
Or how should its delegation thirst, when with them / is a sea surging, overflowing with its pearls?
شمس على قطب الكمال مضيئة ....... بدر على فلك العلا سيرانه
A sun shining upon the pole of perfection; / a full moon whose coursing is upon the sphere of loftiness.
أوج التعاظم مركز العزّ الذي ....... لرحى العلا من حوله دورانه
The apogee of grandeur, the center of might, around which / the millstone of sublimity has its turning.
ملك وفوق الحضرة العليا على ....... العرش المكين مثبت إمكانه
A sovereign; and above the loftiest Presence, upon / the firm Throne, his possibility is established.
ليس الوجود بأسره إن حققوا ....... إلاَّ حبابا طفحته دنانه
All existence, in its entirety -- if they verify -- is naught / but bubbles that his wine-jars have made overflow.
From here the qaṣīda's waḥdat al-wujūd is at its most concentrated (§44-§59): all existence as the overflow of the Muhammadan Reality, 'the point of realization and its circumference,' the letters of the cosmos. Contested-Akbarian; recorded in al-Jīlī's voice and framed at the chapter level, against the mainstream.
الكل فيه ومنه كان وعنده ....... تفنى الدهور ولم تزل أزمانه
The all is in him, and from him it came to be, and with him / the epochs pass away, while his ages have never ceased.
فالخلق تحت سما علاه كخردل ....... والأمر يبرمه هناك لسانه
So the creation, beneath the sky of his loftiness, is like a mustard-seed, / and the Command -- there, his tongue ratifies it.
glossary: al-amr
والكون أجمعه لديه كخاتم ....... في إصبع منه أجلّ كوانه
And the whole cosmos, with him, is like a signet-ring / on a finger -- the most majestic of his beings.
والملك والملكوت في تياره ....... كالقطر بل من فوق ذاك مكانه
And the Dominion and the Sovereignty, in his surging tide, / are like a raindrop -- nay, his place is above that.
glossary: mulk-malakut-jabarut
وتطيعه الأملاك من فوق السما ....... واللوح ينفذ ما قضاه بنانه
And the angels above the heaven obey him, / and the Tablet carries out what his fingertip has decreed.
glossary: lawh-mahfuz
فلكم دعا بالنخلة الصما فجاءت ....... مثل ما جاءت له غزلانه
For how often he called to the solid palm-trunk, and it came, / just as his gazelles came to him!
Allusions to two Sīra miracles: the weeping palm-trunk (ḥadīth al-jidhʿ) and the gazelle that bore witness to him.
ناهيك شقّ البدر منه بأصبع ....... والبدر أعلى أن يزلّ قرانه
Enough for you [the wonder of] his splitting the full moon with a finger, / when the moon is too lofty for its conjunction to slip.
The splitting of the moon (al-Qamar 54:1).
شهدت بمكنته الكيان وخير ....... بينة يكون الشاهدين كيانه
Being itself bore witness to his power, and the best / proof is that the two witnesses are [his own] being.
هو نقطة التحقيق وهو محيطه ....... هو مركز التشريع وهو مكانه
He is the point of realization and he is its circumference; / he is the center of the sacred Law and he is its place.
هو درّ بحر ألوهة وخضمُّها ....... هو سيف أرض عبودة ومعانه
He is the pearl of the sea of divinity and its vast deep; / he is the sword of the land of servanthood and its watering-place.
هو هاؤه هو واوه هو باؤه ....... هو سينه والعين بل إنسانه
He is its hāʾ, he is its wāw, he is its bāʾ; / he is its sīn and the ʿayn -- nay, its very pupil.
Letter-mysticism: the Muhammadan Reality figured as the letters that spell the cosmos; 'al-ʿayn' puns the letter, the eye/source, and 'insān' the pupil/human.
هو قافه هو نونه هو طاؤه ....... هو نوره هو ناره هو رانه
He is its qāf, he is its nūn, he is its ṭāʾ; / he is its light, he is its fire, he is its covering-stain.
'rān' echoes al-Muṭaffifīn 83:14 ('rāna ʿalā qulūbihim'), the rust that veils the heart.
عقد اللواء بمحمد وثنائه ....... فالدهر دهر والأوان أوانه
The banner was bound to Muhammad and his praise; / so the age is [his] age and the time is his time.
وله الوساطة وهو عين وسيلة ....... هي للفتى يجلى بها رحمانه
His is the mediation, and he is the very means (wasīla) / by which, for the aspiring youth, his All-Merciful is unveiled.
وله المقام وذلك المحمود ما ....... لم يدر من شأن تعالى شأنه
His is the [Praised] Station, and that praised one is what / none has fathomed of the affair of the One whose affair is exalted.
al-maqām al-maḥmūd, the Praised Station promised in al-Isrāʾ 17:79.
ميكال طست موجة من بحره ....... وكذاك روح أمينه وأمانه
Mīkāʾīl is [but] a basin, a wave from his sea, / and likewise the faithful Spirit [Jibrīl] and his trust.
وبقية الأملاك من مائية ....... وكالثلج يعقده الصبا وحرانه
And the rest of the angels are of [his] watery [substance], / and like snow that the east-wind and its heat congeal.
A modern editorial parenthetical glossing 'al-ṣabā' followed this verse in the digital witness (and itself conceded al-Jīlī did not use the word in that Sufi sense); it is non-authorial and has been excluded.
والعرش والكرسي ثم المنتهى ....... مجلاه ثم محله ومكانه
And the Throne, the Footstool, then the Lote-Tree of the Boundary / are his disclosure-site, then his locus and his place.
وطوى السماوات العلى بعروجه ....... طيّ السجل كمدلج ركبانه
And he folded up the lofty heavens by his ascension, / the folding of the scroll, like one whose riders journey by night.
The Miʿrāj; 'the folding of the scroll' echoes al-Anbiyāʾ 21:104.
أنبا عن الماضي وعن مستقبل ....... كشف القناع وأم أضا برهانه
He gave tidings of the past and of the future; / he lifted the veil -- nay, his proof shone forth.
وأتت يداه بمال قيصره ....... ففرقها وكسرى ساقط إيوانه
And his hands brought the wealth of its Caesar, / and he distributed it -- while Chosroes' arch was falling.
The conquests; the collapse of the arch (īwān) of Kisrā, a portent of the Prophetic age.
ولكم له خلق يضيء بنوره ....... يهدي بذكراه الهدى جيرانه
And how many a created being has he, that shines with his light, / its neighbors guided to guidance by the remembrance of him!
ولكم تطهّر في التزّآي وانتقى ....... حتى ارتقى ما لا يرام عيانه
And how often he purified himself in [retreat and] concealment and was made pure, / until he ascended to what cannot be sought even by direct vision!
أنبا عن الأسرار إعلانا ولم ....... يفش السريرة للورى إعلانه
He gave tidings of the secrets openly, yet / his proclamation did not divulge the inmost secret to the people.
نظم الدراري في عقود حديثه ....... منتشرات فوقها عقبانه
He strung the bright stars into the necklaces of his discourse, / scattered [pearls] above which are his soaring heights.
حتى يبلغ في الإمامة حقها ....... من غير هتك رامه خوانه
until he fulfilled, in the imamate, its right, / without any rending [of the veil] that his betrayers sought.
اللَّه حسبي ما لأحمد منتهى ....... وبمدحه قد جاءنا فرقانه
God is my sufficiency -- there is no reaching the end of Aḥmad; / and with his praise his Furqān [Criterion] came to us.
حاشاه لم تدرك لأحمد غاية ....... إذ كل غايات النهى بدآنه
Far be it -- no utmost limit of Aḥmad has [ever] been grasped, / since all the limits of the intellects are [but] his beginning.
صلَّى عليه اللَّه مهما زمزمت ....... آلم على معنى يريح بيانه
May God bless him, however long [the reciter] chants / "Alif Lām Mīm" over a meaning whose exposition gives rest.
والكل والأصحاب والأنساب والأقطاب قوم في العلا إخوانه
And the all -- the Companions, the kinsfolk, and the Poles -- / are a people in the heights, his brethren.
The closing line of the qaṣīda; metrically expansive, rendered as the envoi.
اعلم حفظك الله أن الإنسان الكامل هو القطب الذي تدور عليه أفلاك الوجود من أوله إلى آخره.
Know -- may God preserve you -- that the Perfect Human is the Pole upon which the spheres of existence turn, from its first to its last.
glossary: insan-al-kamil
وهو واحد منذ كان الوجود إلى أبد الآبدين، ثم له تنوع في ملابس ويظهر في كنائس، فيسمى به باعتبار لباس، ولا يسمى به باعتبار لباس آخر.
And he is one, from when existence was, unto the everlasting of everlastings; then he has a variety in garments, and appears in [diverse] sanctuaries -- so he is named [by a name] in respect of one garment, and not named by it in respect of another garment.
فاسمه الأصلي الذي هو له محمد، وكنيته أبو القاسم، ووصفه عبد الله، ولقبه شمس الدين.
So his original name, which is his, is Muhammad; his agnomen (kunya) is Abū l-Qāsim; his descriptive title is ʿAbd Allāh; and his honorific (laqab) is Shams al-Dīn.
ثم له باعتبار ملابس أخرى أسماء، وله في كل زمان اسم ما يليق بلباسه في ذلك الزمان، فقد اجتمعت به صلى الله عليه وسلم وهو في صورة شيخي الشيخ شرف الدين إسماعيل الجبرتي، ولست أعلم أنه النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم، وكنت أعلم أنه الشيخ، وهذا من جملة مشاهد شاهدتها بزبيد سنة ست وتسعين وسبعمائة.
Then he has, in respect of other garments, [other] names, and he has in every age a name that befits his garment in that age. For I met with him (may God bless him and grant him peace) while he was in the form of my shaykh, the Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn Ismāʿīl al-Jabartī -- and I did not know that he was the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace); I [only] knew that he was the Shaykh. And this is among the visionary witnessings I witnessed, in Zabīd, in the year seven hundred and ninety-six [AH].
A dated autobiographical datum: a vision in Zabīd (Yemen), 796 AH (c. 1394 CE), of the Prophet in the form of al-Jīlī's master, the Shaykh Sharaf al-Dīn Ismāʿīl al-Jabartī.
وسر هذا الأمر تمكنه صلى الله عليه وسلم من التصور بكل صورة.
And the secret of this matter is his capacity (may God bless him and grant him peace) to take form in every form.
فالأديب إذا رآه في الصور المحمدية التي كان عليها في حياته فإنه يسميه باسمه، وإذا رآه في صورة ما من الصور وعلم أنه محمد، فلا يسميه إلا باسم تلك الصورة.
So the well-mannered one, when he sees him in the Muhammadan forms that he had in his lifetime, names him by his name; and when he sees him in some form among the forms and knows that he is Muhammad, he names him only by the name of that form.
ثم لا يوقع ذلك الاسم إلا على الحقيقة المحمدية، ألا تراه صلى الله عليه وسلم لما ظهر في صورة الشبلي رضي الله عنه؟
Then he applies that name only to the Muhammadan Reality. Do you not see him (may God bless him and grant him peace) when he appeared in the form of al-Shiblī (may God be pleased with him)?
glossary: haqiqa-muhammadiyya
قال الشبلي لتلميذه: أشهد أني رسول الله، وكان التلميذ صاحب كشف فعرفه،
al-Shiblī said to his disciple: "I bear witness that I am the Messenger of God" -- and the disciple was a man of unveiling (kashf), so he recognized him,
glossary: kashf
فقال: أشهد أنك رسول الله، وهذا أمر غير منكور، وهو كما يرى النائم فلانة في صورة فلان. وأقل مراتب الكشف أن يسوغ به في اليقظة ما يسوغ به في النوم، لكن بين النوم والكشف فرق.
and he said: "I bear witness that you are the Messenger of God." And this is a matter not to be denied; it is like the sleeper who sees a certain woman in the form of a certain man. The least of the ranks of unveiling is that there be allowed in waking what is allowed in sleep -- but between sleep and unveiling there is a difference.
وهو في الصورة التي يرى فيها محمد عليه السلام في النوم لا يوقع اسمها في اليقظة على الحقيقة المحمدية،
And [as for] the form in which Muhammad (upon him be peace) is seen in sleep -- one does not, in waking, apply its name to the Muhammadan Reality,
glossary: haqiqa-muhammadiyya
لأن عالم المثال يقع التعبير فيه، فيعبر عن الحقيقة المحمدية إلى حقيقة تلك الصورة اليقظة.
because the world of similitude (ʿālam al-mithāl) is a place in which dream-interpretation (taʿbīr) occurs; so one crosses over from the Muhammadan Reality to the reality of that waking form.
بخلاف الكشف، فإنه إذا كشف لك عن الحقيقة المحمدية أنها متجلية في صورة من صور الآدميين،
Unlike unveiling: for when it is unveiled to you that the Muhammadan Reality is disclosed in some form of the forms of the descendants of Adam,
glossary: kashf, haqiqa-muhammadiyya
فيلزمك إيقاع اسم تلك الصورة على الحقيقة المحمدية، ويجب عليك أن تتأدب مع صاحب تلك الصورة تأدبك مع محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم، لما أعطاك الكشف أن محمدا صلى الله عليه وسلم متصور بتلك الصورة.
then it becomes binding upon you to apply the name of that form to the Muhammadan Reality; and it is obligatory upon you to observe courtesy with the possessor of that form, [the same as] your courtesy with Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) -- since unveiling has given you [to know] that Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) is taking form in that form.
فلا يجوز بعد شهود محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم فيها أن تعاملها بما كنت تعاملها به من قبل. إياك أن تتوهم شيئا في قولي من مذهب التناسخ، حاشا الله وحاشا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم أن يكون ذلك مرادي.
So it is not permissible, after the witnessing of Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace) in it, that you treat it as you treated it before. Beware of imagining anything in my words of the doctrine of metempsychosis (tanāsukh) -- God forbid, and [far be it from] the Messenger of God (may God bless him and grant him peace), that that should be my intent.
al-Jīlī's explicit disavowal of metempsychosis (tanāsukh): the 'taking form in every form' is the Muhammadan Reality's self-disclosure, not transmigration of souls. Important for reading the chapter against the mainstream's charge.
بلى، إن رسول الله له من التمكين في التصور بكل صورة حتى يتجلى في هذه الصورة.
Rather: the Messenger of God has [such] a capacity in taking form in every form that he may disclose himself in this form.
وقد جرت سنته صلى الله عليه وسلم أنه لا يزال يتصور في كل زمان بصورة أكملهم ليعلي شأنهم ويقيم ميلانهم، فهم خلفاؤه في الظاهر وهو في الباطن حقيقتهم.
And his way (sunna) (may God bless him and grant him peace) has run [thus]: that he continually takes form, in every age, in the form of the most perfect of them, to raise their rank and set right their inclination; so they are his vicegerents in the outward, and he, in the inward, is their reality.
واعلم أن الإنسان الكامل مقابل لجميع الحقائق الوجودية بنفسه، فيقابل الحقائق العلوية بلطافته، ويقابل الحقائق السفلية بكثافته.
And know that the Perfect Human is the counterpart of all the realities of existence, by himself: he is the counterpart of the higher realities by his subtlety, and the counterpart of the lower realities by his density.
glossary: insan-al-kamil
فأول ما يبدو في مقابلته للحقائق الخلقية يقابل العرش بقلبه.
So the first thing that appears in his counterparting of the created realities: he is the counterpart of the Throne by his heart.
قال عليه الصلاة والسلام: قلب المؤمن عرش الله. ويقابل الكرسي بإنيته، ويقابل سدرة المنتهى بمقامه، ويقابل القلم الأعلى بعقله، ويقابل اللوح المحفوظ بنفسه، ويقابل العناصر بطبعه، ويقابل الهيولى بقابليته، ويقابل الهباء بحيز هيكله.
He (upon him be blessing and peace) said: "The heart of the believer is the Throne of God." And he is the counterpart of the Footstool by his I-ness (inniyya); of the Lote-Tree of the Boundary by his station; of the Highest Pen by his intellect; of the Preserved Tablet by his soul; of the elements by his nature; of prime-matter (al-hayūlā) by his receptivity; and of the [primordial] dust-motes (al-habāʾ) by the volume of his frame.
glossary: qalam-ala, lawh-mahfuz, aql-awwal, nafs 'The heart of the believer is the Throne of God' is a Sufi dictum widely cited, not found in the sound collections; invoked, not graded here.
ويقابل الفلك الأطلس برأيه، ويقابل الفلك المكوكب بمدركته.
And he is the counterpart of the Starless Sphere (al-falak al-aṭlas) by his opinion, and of the Sphere of the Fixed Stars by his apprehending faculty.
ويقابل السماء السابعة بهمته.
And he is the counterpart of the seventh heaven by his aspiration (himma).
ويقابل السماء السادسة بوهمه.
And of the sixth heaven by his estimation (wahm).
glossary: wahm
ويقابل السماء الخامسة بهمته.
And of the fifth heaven by his resolve.
The witness reads 'bi-himmatihi' here as at §95 (the seventh heaven); likely a copyist repetition for a distinct faculty. Rendered 'resolve' to mark the apparent duplication.
ويقابل السماء الرابعة بفهمه.
And of the fourth heaven by his understanding (fahm).
ويقابل السماء الثالثة بخياله.
And of the third heaven by his imagination (khayāl).
glossary: khayal
ويقابل السماء الثانية بفكره.
And of the second heaven by his cogitation (fikr).
glossary: fikr
ويقابل السماء الأولى بحافظته.
And of the first heaven by his retentive faculty.
ثم يقابل زحل بالقوى اللامسة،
Then he is the counterpart of Saturn by the tactile faculty,
ويقابل المشتري بالقوى الدافعة،
of Jupiter by the repelling faculty,
ويقابل المريخ بالقوى المحرقة،
of Mars by the burning faculty,
Witness reads 'al-muḥarrima'; in context (Mars, heat/wrath) the intended word is 'al-muḥarriqa' (burning); rendered accordingly.
ويقابل الشمس بالقوى الناظرة،
of the Sun by the seeing faculty,
ويقابل الزهرة بالقوى الملذذة،
of Venus by the pleasure-giving faculty,
ويقابل عطارد بالقوى الشامة،
of Mercury by the smelling faculty,
ويقابل القمر بالقوى السامعة.
of the Moon by the hearing faculty.
ثم يقابل فلك النار بحرارته،
Then he is the counterpart of the sphere of fire by his heat,
ويقابل فلك الماء ببرودته،
of the sphere of water by his coldness,
ويقابل فلك الهواء برطوبته،
of the sphere of air by his moisture,
ويقابل فلك التراب بيبوسته.
of the sphere of earth by his dryness.
ثم يقابل الملائكة بخواطره،
Then he is the counterpart of the angels by his [good] thoughts,
ويقابل الجن والشياطين بوسواسه،
of the jinn and the devils by his [evil] whisperings (waswās),
ويقابل البهائم بحيوانيته.
of the beasts by his animality.
ويقابل الأسد بالقوى الباطشة، ويقابل الثعلب بالقوى الماكرة،
And he is the counterpart of the lion by the assailing faculty, and of the fox by the cunning faculty,
ويقابل الذئب بالقوى الخادعة،
of the wolf by the deceiving faculty,
ويقابل القرد بالقوى الحاسدة،
of the ape by the envying faculty,
ويقابل الفأر بالقوى الحريصة.
of the mouse by the greedy faculty.
وقس على ذلك باقي قواه، ثم إنه يقابل الطير بروحانيته،
And measure the rest of his faculties upon that. Then he is the counterpart of the birds by his spirituality,
ويقابل النار بالمادة الصفراوية،
of fire by the yellow-bile (choleric) humour,
ويقابل الماء بالمادة البلغمية،
of water by the phlegmatic humour,
ويقابل الريح بالمادة الدموية،
of wind by the sanguine (blood) humour,
ويقابل التراب بالمادة السوداوية.
of earth by the black-bile (melancholic) humour.
ثم يقابل السبعة الأبحر بريقه ومخاطه وعرقه ونقاء أذنه ودمعه وبوله.
Then he is the counterpart of the seven seas by his saliva, his mucus, his sweat, the discharge of his ear, his tear, and his urine.
والسابع المحيط، وهو المادة الجارية بين الدم والعرق والجلد، ومنها تتفرع تلك الستة، ولكل واحد طعم:
And the seventh, the encompassing [sea], is the fluid running between the blood, the sweat, and the skin, from which those six branch out; and each one has a taste:
فحلو وحامض، ومر وممزوج، ومالح ونتن وطيب.
sweet, sour, bitter, mixed, salty, fetid, and pleasant.
ثم يقابل الجوهر بهويته وهي ذاته، ويقابل العرض بوصفه.
Then he is the counterpart of substance by his ipseity (huwiyya), which is his essence, and of accident by his attribute.
glossary: dhat
ثم يقابل الجمادات بأنيابه، فإن الناب لا يلتحم بشيء.
Then he is the counterpart of the inanimate things by his teeth -- for the tooth does not knit together with anything.
ثم يقابل النبات بشعره وظفره، ويقابل الحيوان بشهوانيته.
Then he is the counterpart of the plants by his hair and his nail, and of the animal by his appetite.
ويقابل مثله من الآدميين ببشريته وصورته، ثم يقابل أجناس الناس:
And he is the counterpart of his like among the descendants of Adam by his humanness and his form. Then he is the counterpart of the classes of people:
فيقابل الملك بروحه، ويقابل الوزير بنظره الفكري،
So he is the counterpart of the king by his spirit, and of the vizier by his cogitative consideration,
ويقابل القاضي بعلمه المسموع ورأيه المطبوع،
of the judge by his heard knowledge and his innate opinion,
ويقابل الشرطي بطنه، ويقابل الأعوان بعروقه وقواه جميعها،
of the policeman by his belly, and of the helpers by his veins and all his faculties,
ويقابل المؤمنين بيقينه، ويقابل المشركين بشكه وريبه.
of the believers by his certitude, and of the associators (mushrikūn) by his doubt and his misgiving.
فلا يزال يقابل كل حقيقة من حقائق الوجود برقيقة من رقائقه.
So he never ceases to be the counterpart of every reality of the realities of existence by a subtle-thread (raqīqa) of his subtle-threads.
فقد بينا فيما مضى من الأبواب خلق كل ملك مقرب من كل قوى من الإنسان الكامل، وبقي أن نتكلم في مقابلة الأسماء والصفات.
We have already explained, in the preceding chapters, the creation of every brought-near angel from each faculty of the Perfect Human; and it remains for us to speak of the counterparting of the Names and the Attributes.
glossary: asma, sifat, insan-al-kamil
اعلم أن نسخة الحق تعالى كما أخبر صلى الله عليه وسلم حيث قال: خلق الله آدم على صورة الرحمن.
Know that [the human] is the [exact] copy of the Real (exalted is He), as he gave tidings (may God bless him and grant him peace) when he said: "God created Adam upon the form of the All-Merciful."
A form-hadith with the 'ʿalā ṣūrat al-Raḥmān' wording, whose authenticity is disputed among the traditionists; invoked, not graded here.
وفي حديث آخر: خلق الله آدم على صورته.
And in another hadith: "God created Adam upon His form."
Sound (Bukhārī 6227 / Muslim 2841); invoked, not graded here.
وذلك أن الله تعالى حي عليم قادر مريد سميع بصير متكلم، وكذلك الإنسان حي عليم إلخ.
And that is because God (exalted is He) is Living, Knowing, Powerful, Willing, Hearing, Seeing, Speaking; and likewise the human is living, knowing, and so forth.
ثم يقابل الهوية بالهوية، والآنية بالآنية، والذات بالذات، والكل بالكل، والشمول بالشمول، والخصوص بالخصوص.
Then he counterparts ipseity with ipseity, I-ness with I-ness, essence with essence, totality with totality, comprehensiveness with comprehensiveness, and particularity with particularity.
glossary: dhat The human-divine 'counterparting' of essence with essence is the chapter's high waḥdat al-wujūd; recorded in al-Jīlī's voice, framed against the mainstream, and read together with his tanzīh elsewhere and his tanāsukh-disavowal (§88).
وله مقابلة أخرى يقابل الحق بحقائقه الذاتية، وقد نبهنا عليها في هذا الكتاب في غير موضع.
And he has another counterparting: he counterparts the Real by his essential realities -- and we have alerted to it in this book in more than one place.
وأما هنا فلا يجوز لنا أن نترجم عنها، فيكفي هذا القدر من التنبيه عليها.
But here it is not permissible for us to give expression to it; so this measure of alerting to it suffices.
ثم اعلم أن الإنسان الكامل هو الذي يستحق الأسماء الذاتية والصفات الإلهية استحقاق الأصالة،
Then know that the Perfect Human is the one who merits the essential Names and the divine Attributes with the merit of [original] authenticity (aṣāla),
glossary: asma, sifat, insan-al-kamil
والملك بحكم المقتضى الذاتي، فإنه المعبر عن حقيقته بتلك العبارات والمشار إلى لطيفته بتلك الإشارات، ليس لها مستند في الوجود إلا الإنسان الكامل؛ فمثاله للحق مثال المرآة التي لا يرى الشخص صورته إلا فيها.
and [merits] possession [of them] by the requirement of the essence; for he is the one whose reality is expressed by those expressions and whose subtle-essence is pointed to by those allusions -- [Names and Attributes] that have no support in existence except the Perfect Human. So his likeness, to the Real, is the likeness of the mirror in which the person sees nothing but his own form.
وإلا فلا يمكنه أن يرى صورة نفسه إلا بمرآة الاسم الله، فهو مرآته.
Otherwise, He cannot see the form of His self except by the mirror of the Name "Allāh"; so he [the Perfect Human] is His mirror.
The mutual-mirror doctrine (the Real and the Perfect Human each the other's mirror) is core Akbarian metaphysics; recorded in al-Jīlī's voice and framed against the mainstream.
والإنسان الكامل أيضا مرآة الحق.
And the Perfect Human, too, is the mirror of the Real.
فإن الحق تعالى أوجب على نفسه أن لا ترى أسماؤه ولا صفاته إلا في الإنسان الكامل.
For the Real (exalted is He) made it incumbent upon Himself that His Names and His Attributes not be seen except in the Perfect Human.
glossary: asma, sifat, insan-al-kamil
وهذا معنى قوله تعالى: إنا عرضنا الأمانة على السماوات والأرض والجبال فأبين أن يحملنها وأشفقن منها وحملها الإنسان إنه كان ظلوما جهولا. يعني قد ظلم نفسه بأن أنزلها عن تلك الدرجة، جهولا بمقداره لأنه محل الأمانة الإلهية وهو لا يدري.
And this is the meaning of His saying (exalted is He): "Truly We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it and were afraid of it; and the human bore it -- truly he was a wrongdoer, ignorant" (33:72, al-Aḥzāb). Meaning: he wronged himself by bringing it [his soul] down from that degree; ignorant of his own measure, because he is the locus of the divine Trust and he does not know it.
Qurʾān 33:72: al-Aḥzāb 33:72, verbatim, correctly tagged by the author
واعلم أن الإنسان الكامل تنقسم جميع الأسماء والصفات له قسمين: فقسم يكون عن يمينه كالحياة والعلم والقدرة والإرادة والسمع والبصر وأمثال ذلك، وقسم يكون عن يساره كالأزلية والأبدية والأولية والآخرية وأمثال ذلك.
And know that, for the Perfect Human, all the Names and Attributes divide into two divisions: a division that is on his right -- such as life, knowledge, power, will, hearing, and sight, and the like; and a division that is on his left -- such as beginninglessness, endlessness, firstness, lastness, and the like.
glossary: asma, sifat
ويكون له وراء الجميع لذة سريانية تسمى لذة الألوهية، يجدها في وجود جميعه بحكم الانسحاب، حتى أن بعض الفقراء تمنى استرساله في تلك اللذة.
And there is for him, behind them all, a pervading pleasure called the pleasure of divinity (ladhdhat al-ulūhiyya), which he finds in the existence of the whole of him by way of [its] flowing-into-him -- such that some of the [Sufi] poor ones longed for unending immersion in that pleasure.
ولا يغرنك كلام من يزيف هؤلاء، فإنه لا معرفة له بهذا المقام.
And let not the speech of one who counterfeits [discredits] these [folk] delude you, for he has no knowledge of this station.
ويكون للإنسان الكامل فراغ عن متعلقاته كالأسماء والصفات، فلا يكون له إليهم نظر،
And there is for the Perfect Human a vacancy [an emptiness] from his attachments -- such as the Names and the Attributes -- so that he has no regard toward them;
glossary: asma, sifat
بل متجرد عن الأسماء والصفات والذات، لا يعلم في الوجود غير هويته بحكم اليقين والكشف، يشهد صدور الوجود أعلاه وأسفله منه.
rather, stripped bare of the Names, the Attributes, and the Essence, he knows in existence nothing but his ipseity; by way of certitude and unveiling he witnesses the issuing-forth of existence, its highest and its lowest, from him.
glossary: kashf, dhat Among the chapter's most concentrated unitive statements; recorded in al-Jīlī's voice and framed. Read with his tanāsukh-disavowal (§88) and his insistence that the Perfect Human is the locus, not the source-in-itself, of the divine self-seeing.
ويرى متعددات أمر الوجود في ذاته كما يرى أحدنا خواطره وحقائقه.
And he sees the multiplicities of the affair of existence within his essence, just as one of us sees his own thoughts and inner realities.
وللإنسان الكامل تمكن من منع الخواطر عن نفسه جليلها ودقيقها.
And the Perfect Human has a capacity to ward off [stray] thoughts from himself -- the gross of them and the fine.
ثم إن تصرفه في الأشياء لا عن اتصاف ولا عن آلة ولا عن اسم ولا عن رسم، بل كما يتصرف أحدنا في كلامه وأكله وشربه.
Then his free disposal in things is not by [any] qualification, nor by an instrument, nor by a name, nor by a [fixed] description -- rather, as one of us disposes in his speech, his eating, and his drinking.
وللإنسان الكامل ثلاث برازخ وبعدها المقام المسمى بالختام: البرزخ الأول يسمى البداية وهو التحقق بالأسماء والصفات. البرزخ الثاني يسمى التوسط وهو فلك الرقائق الإنسانية بالحقائق الرحمانية، فإذا استوفى هذا المشهد علم سائر المکتمات واطلع على ما شاء من المغيبات.
And the Perfect Human has three isthmuses (barāzikh), and after them the station named the Seal (al-khitām). The first isthmus is called the Beginning, and it is the realization of the Names and the Attributes. The second isthmus is called the Middle, and it is the sphere of the human subtle-threads [joined] to the All-Merciful realities; so when he has fully traversed this witnessing, he knows the rest of the concealed things and looks upon what he wills of the unseen matters.
glossary: barzakh, asma, sifat
البرزخ الثالث وهو معرفة التنوعات الحكمية في اختراع الأمور القدرية، لا يزال الإنسان تخرق له العادات بها في ملكوت القدرة حتى يصير له خرق العوائد عادة في فلك الحكمة، فحينئذ يؤذن له بإبراز القدرة في ظاهر الأكوان.
The third isthmus is the knowledge of the wise varieties in the contriving of the matters of [divine] decree; the human continually has the customary [laws] breached for him thereby, in the dominion of Power, until the breaching of customs becomes a custom for him in the sphere of Wisdom -- and then he is permitted to bring forth Power in the outward of the [created] beings.
فإذا تمكن من هذا البرزخ الثالث حل في المقام المسمى بالختام والموصوف بالجلال والإكرام.
So when he is firmly established in this third isthmus, he alights in the station named the Seal, described by Majesty and Munificence (al-jalāl wa-l-ikrām).
glossary: barzakh
وليس بعد ذلك إلا الكبرياء، وهي النهاية التي لا تدرك لها غاية.
And there is, after that, nothing but Grandeur (al-kibriyāʾ) -- the end for which no utmost limit is grasped.
والناس في هذا المقام مختلفون، فكامل وأكمل، وفاضل وأفضل.
And the people in this station are of differing [ranks]: perfect and more perfect, excellent and more excellent.
والله يقول الحق وهو يهدي السبيل.
And God speaks the truth, and He guides to the way.
The chapter's closing formula -- the final clause of al-Aḥzāb 33:4.
Collation. Two-witness collated as the title-chapter of the book, staged 2026-06-03. Witness-2 clean of navigation chrome. The famous qaṣīda al-Durra al-Waḥīda (§16-§74) was a single run-on line in the digital matn; split here into its 59 verses on the qāfiya (the rhyme '-ānuh'). ONE non-authorial interpolation excluded: a modern editorial parenthetical about the word 'al-ṣabā' (which itself notes 'al-Jīlī did not use it in this Sufi sense in the verses') was embedded mid-poem after §61; it is no part of al-Jīlī's text and is omitted. No lossy drop of the authorial text. Several OCR garbles in the poem (e.g. wāsʾal at §30, alā at §33) restored to sense.
Qurʾān. One Qurʾān verse verified verbatim and correctly tagged by the author: al-Aḥzāb 33:72 (the Trust offered to the heavens, earth, and mountains; §155). The closing formula (§163) is the final clause of al-Aḥzāb 33:4. The qaṣīda alludes to several prophetic-miracle motifs (the weeping palm-trunk and the witnessing gazelle, §50; the splitting of the moon, Q al-Qamar 54:1, §51; the night-ascension, §63; the fall of Chosroes' arch, §65) and to the Praised Station (al-maqām al-maḥmūd, Q al-Isrāʾ 17:79, §59). Three sayings flagged, not graded here: 'the heart of the believer is the Throne of God' (§118, a Sufi dictum, not in the sound collections), and the two form-hadith 'God created Adam upon the form of the All-Merciful' (§143, the Raḥmān wording disputed) and 'upon His form' (§144, sound).