ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī — in Dutch scholarship al-Djili — was a Sufi author of the post-Ibn ʿArabian tradition, who died around 832 H / 1432 C.E. He is the author of the *al-Insān al-kāmil* (“The Universal Man”), one of the principal expositions of the metaphysics of the unity of being (waḥdat al-wujūd) in the tradition of Ibn ʿArabī. The work is identified by Voorhoeve as one of the principal sources of the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: Raniri’s notice on the Barāhima is a literal translation of al-Insān al-kāmil, ed. Cairo 1293, II, p. 81 r. 33–82 r. 1.
The al-Insān al-kāmil
The *al-Insān al-kāmil* is a systematic exposition of the Sufi doctrine of the “Universal Man” — the al-insān al-kāmil — who is at once the cosmic archetype of the human being and the perfect mirror in which the divine names and attributes are manifested. The work develops, in the tradition of Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam and al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīya, the metaphysics of the divine names, theophanies, the levels of existence, and the relation of the microcosm to the macrocosm. Its cosmological scope and its sustained articulation of the doctrine of the unity of being made it one of the most authoritative Sufi treatises in the post-Ibn ʿArabian tradition.
Source of the Tibjān
Voorhoeve’s identification of the al-Insān al-kāmil as a source of the *Tibjān* is one of the most original contributions of his 1955 edition. Raniri’s notice on the Barāhima — the so-called “followers of Ibrāhīm” who, according to Raniri, “say that they belong to the religion of the prophet Ibrāhīm and are his descendants. They worship idols, and a part of them dwells in Gujarat” — is shown by Voorhoeve to be a literal translation of al-Insān al-kāmil, ed. Cairo 1293, II, p. 81 r. 33–82 r. 1. The classification of the Barāhima among the scriptuaries, which is unique to al-Jīlī among the sect-writers, is transmitted by Raniri into his Malay encyclopaedia.
The controversy with Shamsuddin of Pasai
The *Jawāhir al-ʿulūm* of Raniri records that Shamsuddin of Pasai — the Wujūdiyyah mystic whose works Raniri refutes in the *Tibjān* — also appealed to the al-Insān al-kāmil, but that he interpreted the text, in Raniri’s view, incorrectly. The al-Insān al-kāmil thus occupies a remarkable place in the controversy between Raniri and Shamsuddin: a work to which both orthodox and heterodox appealed, but which each read differently. The same work that supplied Raniri with his account of the Barāhima was, in Shamsuddin’s reading, a warrant for the Wujudiyyah position that Raniri sought to refute.
Citations in Raniri’s other works
The al-Insān al-kāmil is cited explicitly twice in the *Ḥall aẓ-ẓill* and repeatedly in the *Jawāhir al-ʿulūm* of Raniri. In both works it is named as an authority — a fact that indicates the standing of al-Jīlī’s treatise in the orthodox Sufi canon as Raniri received it. The same work that supplied Raniri with his account of the Barāhima also supplied him with the metaphysical vocabulary by which he distinguished the orthodox Sufi position from that of the heretical Wujūdiyyah.
Significance
ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī is, through his al-Insān al-kāmil, one of the principal sources of the *Tibjān* of Raniri and one of the principal authorities cited in Raniri’s other Malay religious writings. His work is also one of the principal authorities cited by Shamsuddin of Pasai — Raniri’s Wujūdiyyah opponent. The fact that the same Sufi canon was appealed to by both sides of the Achehnese controversy is a measure of the difficulty of distinguishing the orthodox from the heterodox position in the scholastic Sufism of the seventeenth century, and of the role of commentary and interpretation — rather than the choice of authorities — in the religious controversy of Acheh.
See Also
- Abd al-Qadir al-Aidaros
- al-Insan al-Kamil
- Djawahir al-‘ulum
- Hall al-zill
- Ibn Arabi
- P. Voorhoeve
- Raniri
- Shaikh Shamsuddin of Sumatra
- Tibjan fi ma’rifat al-adyan
- Wujudiyyah
Source
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §2b (“De bronnen van de Tibjān”), pp. 11–12.
C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL) II, 418.
ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī — in Dutch scholarship al-Djili — was a Sufi author of the post-Ibn ʿArabian tradition, who died around 832 H / 1432 C.E. He is the author of the *al-Insān al-kāmil* (“The Universal Man”), one of the principal expositions of the metaphysics of the unity of being (waḥdat al-wujūd) in the tradition of Ibn ʿArabī. The work is identified by Voorhoeve as one of the principal sources of the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: Raniri’s notice on the Barāhima is a literal translation of al-Insān al-kāmil, ed. Cairo 1293, II, p. 81 r. 33–82 r. 1.
The al-Insān al-kāmil
The *al-Insān al-kāmil* is a systematic exposition of the Sufi doctrine of the “Universal Man” — the al-insān al-kāmil — who is at once the cosmic archetype of the human being and the perfect mirror in which the divine names and attributes are manifested. The work develops, in the tradition of Ibn ʿArabī’s Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam and al-Futūḥāt al-Makkīya, the metaphysics of the divine names, theophanies, the levels of existence, and the relation of the microcosm to the macrocosm. Its cosmological scope and its sustained articulation of the doctrine of the unity of being made it one of the most authoritative Sufi treatises in the post-Ibn ʿArabian tradition.
Source of the Tibjān
Voorhoeve’s identification of the al-Insān al-kāmil as a source of the *Tibjān* is one of the most original contributions of his 1955 edition. Raniri’s notice on the Barāhima — the so-called “followers of Ibrāhīm” who, according to Raniri, “say that they belong to the religion of the prophet Ibrāhīm and are his descendants. They worship idols, and a part of them dwells in Gujarat” — is shown by Voorhoeve to be a literal translation of al-Insān al-kāmil, ed. Cairo 1293, II, p. 81 r. 33–82 r. 1. The classification of the Barāhima among the scriptuaries, which is unique to al-Jīlī among the sect-writers, is transmitted by Raniri into his Malay encyclopaedia.
The controversy with Shamsuddin of Pasai
The *Jawāhir al-ʿulūm* of Raniri records that Shamsuddin of Pasai — the Wujūdiyyah mystic whose works Raniri refutes in the *Tibjān* — also appealed to the al-Insān al-kāmil, but that he interpreted the text, in Raniri’s view, incorrectly. The al-Insān al-kāmil thus occupies a remarkable place in the controversy between Raniri and Shamsuddin: a work to which both orthodox and heterodox appealed, but which each read differently. The same work that supplied Raniri with his account of the Barāhima was, in Shamsuddin’s reading, a warrant for the Wujudiyyah position that Raniri sought to refute.
Citations in Raniri’s other works
The al-Insān al-kāmil is cited explicitly twice in the *Ḥall aẓ-ẓill* and repeatedly in the *Jawāhir al-ʿulūm* of Raniri. In both works it is named as an authority — a fact that indicates the standing of al-Jīlī’s treatise in the orthodox Sufi canon as Raniri received it. The same work that supplied Raniri with his account of the Barāhima also supplied him with the metaphysical vocabulary by which he distinguished the orthodox Sufi position from that of the heretical Wujūdiyyah.
Significance
ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī is, through his al-Insān al-kāmil, one of the principal sources of the *Tibjān* of Raniri and one of the principal authorities cited in Raniri’s other Malay religious writings. His work is also one of the principal authorities cited by Shamsuddin of Pasai — Raniri’s Wujūdiyyah opponent. The fact that the same Sufi canon was appealed to by both sides of the Achehnese controversy is a measure of the difficulty of distinguishing the orthodox from the heterodox position in the scholastic Sufism of the seventeenth century, and of the role of commentary and interpretation — rather than the choice of authorities — in the religious controversy of Acheh.
See Also
- Abd al-Qadir al-Aidaros
- al-Insan al-Kamil
- Djawahir al-‘ulum
- Hall al-zill
- Ibn Arabi
- P. Voorhoeve
- Raniri
- Shaikh Shamsuddin of Sumatra
- Tibjan fi ma’rifat al-adyan
- Wujudiyyah
Source
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §2b (“De bronnen van de Tibjān”), pp. 11–12.
C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL) II, 418.