The al-Insān al-kāmil (“The Universal Man”) is a Sufi cosmological treatise in Arabic by ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (d. c. 832 H / 1428 C.E.), 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 the second of the principal sources from which Nuruddin ar-Raniri drew in composing the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān*: Raniri’s notice on the Barāhima (Tibjān p. 31 r. 4–5) is a literal translation of al-Insān al-kāmil, ed. Cairo 1293, II, p. 81 r. 33–82 r. 1.
Content and character
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 identifies the al-Insān al-kāmil as the source of 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.” This notice, Voorhoeve shows, is a literal translation of the passage in al-Insān al-kāmil, II, p. 81 r. 33–82 r. 1 of the Cairo 1293 edition. Two lines further on, al-Jīlī enumerates the ten scriptuary religions; it is possible, Voorhoeve suggests, that Raniri misunderstood this enumeration and was thereby led to his notice (p. 31 r. 4) that “there are ten groups.”
The preceding passage of the al-Insān al-kāmil (II, p. 81 r. 4 ff.) on the scriptuaries is translated in the *Tibjān* at pp. 8 r. 1 – 9 r. 14; 14 r. 1 – 16 r. 6; and 20 r. 2 – 11. The source of pp. 20 r. 11 – 44 r. 6 Voorhoeve was unable to identify.
Citations in Raniri’s other works
In other writings of Raniri the al-Insān al-kāmil is cited explicitly: twice in the *Ḥall aẓ-ẓill* and repeatedly in the *Jawāhir al-ʿulūm*. In the latter work, Raniri observes 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. Voorhoeve suggests that al-Jīlī’s classification of the Barāhima among the scriptuaries may go back to an Indian source, since in medieval India the question whether the Hindus should be given the choice of “death or Islam” was a point of lively discussion: to class them as scriptuaries would provide a theoretical basis for the tolerant position.
Significance
The al-Insān al-kāmil is one of the foundational texts of post-Ibn ʿArabian Sufism and a major source for the metaphysical vocabulary of the unity of being in Malay-Indonesian Islam. Its identification by Voorhoeve as one of the sources of the *Tibjān* — alongside the *Tamhīd* of as-Sālimī and the *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* — places it within the textual genealogy of Raniri’s Achehnese polemic, and shows that the controversy over the unity of being in Acheh was carried on, on both sides, through the medium of the same Sufi canon.
See Also
- Abd al-Karim al-Jili
- Acheh
- Djawahir al-‘ulum
- Hall al-zill
- Ibn Arabi
- Ma’rifat al-madhahib
- P. Voorhoeve
- Raniri
- Shaikh Shamsuddin of Sumatra
- Tamhid fi bayan at-tawhid
- 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, where the al-Insān al-kāmil is identified as source II.
C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL), II, 418.
The al-Insān al-kāmil (“The Universal Man”) is a Sufi cosmological treatise in Arabic by ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jīlī (d. c. 832 H / 1428 C.E.), 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 the second of the principal sources from which Nuruddin ar-Raniri drew in composing the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān*: Raniri’s notice on the Barāhima (Tibjān p. 31 r. 4–5) is a literal translation of al-Insān al-kāmil, ed. Cairo 1293, II, p. 81 r. 33–82 r. 1.
Content and character
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 identifies the al-Insān al-kāmil as the source of 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.” This notice, Voorhoeve shows, is a literal translation of the passage in al-Insān al-kāmil, II, p. 81 r. 33–82 r. 1 of the Cairo 1293 edition. Two lines further on, al-Jīlī enumerates the ten scriptuary religions; it is possible, Voorhoeve suggests, that Raniri misunderstood this enumeration and was thereby led to his notice (p. 31 r. 4) that “there are ten groups.”
The preceding passage of the al-Insān al-kāmil (II, p. 81 r. 4 ff.) on the scriptuaries is translated in the *Tibjān* at pp. 8 r. 1 – 9 r. 14; 14 r. 1 – 16 r. 6; and 20 r. 2 – 11. The source of pp. 20 r. 11 – 44 r. 6 Voorhoeve was unable to identify.
Citations in Raniri’s other works
In other writings of Raniri the al-Insān al-kāmil is cited explicitly: twice in the *Ḥall aẓ-ẓill* and repeatedly in the *Jawāhir al-ʿulūm*. In the latter work, Raniri observes 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. Voorhoeve suggests that al-Jīlī’s classification of the Barāhima among the scriptuaries may go back to an Indian source, since in medieval India the question whether the Hindus should be given the choice of “death or Islam” was a point of lively discussion: to class them as scriptuaries would provide a theoretical basis for the tolerant position.
Significance
The al-Insān al-kāmil is one of the foundational texts of post-Ibn ʿArabian Sufism and a major source for the metaphysical vocabulary of the unity of being in Malay-Indonesian Islam. Its identification by Voorhoeve as one of the sources of the *Tibjān* — alongside the *Tamhīd* of as-Sālimī and the *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* — places it within the textual genealogy of Raniri’s Achehnese polemic, and shows that the controversy over the unity of being in Acheh was carried on, on both sides, through the medium of the same Sufi canon.
See Also
- Abd al-Karim al-Jili
- Acheh
- Djawahir al-‘ulum
- Hall al-zill
- Ibn Arabi
- Ma’rifat al-madhahib
- P. Voorhoeve
- Raniri
- Shaikh Shamsuddin of Sumatra
- Tamhid fi bayan at-tawhid
- 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, where the al-Insān al-kāmil is identified as source II.
C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL), II, 418.