Tajalli is often translated as self-disclosure or manifestation. In Ibn al-Arabi’s thought, it helps describe how the Real is disclosed through changing forms without being exhausted by any single form. Its role depends on passages about names, knowledge and perception; it should not be flattened into a simple claim that the visible world and God are identical.
How to study this subject
These terms belong to a network of Qur’anic language, theological argument, spiritual experience and philosophical interpretation. An apparently familiar modern translation may distort their range. Begin with the exact Arabic expression, check the passage’s genre and purpose, and then compare explanatory traditions without collapsing their disagreements.
A good conceptual study compares several occurrences of the term across distinct passages and identifies the question each passage answers. Then review how translators and commentators explain it, noting which interpretation is their own. Distinguish statements about being, language, knowledge and religious practice; a single diagram or modern analogy cannot replace the vocabulary’s textual history.
When comparing examples, ask what is disclosed, to whom, and under what conditions. The same term may work differently in discussions of scripture, spiritual experience and cosmology.
Primary sources and further reading
These are contextual reading links, not exact passage-level citations.