N. Wahid Azal - Grand Shaykh of the Fatimiya Sufi Order

The demons behind global institutions of finance

2012-01-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

Taylor has spent years pondering the City of London Corporation – what it means, spiritually and theologically. Drawing on Walter Wink’s notion that spirituality and evil are embedded in the structure of contemporary institutions, Taylor sees something more than human greed at work. ‘We are in the grip of something quite demonic. Institutions keep it alive, and it’s part of all of us. I see it as a demonic spirit.’ He calls the spirit Griffin, the mythical creature which appears in many of the City’s ceremonies. ‘It is a very intelligent demon’, he continued, ‘a dangerous thing. I felt myself in personal danger at times.’ I pressed Taylor on this, but he became reticent and sat quietly for a moment, apparently wrapped in his own thoughts. Then he ventured, ‘Maybe some things are best not talked about. I do think that it is spiritually dangerous: the Corporation of London is a very dangerous place. I don’t want to say that so-and-so is evil. People who work there are not bad people. We’re all part of it.'

Nicholas Shaxson, TREASURE ISLANDS:Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World, chp. 12, p. 270.

The best of Occupy

2011-12-05T01:54:00.000-08:00

Fifth column of the postmodern kind: Iranians supporting a military strike against their own country are brazen and hypocritical.

2011-11-21T16:18:00.000-08:00

This opinion piece by Hamid Dabashi in Al-Jazeera ought to be written in gold letters and force-read to every Iranian in diaspora (esp. those in the US), and the Ne-Con/Zionist sponsored site Iranian.com ought to be hacked and this article featured 1000 times on it.

Hamid Dabashi

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111120132050412430.html

New York, NY - The term "Fifth Column" is believed to have been coined in 1936 by Emilio Mola y Vidal (1887-1937), a nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), as his army of four columns was approaching Madrid, and he said that a "Fifth Column" would join them from within the city. Ernest Hemingway's The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938) is a homage to that coinage.

The expression has ever since developed to mean the militant supporters of an approaching enemy that would aid and abet them - or give them "aid and comfort", as the Article III Section 3 of the US Constitution delineates "treason" - once they enter their target destination.

In the age of globalised imperialism and the chimerical creature called "humanitarian intervention", we now seem to have chanced upon a renewed conception of the "Fifth Column" one might venture to call "postmodern". The question that the term now raises is where precisely does noble opposition to a tyrannical regime end, and treacherous collaboration with belligerent warmongering against one's own people begins.

Three consecutive and dramatic events - the NATO military intervention that led to the downfall of Gaddafi, the renewed Isareli bellicose warmongering against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the spin that US and Israel put on the IAEA report about the Iranian nuclear programme - have all come together to give rise to this new mode in the formation of a "postmodern Fifth Column" that is now winking and elbowing to entice and encourage the US and Israel to invade Iran.

This emerging band of Iranian Fifth Columnists took their crudest clue from two back-to-back interviews that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave to Voice of America and BBC Persian programmes in October 2011, in which she said the US would have helped the Green Movement if they were asked to do so. Their palates salivating since the NATO military intervention in Libya, these Fifth Columnists went positively gluttonous at the idea and soon got to work on the project.

Some of their most brazen and hypocritical have openly asked for the US to invade Iran (one of them claiming that the annual traffic and even cancer statistics in Iran would be less than the casualties of a potential war, while another uses creative accounting with the low number of civilian casualties in Libya), while others are using convoluted Orwellian Newspeak of the crudest kind hoping to camouflage their treachery. Those who have openly asked for military strike (aka "humanitarian intervention") a la Libya against their own homeland are beyond redemption. I have very little to say about them, for history itself is a harsh and unforgiving judge. It is this latter group - the Orwellian Newspeakers - I have in mind when I refer to them as "postmodern Fifth Columnists".
Confusing the concepts

"War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength."
- George Orwell, 1984

In order to get their mission accomplished, what these postmodern Fifth Columnists have been doing is to start loosening the solid screws of certain key concepts, making them less trustworthy and reliable. They create confusion and chaos in the minds of people they target by way of paving the way for a military strike against Iran, presenting it as something good and liberating: not a military invasion, but "a humanitarian intervention". First in Libya, they say, then in Syria, and then ("perhaps, no I did not quite say that, did I, but should the circumstances demand, yes why not") Iran. Their manner of speech is in fact quite pre-Orwellian and entirely akin to Lord Polonius instructing Reynaldo as to how to spy on his son Laertes without appearing to do so: "See you now; / Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth: / And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, / With windlasses and with assays of bias, / By indirections find directions out ..."

If you pardon the crudity of their diction and bear with their pedestrian politics and prose, what they do and say is the Orwellian nightmare all over again: They issue a statement calling it "against war", which in fact paves the way for war. As Orwell would say, "war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength" - all to the letter of the insight: Orwell’s prophetic soul!

The Orwellian Newspeak puts a new spin on reality in their prose and politics. In a statement that they issue against war they in fact say that the threat of war is not that serious, and that even warning against it is treacherous to the cause of liberty in Iran. And they do so with a straight face. As Syme would say: "It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words."

Their verbiage, double-talk and speaking from both sides of their mouth is of course not lost on careful and caring readers who have point by point dissected (in Persian) their position and exposed their hypocrisy. They repeat the mantra that Iran is a threat to world peace, the singular line of Israeli propaganda machinery, as if Israel is the singular source of peace and serenity for this world. Meanwhile, they beat the drum of war against Iran, all the while calling their statement "against war". The Orwellian Newspeak is no longer merely obscene. It is clinically deranged.

As a key example, these postmodern Fifth Columnists have started playing tootsie with the idea of imperialism: There is no longer any imperialism, they insist. This is "an old discourse" (they love the Persian word coined for "discourse" - gofteman - so much that they keep using, abusing and misusing it). Imperialism was something of the past, and only the retarded leftists keep reproducing it uselessly. Meanwhile, some of these Fifth Columnists used to be militant Stalinists in their youth.

But now, having moved from Tehran to Tehrangeles, imperialism looks démodé, out of fashion: The US army is out vacationing in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, all around the globe. The US has upwards of 700 military bases around the globe, as the late Chalmers Johnson so painstakingly documented, including their 234 military golf courses scattered all over the world, simply for entertainment purposes. Literally hundreds upon hundreds of books and articles detailing the specific contours of US imperialism - most recently the three volumes of Chalmers Johnson's Blowback Trilogy - are just non-existent, for "ignorance is strength".

Quickly connected to this cavalier dismissal of imperialism as a global phenomenon, these postmodern Fifth Columnists also say that "national sovereignty" and "independence" no longer means anything. Wake up and smell the globalised postmodern roses, they say. Countries like Iran (or Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya) no longer have any claim to their own territorial integrity as a site of potential resistance to predatory capitalism. Nationalism is tribalism, and this tribalism has made a monster out of "the West", they insist.

While rebelling against homegrown tyrants, the poor inhabitants of these countries have (entirely unbeknownst to themselves, but discovered by these postmodernists in Tehrangeles) also lost any claim of sovereignty over their own homeland. "I am sorry, then," they say along with Burgundy to the poor Cordelia of these unfortunate nations. "You have so lost a father / That you must lose a husband." If they lack democracy as approved by the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) they have no claim to national sovereignty either.

Some create a boogeyman out of "colonialism", a word which these expat professors navigating their SUVs between one college campus in California and another always like to put into scare quotes. So no, colonialism does not exist. Palestinians are just having fun with the humanitarian intervention of Zionism into their living rooms. No sir, from Fanon to Said to Spivak - from Jose Marti to W E B Dubois to Malcolm X, from Mahatma Gandhi to Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor: They were all boogeymen frightening folks out of their wits. "Ignorance is strength"? No sir, ignorance is bliss.

There is no colonialism, no imperialism, no national sovereignty - these are all fictions that "old lefties" have made up.

Hooray for humanitarian intervention

To crown these pieces of rare jewellery, these postmodern Fifth Columnists celebrate the idea of "humanitarian intervention". No, they insist, this is not a military strike, nor is it imperialism. It is "humanitarian intervention" - just as the US and NATO say it is, from which sources these good folks take their cues. The link between knowledge and power has scarce been more at a gunpoint.

Not that these folks care to read anything beyond their own statements - but nevertheless: In Reading Humanitarian Intervention: Human Rights and the Use of Force in International Law (2007), Anne Orford goes back to the 1990s, almost two decades before the Libyan uprising, when "humanitarian intervention" first posited as a move beyond imperialism and national sovereignty. Anne Orford demonstrates in exquisite detail how this very "humanitarian intervention" was in fact a ruse for very old-fashioned imperial designs in a new register. Bringing feminist, postcolonial, legal and psychoanalytic theory together, Orford took the bogus notion of "humanitarian intervention" to task on legal and political grounds.

In Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror (2009), Mahmood Mamdani too took the crisis in Darfur back to the historical context of Sudan, where the conflict in fact began as a civil war (1987-1989) between nomadic and peasant tribes, triggered by a severe drought that had expanded the Sahara Desert. Mamdani then links the conflict to how the British colonial officials had in fact artificially tribalised Darfur, dividing its population into "native" and "settler" tribes - very much on the model that Nicholas Dirks demonstrates in his Caste of Mind how the British recast the caste system for their own colonial interests.

The involvement of the Sudanese opposition parties gave rise in 2003 to two rebel movements, leading to a brutal insurgency and counterinsurgency. The Cold War then exacerbated the civil war in neighboring Chad, creating a confrontation between Gaddafi and the Soviet Union on one side, and the Reagan administration, allied with France and Israel on the other, moving into Darfur and violently exacerbating the conflict.

By 2003, Mamdani demonstrates, the war involved national, regional and global forces, including the US and Europe, who now saw the conflict as part of "the War on Terror" and called for a military invasion dressed up as "humanitarian intervention". All such historical facts on the ground were categorically whitewashed under the jazzed-up urgency of "humanitarian intervention". Stanley Motss/Dustin Hoffman of "Wag the Dog" (1997) could not have produced the scenario any more lavishly.

When making a case for the military strike against Libya, even President Obama saw the hypocrisy at the heart of the operation when Bahrain and Yemen (as the most glaring examples) were so loudly calling for comparison. President Obama sought to explain the cherry-picking in terms of the coincidence of American "values" and American "interests". But these Iranian "humanitarian interventionists" are even blunter than the American president in seeing no innate contradiction in their hypocrisy.

If you were to take New York buses these days, you may notice from your windows that New York cabs have recently started sporting advertisements for "New York Dolls" available at "Gentlemen's Clubs". It must be something in the air: Why call bordello houses bordello houses when you can call them "Gentlemen's Club" - or call imperialism by its name when you can call it "humanitarian intervention"? Bordello houses and imperialism are really very old and cliché "discourses" - "Gentlemen's Club" and "humanitarian intervention" are far gentler and kinder Newspeaks.

From Iran to Islamic Republic

Another gimmick of these postmodern Fifth Columnists is to try to silence their opposition by accusing them of being agents of the Islamic Republic - not a very imaginative trick, you may think, but nevertheless seemingly effective in the infested pool of exile communities. If you were ever to dare as much as utter a word against these inanities they weave together, then you must be a paid agent of the Islamic Republic.

That people who object to their inanities have served repeated jail terms in the dungeons of the Islamic Republic, who have gone to the brink of death and come back during their hunger strikes, have written against Khamenei and the Islamic Republic while in Evin prison, that there are people opposed to their warmongering who have barely escaped from the firing squad of the Islamic Republic, people whose parents have been butchered by the agents of the Islamic Republic, makes no difference to these valiant motorists daring the elements of the DuPont Circle and Los Angeles highways.

"Some of these people have never been as much as slapped once in their lives," said Akbar Ganji recently in an interview. Ganji is perhaps the most prominent human rights activist who opposes waging war against Iran. "And they call people like me agents of Islamic Republic."

After his youthful attraction to Muslim revolutionaries in the late 1970s, Akbar Ganji emerged as one of the most courageous investigative journalists and human rights activists of his generation, exposing the criminal atrocities of the Islamic Republic, a feat that has twice landed him in the dungeons of the theocracy for more than six years, led almost to his death after a prolonged hunger strike, and for which he and his family continue to pay dearly.

What representational legitimacy that the pro-war (excuse me, pro-"humanitarian intervention") advocates lacked, the Wall Street Journal was happy to manufacture for them in a quick fix by implicating the dissident voices inside Iran - a gimmick that did not quite work when Akbar Ganji gave chapter and verse from the specific positions of major oppositional voices inside Iran (some in fact from inside the notorious Evin prison) against military intervention. Even before Akbar Ganji, the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami had very specifically said that should there be a military strike, the Reformists and non-Reformists will be united against any harm coming Iran’s way - a fact that even Haaretz reported to its Isareli readers, but escaped the attention of these warmongers.

There is a vast and insurmountable difference between being opposed to the criminal atrocities of the Islamic Republic and becoming the Fifth Column of an US/Israeli design on Iran. The postmodern Fifth Columnists have confused the two and have from the nobility of one now degenerated into the treachery of the other.
Massive crackdowns on the opposition, belligerent Sultanism, and many other reasons indicate that this ghastly regime is headed for the dustbin of history. And yet when the first bomb is dropped on Iran, this entire nation will be united under those bombshells, precisely when these postmodern Fifth Columnists from Washington DC to Los Angeles will jump on their SUVs, hit the nearest highway and run for cover. Who now remembers Kanan Makiya, Ahmad Chalabi or Fouad Ajami? Their ignoble names, which incited violence against Iraq, are now forgotten for good reasons.

Perhaps the most magnificent response to one such "humanitarian interventionist" has come from a courageous oppositional figure named Abed Tavancheh, barely out of the dungeons of the Islamic Republic, writing in an interview while he is in the city of Arak in Iran, and soon after he read that Washington DC-based Iranian warmongers are enticed by the events in Libya:

I want to live - and if I am to die for something, I wish to die voluntarily and form my own ideals, and I wish to emphasise that I can only decide for my own life, and not for 25 out every 1000 Iranians [an estimate of how many people will perish].I wish to know for what and for whom I die. Neither the US, nor NATO, nor indeed any other coalition with no matter how many flags on top of it, authorised by I could not care what organisation, has the right to impose on me as an Iranian living in Iran any "humanitarian intervention". I could not care any less if these bombs were guided by laser or by God Almighty Himself. I refuse to accept the risk of being among 25 in each 1,000 who shall die, and you sir [addressing a militant military interventionist heralding from NED] so long as the chance of your being among these 25 is zero - because you live in Washington DC and from each side of your location you are safely distanced from here by an ocean and a couple of continents - please keep your opinion to yourself about me and people like me who live in Iran, and kindly do not add any more fuel to the fire of foreign invasion. That is all.

Shedding skin

"Iranian political culture is molting."

The rise of these postmodern Fifth Columnists is actually a positive development for the future of democracy in Iran - for all the delusions of a false solidarity among the dissidents in and out of Iran is actually dissipating and clearer bifurcations are emerging. Illustrious figures identified with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Bush Institute, and the National Endowment for Democracy are now championing a solid alliance with the Zionist-Neoconservative forces in the United States, even to the point of enticing them to attack Iran to liberate it for them.

We have (dare I dream) the solid foundation for the emergence of a new Left from the ashes of the Reform movement of the 1990s, from which a few progressive forces have been salvaged. The rest have either returned to their mysticism, or joined the Fifth Columnists, or dropped all their protestations and joined rank with the emerging Left. These divisions will not weaken the dissident voices. They will in fact strengthen the democratic future of the republic that will, willy-nilly, succeed this belligerent theocracy.
Iranian political culture is molting.

My only recommendation to active members of these Fifth Column brigade is to take a look at the fate of Kanan Makiya (aka Samir al-Khalil), who was equally, if not more adamant, in encouraging the US to invade Iraq to liberate it. Half a decade later, in 2007, his homeland in ruins, hundreds of thousands of his fellow Iraqis perished, Makiya was in agony acknowledging the horrors of his mistake when the New York Times had him reflect on his cheerleading the US-led invasion of Iraq. "In the buildup to the Iraq war," the Times reported, "Makiya, more than any single figure, made the case for invading because it was the right thing to do - to destroy an evil regime and rescue a people from their nightmare of terror and suffering".

Even back in 2007, when the full scale of the Iraqi carnage was yet to unfold, the New York Times had concluded: "Now, of course, those dreams are gone, carried away on a tide of blood. The catastrophe in Iraq has thoroughly undermined the idea of democratic change in the Middle East. It has undercut the notion ... that American military power can achieve humanitarian ends. And it has made Makiya and the others who justified the invasion look reckless and naïve." Others may, of course, use more accurate adjectives than "reckless and naïve". For the Iranian versions of Kanan Makiya I have generously opted, for now, for "postmodern Fifth Columnists".

Faring well

Having said all of this, it would also be unfair and inaccurate to dismiss all those who have sign on to this "humanitarian intervention" business as heartless warmongers who do not care about their homeland. More than three decades of a terrorising and criminal theocracy with no regard for human decency has driven many Iranians to desperate measures. Thousands of Iranians have been cold-bloodedly murdered in the dungeons of the Islamic republic, hundreds of thousands have perished in a prolonged and wasteful war, millions have been forced to leave their homeland and endure the indignity of exile, and an entire nation is terrorised into submission to a vicious, corrupt, and subhuman tyranny.

Two years ago masses of millions of Iranians poured into their streets demanding their civil liberties - and they were met with vicious and wanton disregard for human decency. Millions of Iranians around the globe, proud of who and what they are, wish to go back to their homeland, join their families inside Iran and build a better future for their children - and yet this plague called "Islamic Republic" is cast upon that nation with wicked tenacity.

But precisely for these reasons, rushing into a military option code - named "humanitarian intervention", and over which these exiled Iranians have absolutely no control, is not the answer, because it will have catastrophic consequences in every conceivable way. Libya is Libya and Iran is Iran - these two countries have and will continue to struggle for their liberties in terms at once common to them both and yet rooted in two different immediate histories. No country is a model for another.

But if war is not the answer - then what is?

The answer is not hidden in the wooden box of any apothecary. The answer is in the emerging spirit of liberation now sweeping from one end of the globe to another, which in one way or another will also come to Iran.

In social and revolutionary uprisings, activists do not have the luxury of picking and choosing models, so they can opt for the Libyan as opposed to the Tunisian model. The logic of social movements are embedded in their own historic roots. An employee of NED, or WINEP, or the Bush Institute, or an obscure college professor in California is not in a position to pick and choose that model for a democratic uprising halfway around the globe. Not even people closest to the social uprisings, suffering in the dungeons of the Islamic Republic - not even Karrubi and Mousavi, who are on the record as having garnered millions of votes of Iranians, can decide and determine in what direction the Iranian democratic uprising will go.

That democratic uprising - rooted, real, enduring and determined to succeed - will find its own way. Our task is not to impose a method on it, but to discover and exacerbate its inner logic. The everlasting embarrassment (indeed shame) will remain for those who fail to listen and learn that logic and wish to impose their own desires, however noble or treacherous.

Neither the Islamic Republic nor any other tyrannical - or even democratic - state has the right to develop weapons of mass destruction, at the mercy of which our fragile globe lives in fear and trembling. But the current configuration of regional and global power has no moral authority whatsoever to tell the Islamic Republic not to develop nuclear arms. In one way or another the Islamic Republic will develop nuclear weapons capabilities - and there is very little that the apartheid Israeli garrison state sitting on hundreds of nuclear bombs and refusing even to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty can do about the matter. Whatever Israel and its US and European allies do will, in fact, expedite that eventuality. If they leave the Islamic Republic alone, it will get closer to that capability. If they attack it - and indications are that in physical and cyberspace warfare they have already done so - they will in fact push their project forward.

This paradox can only be resolved by a resolution of the supreme hypocrisy of Israel and the US finger-pointing at the Islamic Republic about its nuclear program. The Islamic Republic and the Jewish State are now staring each other down like two thuggish cowboys - and the fate of one has become contingent on the other. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak fancies Israel "a villa in a jungle" (the racist implications of his favourite metaphor defies sanity). But from the vantage point of the natives of that "jungle", both the Jewish State and the Islamic Republic appear as two garrisons destined to dismantle each other - for good, for the benefit of Iranians and Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs, Muslims and humanity at large.

Whether or not that paradox is resolved, neither the Jewish State, the Islamic Republic, nor indeed the Christian empire presiding over them both can or will escape the force of history coming their way. We may call it Intifada in Palestine, Tent Revolt in Israel, the Green Movement in Iran, the Arab Spring in the Arab world, Indignados in Europe, or Occupy Wall Street in the US and around the globe, but against that force all hypocrisies and all paradoxes will sooner or later dissolve.

The natural habitat of ordinary people revolting against all forms of injustice and tyranny is a moral and not a military position. Those who encourage war by way of offering political justification for it have categorically abandoned that moral position. They have aid and abet acts of violence, at the receiving end of which live masses of millions of innocent and helpless human beings, over which they have no control, against which they have no protection - and yet beyond which they must imagine and achieve a better and more just world.

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. Among his most recent books is Iran: A People Interrupted (2007).

Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah

2011-11-14T22:35:00.000-08:00

We Are The Many (Anthem of OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT)

2011-11-14T21:43:00.000-08:00

At the grave of Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery, London (June 2011)

Lyrics by MAKANA
We Are the Many

Ye come here, gather 'round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who've trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage

From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won't withdraw

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight

They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none

So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest

We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

You can't divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can't buy

Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few

We are the many
You are the few

Call for Papers/Participants: Opening up the Study of Sufism for the 21st century

2011-11-09T01:50:00.000-08:00

Call for Papers/Participants: Opening up the study of Sufism for the 21st century

A. The cover story

What: An edited volume of eight to ten chapters of 7-8,000 words each written by a scholar and/or published Sufi to be ready by July 2012 for a roundtable conference in New Zealand August 2012.

The actual book: This is going to be a companion volume published by Continuum to offer a survey of current research but also to give more practical guidance on research in the field, including research methods and subject-specific resources.

B. The Scoop

I have only just agreed to edit this project if I could gather up a certain kind of team and the publishers have given me a few weeks to gather the team.

A couple of the team members necessarily will reflect current approaches to the study of sufism. These are the starting points for any new approach to the study of Sufism. We build on the shoulders of our predecessors.
This announcement is for individuals who want to go beyond the existing postmodern paradigm in whatever dimension they choose to focus.

My motivation in this project is to re-balance the embarrassing situation whereby what is important for actual practitioners is hardly considered by scholars anymore. The subjective and trans-rational aspects of Sufi practice are almost totally ignored. One of the most enlivening transformative activities on the planet is largely dis-enchanted in academic Sufi literature.

Postmodernism has taught us to be aware of ethnocentrism but few in academia are aware of the pervading cognocentrism. This is one of the gaping holes in Sufi studies today. There are many others. Please let me know what they are and how you would like to fill them with enchantment.

Please contact Art Buehler at art.buehler@vuw.ac.nz if you are interested. Please enclose a 100-word abstract and a three sentence bio.

A Reflection on the Life and Apparent Death of Qaddhafi by Idris Samawi Hamid

2011-10-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

The following below is a brilliant appraisal by contemporary Shaykhi scholar and academic, Idris Samawi Hamid, on the death of Mu'ammar Qaddhaffi. While written by someone else, the words reflect my own views to the letter. This piece was posted on his Facebook Notes on Friday, 21 October, 2011:

Imam Musa al-Sadr (ra)

Bismi Rabbial-Husayn (S)

Dear Brothers andSisters,

Assalaamu3alaykumwr wb.

The Qurʾān says:

يَا أَيُّهَاالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا۟ كُونُوا۟ قَوَّامِينَ بِالۡقِسۡطِ شُهَدَاء لِلّهِ وَلَوۡ عَلَي أَنفُسِكُمۡ أَوِ الۡوَالِدَيۡنِوَالأَقۡرَبِينَ إِنيَكُنۡ غَنِيًّا أَوۡ فَقَيرًافَاللّهُ أَوۡلَي بِهِمَا فَلاَتَتَّبِعُوا۟ الۡهَوَي أَنتَعۡدِلُوا۟ وَإِن تَلۡوُوا۟ أَوۡ تُعۡرِضُوا۟ فَإِنَّ اللّهَكَانَ بِمَا تَعۡمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا

يَا أَيُّهَاالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا۟ كُونُوا۟ قَوَّامِينَ لِلّهِ شُهَدَاء بِالۡقِسۡطِوَلاَ يَجۡرِمَنَّكُمۡ شَنَآنُ قَوۡمٍ عَلَي أَلاَّ تَعۡدِلُوا۟اعۡدِلُوا۟ هُوَ أَقۡرَبُ لِلتَّقۡوَي وَاتَّقُوا۟ اللّهَ إِنَّ اللّهَخَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعۡمَلُونَ

O you who havedynamically believed! Be those who stand for manifest justice,witnesses to Allāh, even if it be against your yourselves, yourparents, or those who are close to you; even if it be againstsomeone poor or rich, for Allāh has more walayah [thananyone else] with both of them. And do not follow yourpersonal whims and desires and let them prevent you from being just.And if you deviate or turn away from justice, then surely Allāhis well-informed of all that you do. [Nisāʾ: 135]

O you who havedynamically believed! Be those who stand for Allāh, witnessesto manifest justice. And do not allow some hatred of a peopleto afflict you so that you do not act justly. Be just! It iscloser to awareness. And be aware of Allāh! Surely Allāh iswell-informed of all that you do. [Māʾidah: 9]

Apparently ColonelMuʿammar Qaddhafi is dead: ʿalayhimaa ʿalayhi! (Upon himbe what is upon him!) He will meet his Cherisher-Lord and answerfor his actions in this life, one of which was either the likely murder or thecover-up of the murder of Imam Sayyid Musa Sadr and his companions. For this hehas received the opprobrium and even hatred of the Shīʿah around the world andmost especally in Lebanon.Assuming his guilt, this was arguably the biggest mistake of his career, for itwas the vote of Lebanonat the UN Security Council that tipped the balance against him so Nato couldbegin its onslaught against Qaddhafi and the Libyan people.

Yet the Qurʾāndemands that we be just, even against a people who have incurred our opprobriumor hatred. Wthin his own country Qaddhafi's record is mixed as a ruler: He wasa dictator yet he followed his own ideological path independent of theEuro-American script. His initial popularity in Libya is unquestionable, but exactdegree of popular support he enjoyed or did not enjoy in recent times is harderto quantify.

There can belittle doubt that he was as sincere in his original visionary and revolutionaryspirit as a Lenin, Mao, or Castro. As an Arab nationalist he was more Nasseritethan Nasser himself. And there can be little doubt that he truly believed inIslām. But without a righteous Imām (S) to guide him he went astray in hisIslām and in his ideology -- a curious mixture of Islam, socialism, andpolitical anarchism rooted in the free bedouin spirit from which he sprang.Finally he fell victim to his own hubris and pride which, in perfect harmonywith that famous law of life, was at its greatest just before his fall.

In the first halfor so of his rule there can be little doubt as to how much he did to develop Libya as anindependent nation. He gave Libyans the best standard of living in Africa. Unlike Tunisiaand Egypt, poverty had nothing to do with his overthrow-- indeed, many of Libya'smost poor fought the hardest for him. He threw out the multinationals, wrestedLibyan oil -- the best in the world -- from greedy Western hands, and used themoney to build Libyaand to stick finger after finger into the interests of the Euro-AmericanEmpire.

On theinternational front Qaddhafi supported anti-Western liberation struggles aroundthe world, from Nicaragua toNorthern Irelandto the Phillipines. Analyst Jean-Paul Pougala

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72575

explains theimportant role Qaddhafi has played in creating institutions within Africa --raped and exploited for centuries by European colonialism, imperialism --,institutions meant to provide an alternative to the tyranny of Euro-Americanfinancial institutions. See also

http://crescent-online.net/main-story/1963-july2011/3118-reasons-behind-the-wests-attack-on-libya.html

In the Natointervention in Libyanote that the African Union was contemptuously ignored in its attempt to play apositive role in the Libyan crisis. The common-sense appeals of YoweriMuseveni, President of Uganda, were ignored:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/03/24/the_qaddafi_I_know?page=full

How is it that aEuro-American military alliance was given the right to attack Libya but the African Union, within which Libya occupiesits natural geopolitical space, was sidelined? I encourage readers to read bothMuseveni's and Pougala's analyses. And the unfortunate fact is that the AfricanUnion has not developed to anywhere near the point where it could play itsnatural role as a counterweight to the Nato behemoth.

For his struggleand vision, with all the flaws of its ideological basis and practicalimplementation, to free Africa, Arabs, andother oppressed peoples from the shackles of European colonialism andimperialism; for this he earned the eternal hatred of the Euro-American Empire.Although he often cooperated with the same Empire for reasons of expediencyafter 9/11 -- Libya after all is a small country in terms of human resources todefend against an American or Nato attack -- in this particular regard it would begrossly unfair to merely lump Qaddhafi along with quisling rulers such asMubarak and Ben-Ali, or American-created Frankenstein monsters such as SaddamHussein and Osama bin Laden.

Along with Syria, he continuously supported Iran throughoutthe Iran-Iraq war and against the rest of the Arab world. This is one reasonfor which he also earned the eternal hatred of the Saudi tribe that occupiesthe Arabian Peninsula. The other reason, ofcourse, is that the Colonel emphatically rejected Saudi-sponsored Wahhabism andSalafism in every shape and form. Unfortunately, Qaddhafi's spiritual andideological replacement for Wahhabi reactionarism, Sunni traditionalism, andeven progressive Sunni Ikhwanism was unable to find a place in the hearts ofthe jamahiriyyah, ofthe masses whom he soidealistically wanted to mold into a mirror of his own vision and image ofrevolutionary socialism and Islam. Hence Wahhabism as well as the twomainstreams of the Sunni tradition turned against him. Between that and theabsence of any credible accounting for the Imām Musa Sadr -- a figure so dearto both revolutionary and traditionalist Shīʿī Islam -- he was left with nonatural friends or allies in the Muslim world. This gave an opening for theEuro-American Empire to play the dirtiest card in its deck of dirty tricks:Wahhabi reactionarism.

If there ever anydoubt that Wahhabi reactionarism and al-Qaeda are tools of Euro-Americanpolicy, the Libyan intervention should put that to rest. Abdelhakim Belhaj, thepresent ruler of Tripoli, was an al-Qaeda agentonce held at an American secret prison in Bangkok:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/middle_east/mh30ak01.html

Another prominentleader of one of rebel factions, Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu, wasa prisoner in Guantanamofor five years. A true thug, Abu Sufian had served time in prison in the 90'sfor drug trafficking and assault, before escaping to eventually join al-Qaedain Afghanistan:

http://crescent-online.net/news-a-analysis/1973-august2011/3141-us-and-al-qaeda-unite-against-qaddafi-in-libya.html

Each waseventually sent back to Libyaby the US,and each was given amnesty by Qaddhafi after a couple of years imprisonment.Now, in a farcical and tragic repitition of history these two al-Qaedaoperatives, among many others, are used by the Euro-American Empire to lead an"uprising" against Qaddhafi. So we are in peculiar situation whereNato serves as the air force of its al-Qaeda affiliate in Libya andal-Qaeda serves as the ground troops of Nato (!) -- something that does notseem so odd when one studies the symbiotic relationship between Euro-AmericanEmpire and Wahhabi reactionarism over the past century and especially the past30 years in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and now Libya, all bank-rolled by theSaudi regime occupying the Arabian Peninsula.

One feature commonto the various strands of Wahhabi reactionarism is a level of barbarism andthuggery that places them outside the pale of civilized behavior. The Taliban'smurder of dozens of Iranian diplomats in Mazar-e Sharif a decade ago and thevery recent killing of former President Rabbani in the course of peacenegotiations; the savage beheadings and massacres in Iraq; the ongoingmassacres of Shīʿīs in Pakistan; the removal and murder of the first head ofthe rebel forces in Benghazi; these and innumerable more examples all havetheir roots in a savage Wahhabi anarchism that respects no law or due processfor anyone who does not belong to their club or gang. As the dirty card andshock troops of Euro-American-Saudi policy in the Muslim world the damage thesefew psychopaths have done to the interests of the Muslim world is incalculable.One day they are unleashed to serve Imperial and Saudi interests, the next daytheir barbarism is used as justification for the largest military budget in theworld. One day they are tortured, dehumanized, and further radicalized insecret prisons; the next they are used as the shock troops of Nato in itsambush of Libya.

Which brings usback to Qaddhafi and the Qurʾānic exhortation to justice, even against thosewho have earned our opprobrium. In their love and grief for the Imām Sadr, manyShīʿīs will cheer the fall and death of Qaddhafi. Many in the progressive SunniIkhwan movement will also cheer the death of someone who eradicated thatmovement from Libya.But that will be very shortsighted. The impact of the short-term -- and perhapseven mid-term -- victory that the Euro-American Empire has won in recolonizing Libya throughWahhabi reactionarism cannot be overestimated. If, in its legitimate grief andanguish over Imām Sadr, Hizbullah in any way enabled the vote of Lebanon at theUN to go after Qaddhafi -- and I do not have knowledge on this score -- it wasquite a miscalculation. The Mediterranean Seais now a Nato lake: Full spectrum dominance has been achieved. The richest andmost independent country in Africa has beenreconquered by the Euro-America. The wealth of Libya is now a Euro-Americanresource and no longer an African resource, a massive loss to that alreadyimpoverished continent. And upwards of 30,000 Libyans, including so manyinnocent women, children, men, and old people, have been killed as a directresult of Euro-American intervention, in a country of only a few million.Particularly appalling has been the blatant racism shown to the Black communityof Libya,and the truly atrocious manner that prisoners of war have been tortured andquite literally slaughtered:

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2011/04/request-for-comments-arab-speakers-can.html

The Qurʾānsays that no human being bears the moral or legal burden of another: Our issueswith Qaddhafi are no excuse in any way supporting an aggressive militarism thatdoomed tens of thousands more people to death than would have died if Libya had beenleft alone. And that's assuming the initial revolt was not itself an instanceof agent-provacateurism (the jury is still out on that****).

Finally, the deathof Qaddhafi himself: After his convoy is bombed by Nato, first they say he waswounded and captured; then they say he died of his wounds; then they say he wasfound hiding in a ditch ... But now we know: He was captured alive, tortured,and brutally killed on live mobile camera moments after being caught, inviolation of any and all civilized norms:

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2011/10/was-gaddafi-lynched.html

I do not acceptcomparison with Saddam, an utterly unprincipled monster who was at least triedin a civilized manner for his crimes before his well-deserved and ignominiousend; nor with Mubarak, a mere quisling who was replaced by his masters in theface of untenable opposition; or Ben-Ali, another mere quisling overthrown withlittle-to-no outside help by his own people.

Qaddhafi couldhave got on a flight to Cuba;his friend Hugo Chavez of Venezuelawould have been happy to send him a private jet so Qaddhafi could save himself.Instead, he honorably chose to send the women of his family to safety while he stayedwith his sons and fought Nato and the Wahhabi gangs. Only Allāh knows the fateof Qaddhafi beyond this world; he will have to answer for his actions to theSupreme arbiter of Cosmic Justice who oppresses no one. However, in the scaleof this world: If anything can be said positively of Qaddhafi in his life anddeath, it is that he died while valiantly fighting in defence of Libya againstthe combined forces of Nato and Wahhabi reactionarism. That will be his epitaphas Libyabegins its second chapter under (neo-)colonial occupation. And that is exactly how Qaddhafi would havewanted it.

Peace to those whoseek to follow righteous guidance and justice.

**** See, forexample,

http://countercurrents.org/janson160611.htm

Spiritual Influxes of Vigilant Observance (awrâd al-istibsâr)

2011-10-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

The following is my English translation from Henry Corbin's French translation of Suhrawardî's 'Descents and Sanctifications' (al-wâridât wa'l-taqdîsât), dubbed by Corbin 'The Book of Hours' (Le Livre d'Heures), in L'archange empourpré (Paris: 1976), pp. 483-4. Presently only one badly scanned ms. of the original Arabic of this work is in my possession. Two other mss. have been cited by Corbin, as well as Brockelman in GAL, as being held in Turkey.

1. [O! To] that God who hears the call of burningdesire! How [It] discloses (kashf) the way to the interiorillumination! By the approaching of the Malakût (angelic world)of sanctity whereby the word is upraised to the Persons of Light (ashkhâsal-daw’), inasmuch as They proclaim:

2. OGod of all gods (yâ ilâha kulli ilâhîn), assemble the litanyof the Light! Come to the aid of the people of Light (ahl al-Nûr)!Guide the light unto the Light!

3. With the First Being the principle movementoriginates. To this First Being is lead the final limit of time and repose.Close is the moment. The Signs have appeared. Herein gathered are in assemblythe folk of Mount Sina’i, so reciting, letthem say:

4. O Godof the Separations (yâ ilâh al-fâriqât), assemble the litany ofthe Light! Come to the aid of the people of Light! Guide the light unto theLight!

5. The Lord is alone and without equal by the glare of It’ssplendorous flashes of Glory (bi-sanâ’ al-majd). One and Singlein the magnitude of Power. Exalted in the sublimity of Its Victorious force,dominating every Intelligence, every heart and every material body. Within eachliving being It epiphanizes [Itself]. In the proximity of Its Majesty are theheights of the highest altitudes and the abysses of the utmost depths, so letthe Pure Ones (al-zakkîyât) proclaim :

6. OMaster of the Supreme Symbol (sâhib al-mathal al-a’lâ), assemblethe litany of the Light! Come to the aid of the People of Light! Guide thelight unto the Light!

7. God purifes the upright while approaching them,approving the liturgy of the Light arising to sounds of the Sanctified Easts (quddâsal-ishrâq), for Its blessings are upon the cone of the flame of Light. Itdirects the celestial impulse upon the lamp of the sanctuary (qandîlal-mosallâ). It consecrates offerings and praiseworthy acts. It made ofthe herald of the Levantine Light the rider of the Orient (rakîbal-mashriq), for the nearness of the Holy Ones, bestowing aid,launch the [divine] Order by proclaiming atop the crenels of the world ofGlory:

8. O Principle of the Universe, terminal time limit ofthe movements of the suns which rise to their orients when they decline fromtheir occidents (al-shâriqât al-ghâribât), assemble the litany ofthe Light! Come to the aid of the People of Light! Guide the light unto theLight!

9. God made the primal Light the mediator and sovereign.He projected upon him Its Light. It gave him the sovereignty over the directionof [the celestial] bodies. It made of him a lord reigning upon the napes of thenecks of the beings in material bodies. It confirmed by him the mediation ofthe cosmic order, the perfector of life, the cause of the seasons, the nightsand days, and to whom the sanctified (hieratic) souls (muqadassâtal-nufûs) invoke with fervor, whilst addressing themselves to It:

10. O You, the Singular Person [inauthority] over the Lights (yâ ayyuhâ al-shakhs al-anwâr). YouWho eternally turn Your face towards Your Father! Call upon the Giver ofIntelligence (wâhib al-‘aql) and Life! Say: Assemble the litanyof the Light! Come to the aid of the People of Light! Guide the light unto theLight!

11. The Good (the Elect)beseech the highest Persons, the most elevated of the beings of Light. Thehuman assembly beseech the celestial Souls, while all together beseech thearchangelic Active-Intellects (al-‘uqâl al-fa’’âla); this, whilstour Principle encircles their totality. And this is the prayer of all thelevels of the hierarchy of beings, namely, the answer to the Call:

12. O Dispenser of the Light and thebeneficial influx! Come to the aid of the People of Light! Guide the light untothe Light.

A tale about the Unity of Being (wahdat al-wujud)

2011-10-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

When colorlessness became the captive of color

A Moses went to war with Jesus - Rumi

Onceupon a time a wandering dervish came upon a grove owned by an elderly, retiredman in the twilight of his years. The elderly man had spent years tending tohis garden with much love and care, growing in it all kinds of sumptuous fruits andvegetables. Recently having been graced with a realization of the Unity ofBeing (wahdat al-wujud), the dervish thought to himself, "I am hungry, andthere is no blame if I jump over this man's fence and help myself to the fruitsof his garden since all is God!"

So thedervish proceeded to jump over the old man’s fence and, without asking his permission,began to greedily help himself to the fruits and vegetables of the old man'sgarden.

After awhile the old man saw what the dervish was doing and so began to yell athim from across the way: "hey you, what are you doing? Why are you eatingfrom the fruits of my garden without my permission?" The dervish responded,"this is God's garden, these are God's fruits and I am God eatingGod!" The old man angrily retorted, "is that right?" The dervish imperiouslyresponded, "yes, that's right!"

So theold man proceeded over to the other side of his house to fetch his big, heavywalking stick. He returned straight back over to the dervish and began to nowbeat him mercilessly! The dervish cried, "what is wrong with you, old man?Why are you beating me like this?" The old man responded, "well, thisis God's garden, these are God's fruits and I am God beating God!"

The Crimson Intellect ('aql-i-sorkh) of Suhrawardi

2011-09-27T00:24:00.000-07:00

In the Name of God theCompassionate, the Merciful!

Glory be to the Sovereign who rules over the two worlds with absolute dominion; for the existence of all that has been hasbeen through His Being; the present existence of all that now exists is throughHis Being, and the future existence of all that shall exist will exist throughHis Being. He is the First, the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden; and He isseeing of all things. And salutations and blessings be upon His divine envoys,especially to Muhammad, the Chosen, through whomthe seal was affixed to prophecy, and upon his Companions and to the Knowers ofReligion, may divine favour rest upon them all!

Oneof my dear friends one day asked me the following question: "Do birdsunderstand each other's language?"

-"Certainly," I answered, "they do."

-My friend replied: "How do you know this?"

- "It so happens that in the beginning when He whois the Maker in the real sense wanted to manifest my being that not yet was,He created me in the form of a falcon. However, in the land where I was therewere also other falcons; we talked to one another, we listened to the differentwords and we understood each other."

-"Very good," said my friend, "but how have things gotten the waythey are now?"

- Well, this is how: "one day the hunters,Decree and Destiny, spread out the fillet of Predestination; they hid the grainof attraction in it as a bait and in this way successfully managed to take me aprisoner. They kidnapped me from the homeland that had been my nest and took meaway to a faraway country. My eyelids were sewn together and they fettered mewith four different kinds of chains; finally, ten wardens were appointed toguard over me: five faced me and had their backs to the outside; five othershad their back to me and faced the outside. The five who were facing me kept meso tightly in a world of confusion that I forgot everything: my own nest, thefaraway homeland and everything that I had known over there. I now imagine thatI have always been just like I am now.

When some time had passed this way, my eyes reopened a little bit, and to thedegree that they could see again, I began to look around. I began to see thethings that I had not seen for so very long and I admired them greatly.Gradually every day my eyes opened a little more and I looked at more things soI fell over with surprise. Finally my eyes reopened completely; the worldshowed itself to me just the way it was. I looked at the chains that tied medown; I saw that I was a prisoner of the ten wardens. I said to myself:"Apparently I will never be extricated from these four fetters or fromthese jailers so that my wings can open and I can fly again, free andunhindered from all bonds."

More time passed. Suddenly, one day I noticed that my jailers had relaxed theirattention. "I could not have found a better moment," I thought tomyself. Secretly I slipped away, and as well as I could I hobbled in my chainsuntil I ended up on the desert road. There, in the desert, I saw someone comingmy way. I walked to meet this person. I stopped and greeted him. With grace andconsideration, the person returned my greeting. Observing a crimson reflectionin his complexion, I thought I had met an adolescent.

-"Young man," I said, "where are you going?"

-Child! Came the reply, "You are wrong in calling me that! I myself am theeldest of the Creator's children, and you call me 'young man'?"

-"But in that case, why aren't you like someone who is old?"

- "I really am one of the most ancient ones, aSage whose essence is Light. The same person who made you a prisoner of thefillet, who put those chains around you and made those jailers guard you, alsothrew me into the pit of darkness a long time ago, that is the reason you seethat crimson color around me. Otherwise I am completely white and luminous.Like anything white whose whiteness comes from solidarity with the Light, whenit gets mixed with the night it appears sort of reddish. Watch at twilight andat dawn, both are white because they are connected with the light of the sun.However, twilight and dawn are a moment between the two: one side is towardsday which is white and the other is towards night which is black, hence thepurple of the dawn in the morning and of the twilight in the evening. Watch theastral mass of the moon when it rises. Although its light is a light borrowed,it is truly clothed in light, but one of its faces is turned towards day whilethe other is turned towards night. So the moon appears crimson. A simple lampappears to have the same property; below, the flame is white, higher up itturns towards dark smoke; in between it appears reddish. Many other analogiesor similarities can be given as an example of this rule"

-"O Sage, then where do you come from?" I asked this time.

-"I come from beyond Mount Qâf. That is where myhome is. Your nest was there also. Alas! You have forgotten it!"

-"But what are you doing here?"

-"I am a perpetual pilgrim. Without letting up, I travel around the worldand marvel at all its wonders."

-"What sort of wonders have you seen in the world?"

-"I have seen seven wonders: the first one is Mount Qâf,our home, yours and mine. The second is the Jewel that illumines the Night. Thethird is the tree Tûbâ. Fourth are the twelve workshops. Fifth is David's coatof mail. Sixth is the Sword. Seventh is the Source of Life."

-"I beg you to tell me the history of all that."

-"Alright, first there is Mount Qâf. It stands on top ofthe world that it completely surrounds; in fact, all together it is made up oftwelve mountains. That is where you will go when you are freed from yourchains, because that is where you were taken from and every being ultimatelyreturns to the form it had initially."

-"What road do I take to get there?" I asked.

-"The road is indeed very difficult. You first see two mountains thatalready are part of Mount Qâf. The one has a verycold climate and the other is very hot. The heat and the cold of those placesknows no limits."

-"Isn't that easy? I will go across the mountain with the hot climate inthe winter and will travel over the mountain with the cold climate when it issummer."

-"Unfortunately, you are wrong. There isn't any season that the weather onthose mountains gets any better."

-"How far is it to those mountains? I asked."

-"No matter how long and how far you travel, you will keep getting back tothe place from where you left. It's like a compass where one point is fixed atthe center and the other is on its periphery: as long as it keeps turning italways keeps getting back to where it started."

-"Maybe it is possible to drill a tunnel through those mountains and thentravel through the hole?"

- "Actually, it is impossible to drill atunnel through them. On the other hand, those who have the aptitude can crossthem in a single instant without having to dig at all. This is about a powerthat is similar to the one balsam has. If you hold the palm of your hand up tothe sun long enough for it to become hot and if you then pour balsam drop bydrop into your palm, the balsam passes through to the backside of your handthanks to a natural power that it has. So also with you: if you realize thenatural power in yourself to cross those mountains, then in an instant you willhave crossed them."

-"How can you realize this power in yourself?"

-"I will give you a hint, if you are capable of catching it.

-"When I have crossed those first two mountains, is it then not easy tocross the others?"

-"Easy, certainly, but on condition that you understand. Some peopleremain forever captive of those two mountains. Others cross to the third andstay there. Still others get to the fourth, to the fifth and so on, to thetwelfth. The smarter the bird, the further it will fly."

-"Now that you have explained Mount Qâf to me, I said, I begyou to tell me the history of the Jewel that illumines the Night."

-"The Jewel that illumines the night also exists on Mount Qâf;more precisely, it is located on the third mountain and the dark night becomesresplendent because of it. Nevertheless, it does not stay in the same statewithout any changes. Its light comes from the Tûbâ tree. Every time that itfinds itself "in opposition" to the Tûbâ tree, relative to the placewhere you are, the Jewel appears entirely luminous, like a resplendent globe.When it is no longer opposite, but in a place closer to the Tûbâ tree, part ofits luminous disk is hidden relative to you, while the rest continues to shine.The closer it gets to the tree Tûbâ tree, the more the dark part gains on theluminous part, all the while, mind you, relative to the place where you are,because in relation to the tree Tûbâ one hemisphere of the Jewel staysluminous. When it is the closest to the Tûbâ tree, it appears in relation toyou as having become completely dark, while on the side of the Tûbâ tree it iscompletely light. Inversely, when it gets further away from the Tûbâ tree, itbegins to illuminate in relation to you (that is, as seen from your side); thefurther it gets away from the Tûbâ tree, the stronger its light gets relativeto you. The light itself never increases; the mass of the Jewel keeps theexcess light for itself and the dark zone gets equally smaller. This goes onuntil the opposition of the tree Tûbâ happens again (that is, the greatest distance);then the mass of the Jewel keeps the light completely for itself.”

TheJewel that illumines the Night

It'sanalogy

An analogy will make yousee this. Perforate a little ball completely along its diameter and draw a lineover the marks. Then fill a bowl with water and put the little ball on thesurface of the bowl so that half of it is in the water. Let us suppose that inten turns at a given moment the water has covered every part of the little ball(while it revolves around itself). If someone has observed this, looking fromunder the bowl, then they will always see one half of the ball plunged intowater. Now if the observer is then placed just below the middle of the bowl andkeeps looking at it in a slanted direction in relation to this vertical middle,then the entire half of the ball in the water can no longer be seen because tothe degree that the direction of one's view differs from the middle, one ceasesto see that part of the ball that is no longer in opposition to this vantage point.On the contrary, while looking this way, one will see part of the ball out ofthe water. The more obliquely one raises one's view towards the water level inthe bowl, the smaller will be the part of the ball dipped into the water andthe more one will see it out of the water. When one places oneself in order tosee exactly level with the water in the bowl, one hemisphere will be seen inthe water and the other out of it. Then if one's view is slanted more and moreabove the water level, more of one part of the ball will be seen, until one'sview passes vertically through the middle of the bowl and one sees the ball inits entirety, but also completely out of the water. Someone will perhaps objectthat while looking from below the bowl, they see neither the water nor thelittle ball. We answer that of course they can be seen, on condition that thebowl is made out of glass or some other transparent material. Now when we dealwith the bowl and the little ball of our example, it is the observer who hasmoved around the bowl in order to look at them. However, when we are dealingwith the Jewel that illumines the Night and the Tûbâ tree, it is theythemselves that rotate around a stationary observer."

- "Then what is theTûbâ tree?" I then asked the Sage.

- "The Tûbâ tree is animmense tree in Paradise. Everyone is familiarwith this tree every time they walk there. In the very heart of the twelvemountains that I spoke of there is a certain mountain. On that mountain standsthe Tûbâ tree.

- "Does it bear fruit?"

- "All the fruit yousee in the world is from this tree; the fruit you see before you all belongs toit. If the Tree did not exist there would be no fruit and no trees, no flowersor plants around you!"

- "Fruit, trees andflowers, what relation do they all have to this tree?"

- "Sîmurgh hasher nest in the top of the Tûbâ. At sunrise she leaves her nest and spreads herwings over the earth. It is from the influence of those wings that fruitappears on trees and that plants germinate in the earth."

- "I have heard itsaid that it was Sîmurgh who raised Zâl and that it was with Sîmurgh's helpthat Rostam killed Esfandyâr."

- "Yes, that'strue."

- "How did thathappen?"

-When Zâl made his entrance into existence from his mother's womb, his hair andface where completely white. Sâm, his father, ordered that he be thrown outinto the desert. His mother was just as profoundly disturbed at having broughthim into the world. Seeing her son with such repulsive features, she consentedto the order. So Zâl was abandoned into the wilderness. It was then winter thenand cold. No one imagined that the child would survive there. A few dayspassed; his mother lost her resentment and felt pity for the child. "Iwill go into the wilderness", she said to herself, "I must see whathas happened to my child". After arriving in the wilderness she found him:the child was still alive, Sîmurgh had taken it under her wings. When motherand child saw each other, Zâl smiled at her and the mother took him to herbreast and nursed him. She wanted to take him with her, but then said toherself: "No, because they won't understand how he survived these days, Iwon't take him back to the house." She then abandoned little Zâl in thesame place, under Sîmurgh's wings and hid herself in the vicinity. When nightfell and Sîmurgh left the desert, a gazelle approached Zâl's crib and placedits breast on the child's lips. After the child was finished with her milk, thegazelle rocked it to sleep in its crib so Zâl would be safe from all troubles.Then the mother got up, moved the gazelle away from the crib and took the childhome."

- "What secret ishidden there?" I asked the Sage.

- "I myself have askedSîmurgh about this and this is what she said": "Zâl came into theterrestrial world under the attention of Tûbâ. We did not allow him to perish.We abandoned the fawn to the power of the hunters and put our pity into theheart of the gazelle, its mother, so that she took pity on him and gave him hermilk. During the day I myself took him under my wings."

- "And the case ofRostam and Esfandyâr"?

-"This is what happened. Rostam did not have enough strength to defeatEsfandyâr and collapsed from fatigue. His father, Zâl, poured out supplicationsbefore Sîmurgh. However, Simûrgh naturally had the power that when someone helda mirror directly in front of her, or some other thing like a mirror, every eyethat looked into that mirror would be blinded. Zâl made a breastplate of ironwith a perfectly polished surface and put that on Rostam. Likewise he put aperfectly polished helmet on Rostam's head and hung pieces of mirror from hishorse. Then he directed Rostam to place himself directly in front of Sîmurgh.Esfandyâr inevitably had to come at Rostam. The moment he came close, Sîmurgh'srays that fell on the breastplate and the mirrors reflected back intoEsfandyâr's eyes; he became dazed and couldn't see anything anymore. Heimagined and believed that he was wounded in the eyes because he caught aglance of two sharp points. He fell from his horse and perished at the hands ofRostam. Consider that the two points from the arrow made out of a branch of thegäz tree of which the recitals speak, are Sîmurgh's two wings."

- "Do you mean tosay," I asked the Sage, "that in the entire universe there has beenonly one Sîmurgh?"

- "No, those who don'tknow, erroneously think so. Unless a Sîmurgh continuously descends downto earth from the tree Tûbâ while the one that went before her returns, thatis, unless a new Sîmurgh continually comes, nothing of what is here can stayalive. Like what comes to the earth, so also a Sîmurgh goes forth from the Tûbâtree out to the twelve workshops."

- "O Sage! I criedout, What are these twelve workshops?"

-"In the first place, realize that when our King wanted to organize hisKingdom, he organized our country first and then he put us to work. Heinstituted twelve workshops and in each workshop he put some apprentices. Thenhe also put the students to work so that below the twelve workshops a newworkshop appeared and our King put a Master (ustâd) in there. ThisMaster he appointed to his own work so that under this first workshop againanother workshop appeared. In turn he put a second Master to work there so thatunder the second workshop yet another workshop appeared, entrusted to a thirdMaster, and so on, until there were seven workshops and a Master especiallyappointed over each one. Then to each of the apprentices who were divided overtwelve houses he gave a robe of honor. He also gave a robe of honor to thefirst Master and entrusted him two of the twelve higher workshops. To thesecond Master he also gave a robe of honor and of those twelve workshopsequally entrusted him with two of them. Similarly with the third Master. To thefourth master he gave a robe that was the most beautiful of all; he did notentrust any of the twelve workshops to him but ordained him to exercise careover all twelve. To the fifth and sixth Masters he gave gifts just like he haddone to the second and third Masters. When the turn came of the seventh Masteronly one workshop remained. This was given to him, but he was not given a robeof honor. The seventh Master then complained: "Every Master has twoworkshops and I have only one! Everyone has been given a robe of honor and Ihave been given none!" He was told that under his workshop two workshopswould be built that he would be given the greatest control over. Under all ofthose workshops fields were laid out to be sown and their care was equallygiven to the seventh Master. Besides this, it was determined that a lesser robewould continually be made from the beautiful robe of the third Master and thatin this way at every moment the robe of one would also be the robe of theother, like I explained about Sîmurgh."

- "O Sage," I insisted,"what is woven in these workshops?"

- "Embroidery, butthey also weave things that no one has ever thought of weaving. David's coat ofmail is also woven there."

- "O Sage, what isDavid's coat of mail?"

- "That coat of mailis made up of the various ties that are woven around you."

- "Why is itmade?"

TheTwo-pointed Arrow

-"In each of the four triads that make up the twelve higher workshops onelink is made; from the work in these twelve workshops the result is thereforefour links. But it does not end there. These four links are given to theseventh Master because he handles each of them. When they are placed under hiscontrol the seventh Master sends them to the field that he sows and there theyremain for a certain amount of time in a state of rest. After that the fourlinks are connected with each other and they form a tight fabric. Then theytake a falcon like you prisoner and throw that coat of mail on it so that it iscompletely sown up."

- "How many links arethere in each coat of mail?" I asked.

- "If you could countthe drops of water in lake Omân then you could also count how many links thereare in each coat of mail."

- "But is there a wayto get rid of it?"

- "Through the IndianSword."

- "In our countrythere is an executioner; this Sword is in his hands. It has become a rule thatwhen a coat of mail has rendered the services that it must provide for acertain time and its time is over that this executioner strikes it with hisSword. That blow is so hard that all the links break and scatter."

- "For someone wearingthat coat of mail are there differences in the way they receive thatblow?"

-"Of course there are differences. For some the shock is so bad that hadthey lived a century and had they passed their entire life in meditation on thenature of the most intolerable suffering and what the greatest suffering isthat can be imagined, they could still not imagine the violence of the blowthat this Sword inflicts. One the other hand, for others the blow is much moreeasily received."

- "O Sage, I beg ofyou, what do I have to do so this suffering is made easy for me?"

-"Find the Spring of Life. From this Spring streams of water run down overyour head until this coat of mail (instead of hemming you in tightly) becomes asimple garment that hangs around you with ease. This way you are invulnerableto the blow from this Sword. It is as if this Water makes the coat of mailsupple, and when it is completely loosened up, the shock from the Sword is nolonger felt."

- "O Sage, where isthis Spring of Life?"

- "In the Darkness. Ifyou want to take part in the Quest for this Spring, look for the same sandalsthat Khezr wears and progress on the road of confident abandonment, tillyou arrive in the region of the Shadows."

- "In what directionis that road?"

- "In whateverdirection you go, if you are a real traveller then you will finish thejourney."

- "But what does theregion of the Shadows mean?"

-"It is the darkness of one's awareness. Because you are in darknessyourself. You simply have no awareness. When they who take this road see themselvesas being in darkness then they have understood that they are here and now inthe night and that they have never yet reached the clarity of the light of day.That is the very first step of a real traveller. It is only possible to raiseyourself up if you start there. If someone therefore reaches that station thenit is possible to go on from there. The seeker for the Spring of Life passesthrough all sorts of stupors and distresses. However, if they are worthy tofind the Spring then finally after the darkness they will contemplate thelight. They must not take flight before this light because it is a splendorthat descends from the high Heavens upon this Spring of Life. When they havefinished the journey and bathed in the Spring of Life then they areinvulnerable to the blow by the Sword." As these verses have it:

Letyourself be bruised by the Sword of Love
And find eternity,
Because the Sword of the Angel of Death,
Is never a sign that you are among the revived --Sanâ'î

Thosewho bathe themselves in this Spring will never be sullied. Those who have foundthe meaning of True Reality have arrived at the Spring. When they emergefrom the Spring they have attained to that which makes them like the drop ofbalsam that you pour into the hollow of your hand after holding it up to thesun and which then penetrates to the back of your hand. If you are Khezr, thenyou too can cross Mount Qâf."

... When I told these things to my dear friend who had asked me about them, hecried out: "You really are a falcon who has been captured into the filletand who now gives chase to the game. Well, catch me then! To the cords of thehunter's saddle I will not be a bad prey."

Yes,I am the falcon who the hunters of the world
are in need of at every moment.
My game are gazelles with dark eyes,
Because Wisdom is like tears that pour through their eyelids.
Before me the literal meaning of words flee
Near me one knows how to catch the hidden meaning.

The Hermetic & Avicennan "Recital of Salman and Absal"

2011-09-25T00:16:00.000-07:00

From Corbin Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, pp. 210-215; 224-6.

THE HERMETICRECITAL

In ancient times,before the deluge of Fire, there was a king named Hermanos son of Heraql. Heheld the Byzantine Empire to the shore of the sea, including the country of Greece and the land of Egypt.It was he who had caused the building of those immense theurgic constructionscalled the pyramids, against which neither the elements nor the centuries intheir thousands have been able to prevail. This king possessed profoundknowledge and extensive power; he was versed in the influences of the stars,knew natural properties, and practiced theurgic operations. Among his intimateswas a Sage, Aqliqulas the divine, by whom he had been initiated into all thesecret sciences. For a whole cycle this divine man had devoted himself tospiritual practices in a cave called the Sarapeion; for nourishment he ate onlya few herbs every forty days, and his life reached the length of three cycles.

To this Sage theking one day complained that he had no child. The reason was that Hermanos hadno inclination for women and could not prevail upon himself to approach them.As he continued to refuse to do so, despite the Sage's advice, the Sagerealized that only one solution remained: to determine a suitable"ascendant" by astrological observation, procure a mandragora, and puta little of the king's semen in it, the Sage then undertaking to treat the mixturein an environment suitable for the operation, until it should be ready toreceive a soul to govern it and become a complete human being. The proposal wascarried out; the child born of this alchemical operation was named Salaman.

A nurse had ofcourse to be provided for him. A young woman of great beauty, aged eighteenyears, was found; her name was Absal; she set about caring for the child.Hermanos now asked the Sage what he could do to show his gratitude; the Sageadvised him to undertake the construction of a gigantic edifice that neitherWater nor Fire could destroy. For the Sage foresaw the revolt of the elements:the edifice was to be of seven stories; it would have a secret door to be knownonly to the Sages, for whom it would be a secure refuge; as for the rest ofmankind, they might as well perish in the cataclysm. To these precautionarymeasures the king responded by proposing the construction of two edifices: onefor the Sage and another that would serve at once to shelter their treasures,their sciences, and their bodies after death. Thus the two pyramids were built.

As for the childSalaman, when he had grown the king wanted to take him from Absal, but the boywas in despair, so great was his attachment to her. So the king left themtogether until the boy should have grown older. Thus Salaman's affection forAbsal changed into love, and a love so passionate that he was entirely taken upwith her and frequently neglected the king's service. The king summoned his sonand addressed him in the terms usual in such cases. Their apparent brutalityis, however, at once offset by the prospect that opens before a Hermetic Sage,and before him alone: the human being must seek to draw constantly to the worldof the higher Light, which outshines every other light and is his true abode,whereas the abode of sensible things represents a condition lower than allothers. An intermediate degree is attained when man becomes the contemplator ofthe "Lights of Victory," but the higher degree is to attain toknowledge of the ideal realities (haqa'iq) of all beings. Hence Salamanmust abandon Absal: he has no need of her, she cannot help him toward thissublime goal. Let him act as a man, strong in his isolation, until Hermanosfinds him a bride, a maiden of the celestial world who will be united to himfor the eternity of eternities, and let him thus make himself pleasing to theLord of the worlds.

It goes withoutsaying that Salaman was not convinced by these most sage exhortations. Hehastened to repeat the entire conversation to Absal, who advised him in herturn: "Pay no heed to that man's words. He would deprive you of presentjoys for the sake of promises of which the greater part are vain. I am a womanwho answers to all that delights your soul. If you are an intelligent anddetermined man, go and reveal our secret to the king: you are not one who canabandon me, nor I one to abandon you." It would no doubt be better not to announcethis decision in person. So Salaman confided it to the vizier, who undertook totransmit it. The situation now seemed hopeless; the king gave way to violentgrief. His remonstrances remained as unconvincing as before, even when the ideaof a compromise was suggested: let Salaman divide histime into two equal parts,one in which to profit from the teaching of the Sages, the other to be given toAbsal. And so it was decided. Unfortunately, when Salaman, after having devotedall the stipulated time to the study of the exalted sciences necessary to hiseducation, found that he must still serve the king, he had only one idea—toreturn to Absal and play with her. The king could not but admit that he wasagain defeated. He consulted his Sages: would not the only way to get rid ofAbsal be to have her killed? But the vizier protested firmly: let none makebold to destroy what he cannot himself raise up. If the king put this projectinto effect, it was to be feared that the very foundations of his dwellingwould be overthrown and that the elements brought together to constitute hisnature would dissolve. And this would not open the way for him to the choir ofthe Kerubim (in other words, the therapy of the soul can have as itsgoal not the destruction but only the sublimation of the sensible nature). The"child" must little by little discover for himself what it was incumbentupon him to do.

A kindly informerreported this conversation to Salaman, who immediately conveyed the news toAbsal. Together they considered how best to frustrate the king's plans;finally, they resolved to flee beyond the Western Ocean.But the king received information of what they were doing; for he possessed twogolden reeds, decorated with thaumaturgic designs and pierced with seven holes correspondingto the seven climes. By blowing on one of these holes, after placing on it apinch of ashes, which then broke into flame, one was informed of what wastaking place in the corresponding clime. Thus Hermanos learned where Salamanand Absal had hidden; he learned too that they were suffering all the miseriesof exile (ghurba); he was touched, and ordered that they receive somelittle help. But since Salaman persisted in his voluntary exile, Hermanos' wrathpresently turned upon the spiritual entities (ruhaniyat) of theirpassion, and he resolved to destroy these. For the two lovers, this was themost intolerable suffering and the most sinister torture: they gazed at eachother, felt ardent desire, but could not unite. Salaman understood that whathad befallen them was also caused by his father's anger; so he rose and went tothe king to obtain remission. In a last effort, the king tried to make his sonunderstand that he could not assume the throne and at the same time remainAbsal's companion, for either kingship or Absal would claim him entirely. Whilehe clung to the throne with one hand, Absal would be like a fetter fastened tohis feet, preventing him from attaining the throne of the celestial spheres.And to confirm his wordsby a convincing experience, he had the two lovers suspended in this awkwardposition for a whole day. At nightfall they were set free.

THE AVICENNANRECITAL

Salaman and Absalwere half brothers on the mother's side. Absal was the younger; he had beenbrought up in his brother's presence, and the more he grew, the more marked hisbeauty and intelligence became. He was well instructed in letters and the sciences,he was chaste and brave. So it came about that Salaman's wife fell passionatelyin love with him. She said to Salaman: "Bid him frequent your family, sothat your children may learn from his example." And Salaman asked him todo so, but Absal absolutely refused to associate with women. Then Salaman said:"For you, my wife holds the rank of a mother." So Absal came to hisbrother's house.

The young womanshowered him with attentions, and after a time privately told him of herpassion for him. Absal showed distress, and she realized that he would notyield to her. Then she said to Salaman: "Marry your brother to mysister." Salaman gave him her sister to wife. But meanwhile Salaman's wifesaid to her sister: "I did not marry you to Absal in order that he shouldbelong to you alone, to my injury; I intend to share him with you."Finally, she said to Absal: "My sister is a maiden of great modesty. Donot go to her during the day, and do not speak to her until after she hasbecome accustomed to you." On the wedding night, Salaman's wife slippedinto her sister's bed, and Absal came in to her. Then she could no longercontain herself, and hastened to press her breast against Absal's. Absal becamesuspicious, and said to himself: "Modest maidens do not behave in thisfashion." At that moment the heavens became covered by dense clouds. Aflash of lightning shot through them, its brilliant light disclosing thewoman's face. Then Absal pushed her violently away, left the room, and resolvedto flee.

He said toSalaman: "I wish to conquer all countries for you, for I have the strengthto do it." He took a troop with him, waged war on several peoples, and,without incurring a reproach, conquered countries for his brother on land andsea, in East and West. Long before Alexander, he was master of the earth'sentire surface. When he returned to his country, thinking that the woman hadforgotten him, she relapsed into her old passion and tried to embrace him; buthe refused and repulsed her.

An enemy havingappeared, Salaman sent Absal and his troops to meet him. Then Salaman's wifedistributed great sums to the leaders of the army so that they would abandonAbsal on the battlefield. And so they did. The enemies were victorious overhim; after wounding him, they left him lying in his blood, believing him dead.But a wild beast that was nursing young came to him and gave him milk from herteats. Thus he was fed until he was perfectlyrecovered and healed. Thereupon he sought out Salaman, whose enemies were then besiegingand humiliating him, while he bewailed his brother's disappearance. Absal foundhim, took the army with its stores, and once again attacked his enemies; herouted them, took the greater part of them prisoners, and made his brotherking.

Then Salaman'swife came to terms with a cook and a majordomo: she gave each of them a largesum, so that they served Absal a poisoned drink, and he died. He was a faithfulfriend, a being great in lineage and in desert, in knowledge and in act. Hisbrother was in great grief over his death. He renounced the kingship andconferred it on one of his allies. Then he went into seclusion in secretconversations with his Lord. The Lord revealed to him the truth of what hadtaken place. Salaman made his wife, the cook, and the major-domo drink thepoison that they had given Absal to drink, and they all three died.

An Isma'ili discussion on the meaning of tawḥīd (the Unicity of God)

2011-09-24T18:06:00.000-07:00

From Ḥamīd al-Dīn al-Kirmānī's al-Risāla al-durriyya (the Brilliant Epistle) Trans. by F.M. Hunzai in An Anthology of Isma'ili Literature: A Shi'i Vision of Islam Ed. Hermann Landolt, Samira Sheikh & Kutub Kassam (I.B Tauris, London: 2008), pp. 89-97.

A questioner asked and said, ‘What is tawḥīd?’ Itis known in our saying that it means ‘making muwaḥḥad (unified,one) (fiʿl al-muwaḥḥad)’ and the muwaḥḥad isthe object of the muwaḥḥids. But it is not permissible for us tosay that God is the object of the muwaḥḥids. Further, he said thattawḥīdisnot possible without the imagination of a multiplicity; it is applicable onlyto what is made wāḥid (one) of the entire multiplicity. Butin the divinity there is no multiplicity to make wāḥid outof it. Explain this for us.

First we say that the Mubdiʿ (Originator)… having no similitude, does not depend on the unification of the unifiers (tawḥīdal-muwaḥḥidīn), nor on the purification of the purifiers (tajrīdal-mujarridīn), so that He would leave His having no similitude if theunifiers do not unify Him, or that He would leave His transcendence (minʿuluwwihi) from the characteristics of His originated things if thepurifiers do not purify Him. But He … has no similitude whether the unifiersunify Him or not, whether the purifiers purify Him or not.

And it is the element (ʿunṣur) andnature of speech that, when someone intends to inform about the traces andessences that transcend the comprehension of the senses, its meanings becometoo narrow and too subtle (to convey them), let alone that which (even) thepropositions of the intelligence and the soul cannot comprehend. Thus, speechis unable to denote that which is not like it. Thus, there is nothing in thatwhich is composed of letters, such as a word or speech, which can denote thereality sought in tawḥīd. For what is intended to be comprehendedabout the Mubdiʿ … through a description, is far beyondthe noblest meanings that the composed letters can convey.

Since this is the case and it is inevitable to speak andaffirm what the rudiments of the intellect necessitate, namely, an agent fromwhom the existing actions came forth, nor is it possible to dispense with theexpression of the subtleties of the imaginary thoughts that flash in the mind,and (since) the simple letters to which recourse is taken in expression andwhence the speech and demonstration come forth, due to their limitation inbearing the subtle meanings, are unable to convey what is not from theirelement and incapable of informing about what is not from their substance, thespeaker is compelled to speak with the most noble, most sublime and most subtlemeanings that the letters can convey from their cognation (sunkh) andorigin. When there is compulsion (to speak), then there is no more noble andmore subtle meaning in the speech than wāḥidiyya (being one) and no moreexalted than the meaning of our saying ‘fard’(single), owing to the fact that, to that which has no similitude, fard maybe applied more appropriately, from among that which is composed of letters, toHim than Mubdiʿ even if it does not befit Him. Sincethe name referring to His being Mubdiʿ is due to Him (only) byvirtue of His ibdāʿ (origination) and He was there whilethere was no ibdāʿ¸ and He is not He without being fard. ButHe is fard forever. And He, as such, is fard dueto the impossibility of the existence of His similitude.

Again, when the field of thinking is extended in attainingthe most appropriate of the meanings which the composite letters convey to besaid about the Mubdiʿ in bewilderment and compulsion, it isthe fard which can be applied to Him – eventhough the meaning (of fard) is applicable to someof His originated things (mukhtaraʿāt),the field of thinking remaining confined to what the intellect comprehendsthrough its light and to that which its propositions may comprehend of what isbeyond it [i.e., the field of the intellect], namely, the meaning conveyed byour saying ‘fard.’ For the meaning of fardiyya (beingsingle) in wāḥidiyya (being one) exceeds the meaning of wāḥid (one),aḥad(unique)and waḥīd (alone) in wāḥidiyya byvirtue of its being ṣamad [one to whom peopleresort in their needs, that which has no emptiness, i.e., is self-sufficient].And the meaning of fard in wāḥidiyya isnot, upon careful examination, to be distinguished from the meaning of wāḥid byvirtue of its having an additional meaning in wāḥidiyya,except by virtue of its being the cause of wāḥid. Andthat which is the cause always precedes the effect, about which we have spokenin our book known as Rāḥat al-ʿaql (Repose ofthe Intellect), with which the darkness of ignorance disappears andthrough which the light of justice speaks. We have written it as a preface andhave extended the field of definition so that it may be helpful for what wewant to speak about.

Tawḥīd does not mean – as we have said aboutthe meaning of fard, the careful examination of themeaning in communicating about God – that He is fard, sothat the one who carefully examines (the meaning) may be a muwaḥḥid. Noris it the case that God is restricted to one particular meaning so that byvirtue of that meaning, it may be established that He is fard. Forthe glory of His grandeur is in a veil making it impossible for the letters torender it by any means. And how can it be possible for the letters to render itwhile they barely erect in their composition a lighthouse to guide, whereas thewater of His power overflows and they barely announce any information to speakwith a meaning, small or great, but the incapability (of that) establishesitself and spreads? God, the Existentiator, the Worthy of worship, thus,transcends the rational propositions and the physical qualifications.

Tawḥīd, indeed, is an infinitive on the(grammatical) measure of tafʿīl. The philologists donot use this kind of quadrilateral verb-forms except for the one whose actionis abundant. For instance, if someone massacres, it is said: ‘qattala fulānunyuqattilu taqtīlan fa-huwa muqattil.’ The one who kills only once iscalled qātil, but the one who massacres many times,qattāl. Tawḥīd, withrespect to its meaning, has two aspects: One is related to the ibdāʿ ofthe Mubdiʿ… and the other to the act of the muʾmin (believer)who is a muwaḥḥid (unifier). With respect to the aspectrelated to the ibdāʿ of the Mubdiʿ, tawḥīd necessitatesa muwaḥḥidwhois the agent of wāḥid (al-fāʿil li’l-wāḥid) anda muwaḥḥad(unified),which is the object (of the muwaḥḥid) in the sense of wāḥid (one).And wāḥid is used in many ways, such as:

(i) A wāḥid is wāḥid byvirtue of the finiteness of its essence (dhāt)toward the

sides by which it separates itself from others, such as thebodies of sensible

things. In this respect, it deserves to be called wāḥid. Andits limitation

toward the sides and the comprehension of its limits, allthis shows that this

wāḥid is contingent.

(ii) A wāḥid is wāḥid inthe sense that it is given a specific meaning that is not

found in others, such as the property of the magnet inattracting iron. In

this respect, it deserves to be called wāḥid. Andits specification with this

meaning, with the exclusion of the others, necessitates itto be contingent.

(iii) A wāḥid is wāḥid inthe sense of essence (ʿayn), such as the essenceof

whiteness, the essence of blackness, the essence of asubstance and the essence of

a thing. In this respect, all of them deserve to be called wāḥid. Andthe fact

that this wāḥid, in its existence,depends on the existence of someone other

than who precedes it, and that its existence does not detachitself from its

essence, being always with it, as long as it has an essencewithin existence,

necessitates its being contingent.

(iv) And the wāḥid is wāḥid in anabsolute sense. The absolute wāḥid betrays its

essential ‘pairedness (izdiwāj),’which consists of the waḥdah (oneness, unity)

and its receptacle.

All these aspects (of wāḥid)necessitate that wāḥid be absolutely contingent. When it isestablished that wāḥid is absolutely necessarily contingent,then it necessitates that tawḥīd, which means ‘makingone (fiʿl al-wāḥid),’ which latter pronounces thecontingency of its (own) essence, does not befit the glory of the Mubdiʿ …Thus the Mubdiʿ, may He be sanctified, is muwaḥḥid inthe sense that He is the Mubdiʿ of wāḥid and aḥad. Asto (the aspect of) tawḥīd related to the muʾmin whois a muwaḥḥid, it does not mean that he ‘makes one (yafʿalual-wāḥid);’ rather, it changes from its previous meaning that is‘making one (fiʿl al-wāḥid)’ to another one. As when the particle‘ʿan’ isused with the verb ‘raghiba,’ its meaning changes(from the previous one). For instance, when it is said, ‘raghibafulānun ʿan al-shayʾ,’ itmeans ‘so-and-so disliked the thing,’ but the ‘raghiba’alone means contrary to it [i.e., to like]. Thus, the meaning of tawḥīd ofthe muwaḥḥid (in the case of the muʾmin) isto divest the muwaḥḥad from a certain meaning. As in the senseof isolating (tajrīd) or separating (ifrād) athing from another thing, it is said, ‘waḥḥadtu al-shayʾa ʿan al-shay’ (Iisolated a thing from another thing).’

When tawḥīd (in this case) meansdivesting the muwaḥḥad from a certain meaning, as wementioned, and divinity is a necessity whose existence cannot be repudiated,and the fact of the agency (fāʿiliyya) is a power that cannotbe negated; and from among the things falling under existentiation, from theOriginated Intellect (al-ʿaql al-ibdāʿī) tothe Emanated Intellect (al-ʿaql al-inbiʿāthī),there is that which possesses the highest degree of knowledge, beauty, power,light, might, grandeur, nobility and sublimity, such as the Intellect, thePrecursor (sābiq) in existence; and there is that whichis below it in rank, such as the Successor (tālī) inexistence, and so on till what is below them from the world of nature, and whatit contains till the human intellect at the end – it is not impossible for anignorant to think that the divinity lies in some of them. Each of these things(under existentiation) because of the subsistence of the traces (ofcreaturehood) in it, bears witness against itself that it is not God; then fromthat proposition it follows that the tawḥīd, which means to divestthe muwaḥḥad (unified) – which because of thesubsistence of the traces in it bears witness against itself that it is not God– from divinity, and to negate it from it and to isolate it from it andsustainership (rubūbiyya) and what is related to it, is the actof the muʾmin who is a muwaḥḥid, sothat by that tawḥīd it may be established that the divinity belongs to someone else. As it is knownfrom the things that fall under existence, there are things that have nointermediaries opposite to those that have intermediaries, such as blacknessand whiteness that have intermediaries, such as redness, yellowness and so on.The things that have no intermediaries, they as such, have two sides, twostates and two aspects. That is to say, when one of the two sides is negated bythat negation, the other side is established, such as eternal and contingent.They do not have intermediaries between them; when eternity is negated from athing, contingency becomes inseparable from it. And like substance and accidentthat have no intermediaries between them; when the characteristic of substance(jawhariyya) isnegated from a thing, the characteristic of accident (simatal-ʿaraḍ) becomes inseparable from it. Then it is not imaginablethat there is an intermediary between the Lord (rabb) andthe vassal (marbūb), or between the Mubdiʿ (Originator)and the mubdaʿ (originated), as we have explained themeaning of our sayings, ‘the mubdaʿ is the essence of the ibdāʿ,’ inthe book Rāḥat al-ʿaql. Then the muʾmin is a muwaḥḥid (unifier)in the sense that he divests the muwaḥḥad (unified), who is the mubdaʿ,from divinity, as he finds the trace of ibdāʿ andthe subjects and predicates in itself. Thus, the Prophet … said: ‘Al-muʾminmuwaḥḥid wa-Allāh muwaḥḥid (The believer is a muwaḥḥid andGod also is a muwaḥḥid).’

Again, the meaning of the multiplicity that is necessitatedby our saying that ‘tawḥīd stands in two aspects’is: either with respect to the fard (Single), may He beexalted … that is the ibdāʿ of multiplicity, that ismultiple singles (afrād) and units (āḥād), orwith respect to the muʾmin, who is divesting allthese numbers and singles from the divinity, one by one.

And then, first we will tersely show the truth contained inour saying that ‘the fard is the cause of wāḥid,’according to the capacity of the epistle, even though we have explained it inour books. We say that the existence of all those things that are the essenceof the first effect (al-maʿlūl al-awwal) isfrom the essence of the cause, which is the effect, and the effect is the cause(hiyahuwa wa-huwa hiya) by virtue of the effect in its existence being from theelement of the cause. And it is the nature of the effect that nothing isgranted to and nothing exists in it except what its cause itself has pouredforth over it, for what exists in the effect exists in the cause out of whichthe effect came into existence. For if the existence of what exists in theeffect were not in the cause, it would have been impossible to grant the effectthat did not exist in its cause. For instance, fire that is the cause ofheating in what adjoins it: had the heat not been existing and subsisting inthe essence of the fire, it would not have been found in what adjoins it. Andhow can a thing grant a thing from itself while the field of its element isempty of it? Or how can it bestow a thing while the bones of its existence areworn out?

When this is the case, we thought to investigate whether thefard,which is the cause of numbers, can from its essence indicate the ranks ofcountable things or not. We found it by virtue of what is hidden in it, such asthe letters, their conjunction, their disjunction, their signs, their kinds,their multiplication, their calculation, that it comprises and indicates the entireranks which God has originated. And the ranks in arithmetic are twelve, eventhough in form they are nine, vis-à-vis existents. This is the form of twelveranks hidden in the fard….And corresponding tothose kinds are the letters of ‘lā ilāha illa’Llāh (Thereis no deity but God),’ which show the ḥudūd (ranks), over whom thelight of Oneness pours forth, and upon whom are based the heavens and the earthand what they contain….The brilliant proof of what we have said in this regardis the existence of the seven letters vis-a-vis the lords of the cycles,through whom and through what is poured forth over the souls from them, thepurpose of the spiritual form that is created in their cycles becomes complete.If you calculate the numerical values (of

the letters) according to the calculation of the jummal,they stand vis-a-vis the days of the sun in one revolution, which are threehundred sixty-five days; the result of the multiplication of the rank four intorank seven stands vis-a-vis the mansions of the moon in one revolution, whichare twenty-eight mansions; the result of the values of the letters of thefourth rank according to the calculation of the jummalstands vis-a-vis the numbers of the lords of taʾyīd (divinehelp) from the ḥudūd (ranks) of every cycle, except thesupreme of them which is one, stands vis-à-vis the Names of God … which he whocounts them enters paradise, and which are ninety-nine names.

Had we not chosen brevity and decided that prolixity doesnot befit the epistles, we would have similarly expounded these ranks andnumbers with which the abundance of the oceans of the friends of God, may peacebe upon them, in sciences and the subtlety of the deduction of their followersfrom them, specifically and generally, would have been conceived. But this wehave left so that the one who thinks about it may have happiness in every moment, and theone who reflects on it may renew for him a good deed in every instant from whatshines to him from the wonders of wisdom.

Thus, it is evident that in the fard, byvirtue of its being the cause of the wāḥid, are contained theranks of all the countable [lit., that which fall under the number] existents,and that tawḥīd with respect to God is the ibdāʿ ofthe wāḥid and units (āḥād),and with respect to the muʾmin is to divest thedivinity from the units. We say that the community, due to its deviation fromthe lords of guidance [i.e., the imams] and due to relinquishing the injunctions ofobedience, does not reach (even) the remotest end of the ways of tawḥīd,except a few who follow the friends of God, the Exalted, on His earth, maypeace be upon them. Therefore, the One Whom they worship with theirdescriptions of and belief in Him, is not searched for except (in) the one whoexists and falls under origination (ikhtirāʿ), and His Essence is comprehended by the power of ibdāʿ.When the One Whom they worship is originated and over-powered, then their tawḥīd isshort of that by which they would deserve the garden of paradise and itsfelicity, and falls short of that by which they can enter the garden ofeternity and dwell in it.

And how can they reach the eternal blessings while theprerequisite of attaining them is to reach their source? It is unimaginablethat a traveller may reach peace, pleasures, bounty and blessings in a desiredabode while he is miles away from it. Nay, ‘Verily, the wicked will be in hell’[Qurʾan, 82:14]. And indeed the negligent are in excruciating punishment. ‘Say,shall We inform you who will be the greatest losers by their works? Those whoseeffort goes astray in the life of the world, and yet they reckon that they dogood work. Those are they who disbelieve in the signs of their Lord and in themeeting with Him. Therefore their works are vain, and on the Day ofResurrection We assign no weight to them’ [18:103–105]. God has refused to pourforth His light except over one who surrenders to His friends, and enters thehouse of His worship through its gate; one who made his tawḥīd todivest His originated things from (divinity) and his worship is surrendering toHis friends; Whose obedience is his purpose and Whose disobedience his objectof fear. And he knows that this world is the abode of tribulation whose starnever falls and it is a dwelling of humiliation whose screw never turns. Itsdelights have to come to an end and what is loved from it is going to perish;its children are bound to extinction and mankind among them to resurrection[lit., gathering and dispersing]. We ask God … for help to attain peace fromits ruses and to take a share from its benefits. May God make us and thecommunity of the believers among the righteous and sincere servants and uniteus with our pure lords in paradise (ḥaẓīrat al-quds) andin the vicinity of the Lord of the worlds.

Avicenna's "Recital of the Living son of the Watchful" (Hayy ibn Yaqzan)

2011-09-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

From Corbin Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, pp.137-50.

In theName of God the Compassionate, the Merciful!

Praise beunto God the Lord of all the worlds!

1 YOUR PERSISTENCE, mybrothers, in demanding that I set forth the Recital of Hayy ibn Yaqzán [theLiving son of the Watchful] for you has finally triumphed over my stubborndetermination not to do so; it has untied the bond of my firm resolve to deferand delay. Thus I have found myself ready to come to your aid. May we look toGod for help and support!

2 ONCE WHEN I HAD takenup residence in my city, I chanced to go out with my companions to one of thepleasure places that lie about the same city. Now, as we were coming and going,making a circle, suddenly in the distance appeared a Sage. He was beautiful;his person shone with a divine glory. Certainly he had tasted of years; longduration had passed over him. Yet there was seen in him only the freshnessproper to young men; no weakness bowed his bearing, no fault injured the graceof his stature. In short, no sign of old age was to be found in him, save theimposing gravity of old Sages.

3 WHEN I HAD SEEN thisSage, I felt a desire to converse with him. From my inmost depths arose a needto become intimate with him and to have familiar access to him. So, with mycompanions, I went in his direction. When we had approached, he took theinitiative; he wished us peace and honored us with his salutation. Then, smiling,he addressed us in words that were sweet to our hearts.

4 MANY WORDS were exchanged between us, until at last theconversation led us to such a point that I questioned him about everything todo with his person, and sought to learn from him what his mode of life andprofession were, and even his name and lineage and country. Then he said to me:"My name is Vivens; my lineage, filius Vigilantis; as to mycountry, it is the Celestial Jerusalem [lit., the "Most HolyDwelling," al-Bait al-Muqaddas]. My profession is to be foreverjourneying, to travel about the universe so that I may know all its conditions.My face is turned toward my father, and my father is Vigilans. From himI have learned all science, he has given me the keys to every kind ofknowledge. He has shown me the roads to follow to the extreme confines of theuniverse, so that since my journey embraces the whole circle of it, it is as ifall the horizons of all climes were brought together before me."

5 OUR CONVERSATION continued without interruption. I questionedhim concerning the difficult sciences. I learned from him how to solve theirobscurities, until finally, from transition to transition, we came to thescience of physiognomy. I observed in him such penetration and sagacity in thatscience that I was filled with admiration; for it was he who took theinitiative when we came to physiognomy and the various facts that have to do with-it.He said to me: "The science of physiognomy is among the sciences theprofit from which is paid cash down and whose benefit is immediate, for itreveals to thee what every man conceals of his own nature, so that thou canstproportion thine attitude of freedom or reserve toward each man, and make it befitthe situation.

6 "IN THEE, physiognomyreveals at once the most excellent of creatural types and a mixture of clay andof inanimate natures that receive every impression. It shows thee to be suchthat, to whichever side thou art drawn, to that side thou goest. When thou artheld upon the right road and art called to it, thou becomest upright and pure.But if a deceiver seduce thee into the road of error, thou dost submit to beled astray. These companions who are about thee and never leave thee are evilcompanions. It is to be feared that they will seduce thee and that thou wiltremain captive in their bonds, unless the divine safekeeping reach thee andpreserve thee from their malice.

7 "THAT COMPANION who walks ever before thee, exhorting thee, is a liar, afrivolous babbler, who beautifies what is false, forges fictions; he bringsthee information without thy bidding and without thy having questioned him; hemingles false and true therein, he sullies truth with error, even though, inspite of all, he is thy secret eye and thy illuminator. It is through hischannel that news reaches thee of what is foreign to thy neighborhood, absentfrom the place where thou art. It is laid upon thee to separate the good moneyfrom among all the counterfeit coins, to glean what is true among the lies, tofree what is right from the matrix of errors, since thou canst not wholly do without him. It may happen thatsometimes divine aid will lead thee by the hand and rescue thee from thestraying that leads nowhere, and that sometimes thou wilt remain in perplexityand stupor; and sometimes it may happen that false testimony will seduce thee.

"As for thecompanion on thy right, he is greatly violent; when he is roused by anger, noadvice can restrain him; to treat him courteously nowise lessens his excitement.He is like a fire catching on dead wood, like a torrent dashing down from aheight, like a drunken camel, like a lioness whose cub has been killed.

"Lastly,that companion on thy left is a sloven, a glutton, a lecher; nothing can fillhis belly but the earth; nothing satisfies his appetite but mud and clay. Helicks, tastes, devours, covets. He is like a pig that has been starved and thenturned loose among refuse. And it is to these evil companions, O wretch, thatthou hast been bound. There is no way for thee to get loose from them save byan expatriation that will take thee to a country whose soil may not be troddenby such as they. But because the hour of that expatriation is not yet come, andthou canst not yet reach that country, because thou canst not break with themand there is no refuge for thee where they cannot come at thee, so act thatthou shalt have the upper hand of them and that thine authority shall be greaterthan theirs. Let them not seize thine own rein, suffer them not to put thehalter upon thee, but overcome them by acting toward them in the fashion of anexperienced master; lead them by forcing them to remain in the right path, foreach time that thou showest thy strength, it is thou who subduest them, nolonger they who subdue thee; it is thou who mountest them, no longer they whomake thee their mount.

8 "AS FOR STRATAGEMS and effectual means to which thou canst haverecourse in respect to these companions, there is one that consists in subduingthe slack and gluttonous companion by the help of the one who is violent andmalicious, and in forcing the former to retreat. Conversely, another way willbe gradually to moderate the passion of the intolerable angry one by theseduction of the gentle and caressing companion, until he is completelypacified. As for the third companion, the fine talker skilled in fictions,beware of trusting him, of relying on his words, unless it befall that he bringthee some weighty testimony from God. In that case, yes, rely upon his words, receivewhat he tells thee. Beware, that is, of systematically suspecting all hiswords, turning a deaf ear to the news he brings thee, even though he mingletrue with false therein, for, in it all, there cannot but be something to bereceived and investigated, something whose truth it is worth while torealize."

When he had thusdescribed these companions to me, I found myself very ready to receive what hehad taught me and to recognize that his words were true. Submitting mycompanions to trial and setting myself to observe them, [I found that]experience confirmed what I had been told of them. And now I am as muchoccupied with curing them as with submitting to them. Sometimes it is I whohave the upper hand of them, sometimes they are stronger than I am. God grantthat I may live on terms of good neighborhood with these companions until thetime comes when I shall at last part from them!

9 THEN I ASKED the Sage to guide me on the road of thejourney, to show me how to set out on a journey such as he himself was making.I addressed him in the fashion of a man who burned to do so, who had thegreatest desire for it. He answered me: "Thou, and all those whosecondition is like thine—you cannot set out on the journey that I am making. Itis forbidden you; the road is closed to you all, unless thy fortunate destinyshould aid thee, for thy part, to separate from these companions. But now thehour for that separation is not yet come: there is a time set for it, whichthou canst not anticipate. For the present, then, thou must rest content with ajourney interrupted by halts and inactivity; now thou wilt be on the road, now thouwilt frequent these companions. Each time that thou goest alone, pursuing thyjourney with perfect ardor, I walk with thee, and thou art separated from them.Each time that thou sighest after them, thou turnest back toward them, and thouart separated from me; so shall it be until the moment comes when thou shaltbreak with them wholly."

10 FINALLY,the conversation led me toquestion him concerningeach of the climes to which hehad traveled, all those that were includedin his knowledge and of which he was fully informed. He said to me: "The circumscriptions of theearth are threefold: one is intermediate betweenthe Orient and the Occident. It is the best known; much information concerning it has reachedthee and has been rightlyunderstood. Notices even of themarvelous things contained in that climehave reached thee. But there are two other strange circumscriptions: one beyond the Occident, the other beyondthe Orient. Foreach of them, there is abarrier preventing access from this world to thatother circumscription, for no one can reach there or force a passage save the Elect among the mass of men, thosewho have gained astrength that does notoriginally belong to man by right of nature.

11 "WHATAIDS in gaining this strengthis to immerse oneself inthe spring of water that flowsnear the permanent Spring of Life. When thepilgrim has been guided on the road to that spring, and then purifies himself in it and drinksof that sweet-tasting water, a new strengtharises in his limbs, making him able to cross vast deserts. The deserts seem toroll up before him. He does not sink in thewaters of the ocean; he climbs Mount Qaf without difficulty,and its guards cannot fling him down into theabysses of hell."

12 WEASKED HIM to explain thatspring to us more fully. He said:"Thou hast heard of the Darkness that forever reigns about the pole. Each year the rising sunshines upon it at a fixed time. Hewho confronts that Darkness and does not hesitate to plunge into it for fear of difficulties will come to avast space, boundless and filled with light. The first thing he sees is aliving spring whose waters spread like a river over the barzakh. Whoeverbathes in that spring becomes so light that he can walk on water, can climb thehighest peaks without weariness, until finally he comes to one of the two circumscriptionsby which this world is intersected."

13 THEN I BEGGED HIM: "Teach me what the circumscription of theOccident is, for the Occident is nearer to our cities." He said to me:"At the uttermost edge of the Occident there is a vast sea, which in theBook of God is called the Hot (and Muddy) Sea. It is in thoseparts that the sun sets. The streams that fall into that sea come from anuninhabited country whose vastness none can circumscribe. No inhabitant peoplesit; save for strangers who arrive there unexpectedly, coming from otherregions. Perpetual Darkness reigns in that country. Those who emigrate thereobtain a flash of light each time that the sun sinks to its setting. Its soilis a desert of salt. Each time that people settle there and begin to cultivateit, it refuses; it expels them, and others come in their stead. Would any growa crop there? It is scattered. Is a building raised there? It crumbles. Amongthose people there is perpetual quarreling or, rather, mortal battle. Any groupthat is strongest seizes the homes and goods of the others and forces them toemigrate. They try to settle; but in their turn they reap only loss and harm.Such is their behavior. They never cease from it.

14 "ALL KINDS ofanimals and plants appear in that country; but when they settle there, feed onits grass, and drink its water, suddenly they are covered by outsides strangeto their Form. A human being will be seen there, for example, covered by thehide of a quadruped, while thick vegetation grows on him. And so it is with otherspecies. And that clime is a place of devastation, a desert of salt, filled withtroubles, wars, quarrels, tumults; there joy and beauty are but borrowed from adistant place.

15 "BETWEEN THAT CLIME and yours there are others. However, beyondthis clime of yours, beginning at the region in which the Pillars of theHeavens are set, there is a clime that is like yours in several ways. In thefirst place, it is a desert plain; it too is peopled only by strangers comefrom distant places. Another similarity is that that clime borrows its light from a foreignsource, though it is nearer to the Window of Light than the climes we havedescribed hitherto. In addition, that clime serves as foundation for theheavens, just as the preceding clime serves as the seat for this earth, is itspermanent base. On the other hand, the inhabitants who people that other climeare sedentaries there in perpetuity. Among the strangers who have come thereand settled, there is no war; they do not seize each others' homes and goods byforce. Each group has its fixed domain, into which no other comes to inflictviolence upon it.

16 "INRELATION to you, the nearestinhabited country of that clime is a region whose people are very small instature and swift in their movements. Their cities are nine in number.

"After thatregion comes a kingdom whose inhabitants are even smaller in stature than theformer, while their gait is slower. They passionately love the arts of thewriter, the sciences of the stars, theurgy, magic; they have a taste for subtleoccupations and deep works. Their cities number ten.

"After thatregion comes a kingdom whose inhabitants are extremely beautiful and charming;they love gaiety and festivities; they are free from care; they have a refinedtaste for musical instruments, and know many kinds of them. A woman reigns overthem as sovereign. A natural disposition inclines them to the good and thebeautiful; when they hear of evil and ugliness, they are seized with disgust. Theircities number nine.

"Next comesa kingdom whose inhabitants are very tall in stature and extremely fair offace. The characteristic of their nature is that they are highly beneficial forwhatever is at a distance, whereas their immediate neighborhood is calamitous.Their cities number five.

"Next comesa kingdom in which are settled people who bring destruction

to the earth; they love to wound, kill,mutilate, make examples, for their diversion and amusement. Over them reigns ared personage always inclined to hurt, to kill, to strike. Sometimes, as the narratorsof their chronicles report, he is seduced by the fair-faced queen whom we justmentioned and who inspires him with passionate love. Their cities number eight.

"After theircountry comes a vast kingdom whose inhabitants are endowed to the utmost withtemperance, justice, wisdom, and piety, and bestow all necessary good on allparts of the universe. They maintain a compassionate friendship toward thosewho are near to them as toward those who are far from them; they extend theirgoodness to him who recognizes it as to him who knows it not. They are ofextraordinary beauty and brightness. Their cities number eight.

"After thatcomes a country inhabited by a people whose thoughts are abstruse and inclinedto evil. However, if they tend to goodness, they go to its utmostextreme. If they attack a troop, they do not lightly fling themselves upon it,but proceed in the fashion of a seducer full of wiles; they do not hurry overwhat they do, and do not refuse to wait for long periods. Their cities numbereight.

"Next comesan immense kingdom, with great scattered countries. Its inhabitants arenumerous. They are solitaries; they do not live in cities. Their abode is adesert plain where nothing grows. It is divided into twelve regions, which containtwenty-eight stations. No group goes up to occupy the station of another exceptwhen the group preceding it has withdrawn from its dwelling; then it hastens toreplace it. All the migrants expatriated in the kingdoms that we have describedhitherto travel about this kingdom and perform their evolutions there.

"Marchingwith it is a kingdom of which no one has descried or reached the boundariesdown to this day. It contains neither city nor town. No one who is visible tothe eyes of the body can find refuge there. Its inhabitants are the spiritualAngels. No human being can reach it nor dwell there. From it the divineImperative and Destiny descend upon all those who occupy the degrees below.Beyond it there is no earth that is inhabited. In short, these two climes, towhich the heavens and the earth are respectively joined, are on the left sideof the universe, that which is the Occident.

17 "NOW, when thou proceedest toward the Orient, there first appears to theea clime in which there is no inhabitant: neither human beings nor plants norminerals. It is a vast desert, a flooding sea, imprisoned winds, a raging fire.Having crossed it, thou wilt come to a clime where thou wilt find immovablemountains, streams of living water, blowing winds, clouds that drop heavy rain.There thou wilt find native gold, silver, precious or baseminerals of all kinds, but thou wilt find nothing that grows. Crossing it leadsthee to a clime filled with the things already mentioned, but in which thouwilt also find all kinds of vegetation, plants and fruit trees and other trees,giving fruits with stones or seeds, but thou wilt find there no animal thatwhines or peeps. Leaving this clime in its turn, thou wilt enter another where thouwilt find all that was mentioned before, but also living creatures of everyspecies not endowed with the logos, those that swim, those that crawl, thosethat walk, those that fly beating their wings and gliding, those that engender,and those that hatch, but no human beings are there. Thou wilt escape from itinto this world that is yours, and thou knowest already through sight andhearing what it contains.

18 "THEN, cutting straight across toward the Orient,thou wilt come upon the sun rising between the two troops [lit., the two"horns"] of the Demon. For the Demon has two troops: one that flies,another that plods. The troop that plods contains two tribes: a tribe that hasthe ferocity of beasts of prey, while the other has the bestiality ofquadrupeds. Between the two there is perpetual war, and both dwell in the leftside of the Orient. As for the demons who fly, their quarters are in the rightside of the Orient. They are not all of the same constitution. Far from it,for one would say that each individual among them has his particular constitution,different from every other, so that some of them are constituted of twonatures, others of three, others of four, as a flying man would be or a viperwith a boar's head. Some of them too are but a half,others but a fragment of a nature, like an individual who should be only onehalf of a human being, or the palm of a hand, or a single foot, or any othercorresponding part of an animal. One would almost think that the composite figuresthat painters represent come from this clime!

"Theauthority that governs the affairs of this clime has laid out five great roadsthere for the courier. It has made these roads so many fortified bulwarks forits kingdom, and has stationed men-at-arms upon them. If inhabitants of thisworld present themselves, the men-at-arms take them prisoners. They inspect allthe baggage that the prisoners bring with them, then they deliver them to aGuardian who is in authority over the five men-at-arms and who stands watchingat the threshold of that clime. The information that the captives bring and thatis to be sent on is put into a letter on which a seal is placed, without theGuardian's knowing what the letter contains. Now, the duty that lies upon theGuardian is to send the letter on to a certain Treasurer, who will present itto the King. It is this same Treasurer who takes charge of the prisoners; asfor their effects, he delivers them to another Treasurer for safekeeping. Andeach time that they take prisoners some troop from your world, whether of humanbeings, or of animals, or of other creatures, those creatures proliferate,whether by a happy mixture in which their forms are preserved or by engenderingonly abortions.

19 "SOMETIMES A GROUP from one of these two troops of demons setsout for your clime; there they surprise human beings, they insinuate themselvesinto their inmost hearts with their breath. As for the plodding tribe thatresembles beasts of prey, it lies in wait for the moment when someone will do aman the slightest wrong. Then it stirs him up, shows him the worst actions in afair light, such as killing, mutilating, ruining, inflicting suffering. Itnourishes hatred in the secrecy of his heart; it urges him to oppress anddestroy. As for the second of the two plodding tribes, it never leaves offtalking secretly to a man, beautifying sins, unworthy acts, and scoundrellybehavior; it inspires him to desire them, gives him a taste for them; ridingthe mount of obstinacy, it persists until it has succeeded in swaying him. Asfor the flying troop, it leads a man to declare that everything he does not seewith his bodily eyes is false; it persuades him that it is excellent to adorewhat is only the work of nature or made by men; it suggests to his heart thatafter this earthly life there is no birth into another world, nor consequencesfor the good and the evil, and finally that there is no being who reignseternally in the celestial kingdom.

2O "SEVERING THEMSELVES from these two demoniac troops, there are, however, some groups who haunt thefrontiers of a certain climelying next after that inhabited by the terrestrial angels. Letting themselves be guided by these angels, theyfind the straight road; thus theydepart from the aberrancy of the demons and choose the road of the spiritual Angels. When these daimonsmingle with men it is neither tocorrupt nor to misguide them; on the contrary, they beneficently help them tobecome pure. These are the 'fairies' or 'genii' [peri], those who in Arabic are called jinn andhinn.

21 "HEWHO SUCCEEDS in leaving thisclime enters the climes of the Angels, among which the one that marcheswith the earthis a clime in which theterrestrial angels dwell. These angels form two groups. One occupies the right side: theyare the angels who know and order.Opposite them, a group occupies the left side: they are the angels who obey and act. Sometimes these two groupsof angels descendto the climes of men andgenii, sometimes they mount to heaven. It is saidthat among their number are the two angels to whom the human being is entrusted, those who are called'Guardians and Noble Scribes'—one to the right, the other to the left. He whois to the right belongs to theangels who order; to him it falls to dictate. He who is to the left belongs to the angels who act; to himit falls to write.

22 "HE WHO IS TAUGHT a certain road leading out of this clime andwho is helped to accomplish this exodus, such a one will find an egress to whatis beyond the celestial spheres. Then, in a fugitive glimpse, he descries theposterity of the Primordial Creation, over whom rules as king the One, theObeyed.

"There, thefirst delimitation is inhabited by intimates of that sublime King; they everassiduously pursue the work that brings them near to their King. They are amost pure people, who respond to no solicitation of gluttony, lust, violence,jealousy, or sloth. The mission laid upon them is to attend to the preservationof the ramparts of that empire, and it is there that they abide. Hence theylive in cities; they occupy lofty castles and magnificent buildings, whosematerial was kneaded with such care that the result is a compound that in nowise resembles the clay of your clime. Those buildings are more solid than diamondand jacinth, than all things that require the longest time to wear away. Long lifehas been bestowed upon that people; they are long, a very long term. Their ruleof life consists in maintaining the ramparts in obedience to the order giventhem.

"Above themis a people that has more intimate dealings with the King and that is unceasinglybound to His service. They are not humiliated by having to fill this office;their state is preserved against all attack, nor do they change theiroccupation. They were chosen to be intimates, and they have received the powerof contemplating the highest palace and stationing themselves all about it. Ithas been granted them to contemplate the face of the King in unbrokencontinuity. They have received as adornment the sweetness of a subtle grace intheir nature, goodness and penetrating wisdom in their thoughts, the privilegeof being the final term to which all knowledge refers. They have been endowed witha shining aspect, a beauty that sets the beholder trembling with admiration, astature that has attained its perfection. For each of them, a limit has beenset that belongs to him alone, a fixed rank, a divinely ordained degree, towhich no other contests his right and in which he has no associate, for all theothers either are above him or each respectively finds sweetness in his lowerrank. Among them there is one whose rank is nearer to the King, and he is their'father,' and they are his children and grandchildren. It is through him thatthe King's word and order emanate to them. And among other marvels pertainingto their condition is this: never does the course of time expose their natureto the marks and witherings of age and decrepitude. Far from it, he among themwho is their 'father,' though the oldest in

duration, is thereby all the more aboundingin vigor, and his face has all the more of the beauty of youth. They all livein the desert; they have no need of dwelling places or shelter.

23 "AMONG THEM ALL the King is the most withdrawn into thatsolitude. Whoever connectsHim with an origin errs. Whoever claims to pay Him praise that is proportionateto Him is an idle babbler. For the King escapes the power of the clever to bestowqualifications, justas here too all comparisons fail of their end. Let none, then, be so bold as tocompare Him to anything whatsoever. He has no members that divide Him: He is all a face byHis beauty, all a hand by His generosity. And His beauty obliterates the vestiges of allother beauty.His generosity debases the worth of all other generosity. Whenone of those who surroundHis immensity undertakes to meditate on Him, his eye blinks with stupor and he comesaway dazzled. Indeed, hiseyes are almost ravished from him, even before he has turned themupon Him. It would seemthat His beauty is the veil of His beauty, that His Manifestation is the cause of HisOccultation, that His Epiphany is the cause of His Hiddenness. Even so, itis by veiling itself a littlethat the sun can be the better contemplated; when, on the contrary,the heliophany sheds allthe violence of its brightness, the sun is denied to the eyes, and that is why itslight is the veil of its light. In truth, the King manifests His beauty on thehorizon of those who are His; toward them He is not niggardly of His vision; those whoare deprived ofcontemplating Him are so because of the wretched state oftheir faculties. He is mildand merciful. His generosity overflows. His goodness is immense. His gifts overwhelm;vast is His court, universal His favor. Whoever perceives a trace of His beauty fixes hiscontemplation uponit forever; never again, even for the twinkling of an eye,does he let himself bedistracted from it.

24 "SOMETIMES certain solitaries among men emigrate towardHim. So much sweetness does He give them to experience that they bow under theweight of His graces. He makes them conscious of the wretchedness of theadvantages of your terrestrial clime. And when they return from His palace,they return laden with mystical gifts."

25 THEN THE SAGEHAYY IBN YAQZAN said to me:"Were it not that in conversing with thee I approach that King by the veryfact that I incite thy awakening, I should have to perform duties toward Himthat would take me [away] from thee. Now, if thou wilt, follow me, come with me towardHim. Peace."

No power and no strength is there save in God the High, the Mighty!

Suhrawardi's "Recital of the Occidental Exile"

2011-09-21T02:44:00.000-07:00

Thussaith the knowledgeable gnostic Master, the Unique of his age and teacher of hisepoch; the Master and Blazing Meteor of the Religion (shihabuddin) Suhrawardi,may God sanctify his spirit and illuminate his grave.

In the Name of God the Compassionate,the Merciful!

Praised beunto God, the Lord of all the worlds. And salutations be upon His chosen servants,especially our master Muhammad, the Chosen,his family and companions – all of them!

As forthe matter at hand: When I readthe Recital of Hayy ibn Yaqzân (The Living son of the Watchful) [ofAvicenna] I found it lacking in that certain Illumination regarding the supremeexperience of the Great Overwhelming (79:34), despite the admirable phrases andsuggestions contained in it. This experience is guarded like a treasure in theHoly Scriptures, confided in trust to the symbols of the sages and hidden inthe Recital of Salâmân and Absâl, also written by the author of the Recital of Hayy ibn Yaqzân . This is the Secret confirmed by thespiritual stations of the Sufis and of those who possess visionary intuition.No reference is made to it in the Recital of Hayy ibn Yaqzân exceptat the very end where it says: "Sometimes certain solitaries among men journey towards Him..." Then I wanted to tell of a few things myself, inthe form of a recital that I have called the Recital of the OccidentalExile, dedicated to certain of our noble brethren. As for what is of myown design, I offer this to God.

I

1. Beginning of the Recital. Once upon a time, mybrother 'Asim and I undertook a journey to the land of the Occident, being fromthe land across the river, to hunt certain shore birds from the Green Sea.

2. Suddenly we came upon "the city whose inhabitants areoppressors" (4:77), I mean the city of Qayrawân.

3. The inhabitants noticed our sudden arrival and gatheredthat we were the children of a Shaykh known as al-Hâdi ibn al-Khayr (the Guideson of the Good) the Yemenite.

4. They surrounded us, tied us up in chains and a yoke ofiron, and threw us as prisoners into an infinitely deep pit.

5. A high castle fortified with many towers stood over theempty pit into which we had been thrown.

6. We were told: "You commit no offense if you climb upto the castle when night falls and you have no clothes on. But at daybreak youabsolutely must return to the bottom of the pit."

7. In the bottom of the pit there certainly was"darkness upon darkness" (24:40). When we extended our hands we couldscarcely see them.

8. But during the hours of night we climbed up to the castlethat stood over the immensity of space and we looked in through one of itswindows. Often doves came to us from the forests of Yemen and told us how things werein that forbidden region. Sometimes a bright light from Yemen visited us, whose bright flash from the"right side" (28:30), from the "oriental" side, told usabout the family living in the Najd. A breezefilled with the aromatic scent of the arak awakened in us ecstasy afterecstasy. Then we gasped from desire and nostalgia for our homeland.

9. Thus we climbed up at night and got back down during theday. Then, one night when the moon was full, we saw a hoopoe (27:20), it camethrough the window and greeted us. In its beak there was a message that came"from a blessed spot on the right side of the valley, from inside abush" (28:30).

10. It said to us: "I have seen (27:20) the means of yourdelivery and bring both of you 'truthful news from the Kingdom of Sheba"(27:22). All is explained in this message from your father."

11. We took cognizance of the message. This is what it said:"You are being addressed by al-Hâdi your father. In the Name of God theCompassionate, the Most Merciful. We long for you, but you feel no nostalgia.We call you, but you don't commence your journey. We give you signs, but youdon't understand them".

12. Then the writer gave me directions in the message, likethis: "You there, if you want to save yourself at the same time as yourbrother, don't wait with resuming you journey. Grab a hold of our cable, thatis, of (the nodes of) the Dragon of the Heaven of the Moon over the spiritualworld that rules the ends of the ecliptic."

13. When you have arrived in the "valley of theants" (27:18) shake the hem of your robe and say: "Glory be to God whohas brought me back to life after having cut my body to pieces." (2:244and 261) "To Him we shall return who is our Resurrection." (67:15)Then be finished with your relatives.

14. Be no longer concerned with your wife, "because sheis among those who stay behind." (15:60 and 29:31) "Go where you arecommanded," (15:62) "for these people will be utterly destroyed bytomorrow morning." (15:66) Get into the boat and say: "In the Name ofGod, as it moveth and as it rests!" (11:41)

II

15. Everything that would happen en route was explained in theletter. The hoopoe went ahead and the Sun was just above our heads when wearrived at the edge of darkness. We took our places in the vessel and itcarried us "to the wilderness in the mountains." (11:44) Our plan wasto climb mount Sinai and then to visit the oratory of our father.

16. Then "the floods rose" separating me from mybrother and "he was among those who were swallowed up." (11:45)

17. Then I understood that the time of the occurrence of thethreat that was the concern of my people was the morning. "Isn't morningnear?" (11:83)

18. I knew that "the city that surrenders itself towickedness" (21:74) will be turned upside down "from top tobottom" (11:84) and that it would rain "bricks of clay upon them."(11:84)

19. When we came to the place where the floods dashed againsteach other and the waves rolled, I took the nurse who had nursed me and threwher into the sea.

20. But we traveled on a ship "made of planks andnails." (54:13) Thus we voluntarily damaged it (18:78) in the belief thatthere was a king behind us who "took every ship by force." (18:78)

21. And the "laden ship" (the ark, 26:119) carriedus past the island of Gôg and Mâgôg (18:93 ff.) on the left side of mountal-Jûdî (11:46).

22. However, there were artisans with me who worked for me andI had at my disposition the source of molten copper. I told the artisans:"Blow on the iron until it becomes like fire" (that I may throw themolten copper on it, 18:95). Next I erected a barricade so that I was separatedfrom Gôg and Mâgôg (18:94).

23. Then I truly realized that "the promise ofyour Lord is true" (18:98).

24. During the journey I saw the pits of 'Ad and Thamûd; Icrossed the region and "it was desolate and in ruins" (2:261 and 22:44).

25. Then I took the two burdens and the spheres and put themand the artisans in a bottle that I had made into a round shape, with lineslike circles on it.

26. I cut off the currents of living water from the realm ofthe heavens.

27. When the flow of water was cut off to the mill, thebuilding collapsed and the air supply disappeared.

28. I flung the Sphere of Spheres against the heavens so thatit pulverized the Sun, moon and stars.

29. Then I escaped from the fourteen coffins and the ten tombswhere the shadow of God comes to life again, the kind that is "drawnlittle by little" (25:48) to the hieratic world after "the sun hasbeen given as a guide" (25:47).

30. I found God's way. Then I understood: "This is myPath and it is straight." (6:154)

31. During the night my sister "was overtaken by thedivine scourge." (12:107) She remained wrapped in darkness for a smallpart of the night and from fever and nightmares fell into a state of completecollapse.

32. I saw a lamp with oil in it; a light shot out of it intothe different parts of the house. There even the lamp niche was set on fire andthe inhabitants were illuminated from the effect of the light of the sun risingabove them.

33. I placed the lamp in the mouth of the Dragon that lived inthe castle of the water wheel; under it was a certain Red Sea; above it were stars of whom no one knew the places ofirradiation except their Creator and "those who have a lot of experienceof the Knowledge." (3:5)

34. I noticed that both Leo and Taurus had disappeared;Sagittarius and Cancer were both involuted in the folding caused by therotation of the Sphere of Spheres. Libra stayed in equilibrium when the Star ofYemen (Suhail, Canopus)rose from behind some slender clouds, composed by what the cobweb of the anglesof the elementary World drew in the world of generation and corruption.

35. There was still a sheep with us; we left it in the desertwhere it perished from the trembling of the earth while lightening fell uponit.

36. Then, when the entire distance had been traveled and theroad had come to an end, while the "water welled out from thefurnace" (al-tanur, " athanor", 11:42 and23:27) in a conical shape (of the heart), I saw the celestial bodies; I unitedmyself with them and heard their music and their melodies. I was initiated intotheir recital; their sounds struck my ears like that of a bell-like soundproduced by a chain drawn over hard rock. My muscles were at the point oftearing, my joints felt like breaking, so vivid was the pleasure that Iexperienced. This did not cease happening in me until the white cloud went awayby dissipating and the membrane was broken.

III

37. I left the caverns and the caves and was finished with thevestibules: I went straight to the Spring of Life. Then I saw the Great Rock atthe summit of a mountain that looked like the Sublime Mountain.I asked the fishes that were frolicking in the Spring of Life, enjoying thequiet and the gentleness of the shade of the Lofty Peak."What is that high mountain," I asked, "and what is that GreatRock?"

38. Then one of the fishes "chose a certain current forits way in the sea." (18:60) It told me: "That is what you soardently desire; that mountain is Mount Sinaiand that Rock is the oratory of your father". "But who are thesefishes?" I asked. "These are your equals. You are sons of the samefather. They have passed a test similar to yours. They are your brothers."

39. When I heard that answer and experienced the truth, Iembraced them. I rejoiced in seeing them like they rejoiced in seeing me.Thereafter I ascended the mountain. Behold, I saw our father as a Great Sage,so great that Heaven and Earth were about to split asunder from the epiphany ofhis Light. I stayed amazed, stupefied. I came close to him and behold, like aleader he greeted me. I bowed to the ground before him and was left speechlessin the Light that radiated from him.

40. I cried for a moment when I lamented to him aboutQayrawân's prison. He told me: "Have courage! You are saved now! It isstill absolutely necessary that you return to the occidental prison because thefetters have not yet completely unclothed you". When I heard those wordsmy reason left me. I wept and cried like one who is at the verge of dying and Icalled out to him.

41. He said to me: "It is unavoidable that you returnthere for the moment. However, I have two good things to tell you. First, oncereturned to your prison, it will be possible for you to return again to us hereand easily climb up to our paradise, whenever you want to. Secondly, you willbe totally free; you will be joined to us and leave the Occidental land behindyou completely and forever."

42. His words filled me with joy again. He also said:"Know that this mountain is Mount Sinai (23:30, Tûr Sinâ'); but above this mountain there is another one: TheSinai ( 95:2, Tûr Sînîna), of the One who is my Father and yourGrandfather, to whom I am related just like you are to me.

43. "We have still other ancestors and our ascendancefinally ends at a King who is the Supreme Forebear, who Himself has noancestors and no father. We are His servants; we owe Him our Light and weborrow our Fire from His Fire. He possesses a beauty more imposing than anyother beauty, the most sublime majesty and the most subjugating Light. He isbeyond all Beyond. He is the Light of Light, beyond Light and Eternity for alleternity. He is the Epiphany for all things and "all things perish exceptHis Face." ( 28:88)

44. Postscript. This recital is about me, because I havelived through a disaster. From the higher space I fell into the abyss of hell,among people who are not believers; I am a prisoner in the land of theOccident. Nevertheless I keep feeling a certain sweetness that is impossible todescribe. I am sobbing, I am imploring, I am gasping with regret about thisseparation. This passing stand-off was one of the dreams that quickly faded.

45. From the prison of Nature and the impediment of Mattersave me, O my God!. "And say: Praise be to God, who shall soon show youHis Signs so you shall know them, and your Lord is not unmindful of all thatyou do." (27:93) "Say: Glory to God! But most of them do notunderstand." (31:25)

The Soul of Holiness: The Recital of Life

2011-09-19T01:26:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I posted the translation of Suhrawardi's Persian rendition of Avicenna's Recital of the Bird taken from the translation given in Corbin's Avicenna and the Visionary Recital. The following visionary treatise below is my own redacted reformulation of the Recital of the Bird based on the contents of an actual visionary dream a few years ago. It recasts the Illuminationist doctrine articulated in the Recital of the Bird into that of the doctrine of the Fatimiya Sufi Order. This visionary recital will be the first of thirteen opening each of the thirteen sections for the forthcoming novel to be co-authored by Sam C. Burch and myself in reply to Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum.

نفس القـُدس

رسالة الحيّاة

هو

بـسمالله الاحيّي الحيّياء

‘O God, shows us things as they truly are’– Prophetic hadíth

1 Nowthen, O brethren of the Path, is there not one amongst you who would lend theirintimate consideration for a while to a nostalgic tale issuing from onedesirous to unpack a torn and ravaged heart from the burdensome fetters of its separation?Where can one find these days the spiritual camaraderie of one who may bear inequal trust and partnership the weight of these binding chains fettering thesoul within the exile of its occidental crypt? Where is the one who in the puresincerity of perfect solidarity may be that earnest traveler and solemn companionimmovable in the firm commitment to unbind its friend as well as itself fromthis dark, bottomless pit and stultifying well of Qayrawán and so, likethe birds in the tales of Avicenna and ‘Attár, hazard all the dangers of thejourney to the Orient of Light and reunion at the Celestial Courtof the All-High Sovereign Gryphon? O brethren of the Path, such acompanion, if one may be found who is pure and who has been purified like raw metalfrom its dross and tested for upright sincerity by the tortuous crucibles of thisPath, is the singular token of the elect amongst the folk of the divinerealities and can only be found within those bonds forged by the will of divineprovidence itself amongst that spiritual kinship that bears the mark of the GreatestName upon its back, especially as such a one is rarer than the RedSulphur and the Most Great Elixir. A companion such as that is theembodiment of the words spoken in the poem of the Commander of the Faithful(upon Him be Splendor), who says, luminous be His locution,

Verily,your true brother is the one who is truly with you in all things:
The one who will harm himself in order to benefit you.
And who, when the troubling vicissitudes of time breakyou asunder,
Will shatter himself to pieces in order to gather youtogether!

But where can such a one be foundand what are the inner hallmarks of such a companion? Let the brethren of the DivineFace take this testimony.

2 Obrethren of the Illumination, be ye like the Lion who is as the singular signof indomitable strength and regal gold and is the manifestation of the EternalSun in the perishable world, for, by God, the nobility of the Sun without youbecomes the chivalry of the Lion when mirrored within you such that thischivalrous Lion within, then, betokens no more than the inhabiting agency ofthat Sun without.

3 Obrethren of the Divine Realities, become like the Ibis, at once sacred toHermes and his Art, a killer of harmful vermin – whether seen or unseen – and atransmuter of prima materia in the lunar aspects, functions,cycles, measurements and movements of the Work. Be wise and cunning like the Foxwho cultivates the Elixir of Life and offers it to the needy while ensnaringthe impetuous, selfish and greedy in their own guile. Follow the ways of theRaven who, capable of travelling between the underworld as well as the upper-worlds,transforms the powers of death into life, decomposing all dross in its path,while no demon or malefic force can touch it. Become deific like the Ram full of virile,fiery fervor, embodying thereby the celestial forces of renewal.

4 Obrethren of the Light, quaff from the poisoned chalice of bitter grief in thisperishable world so that you may be ever watchful in the state of constant Remembranceof the supernal Lights and therefore in a condition of perpetualorientation towards the Hereafter. Come to hate that hypocrisy whichbecomes the blind, unawakened state of the conditioned and love the penetratingTruth that is the already-always awakened reality of the Unconditioned. In thisPath fear not nor flee from the scorn, blame or contempt of the worldly forsuch derision by them is the animating mark of the elect’s abandonment of the inversionsof materiality, namely, the abstraction from all which is fleeting and so theclinging to the sure, salvific handle of what is Eternal and Everlasting; andas for them, the worldly deriders: fear not and be confident that ‘those whohave tyrannized shall learn [in the hereafter] with what kind of an overturningthey shall be overthrown’ (Qur’an 26:227)! So, paying no mind tochanging vicissitudes or the blame of the accuser, be ye like the Peacock smoothin the transitions of the Work and a living symbol of the integrity, regalbeauty, incorruptibility and immortality of matter transmuted from a basecondition to a glorious one. Become the Phoenixrising victorious from the ashes of its own immolating death within the livingfires of regeneration into rebirth and resurrection everlasting.

5 Nowto turn to our tale and the reasons for our nostalgic melancholia. Know that ona certain night when the sign of the Fishes was receding before the dawningexaltation of the sign of the Ram, as sleep began to overwhelm me, Iprayed with utmost fervor the hymn to the Perfect Nature as I wassinking into my repose, saying,

O Thou, my Lord and Prince, mostHoly Angel, my most precious and beloved spiritual being! Thou art my fatherand my mother, the Sun and the Moon, who gave birth to me in the world of thePure Spirit, and Thou art my child and sibling in the sublimity of my thought!With divine permission Thou art entirely dedicated to the government of my person!Thou art the one whose fervor intercedes for me before the Godhead, the God ofall Gods, to make up for my deficiencies! O Thou who art clothed in the utmostradiance of the divine Lights! O Thou who resides at the summit of the degreesof perfection, I implore Thee, through the One who has overwhelmed Thee withsuch sublime nobility, who hast bestowed upon Thee such an immense effusion ofgrace! O precious One, may Thou manifest Thyself to me at the hour of theSupreme Epiphany! May Thou showest me Thy resplendent Face! May Thou be mymediator before the God of Gods in the effusion of the Siniatic Light ofmystical Secrets! May Thou lift the veils of darkness from my heart! This Ipray in the name of the One who hath claim over Thee and ranks over Thee! Icall upon Thee, O Powers and sublime spiritual Angels, O Ye who art the wisdomof the sages, the sagacity of the seers and the knowledge of the wise! Hearkenunto me and appear before me and bring me near to Thy magisterium! Guide mewith Thy wisdom and protect me with Thy powers! Make me understand what I donot understand, realize what I do not realize and see what I do not see! Turn meaway from the dangers that lurk in the ignorance, the forgetfulness and thehardness of my heart, in order to have me attain to the ranks of the ancientsages and inspired prophets, in whose hearts wisdom, insight, vigilance,discernment and comprehension made their permanent indwelling! May Thou alsolive forever in the innermost recesses of my heart, and never ever separateThyself from me! Amen.

6 ThereuponI dreamt that once upon a time I was a falcon belonging to a family of noblefalcons soaring freely above the firmaments of a Sacred Valleylocated in the Eastern Isle of the Southern Lands. On a certain night, asdusk was approaching this Sacred Valley, I flew over to a rock-pool of awaterfall – a situs sacred to the falcons and known as the Station ofWater - wherein I perched myself upon one of its high, steady rocks jottingout of the pool facing the waterfall. AsI rested myself upon the rock the waters began to gently swell, swirling into singingtorrents and silhouettes, after which a single milky and pearly-white woman’s handemerged from the center of the waters holding a chalice like that of Jamshidand Kay Khosrow’s. Filled to the brim in this chalice was a translucentand shimmering, golden brown liquid. A Voice then spoke and bade me tocome closer, saying, “approach, O noble Falcon, for ye have been chosen by theAll-High and Supreme Gryphon for reunion - and a mission. Drink now thehallowed Elixir from this holy chalice, for it is the Haoma ofImmortality!” I did as I was commanded, and after I drank my fill the handwithdrew itself but then the Voice continued, “fly ye over now to that Treeof Life in the center of that holiest Station of Fire and perchthyself upon the highest branch of that sacred Tree and look up upon theFull Moon as it rises!”

7 Embarkingupon what was commanded by that Voice, I now flew through the twilight coveredlandscapes of the Sacred Valley from this Station of Water and overto the Station of Fire, and while in flight I felt my strength risingwithin me with each moment to insubstantial proportions, with a soaring lightnesswidening to ethereal dimensions now expanding in waves and then contracting in surges,wherein I began to perceive the veils between the two worlds become less andless opaque and more and more transparent. As I perched myself upon the highestbranch of the Tree of Life, the Full Moon rose, and as it roseever higher, I suddenly experienced a “Great Overwhelming” (Qur’an 79:34),such as like that alluded to by the Oriental Theosophic sages, and an inexpressible,rapturous and expansive magnetizing ecstasy overwhelmed me from every side as Iperceived ‘the disclosure of the Majesties of Glorification withoutindication’ (hadíth al-haqíqa). I now lost all perception ofmy egoity and instead sensed complete existential unification with the whole Sacred Valley itself as if it had nowbecome my very soul and animating impulse. Then the Voice which hadspoken at the Station of Water now spoke from the Tree of Life,saying, “if thou wilt, follow me!” indicating at the Full Moon; this, aswithin me was occurring the unveiling of ‘the apophatic negation of all speculationand the realization of that which can be realized’ (hadíth al-haqíqa).

8 Withmy egoic volition no longer as guide, another higher will now replaced it asleader as if the leader of my will was the charioteer who was the chariot of mybeing, with my volition as the veritable horses driving this chariot whereinwas disclosed to my being ‘the nullificative annihilation of the secret bythe victorious rending of the veil off the mystery of the secret’ (hadíthal-haqíqa). I then began flying in this state straight for the centerof the Full Moon, and as I did my substantial reality dissolved intofractals of light; my consciousness as the falcon now annihilated; and, as ifreborn into a new reality, I became a Body of Light - that is, the ResurrectionBody – in possession of a Robe of Fire and without dimension orextension but enjoying a celestial form. With it came noetic apperceptions probinginto the very heart of things, material and immaterial, luminous and tenebrousalike.

9 Fromwithin the lunar disk of the Full Moon now emerged Dhu’l-Fiqár, thedouble-edged sword of ‘Alí (upon Him be Splendor). Flying through theheavenly expanses, the Full Moon then vanished altogether and Dhu’l-Fiqárinstead now transformed into a great heavenly Column of Irradiation as Iswiftly began the spiraling journey of passing beyond the occidental crypt and througheach of the Celestial Spheres in turn from within this Column ofIrradiation in my passage beyond the sphere of the Fixed Stars andover to the Pleroma of the Orient of Light.

10 Andas I passed through each of the Celestial Spheres I was existentiallyunified in identity with its Intelligence; and as I passed each one of thespheres for the higher one above it, this unification in identity was thenannihilated as I became existentially unified in identity with the Intelligenceof the celestial sphere above that; until, that is, I reached the radiatingpavilion beyond the sphere of the Fixed Stars where all intelligenceswere annihilated within me as I was drawn into the bedazzling Pleroma of theOrient of Light itself through ‘The attraction of the Divine Oneness bythe attributive apprehension of the Divine Unicity’ (hadíth al-haqíqa).

11 Thesurreal echoes, sonorous vibrations of the hypnotic warblings of the melodioushymns of a celestial Dove now swiftly pulled me ever higher by the continualunveilings of my own ecstasy through the realms of the Orient of Lightby the Column of Irradiation wherein I perceived heavens withseventy-thousand suns therein. The Columnof Irradiation then forked into Two Cosmic Lines as I swoonedbeholding the descending concentric ranks of the Cherubim, Seraphimand Ophanim circumambulating like pilgrims at the Ka’ba the locusof the Divine Throne. After witnessing these angelic ranks, I was takenthrough the Divine Throne itself until I entered the holiest precinctsof a vast Celestial Spring wherein I was made to drink and purify my Bodyof Light by its ever-living waters.

12 Fromthe situs of the Celestial Spring I was then raised up to a spectacularlybedazzling realm of Crimson Emeralds wherein I came upon a GreatCelestial Tree encircled by an emerald fire shimmering with diamonds at thecenter of an Immense Celestial Mountain above which was a Cloud thatreached beyond eternity. And as I beheld this, I now swooned from the crushing tremendousnessof ‘a Light Illuminating from the Dawn of Pre-Eternity and shedding itstraces upon the Talismanic-Temples of Unicity’ (hadíth al-haqíqa).The Great Celestial Tree now transformed into a Great CelestialBird – that is, the Simorgh - who then transfigured its form onceagain from the Simorgh and into a Woman of ravishing,incomparable and unsurpassed Divine Beauty: a Beauty the glimpse of a singleatom of the splendor of which would have obliterated entire universes into dustwhere She to Self-Disclose a speck of such Beauty to any other, as it is aBeauty of such dazzling scope and unparalleled manifestation compared to whichall other beauties from Heaven to earth and all that is in between are butshadows and silhouettes, for it is from this Beauty that all derive the illuminatingsplendor of their own beauty because it is from this Beauty whereby ‘Loveappeared and its fire blazed forth throughout all the worlds’ (Háfiz).

13 As my subtilized heart-fluxexploded into a myriad of unceasing raptures of supernal, ecstatic bliss andnearly effaced all remaining faculties upon my glancing of Her Visage, drawingme now to a station of proximity, I deigned to ask, “who art Thou?” Shereplied, “I am the Mind of the Divine Sovereignty, Supreme Mistressof Heaven, the Celestial Queen and ‘the Lord of the Worlds’ (Qur’an1:2). ‘I am the One standing upon the Two Gulfs and the Observer overthe two Occidents and the two Orients’ (Sermon Between the Two Gulfs).Beyond Me is That One Singular and Sovereign Unknowable Mysteryof Exclusive Oneness and Inclusive Unity, ‘the God of allgods, the Light of all lights’ (The Opening of Light 1:3), unchangedand unalterable, without peer or equal, ‘neither begotten nor begetting’(Qur’an 112:3). I am the First Point of Originationand the Primary Originating Point who is the Soul of Holiness andthe Face of Splendor. I am the Supreme Pen and the Primal Will,the Creatrix of Heaven, earth and all that is in between. I am the Lastand the Essence of the Tree of Reality and the Lotus ofthe Farthest Boundary because I am the Finality by which all thingsare sealed. I am the Wisdom and the Word, for I am the Hiddenand the Manifest, the Dusky-Colored Female Dove beyond the HiddenCloud warbling all existence into being. I am the One Living whoseprogeny are the watchful because I am the Primal Eve, the Mother ofAll-Living, just as I am the Fátimiyyic Radiance, the Mother ofHer Father, the Victorious Light Resplendent. I am thy PerfectNature, the Imám-of-thy-being, for I am to thee both thy HighestCelestial Sun, the Angel of Life, located in the sphere of thehighest imperishable realm as well as the Lunar Resplendence and the Angelof the Earth governing unto the lowest aspects of the dominion of thy ownperishable earth.

14 Andthe vestigual signature of My terrestrial token to thee, the outward symbol tothe seven-levels of the celestial Solomonic-Ka’ba of My inner inhabitationwithin thee, is that Tree of Life located within the axis of the Stationof Fire in the precincts of that Sacred Valley from whence ye came;for during the term that thou art imprisoned within the prison cage of theopaque boundary of thy material body and senses, thou art to be a guardian andprotector to that holy station and its Tree which hath been mademanifest for thy sake and for the sake of thy noble lineage, so heed well!

15 Nowbefore thy time expires, appoint ye a female falcon of wisdom and sagacity fromthy spiritual progeny and rank to replace thee; and let her likewise appoint afemale falcon after her, and the one after that another one after her stead, upto six generations. Each shall be a theosophianic angel and talismanichierurgy in her rank, until such time as the Dusky-Colored Female Dovefrom beyond the Hidden Cloud of Unknowing, the Supreme Gryphon,the Anqa and Simorgh, Who is I Myself, shall appearamongst the falcons in the number of Buráq; for it is at thatsacred precinct wherein thy Work, which is My Work, shall be accomplished and consummated,so understand!

15 Andtake this prayer as My gift of remembrance to thee and for the posterity of thylineage of Light, and, whensoever ye are moved, recite it every Dawn atits arising, saying,

In the Name of Godthe Most Praised, the Most Glorified, the Most Holy in the Highest Altitude ofthe Sanctification of the Glorification of the Holiness of Elevated Sublimityand Transcendence!

Say, O Thou Whoart the Light of all lights Effusing the Illumination of the Radiance of ThyBeing by the blinding Godly Scintillance of the dazzling Divine Brilliance fromthe Fire of the Morning-Dawn Arisen!

O my God, verilyI testify at the Throne of the Resplendent Sun of Thy Pre-Eternal Oneness whichhath ignited the Manifestations of those flames of holiness glaring the flaresof the mirrored rays of the Revelation of the Unity of Thy GlorySelf-Disclosing the Theophanic transfigurations of the manifestation of ThySolitary, Most Singular and Unchanging Face which hath already alwaysannihilated all-things!

And O Thou Whoart That inhabitant Sovereign of the horizons of my self unveiling theSingularity of Thy perspicuous Reality within the Selves of my horizon. Thouart indeed the Most Manifest and the Most Hidden as the Absolute Manifestationof the Ultimately Hidden; I verily, O my God, testify that Thou art That Whohath left Thy traces imprinted upon the Talismanic-Temples of Thy Unicity bythe vestigual signs of the unificating ecstatic attractions of Thy Unicitarianismfrom a firstness before all firstness unto a lastness after all lastness.

O my God, Iverily testify at the vision effacing nullificative annihilation of the secretby the victorious rending of the veils off the secreted mysteries of Thy Secretthrough the apophatic negation of all speculation and the realization of ThatRealized Reality that is Thee Alone, the Truly Real; for I verily, O my God,testify by the disclosures of the regalitude of Thy Majesties of Glorificationwithout indication from the locus of Thy Post-Eternity to the situs of ThyEverlastingness within the axis of Thy Durationless Perpetuity by theunveilings of Thy Endlessness from a beginning of no beginning unto an end ofno end, for Thou art the Godhead and there is no other god but Thee Alonewithin Thee Alone by Thee Alone from Thee Alone and to Thee Alone, Truly,Truly!

16 Andso verily now after this hour of thy matutinal awakening do I return thee backto the perishable abode of thy terrestrial clime, ‘so extinguish the lampfor the Dawn hath indeed Arisen!’ (hadíth al-haqíqa),” whereuponI found myself back again soaring above the geographic firmaments of the SacredValley located in the Eastern Isle of the Southern Lands.

17 Andnow descending to that Tree of Life I perched myself upon one of itshighest branches as the Sun rose above at dawn irradiating the whole Valleytogether with its ranges below. And as I sat watching the Sun riseever higher to its meridian as the falcon, I began slowly descending back intothe constricted consciousness of this well of Qayrawán, the prison ofthe human body and material senses; now slowly receding from my state as thefalcon and into the living death and bottomless pit that is indeed the unconsciousnessof this mundane, terrestrial human life; and thereupon an immense nostalgia andmelancholic grief overtook me, the weight of which would have literally crushedentire worlds, whilst I could still dimly perceive the memories of thosesonorous melodies warbled by the Celestial Dove and espy in thedistances of my mind the brilliant flashes of the realm of Malakút,the Angelic world, retracing their steps in dazzling sparks into the remote distancesthen completely vanishing as I fully awoke.

18 Butmy nostalgia and grief, which became, as it were, a temporary fetter upon myfeet, abated after some time as I was reminded that on this Path for everyexpansion there must also follow a corresponding contraction; and that within thecontraction there is this wisdom, and that is, the melancholic nostalgia andseparation felt from the true abode is in itself a modality of its inhabitation,as it is the veridical space and the vestigual imprint, nay the sacred pathos,which in turn reflects the divine thrall, for this state within me is the fireof the Face of Splendor and the Soul of Holiness, that is the SupremeGryphon and Simorgh Who is the “Lord of the Dawn” (Qur’an113:1) and the reciter of all Life; since ardent grief, melancholyand nostalgia are in these cases the steeds of the station of Love; and- inversely proportional to the understanding of the worldly whosepreoccupation is to simply flee from such a precious mount - it is confirmationfrom the divine spiritual Lights indicative of the rank of attainment of thefirst stage, for the poison of grief regarding this perishable world issimultaneously also the salvific gift, the gem-like diadem of divinegood-pleasure bestowing in this fleeting life a rank in the imperishable lifeof eternity in the hereafter, as indeed the true nature of this station is thevehicle of orientation towards that Orient of Light, for ‘theLord is nigh unto them who are of broken heart’ (Psalm 34:18);this being the veritable alchemical calcination representing the first majoroperation of the Great Work, would that its true secret be comprehended! So, Obrethren of the Fátimiyyic Light, “embark ye upon it, in the Name ofGod, as it moveth and as it rests” (Qur’án 11:41).

My heart
is as the moth
to the candle flame
that is the luminous image
of the Venus Sun
situated in the Valley
of Ecstatic Love.

For my soul is but the leaven
of Her Work
and the mirror
by which my Celestial Mistress
reflects Her pre-eternal Beauty
within me
back to Herself.

And at each instant
Her reflection
casts a new creation within me
rising like the Phoenix
from the ashes of the fires
of resurrection.

For I am the Falcon, theValley, the Flight,

the Journey to the Lord ofPower and its Consummation

For verily I am She whom Ilove and She whom I love is my ‘Thou’!

Upon this Path

May my heart burn tocinders

As my ‘Thou’ becomes my ‘I’

And my ‘I’ into ‘Her’, theSoul of Holiness: The Recital of Life.

يا نور يا نفس الله

Thus ends here the first among thesymbolic narratives known as the Soul of Holiness: The Recital of Life.

Completed on this 15th dayof the month of the Truly Real in the 6^th Year of thecycle of N.U.R.

The Recital of the Bird

2011-09-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

From Henry Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital (Trans. Willard R. Trask) (Princeton: 1988), pp.186-92.

In the Name of God the Compassionate, theMerciful!

A [Persian] translation by the Tongue ofTruth [of Avicenna’s] Recital of the Bird, by the leader of the world, thelearned of the age, the sultan of the scholars and philosophers, the Master(shaykh) and Meteor of the Religion (shihabuddin) Suhrawardi, may the mercy ofGod be upon him.

~~~

Is there none among my brothers who willlend me an ear for a time, that I may confide some part of my sorrows to him?Perhaps he could fraternally share my burden. For the friendship of a friend isnot unalloyed unless, in good as in evil fortune, he guards its purity from allstain. But where shall I find so pure and sincere a friend, in a time whenfriendship has become a trafficking to which one turns when the necessities ofa situation require an application to one's friend, whereas one ceases one'sattentions to him as soon as the need is gone? No longer is a friend visitedsave when you yourself have been visited by misfortune; no longer is a friendremembered save when some necessity has restored your memory. There are, it istrue, brothers united by the same divine kinship, friends who are broughttogether by the same frequentation of what is above; they contemplate the TrueRealities with the eyes of inner vision; they have purified the depths of theirhearts from all stains of doubt. Such a society of brothers can be assembledonly by the herald of a divine vocation. Are they so assembled? Then let themreceive this testament.

Brothers of Truth! Impart your secret one toanother. Meet together, and let each raise before his brother the veil thathides the depths of his heart, so that each may instruct the other, and thatyou may all realize your perfection through one another.

Brothers of Truth! Retire as the hedgehogretires, which in solitude displays its hidden being and hides its apparentbeing. As God is my witness! it falls to your hidden being to appear, while itfalls to your apparent being to disappear.

Brothers of Truth! Strip yourselves of yourskins as the snake casts his. Walk like the ant, the sound of whose steps nonehears. Be like the scorpion that ever bears its weapon at the end of its tail,for it is from behind that the demon seeks to surprise men. Take poison, thatyou may remain alive. Love death, that you may still live. Be ever in flight;choose no settled nest, for it is in the nest that all birds are captured.

If you have no wings, steal wings, get themby sleight, if need be, for the best of illuminators is what has the strengthto rise in flight. Be like the ostrich that swallows burning stones. Be likethe vultures that gulps down the hardest bones. Be like the salamander that letsitself be wrapped in flame, at ease and confident. Be like the bat that nevercome out by day; yes, the bat is the best of birds. Brothers of Truth! Thebravest man is he who dares to face his tomorrow; the greatest coward is he whodares to remain behindhand with his own perfection.

Brothers of Truth! it is nowise surprisingif the Angel flees from evil, whereas the beast commits wickedness, for theAngel has no organ of corruption, while the beast has no organ ofcomprehension. No, what is surprising is that a human being, invested withcommand over his evil desires, should let himself be subdued by them, while yethe has within him the light of intelligence. But truly, like to the Angelbecomes that man who stands firm under the assault of evil desires. But hewhose strength does not suffice to drive away the evil desires that tempt him, that man does not even reach the rank of thebeasts.

And now, let us come to our recital andexplain our sorrow.

Know, O Brothers of Truth, that a party of hunters went intothe desert. They spread their nets, set out their lures, and hid in thethickets. For my part, I was one of the troop of birds. When the hunters saw us, they tried toattract us by whistling so delightfully that they put us in doubt. We looked; we sawan agreeable and pleasant place; we knew that our companions were beside us. Wefelt no uneasiness, and no suspicion kept us from setting out. So we hastened tothe place, and suddenly we fell into the snares. The meshes closed on ournecks, the strings entangled our wings, the cords hobbled our feet. Everymovement that we tried to make only tightened our bonds the more and made our situation moredesperate. Finally, we gave ourselves up for lost; each of us thought only of hisown pain and no longer considered that of his brother. We tried only todiscover a ruse to free ourselves. And in the end we forgot what a fall our condition had undergone. Inthe end we ceased to be conscious of our bonds and of the narrowness of ourcage, and there sank to rest.

But one day it happened that I was lookingout through the meshes of the nets. I saw a company of birds who had freedtheir heads and wings from the cage and were ready to fly away. Lengths of cordcould still be seen tied to their feet, neither too tight to prevent them fromflying nor loose enough to allow them a serene and untroubled life. Seeingthem, I remembered my earlier state, of which I had lost all consciousness, andwhat had long ago been my familiar fellowship made me feel the wretchedness of my present state. Would thatI might die, I thought, from the excess of my grief, would that at the meresight of their departure my soul might noiselessly slip from its body!

I called and cried to them from the depthsof my cage: "Come! approach! teach me by what sleight to seek deliverance;sympathize with my suffering, for truly I am at the end of my strength."But they remembered the ruses and the impostures of the hunters; my cries only frightenedthem, and they hastened from me. Then I besought them in the name of theeternal brotherhood, of the stainless fellowship, of the unviolated pact, totrust my words and to banish doubt from their hearts. Then they came to me. When I questioned themconcerning their state, they reminded me thus: "We were prisoners of thesame suffering as thine; we too have known despair; we too have been madefamiliar with sorrow, anguish, and pain." Then they applied their treatmentto me. The cord fell from my neck; my wings were freed from their bonds; thedoor of the cage was opened to me. They said: "Profit by thydeliverance!" But again I prayed to them: "Free me also from thishobble that still clings to my foot." They answered: "Were it in ourpower, we should have begun by removing those that encumber our own feet. Howshould the sick cure the sick?" I arose from the cage and flew away withthem. They said: "Far on, straight before thee, is a certain country; thouwilt not be safe from every danger until thou hast crossed all the distance thatseparates thee from it. Therefore, follow in our track, that we may save theeand lead thee by the right way to the goal thou desirest."

Our flight led us between the two flanks ofa mountain, through a green and fertile valley. We flew pleasantly on, until wehad passed all the snares, paying no heed to the whistling of any hunter.Finally, we reached the summit of the first mountain, whence we saw eight othersummits, so high that eye could not reach them. We said to one another: "Letus hasten! We shall not be out of danger until we have passed those mountainssafe and sound, for in each there is a company that is interested in us. If weheed them, and linger in the charm of those pleasures and the quiet of thoseplaces, we shall never arrive." With great labor we passed six mountainsone after the other and came to the seventh. When we had passed beyond itsborders, some of us said to the others: "Is it not time for us to rest? Weare spent with fatigue. We are far from the hunters now, for we have travelled along distance. An hour's rest will help us to reach our goal, whereas if we addto our weariness now, we shall perish." So we halted on the summit of themountain. There we saw green gardens, beautiful palaces, charming pavilions;there were fruit trees, streams of living water. So many delights refreshed oureyes! Our souls were confounded, our hearts troubled, by so much beauty. And weheard lovely songs, ravishing instrumental music. We inhaled perfumes thatnot even the most exquisite amber and musk could approach. We gathered fruits, wequenched our thirst at the streams of living water, lingering until we shouldbe completely rested. Then we said to one another: "Let us hasten! No snareis more dangerous than false security; there is no safety save in vigilance, nofortress so good as warning suspicion. We have already lingered too long here. To staylonger would be dangerous. Our enemies are on our trail, seeking the placewhere they may find us. On!"

So we renounced that place. Though it was sopleasant there, our salvation was worth more. Having agreed to depart, we toreourselves from those scenes, and thus we came to the eighth mountain. Its summitwas so lofty that it was lost in the firmament. Birds peopled its slopes; neverhad I heard such ravishing music, nor beheld such splendid colors, suchgraceful forms, nor encountered such sweet companions. When we had come downamong them, they treated us with such charm, delicacy, and affability thatnothing created could describe it or make it comprehensible. When we wereperfectly at our ease with them, we told them of the sufferings we had endured.They sympathized in them with the utmost solicitude. Then they said to us: "Beyondthis mountain is a city in which the supreme King resides. If any who areoppressed come to implore his protection and trust themselves wholly to him,the King by his strength and his aid frees them from all injustice and suffering."

Relying on what they told us, we determinedto reach the city of the King. We came to his court and awaited audience withhim. Finally, the order came that the new arrivals were to be brought beforehim, and we entered his castle. We found ourselves in an enclosure whose vastnessno description could compass. When we had crossed it, a curtain was drawn upbefore us, disclosing a hall so spacious and radiant that it made us forget thefirst court, or, rather, compared with this, the other seemed of littleaccount. Finally, we reached the King's oratory. When the last curtain had beendrawn and all the King's beauty shone before our eyes, our hearts hung upon itand were seized with a stupor so great that it prevented us from giving wordsto our complaints. But he, perceiving our weakness, restored our assurance by hisaffability; so that we were emboldened to speak, and to recite our story tohim. Then he said to us: "None can unbind the bond that fetters your feetsave those who tied it. Now will I send them a Messenger to lay it upon them tosatisfy you and remove your fetters. Depart, then, happy and satisfied!"

And now, lo! we are on the road, we arejourneying in company with the King's Messenger.

Whereupon my brothers pressed about me,urging me to recite to them the beauty of the King. I shall describe the King.I found him who is in full possession thereof. For all beauty, in the truesense, is realized in him; all imperfection, even in the sense of a metaphor, is banished from him. By hisbeauty, he is all a Face that thou contemplatest; by his generosity, he is alla Hand that bestows. Whoever approaches him will have found supreme bliss;whoever cuts himself off from him will have lost this world and the world to come.

. . . How many of my brothers will there notbe who, my recital having struck upon their ears, will say to me: "I seethat thou art somewhat out of thy wits, unless sheer madness hath fallen uponthee. Come now! It is not thou who didst take flight; it is thy reason that hastaken flight. No hunter ever made thee his prey; it is thy reason and naught else that has been hunted down.How should a man fly? And how should a bird fall to speaking? Verily, one wouldsay that the bile has overflowed in thy complexio and that siccitas hastaken its seat in thy brain. 'Twere well to diet: drink a decoction of thymedodder, take frequent hot baths, pour warm water over thy head, takeinhalations of oil of water lily. Then go on a light diet, avoid sitting uplate; and, above all, no overexertion of mind. For in the past we have always knownthee as a reasonable man, of sound and penetrating judgement. God knows howgreatly we are concerned over thy state. Seeing thee thus deranged, we feelutterly sick ourselves!"

Oh, what a waste of words! and with what amiserable result! The worst kind of discourse is this chatter with which peopleare so liberal without any occasion! But in God be my refuge; toward men, myfreedom! He who professes another dogma will lose his life in the world to comeand in this world too, "for those who attack the first will one day learnby what an overthrowing they shall be overthrown (Qur’an 26:227)."

Review of Hamid Dabashi's "Brown Skin, White Masks"

2011-09-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks, Pluto Press, 2011, 172 pp.

(Intro., 4 Chapters, Conclusion, Glossary, Notes & Index.)

Our world has changed significantly since the early 1950s when Frantz Fanon penned the first book of his trilogy that concluded with the Wretched of the Earth. Back then the Western politico-industrial elite's civilizational plague was Marxism and Marxists which today has been replaced (and with equal angst and fury) by Islam and Muslims as the civilizational enemy number one of Western Capital and its self-perceived 'manifest destiny' to shape the world in its own image of unequal banality, cultural impoverishment and spiritual bankruptcy. Yet even though the world has changed since the 1950s of Fanon's heyday, nevertheless many of the effective/affective mechanisms and guiding assumptions behind neo-colonialism's function of cultural hegemony remain fundamentally the same, especially where the role and function of comprador intellectuals in writing the colonial master's narrative of the Other is concerned (of which these comprador intellectuals remain an ethnic and cultural part themselves). Black Skin, White Masks was written by Fanon in 1952 while he was still living in Paris and before he joined the Algerian Revolution. In it he employed, first, psychoanalytical theory to detail how colonialism affected the self-perception of the colonized (especially black and African) peoples and their being-in-the-world. Next he delineated the role of native informers, the comprador intellectuals and literary figures, who in their impulse to ape and become acceptable (even the the 'same as') the colonialist master, as an act of self-hatred, effectively collaborate with the colonialist master's continued hegemony over their cultures by perpetuating his narratives with their own compromised native voices.

I have been reading Hamid Dabashi since the early 1990s. The first edition of his Theology of Discontent: The Ideological Foundations of the Islamic Revolution in Iran was the first book length work of his I read when it first came out in the mid 1990s: a book I found to be the most significant study of the Iranian Revolution so far penned. I have not changed my mind about this, although some of his conclusions I do not necessarily agree with. His articles on Islamic philosophy and mysticism, particularly one on the Sufi concept of the Perfect Man (insan kamil), together with his chapters on 'Ayn'ul-Qudat Hamadani and Mir Damad in Leaman and Nasr's Routledge History of Islamic Philosophy, I literally devoured. In the early part of 2011 Hamid Dabashi and I had the pleasure of finally making each other's virtual acquaintance on facebook. We hit it off right away and immediately had a long, informed discussion on his page regarding Babism, Hurufism, Islamic philosophy and Henry Corbin. Although I disagree with some of Dabashi's takes on Babism in his recent Shi'ism: A Religion of Protest, nevertheless from within the Academy his angle on this subject is a unique and refreshing perspective which does not suffer from the crypto-apologetic, pro-Bahai ideological banalities of an Abbas Amanat or Juan R.I. Cole. Having my personal Dabashi collection somewhat at an incomplete disadvantage by lacking a copy of his monograph on 'Ayn'ul-Qudat Hamadani, which for some years I had found virtually impossible to locate, Hamid soon graciously sent me an author signed copy of it which then accompanied me on my three month long trip to the UK.

Hamid Dabashi's Brown Skin, White Masks is, per one of its own introductory comments, Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks updated for our times. I will confess that I have not read a piece of contemporary, analytical (and much deserved) learned polemic as much as I enjoyed reading Brown Skin, White Masks. On one significant level this book validated my own decade and a half long public ideological struggle against the Haifan Baha'i establishment given how I located this establishment in the early part of last decade as fundamentally a comprador establishment of Western neo-colonialism, together with its narratives of Islamophobia being informed by the very same set of assumptions which Dabashi lays bare regarding a few of the subjects of his Brown Skin, White Masks. My further online experiences from 2009-2010 with the cacophony of thugs on the site Iranian.com only reinforce my conviction that Dabashi is on to something potently significant in this book. If it were up to me, I would be making Brown Skin, White Masks mandatory reading for every Cultural/Literary Studies and Political Science university department on the planet because what this book underscores and highlights needs to be taken on board far and wide if the questionable credibility given by the mainstream to the false polarities, civilizational arrogance and cultural paranoia presented by the Francis Fukuyamas and Samuel Huntingtons of the world (which, no need to mention, have been playing themselves out in real time since the '90s) is to be conclusively invalidated and ideologically smashed!

In many ways Brown Skin, White Masks is a pithy abridgement (and somewhat augmentation in a few places) of Dabashi's earlier Islamic Liberation Theology: Resisting the Empire which Dabashi explained in the introductory comments of that book as being a 'radical counter-intuitive rethinking of [Huntington's]...clash of civilizations'. The difference between these two books is, one, more in the presence of Fanon in the latter book; second, the sublime and condensed, incisive invective poured in Brown Skin, White Masks that is more spread out and less pointed in the former; and, third, the remedy advocating for a reformulated, future Islamic Liberation Theology proposed in the former which is not conspicuous in the latter. Nevertheless in many ways these two books need to be read together because they are talking about the same trajectory of issues. That stated, what Dabashi proposes as an Islamic Liberation Theology, especially in the prologomenon conclusion, could use some healthy reading and engagement with the oeuvrage of Henry Corbin because, whether Hamid recognizes it or not, using a somewhat different lexiographical and paradigmatic point of departure, Corbin had proposed fundamentally the same thing in his dialogue of the Abrahamic (esoteric) monotheisms of the Book, particularly in the proposition of Gnosis qua 'Irfan (a word in its contemporary lexiology Hamid Dabashi does not like) as a Weltreligion. My own typology of Theophanocracy also goes a long way in addressing what Dabashi is proposing at the end of Islamic Liberation Theology. In short, what I am proposing - and which these two works of Dabashi will help me better formulate - is the possibility of a fruitful dialogue between, and so a melding and synthesis of, leftwing politics (and specifically Anarchist political theory) with the high esotericism and gnosis of the world of islam iranien.

Back to Brown Skin, White Masks. Without doing a chapter by chapter thematic review here, there were several instances where the book stood out for me in significant ways. Addressing the Orientalist representations of the Islamic world, on p.85, Dabashi says,

"..Over the past 200 years, the Orientalist project has reduced these multifaceted societies to Islam, and Islam to Islamic law (Shari'ah). In part because the Orientalists themselves were anything between pious and fanatical practitioners of their own religion (mostly Christianity), and in part because the capitalist modernity they were serving had posited itself as the Hegelian (rational) end of history in search of its pre-historical (irrational) moments, they went after the specifically doctrinal and juridical dimensions of the cultures they studied at the heavy cost of disregarding or dismissing their multicultural, polyvocal, artistic, literary, poetic, philosophical, and mystical dimensions—and to the degree that they did study these aspects they always reduced and gauged them in doctrinal and juridical terms entirely alien to their very raison d'etre, foreign and in fact hostile to their innate hermeneutics of alterity..."

He next ties the motivations of this Orientalist discourse and its actors to the role of comprador intellectuals, or native informers, and says,

"True to the historic services they are now performing for their white masters, our native informers are particularly adamant in reducing both the historical and the contemporary polyvocality of Muslims to an essentialist conception of Islam, and then summarizing this Islam with a number of key iconic insignia (Prophet Muhammad and the Quran in particular); and then denouncing or ridiculing Muhammad and the Quran and seeking to embarrass Muslims at large by appealing to the superior authority of "the West" and Enlightenment modernity. The 10 million plus Muslims who live in the United States (about 3 percent of the total population) and the 20 million plus Muslims who live in Europe (about 5 percent of the total population) are the principal target, with the 1.5 billion Muslims around the globe as a secondary target, mostly via the racist and imperial foreign policies of Europe and the United States. In any film, fiction, or "documentary" about Muhammad or the Quran one is almost certain to find these native informers—ex-Muslims, as they often proudly call themselves—ridiculing Muhammad and disparaging the Quran. What they are selling their white audiences has little to do with the realities of Muslim societies. They are creating a Muslim enemy (reduced to a few manufactured icons) they can dehumanize and subjugate by assuming a superior civilizing mission—before they begin dropping tons of bombs..." pp.85-6.

Addressing the dubious Neo-Con lackey Ibn Warraq (whom I believe to be not a Pakistani ex-Muslim as he/she/it says she/it/he is but either one of the many aliases of the Iranian-Canadian ex-Muslim, but actually Canadian-Iranian Baha'i, "Ali Sina" of Faithfreedom.org or a very close collaborator), Dabashi later says,

"There is not a community anywhere on earth without a sense of inviolable sanctity to its collective identity, history, culture—all resting on certain iconic sets of evidence, from the Hebrew Bible to the American Constitution. It is that sanctity, integral to a people's sense of dignity, that Ibn Warraq wants to steal from Muslims—thus preparing them to become what Giorgio Agamben calls homo sacer, "naked life", so that when they are massacred in multitudes, not even the dignity of the word "Palestinians" will be attached to their slaughtered numbers," p.105.

Regarding the recodification of racism in North America and the Anglo-European world as the operative guide of Islamophobia, Dabashi says,

"The most significant lesson in the current recodification of racism in America is that racism as a phenomenon stays constant while its signifiers change visual and affective registers—from black to brown, from Jew to Muslim, at the center of which bifurcations remains a fictive white Christian interlocutor who demands and exacts racialized superiority. Islam is the new Judaism, Muslims the new Jews, Islamophobia the new anti-Semitism, and brown the new black—all in the racialized imagination of a white-identified supremacy that must first alienate (both in itself and of itself) in order to rule," p.128.

Nail, hammer and head!

I enjoyed reading this book tremendously because it completely validated my own perspective on quite an extensive list of contemporary questions. There are still places where I think Hamid Dabashi could have ratcheted the polemic even further, but overall I believe Hamid Dabashi has loyally re-written for contemporary times a piece by Frantz Fanon the latter would be quite proud of. No need to mention I will be using this book in my own ongoing Bahaism: Counter-Tradition of (Post-)Modernity because, I believe, this book addresses several significant arguments regarding the mechanics of Islamophobia and Western (post-)modernist/globalist and instrumentalist triumphalism that guides the vision of Baha'ism throughout.

Two thumbs up!

Additional Note

In an endnote to the first chapter of his Islamic Liberation Theology, Dabashi notes,

"Juan Cole has made quite a compelling argument that the rise of Baha’ism, a religious offshoot of Babism, can be considered in favorable lights as a form of indigenous modernity. See his Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha’i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Though cogent and worthy of critical attention, Juan Cole’s argument is untenable. From its very inception, the pacifist universalism of Baha’ism has played squarely into the hands of British colonialism, and as such has been a hindrance rather than a help in the course of Muslim and Arab encounters with their colonial conquerors," p.269n19.

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A commentary on the 1st Surah (chapter) of the Qur'an

2011-08-28T04:25:00.000-07:00

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيم

In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful!

Commentary: 19 letters indicate the pleroma consisting of God, the 4 Archangels of the Throne (viz. Mika'il/Michael, Isra'fil/Raphael, Jibra'il/Gabriel and Izra'il/Azrael) and the 14 infallibles as the symbolic basis of creation. 19 is also the abjad numerical value of the word wujud (existence/being) and wahid (one/unity). The four words of the bismillah indicate the 4 worlds of lahut/divinity, jabarut/the empyrean of power, malakut/angelic world and mulk/dominion who are personified as Muhammad/bism, 'Ali/allah, Fatima/al-rahman and Husayn/al-rahim. This verse instances the attributive imprint (khisla) of Will (mashiya) and the pentagram seal of the Greatest Name (ism al-a'zam).

.

الْحَمْدُ للّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِين

Praise be unto God the Lord of all the worlds!

Commentary: The Lord of the Worlds refers to the Presence of Divinity, which is the First Intellect ('aql awwal), otherwise known as the Nur Ahmadi (the Most Praised Light), the Universal Intellect ('aql kolli), the Primal Point (nuqtat'ul-ula) and the Primal Will (mashiya al-ula), which is the first thing emanated in pre-eternity (azal) by the Unknowable Godhead who is beyond all knowledge, understanding, predication, so beyond all categories of lordship, because nothing exists with the Hidden Ipseity (dhat al-ghayb) for It to be lord to anything because It is "One without peer or equal" and "neither begets nor is begotten" and so transcends even the very notion and category of lordship. This verse instances the attributive imprint of Volition (irada) and the 'three sticks in a row after a seal above them the semblance of a straightened lance' sigil of the Greatest Name.

الرَّحمـنِ الرَّحِيم

The Compassionate, the Merciful!

Commentary: This refers to the process of the formal instantiation of the worlds from the stage of latent pregnancy of the immutable archetypal forms of the kosmos (a'yan thabita) in the world of lahut (divinity) from potency to act in the world of jabarut (the empyrean of power). This verse instances the attributive imprint of Determination (qadar) and the 'blind mim' sigil of the Greatest Name.

مَـالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّين

Sovereign of the Day of Judgement!

Commentary: Sovereignty belongs to the First Intellect as the first emanation of the Godhead who creates all the forms of the kosmos and likewise annihilates them. The Day of Judgement of each thing is the annihilation of its composite quintessence in one form and its resurrection into either a higher or lesser form, depending on its providential preparedness (isti'dad). This verse instances the attributive imprint of Authorization (qada') and 'a ladder unto all which is hoped for' sigil of the Greatest Name.

إِيَّاك نَعْبُدُ وإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِين

To Thee do we render worship and from Thee do we seek for aid.

Commentary: This instances the Origination (mabda') and the Return (ma'ad) as worship returns to its Source what its Source has given as aid. The plural "we" instances the immutable archetypal forms who in their primordial latency, before having tasted creation, are in a state of perpetual ontological 'worship' - that is, they are in a state of ontological passivity - and the aid in the form of the act of the fiat 'Be' (kun) by the First Intellect grants them existentiation. This verse instances the attributive imprint of Realization (imda') and the 'four things pointing to good deeds' sigil of the Greatest Name.

اهدِنَــــا الصِّرَاطَ المُستَقِيمَ

Guide us upon the straight Path!

Commentary: The sirat al-mustaqim (the straight path) refers to the Eternal Wilaya (Providential Guidance) of the Ahl al-Bayt (People of the House) who are the Personified Gates of Divinity and the Face of God (wajh allah) to creation. This verse instances the attributive imprint of the divine Allotment (ajall) and the letter ha' of the Greatest Name.

صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِمْ غَيرِ المَغضُوبِ عَلَيهِمْ وَلاَ الضَّالِّين

The Path of those Thou hast bestowed grace; not those who have been shown anger, or those gone astray!

Commentary: The Path of Grace is the Path of the Imams and Guides of Light (a'immat al-nur) and their gnostic initiates or 'believers' (mu'minun). The path of anger is the path of the guides of darkness (adilla al-jawr) and misguidance, and those gone astray are those multitudes who have followed the guides of darkness, the masters of the counter-initiation. This final verse instances the kosmic Book (kitab) and the inverted waw of the Greatest Name which indicates the plane of the eschatological differentiation (tafriq) and the separation of the Light (nur) from the darkness (zulma), the affirmation (ithbat) as against the negation (nafy); that is, the manifestation of the Unicity (tawhid) which is personified in the words of the tahlil as 'there is no God but god' (la ilaha illa allah).

21 Wilaya 7 N.U.R.

و لا حول و لا قوّة الا بالله العلي الاعلى

A Public Letter to Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi

2011-08-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

The following is my letter to one of the main organizers of a recent corporate/institutional financed conference in Canada about Intellectual Othering and Bahaism.

Dear Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi,

The thrust of the narrative about Anti-Bahaism in the manner you are presenting it is loaded and open to serious theoretical debate as well as factual deconstruction from all angles because underlying it, to me, are clear political motivations privileging a specific "hegemonic" narrative, in this case one presenting the victimization of the Iranian Bahai community by the mullahs as unique - which it is not. What is most troubling about such narratival constructions as the one you are engaging in is that it conveniently leaves out the systematic patterns of "Othering" and abuse that the Baha'is themselves are guilty of throughout their history, whether with schismatics, with the Bayani (Azali Babi) community or with, yes, Muslims.

For the record, I am an ex-Bahai and have experienced Bahaism very much as an abusive cult much like a Scientology. I am sure you are not completely unaware of the circumstances in which Juan Cole was run out of this organization, libelled and "Intellectually Othered" by it during the '90s. This organization even attempted at one point to destroy Juan's academic career, which they failed, but which they had earlier succeeded in the case of Denis MacEoin. I was personally witness to that whole spectacle in the '90s. But what happened to Cole is not unique. It has been a consistent pattern from generation to generation, and this organization has employed every form of underhanded method and tactic of abuse to silence and "Other" all of its critics, schismatics and dissidents exactly in the manner the mullahs and the Islamic regime are being accused. I know this because I have been at the receiving end of it. Are you aware, for example, that the Bahai NSA of the US recently lost a case in which it attempted to sue two rival, schismatic Bahai groups for trademark infringement of the name Bahai? Are you aware of the numerous public examples of harassment that former members have been subjected to? Are you aware, for example, of the existence of a Baha'i Internet Agency one of whose roles is to isolate online critics? http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Baha%E2%80%99i_Internet_Agency

The purpose of the conference in Toronto you were notably involved, with together with its presentations, in my mind, has all the hallmarks of what Chomsky once designated as Manufacturing Consent. Besides yourself, the participation of at least one of its participants, namely Moojan Momen, renders the overall integrity of this conference a complete joke, particularly given the following: http://www.northill.demon.co.uk/relstud/apostasy.html.There are forces and actors, specifically in the big lobbyist foundation establishment of North America, out actively promoting Bahaism and in such endeavour they are simultaneously pushing Islamophobia as a political narrative: a narrative which as Hamid Dabashi proved is nothing more than a 21st century form of Antisemiticism. This is what you are supporting and are involved with by your involvement with this conference. Throughout this all other Iranian minorities groups who have been persecuted and othered by this regime have been sidelined in the corporate propaganda spree of the Haifan Bahai organization and its Washington/London allies.

Why aren't you writing about the social and intellectual "Othering" of the Iranian Sufi Orders or the Ahl-e-Haqq - who have been subjected to far worse and for far longer than the Baha'is have - holding conferences about this subject? Is it because big corporate or institutional sponsors don't fork out money for such things as readily as they do for the Haifan Bahais that they are promoting?

In a world where the Academy has become nothing more than a venue for perception management by entrenched elites, it is truly sad to see scholars of such promise as yourself being used in this manner to promote dubious political agendas that have absolutely nothing to do with human rights but everything to do with dirty geopolitics and multinational capitalist greed.

Shame on you!

Regards
N.W. Azal

A Prayer for Justice

2011-08-03T06:18:00.000-07:00

هو العدل

In the Name of That Who is the Just Who hath Decreed with Justice from Pre-Eternity!

Say, It is the Sun of Justice and there is no other Pure Light of Justice found besides It neither in the Heavens, nor in the earth nor what is between them!

O God my God, verily I invoke Thee by Thy Justice Most Equitable for Thou art indeed That Justice Most Just in the essence of consummate Justice by Thy Name the Just in the Attribute of Justness Most Brilliant, Most Scintillant, Most Irradiant whether in the Heavens, in the earth or what is between them!

O God my God, verily I invoke Thee by Thy Decree Most High for indeed Thy Decree is That Decree whereby all-things are existentiated at each moment by the Will of That Volition that is the quintessence of Thy Word in the acme of that Victory which is Thy Light, Thy Luminscence and Thy Resplendence in the Heavens, in the earth and what is between them!

O God my God, verily I invoke Thee by Thy Sovereignty Most Established for indeed Thy Sovereignty is That Sovereignty whereby the essential quiddities of all-things are upraised in their beinghood in each instant by the Dominion of That Domination that is the conclusive Might of Thy Power borne of the Singular Sovereignty which is in Thy Hands, in Thy Possession and under Thy Protection within the Heavens, within the earth and what is between them!

O God my God, verily I invoke Thee by Thy Wisdom Most Stupendous for indeed Thy Wisdom is That Wisdom whereby the contingent realities of all-things are realized from before and after in the realization of that Reality which is Thy Omnipotence Most Manifest by the Appearance of Thy Visage which hath annihilatively effaced the darkness of the inversion of negation with Thy Existence, by Thy Being and in Thy Essence within the Heavens, within the earth and what is between them!

O God my God, verily I invoke Thee by Thy Names the Vanquisher, the Victorious, the Equitable, the Just, the Wise and the Sovereign to grant Thy servants the Just Vanquishment, the Victorious Equity, the Wise Justice and the Sovereign Word for there is no other Justice but in Thee the Living, the Protector, the Peerless neither in the Heavens, nor in the earth nor what is between them!

6-16-2
August 23, 2007

The Dawn Prayer (du'a al-sahar) or Prayer of Splendour (du'a al-baha')

2011-08-01T04:13:00.000-07:00

بسم الله الابهى البهي

الله لا اله الا هو الابهى البهي و انّما البهاء من الله على نقطة الاولى من بهائه بابهائياته في كلّ حين و قبل حين و بعد حين

The following below is considered the most cherished prayer and recitation by Shi'a Muslims during the holy month of Ramaḍán. It is a prayer by the 5th Imám Muhammad al-Báqir (as). I have previously dealt with this prayer in another setting, see here.

1. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Splendour at its Most Splendid for all Thy Splendour is truly Splendorous. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Splendour. 2. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Beauty at its Most Beautiful for all Thy Beauty is truly Beauteous. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Beauty. 3. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Majesty at its Most Majestic for all of Thy Majesties are truly Magisterial. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Majesty. 4. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Might at its Supreme Mightiness for all Thy Might is truly Mighty. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Might. 5. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Light at its utmost Resplendence for the whole of Thy Light is truly Luminous. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Light. 6. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Mercy at its vastness for all of Thy Mercy is truly Vast. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Mercy. 7. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Words at their most Complete for all Thy Words are truly Complete. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the totality of Thy Words. 8. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Perfection at its absolute Perfection for Thy Perfections are truly Perfect. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the completeness of Thy Perfection. 9. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Names by virtue of their supreme Greatness for all Thy Names are truly Great. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the totality of Thy Names. 10. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Grandeur at its utmost Grandness for all of Thy Grandeur is truly Grandiose. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the fullness of Thy Grandeur. 11. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Will at its most Conclusive for all of Thy Will is truly Conclusive. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the totality of Thy Will. 12. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Power through the Power of which Thou hath overshadoweth all things for all of Thy Power is truly All-Subduing. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the fullness of Thy Power. 13. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Knowledge at its most acute for all of Thy Knowledge is truly Penetrating. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Knowledge. 14. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Speech at its most Delightful for all Thy Speech is especially Pleasing. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Speech. 15. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Concerns which are most Beloved of Thee for all of Thy Concerns are truly beloved. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thine Concerns. 16. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by thy Honor which is most Honorable, for all of Thine Honor is truly Honored. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thine Honor. 17. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Sovereignty at its most Permanent for the whole of Thy Dominion is truly Enduring. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the absoluteness of Thy Sovereignty. 18. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Dominion at its most Magnificent for the whole of Thy Dominion is truly Excellent. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Dominion. 19. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Sublimity at its Utmost Supremity for the whole of Thy Sublimity is truly Lofty. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the fullness of Thy Sublimity. 20. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Benevolence at its Most Immemorial for the totality of Thy Benevolence is truly Pre-Existent. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the whole of Thy Benevolence. 21. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by Thy Versical-Signs at their Most Distinguished for all Thy Versical-Signs are truly Precious. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by the totality of Thy Versical-Signs. 22. O my God! I verily beseech Thee by that whereby Thou hast Standing and Omnipotence and by virtue of every single quality and unitary dimension of Empyrean Power. 23. O my God! I verily beseech Thee that Thou answer me at the very moment I request of Thee! Wherefore do Thou answer me, O my God!

A letter by Denis Maceoin about the Baha'i community circa January 1979

2011-07-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

Cambridge
England
7 January 1979

Dear Friends,

I have read your latest (November 1978) Newsletter with more than
usual interest and sympathy, and feel that I would like to add a few
words in its wake. I shall not try to expand on Tony’s account of our
seminar here in Cambridge, much as it is tempting to do so — from the
report in your Newsletter, he seems to have done a thorough job of
leading you through a very complicated set of issues raised there. The
full report, as stated, is available, and dwells more thoroughly on
the major topics mentioned by Tony.

I was most interested by the discussion reported on pages 3-4 of your
summary. As Tony knows, this is a topic about which I personally feel
very strongly. In the simplest terms, I fear that the Baha’i faith as
it stands today is in very real danger of becoming irrelevant to the
problems faced by people in the world outside — if it has not already
become so. As the faith has become more and more organised, with, as
you so rightly point out, a growing obsession with figures, numbers,
and statistics for their own sake, and a tendency to evaluate the
significance of the faith as a religion in terms which have no bearing
whatever on this (such as how many languages literature has been
‘translated’ into), we seem to have become more and more introspective
and withdrawn, exclusive rather than all-embracing. As a result, most
Baha’is appear to be completely ignorant of the issues facing modern
man. And, what is worse, they don’t care — if you suggest that hey
read, say, Marouse [Ed. unclear word], most Baha’is react with a
disdainful, slightly superior shrug: ‘we have the writings, we don’t
need to waste our time on the book of false physicians’. As one
friend, for some time an NSA secretary (not in the U.K.) put it to me:
‘nothing worth reading has ever been written in the twentieth
century’. In fact, it is not even a case of whether people are up on
Patti Smith or Malcolm Bradbury’s latest novel, they have yet to read
Marx or early Koestler! Instead, the community is locked into an
obsession with issues which were vital before or just after the first
World War and, what is worse, are a lot less forthright now about
issues such as war, poverty, race, and so forth that they were then.
To speak about race integration in the States in the 20’s was
genuinely progressive. Last year at a Youth Conference in the U.K.
(facing a major race problem and the threat of growing fascism — the
country’s fascist party is the fourth largest in the country), an NSA
member told the youth that we should have nothing to do with the issue
of race, since it is political!

In recent years, I feel, the situation has become even more serious
(in this country at least). Whereas about ten or more years ago, the
Baha’i community tried (in however outdated a fashion) to be involved
with society around it, we now seem to think about and talk about and
be told about nothing but goals, organization, conferences, and other
purely internal matters — very few of them even of a spiritual or
genuinely religious nature. Your phrase ’shopping list’ goals sums up
very well indeed the utterly meaningless hole we seem to have dug
ourselves into. The Five Year Plan in this country has been a mindless
race after numbers, constant reshuffles, juggling with statistics,
bombastic sermons which have passed beyond banality to the depths of
uninspiration. Success is judged in the most material and sterile
terms, important long-term tasks of the community have been shelved in
order to win insignificant short-term goals, and above all, everybody
knows that we will ‘win’ the Plan, whatever the real result. Beneath
the surface, fairly large numbers of people are withdrawing, even
larger numbers have become inactive, leaving things in the hands of
thick-skinned administrators whom we could as well hire from an
employment agency, the teaching work becomes more and more geared to
attracting the less spiritual, and the circle becomes a spiral.
Worst of all, I fear, is that the Baha’is are gradually gaining a
reputation for hypocrisy and self-interestedness. To give one example,
several years ago, when the troubles began in Northern Ireland, a few
Baha’is gave help for some time at a refugee centre, along with other
groups. Despite the fact that the Quakers, who ran the centre, had
asked for no publicity, the Baha’is were the only group to seek and
obtain newspaper publicity for their work with refugees. Since then,
the Baha’is as a group, in Northern Ireland have done nothing to help
anybody, have never even condemned the violence publicly, and have
held numerous conferences and teaching activities which even the
believers are beginning to avoid. To give just one other example: the
Public Relations Officer of the U.K. Baha’i Community recently told a
Mayor, in the course of a tree-planting (!) ceremony (which seems to
be the most radical activity we engage in) that ‘Baha’is the world
over were working hard in thousands of centres to help improve the
environment and the quality of life of all the inhabitants of the
earth. They were also involved in efforts to resist the spread of
deserts which themselves resulted from the wholesale destruction of
trees. At world level, through United Nations agencies, the Baha’i
International Community was constantly involved in this work of
improving the environment’. As any Baha’i should know, this is, quite
simply, dishonest and unethical — but this type of exaggeration and
distortion, coupled with the fact that we only ever become involved in
any activity where there is a chance of publicity for ourselves, will,
I feel, soon be regarded as the chief characteristic of the Baha’is,
if it is not already in many quarters.

To a large degree, this lack of involvement in live issues is linked
to the fact that many contemporary social issues (such as those
mentioned in your Newsletter, and others, such as unemployment,
prisoners of conscience, the union) have, or appear to have, a high
political content. Since Baha’is have failed to define what they mean
by politics in the context of ‘non-involvement in politics’, they are
now taking the easiest course, which is to avoid anything which may be
remotely political — which means, in effect, just about any relevant
social or humanitarian issue today. By dealing with ’safe’ issues
(such as tree-planting) and ‘pie in the sky’ policies, we manage to
preserve intact our integrity on the principle of non-involvement in
politics, even if to do so we have to sacrifice other basic principles
regarding war, racialism, sex inequality, tyranny, freedom of
conscience, economic adjustment, and so on. The non-involvement tag is
our get-out pass from just about everything, and the more we use it
the more out of touch and irrelevant we become.

The simple fact is that, in a real sense, the Baha’i faith is one of
the most political movements around. After all, principles such as the
ending of absolute national sovereignty, world government, universal
currency, universal language, sex equality, racial integration,
disarmament, world tribunal, anti-communism, retention of
constitutional monarchism, the abolition of non-Baha’i religious legal
systems (such as the Islamic sharia), the retention of a class system,
the abolition of tariffs, international police force, and so on are
among the hottest political issues around. Do we just dismember the
faith, trimming off any principle or concept that seems likely to
offend the political susceptibilities of someone or some government
somewhere, or do we accept that we have these principles and that we
intend to establish them, destroying, in the process, any other system
or ideology which seeks to oppose them? We should also bear in mind
that the apparently non-political activity of just teaching the faith
is highly political. Quite apart from problems such as teaching race
unity, say, South Africa, it is obvious that they will be able to (in
theory, at least) to exert pressure on society as a whole,
particularly in a democracy. It is hardly enough to say that we are
‘non-political’ — after all, we do plan to bring into being a series
of Baha’i states and, in the end, a Baha’i world — no less extreme
than the aim of every Marxist. And, in the same way that not everyone
jumps with joy at the thought of his country becoming Marxist, so we
can hardly expect that there will be universal rejoicing at the news
that the Baha’i faith is becoming a threat to the established
political system. We may say that the old order is destroying itself
and that we intend merely to step in when it collapses, not to
actively work for its destruction — but take another look at Marx’s
theory of the dialectic of history: capitalism destroys itself in
order to give way to communism. Instead of engaging in violent
revolution to speed up the process, we ‘teach the faith’.

Tragically, however, in order to pretend not to be concerned with
politics, we have more and more adopted a line of expediency in our
relationship with the outside world. This has reached such proportions
that Baha’is cannot officially be involved with a totally non-aligned
organisation such as Amnesty International because it might give rise
to a false impression. As a result, we are totally uninvolved with one
of the major evils of this century — political and religious
oppression coupled with wrongful imprisonment, torture, and execution
on the most appalling scale — despite the numerous statements in the
writings about opposing injustice and tyranny. Baha’u'llah wrote
directly to rulers to reprimand them for their brutality and
repression, while we today pose for pictures with Pinochet and Amin
(thank God for your reference to the Pinochet photograph - I thought I
was the only person who had noticed it). Yet, the moment anyone lifts
a finger to harm Baha’is, in however a minor way, there is a universal
outcry and we appeal for aid to the UN and suchlike. The Iranian
regime has been massacring its people for decades, and thousands are
dying in the present troubles, but the only thing to excite protests
from the Baha’is has been the threat of violence to themselves. No
mention is made of the fact that Jews or Christians have been
threatened or attacked. The fact is that we seem to judge the justice
of a regime according to how well it treats the Baha’is. An unjust
regime treating us well is tolerated or even extolled, while a popular
regime which deprives us of certain freedoms (perhaps along with other
religious groups) is regarded as evil. No one has asked, for example,
what the people of Iran, as a whole, want, but what would ensure the
safety of the Baha’is there; so if thousands of Shi’i Muslims are
killed, who cares? — they deserve it anyway for having persecuted the
Baha’is.

As you say in your Newsletter, the Shah’s ‘continued reign seems to be
the only hope the Baha’is have of avoiding full-scale persecution’.
There was a time when this need not have been so. The fact is that the
Baha’is of Iran have done nothing to help their fellow countryman
inside or outside of the country. They have been content to benefit
economically and in other ways from the present regime and have gained
a real reputation as an inwar-looking community which would sacrifice
the country for its own ends. Baha’is actually hate the Muslims and
try to have as little as possible to do with them. And they seem
unable to understand the impression they create. Many years ago, when
some Baha’i villages in Adhirbayjan [Azerbaijan] were suffering from a
boycott, a well-known and [illegible].

No one could understand when I pointed out that this would only worsen
the situation in the long term. Not only this, but there is a serious
level of class distinction between the Baha’is in Iran, a fact which
has not escaped the rest of the population, especially the
intellectuals. I have lived in a reasonably wealthy Baha’i home in
Tihran while, in a room underneath, another Baha’i family with two
children lived on bread and yogurt with no furniture - and this is not
abnormal. There are many Baha’i meetings in Iran at which a 400 dollar
suit would be more of a passport than Baha’i credentials. I don’t wish
to be mistaken - some of the most wonderful Baha’is in the world (and
some of my dearest friends) live in Iran but the community is known
for its wealth, inequality, and exclusiveness.

In general, a deradicalization of the Baha’i faith has occurred over
recent years. Like many other originally radical religious movements,
the faith has moved from a position of active hostility to the
existing order (under the Babis) to non-violent condemnation of abuses
in politics and religion, to a passive acceptance of the establishment
and, of late, a positive attempt to become integrated with the
establishment. This latter development is typical of an originally
sectarian movement which becomes a denomination, and is generally a
consequence (as has taken place in Iran) of second and third
generation prosperity, the removal of charisma, and the growth of
organisational elements. Baha’is in many places now show considerable
eagerness to become respectable. Being a member of a quaint, exotic
religious movement is usually acceptable in the first generation, but
it can become an embarrassment to later believers who are successful
in society and derive benefits from it. We have now reached that stage
in several places. To give one example: almost two years ago, the LSA
here suggested to the NSA that every LSA in this country should have 5
pounds (about 9 dollars) to the Venezuela earthquake disaster fund;
the suggestion was dismissed on the grounds that we were not concerned
with such matters. Not long after, Assemblies and groups throughout
the country were asked to give their assistance to government bodies
organising the Queen’s Jubilee Fund, collecting money for British
youth clubs and organisations. The reason? It was a ‘door to
proclamation’. A pamphlet was even produced and widely distributed by
one Assembly detailing the links of the Baha’i faith with the British
monarchy and our support for it. When our Assembly pointed out to the
NSA that this kind of activity could be construed in many quarters as
political, and that, in areas such as Northern Ireland, Scotland and
Wales (where there is strong anti-monarchical feeling), the faith
would be identified with political views of wide unpopularity, the
reply made by the secretary was simply that he could not understand
the point we were making. Nor could he understand our making a
distinction between loyalty to one’s government and active support for
the establishment.

It is a tragic situation when, as seems to be happening more and more
often, Baha’is show themselves to be proud of the fact that they have
gained some form of recognition from the old order. Something subtle
is wrong, I think, when, for example, such publicity is given to the
fact that Baha’is have been asked to join in an inter-faith service in
Westminster Abbey. We now think it a wonderful thing when the very
churches which we used to describe as defunct and despiritualised
patronize us in this way, and do what we can to ingratiate ourselves
with clerics, bishops, and ‘respectable’ religious organisations. It
seems curious too that we appear to be increasingly favourable to
establishment, right-wing, and conservative religions and government
bodies; we have very little do to with groups which advocate social
change, such as Amnesty, race harmony bodies, sex discrimination
groups, anti-war movements, and so on, and more and more with bodies
advocating stability, order, law, and respectable social behaviour. It
is not surprising that Pinochet and others show such favour towards
the Baha’is - we are the ideal religious fringe group for repressive
regimes: the offer of outward radicalism with absolute acceptance of
the status quo in return for toleration. In Marcusan [Ed. unclear
word] terms, we are an acceptable alternative to genuine radicalism
which may threaten to actually change society. And, as you so well
point out in your Newsletter and I have shown above, we are
politically naive.

Here again, we are faced with a vicious circle. The faith, as it
stands, is predominantly middle-class and conservative (in the West,
at least): students, radicals, the …[Ed. segment missing]… as
presented and the community as met unattractive and irrelevant to
their concerns (to the extent that anybody actually tries to teach
such socially unacceptable people), and so the only converts are won
among middle class quasi-liberals — and the circle repeats itself.
The faith seems to be going through a severe crisis — without being
aware of it. I have personally little doubt that, if a trenchant
radicalisation of the community does not take place within the next
decade or sooner, it will stagnate and collapse inwards. Exaggerated
news items of mass teaching successes and ‘unprecedented’ campaigns in
some areas should not make us lose sight of the fact that, in the
longer established communities, there is a growing disillusion,
retrogression, routinization, and apathy — highlighted by the
increasingly frenetic pronouncements that ‘things have never been
better’. The administration, particularly, the mobile, distant, and
woolly appointed side (which is rapidly acquiring many of the
characteristics of a clergy), seems to have lost all touch with the
mass of believers. At meetings and conferences in this country, it is
increasingly rare to find someone not an NSA member, Board Member,
Counsellor, or, recently, Assistant, to speak formally — and most of
the best-informed and stimulating people belong to none of these
bodies. As you write, ‘…now, more often than not, the body of the
believers are expected to only carry out policies, rather than help
form them.’

To find a solution to any problems I have outlined above is hardly an
easy task. But it is an urgent one — most of all because it is little
recognised and even less admitted. Clearly fresh Baha’i scholarship in
all fields, with considerably greater freedom of expression than is at
present permitted, is a priority, as we discussed at Cambridge. But it
is not only scholarship, but any fresh thinking, whether scholarly or
not, which is being suppressed by those who are convinced that their
version of the Baha’i faith is the one and only true version and
anything else is heresy. If greater latitude in such matters is not
very soon permitted, I fear that the faith will lose at increasing
speed its most intelligent, sensitive, and creative believers — and we
will be in the hands of civil servants and clergy. The Baha’is must
make the decision … [Ed. illegible] … develop naturally as a universal
religion or to prematurely ossify as an establishment ‘church’. New
ideas are needed — and new actions. It is rubbish to say that, in view
of our size and poverty we cannot do anything to help the sufferings
of mankind. Single individuals, poor, humble, and dedicated, have,
before this, become major forces for good among mankind. The Baha’i
community could become a great force for the betterment of the world
if, instead of planting trees and talking about the wonderful society
of centuries hence, we were to take positive action on the principles
for which we claim to stand, if we were to become known as a people
for whom expediency and compromise were anathema, if we were to fight,
in however a small and restricted an arena, against injustice,
tyranny, oppression, corruption, exploitation, and other social evils
— without ever taking sides. Perhaps we would be persecuted in some
places, perhaps a few Baha’is would die, perhaps we would be
misunderstood by some people — but the faith has always been richer
for that. It has been well said that to sit on the fence is to take
sides — is it not time to we came off the fence and showed our true
commitment to the cause of good and humanity?

With warmest wishes,
[Ed. signature]
Denis MacEoin