[page 171]
One of the major literary genres used by the Báb in the corpus of his
works is that of commentary on the Qur'án. To gain an appreciation of
the manner in which the Báb used this genre and the effect that this
would have had upon those who read his works, it is necessary to look more
closely at the nature of Qur'án commentary. This genre of Islamic
literature is not just the dry scholarly activity that one may assume it to
be.
Qur'án Commentary
Qur'án commentary
tafsír is amongst the most
venerable intellectual activities in the Islamic tradition. The
tafsír genre has engaged a number of Western scholars of Islam
since the beginnings of the history of Western interest in the subject.
Correctly judging that there was nothing more important in Islamic religion
than the Book, these scholars went about surveying the contours of the
continuous history of Qur'ánic commentary in order to discover something
about Islam, or at least Muslims. The task is still in process not only because
the genre of
tafsír is superabundantly represented in the
languages of Islamic culture but also, given the ineffably high status of the
Qur'án in Islam, it is
[page 172]
thought that the study of the way Muslims read it will help answer basic
questions about Islamic piety or spirituality, religion, history, sociology and
culture in general. Primarily of course, the language is Arabic. But very well
represented also are Persian, Turkish and Urdu not to mention the vast number
of other languages from Indonesia to North Africa to Europe even to North
America. Pausing to assess the results so far of the academic study of
Qur'án commentary, one is mightily impressed by the collective
achievement. Much light indeed has been shed upon Islamic religion, history,
sociology and thought through the many excellent, assiduous studies of
tafsír. It is likely that the continued study of the subject will
also shed more light on these as well as other as yet unidentified topics.
My reading of both the commentaries themselves and studies of them suggests to
me that a factor that is frequently taken for granted, if it is recognized at
all, is precisely the sacred and the holy connection that binds the commentator
to the text. This factor is potentially of such a significance that it deserves
to be privileged. I am speaking of the kind of relationship that is suggested
in the stories about the great Sunní commentator al-Tabarí, the
first encyclopedic Qur'án commentator who died 923 CE, and his almost
ritualistic preparations for his daily work in the form of ablutions and
special prayers for protection from error in setting out his massive commentary
a commentary whose comprehensiveness and relative antiquity have combined to
bestow upon it a place in Islamic letters that is impossible to overestimate.
al-Tabarí's commentary is the flagship of Sunní scriptural
exegesis. Shí'í Islam has its own classics of scriptural exegesis
and its own traditions which differ in many important ways from Sunní
commentary. Nonetheless, there is between the two approaches to scripture a
common veneration of the text which communicates across sectarian borders.
What is the Qur'án exactly? The Word of God, of course; but from a
purely historical point of view, it is in fact the
[page 173]
Word of God as communicated to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel and finally
uttered aloud, intoned, chanted and spoken forth by the Prophet to His audience
over a period of 20 and more years in a very particular time and place:
7th-century Western Arabia. So-called orthodox Islamic doctrine sees Muhammad's
role in this revelatory act as supremely passive: He was the unlettered prophet
mentioned in the holy book (
al-rasúl al-nabí al-ummí:
Qur'án 5:157-8). Without dwelling here on the numerous controversies
surrounding the interpretation of this Qur'ánic designation, I mention
it to emphasize a positive fact:
However variously Muslims may understand the Prophet's illiteracy, whether it
refer merely to the fact that He was not a professional religious scholar, a
priest or a rabbi, or whether it meant He could not read and write, all Muslims
not only recognize but cherish the hypothesis that the text of the Holy Book as
we have it today was first delivered here in the sub-lunar realm on the breath
of the most precious being who ever lived: Muhammad ibn 'Abd Alláh ibn
'Abd al-Muttalib al-Háshimí al-Qurashí. So, in the course
of reading whether silently or aloud the reader hears the Word of God but
he does not hear God a possibility that is thought of as blasphemous. When a
voice is supplied for the text, it is, in some measure, the voice of the
Prophet and so it is Muhammad's voice that becomes the voice of the reader.
That such is likely to be an important factor in the reading act is doubtless
self-evident; it is comparable to the encounter of a Christian with the
red-letter passages in the New Testament. Of course, each believer's 'voice of
Muhammad' will be highly distinctive and personalized.
[1] Nonetheless,
this voice is potentially very powerful not only because of any purely divine
involvement, but also because of the status Muhammad has in Islam. Such
characterizations of Muhammad as those published by highly respected scholars
of religion as the 'St Paul of Islam'
[2] are woefully deficient
because they ignore the adoration that is accorded to the Prophet not only in
works of scholarship medieval
[page 174]
and modern, but also in the thousands of poems, songs and gestures that enliven
the religious life and culture of the Islamic world. And, this adoration is not
restricted to the so-called 'folk' level. No less sophisticated a Muslim than
Ibn Síná (d. 1037) spoke of the Prophet Muhammad in the following
terms: 'Whoever in addition to [having combined theoretical wisdom with
justice] wins prophetic qualities becomes almost a human god. Worship of him
after worship of God, becomes almost allowed. He is indeed the world's earthly
king and God's deputy in it.'
The reader 'hears' the Words of God given auditory shape through the blessed
tonalities of Muhammad's own voice a voice as individual, distinctive and
intimate as the face or the fingerprint; a voice that is in a sense the very
heart of a person in audible form. That I am not exaggerating here is supported
by the name which Muslim tradition favors over scores of other possibilities
for its textual theophany, namely Qur'án an intensive noun form built
on the root idea of utterance or speech and which we often translate with
characteristic anemia as 'recitation'.
[3] So, the Qur'án is the
uncreated divine word
[4] borne on the breath of Muhammad. Imagine
being a believing Muslim and knowing this with more certainty than you know
that the sun will rise tomorrow in the East and then setting about reading
these words on a page
[5] and then in turn setting about explaining
these words probably in the first instance for yourself and then for others.
The intensity of the reading act may then be heightened and sustained through
the analytical maneuvers of the exegete who may be seen fairly to luxuriate in
the textual charisma of the verses, words and letters of the Holy Book.
In this connection, I quote from a more or less standard Muslim guide to
reading the Qur'án:
Be fully convinced that it is God's revelation.
Be aware that you are always in God's presence.
Feel as though you hear the Qur'án from God.
[page 175]
Feel as though the Qur'án addresses you directly.
Consider each verse as relevant today, not as a thing of the past.
Remember how the Prophet and his Companions reacted to the Qur'án.
Take each passage of the revelation as addressed to you.
Strive to live by the teachings of the Qur'án, since it is God's
guidance for mankind.
This is the way to get close to the Qur'án and to grasp its meanings.
To know about the Qur'án in application, observe in everyday life the
way of the Prophet Muhammad, who is described by 'Á'isha his wife, as
'the living Qur'án'.
With this quotation we are introduced to another dimension of the place of
scripture in Islam, one having to do with the social realm. Islam is
distinctive not only for the emphasis it puts on the idea of the holy book but
also for its emphasis on community life. The Prophet is seen not only as a
divine messenger but also as the perfect citizen. Thus proper behavior and
comportment are achieved by imitating Him. Islamic ethics
(
akhláq)
and true civilized behavior (
adab)
can be seen, then, as the personification or dramatization of the
Qur'án a kind of living exegesis. This idea seems to have been first
mentioned in connection with the Prophet in the above statement by his wife
'Á'isha (d. 678) but this was certainly not the last such mention. The
Prophet Muhammad, by virtue of His special vocation is seen as a living
embodiment of the Qur'án, or as the living Qur'án the Word
made Flesh, if you will. Thus Muhyi al-Dín Ibn al-'Arabí (d.
1240), the greatest of Muslim mystics, spoke of Him being suffused with the
Qur'án. He refers to the Prophet as the 'brother of the
Qur'án'
[7] and elaborates elsewhere: 'He who. . ., wishes to
see Muhammad, let him look at the Qur'án. There is no difference between
looking at it and looking at God's Messenger. It is as though the Qur'án
had clothed itself in a form of flesh named Muhammad ibn 'Abd Alláh ibn
'Abd al-Muttalib.'
[8]
[page 176]
Shí'í Qur'an Commentary
Reference was made above to the differences between Sunní and
Shí'í Qur'án exegesis. It is necessary now to return to
this topic in order to provide a context for the remainder of this discussion.
Shí'ism, however it may be characterized, represents an attempt on the
part of its leaders and followers to extend the presence of divine authority in
the Islamic community beyond the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Of course,
other non-Shí'í leaders and groups also attempted this: the
Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Sufis and so forth. But in Shí'ism we see
perhaps the most explicit and uncompromising assertion that divine authority
waláya/wiláya was passed on by the Prophet Muhammad,
first to His cousin and son-in-law 'Ali (d. 661), who then passed on this
special divine vocation to, according to Ithná-'Asharí (Twelver)
Shí'ism, each of the remaining eleven Imams. The Prophet's death meant
to the Shí'ah the end of divine legislative authority, prophethood
(
nubúwa)
, but divine authority as such,
waláya,
was considered to have continued through the Imáms. Some sources
speak, for example, of the cycle (
dawr)
of prophecy ending and
the cycle of guardianship (
waláya)
beginning with the
death of the Prophet. Included in this special charismatic group of 'bearers of
waláya' (the
awliyá', sing.
walí,
derived from the verbal noun
waláya)
is Fátima.
While not recognized as an Imám, she is certainly seen as one of the
awliyá', sometimes translated as 'Friends of God' but carrying
the meaning, in Shí'ism, of saint, friend, guardian and absolute
authority in all matters worldly and spiritual. So, for Twelver Shí'ism
there are fourteen holy figures, the Family of God: the twelve Imáms,
Fátima and the Prophet, who in addition to being a
nabí or
exponent of
nubúwa is also a
walí, or exponent of
waláya. The logic is that all prophets are also guardians, but
not all guardians are prophets.
It is through the contemplation, elaboration and systematizing of the central
problem of religious authority that
[page 177]
Shí'ism has acquired its most distinctive features. This authority,
which has its own special characteristics, is
wiláya (Persian
form:
viláyat)
. There is, in Shí'ism no more
important a doctrine. For example, in recent times Khomeini rose to prominence
in large measure through his doctrine of 'The Spiritual Authority of the
Jurist' (
viláyat-i-faqíh)
in which he demonstrated
to the satisfaction of many of his readers that the decisions and directives of
the properly devout jurist (
faqíh)
are to be seen as
identical with the ruling of the Hidden Imám.
By invoking the term
waláya, both denotations and connotations
are stimulated to life. In Shí'ism this life is pre-eminently
tragi-historical, from the betrayal of 'Ali's
waláya after the
death of the Prophet to the cheating of Fátima out of her inheritance,
to the most tragic event of all, the martyrdom of the third Imám,
Husayn, in 680 CE. But all of the Imáms, according to strict doctrine,
were betrayed and murdered and all are martyred heroes of the very highest
degree. They are also bearers of the divine substance known as the Muhammadan
Light or Spirit. This has given them all supernatural knowledge in all spheres,
particularly Qur'ánic exegesis. Thus Shí'í Qur'án
commentaries are replete with quotations from this group known as the Friends
of God, or the Bearers of the Divine authority the
awliyá'.
Much of the interpretation of the Qur'án, and this always on the
authority of one Imám or another, seeks to demonstrate that their
authority is fully validated in the Qur'án text. Recognition of this
authority is essential in upholding the divine covenant which was first
established, according to the Qur'án (7:172-3), before the creation of
the world. The importance of this authority and the covenant is so great that,
for example, certain otherwise unlikely words and ideas are said to be
references not merely to the authority of the Imáms but to the
Imáms themselves. Thus 'prayer', 'fasting' and 'pilgrimage' are said to
be code words for the Imám whom the believer is being commanded to
[page 178]
observe religiously in the Qur'án.
[9] Thus runs an important
stream of Shí'í esoteric or
bátiní
interpretation (
ta'wíl)
as distinct from Sunní
exoteric or
záhirí exegesis
(
tafsír)
.
In the Shí'í exegetical tradition, the text is inhabited
not only by the Prophet but by the Imáms, and whereas the Prophet,
insofar as He is the bearer of prophethood (
nubúwa)
, is
superior to the other thirteen holy figures, insofar as they are all bearers of
waláya, they are all equal. In the words of Shí'ism the
Fourteen Holy Ones represent a sacred fire of fourteen flames. And as the text
is inhabited by the
awliyá', so it is also said, as we saw above,
to inhabit (in a sense 'be incarnated by') them. For example, the 9th-century
mystic (and, as it happens a student of the sixth Imám Ja'far
al-Sádiq), Dhú'l-Nún al-Misrí (d. 859), is quoted
as having said of the Friends of God: 'The Qur'án has mingled with their
flesh and blood.'
[10]
It is also important to note for the present discussion that Shí'ism
and mysticism, particularly the mystical vision associated with Ibn
al-'Arabí which is referred to as the vision of the oneness of being
(
wahdat al-wujúd)
had, since at least the 15th century and
probably earlier, been applied to Shí'í theology so that the
all-important Perfect or Universal Man, who is the centerpiece of Ibn
'Arabí's ontological mysticism, comes to include for the
Shí'ah the entire family of God, the fourteen pure
ones.
[11] In acquiring this doctrine, Shí'ism also appropriated
the basic metaphysics which made it sensible: God is best thought of as
Absolute Existence and that the rest of creation represents levels of existence
at varying degrees of intensity or 'distance' from Him, from the material world
up through the divine world. These worlds or presences are thought of as four
or five and they will figure prominently in the following
discussion.
[12]
The Bab and the Declining Day
To illustrate the dangers of reading, then, I will take the
[page 179]
example of a special kind of written commentary produced in the mid-l9th
century in Iran by a young man not yet 30 years of age, a merchant by
profession and training. At the time the Báb was writing, the
Shí'í world in Iran and elsewhere was beset by a number of
dislocations and tensions religious, economic, political and social. Foremost
among these tensions or moods was messianism; it was, after all, the
Shí'í millennium (the twelfth Imám had disappeared in the
year 260/873-4 and it was now the Islamic year 1260/1844-5, the thousandth
anniversary of this disappearance).
[13]
Among the Báb's writings there are numerous works of Qur'án
commentary
tafsír. Most of the commentaries are on either a
complete súra of the Qur'án or one of its more notable verses,
such as the Light Verse (24:35) or the Throne Verse (2:25 5). These
commentaries present a broad range of ideas and exegetical techniques, despite
the fact that they all seem to come from the same general period, usually
referred to as early Bábism.
Of the numerous titles in this genre of Qur'án commentary, four stand
out as major works. In chronological order they are the commentaries on
al-Baqara (súra 2), Yúsuf (súra 12), al-Kawthar
(súra 108), and Wa'l-'Asr (súra 103). Indeed, the second, the
commentary on the súra of Joseph is where the Báb first put forth
His claim to be the sole focus of religious devotion for not only the
Shí'í world but the entire world. Here the reading act culminated
in a spiritual or mystical experience of such profound impact that
interpretation became revelation.
[14]
The last two works, the commentaries on the súras of al-Kawthar and
Wa'l-'Asr, both exhibit one of the more distinctive exegetical procedures of
the Báb: both of these commentaries, which are on two súras that
are among the shortest in the Qur'án, are explained by the Báb
not only verse by verse, or even word by word, but also letter by letter. In
this way the Qur'ánic material is 'exploded' by the commentator in an
attempt to mine it for as much meaning
[page 180]
as possible. Both commentaries, despite the brevity of their subjects, are
quite long: the earlier of the two on the Súrat al-Kawthar or Chapter of
the Abundance (the shortest súra in the Qur'án) runs to 115
folios in the Cambridge ins. (Browne F. 10, 19 lines per page), while the other
commentary on Qur'án 103 (Browne F. 9) consists of 87 folios.
Both commentaries share another common element in that they were both written
for specific high-ranking religious scholars, in their presence, and according
to the accounts, in one sitting. The Tafsír Súrat al-Kawthar was
written for Sayyid Yahyá Dárábí (d. 1850), a junior
religious official at the court of the Shah (and the son of the illustrious
Ja'far Kashfí,
[15] d 1851) who had been sent by Muhammad
Sháh (r. 1834-48) to investigate the Báb and who, as a result of
reading this
tafsír became a follower of the Báb. The
commentary on Wa'l-'asr, The Chapter of the Declining Day, was written for the
powerful Sultánu'l-'Ulamá, the Imám-Jum'ih of
Isfahán, Mír Siyyid Muhammad, sometime between September 1846 and
March 1847.
The Bab's Commentary on the Súra of Wa'l-'Asr
We will restrict our discussion to the commentary on Wa'l-'Asr, which, in
addition to demonstrating the 'dangers of reading', is a good source for the
Báb's religious views wherein distinctions are made, for example,
between His teachings and the ideas of the above-mentioned Muhyi al-Dín
Ibn al-'Arabí (d. 1240).
[16]
The Báb arrived in Isfahán at the end of the summer of 1262/1846
and was welcomed by the Sultánu'l-'Ulamá himself, whose home was
then opened to Him. Since the powerful religious office of Chief judge or
chancellor had been abolished by Nádir Khán (or Sháh; r.
1736-47), the Imám Jum'ih was at the time the principal religious figure
in the city. During His stay under the roof of this important personage, which
lasted 'forty days', the Báb met many of
[page 181]
the religious scholars of Isfahán. The commentary He produced for His
illustrious host has not been published but several manuscripts exist.
[17] In this paper, I am using only the Cambridge ms. It is of medium length,
extending to 87 folios of 14 lines per page (the number of the members of the
Pure Ones, mentioned above) with an average 100 words per page. The entire work
was completed in one sitting. According to one account, one evening after
dinner the Báb's host requested Him to comment on the Súra of
Wa'l-'asr. The scene is described as follows:
His request was readily granted. Calling for pen and paper,
the Báb, with astonishing rapidity and without the least premeditation,
began to reveal, in the presence of His host, a most illuminating
interpretation of the aforementioned súra. It was nearing midnight when
the Báb found Himself engaged in the exposition of the manifold
implications involved in the first letter of that súra. That letter, the
letter váv', upon which Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsá'í had already
laid such emphasis in his writings, symbolized for the Báb the advent of
a new cycle of Divine Revelation, and has since been alluded to by
Bahá'u'lláh in the 'Kitab-i-Aqdas' in such passages as 'the
mystery of the Great Reversal' and 'the Sign of the Sovereign'. The Bab soon
after began to chant, in the presence of His host and his companions, the
homily with which He had prefaced His commentary on the súra. Those
words of power confounded His hearers with wonder. They seemed as if bewitched
by the magic of His voice. Instinctively they started to their feet and,
together with the Imám-Jum'ih, reverently kissed the hem of His garment.
Mullá Muhammad-Taqíy-i-Harátí, an eminent mujtahid,
broke out into a sudden expression of exultation and praise. 'Peerless and
unique,' he exclaimed, 'as are the words which have streamed from this pen, to
be able to reveal, within so short a time and in so legible a writing, so great
a number of verses as to equal a fourth, nay a third, of the Qur'án, is
in itself an achievement such as no mortal, without the intervention of God,
could hope to perform.
[page 182]
Neither the cleaving of the moon nor the quickening of the
pebbles of the sea can compare with so mighty an
act."[18]
Why this particular súra was chosen by the Imám Jum'ih can be
speculated upon with relative confidence. Three separate but intimately related
factors emerge:
1. Its brevity which would commend it as an appropriately limited yet
self-standing and complete portion of the Qur'án as a subject for the
somewhat impromptu 'after dinner' ambiance of the setting;
2. Its indeterminate or mysterious language, which would commend it as a
fitting challenge for the young spiritual prodigy who had been acquiring such
notoriety in recent months and with which the religious leaders could 'test his
mettle';
3. Finally, and this is possibly the most important factor, apart from the
various Traditions which treat the word
'asr as indicating either the
time of the afternoon prayer or the lifetime of the Prophet, such as those
found in Tabarí and some Shí'í commentaries, there is a
tradition which speaks of the
Asr or time of the Qá'im the
Shí'í messiah. The Báb quotes, for example, from the
famous
Tafsír al-Sáfí, compiled by Muhsin Fayd
Káshání (d. 1680), which preserves many of these
traditions. But there can be little doubt that the one which inspired him was
one preserved by Ibn Bábúyah (d. 991) on the authority of the
sixth Imám Ja'far al-Sádiq (d. 765). For the convenience of the
reader, I will quote the entire súra and the Tradition from the
Imám:
Qur'án text:
In the name of God, the Merciful the Compassionate [I swear] by the declining
day
Indeed, mankind is in a state of loss
Except those who believe and do good works, and exhort
[page 183]
one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance.
Commentary
{The Declining Day} is the declining day of the coming forth from hiding of
the Qá'im, upon whom be peace. As for the words {Indeed, mankind is in a
state of loss} they refer to our enemies. {Except those who believe} means in
Our signs/verses (áyátuná). {And perform
good works} means consoling/being charitable towards the brethren. {And exhort
one another to accept the truth} means [to accept] the Imámate. {And
exhort one another to be steadfast} means [in their devotion to] the Holy
Progeny.[19]
It is important to observe that this interpretation of the text is highly
sectarian and relies upon extra-Qur'ánic references, analogies and even
allegories typical of Shí'í Qur'án commentary. It is thus
a prime example of what would be called in Sunní
anti-Shí'í polemic
bátiní interpretation,
that is, an esoteric interpretation which is seen to corrupt the plain meaning
of the text to the point of questioning the catholic Sunní ethos. It is,
in short, heresy from the Sunní point of view. For the Báb, and
His fellow Shí'í Muslims, this interpretation is quite orthodox
and unexceptionable (perhaps even uninteresting) and represents merely the most
obvious or elementary (
záhir)
reading of the sacred text. The
Báb will proceed to interpret this lowest level of 'hidden meaning' and
discover within it other hidden meanings for His reader/audience.
The text of the Báb's commentary may be divided into five sections of
varying lengths. It opens with a doxology of the Imáms, followed by an
introduction, in which it is stated that this work is by the command of
Sultán al-'Ulamá', and an explanation of the way in which the
commentary is to be written, which includes various statements on the nature of
tafsír itself. The Báb says that He plans to comment on
the verse letter by letter according to the inner or esoteric meaning
(
bátin)
of the súra, and that this is the
[page 184]
most important way of reading the Qur'án but it depends upon a special
kind of spiritual knowledge which He calls here 'actual knowledge' (
'ilm
al-wáqi', a term used by A'lá al-Dawla
Simnání).
[20] This is so, He says, because the forms in
this world are confusing and the only way for anyone to distinguish between
them in this world of multiplicity is to turn to the Divine Essence through the
disavowal of all allusions and veils of glory and arrive at the world of
principles by the disavowal of all names and attributes.
The remaining three sections are the actual commentary, the first part of
which is a letter by letter commentary comprising folios 19a to 50b. The next
section is more conventional in that the various interpretative statements are
centered on the key words of the verse being commented upon. The final section
is the simple citation, mentioned above, of the commentary on this verse from
the highly regarded Shí'í
Tafsír al-Sáfí
of Fayd Káshání.
The letter by letter commentary takes up more than 30 folios. In it each of
the 69 letters of chapter 103 are commented upon, sometimes with the aid of
other Qur'ánic verses and holy Traditions.
[21] The content of
the commentary is centered on a few major themes: advent
(
zuhúr)
, religious authority (
waláya)
,
the pillars of religion (
arkán)
, the Imáms,
God's self-manifestation (
tajallí)
, and the
amr or
cause of God. Such typical Islamic subjects as
salát (ritual
prayer) are discussed, together with more mystical and philosophical topics,
ranging from the various levels of existence mentioned earlier to the colors of
the pillars supporting the divine throne. The exposition employs the technical
terminology of what Corbin calls theosophy and includes such motifs as the
coincidence of opposites, a particularly powerful 'trope' in Islamic mystical
discourse typically concerned with eschatology, whether of the purely personal
'interior' type or the more historical type.
Each letter is commented upon in turn and each letter, though it might be
duplicated in the súra itself, is given special consideration in its
various respective places. The
[page 185]
basic pattern of explanation is to treat each letter as the initial for a word
which represents a concept important to the overall message (for example,
wáw the 'w' is almost always related to
waláya)
; or, as the initial of an attribute of God (for
example,
rá' is usually related to
rahma, divine mercy);
or, as the initial of a substantive which is transformed into a metaphor for
pointing to the substance of some divine operation (
lám is
frequently interpreted as standing for pearls,
lá'lí)
.
That such words appear in different interpretative contexts producing
distinct further meanings is not to be mistaken for inconsistency. Rather, this
phenomenon underscores the importance of one of the Báb's most cherished
hermeneutic principles: a given word, and indeed a given letter, is susceptible
of an infinite number of interpretations.
These elements or key words are typically assigned four different modes or
levels of significance which correspond to the four worlds of the cosmos:
láhút, jabarút, mulk/malakút and finally
násút. These four worlds represent a metaphysical or
ontological hierarchy, in which none of the levels is void of the particular
quality being discussed. Using this 'device' the Báb illustrates the
interdependence or unity of creation by describing the way in which a given
quality or attribute pervades it and connects it to the other
worlds.
[22]
This quaternary structure accomplishes a number of ends. First of all, with
reference to the Báb's immediate audience and His own work, it is
related, however tacitly, to the Shaykhi doctrine of the Fourth Support which
was one of the most challenging teachings of Shaykh Ahmad and Sayyid
Kázim Rashtí (d. 1843). Briefly, Shí'ism had heretofore
recognized five pillars of belief:
tawhíd (unity of God),
nubúwa (prophethood), the resurrection, the imamate and justice.
The Shaykhíya joined divine unity with justice and prophethood with the
resurrection and added the principle of the Perfect She'd or
Shí'í.
[23] Thus for the Báb Shí'ism or
true religion was based upon four supports, not
[page 186]
five. His quaternary discourse no doubt reflects a doctrinal position,
particularly as the fourth level, the Fourth Support (
al-rukn
al-rábi')
, could be interpreted to posit the necessity of a
single holy soul (i.e. Himself) as a required element in true religion. The
four-part structure would not be lost on any intelligent and informed reader or
hearer of the time, especially as the doctrines associated with the Shaykhis
had been percolating, with some success, through Iranian religious culture for
over 20 years at the time of the Báb's composition of this
tafsír.
Another feature of this structure has been alluded to above. This is
the general metaphysical doctrine of the oneness of being (
wahdat
al-wujúd)
which seeks to demonstrate the non-dualistic nature
of reality. (It is partly on the strength of such an implicit hypothesis that
'Abdu'l-Bahá, and many Muslim spiritual teachers before Him, can speak
of the non-existence of evil.) The origin of this highly controversial doctrine
is found in the writings of Ibn al-'Arabí and because much of Ibn
al-'Arabí's language scandalized the 'orthodox' guardians of religion,
he had, by the time the Báb was writing, been demonized by the
establishment whether Sunní or Shí'í. However, the
compelling power and beauty of the idea was also seen to be remarkably
satisfying on the religio-philosophical level and many who would eschew some of
Ibn al-'Arabí's more imaginative formulations (e.g. the world is
simultaneously both God and not-God) sought to preserve what they considered
useful in his thought while purging it of its doctrinal flaws. In this regard,
we have already mentioned Simnání
[24] and there have
been many others.
By the time the Báb was writing, a definite technical terminology had
evolved with some variation on the original doctrine
of wahdat
al-wujúd. One of the most frequently encountered examples of this
was based on the famous Tradition (
hadíth qudsí) which
runs 'I was a hidden treasure and desired to be known, therefore I created
creation in order to be known'. The mystical philosophers of Islam,
[page 187]
beginning with Ibn al-'Arabí, reasoned that such a statement must
involve a gradual process of knowledge (and love) which emerged from its
mysterious source in the Divine Essence (
al-dhát)
eventually to suffuse all of creation. The Báb Himself quotes this
Tradition in this commentary but for the purpose of pointing out the correct
interpretation which He distinguishes from
wahdat al-wujúd (f.
68b). Since the most universally-applicable common denominator of all creation
is precisely its 'being there' or existence its 'isness', these mystics
would speak of God as Absolute Existence, or Absolute Truth. These usages were
employed in the absence of more precise terminology and those who used them
also warned against coloring them in with merely human fancy. Indeed, they
would sometimes speak of God as that which was above both existence and
nonexistence; but for the purposes of making such a metaphysics intelligible
they would speak of four levels of existence, as follows:
1. The Essence of existence (
Dhát al-wujúd)
existence itself in its absolute, unconditioned purity.
2. Exclusive oneness or unity (
ahadíya)
absolute
Oneness; existence without any articulation.
3. Inclusive oneness or unity (
wáhidíya)
the
unity of multiplicity; existence with inner articulations; the stage of the
eternal Archetypes (analogous in some ways to platonic ideas).
4. Phenomenal existence.
According to Izutsu, each of these stages correspond to a specific mode of
existence:
1. Existence as absolutely non-conditioned
2. Existence as negatively conditioned
3. Existence as conditioned by being something
[page 188]
4. Existence as relatively non-conditioned
[25]
While this structure is certainly not followed slavishly in the Báb's
commentary, the vocabulary appears with enough frequency and in sufficiently
appropriate contexts to conclude that He endorsed some version of the oneness
of being theory but one in which God would be kept rigorously and unambiguously
separate from creation. This is in perfect harmony with the teachings of Shaykh
Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim who were also highly critical of what they perceived as
the blasphemy (
shirk associating partners with God, in this case by
violating divine and absolute transcendence) inherent in less sober discussions
of the ontological structure of the universe. Nonetheless, the explanatory
power of the basic model remained useful to them. This will become clear in the
excerpts translated below.
Surprisingly absent from this
tafsír is the kind of
abjad
or numerological speculation associated with the writings of the
Báb, in which the numerical value of the letters plays an important
role, particularly since it is precisely the individual letter that is of
interest to our author. Only in one or two places does the Báb actually
mention the numerical value of the letters under discussion. One occurs in His
discussion on the joining of the letter
wáw to the letter
há' (to produce the third person masculine pronoun,
huwa,
i.e. God). He says that the
wáw (
abjad value = 6)
exceeds the value of the
há' (
abjad value = 5) by one,
which paradoxically represents the divine unity,
wahda or
tawhíd (ff. 16b-1 7a). Another instance of concern with the
numerical value of the letters occurs in His discussion of the letter
lám (
abjad value 30) which is brought to fulfillment by
the letter
yá' (
abjad value = 10). This gives the
prepositional phrase
Lí to me' as found in the fifth verse in the
Qur'ánic Chapter of Joseph (Súra 12), where Joseph says: '0 my
father, I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon, I saw them bowing down
to me.' These two letters total 40, which is, among
[page 189]
other things, the number of nights which God appointed for Moses' seclusion in
the wilderness a numerical symbol of fulfillment and simultaneous submission
or acknowledgement of the covenant, as implied in the story of
Joseph.
[26]
The third section of the work is the commentary on the letters, from the
wáw to the
rá' (see Appendix 1). As mentioned
above, each letter is considered as an initial of a concept, attribute or
substantive which is usually discussed with reference to the four 'worlds', the
metaphysical levels
of láhút, jabarút,
mulk/malakút and
násút. In this order, it is
suggested here, they correspond to the levels and modes of existence mentioned
above together with the previously described four supports. In this way the
Shí'í theological innovation associated with the school of Shaykh
Ahmad al Ahsá'í is demonstrated to have both doctrinal and
metaphysical or philosophical consistency. In the context of this commentary,
which was, in effect, an oral presentation, it should be noted that these four
designations rhyme.
Altogether there are 73 letters
[27] commented upon and while the
average commentary to each letter is brief, some are much more extensive. One
of the longer commentaries on an individual letter is indeed the one on the
first letter,
wáw (mentioned above in the long quotation from
The Dawn-Breakers)
. I offer the following provisional
translations of excerpts from this first letter followed by excerpts from the
Báb's commentary on the next two letters, the
lám and the
alif. These will be followed by four more-or-less randomly chosen
examples of commentary on four other letters.
[28]
Guardianship, Waláya, The Covenant
(Commentary on first
wáw, letter no. 1;
abjad value 6; ff.
12b-19a)
In this section the Báb's main objective (after some words of
formalistic introduction in which the recipient of the commentary is praised)
is to demonstrate that the reality
[page 190]
of the covenant, represented by the word
waláya, permeates all
creation and is in fact the essence of creation. It is the basis for the
reciprocity and mutuality of the various 'components' of the cosmos.
I will now comment on the first letter of this súra,
that it may be a path (sabíl) to the understanding
('irfán) of all the holy verses and words of the People of
Vision.[29] It is this: the first letter is the wáw, and
it has levels [of meaning] without end[30] . . . (ff. 12b-13a)
I will now take up the pen in commenting on the hidden meaning of this letter.
And I will mention in this writing[31] one of the teachings of the
divine philosophers (hukumá al-haqq), by which the learned
may discern the principle of the hidden meaning of the verses and traditions
from the superficial meaning. It is this, that God has established creation
according to [the following four levels]:
1. The first level (literally: mashhad = 'place of testimony and/or
martyrdom') for the remembrance of His divine unity, then in
2. the second mashhad for the prophethood of Muhammad, the messenger of
God, may God bless him and his family, then in
3. the third mashhad for the guardianship of the [14] Immaculate Ones
(ahi al-'isma), may God bless them, then in
4. the fourth mashhad, the following of the learned in the religion and
the summons to certitude.
This understanding [of the wáw] is appropriate only to
the cosmic movement of Descent.[32] If, however, someone wanted to
properly understand the hidden knowledge, they must observe the principle
commensurate to these matters and interpret each verse in the mode of Ascent,
by means of the hidden of the hidden, and according to its complement, the
hidden dimension of the manifest [aspects of these verses], as is indicated in
the famous
[page 191]
hadíth which is related by Kulayni in
al-Káfí[33] on the authority of
al-Sádiq, upon him be peace, and which [the Imám]
al-Kázim, upon him be peace, quoted to [unclear: one of his followers]
that the hidden knowledge is very difficult for most of mankind they cannot
bear it...
But for your honor [understanding this hidden knowledge] would, of course, be
very easy, if I wanted to expound it for you. God, however, wants me to
explain, by means of this commentary on the wáw, some of the
principles of religion (din) . . . (if. 1 5b-16b)
Indeed, the first letter is the wáw, and is an allusion to the
various stages of universal waláya in [first] the world of
divinity (`álam al-láhút), then [secondly]
concerning the throne of jabarút, then [thirdly] concerning the
directives of the world of mulk and malakút, and finally [fourth]
concerning the allusions to the stages of the waláya of every
soul which the knowledge of God has encompassed. Beyond these allusions none of
the wise, save God, has any knowledge. Exalted be He above what they attribute
to Him.[34]
The Blessings of Paradise, Álá' al-firdaws
(Commentary on the first
alif letter no. 2;
abjad value 1;
ff. 19a-19b)
As for the second letter, it is the alif, and it is an
allusion to the stations of the blessings of paradise álá'
al-firdaws), and the commandments of the Merciful (awámir
al-rahmán). It is the letter which gives rise to all other
letters and before which, by the permission of God, every hidden meaning is
testified to. And none knows the reality of the secret of this holy preordained
cause[35] except him whom God wills. . . If a person were to comment
[only] on this alif truly it would exceed the length of the
Qur'án itself in bringing forth the hidden significances of the
obscurities of the divine words and allusions. This alif has many
grades, as your honor readily perceives, which indicate in their reality the
permeation of the Divine Cause
[page 192]
throughout both the [cosmic movements of] Origin and
Return.
The Banner of Comprehensive Divinity, Liwá'
(Commentary on the first
lám, letter no. 3;
abjad
value = 30; ff. 19b-20a)
As for the third letter, it is the letter Lám,
and it is an allusion, in the hidden dimension, to the banner
(liwá') of the comprehensiveness the ever-expanding
universal oneness under the shadow of which God made everything [else]. And
the bearer of this banner is 'Ali, upon him be peace, in every stage of the
worlds of Beginning and Ending. It is the banner of the Exclusive Divine Unity
(ahadíya), which God ordained would have no shadow nor any
quality apart from the appearance of its vastness
(sa'tihá).
[Next, this letter] then indicates the banner (liwá')
of Mercifulness, then next the banner of the name of Divine Unicity
(wáhdáníya), then the banner of the Divine
Inclusive Unity (wáhidíya), and whatever it
indicates in its essence according to whatever God ordained for it in the world
of reality (al-'álam
al-wáqi').[36]
Apart from this explanation, the lám has many other
qualities. One of these is that the letter Lám represents the
number of nights (30) that God appointed for Moses in the wilderness ... God
has also made it the middle of the name of 'Alí, upon him be peace, because its
rank is to be completed by [the addition of the letter yá'; abjad
value = 10] in order to give the number 40. And he, may my spirit be his
sacrifice, is the Qá'im, by the permission of God, in all the worlds and
the Judge between the Two Gulfs (al-tatanjayn) and the one to
whom the knowledge of the hidden was given.
This last sentence represents a good example of the way in which the holy
Arabic alphabet is thought to mirror divine truth. The Two Gulfs mentioned here
refers to a sermon
[page 193]
ascribed to the first Imám 'Ali called the Sermon of the Two Gulfs
(Khutbat al-Tatanjíya or Tutunjíya, or Tatanjíya; the
vowelling, and indeed the spelling, is uncertain). This sermon was the topic of
a lengthy commentary by Sayyid Kázim Rashtí and it is referred to
many times in the Báb's writings. The contents are extremely esoteric
and gnomic. The basic message is that the Imám is the source, and
meeting point, of all of the pairs of opposites in creation: right/wrong,
saved/damned, ascent/descent and so on. It is only in relation to the
Imám and his teachings that these oppositions may be rightly understood.
The guiding image of the Imám as the one who stands between the 'two
gulfs', belief and unbelief, is indicated here. The graphic representation of
this happens to be the letter
wáw when it is spelled out:
wáw alif wáw. Symmetry occurs when the second
wáw is reversed. The
alif thus stands for the Imám
himself who stands as judge over the two gulfs represented by the two
wáws. This figure also denotes the cyclical theory of the
Shaykhíya which is known to Bahá'is as progressive revelation.
The first
wáw stands for the previous cycle of prophecy and the
second stands for the cycle of fulfilment.
[37]
To conclude this sampling from the Báb's commentary, I present four
short commentaries on the letters
nún, khá', sín
and
rá'. In the first, the Báb designates the key word
to be light (
núr)
. There is surely no image more widely
used in Islamic religious literature to represent divine truth, guidance,
holiness, love and a host of other spiritual principles. Indeed, it was the
substance and reality of light, as expounded in Qur'án 24:35, that
became for the mystical philosophy Suhrawardí (d. 1191), the center of
his extremely influential teachings. In His commentary the Báb wishes to
demonstrate how light in its transcendent mode eventually suffuses all of
creation by descending through the four stages. His language here closely
resembles the language of
wahdat al-wujúd. Here is also mentioned
the subject of the colors of the pillars of the divine throne; in
[page 194]
hierarchical order they are white, yellow, green and red. Each color represents
one of the four supports mentioned above. The lowest level mentions the Lamp or
misbáh (Qur'án 24:35). This should be understood as a
figurative name for the bearer of
waláya, that is the Imám
(or his representative) in the earthly realm.
Light, Núr
(Commentary on the letter
nún, letter no. 12;
abjad
value = 50; ff. 23a-b)
1. The twelfth letter is the nún [indicating]
the Pure Holy Light (Núr) in the rising of the appearance
of the presence of the Divine Essence;
2. Then the light that has been individuated (al-núr
al-muta'ayyan) suffusing the world of names and attributes;
3. Then the light that is dependent (al-núr al-muta 'allaq)
on the third pillar of the throne which is yellow opposite the first
white pillar
4. Then the light which God placed in the Lamp which speaks about the
appearances of the colors of the throne, from yellow after white then green
before red.
And that is the light of God in the horizons, the souls and the greatest
worlds, by which are connected the separated things and by which the connected
things are separated in obedience to what God willed and ordained in the
Beginning, and then in the Day of Return.
In the next passage, the Báb identifies the key element as seclusion
(
khalwa)
. Apart from indicating the mystical practice of retreat
from the world, it is also used here to indicate God's complete absence from
the world, emphasizing transcendence. But because it is an attribute of God, it
also operates in the world in other instances. The last three stages are
concerned with typically Islamic technical theological questions. The main
point, however, is that
[page 195]
something 'of' God permeates the world in an orderly fashion as an
instrumentality of divine authority and presence.
Divine Seclusion, Khalwa
(Commentary on the letter
khá' letter no. 19;
abjad value
= 600; f. 25a)
The nineteenth letter is khá' [having to do
with] the true nature of seclusion.
1. the seclusion (khalwa) of the Exclusive Unity
(ahadíya) from whatever is other than it. This means the
necessity of the separateness of the attribute [from the Essence], not the
remoteness of whatever God created through the primordial act of Origination
from whatever is other than Him.
2. the seclusion of the act from the acted upon
3. the seclusion of the cause from the caused
4. the seclusion of whatever God created in the higher realm from the lower
realm.
In the next section the image splendor is derived from the Arabic letter
sín. Thus, another form of light becomes the key element of the
commentary. The four stages are given as four worlds, beginning with the
highest, the realm of the Cloud (
'amá')
and ending with
the lowest, the realm where the divine is finally transmitted. It is called by
the Báb the world of 'authorization' (
imdá', literally
'signature'). The word
'amá' was frequently used both by Ibn
al-'Arabí and his commentators to indicate the realm of 'existential
obscurity'
[38] before creation, analogous perhaps in some ways with
the time of the primordial covenant mentioned above. This word is also
important in the works of the Báb and
Bahá'u'lláh.
[39] An important feature of this commentary
is its consistent rhyme, one of the more frequent musical aspects of the style
of the Báb in general and this commentary
[page 196]
as a whole. The rhyme underscores the important aural aspect of this work,
which may be seen to reach something of a climax in the next and final example
to be offered here. Rhyme also emphasizes the coherence and unity of the
presentation, adding to its rhetorical power.
Splendor, Saná'
(Commentary on the letter
sín, letter no. 20;
abjad
value = 60; f. 25a)
Concerning the twentieth letter, the sín, it
stands for:
1. the splendor (saná') of God in the world of the Cloud
('amá');
2. then the splendor of God in the world of Glory
(bahá');
3. then the splendor of God in the world of the Divine Decree
(qadá');
4. then the splendor of God in the world of Authority
(imdá').
The next and last example is, formally and stylistically, a
particularly complex section and one that demonstrates well the appositeness of
the improvisational and musical model as a means for studying this commentary.
The 'key note' is the Arabic letter
rá' ('r') of the
Qur'ánic word
khusr loss. Here the Báb chooses the word
rannát, 'cries, voices, moans' as the controlling image in the
first level, but abruptly changes to another key word,
ajamma, in the
three remaining levels. This change of controlling image is unique in this
commentary and is thought to be the result of the Báb's sensitivity to
the sound of His words. The use of the word
rannát is an
unusually sensual and, in this case, violent image which produces a great deal
of dramatic and aural tension. The sudden shift to
ajamma as the key
word in the next level of interpretation represents the Báb's wish to
lessen this tension for aesthetic reasons. The content is
[page 197]
equally striking and dramatic. The apparently fanciful image of the army of the
bees is actually dependent upon a venerable Shí'í Tradition which
defines the bees mentioned in Qur'án 16:68 as the
Imáms.
[40]
The 'Bee Loud Glade' of God
(Commentary on the letter
rá', letter no. 21;
abjad
value 200; if. 25a-b)
1. The cries (rannát) of the troops of
the Bees of láhút in the thicket (ajamma) of jabarút.
2. then the thicket which God created that does not admit of the multifarious
things being connected
3. then the thicket in which God apportioned the rule of justice and which
none arrives at except by means of divine grace
4. then the thicket which God purposed for all that He created and originated,
which is encompassed by His knowledge, and He is the Mighty, the
Powerful.
Inlibration, Improvisation and Transference
I have referred to the method used here by the Báb as 'exploded
commentary' as mentioned above. This characterization applies only to the
formal aspects of the composition. It represents an attempt to neutralize the
frustration which results from the experience that teaches the subject,
surrounded by a universe of many levels of discourse, including a Holy
Language, the ineffability of spiritual reality. Exploded commentary represents
an attempt to mine words for more than the meaning which is bound to them by
usage and etymology. Most importantly, exploded commentary is, in this case,
improvisation. It is as if the Qur'án text were being read as a musical
notation (for example, a 'chart' in the technical terminology of the
[page 198]
classical American musical tradition known as jazz) which the
commentator/artist then reads as so many key words or 'chords' which he then
feels moved to explore through his performance or commentary. This musical
metaphor has been used in discussions of a similar approach to texts in the
Kabbalistic tradition.
[41] It seems clear that it was at least partly
this musical aspect that affected the Báb's audience so
profoundly.
[42] By its insistence on the unitary or integral and
interdependent structure of the several levels of metaphysical being, together
with an analysis of the major theme of the súra, the appearance of the
Qá'im, the Báb's commentary seeks to reconcile the life of the
individual soul to the process of history, by asserting the potential and
ultimate meaningfulness of all created things, from the highest to the lowest.
In the process of the composition, the commentator encounters the spiritual
reality enlivening the text.
Conclusion
I would like to stress this factor or dimension of an encounter with
the Qur'án, that it is a meeting with the Islamic Logos that may occur
across a spectrum of intensity depending upon the task of the reader and his or
her own personality. I think, however, it would be a grave error to consider
the act of Qur'ánic exegesis in any context or milieu no matter how
obscurantistic, scholastic, grammatical, sophistic, pilpulistic, to be
completely empty of this mindfulness of the real presence and encounter with
Meaning that I have been attempting to describe.
By using the word transference in my title I wish not so much to psychologize
or Freudianize Qur'ánic studies, although there is doubtless room for
this. Rather, I wish to draw attention to the little-studied phenomenon that
occurs in, through and during the act of reading the Qur'án by a
believer. It is also doubtless true that similar phenomena occur, or can occur,
in any act of reading,
[43] but here one
[page 199]
is concerned with the Qur'án. What happens to the reader who communes so
deeply with the text? Does transformation occur? I think the case of the
Báb provides some answers to this question. We have already alluded to
the phenomenon whereby cultivating the verities and moral values of the
Qur'án may be seen as an act of embodying the text. And we have tried to
draw attention to the idea that the text of the Qur'án involves also the
holy persona of the Prophet so that in the act of embodying the text Muhammad
Himself is also, however imperfectly, embodied and encountered along the lines
of the imitation of Christ so familiar to the Christian tradition, and to such
an extent that a kind of transference of identity may ensue. Indeed the whole
doctrine of
sharí'a, it has been observed, as mentioned at the
beginning of this paper, represents an
imitatio that goes far beyond
that which Christianity ever envisioned.
[44]
Wolfson invented the word 'inlibration' in an attempt to account for the
profoundly logocentric or perhaps better bibliocentric piety of
Muslims.
[45] This piety focuses, in varying degrees of intensity, on
the Book as the central religious authority within the community. The Book is
for Muslims the uncreated (that is to say co-eternal with the divine essence)
Word of God just as the words of an individual can represent the most
intimate, characteristic, distinctive identity of a given individual; the more
so as they are borne upon a person's very breath or soul.
[46] In the
communication of these words something of the soul of the individual is also
expressed and communicated. So it is with God and the Qur'án His
Word. In the presence of His Word a believer feels, in a sense, that he or she
is as close to God as possible and He is as close to them as possible. As the
Qur'án itself has it: 'We are closer to him than the jugular
vein.'
[47]
The auditory experience of the Qur'án is felt in a rarified realm in
which time and place are transformed and the very atmosphere or air surrounding
the listener becomes a new
[page 200]
reality filled with the divine presence in the form of the Divine Peace
(
sakina)
mentioned so frequently in the Qur'án
[48]and the experience of which is adduced by believers as an irrefutable
proof of the divinity of the Qur'án. God, therefore, is made present to
the believer in the Qur'án; He is inlibrated there just as He was
incarnated in Jesus. Thus to partake of the Qur'ánic experience is to
partake' of divinity in Tillich's terms, to participate in the Divine
through a symbol that is utterly drenched in divinity. In the title of this
paper I have used the word communion to stand for the dynamics of this
participation.
[49]
Communion in the usual context involves the ultimate act of appropriation,
participation, interiorization, internalization through the agency of the
symbolic ingestion of the body and blood of Jesus. Such a sacrament serves the
participant by opening a door to the divine through an extraordinary covenant
played out in extraordinary circumstances. What happens to the accidental bread
and wine once ingested is a matter of some debate within the Christian
tradition and one that need not detain us here. We mention it only to point out
the possibilities for comparison that exist in Islam in the analogous act of
'reading' ingesting the 'body and blood' of God, the Qur'án. It
goes, of course, without saying that pristine Muslim religiosity could be
profoundly scandalized by such language. Nonetheless, one asks for patience
here in the belief that by making such a comparison something heretofore
under-stressed in the study of Islamic religion may be presented. All too
frequently, and the more so from the outside, students of Islamic religion are
content to interpret the so-called 'stark' monotheistic universe of Islam as a
kind of mechanistic construct in which the divine names of God function more as
cogs in the cosmic gears than as channels of grace between the Absolute Reality
and the individual believer. Certainly there are no such things as 'sacraments'
in Islam, much less 'communion'. But this is not to say that there are not
structures, activities and relationships through which
[page 201]
the divine is recognized to work. The absence of 'sacraments' in Islam is more
a function of the absence of a priesthood qualified to 'negotiate' divine grace
than anything else.
The holiest thing in Islam is the Qur'án. By participating in this
Qur'án, one 'touches' holiness and holiness 'touches' one.
[50]Such participation may take many forms: reading; listening; copying in
calligraphy; viewing calligraphy for its harmonic and rhythmic beauty, its
literal content or both; citing the Qur'án in the course of discussion
or argument; uttering passages at times of joy, sorrow or danger; giving a copy
of the Book or receiving it; cherishing it and caring for it; protecting it
through memorization or otherwise; teaching it; learning it; studying it;
contemplating it; intoning it; and, of course, commenting upon it. This last
activity can combine all of the above and therefore may be seen as something of
a virtuoso gesture of engaging the numinous. In the case of the Báb, the
act of encountering the text is enriched in important ways by virtue of the
distinctive tradition that is to say mystical, messianic Shí'ism
which provides the immediate and overwhelming context for the act of reading.
The scriptural tradition to which the Báb belonged heard and read not
only the Prophet Muhammad in the words of the Holy Book but also the chorus of
the remaining 13 members of the Family of God, the Infallible Immaculates.
Nonetheless, the fire is the same. This fire must always be seen if not felt
to be there, otherwise something essential will be lost in our studies.
The Dangers of Reading
Danger: power of a master [obsolete], dominion
(xiiith cent.); (hence) liability to
punishment, etc. [obsolete]; ... liability to injury (Ch. xiv) Anglo-Norman
daunger, OF dangier, related to domnus, dominus. Oxford
Dictionary of English Etymology.
[page 202]
By using the somewhat provocative title 'The Dangers of Reading' I wish to
draw attention to the utter seriousness which the reading act has in the
context we have been discussing.
1. The danger of losing oneself in the text;
2. the danger of contacting and communing with a mysterious power without
being sure of what the consequences might be, and
3. of reading so intensely that one in fact becomes that power which, in the
case of the Báb, as we know, led to
4. His eventual martyrdom in July 1850. It is as if He Himself was consumed by
the fire He had encountered, and so it is really Truth that represents the
danger here.
Appendix 1
The following is a list of the separate letters and their corresponding key
words.
| 1 |
wáw |
waláya/guardianship |
12b-19a |
| 2 |
alif |
álá'/blessings |
19a-19b |
| 3 |
lám |
liwá'/banner |
19b-20a |
| 4 |
'ayn |
`ulúw//loftiness |
20a-20b |
| 5 |
sád |
samadániya/everlastingness |
20b-20b |
| 6 |
rá' |
rahma/mercy |
20b-21b |
| 7 |
alif |
annáya/identity |
21b-21b |
| 8 |
nún |
núr/light |
21b-22a |
| 9 |
alif |
iráda/purpose |
22a-22b |
| 10 |
lám |
la'áli/pearls |
22b-23a |
| 11 |
alif |
ibdá'/origination |
23a-23a |
| 12 |
nún |
núr |
23a-23b |
| 13 |
sín |
saná'/splendour |
23b-23b |
| 14 |
alif |
áyát/signs |
23b-24a |
[page 203]
| 15 |
nún |
núr |
24a-24a |
| 16 |
lám |
liwá' |
24a-24b |
| 17 |
fá' |
fardániyá/singleness |
24b-24b |
| 18 |
yá' |
yamm/sea |
24b-25a |
| 19 |
khá' |
khalwa/solitude |
25a-25a |
| 20 |
sín |
saná' |
25a-25a |
| 21 |
rá' |
rannát/cries |
25a-25b |
| 22 |
alif |
asl/root,
source |
25b-25b |
| 23 |
lám |
lawh/tablet |
25b-26a |
| 24 |
alif |
áya/sign |
26a-26b |
| 25 |
alif |
amr/thing,
command, cause |
26b-27a |
| 26 |
lám |
limam/derangement |
27a-28a |
| 27 |
dhál |
dhurwa/summit |
28a-28a |
| 28 |
yá' |
ends
'Alí |
28a-28b
(breaks pattern) |
| 29 |
nún |
núr |
28b-28b |
| 30 |
alif |
amr |
28b-29a |
| 31 |
mím |
majd/glory |
29a-29a |
| 32 |
nún |
núr |
29a-29b |
| 33 |
wáw |
waláya |
29b-30a |
| 34 |
alif |
azalíya/pre-eternity |
30a-32a |
| 35 |
wáw |
waláya |
32a-32a |
| 36 |
'ayn |
'ayn/source,
spring, essence, eye |
32a-32a |
| 37 |
mím |
majd |
32a-32b |
| 38 |
lám |
limam |
32b-33a |
| 39 |
wáw |
wadd/love |
33a-33a |
| 40 |
alif |
imdá'/signature |
33a-33a |
| 41 |
alif |
a'mál/actions |
33a-33b |
| 42 |
lám |
liwá' |
33b-33b |
| 43 |
sád |
salát/prayer
service |
33b-34a |
| 44 |
alif |
asrár/mysteries |
34a-34a |
| 45 |
lám |
la'áli |
34a-34b |
| 46 |
há' |
halál,
harám, hukm, lawful, forbidden,ordinance |
34b-34b |
| 47 |
alif |
amr |
34b-35a |
| 48 |
tá' |
turba/dust |
35a-35a |
[page 204]
| 49 |
wáw |
waláya |
35a-35b |
| 50 |
tá' |
turba |
35b-35b |
| 51 |
wáw |
waláya |
35b-36a |
| 52 |
alif |
áyát |
36a-36b |
| 53 |
sád |
salát |
36b-36b |
| 54 |
wáw |
waláya |
36b-37a |
| 55 |
alif |
alif/the
letter |
37a-37a |
| 56 |
bá' |
balá'/affliction |
37a-37a |
| 57 |
alif |
amr |
37a-37b |
| 58 |
lám |
la'áli |
37b-37b |
| 59 |
há' |
hadd/law,
limit |
37b-38b |
| 60 |
qáf |
qadar,
destiny |
38b-39a |
| 61 |
wáw |
waláya |
39a-40b |
| 62 |
tá' |
turáb/dust |
40b-40b |
| 63 |
wáw |
wadd |
40b-41a |
| 64 |
alif |
álá' |
41a-41a |
| 65 |
sád |
sabr/patience |
41a-41a |
| 66 |
wáw |
waláya |
41a-41b |
| 67 |
alif |
áyát |
41b-42b |
| 68 |
bá' |
birr/righteousness |
42b-44b |
| 69 |
alif |
alif |
44b-45a |
| 70 |
lám |
liwát' |
45a-45b |
| 71 |
sád |
samadáníya |
45b-48b |
| 72 |
bá' |
buhbúha/midst,
comfort |
48b-49a |
| 73 |
rá' |
rahma |
49a-50b |
[page 205]
Appendix 2
The following is an extended excerpt from Gershom Scholem's
Major
Trends in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 130ff, in which he analyzes the 'doctrine
of the search for ecstasy and for prophetic inspiration' of the famous Spanish
Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia (b. 1240 in Saragossa, d. after 1291).
Its basic principles have been upheld with varying
modifications by all those among the Kabbalists who found in Abulafia a
congenial spirit, and its characteristic mixture of emotionalism and
rationalism sets its seal on one of the major trends of Kabbalism.
Why is the soul, as it were, sealed up? Because, answers Abulafia, the
ordinary day-to-day life of human beings, their perception of the sensible
world, fills and impregnates the mind with a multitude of sensible forms or
images (called in the language of the medieval philosophers, 'natural forms').
As the mind perceives all kinds of gross natural objects and admits their
images into its consciousness, it creates for itself, out of a natural
function, a certain mode of existence which bears the stamp of finiteness. The
normal life of the soul, in other words, is kept within the limits determined
by our sensory perceptions and emotions, and as long as it is full of these, it
finds it extremely difficult to perceive the existence of spiritual forms and
things divine. . . All that which occupies the natural self of man must either
be made to disappear or must be transformed in such a way as to render it
transparent for the inner spiritual reality, whose contours will then become
perceptible through the customary shell of natural things...
Abraham Abulafia is, therefore, compelled to look for an, as it were, absolute
object for meditating upon; that is to say, one capable of stimulating the
soul's deeper life and freeing it from ordinary perceptions. In other words, he
looks for something capable of acquiring the highest importance, without having
much particular, or if possible any, importance of its own. An object which
fulfils all these conditions he believes himself to have found in the Hebrew
[page 206]
alphabet, in the letters which make up the written language.
It is not enough, though an important step forward, that the soul should be
occupied with the meditation of abstract truths, for even there it remains too
closely bound to their specific meaning. Rather is it Abulafia's purpose to
present it with something not merely abstract but also not determinable as an
object in the strict sense, for everything so determined has an importance and
an individuality of its own. Basing himself upon the abstract and non-corporeal
nature of script, he develops a theory of mystical contemplation: The Name of
God, which is something absolute, because it reflects the hidden meaning and
totality of existence; the Name through which everything else acquires its
meaning and which yet to the human mind has no concrete, particular meaning of
its own. In short, Abulafia believes that whoever succeeds in making the Great
Name of God, the least concrete and perceptible thing in the world, the object
of meditation, is on the way to mystical ecstasy.
Starting from this concept, Abulafia expounds a peculiar discipline which he
calls Hpokhmath ha-Tseruf, i.e. 'science of the combination of letters'. This
is described as a methodological guide to meditation with the aid of letters
and their configurations. The individual letters of their combinations need
have no 'meaning' in the ordinary sense; it is even an advantage if they are
meaningless, as in that case, they are less likely to distract us. True, they
are not really meaningless to Abulafia, who accepts the Kabbalistic doctrine of
divine language as the substance of reality. According to this doctrine ... all
things exist only by virtue of their degree of participation in the Great Name
of God, which manifests itself throughout the whole Creation. There is a
language which expresses the pure thought of God and the letters of this
language are the elements of both the most fundamental spiritual reality and of
the profoundest understanding and knowledge. Abulafia's mysticism is of course
in this divine language.
The purpose of this discipline then is to stimulate, with the aid of
methodical meditation, a new state of consciousness; this state can best be
defined as an harmonious
[page 207]
movement of pure thought, which has severed all relation to
the senses. Abulafia himself has already quite correctly compared it with
music. Indeed, the systematic practice of meditation as taught by him, produces
a sensation closely akin to that of listening to musical harmonies. The science
of combination is a music of pure thought, in which the alphabet takes the
place of the musical scale. The whole system shows a fairly close resemblance
to musical principles, applied not to sounds but to thought in
meditation.
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[page 210]
Notes
1. Incidentally, we may see in this connection, with reference to
so-called Islamic iconophobia, an attempt to preserve a very private, personal
and even secret spiritual communion that runs the risk of profanation through a
proliferation of graphic and therefore to some extent standardizing, not to say
'institutionalizing' images of the Prophet.
2. e.g. Cox, Many Mansions, p. 26: 'Both [Christianity and Islam]
received an enormous early impetus from an apostle Paul for Christianity and
Muhammad for Islam who translate a more particularistic faith into a
universal one.'
3. Despite obvious differences in the history and application of the word in
its normal cultural context, I suggest 'hymn' better represents the
significance of the word Qur'án.
4. This is a theological formulation which actually reflects living faith.
Early in Islamic history, Muslim scholars argued about the exact status of the
Qur'án. The two main camps were the Rationalists and the Scripturalists.
The Rationalists held that the Qur'án had to have been created,
otherwise true belief would entail a logical impossibility the existence of
two eternals and religion must obey the laws of reason. The view that
ultimately prevailed, that of the Scripturalists, was that the Qur'án
was the uncreated speech of God. Quite apart from the theological problems this
solution also engenders, its triumph is noteworthy as a symbol of the
unparalleled veneration which the Qur'án enjoys.
5. An act which would have been, in any case, quite rare until the second
century of Islam.
6. Taken from Ahmad von Denifer, 'Ulúm al-Qur'án, pp.
180-1. The author has taken this from a 1978 edition of Yusuf Alí's
translation of the Qur'án.
7. Al-Futúhát al-makkíya, vol. 3, p. 94 quoted in
Chodkiewicz, Seal of the Saints, p. 71.
8. Al-Futúhát al-makkíya, vol. 4, p. 21 quoted in
ibid.
9. See examples of this in Lawson, `Akhbárí Shí'í
Approaches to tafsír'.
10. Quoted in Chodkiewicz, Seal of the Saints, p. 37 from Abu
Nu'aym, Hilyat al-awliya, Beirut, 1967, vol. I, p. 14. It is highly
improbable, for historical reasons, that Dhu al-Nún meant the
Shí'í Imáms by his use of the word awliyá'.
Rather, it is likely that he was referring to sanctified persons
[page 211]
in general. On the early history of spiritual waláya, see Radtke
and O'Kane, Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism.
11. On the work of Haydar Ámulí (d. after 1385), see, for
example, Corbin, En Islam iranien, vol. iii, pp. 149-213.
12. For a brief analysis of this vision (as distinct from system), see Izutsu,
'An analysis of wahdat al-wujúd'.
13. On this pervasive mood, see Amanat, Resurrection and Renewal, pp.
70-105.
14. Lawson, 'Interpretation as Revelation: The Qur'án Commentary of
Sayyid 'All Muhammad Shirazi, the Báb'.
15. See Corbin, En Islam iranien, vol. 3, pp. 215-16, for a discussion
of this non-Shaykhí theosopher and his hermeneutics. See also Amanat,
Resurrection and Renewal, p. 134 where it is said that the Báb
admired Kashfí's method and knowledge.
16. The discussion is based on Ms. Cambridge, Browne 9 (6).
The reference to Ibn al-'Arabí is at f. 7 1a: 'Muhyi al-Dín
al-'Arábí (sic) said some wondrously strange words in his
Fusús, "I am the holy one that is veiled in the exalted singleness."'
The Báb comments: 'There can be no doubt that such words, if one
interprets them positively (bi-husni zann), have spiritual
meaning. However, I do not like this, nor do I so interpret; nay, rather, I beg
of God to make known the truth as He desires it. Verily He is the Mighty, the
Most High.' I have been unable to locate this statement ascribed to Ibn
al-'Arabí in the Fusús (see bibliography).
17. MacEoin, Sources for Early Bábi Doctrine and History, p. 202
lists ten mss.
18. Nabil, Dawn-Breakers, pp. 201-2.
19. Káshání Tafsír al-sáfí,
vol. 5, p. 372.
20. f. 5b. This term is interesting insofar as it may indicate the way in which
the Báb used the technical terminology of not only Shí'í
Islam but also Sufism. The word is used by the Sunní mystic A'lá
al-Dawla Simnání (d. 1336), a staunch critic of Ibn
al-'Arabí's 'oneness of being' (wahdat al-wujúd) to
which he opposed a theory known as 'oneness of visionary experience' (wahdat
al-shuhúd). Simnání is one of the great
authorities of the Kubrawí Sufi order, which is a distinctively Iranian
(not necessarily Shí'í) order. Indeed, the Kubrawíya
acquired certain elements of Shí'ism in
[page 212]
order to survive in Iran. It exists today as the Dhahabíya order.
Simnání's use of the word wáqi' has been discussed
as follows:
By 'reality' or 'factual truth' (wáqi'),
Simnání most probably means in the first place the
Sharí'at or exoteric truth of Islam; but it is quite clear from the
context and also from his use of the term wáqi' for 'real' or
'factual', that he also means to say that his views are in perfect agreement
with his mystical experience, because wáqi' is closely related to
wáqi'a, literally 'event' or 'happening', which in
Simnání's mystical school is a technical term for 'mystical
experience' and more particularly 'visionary experience (Landolt,
'Simnání on wahdat al-wujúd', pp. 96-7).
It may also be of some interest to observe that the Dhahabíya order had
its spiritual center in Shiraz during the Báb's lifetime (Momen,
Introduction to Shí'í Islam, p. 212).
21. The usual term in specifically Shí'í parlance for the kind of
material known as hadíth in Sunní discussions is
akhbár (sing. khabar). It is from this technical
term that the loosely-defined group known as the Akhbárís came to
be known in contradistinction to their opponents, the Usúlís.
Much of the difference between the two groups has to do with the place these
Traditions were to have in legal theory (Momen, Introduction to
Shí'í Islam, pp. 117-18, 222-5).
22. These worlds also figure prominently in a commentary by
'Abdu'l-Bahá on the Tradition of the Hidden Treasure mentioned above
(Makátíb, see bibliography). This commentary has been
translated by Moojan Momen ("Abdu'l-Bahá's Commentary on the Islamic
Tradition: "I was a Hidden Treasure..."').
23. This is a topic which requires more research. Some Shaykhí texts
speak of a single being as the Perfect Shí'í while others speak
of the whole collective of true believers as the Perfect Shí'a (Momen,
Introduction to Shí'í Islam, pp. 225-8).
24. See note 21. Most notably (and influentially) was the Naqshbandí
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindí as well as Ahmad al-Ahsá'í, and of
course the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh
[page 213]
whose writings are replete with the technical terminology of wahdat
al-wujúd but who constantly point out the utter otherness of the
godhead as if in direct debate with Ibn al- 'Arabí. An earlier
Shí'í admirer of Ibn al-'Arabí, Sayyid Haydar Amuli was
also anxious to adjust or correct Ibn al-'Arabí's otherwise perfectly
admirable teaching by identifying the khatm al-awliyá' as 'All,
instead of Ibn al-'Arabí's Jesus.
25. Izutsu, 'An analysis of wahdat al-wujúd', p. 96.
26. Ff. 19b-20a. Cf. Qur'án 7:142. See also Lawson, Interpretation as
Revelation', p. 244, n. 66. On the symbolic value of the number 40, see Conrad,
'Abraha and Muhammad'.
27. Cf. also the celebrated Tradition of the Prophet who foresaw that Islam
would be eventually divided into 73 (sometimes 72) sects, only one of which
would be saved from damnation. I have seen no mention of this Tradition by the
Báb.
28. All translations here are provisional.
29. Ahl al-'iyán = the Fourteen Holy Ones?
30. The wáw, for example, is the center of an abstruse
controversy over the interpretation of the meaning of one of Shaykh Ahmad
al-Ahsá'í's works on the meaning of a particularly gnomic
representation of the Greatest Name. The 'reversed wáw' is
thought to represent the notion of cyclical progress (MacEoin, 'Some
Bahá'i and Shaykhí Interpretations of "the Mystery of Reversal"',
pp. 11-23).
31. Dhálika'l-kitáb. This is a subtle allusion to the
Báb's divine inspiration. The controlling referent is the use of this
demonstrative in Qur'án 2:2: 'this book has nought of dubiety in it'.
32. The twin movements of ascent (su'úd) and descent
(nuzúl) describe in Islamicate mystical philosophical
discourse the universal creative movement of Existence from Origin to Return.
It is referred to as 'the two bows lengths' mentioned in Qur'án 53:9
which is thought to refer to the ascension of the Prophet and specifies the
proximity to God attained by Muhammad. On the Shaykhi interest in this topic
see Rafati, 'The Development of Shaykhi Thought in Shí'í
Islam'.
33. Muhammad al-Kulayní (d. 939 or 940), al-Usúl min
al-káfí, is one of the foundational works of
Shí'í tradition.
[page 214]
34. Qur'án 6:100; f. 19a.
35. Dhálika al-amr al-mastúr. The controlling reference is
Qur'án 52:2; 17:58; 33:6 and the Book of Destiny, sometimes associated
with the Mother Book (umm al-kitáb, Qur'án 3:7; 13:39;
43:4) and the Preserved Tablet (lawh mahfúz; Qur'án
85:22). It is important to note the pun, especially in Persian pronunciation
with the word al-mastúr ('concealed').
36. See above note 20.
37. See above, note 30. For some translated excerpts of the Khulba al-tatanjiya
see my 'The Dawning Places of the Lights of Certainty in the Divine Secrets
Connected with the Commander of the Faithful by Rajab Bursi', pp. 269-70. It
should be mentioned that from the very earliest of His writings the Báb
refers to this khutba. One of the more remarkable instances in the
chapter 109, Surat al-'abd, of the Qayyúm al-asmá' where it
leaves the reader in no doubt about the claims the Báb was putting forth
at this time. I am now working on a translation and commentary of this
material.
38. Or 'abysmal Darkness' (Izutsu, Sufism and Taoism, p. 119).
39. See Lawson, 'Interpretation as Revelation: The Qur'án Commentary of
Sayyid 'All Muhammad Shirazí, the Báb', p. 251, n. 95 and
Lambden, 'An Early Poem of Mírzá Husayn Alí
Bahá'u'lláh.
40. See my translation of and commentary on chapter 93, the Surat al-nahl of
the Qayyúm al-asmá' (online at www2.h-net.msu.edu/~bahai/bhpapers/vol1/nahl1.htm).
Students may also be referred to the following study for remarks on
other imagery in the Qayyum al-asma and its similarity with the Khutba al-tutunjiya:
www2.h-net.msu.edu/~bahai/bhpapers/vol5/tatanj/tatanj.htm
41. In 'Exploded Commentary' I discussed the similarities between the Kabbala
and the Báb's method. It is known that the Kabbala was indeed practised
in Shiráz in the 19th century but this need not imply any direct contact
between the Báb and the Kabbalists. Indeed, the works of Joseph Dan
point out that the Ashkenazi Kabbalists of Europe trace their lineage to a
Baghdadi Jewish scholar of the 9th century, suggesting that the Kabbala itself
may have derived much inspiration from the 'logocentric' thought world of
Islamicate culture to begin with. Nonetheless, it is interesting to study both
the Islamic tradition of letter commentary, which begins with the very birth of
the Islamic lettered tradition, and that of the Kabbala. See Appendix 2 where I
have reproduced a particularly
[page 215]
apposite passage from Scholem, 'A Note on a Kabbalistic Treatise on
Contemplation'. I am grateful to my colleague Gershon Hundert for the reference
to Dan and also to Eliot Wolfson's study of the erotic Kabbala of Joseph of
Hamadan.
42. See my 'Qur'án Commentary as Sacred Performance," in Der Iran um 19 Jahrhundert und die Enstehung der Bahá'í Religion. Edited by
Johann-Christoph Bürgel & Isabel Schayani. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, 1998, pp.145-58.
43. Barthes, Pleasure of the Text; Proust, On Reading.
44. Jeffery, Islam: Muhammad and His Religion, p. 3.
45. Wolfson, Philosophy of the Kalam, pp. 263-303; Arkoun,
'Logocentrisme et Verité religieuse', pp. 185-231.
46. In Arabic the words for breath (nafas, pl. anfás)
and soul (nafs, pl. nufús or anfas) are
intimately related.
47. Qur'án 50:16: wa nahnu aqrab ilayhi min habl
al-waríd.
48. 48:4; 18; 26.
49. As far as I know, W C. Smith was the first to call attention to the
structural similarities between Christian communion and reading the
Qur'án in his essay 'Some Similarities and Some Differences Between
Christianity and Islam, p. 244. This essay was originally published in 1959. My
thanks to M. G. Carter for this reference.
50. A favorite metaphor in the Islamic tradition is 'taste' (Ormsby, 'The Taste
of Truth').
