Temple and Contemplation brings together for the first ... - ImagoMundi

SABIAN TEMPLE AND ISMAILISM
purity upon purity and light upon light". The second third of the night is
occupied by a meditation on the "cosmic text" under the starry sky, with
the face turned to the Pole Star. The last third is devoted to the recital of a
philosophical hymn (the "Prayer of Plato", the "Orison of Idris", that is, of
Hermes, the "Secret Psalm of Aristotle"), whose texts we may one day be
able to identify with the help of some manuscript. Finally, after the dawn
prayer, the Sage invites his family and brothers to join him in celebrating
agapae, and the day is passed in wise conversation. 82
The choice of the Pole Star as qiblah points to the Sabianism of our
Sages, 83 an impression confirmed by their annual calendar. The three
periods, the three great liturgical solemnities, are astronomically determined
by the sun's entry into the Sign of Aries, the Sign of Cancer and the
Sign of Libra; that is to say, by the successive advent of spring, summer
and autumn, which are followed by the silence and desolation of winter.
In winter the Sages observe a strict "fast": it is the time during which the
Elect slumber in the Cave. Here again the Sabian style of the ceremony is
undeniable: at each festival the Sages gather in the Temple which is
erected specifically for that festival, and whose architecture corresponds to
the constellation reigning over that day; the colour and form of their
garments conform to the same correspondence, and they eat only food
that is equally appropriate to the day. 84
What is revealed "ritually" to us here is the median and mediating
position occupied by Sabian ideology; that is to say, the "Sabian Temple"
is the ideal place where the official religious ritual is transmuted into the
ritual of a cosmic liturgy, which itself serves as a prelude to the liturgy of
the esoteric mesocosm of the Ismaili Order. On the one hand, the Brothers of
Purity have no difficulty in showing the correspondence between the three
great philosophical festivals and the religious solemnities: "If you meditate,
oh my brother, upon the three days of the philosophic year . . . and
carefully consider the festivals of the Islamic religion, you will find that
they agree and correspond with each other." Corresponding to the festival
of spring and renewal is the festival of the breaking of the fast (which
concludes the month of Ramadan). To the summer festival corresponds
82 Rasa'il IV, pp. 303-304.
83 Cf. Chwolsohn, op. cit., II, 5, 59, 61, 222; also E. S. Drower, The Mandaeans of Iraq
and Iran (Oxford, 1937), p. 18 n. 9.
84 Rasa'il IV, p. 305.
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SABIAN TEMPLE AND ISMAILISM
the festival of sacrifices ('Id al-Adha), which falls on the tenth day of the
month of pilgrimage (Dhu'l-Hijjah). The joy of this festival is quite different
from that of the first festival, for it is mingled with hardship and
fatique, sadness and lethargy; it is the noon hour, stifling and parched. To
the autumn festival corresponds a festival not of orthodox Islam, but the
festival par excellence of Shiite Islam: the solemn investiture of the Imam by
the Prophet at Ghadlr Khumm, a testamentary act by which the Annunciator
(Natiq) of the religious Law entrusted its secret exegesis (ta'wil) to
his spiritual heir and to the Imams of his lineage. Corresponding to the
lime of sadness and of the Sages' retreat is the Departure of the Prophet to
the other world, leaving his community to grief and mourning. 85
On the other hand, one can readily perceive the hermeneutical advance
towards the conception of Ismaili esotericism that is implicit in the calendar
of the "festivals of the Philosophers". The festival of Spring, marking the
point at which the equilibrium of Day and Night is broken in favour of
Day, is celebrated by the Brothers in lyrical terms: springs gush, torrents
once more fill their dry beds, sap rises to the topmost branches, the green
fields are aflame with the brightness of flowers. 86 It is truly the time of a
"resurrection" (qiyamah in Ismaili terminology), that is to say the initial
lime of a Period in which a doctrine bursts forth, a Gnosis proclaimed by
the angelic trumpets of the concert given, it is said, on this day of festival
by the initiated Sages. The great festival of summer marks the start of
Day's retreat before the encroaching Night; the joyous flowering of symbols
begins to dry up on the Earth. The homily at the festival of autumn is
short: "The measure of the Gnosis revealed is no more than is appropriate
to such a Time." From now on, the Night of esotericism becomes the
refuge of the Call (da'wah) to transcend the literalism of the Law and of all
servitude to texts and men. This is the time of winter, which the theosopher-Sages
pass in their Cave, observing the "strict fast" that once was
broken, prematurely, by him whose posterity they are.
Thus, the "philosophical calendar" corresponds to the phases of ta'wil
or transcendent spiritual exegesis. The religious festivals commemorate an
event. The speculative festivals bring back the Event, setting it in the present.
The situation is actually experienced, determined by the star and the
season, and projected into a Figure: the Temple, specially consecrated to
85. Ibid., p. 306.
86. Cf. ibid., p. 305.
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