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

SABIAN TEMPLE AND ISMAILISM
way as the three Festivals of the secret ritual of the Brothers of Purity. 97
But it is nonetheless true that the law of homology, already stated to be
essential, is able here to lead us to a representation that gives coherence
to the whole. The events of each Cycle, and of every period of each Cycle,
are respectively homologous with each other. There exists a homology
between the Great Qiyamah, bringing to an end a Cycle of Occultation,
and the lesser Qiyamah which concludes each of. the Seven Periods of that
Cycle, when a religion which has exhausted its "appeal" in its previous
form "revives" in the new religion proclaimed by a new Annunciator (natiq).98
Similarly, the name of Qa'im, resurrector, is reserved par excellence for
"he who will rise up", the Lord of the Resurrection, at the close of the final
Period of our Cycle. Yet each partial Qa'im at the end of each Period of the
Septenary, as well as each Imam and each member of the Order, is also,
potentially, Lord of the Resurrection, a limb of his mystical body, an
oratory in his Temple of Light. Each Period of a Cycle is homologous Jo
that Cycle; each Qiyamah is in the image of the Great Qiyamah. Moreover,
each Qiyamah, or resurrection, which is represented for each member of
the Order by his elevation from one stage to another, is homologous with
the Great Resurrection." This is why the Brothers of Purity expressly
emphasize the homology of their ritual with the phases of each human
existence. 100 In the last analysis, all that matters is the loftiness of the
horizon which the Event indicates, the Archetype which promotes the
Event as such and which is exemplified in all the liturgical Cycles of
events that are homologous with each other.
In this sense, and to this full extent, the three Persons mentioned by the
Brothers as constitutive of their own Festivals are the homologues of the
97 This would give us a ternary rhythm, whereas the septenary is the rhythm of the
schemas of periodization in Ismaili historiosophy (particularly for the Cycles of
occultation). But in the perspective of precisely such a historiosophy, this is by no
means a contradiction. We should call to mind Jabir's Livre du Glorieux (op. cit., §§ 2
and 3), where the rhythm is determined by the Triad 'Ayn-Mim-Sin, completed by
the person of the Glorious One. Likewise, all is here regulated by the secret
intention which places the Sabian theosophers in a mediating position between
positive Islam and the Ismaili exegesis of the Brothers. Of all the festivals and
commemorations of Islam, three have been retained, plus one day of mourning and
expectation.
98 Qiyamah or resurrection as the aim and end of religions (nihayat-i adyan), cf. Kalami
Pir, p. 63 of the Persian text, 1. 4 ff.
99 Cf. note 57.
100 Rasa'il IV, p. 307. '
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SABIAN TEMPLE AND ISMAILISM
Three esoteric dignitaries who appear at the beginning of a Cycle of
Occultation. These are, respectively: the Annunciator (Natiq) of the new
religion; his legatee, the depositary and foundation (Wasi, Asas) of the
pure spiritual meaning of his religion (the "festival" following which the
Night of esotericism will get longer); and, finally, the first of the silent
Imams (samit), the "festival" following which Night will preponderate
over Day and the Order will have to seek the shelter of esotericism (the
"Cave"). These silent Imams, from the first of the first heptad to the
seventh of the seventh, are the keepers of the esoteric meaning whose
communication to the souls called to their Order gradually matures,
according to the degree to which they are able to assimilate this meaning,
the fruit of the Resurrection.
One could go further and say that since each member of the Order,
from the greatest to the least, merely exemplifies on earth a member of the
celestial angelic hierarchy, these three superior dignitaries are the representatives
on earth of the highest archangelic hypostases, to wit: the pair
formed by the First and the Second Archangels—Intelligence and Soul of
the World—from whom proceeds the third Archangel, the Angelos-
Anthropos of Humanity. With him the cosmic catastrophe is precipitated,
through his fatal tardiness in recognizing the divine Unitude (tawhid)—a
tardiness which plunged him in darkness and which is symbolized in
Suhravardi by the two wings of the Archangel Gabriel, one of light and
the other of darkness. 101 This third Archangel fell to the rank of tenth in
the supreme angelic hierarchy (which made him the first of our cosmos);
and the entire history of our world represents the time spent in reconquering
his original archangelic rank, aided by each of the "angels" who
emanate from him. The last Imam (the Qa'im) of a Cycle is his surrogate:
in his Temple of Light, all the souls of light, members of the Order who
belonged to the Cycle, are led back by him to this Angel. The distance
between the third festival or third dignitary alluded to by the Brothers, and
the moment when they leave their cave (the Occident to which their souls
have declined)—in other words, the moment of the appearance of the
Qa'im (the Sun rising in the Occident)—is precisely the time during which
the Redemption of the Angel is being accomplished through the maturing,
in each soul, of an aptitude for the angelic state. One of its great phases
101 Cf. note 70.
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