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

SABIAN TEMPLE AND ISMAILISM
conclusion of (he dialogue between Hanif and Sabian, the New Testament
of a spiritual Sabianism. It is of this that the Brothers of Purity are fully
aware when, concluding the exposition of their own ritual, they call to
witness "the fact that the ancient Sages used to build Temples on earth,
typifying ('ala mithal) the Temples which are built in Heaven." 120
2. The Esoteric Ritual and the Vision of the Person-archetypes. The emergence of a
new personal Form in man, "representing" or exemplifying an angelicarchetype,
is thus seen as the element which it is essential to understand,
and which at the same time allows one to understand the ultimate significance
of the esoteric Ritual—to understand, that is, the highest development
of ta'wil, the concrete transmutation effected by it. Unless we
arbitrarily restrict the meaning of the word "mystical", it is difficult not to
apply the quality of mysticism to this exegesis of the soul. But this mysticism
differs profoundly from all mystical experiences of the annihilation of self
in the divine absolute grasped directly and without mediation. In place of
this abyss of negativity, it proffers a universe peopled with a multitude of
celestial Persons, each of whom is a world.
It differs also, and equally, from what is frequently understood as
esotericism, but which is basically nothing but a rationalist tendency to
substitute an abstract meaning (idea, principle, law) for all personal
figures or figurations (heroes, Angels, exemplary events). Such a substitution
contributes to the dissolution of symbols, and consequently of the
beings who symbolize, in order to promote impersonal generalities: once
again, the celestial universe is unpeopled. In sharp contrast to this,
Ismaili ta'wil does not start with a symbolic personal figure and proceed to
the enunciation of a general proposition. It starts with a factual reality
given in physics, in history, in ritual or in religious prescription, in order
to disclose the vision of the Person-archetype who confers stability and
ontological validity on such data by elevating them to the level of symbols.
Reciprocally, the mental vision of the Person-archetype presupposes the
spiritual exegesis of the text, whether sacred or cosmic. 121
Thus, all positive data are not done away with, but are transfigured in
120 Rasa'il IV, p. 309.
121 There is something similar in Swedenborg's ta'wil of Scripture as the starting-point
of his mental visions; cf. Ernst Benz, Emanuel Swedenborg, Naturforscher und Seller
(Munich, 1948), pp. 326 ff.
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SABIAN TEMPLE AND ISMAILISM
and by the very figure that they represent. This being so, it is curious that
the interiorizing Ismaili exegesis, into which the disciple was progressively
initiated, has sometimes been thought to leave no more than a heaven
peopled (!) with abstract symbols and phantoms without reality. 122 The
opposite is the case: the Person-archetype is not the symbol, but that
which is symbolized. It is the earthly, human person who, by gravitating
towards his spiritual person (shakhs ruhani), his angel-hood (firishtagi),
represents and typifies a hypostasis of the angelic world. He does not
destroy this hypostasis by symbolizing with it; rather, he is called upon to
answer for it on earth. Human gestures, human representations and
imaginings, far from being abolished, are so many methods whereby man
can be led to typify and exemplify in himself (tamaththul) a celestial
existence. For example, if a celestial Person is represented by a particular
gesture, or word, or phase of the ritual, then to observe these is already to
exist in the manner of the transcendent Person. It is for this reason that
the initiate must undertake to be faithful to these observances, at least in
the Fatimid tradition of Ismailism. 123 In doing so, he is also affirming in
his person the potential Paradise or Earth of Paradise, this Earth on which
he is able to pasture the Ram that is offered up in sacrifice at the
culminating point of a human life.
Consequently, what is perceived by mental vision on the horizon to
which it reaches out are essentially personal Figures or else the relationships
between them, relationships that communicate their archetypal value
to the earthly relationships which are patterned on them. By way of
example, let us consider the principle aspects of the Islamic Ritual.
Mental vision perceives the Temple (masjad) as the figure of the Imam or
of some superior dignity (hujjah, da'i). 124 The fifteen words of the Call to
Prayer are "heard" as being, first, the Person of the Annunciator's spiritual
heir (wasi, asas), then the Persons of the six Imams of the first heptad
(mutimmah), then the Persons of the seven Imams of the second heptad
122 P. Casanova, 'La Doctrine secrete des Fatimides d'Egypte', in Bulletin de I'Institut
francais d'archeologie orientate, vol. XVIII (Cairo, 1921), p. 148 n. 2.
123 Cf. the text of ibid., p. 152, and Strothmann, Texte Idah 12.
124 Cf. Dailami, op. cit., p. 43, who, in spite of his ardent hostility, works on sources at
first hand and quotes from them frequently. He refers here (l.ii) to the Ta'wil al-
Shari'ah which he attributes to al-Mu'izz, the fourth Fatimid Imam (died 365/
975); it has also been attributed to Abu Ya'qub al-Sijistani (ibid., p. 118), and to
Qadi Nu'man (Ivanow, Guide, no. 70).
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