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

SABIAN TEMPLE AND ISMAILISM
the surest means whereby to aggravate their earthly Hell, for then the
image of Paradise is bound to be a provocation, stimulating their fury of
perversion and mockery. If, that is, they do not find it boring in the
extreme, for this image is indeed the image of a Paradise lost. The history of
Ismailism may be no more than one long paradox: it was harder for it to
survive its triumphs than to recover from its setbacks. More than once,
Ismaili writers have captured the image of their great and noble dream in
striking terms. They were perfectly aware of its opposition to the law
which is the curse of this world, the urge to dominate, the ambition and
vanity of power which makes the soul the veritable habitation of Hell and
which are truly the "punishment of the black stone by the black stone".
The famous eleventh-century Iranian Ismaili, Nasir-i Khusraw, in his
Persian translation of a Koranic verse (82:19) to which he gives an
unexpected force, prefigures in this way the future Reign of the Spirit:
"There will come a day when no soul will have command over any other
soul, and on that day, yes, the Order will belong to God." 160
Tehran, June 25, 1950
160 Cf. Khwan al-Ikhwan (The Table of the Brothers), ed. Yahya al-Khashshab (Cairo,
1940), p. 245; cf. also Jami' al-Hikmatayn, § 117 of my edition (note 7). Nasir-i
Khusraw's entire book, entitled Kitab Wajh-i Din, ed. Kaviani (Berlin, 1925), is a
long exercise in ta'wil, leading from the external appearances to the true and secret
face of the ritual prescriptions and religious traditions.
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