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

THE REALISM AND SYMBOLISM OF COLOURS
According to our shaykh, there is an Imam Husayn within each man:
his intellect, whose divine splendour is a light that derives from the Imam.
But this inner Imam is surrounded by enemies, and these are all the
powers of the carnal soul that issue from the shadow of the Imam's
enemies. Within every man there unfolds a tragedy of Karbala. "In the
Karbala of his heart, it may happen that the powers of the carnal soul kill the
intellect and the angelic companions who assist it, and uproot all traces of
them from man's heart. Then indeed there is accomplished in each one of
us, word for word (harfan bi-harfin), the ta'wil of the tragedy of Karbala."
Such is the ta'wil of the esoteric dimension of the colour red, the ta'wil albdtin.
By proceeding in this way Shaykh Muh. Karlm-Khan Kirmani places
himself at the forefront of the great spiritual tradition of Shiism. The idea
of the "Imam within" is to be found in the greatest spiritual masters:
Najmuddin Kubra, Mulla Sadra Shirazi, and so on. 34 I cannot do better
than translate the shaykh's own words at this point: "God has in fact two
sorts of witness 35 before men: the outer Imam (or witness) (Hujjah zahirah),
in the person of each of the Twelve Imams, and the inner Imam (or
witness) {Hujjah batinah). The Imam within is each individual intellect,
such an intellect being the irradiation (shu'a') of the outer Imam; for the
Shiites, the initiates of the Imams, have been created out of the rays of
their light, and light is proportional to the source of light." Thus, the
process of interiorization is accomplished spontaneously, since this light
that is in man, or at any rate in the man who is an initiate of the Imams, is
actually a ray of their own light; and so the light, both exterior and
interior, is one and the same. The shaykh continues: "While the esoteric
dimension of the colour red is the Imam Husayn [see above, phase 2],
Iman. It is the same relationship as that established in the Ishraqiyun of Suhravardi
between the Angel Gabriel as the Angel of humanity, and Perfect Nature as the
guide and angel of each human individual. The interiorization of Imamology
leading to the idea of the Imam within (the "Gabriel of your being") is of capital
importance for the understanding of Shiite spirituality. See my The Man of Light. . . ,
op. cit., and En Islam iranien . . . , op. cit., index s.v. Imam, shaykh al-ghayb, Nature
Parfaite.
34 Ibid., index s.v. guide interieur.
35 This teaching is also to be found in the works of Mulla Sadra. The term Hujjah
(proof, guarantee, witness) applies, above all, to the Imam. In the technical vocabulary
of the Ismailism of Alamut, which is also marked by a tendency towards
interiorization, the term signifies the dignitary who is the companion closest to the
Imam, and who forms a bi-unity with him.
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THE REALISM AND SYMBOLISM OF COLOURS
because he died a martyr's death at Karbala, the ta'wil of this esoteric
dimension [that is, the term to which the ta'wil of the Imam leads us back]
is man's intellect, because all intellects derive from the irradiation and the
light of this esoteric dimension [that is to say, from the Imam], intellects
that can be murdered by the carnal soul and its assistants", whether these
''latter are typified by the men of Mu'awiyah or by Ahriman's auxiliaries.
This is the entire mystery of the Imamate within man. It is a theme that
could be developed at length, but the shaykh, in his prudence, chooses to
say no more. 36
5. Finally, there is the esoteric dimension of the esoteric (batin al-batin, II,
chapter IX), a subject on which our authors are usually fairly reticent.
Muh. Karim-Khan Kirmani even gives us the motive for this reticence
here when he refers to the Pharoah and his troops who immolate the sons
of the believers but spare their wives. These sons are the initiates of
esotericism, while the wives who are spared are the initiates of exotericism.
The reference is transparent: it alludes to all those, East and West, who
represent the priesthood of the Grand Inquisitor. And the shaykh says:
"Neither is it permitted to reveal plainly the esoteric dimension of the
esoteric." Nevertheless, some marginal references to it are permitted. To
understand them it is enough simply to pursue the hermeneutical line we
have taken up till now.
We should keep this line clearly in mind. On the one hand, the ta'wil of
the exoteric dimension of the colour red leads us back to the lower lefthand
pillar of the cosmic Throne, to the world of Nature whose esoteric
dimension is the archangel Gabriel (the esoteric dimension, that is to say,
of the ta'wil). On the other hand, the esoteric dimension of the colour red
was revealed to be the lower left-hand pillar of the Throne of the walayah,
typified in the person of the third Imam, the Imam Husayn, martyr of
Karbala. Next, the ta'wil of this dimension disclosed the "Imam within"
to each believer. Finally, what of the esoteric dimension of this esoteric
dimension, that is to say not merely of the interiorization of the Imam
through the ta'wil, but of the essence of his essence in all its secret
theosophical meaning? It now appears that the esoteric dimension of this
36 Here, the shaykh recalls that these ta'wilat are arcana. He does not wish to say more,
for he has no confidence in the questioner who made him bring up the question of
the colour red, and who belongs to that class of people whose constant questioning
is only intended to embarrass the wise. The shaykh has answered here simply out of
respect for the person who is acting as intermediary.
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