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

THE REALISM AND SYMBOLISM OF COLOURS
esoteric dimension can only be the Imam—seen not as he is in the
dramatic action of his fugitive appearance on earth, but in his metaphysical
essence, in the pleroma, that is, of the "eternal Muhammadan Reality",
the Haqiqah muhammadiyah, the primordial theophany of the Absconditum,
the pleroma of the "Fourteen Immaculate Ones" in their persons of
light. By reason of its primordial theophanic function, this "eternal Muhammadan
Reality" is assigned an essential cosmogonic function. And it
is precisely about this that it is inadvisable to speak before the Pharoah
and his troops, that is to say before the exotericist Mullas.
Nevertheless, this is the direction in which our shaykh appears to be
steering us. He writes: "When the colour red is exalted to the world of the
Imperative [by which he means the world not of the intermediate creation,
'alam al-khalq, but that which is the immediate response to the KN, the
creative Esto, 'alam al-Amr, the world of the Imperative], this colour
thereupon falls to the lot of the Perfect Word {al-Kalimah al-tammah) before
which the Great Abyss draws back; for this Word possesses several degrees:
the dot, the initial alif, the letters, the words [in short, all the components
of the "Book of being", as we saw earlier]. And when the colour red is
exalted to the divine Name, it is assigned exclusively to the level of the
perfect Epiphany {al-Zuhur al-tamm), since these levels are four in number."
37 These four levels make up the Throne of the divine Names {'Arsh
al-Asma'), which corresponds symbolically to the cosmic Throne of the
archangelic tetrad and to the Throne of the walayah, both described above.
In speaking of the Throne on which Mercy is established, the Mercy in
question signifies creative Mercy (the Rahmah that is so close to the Sophia
of other gnoses) which is at once subject and object (active and passive),
the instrumental and the ablative of the act of Mercy which constitutes the
liberation of being, the "absolution of being", setting being free to be. 38
Four of the divine Names are here the pillars of the Throne. First there is
al-Qabid, literally "he who seizes"; this is Mercy seizing "hold" of itself in a
way that, through creative autophony, is transmuted into an act of being.
37 These are, says the shaykh without entering upon explanations, i) the esoteric; 2)
the esoteric according to its occultation; 3) the exoteric; 4) the exoteric according to
its manifestation.
38 For the context of what is here referred to only briefly, see the teaching of Shaykh
Ahmad Ahsa'i, with which all Shaykhi thinkers are imbued. Cf. the Fawa'id (The
Book of Teachings), (Tabriz 1274), pp. 37 ff. See my conference reports in: Annuaire
of the Section des Sciences Religieuses de l'Ecole pratique des Hautes-Etudes,
1966-1967, pp. 109 & 113; 1967-1968, pp. 142-145.
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THE REALISM AND SYMBOLISM OF COLOURS
The other three Names are: "He who inaugurates" (al-badi'), "He who
brings death" (al-mumit), "He who resuscitates" (al-ba'ith) (cf. Koran
30:40). According to the shaykh, it is the name al-Qabid that sustains the
colour red, which in its turn manifests itself in partial Names such as the
Avenger, the Conqueror, the Dominator, the Protector, and so on. These
names, however, are perhaps allusions to the twelfth Imam, the Imam of
the Resurrection, who dominates the "heaven of the walayah".
Our shaykh does not explain how the colours are divided between the
other three Names, but concludes that forms of knowledge are endless and
limitless. That which is first projected into intellects still imperfect is
knowledge of the exoteric; then, progressively, an increasing knowledge of
the esoteric is projected into them. "You must understand the concise
words with which I have attempted to convey what I have conveyed.
Then the exoteric will convert itself into the esoteric, and vice versa. For, if
the esoteric dimension of the esoteric is concealed within the esoteric, it is
because of its Manifestation within Manifestation itself. It is occulted
because of the intensity of its Manifestation, and veiled because of the
sublimity of its Light." This recapitulates everything that we have been
taught by the "Book of the red hyacinth" about invisible lights and
colours, the reasons for their occultation, and the true relationship between
light and colour. The theory and hermeneutics of colour lead us to the
heights of metaphysical theosophy. On the final point, the esoteric dimension
of the esoteric, our shaykh has exercised discretion, and it behoves us
to follow his example. 39
39 The shaykh underlines the motives for his discretion by alluding to some verses by
an anonymous poet: "If our age were not united in rejecting the truth, I would
speak of it here. Nevertheless, I can be forgiven; I am jealous for you of everyone
Other than myself, even of myself—I am jealous of you, of the time and space that
you occupy—Even were I to have you before my eyes—Up to the Day of the
Resurrection, it would not suffice me." The "Seal of the book", which is its
conclusion, returns to the question that was asked initially by a troublesome man in
conversation with the person who reported it to Muhammad Karim-Khan Kirmani.
The troublesome man hoped to put the shaykh in a difficult position by
provoking him to speak of the modality of the tint of the red carpet (which actually
came from Kirmani) upon which the questioners were seated. The analysis that we
have given here makes evident the level to which the shaykh raised the question in
order to answer it. In his conclusion, he analyses briefly the impulses that arise from
the depths of the human being. The desires which are "tinted" only by the colour
red are related to each other with the aid supplied to them by Mars and the Sun, as
astrology explains in detail. Finally, the shaykh says: "As for the manner of tinting a
Carpet red with shellac, that is something over which dyers argue, even though in
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