Cyclical Time and Ismaili Gnosis - ImagoMundi

We have suggested above that an ANGEL Christology goes hand in hand
with an angel anthropology;38 the entire Adamology is affected, and the
Ismailian vision concentrates on this theme. The dramaturgy embraces the
events that befell the angelic, celestial Adam and the terrestrial Adam, or
rather Adams. The traditional identification among the philosophers between
Gabriel, the Holy Spirit, and the active Intelligence, which among the
Ishraqiyun is the Angel of humanity and in Ismailism is Adam ruhani, or
the Spiritual Adam, is only a commentary on the Koranic texts, where the
identification Gabriel-Holy Spirit itself exemplifies a Gnostic Christology
in which Angelos Christos assumes more particularly the features of Gabriel-
Christos. Here I shall briefly set forth a few points: they will serve us as an
introduction to the dramaturgy that has its source in this angel archetype
of mankind—a dramaturgy in which our own history today is simply a
phase, the crucible of the metamorphoses which must either lead humanity
back to its celestial and angelical origin or consummate its demoniacal fall.
The identification of Christos with the Archangel Gabriel is the dominant
trait of an entire Gnostic Christology.39 If we consider at the same time the
38 Among other consequences, consider that mentioned in n. 22 above.
39 On Gabriel-Christos see Barbel, pp. 225-62. In the Epistula Aposlolorum (p. 236)
Christ tells how he took the form of the Archangel Gabriel in order to appear to the
Virgin. Thence follows the idea that it is the Logos which "gives itself form in the
Virgin" (p. 240), and we have a double equation—on the one hand between the Son
and the Holy Spirit, on the other between the Son-Holy Spirit and the Angel Gabriel,
as is suggested by this passage from the Pseudo-Ambrose: Vides ergo Spiritum Sanctum,
id est Filium Dei, venisse ad Virginem et inde Dei et hominis filium processisse (p. 246,
n. 282). It is texts of this kind (and particularly those concerning the Angels of the
Holy Spirit) that should be systematically restudied if we are to interpret in depth the
assimilation of the Angel Gabriel to the Holy Spirit in Islamic theology. The idea that
the conception is accomplished by and with the annunciation of the Angel Gabriel
brings up particulars that withdraw the Mystery from all physiological explanation:
e.g., the idea that by the voice of the Archangel of the Logos penetrates the
Virgin; or, rather, that the voice of the Archangel is itself a hypostasis of the Logos
(p. 248); or that the conception did not last several months sed ipsum per uterum ipsius
instar aquae per canalem transiisse (ibid.). Among the Gnostics (Book 8 of the
Christian Sibylline Oracles), the Angel Gabriel acts "as God" (p. 254); the Angel
Gabriel is the very form of Iao Sabaoth Adonai, the true Force that strikes down the
demons, Christos (cf. section 5 below, Salman the Pure, terrestrial typification of
Gabriel, as well as the Veil, hijab; the little known sect of the Ahl-e Haqq, which still
exists in Iran, possesses a book that is extremely rare though of recent composition,
the Shah-Nama-ye Ahl-e Haqq, or "Royal Book of the Gnostics," in the prologue of
which the Angel Gabriel assumes the role of protoktistos). In the Pistis Sophia, Christ
in the form of the Archangel descends with the twelve Saviours of the Treasures of
Light, whom he projects into their mothers' wombs (p. 256), an image that we shall
have occasion to remember in connection with the twelve Imams in the Gnosis of
Duodeciman Shiism.
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primitive identification between the Holy Spirit and the Son of God (the
"magnificent Angel" of the Shepherd of Hermes), we shall understand the
contention that it is the Holy Spirit itself that is sent to Mary, that inspires
her with its own breath and "takes body" in her with a reality which is not
that of a material body but of a subtle celestial body. Eo ipso, this equation
(Gabriel-Christos-Holy Spirit) that is discernible in Angel Christology,
becomes an aspect of what has been called "Spirit Christology" (Geisteschristologie).
The great majority of the tafsir (Koran commentaries) are in
agreement on this point (an entire book ought to be devoted to this pneumatology).
The very details of the mental visions recur both in Christian Gnosis
and in certain of our tafsir, 40 for example the role attributed to the Archangel's
voice, which is represented as being itself the hypostasis of the
Logos. Hence the fine symbol of a virgin conception "by the ear," which
means by faith, ex auditu, and suggests that the reference is to a theological
dogma and not to a physiological problem. In other words, the miracle of
the virginal conception is not the main point (as in the context of the dogma
of the Incarnation); rather, it becomes a necessary correlate as soon as the
vision is concentrated on the central problem, which is to elucidate the
superior constitution of the celestial Aeon united with the man Jesus and
the manner of their union. Correlatively certain tafsir, amplifying the
Koranic verses on the annunciation, disclose a relation between Gabriel
and Jesus which would be expressed in Mazdean terms as a relation between
40 The equation, stemming from the Koran, between the Angel Gabriel and the Holy
Spirit (Ruh al-Quds) and the correspondence (among the Avicennan philosophers)
between Gabriel and the Angelos Christos of Angel Christology, is deserving of an
entire study that would require a methodical analysis of the tafsirs, or Koran
commentaries. We hope to undertake such a study, for it would have the greatest
consequences for an understanding of the differentials (and their sources) between a
"philosophy of the Spirit," as conceived by a body of speculative thought developing
in an Islamic world, and that "philosophy of the absolute Spirit," a secularization of
several cent uries of philosophical speculation, at which the Occident arrived in the nineteenth
century. On Gabriel as Holy Spirit, cf. among others, Mulla Fathullah Kashani,
Tafsir (Teheran, 1310 A.H.), I ad 2 : 81 and III ad 97 : 1-4; Muhsen Fayz, al-Safi
(Teheran, 1282 A.H.), p. 253 (ad 16 : 104), pp. 264, 486; Maibodi, Kashf al-asrar (Tafsir-e
Khwaja Ansari) ed. Hekmat (Teheran, 1331 A.H.), I, pp. 258-63. Here again (cf. n. 39)
Gabriel acts "like God" (Mulla Fathullah, Tafsir ad 4 : 169, mentions the exegesis
that makes the Rah cosubject of the verb alqa-ha: the Spirit, that is to say, Gabriel,
who projected the Word, Jesus, into Maryam). Here we find the same conceptions as
in Christian Gnosis: the voice of the Archangel as hypostasis, the time of conception
in complete defiance of physiological laws (three hours!), the idea of the psychic,
spiritual body, etc. (ibid., ad 2 : 254; 4 : 169; 5 : 109; 19 : 17-19. etc -)- It goes without
saying that to appreciate the Docetism of the taf sirs one must bear in mind the
remark made above (n. 9).
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