Cyclical Time and Ismaili Gnosis - ImagoMundi

further emphasizes the parallel between the Imam and Gabriel-Christos-
Holy Spirit -are followed by the heptad of degrees considered as a homology
to the Seven Cherubim intermediate between the third and tenth
rank of the Angel, just as the terrestrial hudud are intermediate between
the Imam from whom emanates their spiritual quality and the Resurrector
for whose assumption they prepare the way.
4. The Bab or "Threshold" of the Imam. The capital importance of his
role follows from the features in which Imamology reveals its affinity with
Angel Christology, principally in the late Ismailism that has become once
more a personal religion of mystical salvation; here, assimilated to the
following degree, that of the Hujjat or "Proof," it becomes the epiphanic
Form of the Imam, the sign of his Invisibility. This eminent rank of mediator,
on which rests the articulation of the visible with the invisible, is expressed
in his function as fasl-al-khitab, a technical term which in Arabic
grammar designates the moment of the "entrance into matter," articulated
according to the exordium.
5. The Hujjat or "Proof" of the Imam, whose responsibility is great. We
know the principle of Balance (mizan), particularly essential in the alchemy
of Jabir ibn Hayyan, in so far as it permits the universal application of the
law of correspondences. 79 It is incumbent on the Hujjat to see that proper
use is made of it, that is, to see that the operations of the ta'wil ("to reveal
the occult, to occultate the apparent") conform to the equilibrium, the
correspondence of beings (muwdzanat al-khalq); in this sense he must decide
hukm) between the authentic (haqq) and the inauthentic (batil).
6. The two preceding degrees (4 and 5) form a transition or mediation
between the upper triad (1-3) and the group of the last five ranks (6-10)
headed by the Da'ial-Balagh (da'i: literally, "he who calls, invites"; da'wat,
the term designating the Ismailian sodality, signifies literally "call, vocation").
To the Da'i al-Balagh falls essentially the task of preaching (we
shall see below in section 6 that this does not consist of sermons in public
places); the great Nasir-e Khusraw was invested with this function for
Khurasan. He must provide the adept who has been admitted to initiation
and has received the teaching of the first hudud with all the proofs and
arguments regarding the higher hudud (that is to say, the secrets of
angelology) and ma'dd, individual eschatology, the posthumous development
of the human being.
79 Cf. our study on "Le Livre du Glorieux," pp. 758.
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7. Below him come two "dignitaries" who have the same title but modified
by an adjective. First, the Da'i mutlaq, who has full, "unrestricted"
authorization. The level of initiatory knowledge corresponding to this
degree is expressed in his task: to initiate into the higher hudud, that is to
say, into angelology; to initiate in the ta'wil, that is to say, in esoteric
exegesis; to initiate in the spiritual cult 'ibadat 'ilmiya).
8. Below him is the Da'i mahsur, or Da'i with limited, "restricted"
authority. He must initiate the adept into the lower hudud, that is, into the
secrets of the hierarchy of the sect.
9. The Ma'dhun akbar, literally, the "higher master"; it is he who receives
the neophyte's oath and concludes the pact of initiation with
him.
10. Lastly, the Ma'dhun mahsur, literally, the "limited master" with
"restricted" authorization. His function is to attract the souls capable of
"responding to the Appeal" (mustajib) of the esoteric Church. Though restricted,
his function is extremely delicate; it consists in provoking a break 80
with social and religious conformism, in asking disturbing questions, in
observing their effect on the individual selected, etc. 81
The correspondences between the terrestrial and celestial hierarchies are
summed up in the following table: 82
80 Cf. Strothmann, p. 57 of the Arabic text, in which the word mukasarat is associated
with al-Iksir (the elixir).
81 Just as the Tenth Intelligence marks the lower limit of the archangelical pleroma,
below which begins the world of physis and change, and just as no other Intelligence
emanates from it as there does from those above it in the hierarchy, its function being
to send out into the cosmos the Energies from which result the corporeal births, so
similarly from the last degree of the esoteric hierarchy there emanates no lower degree;
below it there is only the profane world consisting of the ignorant and of literalist
believers. Like the Tenth Angel, the Tenth hadd must cultivate the spiritual births
that may blossom in this world (those who respond to the Appeal, mustajib) by drawing
souls to the Temple of the Spiritual Cult (Bayt al-'Ibadat) (cf. Idris, p. 216, and
Kermani, pp. 137-39). The Tenth Angel corresponds to the active intelligence of
Avicennism, identified, as we have said, with the Archangel Gabriel as Holy Spirit.
It is here the celestial Anthropos, the spiritual Adam (for the Ishraqiyun, the Angel
of mankind), and assumes the role of Saved-Saviour, homologous to Gabriel-Christos.
This homology does not appear as such in the vertical structure of the hierarchies.
One must bear in mind that the Tenth Angel originated in the third rank and must
regain this rank. This is precisely what creates the homology between him and the
Imam; the drama enacted in Heaven between the third and the tenth rank (descent
and reascent) becomes visible by homology in the relation between the Imam and the
Qa'im, that is to say, in the cyclical schema of a period of prophecy; cf. the schema
below.
82 Cf. Idris, ch. XIX, p. 215, and Kermani, p. 138.
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