History Of Islamic Philosophy - Henry Corbin.pdf - Falsafa

HISTORY OF ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY
the kalam: one does not construct the true meaning out of syllogisms.
Its discernment requires someone who is both a spiritual heir and
inspired, who is in possession of both the esoteric aspect (batin) and
the exoteric aspect (zahir). He is God's hujjah, the Keeper of the Book,
the Imam or Guide. One must therefore endeavour to assess what
constitutes the essence of the Imam, in the person of the Twelve Imams.
In his commentary on the texts of the Imams, Mulla Sadra, speaking
about this very subject, states its philosophical presuppositions: that
which has no cause (that which is ab-imo) is not susceptible to being
known; its essence it not susceptible to definition; it cannot be proved
by means of something else, because It is itself the proof. One is only
able to know God through God, not, in the manner of the kalam
theologians, by starting from the creatural, not by starting from the
contingent being, in the manner of the philosophers (falasifah). It is
possible to attain exalted knowledge only through divine revelation
(wahy) or inspiration (ilham). After the Prophet who was God's hujjah,
it is impossible that the Earth should remain without a hujjah, God's
surety, answering for God before men and thereby enabling them to
approach God. He may be publicly recognized, or he may remain
unknown to the majority of men, veiled by an incognito way of life.
He is indispensable as the Guide to the hidden meanings of the Book,
meanings that can be grasped only through divine illumination. Imamology
is an essential postulate of prophetic philosophy. The first
question, therefore, is this: after the Prophet, who could claim to
be the 'Keeper of the Book'?
2. The witnesses are unanimous on this point. One of the Prophet's
most famous Companions, 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abbas, relates how profoundly
impressed were those who listened to 'All's commentary
on the Fatihah (the first Surah of the Quran). The first Imam himself
gives this testimony: 'Not a single verse of the Quran descended upon
(was revealed to) the Messenger of God which he did not proceed
to dictate to me and make me recite. I would write it with my own
hand, and he would instruct me as to its tafsir (the literal explanation)
and the ta'wil (the spiritual exegesis), the nasikh (the verse which
abrogates) and the mansukh (the abrogated verse), the muhkam and
the mutashabih (the fixed and the ambiguous), the particular and
the general. And he would pray to God to increase my understanding
and my memory. Then he would lay his hand on my breast and ask
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SHIISM AND PROPHETIC PHILOSOPHY
God to fill my heart with knowledge and understanding, with judgement
and illumination.'
Once again, our texts resort to the theme of the heart in order to
make the function of the Imam intelligible: he stands in the same relation
to the spiritual community as the heart to the human organism. The
comparison in itself serves to stress the interiority of Imamology. When,
for example, Mulla Sadra speaks of 'that celestial (malakuti) reality
which is the Imamate within man', he intimates how Imamology comes
to fruition in mystical experience. Moreover, the hidden Imam is
present in the heart of his Shiites up until the day of the Resurrection.
We shall speak later of the profound significance of the ghaybah (the
occupation of the Imam), that divine incognito which is essential to
a prophetic philosophy because it preserves what is divine from
becoming an object, as it preserves it from all socialization. The Imam's
authority is quite different from the dogmatic magisterium which
governs a Church. The Imams are initiators into the hidden meaning
of the Revelations; themselves its inheritors, they made over the
heritage to those qualified to receive it. One of the fundamental notions
in gnosiology is 'ilm irthi, a knowledge which is a spiritual heritage.
This is why Shiism is not what might be called a 'religion of authority',
in the way that a Church is. The Imams have, in fact, fulfilled their
earthly mission; they are no longer in this world in a material sense.
Their continuing presence is a supra-sensible presence, and it is also
a 'spiritual authority' in the true sense of the word. Their teaching
endures, and is the basis of the entire hermeneutic of the Book.
The first among them, the first Imam, is designated as the foundation
of the Imamate. In the Shiite view, however, he cannot be dissociated
from the other eleven Figures who together make up the pleroma of
the Imamate, because the law of the number twelve, symbolic cipher
of a totality, is constant at all the periods of the prophetic cycle (some
of the homologues were mentioned above: the twelve signs of the
zodiac, the twelve springs which gushed from the rock struck by the
rod of Moses; the relationship with the twelve months of the year is
in accordance with the ancient theologies of the Aion). Each of the
great prophets, annunciators of a shari'ah, had his twelve Imams. The
Prophet himself said, 'May God take care, after me, of 'Ali and of
the awsiya' (the inheritors) of my posterity (the eleven), for they are
the Guides. God gave them my understanding and my knowledge,
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