History Of Islamic Philosophy - Henry Corbin.pdf - Falsafa

HISTORY OF ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY
below, B, 1, sects. 2ff.). The absolute, essential and primordial
prophecy belongs to the supreme Spirit (the celestial Anthropos, the
First Intelligence, the eternal Muhammadan Reality), whom God sends
first towards the universal Soul, before sending it to individual souls
in order to apprise them of the divine Names and Attributes {nubuwah
al-ta'rif). For our Islamic thinkers, the theme is an extension of the
theme of the Verus Propheta, the true Prophet who, in the Judaeo-
Christian prophetology of the Ebionites, 'hastens from prophet to
prophet until he comes to his resting-place'. In this case, his 'resting-place'
is the last prophet, the prophet of Islam.
4. The totality of this prophecy is pictured as a circle whose circumference
is constituted by a series of points, each of which represents
a prophet, a partial moment of prophecy. The starting-point of the
prophetic cycle on earth was the existence of the terrestrial Adam.
From nabi to nabi {according to tradition, there are 124,000 of them),
from Messenger to Messenger (of whom there are 313), from great
prophet to great prophet {of whom there were six, if not seven), the
cycle progresses up to the existence of Jesus, who was the last great
partial prophet. With the coming of Muhammad the circle is completed
and closed. As the khatim, the Seal who recapitulates all previous
prophets, Muhammad is the epiphany of the eternal prophetic Reality,
the supreme Spirit, the celestial Anthropos. The supreme Spirit is
epiphanized in him through the very essence of prophecy. This is why
he can say, 'I am the first of prophets with respect to creation (the
supreme Spirit pre-exists the universe), and the last of them with
respect to mission and Manifestation'. From Adam to Jesus, each
prophet was a particular mazhar, a partial reality of the eternal prophetic
Reality. The fundamental reality, or haqiqah, which exists in each
prophet as the basis of the prophetic qualification, is the subtle organ
[latifah) of the heart, which is engendered in the hierogamy (izdiwaj)
of Spirit and Soul, and which constitutes the place in each prophet
of the 'descent' of the Spirit (this is what is meant in the deepest sense
by the Angel as heart). One face of the heart is turned towards the
Spirit, which is the source of its visions, and one face is turned towards
the Soul, the place of its knowledge. "The heart is the throne of the
Spirit in the world of Mystery.'
Since the walayah is the interior or esoteric aspect of prophecy, and
as such the constitutive component of the Imamate, the hierohistoric
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SHIISM AND PROPHETIC PHILOSOPHY
schema must embrace prophetology and Imamology in their totality.
The final term of the cycle of prophecy coincides with the initial term
of the cycle of the walayah. The diagrams of Haydar Amuli which
illustrate the relationship between walayah and nubuwah show the
cycle of the walayah as a circle inside the circle representing the
prophetic cycle. In effect, the cycle of the walayah represents the cycle
of interiorization, for the Muhammadan Imamate is the esoteric aspect
of all previous prophetic religions. This is why the cycle of the walayah
prepares the way not for the advent of a new shari'ah, but for the advent
of the qa'im the Imam of the Resurrection.
We now know that what is called walayah in Islam used to be called
simply nubuwah during the pre-prophetic periods; that is, it did not
comprise the mission of a Messenger. Just as Muhammad had his twelve
Imams, each of the six (or five) great prophet-Messengers before him
(Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus) had his twelve
Imams or awsiya' (spiritual heirs). The twelve Imams of Christ are
not precisely those whom we know as the twelve apostles, but the
twelve who took on the task of transmitting the prophetic message
until the advent of the last prophet. Just as the Prophet Muhammad,
as the Seal of prophecy, was the mazhar of prophecy in the absolute
sense, the first Imam, Muhammad's wasi or heir, was the mazhar and
the Seal of the walayah in its absolute sense. The partial manifestations
of the walayah began with Seth, the son of the Imam Adam, and will
culminate with the twelfth Imam or Madhi—at present the hidden
Imam—as Seal of the particular walayah during the final period of
prophecy. Each of the awliya' is in the same relationship to the Seal
of the walayah as is each of the nabis to the Seal of prophecy. It is
thus clear that the line of prophecy is inseparable from the line of its
spiritual exegesis. It is by means of such exegesis that the 're-ascension'
of prophecy to its origin is accomplished.
5. This hierohistory in its entirety is of a perfect coherence. The
Muhammadan Imamate, in the persons of those who are the exemplifications
on earth of the pleroma of the Twelve, is the consummation
of the prophetic religions, for it leads these religions back to their own
inwardness. Shiism, the esotericism of Islam, perfects all other esotericisms.
The threshold of legislative prophecy is barred; the threshold
of the walayah remains open until the day of the Resurrection.
It is clear that this theme is fundamental. Even in cases when it is
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