PART ONE:
THE ISLAMIC BACKGROUND
THE TERM `AMĀ'
عَمَاء
AN APPENDIX TO THE COMMENTARY UPON THE RASHḤ-I `AMĀ' OF MĪRZĀ ḤUSAYN `ALĪ, BAHĀ'-ALLĀH
Rev. FROM BSB 3:2 (1984).
FIRST WRITTEN IN THE EARLY
1980s -- UNDER REVISION 2006
LAST REVISED JAN 8th 2006
The Arabic
verbal noun
عَمَاء
`amā'
In the first line
of the Rashh-i `ama' the word `ama' is the second word in genitive
relationship with the pre-genitive word rashḥ
رشح
عما
از
جذبه
ما
ميريزد
The governed noun
`amā'
is derived from the Arabic root amiya
the basic sense of which is `to become blind, to be obscure'. `Amā' could thus
be translated "blindness",
"secrecy", "obscurity" (etc.) though it also has the
sense of `cloud', possibly `heavy and thick clouds (which hide and obscure) or
(the opposite!) light diaphanous clouds.
Tradition has it that the Prophet Muhammad was asked,
`Where was our Lord before He created the creation ?' He is said to have replied:
قال : كان في عماء ما
تحته هواء وما فوقه هواء وخلق عرشه على الماء
He [God] was in
عَمَاء
('amā'
, a "Cloud")
above it [or Him] Air
(hawā')
and below it [or Him]
Air (hawā'),
then He created His Throne upon the Waters".
This reply probably originally expressed the conviction that God was hidden
and self-subsisting in His own Being. It perhaps indicated that before His
work of creation God was in obscurity, enshrouded in the `cloud'
of His own
Being, wrapped in a dark mist.
Versions of the above hadith are
found in a wide range of Sunni and Shi`i
literatures. It was reported by Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his Musnad
(vol. 4: 11):
عن أبي رزين قال قلت يا رسول الله أين كان ربنا عز وجل قبل أن يخلق خلقه ؟
قال : كان في عماء
. ما تحته هواء وما فوقه هواء . ثم خلق عرشه على الماء
[Reported] From Abī Razīn, `I
enquired, `O Messenger of God [=Muhammad], where was our Lord
(exalted and glorified) before He created His creation?'. He
[Muhammad] replied, `He was in the Cloud (al- `amā'), no Air
beneath Him and no Air above Him. Then He created His Throne upon
the [primordial] Water(s) (trans. Lambden).
This tradition is also found in the
following canonical Sunni hadith compilations:
(1) The Sunan of Muhammad
ibn `Isā' Tirmidhi,
"Abu
Razin told that he asked God's messenger,
`Where was our Lord before He created the creation?" to which he
replied, " He was in obscurity (`ama') with no
air below Him and no air above Him, and He created His Throne on the
Water'" (Sunan 4:351) (trans., J. Robson in Mishkat al-Masabih..
Vol. II (Lahore, 1975), pp. 1227 8
It
is here noted that Tirmidhi transmitted this
tradition and that Yazid ibn Hārūn
al Wāsitiī(d. 206) said that "`amā'
means that there was nothing with Him [God]").
See also E. W. Lane,
Arabic-English Lexicon.. (London, 1874 ), Bk.I. Pt.5., pp. 2161 2 where
the following translation is given,
"[God].. was in clouds, or lofty clouds &c., beneath which was a vacuity and
above which was a vacuity" (p. 2161).
(2) The Sunan of Ibn Majah vol. 1:64.
(3) al-Dur al-Manthur vol. 3:322 of al-Bayhaqi,
The ḥadith of `ama' was cited by and
regarded as "sound" by the great Persian born Sunnī Qur'ān commentator
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Ṭabarī (d. 3XX/923) who cited it, for example, in his Tarikh al-rusul
wa'l-muluk (History of Messengers and Kings, ).
`Abd al Karīm al Jili (1365 1420).
For the Shī`īte
Sufi `Abd al Karīm al Jili (1365 1420) `amā' was believed to be
indicative of of the absolute hiddenness of the transcendent Godhead,
"the highest level of the divine essence which is beyond both absolute
reality (al-ḥaqq) and createdness (al-khalq )". It signfies "Being sunk
in itself, bare potentiality" , "the eternal and unchangeable ground of
Being", the "absolute inwardness (buṭūn) and occultation (istitar)" of
the transcendent Divine Essence. ADD 1.
ADD INSAN KAMIL SECTION
Shāh Wali-Allāh Dehlavi ( d. 1762)
The important Muslim theologian Shah Wali-Allah of Delhi ( d. 1762)
defined `amā' as the " world of primal matter" capable of assuming all
incorporeal forms.
`Amā' in early Shaykhism
TO BE C OMPLETED 2006
|
