The treatise of Sayyid Kāzim
Rashtī on the Shī`ī graphical form of the Mightiest Name of
God (al-ism al-a՝ẓam).
Stephen
N. Lambden ( University at Ohio at Athens USA).
SAYYID KAZÌM
RASHTI
(d. 1259
/1843).
The charismatic Persian
Shī՝ī thinker Sayyid Kāzim Rashtī (c. 1212/ 1798 -- 1259/1843)
was the second head of al-Shaykhiyya, the so-called Shaykhĩ
school of Shī՝ī Islam which emerged during the early Qajar
period. He succeeded the sage, philosopher and mystic thinker,
the foundational figure for Shaykhism, Shaykh Aḥmad b. Zayn
al-Din al-Ahsā'ī (1166-1241 = 1753-1826 CE). Born in the eastern
Arabian province of al-Ahsā (= Hasa ) he lived most of his life
in the Shī՝īte shrine cites of Iraq (1790s - early 1800s) and in
Iran (1806-1826) and passed away in the Mecca-Medinan region
whilst on Ḥajj, Islamic pilgrimage. Like Shaykh Ahmad, Sayyid
Kāzim was a prolific and wide-ranging writer in both Persian and
Arabic. The bibliographical Fihrist ("Index") of Ibrahīmī lists
around 166 of his writings which have been much less studied and
published that his master Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahsā'ī.
The graphical form of
the al-ism al-a'ẓam (Mightiest Name) is specifically said to
have the following sūrat (form) towards the beginning of the
Risālah fi sharh wa tafsīr ism al-a՝zam:
Though an extra initial as well as
the final five-pointed star or pentalpha
(☆)
(as
above) is not always represented in the ten or more variant
forms of the graphical representation of the Mightiest or
Greatest Name of God, the seven (or more) sigla, the components
comprising, it are collectively representative of the
ail-Powerful divine "Name". They are largely if not wholly
derived from their graphical depiction ascribed to the first Shī՝ī Imam, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad,
Imam Alî b. Abī Tālib (d. 40 / 661).
A good deal of
esoteric knowledge and sometimes Isrā'īliyyāt (loosely, "Israelitica"),
Islamo-biblical and associated traditions are ascribed to this
all-knowing Imam and successor to the Prophet in the Shi`i
viewpoint. Note for
example, the al-Khuţbah al-ṭutunjiyya [or taṭanjiyya] (loosely,
"Sermon of the Gulf") contained in the Mashāriq anwãr al-yaqîn
fĩ asrār Amīr al-Mu'minīn (Beirut: Dār al-Andalus, 1978, pp.
166-170) of al-Hāfiz Rajab, al-Bursī (d. c. 814/1411) and the
unpublished marginally written Persian treatise on (3X3 type)
'Magic squares and talismanic devices' attributed to this first
Imam 'Alî which is held in the national Library of Medicine
(mss. 'On Magic Squares and Talismans' MS P 29, marginal - item
15; refer
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/astrology3.html )
Sayyid Kazìm cites the
following sevenfold Arabic description of the al-ism al-a'zam
axcribed in poetical form to Imam `Ali:
[1-2]
ثلث عُصى صُففَت بعد خَاتم
[2]
Three rods (`uṣiyy) in a row [
|
|
|
] after
[1] a seal [khātam
=
☆ ]
على رلسها مثل السنان
المُقوم
above them [2] the
likeness of a straightened lance [‑‑].
[3]
و
ميم طميس ابتر
A
blind [Arabic letter] M ﻡ
(mīm)
without a tail;
[4]
ثم سُلم كهئة
السلام
و ليس بسلم
Then
a ladder unto all that is hoped for, but
which is not a ladder.
[5]
Four things like fingers in a row
[
IIII
],
pointing to good deeds,
but without a wrist
[6]
And
a [letter] "H" (hā ) which is
cleft (shaqīq) =
[ھ
]
[7]
ADD
Then an inverted
[letter] wāw
(=
൦
=
و)
like the syphon of a
phlebotomist
(ka‑anbūb ḥajjām,
"tube of the cupper")
though not a cupping
glass (miḥjam)
This poem yields the following above
cited diagram of
the Mightiest Name-- without the extra pentalpha:
The
poetical lines of Imam `Alī normally continue (in the
short recension) with the following further statement
of Imam `Alī [=8-9]:
[8]
“This
is [representative] of the Mighty Name (al‑ism al‑
mu`aẓẓim);
If you
knew it not aforetime, then know it now!
[9]
O
bearer of the Mighty Name (ṣāḥib al‑ism al‑`aẓīm),
take sufficiency in it,
for you
shall be preserved from misfortunes and kept safe
thereby.
It is
the Name of God (ism Allāh) ‑‑ exalted be His glory
‑‑
unto all humankind whether pure Arab (faṣīḥ) or
non-Arab (a`jam).”
[1]
Sayyid
Kazim's imamologically oriented commentary on the poetical and
graphic IsraTliyyat rooted traditions regarding the symbol of
the Mightiest Name cannot be discussed in detail save to note
that he also draws upon allegedly pre-lslamic dimensions of
traditions about the Mightiest Name of God. Rashtī commences his
commentary by acknowledging his indebtedness to the upright,
pious and sagacious master, named Shaykh Muhammad Ahmad (=
Shaykh Ahmad?/ AI-Buni?). Through him he was informed that
"certain of the religious communities (al-millī) are aware of
portions of the words (al-kalimāt) constituting the Mightiest
Name (al-ism al-a'zam)". It is stated that elements of
this Name are evident in the "fourteen temples" (hayakil),
apparently indicating the Shī`ite pleroma ("fullness") of
Muhammad, Fāṭimah and the 12 Imams (`Ali -> Hasan al-Askari).
Differentiated or subdivided into thirteen "letters" after the
thirteen individual elements constituting the seven graphic
sigla which make up the mightiest Name of God (counting from the
initial pentacle (☆ )
to the inverted wāw ( ൦
=
و
) eight portions out of the 13 were known to the pre-lslamic
communities. Four elements ("letters") derive from the Tawrat,
(the Torah, Hebrew Bible) and four from the Injīl ("Gospel"),
the other five derive from the Qur'an (4+4+5 =13). Sayyid
Kāzim's explanations of these components of the al-ism al-a'zam
are distinctly imamological (Rashtī, Sh-lsm, 271 aff).
The Sayyid further explains how it is that the Torah has four
"letters" of the Mightiest Name. He explains that this is so in
the light of the following well-known prophetic hadīth , "O 'Alî
you are to me after the manner of Aaron to Moses". A typological
relationship is thus set up between Moses and Muhammad. Moses [=
Muhammad], it is explained, is foundational (aṣl an),
the Reality (al-haqîqa), while the Torah (al-tawrat) before him
is his essential persona (aṣāla dhāt an). Moses the
prophet (al-nabī) is essentially the Moses of the gate of
reality upon reality (haqĩqa). In a metaphorical sense the
reality of the Torah which was revealed before him consists of
four letters which are the four lettered personal name Muhammad
(= M-Ḥ-M-D). The manifestation of the name Muhammad before Moses
took place at the Sinaitic theophany (tajalii) of the Lord (= Q.
7:143). The agent of this theophany is again said to have been
an humanoid individual from among the cherubim (rajal min al-karubiyyïn),
evidently one associated with the name Muhammad (Rashtī, Sh-Ism,
273b).
That four letters of the al-ism al-a'zam are found in "the Injīl
of Jesus son of Mary" is also commented upon by Sayyid Kāzim. He
states, "And he [Jesus] is the likeness (mithal) of [Imam] 'AIī."
This typological equation also has to do with the letters of the
mightiest Name being imamologically realized. That Imam 'Alî is
equated with Jesus finds echoes in the writings of the Bāb ( see
Persian Bayan Vlll:2). Five "letter" components of Mightiest
Name are also allotted to the Q. They are imamologically
understood as representing the pentad of the four twelver Imams,
[1] Ḥasan, [2] Ḥusayn, [3] Ja'far al-Sadiq, [4] Musa and the prophet's daughter [5]
Fatima. At one point in his commentary on the Khuţba al-ţutunjiyya
Sayyid Kāzim also interprets the seven graphic sigla of the
Mightiest Name imamologically, as [1] Muhammad, and six of the
Imams, [2] 'Alî, [3] Fatima [4] Hasan, [5] Husayn, [6] Ja'far
and [7] Mūsā. These seven are indicative of the fullness, the
pleroma of the fourteen (= 2x7) immaculate ones (Sh-Ttnj : 53).
It is also interesting to note that Sayyid Kāẓìm gives the
seventh item, the inverted letter wāw, a messianic significance
stating that it "alludes to the [messianic] Proof (al-hujjat),
the son of Ḥasan [al-Askarī, the 11th Imam, d. c. 260/874]". The
central (hidden) letter "A" (alif) of the three letters of wāw
when spelled out in full (= واوً
=
W+A+W) represents the Qa'im
(messianic Ariser) as one "stationed
between the two gulfs (ţutunjayn), the isthmus (barzakh) between
the two worlds". This mode of exegesis is also taken up in
Bābī-Baha'ī scripture, most notably in the Qayyum ai-asma' of
the Bāb and, for example, the al-Kitāb al-aqdas ( "Most Holy
Book" c. 1873) and Lawh-i Hartik [Hardegg] of Bahā'u'llāh. In this paper the above and related themes and motifs will be
succinctly developed and commented upon in the light of Islamic
and Shaykhî, Bābī and BahäT doctrines and practices.
ENDNOTES
[1] Arab. text cited from al-Būni, Shams, cited Winckler,
1930:69-71 with German trans. 71 ; text and French trans.
Anawati, 1967:24, 27; Eng. trans. MacEoin, 1982 [BSB 1/1:4-14] =
1992:93-97 = App. XXIII. I have adapted MacEoin's translation in
the light of the other translations and al-Būnī's Shams.
SEE FURTHER:
http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/SHAYKHISM/Rashti..htm
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