Please Help. I Need 4 Pages From A Book :(

[hadez803]

Salam,

I don't know if this is the right place to post this or not, but, if possible, can someone send me a scan/image of pages 48-49 and 55-56 from this book:

The divine guide in early Shiʻism: the sources of esotericism in Islam

By Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

Translated by David Streight

Publisher SUNY Press, 1994

I found the book in Google Books but in the preview it does not show the 4 pages I mentioned above. I need this for an academic article and here in Iran, we don't have much access to these books.

Plz email them to me at: hadez803(at)yahoo.com

thanks

[Gypsy]

(salam)

I can probably get you these pages but not in the scan. Is it okay for copy and paste? I am not able to preserve the online formatting. The numbers you see are refering to the footnotes.

These are the pages you requested.

Page 48

The Imamite vision of God entails two distinct times. In compilations of Imamite traditions there are chapters

dedicated to the first of these, the impossibility of ocular vision; this is perhaps the reason why this first aspect has

already been studied. 240 But studying the first "phase" of the theory and omitting the second result in destroying the

equilibrium, neglecting the theological fundamentals, and finally suppressing the practical and initiatory implications

that, to our mind, constitute its finality. It is true that the details concerning vision with (or in) the heart, its contents,

its modalities, its initiatory function, and its results are quite fragmentary, allusive, and dispersed throughout an

impressive mass of traditions;241 a relatively clear idea is possible only through systematic examination of the

compilations.242

As has been seen, vision is possible only when there is similarity of nature between the seeing subject and the seen

object; God, in his Essence, remains a "thing" absolutely different from other things; what remains forever invisible

is the divine Essence, since it transcends absolutely everything, including vision. But at the same time, God, in his

manifested aspect (the "signs," the "indices," said the fifth imam) is visible to the heart of the "believer." The two

"phases'' of the theory of the vision of God are illustrated by two speeches of Ja'far* al-Sâdiq*; the first comes in a

commentary on chapter 7 of the Qur'an*, verse 143, concerning Moses' request to see God: "In relation to the Lord,

three things are impossible for servants: manifestation (al-tajallî, "theophany"), access (al-wasla*), and knowledge

(ma'rifa*); for no eye can see Him, no heart can reach Him, no intellect can know Him."243 Elsewhere, the same

imam gives this reply to a disciple who asked him about the raptures (ghashya) that the Prophet was in when

revelation "descended upon" him: "It was when there was no longer anyone [to be understood as the absence of the

angel of revelation] between God and him; it was when God showed Himself to him."244 The first speech concerns

the divine Essence, not manifested and not manifestable, eternally unattainable, unknowable, inconceivable; the

second looks toward the revealed God, His sign, His symbol, that is to say, His "organ," one might also say, the

Imam.

What can be revealed through fragments concerning vision with the heart goes in the same direction. What is seen

with "the eye of the heart"245 is a light (nûr), or more precisely several modalities of light (anwâr).246 It is located

at the center of the heart and is sometimes identified with Hiero-Intelligence (al-'aql*): "Hiero-Intelligence in the

heart is like a lamp in the center of the house."247 'Aql is the means of vision with the heart and in this case it is a

synonym of îmân, faith,248 but at the same time its reality (haqîqa*) constitutes the object of vision. It is known that

the reality of 'aql is identical to the Imam: 'aql is the interior Imam of the believer, the Armies of 'aql are identical to

the "pure beings" initiated by the Imam, the first thing created by God was either 'aql, or the pre-existential light of

the Imam, and so on. This is why we also find furtive allusions attempting to prove the presence of the light of the

Imam

Page 49

in the heart, even the identity of the Imam and the heart: "The light of the Imam in the hearts of the faithful is more

brilliant than that of the brilliant day star"; 249 "the rank of the heart within the body is the same as the rank of the

imam among those who owe their obedience to him."250 The object of vision with the heart and in the heart is thus

the light of the Imam, the Supreme Symbol (al-mathal al-a'lä*) and the Greatest Sign (al-âyat al-kubrä) of the

revealed God. The Imam is the Light of God,251 whence the evocations of the vision of God with (or in) the heart.

The sine qua non condition of this vision is faith, îmân; God does not make Himself visible to the heart of the faithful

believer (mu'min*) except throught "the realities of faith," his light: that is, the light of the Imam is found only in the

hearts of the faithful; we know that in Imamite technical terminology ''faith" means Imamite "religion" in the sense of

the esoteric (bâtin*) part of the prophetic message, particularly love (walâya-mahabba*) and submission (taslîm) to

the ontological Imam and his terrestrial manifestations, the historical imams. In the same way, by "faithful" is meant

"true Shî'ites*," that is, those initiated by the imams.

This possibility of vision flows logically, it might be said, both from Imamite cosmogony and from its theory of

vision founded on theology. We have seen that the heart of the faithful believer is consubstantial with the body of the

Imam, a body identical in pre-existence with the luminous form of the Imam. The heart of the faithful Imamite and

the luminous form of he Imam are thus essentially identical, which makes the act of vision possible where the seeing

subject is the "heart of the initiated" and the object seen is the "Imam's body of light." The light of the Imam as the

greatest evidence of what can be manifested by God appears to have several modalities; various remarks by the

imams allude to the complexity of these modalities:

'Alî* b. Abî Talib* states: "God created the Throne from four lights: Red, which reddens all that is red; Green, which

makes green all that is green; Yellow, which yellows all that is yellow; and White, which whitens all that is white.

[The Throne] is the Knowledge that God ordained the Carriers [of the Throne] to carry, and this light is [drawn] from

his Grandeur. It is by his Grandeur and his Light that God gives sight to the hearts of his believers. . . . "252 A

sentence from Ja'far* adds other details about these lights: "The sun is one seventieth of the light of the Seat (kursî),

this Seat being one seventieth of the light of the Throne ('arsh*), with the Throne being one seventieth of the Light of

the Veil (hijâb*), and the Veil being one seventieth of the light of the Curtain (sitr); thus if [those who claim the

possibility of ocular vision of God] are sincere, let them stare at the sun (lit. "let them fill their eyes with the sun)

when it is not hidden by clouds."253 Finally, in the words of the eighth imam, 'Alî al-Ridâ*, these elements appear to

find a certain "synthesis," being placed in a visionary experience: " . . . When Muhammad* directed the glance of his

heart to his Lord, he placed Him [ja'alahu*, perhaps meaning "he visualized Him"?] in a light similar to that of the

Veils (al-hujub*) until that which is in [sic] the Veils

page 55

tioner; once again, we here find the ubiquitous "pair" in all levels of early Imamology, (initiatory) Knowledge and

(supernatural) Power. 278

We have seen the extremely reticent and critical position of the imams vis-à-vis exclusively speculative theology. It

appears as though according the the imams proximity to and the knowledge of the divine plan do not happen by

theological speculations, methods of dialectical reasoning, or personal attempts at rationalization (kalâm, qiyâs,

ra'y*, ijtihâd), but through direct living experience, that interior experience of what can be seen and known of God,

that is to say, of his manifestation, the Imam. It is through this experience, where love for the Imam (al-walâya)

plays a fundamental role, that, according to the imams, true faith is realized, a faith beyond assimilationism (tashbîh,

we are not here speaking of God but of His manifestation) and agnosticism (ta'tl*, the knowledge of God is not

dismissed in the name of an absolute apophatic theology). Vision with the heart appears to be the means par

excellence of bringing about this experience: the vision of the Imam of Light of whom the ontological Imam is the

archetype and the historical imam is the manifestation available to the senses. Thus, the initiatory practice, quite

probably accompanied by prayers with sacred phrases, becomes an actualization, a repetition of the primordial event

of the pre-existential Initiation where the shadows of the "pure beings" learned secret phrases from the luminous

form of the Imam and repeated them in his presence. The imams present their doctrine as being that of the Secret,

enclosing well-guarded secrets: "Our doctrine is a secret contained within a secret, a well-protected secret, a secret

that is of advantage only to a secret, a secret veiled by a secret";279 "our doctrine is hidden, sealed by the

pretemporal Pact. God will make him who reveals it despicable";280 "our doctrine is the Truth, the Truth of the

Truth, it is the exoteric and the esoteric and the esoteric of the esoteric; it is the secret and the secret of the secret, a

well-protected secret, hidden by a secret."281 As regards vision with the heart, undoubtedly one of the greatest

secrets of the teaching, one might think that the ontological Imam is the contents of the Secret, contents seen in the

secret of the heart, and the historical imam its container and he who initiates the faithful believer.282 Only the

faithful believer, the beneficiary of the Light of the Imam of his heart, is said to be able to penetrate, for the same

reason as a prophet or an archangel, the secrets of the teaching: ''Our teaching is arduous, very difficult; the only ones

who can stand it [var: "can add their faith to it"] are a prophet sent from God, an angel of Proximity, or a faithful

believer whose heart has been tested by God for faith."283 According to our hypothesis, the technical "allusions" to

vision with the heart in the early corpus of the imams would be the earliest attestation of a spiritual practice in Islam,

practice which would later be in widespread use among mystics in both Sunnism and Shî'sm*; at the same time it

demonstrates, within Imamite doctrine, the experiential aspect of an interiorized Imamology.

page 56

II-4. Conception and Birth

The information related to the conception and birth of the imam constitutes one of the privileged domains of the

"marvelous" in Imamism, but here again we must be conscious of the fact that we are dealing with a "theosophic"

doctrine where the marvelous only serves as an introduction to the occult and leads to a certain vision of the sacred.

What we are studying here finds its natural place at the juncture of the pre-existence and the existence of the imam,

and guides us toward the latter.

In a long hadith, Ja'far * al-Sâdiq* describes the circumstances of the conception and birth of an imam for a group of

his disciples who accompanied him on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The speech took place on the occasion of the birth of

Ja'far's son, Mûsä al-Kâzim*.284 According to this hadith, the night that the seed of an imam is foreseen to be

conceived, a mysterious being (âtin, lit. "an arriver") appears before his father, the present imam, and has him drink

something "finer than water, softer than butter, sweeter than honey, colder than snow, and whiter than milk," and

commands him to unite with his spouse; thus the seed of the future imam is conceived. After four months, "the spirit

is produced in the seed,"285 then God sends a celestial entity called Hayawan* ("the Living,'' lit. "the Animated") to

inscribe on the embryo's right arm the phrase "And the Word of Your Lord is accomplished in all truth and justice.

No one can change His Words, He it is who hears and knows" (Qur'an* 6:115).286 Once born, the child places his

hands on the earth, for "he receives all the Science of God come down from Heaven on earth," and raises his head

toward the sky, for "from the interior of the Throne and on behalf of the Lord of Magnificence, a Herald calls him by

name and by the name of his father, and this from the Supreme Horizon (al-ufuq al-a'lä*)"287 and says: "You are my

chosen one among my creatures, the place of my Secret, the repository of my Science, my confidant in my

Revelation, my vicar on my earth. I have reserved my Mercy, offered my Paradise, and allowed my Proximity to you

and to those who love you with a holy love (li-man tawallâka, i.e., all those who feel walâya for you and believe in

your walâya, that is, the "true Shî'ites*") and by my Glory and my Majesty I shall consume with my worst

punishments him who rises up as an enemy against you, even if in the lower world I allow him to profit from an easy

life (lit: "even if I provide for him in this lower world which is mine, the riches of my provisions")." Once the

celestial Herald stops speaking, the newborn imam answers: "God has given this testimony, and with him the angels

and those who are endowed with wisdom: there is no other god than He, He who maintains justice, there is no other

god than He, the powerful, the wise (Qur'an 3:18)." After this word, God gives him the "First Knowledge and the

Last Knowledge" (al-'ilm* al-awwal wa l-'ilm* al-âkhir), and he [the imam] becomes worthy of the visit of the

celestial entity al-Rûh* (lit. "the Spirit") during the night of the Decree (laylat

maybe someone else a better copy or scan

[Hameedeh]

Salam,

I don't know if this is the right place to post this or not, but, if possible, can someone send me a scan/image of pages 48-49 and 55-56 from this book:

The divine guide in early Shiʻism: the sources of esotericism in Islam

By Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

Translated by David Streight

Publisher SUNY Press, 1994

I found the book in Google Books but in the preview it does not show the 4 pages I mentioned above. I need this for an academic article and here in Iran, we don't have much access to these books.

Plz email them to me at: hadez803(at)yahoo.com

thanks

(bismillah)

(wasalam)

Try this link: http://www.scribd.co...ic-Ism-in-Islam

eltemaase do'aa

edit: I see Zareen got it for you. :)

Edited September 15, 2011 by Hameedeh

[hadez803]

Salam,

Wow! That was quick.

Thank you very much both of you. May Allah give you the best of rewards.

[Mustafa]

Haha. Nice.