Esoteric Knowledge in Shi'i Islam

A number of speeches have been attributed to ꜤAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib that express his own esoteric dimensions as an Imam. These have largely been kept out of the contemporary mainstream corpus of ShīꜤī works because of doubts regarding their authenticity. Quite possibly, some of their content dates back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries; however, the foundations of these speeches can be found in others attributed to ꜤAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in Muḥammad ibn YaꜤqūb al-Kulaynī’s al-Kāfī.

This class examines the meaning and theological implications of the speeches in al-Kāfī, and focuses in particular on the well-known Ḥadīth al-Ḥaqīqa, which is meant to be an account of a conversation between ꜤAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and his close companion, Kumayl ibn Ziyād, which ꜤAlī teaches him that ‘reality’ (al-ḥaqīqa) is that which is revealed and directly experienced beyond all conception and speculation.

Reading

ar-Rāzī, Al-Kāfī, Vol. 1, Al-Usūl, Part Two, Section 4/V, pps 374-375.

ar-Rāzī, Al-Kāfī, Vol. 1, Al-Usūl, Part Two, Section 4/1, pps 85-87; 90-91.

Hadīth al-haqīqa, translation by Nima Azal.

Amir-Moezzi, The Spirituality of Shi‘i Islam, pps 117-131.

Ḥasan al-Baṣrī is a major figure in Sufi culture, appearing immediately after ꜤAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in the Sufi chains of initiation (silsilas). He is supposed to have imbibed the knowledge of the Prophet’s Family. This class presents a number of sources and studies that explore how his personality was constructed over time. This is followed by a selection of silsilas, whose historical anomalies are examined. After that, the class turns to the figure of Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj, who, according to legend, was executed for uttering ‘I am the Truth’ while in a state of ecstatic love for God. Narrations appearing in ShīꜤī ḥadīth collections denouncing al-Ḥallāj are discussed. A biography of al-Ḥallāj by Annemarie Schimmel is also included.

Reading

Rebecca Masterton, ‘A comparative exploration of the spiritual authority of the awliyā’ in the Shi‘ī and Sūfī traditions with reference to the works of the Dhahabī Order and Allamah Tabataba‘i’, in ShīꜤī Spirituality for the Twenty-First Century (London: Light Reading, 2020), extracts.

Imam Zayn al-ꜤAbidīn ꜤAlī ibn al-Husayn, The Psalms of Islam, al-Sahīfat al-Kāmilat al-Sajjādiyya, trans. and introduction by William C. Chittick, foreword by S.H.M. Jafri (Qum: Ansariyan Publications, 2001), p. xli.

Suleiman Ali Mourad, Early Islam between Myth and History: Al-Hasan al-Basrī (d. 110 H/728 CE) and the Formation of His Legacy in Classical Islamic Scholarship, (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pps 21-29; 84-91.

‘Allāmah Muhammad Bāqir al-Majlisī, The Book of Occultation: Kitāb al-Ghaiba (Bihār al-Anwār, Volume 51), trans. Hassan Allahyari (Qum: Ansariyan Publications, 2007, second ed.), pps 456-459.

Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press,1975), pps 64-77.

Husayn Ibn Mansur Hallāj, The Tawasin (California: Diwan Press, 1974), p. 46.

Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī (d. 869 AD) (not to be confused with the author of Sunan Tirmidhī) is credited with being the first in what became the Sunnī Sufi tradition of establishing the concept of walāya and elaborating a hierarchy of saints. Ibn ꜤArabī (d. 1240 AD), who believed himself to be the Seal of the Saints, is said to have been inspired by al-Tirmidhī’s Khātam al-Awliyāʾ (Seal of the Saints, also known as Ṣirāṭ al-Awliyāʾ: the Way of the Saints).

This class presents a comparative study of statements that al-Tirmidhī makes in his work with regard to walāya and the characteristics of the walī Allāh (Friend of God), and those narrated in al-Kulaynī’s al-Kāfī from the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt about walāya and the characteristics of the Imam. As al-Kāfī is a compilation of earlier ḥadīth collections, it appears that al-Tirmidhī relied upon these texts in order to compose his own.

Reading

Masterton, A comparative exploration of the spiritual authority of the awliyā’, extracts.

Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī elaborated a spiritual hierarchy of the awliyāʾ (Friends of God), consisting of different levels, the awliyāʾ of each level being given a particular title and function, such as the ‘awtād’ (tent pegs that hold the religion firmly) and the ‘abdāl’ (substitutes who replace one another once one departs from this world).

This class presents a translated extract from Henry Corbin’s chapter on spiritual hierarchies, which explains the structure of the spiritual hierarchy around the Imam, suggesting that the concept of the spiritual hierarchy around the master originated with the Imams, their students and their followers. Narrations in ShīꜤī texts that contain the terms ‘awtād’ and ‘abdāl’ support this hypothesis. A consideration of the Imāmī tradition shows that, contrary to Tirmidhī being the originator, the concept and structure of a spiritual hierarchy existed prior to him in Imāmī culture.

Reading

Corbin, En Islam iranien, Chapter III, Section 4, ‘Les hierarchies spirituelles invisible’, pps 118-125.

‘ꜤAmal Umm Dawood’, in Sheikh Abbas al-Qummi, Supplications, prayers, and Ziarats: Call on Me, I answer you [Mafātiḥ al-Jinān] (Qum: Ansariyan Publications, 2004), p. 277.

Amir-Moezzi, The Spirituality of Shi‘i Islam, pps 209-210.

Masterton, A comparative exploration of the spiritual authority of the awliyā’, extracts.

This week’s class discusses the elaboration of cosmic hierarchies as envisioned by both pre-Islamic Christian mystics and the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, in order to illustrate the continuity of the idea that there are different levels of existence and with that, different levels of time.

The landscape of the barzakh (intermediary spiritual realm) will be explored through translated excerpts of Henry Corbin’s En Islam Iranien, followed by the work of one Sunnī and one ShīꜤī mystic, in which, with reference to the Qurʾān, they both seek to explicate the nature of time of the material realm and time of the realm of the soul.

Reading

Rebecca Masterton, ‘A Critical Comparison of the Manifestation of Cosmic Hierarchies in Christian and Islamic Mystical Theology’, Journal of Shī‘a Islamic Studies (London: ICAS Press, Autumn 2009), Volume II, No. 4, pps 401-422. Extracts.

Corbin, En Islam Iranien, pps 176-180.

Henry Corbin, History of Islamic Philosophy, trans. Liadain Sherrard (London: Kegan Paul International, Part One: 1964; Part Two: 1974), pps.298-301 and pps 346-349.

Zuhd (asceticism) is one of the foundational and fundamental philosophies and practices of Islam. This week’s class commences with the dictionary definition of zuhd, before turning to the Qurʾān to explore how it presents the material world in which we live: it is a temporary pastime, while the afterlife is more lasting and of greater value.

It then turns to the āḥādīth that feature in a number of sources in order to examine the concept of zuhd in more detail and to compare how it is presented in both ShīꜤī and Sunnī Sufi texts. The class concludes with a chapter from Kamil al-Shaibi’s Sufism and Shiism, in which he discusses how the culture of zuhd started with Prophet Muḥammad, ꜤAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and his followers, and then expanded into different regions, to be adopted by Sunnī Sufis.

Reading

Munir Baalbaki and Dr. Rohi Baalbaki (eds.), Mawrid al-Waseet Concise Dictionary, Al- (Lebanon: Beirut, Dar el-Ilm LilMalayin, 2000), p. 394

Notes and selections from Qurʾān and āḥādīth.

Kamil al-Shaibi, Sufism and Shiism (Surrey: LAAM, 1991), pps 35-55.

The practice of dhikr (remembrance of God) in its various forms is primarily associated with Sufism. This week’s class looks at how dhikr is mentioned in the Qurʾān and āḥādīth, both Sunnī and ShīꜤī. The subject of love for God and God’s love for the human being is then discussed, as it was a controversial subject during the ꜤAbbāsid era, with early Sufis being summoned to court and investigated for this belief. Again, the idea of God as the Beloved is most commonly associated with Sufism, but in works of the ShīꜤī corpus, including āḥādīth, supplications and ziyārāt, it can be seen that it was an integral part of the ShīꜤī tradition.

Reading

Notes and selections from Qurʾān and ahadīth.

Imām Ja‘far Ibn Muhammad as-Ṣādiq, al-, Lantern of the Path, trans. Fadlallah Haeri (Qum: Ansariyan Publications, 2007), pps 106-107.

‘DuꜤa Abu Hamza al-Thumalee’, in al-Qummi, Supplications, prayers, and Ziarats, pps 334 and 336.

‘Ziyarat Aminallah’, in al-Qummi, Supplications, prayers, and Ziarats, p. 696.

Imam Zayn al-‘Abidīn ‘Alī ibn al-Husayn, The Psalms of Islam, al-Sahīfat al-Kāmilat al-Sajjādiyya, trans. and introduction by William C. Chittick, foreword by S.H.M. Jafri (Qum: Ansariyan Publications, 2001), ‘The Whispered Prayer of the Fearful [al-khā’ifin]’, pps 237-238; ‘The Whispered Prayer of the Utterly Poor [al-muftaqirin]’, pps 251-252; ‘The Whispered Prayer of the Rememberers [al-dhākirin]’, pps 256.

The Scale of Wisdom, A Compendium of Shi‘a Hadith, compiled by M Muhammadi Rayshahri, trans. N Virjee, A Kadhim, M Dasht Bozorgi, Z Alsalami, A Virjee, ed. N Virjee (London, ICAS Press, 2009), p. 238.