Recognition of Imam Part I - Introduction
Introduction
Tags: Imam
By the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful!
Indeed God and His angels send salawat (blessings) through the Prophet. O you who believe, seek salawat through him and duly submit to him (33:56). Allahumma salli `ala Muhammadin wa al-i Muhammad (O Allah send salawat through Muhammad and the progeny of Muhammad).
1. This book consists of the explanations and ta'wils (esoteric interpretations) of those sacred Qur'anic verses in which the Imam and Imamat are clearly mentioned, although internally no verse of the wise Qur'an is devoid of the subject of Imamat. Therefore it is extremely important to discuss those verses.
2. Verse (36:12) shows that God, may He be blessed and exalted, has kept every intellectual, spiritual and physical thing immersed in the light of the most noble Imam. According to the principles of Qur'anic wisdom, it is clear that all subjects are condensed in the subject of Imamat and all words in the word 'Imam'. Thus, it was necessary and essential to explain in one book all those verses in which the words Imam or a'immah (pl. of Imam) are mentioned and to do so in the light of ta'wil.
3. Those mu'mins whose inner eye has opened can observe the reality that everything in the universe and among the existents testifies that the Imam is ever-living and ever-present in this world and nothing in the physical and spiritual world is without this testimony.
4. When it is apparent from the Qur'anic verse (36:12) that everything is enclosed and encompassed in the sacred light of the manifest Imam, it necessarily has to appear immersed in the colour of the luminosity of the exalted Imam. Thus, not only everything of the Qur'an and the Hadith, but everything of the [entire] universe also appears in this way.
5. If according to the Hadith: “He who recognises him/herself recognises his/her Lord”, it is accepted that one's own recognition (khud-shinasi) results in God's recognition (Khuda-shinasi), then the Perfect Man's (Imam's) recognition cannot be exempt from this subject either. For, without the recognition of the Perfect Man, the recognition of the imperfect man alone cannot be the example of God's recognition. In fact, it is from the initial recognition of the Imam that one's own recognition is attained and from his final recognition, God's recognition.
6. In verse (28:88) God says: “Everything is perishable except His face.” It should be known that by God's face is meant His recognition, and God's recognition is that reality which is hidden in the Imam's recognition. As Mawlana `Ali(`a) says: “I am the face (recognition) of Allah in the heavens and the earth”.
7. When it is an indisputable fact that the Imam's recognition is God's recognition, then undoubtedly all Divine sciences are also gathered together in this recognition. This is why the Prophet Muhammad(s) said: “He who dies without the recognition of the Imam of the time, dies like a jahil (pagan) and the jahil's place is the hell-fire”. That is, he becomes deprived of the paradise of Divine knowledge.
8. The religion of Islam is the path which leads to union with God and it is called the straight path (sirat-i mustaqim). It has four stages, which are known by the names of shari`at, tariqat, haqiqat and ma`rifat. It is obvious that the desired destination and the ultimate stage is ma`rifat, i.e., God's recognition.
9. It is said that shari`at is like the night, tariqat like the light of the stars, haqiqat like the light of the moon and ma`rifat like the light of the sun. It is the light of ma`rifat in which the reality of everything can duly be observed.
10. Ma`rifat and yaqin (certainty) mean the same thing. Certainty has three stages: knowledge of certainty, eye of certainty and the truth of certainty. Thus, the initial recognition is in the knowledge of certainty, the intermediary in the eye of certainty and the final, in the truth of certainty. To elaborate further: the initial recognition of the manifest Imam is in a knowledge which is free from any doubt and is absolutely certain; intermediary recognition is in a didar (vision) and mushahadah (observation), which is seen by the inner eye and the final recognition is in the miraculous spiritual experience in which the 'I' of a true mu'min disappears in the Imam's light just as the darkness and blackness of a piece of coal disappears amidst the cinders of fire.
11. Without the Imam's recognition, the recognition of the Prophet's light is impossible and without the Prophet's light, God's recognition, because the gate of Prophethood is Imamat and that of Divinity is Prophethood.
12. There are four stages of living existents: vegetative soul, animal soul, rational or human soul and the Holy Spirit. God's recognition is in the Holy Spirit, which is the blessed soul of the Perfect Man, namely the Imam of the time.
13. If someone asks: If ma`rifat means to see the Imam's soul, i.e., his light, why is it said: “He who recognises himself, (i.e., his soul) recognises his Lord”? The answer is that the soul which belongs to the Imam in its actual form belongs to the true mu'min in its potential form. In other words, the first soul of a mu'min can be attained from vegetables, the second from animals, the third from human beings and the fourth, namely, the Holy Spirit, from the Imam. A true mu'min must attain this, his final soul and recognise it duly.
14. If it is accepted that a human being has four souls, then we have to accept that they have four ways of entering his body. The vegetative and animal souls initially continue to enter through the navel and later on (i.e., after birth) through the mouth, and the rational soul and the Holy Spirit initially through the physical ears and then through the ears of understanding (gush-i hush).
15. As it is absolutely impossible for the vegetative and animal souls to enter the human body without material food, similarly it is also absolutely impossible for the rational soul and the Holy Spirit to enter the human heart and mind without spiritual food. Spiritual food is the discourse of knowledge and wisdom.
16. The way of creating the soul which has ma`rifat, i.e., the Holy Spirit in oneself, by attaining the grace and blessings from the sacred light of the Imam of the time, is to follow his sacred farmans related to both knowledge and practice and priority must be given to his pleasure over everything.
17. The basic condition for the Imam's recognition is belief, because the Imam's recognition cannot be attained by someone who does not have the correct belief. To attain correct belief it is generally essential to have a proper religious environment during childhood.
18. The second condition for the Imam's recognition is to have his friendship and to love him. Love is the developed form of belief and its development is in his obedience.
19. The third condition of the Imam's recognition is ardent love (`ishq) for him, which is the developed form of love. Its development lies in becoming aware of the physical and spiritual beauties of the Imam of the time, for a person cannot fall in love with someone until he sees his beauty and goodness or hears about them from a truthful person.
20. If a mu'min's heart begins to be inflamed with the love of the Imam of the time, his mute expression (zaban-i hal) and spoken word (zaban-i qal), will indicate how a mu'min can progress on the path of the Imam of the time's recognition.
The gist of the above-mentioned points is that without the recognition of the Imam of the time, no spiritual goal in the Isma`ili faith can be achieved. All its virtues are hidden in the Imam's recognition. It is also evident from the realities mentioned above that the ever-living and ever-present Imam himself is the very means of his own recognition. Therefore, it is he who alone must be obeyed by the mu'mins.
It has already been said that a mu'min loves the Imam of the time only when he sees his incomparable beauties or hears about them from a truthful person. Thus, the purpose of writing this book is that the true mu'mins [by reading it become] aware of the knowledge, excellence, spirituality and luminosity of the exalted Imam of the time and attain his sacred `ishq or ardent love and thereby attain his recognition.
Finally, it is my humble prayer in the court of the Lord of the worlds, that He, in His infinite grace and benevolence, may enrich all mu'min men and women with the limitless wealth of the Imam's recognition! Protect them from the sedition of the End of Time! Grant them the material and spiritual bounties and exalt them both in this world and in the next! Amin! O the Lord of the worlds!
A humble slave of the Imam of the time,
Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai,
Wednesday, 21 Jumada II, 1392/2 August, 1972.
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