Recognition of Imam Part I - Can a Heavenly Book be the Imam
Can a Heavenly Book be the Imam
Tags: Heavenly Book, Hazrat Musa, Hazrat Harun, Torah, Guarded Tablet, Divine Pen
In verse (11:17) God says: “Is he who is on a clear proof from his Lord and follows him a witness of him and before him the Book of Musa (Torah) which was an Imam and a mercy (for the people, testifies to him, better or someone else)?”
This verse teaches [us] that the holy Prophet is on a clear proof from his Lord, i.e., he is the true Prophet of Allah and `Ali-yi Murtaza(May peace be through him), who is from him, follows him and is a witness to his truthfulness. Another witness in this connection is the Book of Hazrat-i Musa(May peace be through him) before him, which was an Imam and a mercy for the people. All these realities are universally accepted, but there is a question regarding the Book of Musa, the Torah, as to how it was an Imam?
The answer to this question is that according to the rule of the Arabic language, sometimes a thing is called by the name of another thing which is most often associated with it. For example, the camel that carries the water-skin is sometimes referred to as the water-skin. Such examples can also be found in languages other than Arabic. Thus, the learned people know that in the glorious Qur'an, the holy Prophet is mentioned as dhikr (remembrance) (65:10-11), although dhikr is the name of the Qur'an. It is in this sense therefore, the holy Prophet is called the dhikr (= Qur'an). It is correct in many respects, some of which are external and some internal. Thus, it is established that from the ta'wili point of view, the spiritual leader (the Prophet or Imam) is called the Divine or Heavenly Book and vice versa.
Another reason for calling the Book of Musa an 'Imam' is that every Heavenly Book is originally a living light, i.e., the soul of knowledge and wisdom, which in reality is the spirit of the Imam himself. The Holy Spirit of Mawlana Harun(May peace be through him) was revealed to Hazrat-i Musa(May peace be through him) in the form of a spiritual Book, the description of whose spiritual states and events was written on paper to some extent as the Torah, but the real Torah was in the spiritual and luminous form. That is, the real Torah was not separate from the light of the exalted Imam, as the wise Qur'an says: “Say, who revealed the Book which Musa brought, a light and a guidance for humankind, which you put on the sheets of paper that you show, but you hide much of it” (6:91).
The wisdom of this holy verse shows that the Torah was in two forms: In the first and original form it was in Hazrat-i Harun(May peace be through him) and Hazrat-i Musa(May peace be through him)'s heart and mind as the miraculous light and all-embracing Holy Spirit of knowledge and wisdom, rectitude and guidance. From this miraculous light, according to “a light and a guidance for humankind” (6:91), the people used to receive miraculous guidance in such a way that the hujjats of the islands used to receive inspirational (ilhami) light directly and they used to guide the people through their respective da`is. The other form of the Torah is described in the above-mentioned verse.
The explanation of this Qur'anic wisdom establishes that the Torah was definitely an Imam in its original and luminous state, by which is meant the sacred light of Hazrat-i Mawlana Harun(May peace be through him). For further verification and corroboration of this reality, the following holy verse should be reflected upon: “And thus We have revealed unto you (this Book in the form of) a spirit from Our Command. You knew not what the Book is, nor what the (ultimate perfection of) faith. But We made it (the spirit) a light whereby We guide whom We will of Our servants” (42:52). This verse shows that the wise Qur'an too has a spiritual and luminous origin and reality, which is called the light of the Prophet and Imam.
Now, despite the clear explanation of the above-mentioned realities and recognition of the Heavenly Book and the light which are explained in the light of the Qur'an, if someone still questions: How can the Heavenly Book be the light of the Prophet and the Imam? The detailed answer will be given in the light of logic. For instance, when you write a letter to one of your dear ones, the information which you write in it does not leave your mind and become confined to the letter unlike the case of a material thing when it is poured from one container to another, it does not remain in the former. In fact, the information written in the letter remains in your heart and mind in its original state; there is not the slightest decrease in it. As long as it is in the human mind it does not have a written form, it is only in an inner and mental state. It is a different matter whether a human being can write something through will power even in his/her imagination (khayal). This example demonstrates the reality that the miraculous light of Qur'anic knowledge and wisdom, which had appeared in the holy personalities of Muhammad(s) and `Ali(May peace be through him), would not decrease by being written down [in the physical form of] the Qur'an.
Further, if an objection is raised that the Qur'an was not written from the knowledge of the holy Prophet and the Imam but that God had revealed it to the Prophet from the Guarded Tablet, the answer is undoubtedly that it was indeed revealed to the Prophet from the Guarded Tablet, but it is necessary to know how it was revealed and what the Guarded Tablet is. Thus, it should be known that the Qur'an was revealed to the blessed heart of the Prophet as a living spirit. The Qur'an's revelation is full of the descriptions of spiritual secrets, which require a separate treatise. In short, whatever is revealed to the heart takes the form of knowledgeable and intelligible things and its scope expands gradually until it embraces the entire universe and the existents in it. Thus the spirit of the Qur'an revealed to the Prophet had come to him in the form of the angelic world or the world of angels (May peace be through himlam-i malakut). It was a luminous, living and wakeful world of knowledge and wisdom and the unveiling of reality, the observations and experiences of which were expressed by the Prophet in the Arabic language and thus the holy Qur'an was compiled in the written form. However, the spirit or the light of the Qur'an existed in his noble personality until the end, without the slightest decrease.
Now the question: How did this spirit or light come to Mawlana Murtaza `Ali(May peace be through him)? The answer is that according to the verse “And We have encompassed everything in the manifest Imam” (36:12), `Ali(May peace be through him)'s light is the manifest Imam, the manifest Book, the Mother of the Book and the Guarded Tablet, which contains everything. Other than the Imam's light, nothing can be in the position of the Guarded Tablet. If due to the literal concept of the Tablet it is supposed that God has a huge Tablet on which everything is written, it can be argued that physical writing cannot contain everything, such as intelligence, consciousness, understanding, speech, discernment, happiness, grief, anger, knowledge, forbearance, life and also intellects, souls, angels, that is, everything in the universe and the existents such as time and its changing conditions, etc., whereas in 'everything' (36:12) all these things are included. Thus, it is clear that the Guarded Tablet is the name of the Imam's light, which comprises and embraces the exterior and interior of the universe and existents and it is this light which encompasses everything.
It should be known that the Universal Intellect is the living Pen of God and the Universal Soul His living Tablet. It should also be known that the Universal Intellect is Muhammad(s)'s light and the Universal Soul, `Ali(May peace be through him)'s. The Qur'an is written in spiritual writing on the Tablet of the Universal Soul with the Pen of the Universal Intellect. So, from where did the spiritual writing or the Qur'an reveal to the holy Prophet? It revealed from the light of the exalted `Ali(May peace be through him), which is known as the Guarded Tablet. Further, although the holy Prophet's light was in the position of the Divine Pen, but by the Command of God, it had written everything on the Guarded Tablet in pre-eternity (azal) and thus everything is now in it. Furthermore, it is clear that in order to write we have to use a pen and in order to read, a tablet. Thus, it is evident that the holy Prophet observed the wisdom of the Divine writings on the 'Mother of the Book' or the 'Guarded Tablet' of `Ali(May peace be through him)'s light, and it is from here that the Qur'an has been received.
| Chapter Index | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter |