True Vision - The Ka`bah and the Imam
The Ka`bah and the Imam
Tags: Ka`bah, House of God, Imam
The Ka`bah is the sacred and venerated house of God and the adequate proof of this is that He called it His house (2:125; 22:26; 106:3). Now, if someone, according to his particular intellect and defective logic, considers revering it as idolatry and does not believe in its ta'wīlī wisdoms, it will be his misunderstanding and great ignorance, because he does not at least believe that some wisdom and expediency of God is contained in it.
Similarly, at the level of haqīqat, the Imam of the time is the exalted house of God, in proof of which there are numerous bright proofs in the Qur'ān, the Hadīth and reasoning. One of the proofs is that according to verse (57:3) Allah is the First, the Last, the Apparent and the Hidden. That is, Allah is present and living in every world. Thus, if in the world of sharī`at, His house is the Ka`bah, in the world of haqīqat His house is the pure personality of the Imam of the time, because the sharī`at is the exoteric (zāhir) and haqīqat is its esoteric (bātin) aspect. It is impossible to think that in zāhir God should have a specific house, but not in bātin. Rather, the fact is that the Ka`bah is a symbol (mithāl) and the exalted Imam is the symbolised (mamthūl) and there is no doubt that both the symbol and the symbolised of God are extremely sacred, blessed and venerable.
| Chapter Index | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter |