HISTORY OF ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY
SHIISM AND PROPHETIC PHILOSOPHY
al-satr), which was followed by a new cycle of epiphany and so on, the cycles alternating with each other in rotatory succession. This will continue until the ultimate Resurrection of Resurrections (qiyamat al-qiyamat, which will be the consummation of our Aion and will restore humanity and its Angel to their initial state. In some of their sayings, the holy Imams go as far as calculating the Great Cycle {al- dawr al-a'zam) at 360,000 times 360,000 years.
established on earth by the first Adam, the first Imam on earth, in correspondence with that of the visible and of the invisible Heavens. As we have shown, the 'grades' of the celestial and the terrestrial hierarchies are designated b y the term h a d d ( l i m i t ) . The hadd defines the horizon of consciousness of each level, the mode of knowledge proper to its mode of being. Thus, each lower limit is 'delimited' (mahdud) by the hadd immediately superior to it. Essential for the understanding of the tawhid, this structure determines the entire course of anthropology. Even though the full significance of the esoteric hierarchy throughout the periods of Ismailism still presents problems, its structure has been fully delineated by Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani (d. ca. 408/1017). There is the celestial hierarchy (the hudud above), and there is the terrestrial hierarchy (the hudud below), which symbolize with each other. Altogether, each of these hierarchies forms ten grades, linked together as a triad (the higher levels) and a heptad. (1) On earth there is the natiq, that is to say, the prophet who annunciates a shari'ah, a divine Law communicated to him by the Angel (cf. above, A, 5). This is the letter of the text uttered in exoteric form (zahir), as the code of positive religion. The natiq is the earthly homologue of the First Intelligence, the Intelligence who inaugurated the da'wah 'in Heaven'. (2) There is the wasi, the Imam who is the prophet's direct spiritual heir, the foundation (asas) of the Imamate and the first Imam of a period. As the depository of the secret of prophetic revelation, his proper function is the ta'wil, the esoteric exegesis which 'redirects' the exoteric aspect to the hidden meaning, to its archetype (asl). He is the homologue of the Second Intelligence, the First Emanant or universal Soul. (The dyad of nabi-wasi, First and Second Intelligences, corresponds here to the two aspects of the 'eternal Muhammadan Reality' in Twelver Shiism; see above, A, 3.) (3) There is the Imam who succeeds of asas, and who throughout the cycle maintains the equilibrium of esoteric and exoteric, whose relatedness is indispensable. He is the homologue of the Third Intelligence, the spiritual Adam. This is why each period will have a heptad, or several heptads, of Imams, typifying the interval of 'delay', the time that the celestial Adam must redeem with the help of his followers in order to regain his rank. With regard to the seven other grades, each is, respectively, the homologue of one of the other Forms of light or Intelligences in the Pleroma: the bab or 'threshold'
2. Understandably, the only case about which our Ismaili theosophers are able to speak at length is the transition leading to our present cycle of occultation from the epiphanic cycle which precedes it. The Ismaili ta'wil was applied with extraordinary depth to the Quranic and Biblical history of Adam—an account which is concerned not with an absolute beginning, but with things occurring in the wake of terrible disasters. During the three final millennia of the previous epiphanic cycle, serious disturbances forced high-ranking dignitaries to re-institute the 'discipline of the arcane'. The exalted spiritual sciences were silenced, and humanity became unworthy of the revelation of the mysteries. A religious Law, shari'ah, had to be established, from which the ta'wil would liberate only those whom it would lead to resurrection through rebirth, in the night of symbols. This is the fall known as the 'departure from Paradise'. Henceforth, there is only the 'potential paradise'—that is to say, the esoteric fellowship, the Ismaili da'wah. The Quranic history of Adam is seen as that of the investiture of the young Imam Adam by his father Hunayd, the last Imam of the preceding epiphanic cycle. All the 'terrestrial Angels'—the members of the da 'wah—acknowledged him except Iblis-Satan and his followers. Iblis was a dignitary of the previous cycle, in whose person there now reappeared the form of the Tenebrosity originally precipitated on the Earth by the celestial Adam. Iblis' intention was to move Adam, to appeal to his generosity and thus induce him to reveal to men that 'knowledge of the resurrection' which they had both possessed in the previous cycle. Whereupon Adam, carried away by a mad impulse, betrayed it, giving up to the incomprehension of all men that which could be revealed only by the last Imam of our cycle, the Imam of the Resurrection (qa'im al-qiyamah). 3. The structure of the cycle of occultation inaugurated by our own Adam may be understood with reference to the original structure 88
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