What do you think?
Rate this book
زمان ادواری در مزدیسنا و عرفان اسماعیلیه
کتاب زمان ادواری در مزدیسنا و عرفان اسماعیلیه سه مورد از غنی‌ترین و پیچیده‌ترین مطالعات هنری کوربین را که در اصل در کنفرانس‌های ارانوس در سال‌های 1951 و 1954 و کنفرانس دیگری در سال 1956 ارائه شد، در ترجمه انگلیسی گرد هم می‌آورد. هر یک از این سه مطالعه نسبتا اولیه حول یک مجموعه ساخته شده‌اند "مقایسه" ی بسیار خلاقانه مطابقت های پدیدارشناختی بین متون (اغلب بسیار پراکنده) از طیف گسترده ای از سنت های معنوی از اواخر باستان (از جمله مانوی و فرقه های ایران ساسانی) – که همه ی این مطالعات "عرفانی" هستند به معنای ریشه یونانی آن واژه. که مورد علاقه ی خود کوربین است.
متون اسلامی و نویسندگانی که در اینجا مورد بررسی قرار می‌گیرند، قرن‌ها، مناطق (از مصر تا آسیای مرکزی) و دیدگاه‌های مذهبی و فلسفی بسیار متفاوت را در بر می‌گیرند و به طرز شگفت‌انگیزی خلاقیت، تنوع و قدرت جذب اندیشه اسلامی در قرون اولیه آن تمدن را نشان می‌دهند. (علیرغم غنا و پیچیدگی مقایسه‌های توسعه‌یافته در اینجا، نویسنده به اثبات پیوندهای «تاریخی» نمی‌پردازد، بلکه انواع الهامات و گمانه‌زنی‌های معنوی مکرر و کهن‌الگویی که مورد توجه گروه ارانوس قرار داشت را بررسی می کند) در حالی که مقایسه، روش پدیدارشناختی این کتاب است که معمولا با دوست صمیمی کوربین، میرچا الیاده مرتبط می‌شود، تراکم، پیچیدگی و شدت ادبی دراماتیک نوشته‌های کوربین نظمی کاملا متفاوت دارد.
متون اسلامی و نویسندگانی که در اینجا مورد بررسی قرار می‌گیرند، قرن‌ها، مناطق (از مصر تا آسیای مرکزی) و دیدگاه‌های مذهبی و فلسفی بسیار متفاوت را در بر می‌گیرند و به طرز شگفت‌انگیزی خلاقیت، تنوع و قدرت جذب اندیشه اسلامی در قرون اولیه آن تمدن را نشان می‌دهند. (علیرغم غنا و پیچیدگی مقایسه‌های توسعه‌یافته در اینجا، نویسنده به اثبات پیوندهای «تاریخی» نمی‌پردازد، بلکه انواع الهامات و گمانه‌زنی‌های معنوی مکرر و کهن‌الگویی که مورد توجه گروه ارانوس قرار داشت را بررسی می کند) در حالی که مقایسه، روش پدیدارشناختی این کتاب است که معمولا با دوست صمیمی کوربین، میرچا الیاده مرتبط می‌شود، تراکم، پیچیدگی و شدت ادبی دراماتیک نوشته‌های کوربین نظمی کاملا متفاوت دارد.
608 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
About the author
Henry Corbin
91 books214 followersHenry Corbin was a philosopher, theologian and professor of Islamic Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. As a boy he revealed the profound sensitivity to music so evident in his work. Although he was Protestant by birth, he was educated in the Catholic tradition and at the age of 19 received a certificate in Scholastic philosophy from the Catholic Institute of Paris. Three years later he took his "licence de philosophie" under the great Thomist Étienne Gilson. In 1928 he encountered the formidable Louis Massignon, director of Islamic studies at the Sorbonne, and it was he who introduced Corbin to the writings of Suhrawardi, the 12th century Persian mystic and philosopher whose work was to profoundly affect the course of Corbin’s life. The stage was then set for a personal drama that has deep significance for understanding those cultures whose roots lie in both ancient Greece and in the prophetic religions of the Near East reaching all the way back to Zoroaster. Years later Corbin said “through my meeting with Suhrawardi, my spiritual destiny for the passage through this world was sealed. Platonism, expressed in terms of the Zoroastrian angelology of ancient Persia, illuminated the path that I was seeking.”
Corbin is responsible for redirecting the study of Islamic philosophy as a whole. In his Histoire de la philosophie islamique (1964), he disproved the common view that philosophy among the Muslims came to an end after Ibn Rushd, demonstrating rather that a lively philosophical activity persisted in the eastern Muslim world – especially Iran – and continues to our own day.
Corbin is responsible for redirecting the study of Islamic philosophy as a whole. In his Histoire de la philosophie islamique (1964), he disproved the common view that philosophy among the Muslims came to an end after Ibn Rushd, demonstrating rather that a lively philosophical activity persisted in the eastern Muslim world – especially Iran – and continues to our own day.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 11, 2022
Corbin Impressed me with his description of abstract thoughts in his earlier book on history of Islamic philosophy, particularly his explanations of Ismailia theology and Suhrawardy's Illuminationism (Ishraqiyun). But this current collection of three essays on Isma'ili gnosis was pure genius. had to reread many paragraphs a number of times , with each read unveiling some new aspect and adding more to clarity.
First essay was a comparative study of idea of cyclical times and the eventual resurrections in both Mazdeism and Ismailism, and the impression of Mazdeism on early Isma'ili theologians. Corbin argued that in both gnosis the present time we live in is platonic earthly manifestation of the archetypical time, the Eternal time. in both gnosis time is cyclical instead of some linear dimension and repeats endlessly . later two essays discuss the religions of resurrection who believe in the coming of the awaited one who will collect and guide the believers. these religions include Mazdeism , Manicheism, Sabiens , Christians , and Shia in Islam. discussion is basically about Ismailism but cross discussion is given along Twelver Shisim and other above mentioned gnosis about the common theme among them.
Corbin was very found of Ishraqiyun and this can be felt at many times where he infused their ideas while describing Isma'ili theology . any how despite being dense I enjoyed it and my next read in Ismaili study would be from some non-orientalist writer .
First essay was a comparative study of idea of cyclical times and the eventual resurrections in both Mazdeism and Ismailism, and the impression of Mazdeism on early Isma'ili theologians. Corbin argued that in both gnosis the present time we live in is platonic earthly manifestation of the archetypical time, the Eternal time. in both gnosis time is cyclical instead of some linear dimension and repeats endlessly . later two essays discuss the religions of resurrection who believe in the coming of the awaited one who will collect and guide the believers. these religions include Mazdeism , Manicheism, Sabiens , Christians , and Shia in Islam. discussion is basically about Ismailism but cross discussion is given along Twelver Shisim and other above mentioned gnosis about the common theme among them.
Corbin was very found of Ishraqiyun and this can be felt at many times where he infused their ideas while describing Isma'ili theology . any how despite being dense I enjoyed it and my next read in Ismaili study would be from some non-orientalist writer .
February 28, 2024
Henry Corbin (1903–1978) was the professor of Islamic studies at the École pratique des hautes études. He was a French philosopher and theologian.
Cobin begins this book with an introduction to Zoroastrian thought. The central Zoroastrian myth is that there is an eternal time and a limited time, also known as "the time of long domination." Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd), knowing Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) and his demons can't deceive everyone, decides to create limited time to weaken Angra Mainyu's power, making it patterned after eternal time. He then gives Fravarti’s, that is, souls, the option to remain in eternal time or descend into limited time and join the battle. Every being on Earth has a celestial counterpart, forming a pair with its spiritual entity, or "angel." The soul, while on Earth, recognises its partner, a guardian angel, from the celestial realm, helping them understand eternal time.
In the Zoroastrian sect of Zurvanism, Fravartis are not only Ahura Mazda's knights but also his suffering members, embodying the active and suffering God. Until the incarnated Fravarti reunites with its Divine Double, the Angel-Self, on the way to the Cinvat Bridge, the earthly soul is incomplete and lags behind its total being.
Corbin then contrasts this with the similar ideas present within Shi‘ite Islam (both Twelver and Ismaili). The concept of the Divine Double has parallels within Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity. For fuller treatments within Christianity, there is ‘Our Divine Double’ by Charles M. Stang and ‘The Greatest Mirror: Heavenly Counterparts in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha’ by Andrei A. Orlov.
Corbin’s focus, however, is not on these themes within Judaism or Christianity but within Islam.
Within Shi‘ite Islam, the followers of the Imam are the Mystical Body of the Imam, known as the Temple of Light, awaiting the revealing of the Imam-Resurrector, who will initiate the Mystical Body, the Temple, into the age to come. There are obvious Christian parallels here. Each human is an ‘angel in potential’ brought into the world to battle the forces of Satan.
The universal primordial Adam represents the first earthly manifestation of the spiritual Adam or Angel of mankind, evident in the partial Adam of each cycle. The Imam Resurrector will be the final appearance, representing the earthly substitute for the Angel to those whom he leads into the age to come.
The mystical body, the Temple of Light of the Imamate, is made up of all his followers; each reflecting him, like the pupil of the eye that contains the reflection of the highest mountain.
Just as all of us have seen someone play with a mirror to reflect the sun’s light, the Imam is a perfect mirror that reflects the light of God into the world. The sun's light in the mirror can blind you. It is the light of the sun, but the mirror is not the sun. In the same way. The Imam reflects God into the world.
The Church Father Origen spoke about the Transfiguration, saying that the Saviour had two forms—one seen regularly and another during the Transfiguration. Jesus might appear as a man to humans and as an angel to angels. Corbin talks in this volume for a while about Angel Christology and its conceptual link with Imamology, especially with each of us as an ‘angel in potential’.
He refers back to Harnack’s suggestion that Islam is a transformation on Arab soil of a Jewish religion, which was already changed by Gnostic Judaeo-Christianity.
Corbin notes that within early Christianity, there was uncertainty about distinguishing between the Angelos Christos, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He suggests that this has implications in Islamic theology, particularly in identifying the Holy Spirit with Gabriel the Archangel.
The concept of Christos as an Angel, bestowing both the name and a quality upon Jesus, aligns with Ebionite beliefs linking the Son of Man with a celestial Archangel, and Christos as an Archangel, a leader of all Angels, and the archetype of humanity. In the Clementine writings, we see a contrast between the Demon, the prince of the world, and the Archangel Christ, who will govern the future world.
These ideas are rooted in pre-Christian Judean thought. The Jewish Philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c.20 BC–c.50 AD) speaks of the Angel of the Lord this way: "And even if there be not as yet anyone who is worthy to be called a son of God, nevertheless let him labour earnestly to be adorned according to his first-born logos, the eldest of the angels, as the great archangel of many names; for he is called, the authority, and the name of God, and the Word [logos], and a man according to God's image, and he who sees Israel… Even if we are not yet suitable to be called sons of God, still we may deserve to be called the children of his eternal image, of his most scared logos; for the image of God is his most ancient word [logos]." Confusion of Tongues (146).
For Philo, the Word of God is “the great archangel of many names” but also “a man according to God's image,” who is the image of the invisible God. For Philo, God is transcendent, and so he created all things through his Logos [Word] as the demiurge, the artisan of the world. The demiurge is both an angel and a man.
Dr. Margaret Barker, in The Secret Tradition, writes, “In visionary texts,'man’ is the conventional description of an angelic being: Daniel 9.21 has ‘the man Gabriel’; Daniel 10.5 ‘a man clothed in linen’; and Revelation 21.17 ‘a man’s measure, that is an angel’s’. 2 Enoch described how Enoch was anointed and clothed in the robes of glory: ‘And I looked at myself, and I had become like one of the glorious ones...’ (2 En.22.10). 3 Enoch says that the great angel Metatron, enthroned in heaven and given the divine Name, had been Enoch in his earthly life (3 En. cc. 4, 10, 13). Isaiah was told on his heavenly ascent that he would receive his robe and then be equal to the angels (Asc.Isa.8.14). Philo described how Moses had been transformed into ‘God and King’ when he ascended Sinai (Moses 1.157).”
Barker, writing about the Church Father Clement of Alexandria, who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria, says, “The belief that human beings, as a result of their mystical vision, were transformed into angels was neither new nor the teaching of an unrepresentative minority. When Clement’s gnostic hoped for divinity as a result of his ‘contemplation’ he was only putting into the language of his own day what the ancient religion of Israel had been saying for many centuries, first of its priest kings and then of the various heirs to that tradition.”
One of the clearest examples of Jesus being titled God is Hebrews 1:9, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore, God, Your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of joy.”
This is a quote from Psalm 45:7. This psalm is about the king. We read “I recite my verses to the king” v. 1. v2: “You are the most handsome of men; grace has anointed your lips, since God has blessed you forever.” It is a psalm about the Messiah, the King of Israel. We read Psalm 45:6-7: “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the sceptre of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore, God, your God, has anointed you above your companions with the oil of joy."
The Messianic King is referred to as God, and his God has anointed him with oil. "Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you above your companions with the oil of joy."
This is a conceptual link to another Psalm often quoted in the New Testament, Psalm 2. We read in Psalm 2:6-7, “I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.” I will proclaim the decree spoken to me by the LORD: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.”
The King enthroned on Zion is given the words “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father” by God. The Son of God therefore is the Davidic King, the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. He is the one who has been enthroned over the nations to rule on God’s behalf. He is the one called God, who has been anointed by his God with the oil of joy.
In 1 Chronicles 29:23, we read, “So Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king in place of his father David. He prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.” The Davidic King sits upon God’s throne. “Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king." A few verses earlier, we read 1 Chronicles 29:20: “Then David said to the whole assembly, “Blessed be the LORD your God.” So the whole assembly blessed the LORD, the God of their fathers. They bowed down and paid homage to the LORD and to the king.” The assembly bowed before the LORD and before the King. The King sits upon God’s throne.
Elsewhere we read in 1 Kings 3:28, “When all Israel heard of the judgement the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.” The “wisdom of God was in him,” allowing the King to dispense justice on God’s behalf.
There is a prophecy in Zechariah 12:8 that says, “On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them."
The Davidic King sits upon YHVH’s throne; wisdom is “in him” to administer justice, and we are told the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord. This is true of Solomon, who was named the Son of God, a man of questionable character; it is also true of Jesus, the Anointed One.
Even before the time of David, we read that Moses was also made God’s representative, so in Exodus 7:1, we read, “The LORD answered Moses, “See, I have made you God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.” Moses was to act in the place of God for Pharaoh, with Aaron as his prophet.
St. Aphrahat the Persian (c. 280–c. 345), in his Demonstration 17, seeks to reply to Jewish and, by extension, modern Muslim objections to calling Jesus God and Son of God. He replies that Moses was named a God and Solomon was named a Son of God. If that was acceptable, then so are Christians in how they speak of Christ. He said, “Thus not alone to the evil Pharaoh did He make Moses God, but also unto Aaron, the holy priest, He made Moses God.” Moses was God to Aaron, just as Thomas can say of Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” in John 20:28. In Exodus 4:16, we read, “He [Aaron] will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and it will be as if you were God to him.” As Aphrahat says, “Thus not alone to the evil Pharaoh did He make Moses God, but also unto Aaron, the holy priest, He made Moses God.”
The concept of the Divine Double also appears in the Gospel and Acts. Jesus often makes a distinction between himself and the Son of Man but also acts as if they are one and the same.
“I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God; but he who denies me in the presence of men will be denied in the presence of God’s angels.” Luke 12:8-9
Jesus refers to the Son of Man in the third person.
“He said to him, “Most certainly, I tell you all, hereafter you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:51
“No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.” John 3:13
We are told that the Son of Man “who is in heaven” is the same One who “ascended into heaven” and who “descended out of heaven." Yet his current location is “in heaven.”.
Some scholars have pointed to Galatians 4:14 in a similar vein, where Paul says, "you welcomed me as though I were an angel of God, as though I were Christ Jesus himself!"
The last surviving gnostic sect from the ancient world are the Mandaeans, who follow John the Baptist but reject Jesus. There are only c. 60,000–100,000 of them left today. They call themselves Nasoraeans, and as E. S. Drower writes in The Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis, “every priest is a king (mauta), crowned and anointed, as microcosm of the macrocosm Adam Kasia, the crowned and anointed Anthropos, Arch-priest, and creator of the cosmos made in his form.” These heavenly or idealised human counterparts are, in Mandaeism the Dmuta’s living in Mshunia Kushta.
This idea is present within Acts, where we read: “They said to her, “You are crazy!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.” Acts 12:15. When they heard Peter knocking on the door, they thought it was Peter’s Angel rather than Peter! His divine double. His heavenly or idealised human counterpart. Peter’s "end" his idealised final form, the one he is becoming. The one he was always meant to be. The one he truly is.
There is a clear mirroring seen between the earthly reality and its heavenly counterpart. Jesus says in Matthew 18:10, “See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”
On earth, they are “little ones," in heaven “their angels always see the face of my Father” this again links to the expectation that Peter’s Angel could just appear and Jesus’s words “everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God” Luke 12:8. Jesus is confessed before men. The Son of Man before the angels. There is a clear Mirroring here, as in Heaven, so on Earth.
The spatial-temporal human Jesus, Mary’s son, the One hung on a Cross, is the double of the Son of Man “who is in heaven." John 3:13. How you treat the One is the reflection (as in a mirror) of how you treat the other, because, they are One and the same subject. Luke 24:7 says, “the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again”. There is, in reality, only one subject. Jesus is the Son of Man. The Son of Man is Jesus.
In the Epistle of the Apostles (written c. 120–140 AD), itself an anti-gnostic work, Christ mentions taking the form of Archangel Gabriel to appear to the Virgin Mary and deposit himself in her womb. The Logos is equated with the Son, the Holy Spirit, and also with the Angel Gabriel.
Dr. Margaret Barker, The Secret Tradition, Part 2, says, “...the Epistle of the Apostles gives the early ‘orthodox’ version of what is more extensively recorded elsewhere in gnostic guise. The LORD gives details of his descent as Gabriel: ‘On that day when I took the form of the angel Gabriel, I appeared to Mary and spoke with her. Her heart received me and she believed; I formed myself and entered into her womb; I became flesh ‘ (Ep.Apost. 14).”
In the Pistis Sophia (4th century), Christ, in the form of an Archangel, descends with twelve Saviours of the Treasures of Light, projecting them into their mothers' wombs. Corbin suggests that this image is connected to the Gnosis of Twelver Shiism, specifically concerning the twelve Imams.
Muhammed’s daughter Fatima, similar to the Virgin Mary, gives birth to a line of celestial beings until the advent of the Perfect Child, which will lead humanity back to its celestial archetype. Fatima's role is therefore a significant theme in Shiite wisdom speculations.
Pre-Islamic Christian Gnostic themes such as the mystery of the Cross of Light, as presented in the Acts of John (2nd century), are drawn into Ismaili meditation so that Abu Ya'qub Sejestani (930s–971 AD) can relate the four branches of the Christian Cross to the four words in the Islamic shahadah, connecting the symbols in both traditions.
Angels can be separated into those who remained in the pleroma and those who have fallen to Earth, both in actuality and potentiality. This cleavage may also refer to a single being, where the Spirit or Angelos remains in Heaven, the "celestial twin," while the soul, its companion, has fallen to Earth. The two will be reunited if the soul emerges victorious from the earthly contest. Nasir-e Khusraw (1004–1088 AD) therefore views the human condition as transient, considering "man" to be either an Angel or a demon in potentiality. As we have seen, these ideas were already common within the Judeo-Christian tradition.
One item of significance is how Corbin speaks of the Twelver Shiites regarding the martyrs of Karbala. He writes, “Passion of the martyrs of Karbala—with the clearest docetic statements. In one of the books devoted to the martyrdom of the Imam Husayn, for example, we find the following literal quotation from the Koran: "No, they did not kill you; a semblance of your body was made for them, O son of the heroic knight"... The material body is restored (or raised) to the level of a likeness or image of the Temple of Light. Accordingly, the Imam Muhammad Baqir... declares that the sufferings, trials, and misfortunes of the Holy Imams were apparent, 'ala'l-khayal, which is the literal equivalent of the corresponding term putative, which occurs among the Cathari; … where, in the Nusayri poems of Khasibi, the Imam Husayn is presented as a reapparition of Jesus impatibilis.”
These docetic statements show the difference between this life and the angelic life. For the gnostic Imam Husayn was not actually killed (his angel), only his ‘appearance’ (his man). The material body is only a likeness or image of the Temple of Light.
The death of Muhammed’s grandson, Imam Husayn, is also interesting because it occurred during the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). It is a day of repentance for sin.
For Corbin spiritual experience is where theophany is lived as theopathy, and vice versa. The figure of the Imam is transfigured only for the soul, which is undergoing its own transfiguration. The event of personal transfiguration occurs at the level of the extra-human, the Angel, in the solitude of the "One with his One." The individual realises his own angelic future state.
In conclusion, this is a very interesting work that looks at the themes of the Divine Double, Celestial Adam, Celestial Imam, etc. While the majority of Corbin’s focus is on Zoroastrian and Islamic ideas, many works since the publication of this work have also looked at the same themes within Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity.
Cobin begins this book with an introduction to Zoroastrian thought. The central Zoroastrian myth is that there is an eternal time and a limited time, also known as "the time of long domination." Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd), knowing Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) and his demons can't deceive everyone, decides to create limited time to weaken Angra Mainyu's power, making it patterned after eternal time. He then gives Fravarti’s, that is, souls, the option to remain in eternal time or descend into limited time and join the battle. Every being on Earth has a celestial counterpart, forming a pair with its spiritual entity, or "angel." The soul, while on Earth, recognises its partner, a guardian angel, from the celestial realm, helping them understand eternal time.
In the Zoroastrian sect of Zurvanism, Fravartis are not only Ahura Mazda's knights but also his suffering members, embodying the active and suffering God. Until the incarnated Fravarti reunites with its Divine Double, the Angel-Self, on the way to the Cinvat Bridge, the earthly soul is incomplete and lags behind its total being.
Corbin then contrasts this with the similar ideas present within Shi‘ite Islam (both Twelver and Ismaili). The concept of the Divine Double has parallels within Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity. For fuller treatments within Christianity, there is ‘Our Divine Double’ by Charles M. Stang and ‘The Greatest Mirror: Heavenly Counterparts in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha’ by Andrei A. Orlov.
Corbin’s focus, however, is not on these themes within Judaism or Christianity but within Islam.
Within Shi‘ite Islam, the followers of the Imam are the Mystical Body of the Imam, known as the Temple of Light, awaiting the revealing of the Imam-Resurrector, who will initiate the Mystical Body, the Temple, into the age to come. There are obvious Christian parallels here. Each human is an ‘angel in potential’ brought into the world to battle the forces of Satan.
The universal primordial Adam represents the first earthly manifestation of the spiritual Adam or Angel of mankind, evident in the partial Adam of each cycle. The Imam Resurrector will be the final appearance, representing the earthly substitute for the Angel to those whom he leads into the age to come.
The mystical body, the Temple of Light of the Imamate, is made up of all his followers; each reflecting him, like the pupil of the eye that contains the reflection of the highest mountain.
Just as all of us have seen someone play with a mirror to reflect the sun’s light, the Imam is a perfect mirror that reflects the light of God into the world. The sun's light in the mirror can blind you. It is the light of the sun, but the mirror is not the sun. In the same way. The Imam reflects God into the world.
The Church Father Origen spoke about the Transfiguration, saying that the Saviour had two forms—one seen regularly and another during the Transfiguration. Jesus might appear as a man to humans and as an angel to angels. Corbin talks in this volume for a while about Angel Christology and its conceptual link with Imamology, especially with each of us as an ‘angel in potential’.
He refers back to Harnack’s suggestion that Islam is a transformation on Arab soil of a Jewish religion, which was already changed by Gnostic Judaeo-Christianity.
Corbin notes that within early Christianity, there was uncertainty about distinguishing between the Angelos Christos, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He suggests that this has implications in Islamic theology, particularly in identifying the Holy Spirit with Gabriel the Archangel.
The concept of Christos as an Angel, bestowing both the name and a quality upon Jesus, aligns with Ebionite beliefs linking the Son of Man with a celestial Archangel, and Christos as an Archangel, a leader of all Angels, and the archetype of humanity. In the Clementine writings, we see a contrast between the Demon, the prince of the world, and the Archangel Christ, who will govern the future world.
These ideas are rooted in pre-Christian Judean thought. The Jewish Philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c.20 BC–c.50 AD) speaks of the Angel of the Lord this way: "And even if there be not as yet anyone who is worthy to be called a son of God, nevertheless let him labour earnestly to be adorned according to his first-born logos, the eldest of the angels, as the great archangel of many names; for he is called, the authority, and the name of God, and the Word [logos], and a man according to God's image, and he who sees Israel… Even if we are not yet suitable to be called sons of God, still we may deserve to be called the children of his eternal image, of his most scared logos; for the image of God is his most ancient word [logos]." Confusion of Tongues (146).
For Philo, the Word of God is “the great archangel of many names” but also “a man according to God's image,” who is the image of the invisible God. For Philo, God is transcendent, and so he created all things through his Logos [Word] as the demiurge, the artisan of the world. The demiurge is both an angel and a man.
Dr. Margaret Barker, in The Secret Tradition, writes, “In visionary texts,'man’ is the conventional description of an angelic being: Daniel 9.21 has ‘the man Gabriel’; Daniel 10.5 ‘a man clothed in linen’; and Revelation 21.17 ‘a man’s measure, that is an angel’s’. 2 Enoch described how Enoch was anointed and clothed in the robes of glory: ‘And I looked at myself, and I had become like one of the glorious ones...’ (2 En.22.10). 3 Enoch says that the great angel Metatron, enthroned in heaven and given the divine Name, had been Enoch in his earthly life (3 En. cc. 4, 10, 13). Isaiah was told on his heavenly ascent that he would receive his robe and then be equal to the angels (Asc.Isa.8.14). Philo described how Moses had been transformed into ‘God and King’ when he ascended Sinai (Moses 1.157).”
Barker, writing about the Church Father Clement of Alexandria, who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria, says, “The belief that human beings, as a result of their mystical vision, were transformed into angels was neither new nor the teaching of an unrepresentative minority. When Clement’s gnostic hoped for divinity as a result of his ‘contemplation’ he was only putting into the language of his own day what the ancient religion of Israel had been saying for many centuries, first of its priest kings and then of the various heirs to that tradition.”
One of the clearest examples of Jesus being titled God is Hebrews 1:9, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore, God, Your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of joy.”
This is a quote from Psalm 45:7. This psalm is about the king. We read “I recite my verses to the king” v. 1. v2: “You are the most handsome of men; grace has anointed your lips, since God has blessed you forever.” It is a psalm about the Messiah, the King of Israel. We read Psalm 45:6-7: “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the sceptre of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore, God, your God, has anointed you above your companions with the oil of joy."
The Messianic King is referred to as God, and his God has anointed him with oil. "Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you above your companions with the oil of joy."
This is a conceptual link to another Psalm often quoted in the New Testament, Psalm 2. We read in Psalm 2:6-7, “I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.” I will proclaim the decree spoken to me by the LORD: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.”
The King enthroned on Zion is given the words “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father” by God. The Son of God therefore is the Davidic King, the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. He is the one who has been enthroned over the nations to rule on God’s behalf. He is the one called God, who has been anointed by his God with the oil of joy.
In 1 Chronicles 29:23, we read, “So Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king in place of his father David. He prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.” The Davidic King sits upon God’s throne. “Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king." A few verses earlier, we read 1 Chronicles 29:20: “Then David said to the whole assembly, “Blessed be the LORD your God.” So the whole assembly blessed the LORD, the God of their fathers. They bowed down and paid homage to the LORD and to the king.” The assembly bowed before the LORD and before the King. The King sits upon God’s throne.
Elsewhere we read in 1 Kings 3:28, “When all Israel heard of the judgement the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.” The “wisdom of God was in him,” allowing the King to dispense justice on God’s behalf.
There is a prophecy in Zechariah 12:8 that says, “On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them."
The Davidic King sits upon YHVH’s throne; wisdom is “in him” to administer justice, and we are told the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord. This is true of Solomon, who was named the Son of God, a man of questionable character; it is also true of Jesus, the Anointed One.
Even before the time of David, we read that Moses was also made God’s representative, so in Exodus 7:1, we read, “The LORD answered Moses, “See, I have made you God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.” Moses was to act in the place of God for Pharaoh, with Aaron as his prophet.
St. Aphrahat the Persian (c. 280–c. 345), in his Demonstration 17, seeks to reply to Jewish and, by extension, modern Muslim objections to calling Jesus God and Son of God. He replies that Moses was named a God and Solomon was named a Son of God. If that was acceptable, then so are Christians in how they speak of Christ. He said, “Thus not alone to the evil Pharaoh did He make Moses God, but also unto Aaron, the holy priest, He made Moses God.” Moses was God to Aaron, just as Thomas can say of Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” in John 20:28. In Exodus 4:16, we read, “He [Aaron] will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and it will be as if you were God to him.” As Aphrahat says, “Thus not alone to the evil Pharaoh did He make Moses God, but also unto Aaron, the holy priest, He made Moses God.”
The concept of the Divine Double also appears in the Gospel and Acts. Jesus often makes a distinction between himself and the Son of Man but also acts as if they are one and the same.
“I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God; but he who denies me in the presence of men will be denied in the presence of God’s angels.” Luke 12:8-9
Jesus refers to the Son of Man in the third person.
“He said to him, “Most certainly, I tell you all, hereafter you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:51
“No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.” John 3:13
We are told that the Son of Man “who is in heaven” is the same One who “ascended into heaven” and who “descended out of heaven." Yet his current location is “in heaven.”.
Some scholars have pointed to Galatians 4:14 in a similar vein, where Paul says, "you welcomed me as though I were an angel of God, as though I were Christ Jesus himself!"
The last surviving gnostic sect from the ancient world are the Mandaeans, who follow John the Baptist but reject Jesus. There are only c. 60,000–100,000 of them left today. They call themselves Nasoraeans, and as E. S. Drower writes in The Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis, “every priest is a king (mauta), crowned and anointed, as microcosm of the macrocosm Adam Kasia, the crowned and anointed Anthropos, Arch-priest, and creator of the cosmos made in his form.” These heavenly or idealised human counterparts are, in Mandaeism the Dmuta’s living in Mshunia Kushta.
This idea is present within Acts, where we read: “They said to her, “You are crazy!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.” Acts 12:15. When they heard Peter knocking on the door, they thought it was Peter’s Angel rather than Peter! His divine double. His heavenly or idealised human counterpart. Peter’s "end" his idealised final form, the one he is becoming. The one he was always meant to be. The one he truly is.
There is a clear mirroring seen between the earthly reality and its heavenly counterpart. Jesus says in Matthew 18:10, “See that you don’t despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”
On earth, they are “little ones," in heaven “their angels always see the face of my Father” this again links to the expectation that Peter’s Angel could just appear and Jesus’s words “everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God” Luke 12:8. Jesus is confessed before men. The Son of Man before the angels. There is a clear Mirroring here, as in Heaven, so on Earth.
The spatial-temporal human Jesus, Mary’s son, the One hung on a Cross, is the double of the Son of Man “who is in heaven." John 3:13. How you treat the One is the reflection (as in a mirror) of how you treat the other, because, they are One and the same subject. Luke 24:7 says, “the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again”. There is, in reality, only one subject. Jesus is the Son of Man. The Son of Man is Jesus.
In the Epistle of the Apostles (written c. 120–140 AD), itself an anti-gnostic work, Christ mentions taking the form of Archangel Gabriel to appear to the Virgin Mary and deposit himself in her womb. The Logos is equated with the Son, the Holy Spirit, and also with the Angel Gabriel.
Dr. Margaret Barker, The Secret Tradition, Part 2, says, “...the Epistle of the Apostles gives the early ‘orthodox’ version of what is more extensively recorded elsewhere in gnostic guise. The LORD gives details of his descent as Gabriel: ‘On that day when I took the form of the angel Gabriel, I appeared to Mary and spoke with her. Her heart received me and she believed; I formed myself and entered into her womb; I became flesh ‘ (Ep.Apost. 14).”
In the Pistis Sophia (4th century), Christ, in the form of an Archangel, descends with twelve Saviours of the Treasures of Light, projecting them into their mothers' wombs. Corbin suggests that this image is connected to the Gnosis of Twelver Shiism, specifically concerning the twelve Imams.
Muhammed’s daughter Fatima, similar to the Virgin Mary, gives birth to a line of celestial beings until the advent of the Perfect Child, which will lead humanity back to its celestial archetype. Fatima's role is therefore a significant theme in Shiite wisdom speculations.
Pre-Islamic Christian Gnostic themes such as the mystery of the Cross of Light, as presented in the Acts of John (2nd century), are drawn into Ismaili meditation so that Abu Ya'qub Sejestani (930s–971 AD) can relate the four branches of the Christian Cross to the four words in the Islamic shahadah, connecting the symbols in both traditions.
Angels can be separated into those who remained in the pleroma and those who have fallen to Earth, both in actuality and potentiality. This cleavage may also refer to a single being, where the Spirit or Angelos remains in Heaven, the "celestial twin," while the soul, its companion, has fallen to Earth. The two will be reunited if the soul emerges victorious from the earthly contest. Nasir-e Khusraw (1004–1088 AD) therefore views the human condition as transient, considering "man" to be either an Angel or a demon in potentiality. As we have seen, these ideas were already common within the Judeo-Christian tradition.
One item of significance is how Corbin speaks of the Twelver Shiites regarding the martyrs of Karbala. He writes, “Passion of the martyrs of Karbala—with the clearest docetic statements. In one of the books devoted to the martyrdom of the Imam Husayn, for example, we find the following literal quotation from the Koran: "No, they did not kill you; a semblance of your body was made for them, O son of the heroic knight"... The material body is restored (or raised) to the level of a likeness or image of the Temple of Light. Accordingly, the Imam Muhammad Baqir... declares that the sufferings, trials, and misfortunes of the Holy Imams were apparent, 'ala'l-khayal, which is the literal equivalent of the corresponding term putative, which occurs among the Cathari; … where, in the Nusayri poems of Khasibi, the Imam Husayn is presented as a reapparition of Jesus impatibilis.”
These docetic statements show the difference between this life and the angelic life. For the gnostic Imam Husayn was not actually killed (his angel), only his ‘appearance’ (his man). The material body is only a likeness or image of the Temple of Light.
The death of Muhammed’s grandson, Imam Husayn, is also interesting because it occurred during the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). It is a day of repentance for sin.
For Corbin spiritual experience is where theophany is lived as theopathy, and vice versa. The figure of the Imam is transfigured only for the soul, which is undergoing its own transfiguration. The event of personal transfiguration occurs at the level of the extra-human, the Angel, in the solitude of the "One with his One." The individual realises his own angelic future state.
In conclusion, this is a very interesting work that looks at the themes of the Divine Double, Celestial Adam, Celestial Imam, etc. While the majority of Corbin’s focus is on Zoroastrian and Islamic ideas, many works since the publication of this work have also looked at the same themes within Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity.
June 29, 2020
The first essay on cyclical time is wonderful in showing how it can lead to a nostalgia for the future. Corbin in general has a good talent of taking his text and shows how the west understands it and then pointing out how that translation is flawed and rebuilds it toward a better understanding. There is a underlying poetic style that comes across to his work in keeping with the texts the he looks at. Maybe in some of his other books more so than here one runs across many elements one finds in western occult thinking, but since these ideas did not have to hide, they seemed to developed in this area of the world without as much darkness, paranoia, and just more of a more flowering of ideas
September 22, 2011
this book is dense, not an easy read, but very good
June 16, 2013
This book was a foundational text for my ontological theory
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews