Posted by admin on Mar 31, 2013 in Meditations | 1 comment

Bismi Rabbi ãl-Husayn (S)

و الصلوة و السلام على سيدنا محمد و آله الطيبين الطاهرين، و لعنة الله و الخلق على أعدائهم أجمعين

Dear Friends in Walāyaḧ,
Ał-Salāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmaẗu Ãllāhi wa barakātuhū.

Once again, welcome to the Ḥusayniyyah at Walayah.org.¹

In a comment of mine on a note by one of the brothers, I mentioned that there is an interesting mode of recitation of the Qurʾān approved by Imām Ṣādiq (S). This mode meets the criteria set by Muslim scholars, including those of the ʿĀmmaḧ (often called “Sunnis”). Some of the participants in the discussion asked for more information.

InshāʾAllāh, over the coming days, I will share this information with the members of this Husayniyyah. This is a sensitive topic and I ask the participants to maintain the privacy of this forum. As a member of the Husayniyyah you agree to not publish, share or post any of the transactions of the Husayniyyah without first obtaining express permission from myself.

Introduction

To begin: In discussing this issue with Ayatullah Waḥīd Khurasani, he gave a short exposition on the famous ḥadīth:

علي مع القرآن ، و القرآن مع علي

ʿAlī is with the Qurʾān and the Qurʾān is with ʿAlī

This is a very important ḥadīth. As I understood Ayatullah Wahid:

The first part is not so difficult to understand. Whatever Amir al-Mu’miniin (S) say or does, it is from the Qurʾān, is based on the Qurʾān, and returns one back to the Qurʾān.

The second part is — on the surface at least — more subtle: “The Qurʾān is with ʿAlī”. What does this mean?

ʿAlī is with the Qurʾān; and the Qurʾān is with ʿAlī.

It is the second part of this statement with which we are concerned. The comments that some of you made, with respect to both the universes of Takwīn and Tashrīʿ (Cosmic and Legislative worlds; Cosmos and Anthropos; Command of God to the Cosmos and Revelelation of Allah to Man) may all be summed up succinctly:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ جَعَلَ وَلَايَتَنَا أَهْلَ الْبَيْتِ قُطْبَ الْقُرْآنِ

Surely Allah made our Walayah, that of AhlulBayt (S), the axis of the Qurʾān.

This is the first phrase of a longer ḥadīth which includes the text of Ḥadīthu ãł-Thaqalayn as well. Indeed, the full ḥadīth is one of the most outwardly comprehensive, and is worth memorizing. For our task at hand, we focus on the first phrase. The following points are crucial:

Gerund vs. Substantive.

The word ‘Walāyaḧ’ is a gerund, not a substantive or an abstract noun. That is, it refers to a field of activity. It is a field that binds the love of the higher with the love of the lower. So when the AhlulʿIsmaḧ say, “Our Walāyaḧ”, they are referring at once to

1. the field of dynamic love that flows from them, manifesting in comfort, guardianship and authority;
2. the field of dynamic love that flows to them, manifesting in our reverence, loyalty, and reference to them in every aspect of life, especially with respect to the Qurʾān.

Sufis and the many Muslim philosophers who are influenced by them (e.g., the Illuminationists) often miss this point. For them, walāyaḧ becomes a “station”, an almost Platonic “sanctity” or “sainthood”. There is nothing in the Qurʾān to support this static view, which results in part from pigeon-holing the dynamics and dialectics of the AhlulʿIsmaḧ into the straitjacket of Greek Peripatetics and Neoplatonic Emanationism.

The word ‘Qurʾān’ is a gerund.

Even the word ‘Qurʾān’ is also a gerund, not a substantive. Reflect on that fact for a moment: This implies that the Qurʾān is not so much a substantive substance but rather a field of activity. The Qurʾān is a recital, composed of movements (sūraḧ’s), much like a work of music or theater.

You can’t hold music or a play in your hand like some object; you have to listen to a piece of music, watch a play, or participate as a player of instruments or an actor. The Qurʾān is a mode of divine activity, of the field of Walāyaḧ that binds the Rubūbiyyaḧ of Allah with the ʿUbūdiyyaḧ of the Creation in general and Humanity in particular. Qurʾān is something that Allah (SWT) does; in the dialectic of Walāyaḧ it is also something that the human being does:

قم الصلاة لدلوك الشمس إلي غسق الليل وقرآن الفجر إن قرآن الفجر كان مشهودا

Stand and engage in communion from the setting of the Sun up to the onset of night; and the Qurʾān of Fajr! Surely the Qurʾān of Fajr is something witnessed.

If the Qurʾān were a mere object – a tablet fallen from Heaven so to speak – this ayah would not make much immediate sense. Rather, it is the Qurʾān as activity of the believer that is witnessed.

The Qurʾān is a process of Divine communication that descends and ascends; it comes down, and is sent back up to its origin:

O ʿAlī! Just as I fought for the tanzīl of the Qurʾān [its descent from the origin], you will fight for its taʾwīl (ascent to the origin).

Taʾwīl as the Process of Return to the Source.

We just mentioned taʾwīl, the word for which is normally translated as ‘commentary’, ‘interpretation’, or even ‘hermeneutics’. More precisely, Rather, taʾwīl is the process of taking the Qurʾān up towards its Revealer. This process, of course, also involves reciting, understanding, internalizing, and revolutionizing the consciousness. The axis for this process is Amīru ũl-Muʾminīn (S):

Surely Allah made our Walayah, that of AhlulBayt (S), the axis of the Qurʾān.

The Two Poles of the Qurʾān.

We mentioned that the Qurʾān is a mode of the field of Walāyaḧ, hence it possesses both a Rubūbiyyaḧ pole and an ʿUbūdiyyaḧ pole.

From a philosophical point of view, we can say that the Rubūbiyyaḧ pole is the metaphysical pole, the fact of Revelation sent down, regardless of whether most of Mankind recognizes it or not. The Preserved Tablet is one of its stations as it Descends from the Mashīʾaḧ/Ghayb to this world. That descent is a metaphysical fact and Act of Allah (S).

Similarly, we can say that the ʿUbūdiyyaḧ pole of the Qurʾān is the phenomenological pole, the process of taʾwīl of the Qurʾān, our own doing of Qurʾān, of reciting, understanding, internalizing, revolutionizing the consciousness, thence acting beautifully (Ihsān).

The Dialectical Contrast of Qurʾān vs Muṣhaf.

The Muṣhaf, the text between the two boards, the written letters, is an imprint of the Qurʾān, not the Qurʾān itself. Of course, we can refer to the Muṣhaf as Qurʾān in a loose sense, and we often do. The Muṣhaf provides a benchmark, a means of accessing and reciting the Qurʾān, and in that role it is a mode of the Qurʾān.

With the Muṣhaf, the written text of the Qurʾān, we reach the place where descent ends and ascent begins, the barzakh between tanzīl and taʾwīl, the mirror of metaphysical Rubūbiyyaḧ that constitutes the beginning of our phenomenological ʿUbūdiyyaḧ, our movement back to Allah (SWT) through the Qurʾān.

Simply put, the Muṣhaf and its recitation mark the end of the process of tanzīl and the beginning of the process of taʾwīl.

The Metaphysical Qurʾān is with ʿAlī; The Phenomenological Qurʾān is with ʿAlī.

With this analysis of Qurʾān in terms of Walāyaḧ we can say something about the above ḥadīth:

ʿAlī is with the Qurʾān; and the Qurʾān is with ʿAlī.

That is,

ʿAlī is with the Qurʾān that has been sent down; and the Qurʾān that goes back up is with ʿAlī.

ʿAlī is with the Metaphysical Qurʾān; and the Phenomenological Qurʾān that goes back up is with ʿAlī.

Everything brought in the Metaphysical Qurʾān: its rules, guidance, and application, is with ʿAlī in everything he says and does; he follows the Qurʾān wherever the Qurʾān goes in its orbit around the Sun of the Divine Command.

And the Phenomenological Qurʾān: its commentary, its interpretation, its meaning, its secrets, are with ʿAlī; as the Qurʾān swims in its orbit about the Sun of Walāyaḧ, ʿAlī is the axis about which the Qurʾān rotates in its movement. This includes its Muṣhaf and its Qirāʾaḧ, because these two are part of the return, the ascent of the Qurʾān that constitutes its taʾwīl.

As the Sun of Phenomenological Walāyaḧ — the ʿAql that Allah (SWT) told to “Come back!” — moves upwards, the Phenomenological Qurʾān moves upwards. That is, the orbit of the Phenomenological Qurʾān about the Sun of Phenomenological Walāyaḧ moves upwards. We thus get a spiral of movement, a coil-like path such as that along a double helix or the Staff of Hermes.

The Sun of Phenomenological Walāyaḧ is AhlulBayt (S) in their maqām or station as the Maʿāni or places where the Will of Allah lands. About the Sun of Phenomenological Walāyaḧ the Qurʾān orbits.

And the Phenomenological Qurʾān rotates about the axis of AhlulBayt (S) in their maqām or station of Imāmaḧ, the station of manifestation in this world as its guides.

Thus the Phenomenological Qurʾān, the Qurʾān of Fajr as it describes itself, both orbits and rotates. It is an Earth that orbits about Sun of ʿAlī (S) in his maqām of Maʿnā, the aim of the Will of Allah. And it is an Earth that rotates about the axis of ʿAlī (S) in his maqām of Imāmaḧ:

Surely Allah made our Walayah, that of AhlulBayt (S), the axis of the Qurʾān.

As Ayatullah Wahid Khurasani told me personally: Every aspect of the Qurʾān is with ʿAlī: Its taʾwīl, its commentary, its inward, its outward, its secrets; and yes, even its qirāʾaḧ, its manner of recitation, are all with ʿAlī.

As the qirāʾaḧ is the basis of the Muṣhaf, that means that the Muṣhaf as well is with ʿAlī, and AhlulBayt (S) have said this explicitly as we shall see.

Conclusion

In conclusion: The Muṣhaf is with ʿAlī, its Qirāʾaḧ is with ʿAlī.

Keeping the above six points in mind, observe the following: We have seven or ten famous and universally accepted recitations of the Qurʾān; each has at least two or more famous narrations. There are lots of other famous recitations as well… four uncommon recitations are well known, and there are others… Which begs the question: Which recitation is closest to the recitation of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (S).?

Even deeper: The Muṣhaf of Zayd ibn Thabit, generally ascribed to ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān and the one we use today, is not the Muṣhaf of Amīru ũl-Muʾminīn (S). I am not suggesting at this point of the discussion that the Muṣhaf has been tampered with, as some from the ʿĀmmaḧ and Khāṣṣaḧ (Shīʿaḧ) have insinuated. But there are serious issues involved here, and they deserve examination.

Where does this leave us? Which Muṣhaf should we recite? And assuming we know which Muṣhaf to recite, what are the legal ways of reciting it? And given the legal ways of reciting it, which way is closest to that of Imam ʿAlī (S)?

In the next reflection we will begin exploring these issues, inshāʾa Ãllah. Your questions, comments, and criticism are important for continuing!

In Walāyaḧ

Idris Samawi