1.

hermeneutical, a situation, that is to say, in which the true meaning dawns on the believer and confers reality upon his existence. This true meaning, correlative to true beingtruth which is real and reality which is trueis what is expressed in one of the key terms in the vocabulary of philosophy: the word haqiqah 2. The act whereby consciousness reveals to itself this hermen- eutical
perspective, at the same time reveals to it the world that it will have to organize and structure on a hierarchic basis. 3. islam is trans-historical: The religious consciousness of Islam is centred not on a historical fact, but on a fact which is meta-historical. not post-historical, but trans-historical. This primordial fact, anterior to our empirical history, is expressed in the divine uestion which the human !pirits were re uired to answer before they were placed in the terrestrial world: "#m I not your $ord%" &'uran (:)(*+. ,. -ne of its premisses is the polarity between shari'ah and haqiqah; its mission is the continuation and protection of the spiritual meaning of the divine .evelations, that is to say, their hidden, esoteric meaning. The exist- ence of a spiritual Islam depends on this protection. /ithout it, Islam will succumb, in its own manner, to the process which in 0hristianity has secularized theological systems into political and social ideol- ogies1has secularized theological messianism, for example, into social messianism. , -2: historical consciousness, between origin and return.. both ta3e place in vertical direction: 45orms are thought of as being in space rather than in time. -ur thin3ers perceive the world not as "evolving" in a horizontal and rectilinear direction, but as ascending: the past is not behind us but "beneath our feet". 5rom this axis stem the meanings of the divine .evelations, each of these meanings corres- ponding to a spiritual hierarchy, to a level of the universe that issues from the threshold of metahistory. Thought can move freely, unhin- dered by the prohibitions of a dogmatic authority. -n the other hand, it must confront the shari'ah, should the shari'ah at any time repudiate the haqiqah. The repudiation of these ascending perspectives is charac- teristic of the literalists of legalistic religion, the doctors of the $aw4 2. latin scholasticism that separated philosophy and theology first sign of christian secularisation. 6. 7#!: The 8oo3 of 9od comprises four things: the statement set down &'ibarah), the implied purport (isharah), the hidden meanings, relating to the supra-sensible world (lata'if), and the exalted spiritual doctrines (haqa'iq). The

literal statement is for the ordinary believers :'awamm). The implied purport is the concern of the e)ite (khawass).. ABAT: "#li ibn #bi Talib &d. ,;<66)+: "There is no 'uranic verse which does not possess four types of meaning: exoteric (zahir), esoteric (batin), limit (ha ), divine plan (m!ttala'). The exoteric is for oral recitation= the esoteric is for the inner understanding= the limit consists of the statements laying down what things are permissible and what forbidden= the divine plan is that which 9od intends to realize within man by means of each verse." );. irfan is against the sub>ugation of philosophy to history. prophetology andimamology want to understand the positino of the prophet not in his own time, but rather in realtino to the divine ispeity. *3. shiite understanding of their perception and structuration of the word reamins different to historical understanding of circumstnaces *2: hiite thin3ing is orientated by its expectation not of the revelation of a new shari'ah, but of the plenary ?anifestation of all the hidden or spiritual meanings of the divine .evelations. The expectation of this ?anifestation is typified in the expectation of the coming of the "hidden Imam" &the "Imam of that time", who according to Twelver !hiism is at present hidden+. The cycle of prophecy which has been concluded is succeeded by a new cycle, the cycle of the wala"ah, which will end with the coming of the Imam. @rophetic philosophy is essentially eschatological. dialectic of tawhid: (A: It is impossible to attribute to him names, attributes, ualifications, being or non-being. The @rinciple is !uper-being= he is not, but ca!ses to be, is the ca!se of being. In this sense, Ismailism truly pursued a "primal philosophy". - Ismaili metaphysics ascends to the level of the ca!se of being: prior to being, there is the putting of being into the imperative, the originating #$ (%stoB+. 8eyond even the -ne, there is the Cnific (m!wahhi ), he who monadizes all monads. The tawhi thus assumes the aspect of a monadology: it isolates this Cnifying @rinciple from all the ones that is unifies - The tawhi &the affirmation of the Cni ue1must therefore avoid the dual trap of ta'til &agnosticism+ and of tashbih &the assimilation of that which is ?anifested to its ?anifestation+. Dence we have the dialectic of double negativity: the @rinciple is non-being and not non-being, not in time and not not in time, and so on. Each negation is true only on condition of being itself denied. The truth lies in the simultaneity of this double negation, whose complement is the dual action of the tanzih &the subduction of the Fames and operations from the supreme divinity in order to transfer them to the h! ! , the celestial and terrestrial stages of his ?anifestation+, and the ta'ri (the isolation and re-pro>ection of the divinity beyond his ?anifestations+. In this way, the "theophanic function" is initiated and defined. # twelfth-century Gemeni author defined the tawhi !s "consisting in 3nowledge of the celestial and the terrestrial

h! ! &plural of ha , limit or degree+, and in the recognition that each of them is uni ue in its ran3 and degree, without having another associated with it". - H): hadd &limit+. divinity is disintegrated by its pluralisation and designation<significiation - /hat is the limit at which the divinity rises from its abyss of absolute un3nowability, the limit at which it is revealed as a @erson, with whom a personal relationship of 3nowledge and love is possible% #nd, following on the primordial divine Epiphany, how do all the h! ! unfold% - first perfection, then second perfection into the world of being. *(. wilaya also a spiritual thing. supervisory and initiatc funtion initiating disciples into myster of doctrine - sense, 3nowledge, and love - cycle of imami succession of prophet. from zahir to the batin - 4If the batin is carried to the point where it obliterates the zahir, and as a result the Imamate ta3es precedence over prophecy, we get the reformed Ismailism of #lamut. 8ut if the batin without the zahir, with all the conse uences that this entails, is the form ta3en by ultra-!hiism, the zahir without the batin is a mutilation of the integrity of Islam, because it involves a literalism which re>ects the heritage transmitted by the @rophet to the Imams and which is the batin.( )*: imam:The word +mam &not to be confused with the word iman, meaning faith+ denotes the one who stands or wal3s in front. De is the g!i e. It is commonly used to mean the person who "guides" the course of prayer in the mos ue= in many cases it means the head of a school. &@lato, for example, is the "Imam of philosophers".+ 5rom the !hiite point of view, however, this is merely a metaphorical usage of the word. @roperly and strictly spea3ing, the term is applicable only to those members of the Douse of the @rophet (ahl al-ba"t) designated as the "flawless". In Twelver !hiism, these are the "5ourteen ?ost @ure -nes" (ma's!m), consisting of the @rophet, his daughter 5atimah, and the Twelve Imams - The last of them was and remains the twelfth Imam, the Imam of this time (sahib al-zaman), the Imam who is "hidden from the senses, but present to the heart", present both in the past and in the future. /e shall see how the idea of the "hidden Imam" is ,ar e-cellence expressive of the religion of personal invisible guide - 33 - 4: important periods of shiite philosophy. - 36: on secrets: uan 'uranic verse 33:(*: "/e offered to entrust our secrets (al-amanah) to the heavens and the earth and the hills, but they all refused to accept them, they all trembled to receive them. 8ut man agreed to ta3e them upon himself= he is violent and ignorant." - on ta iyya: fifth Imam, ?uhammad al-8a ir, as every Imam after him, has

declared, "-ur cause is difficult= it re uires great effort= it can be espoused only by an #ngel of the highest ran3, a prophet who is sent (nabi m!rsal), or a faithful initiate whose heart 9od has tested for its faith." The sixth Imam, 7a"far al-!adi , specified further: "-ur cause is a secret (sirr) within a secret, a secret of something which remains hidden, a secret which may only be disclosed by another secret= a secret upon a secret which is supported by a secret." #nd again: "-ur cause is the truth and the truth of truth (haqq al-haqq); it is the exoteric aspect, and the esoteric aspect of the exoteric aspect, and the esoteric aspect of the esoteric aspect. It is the secret, and the secret of something which remains hidden, a secret which is supported by a secret." - ,th imam: poem - 4fourth Imam, "#li Iayn al-"#bidin &d. A2<(),+: "I conceal the >ewels of my Jnowledge15or fear that some ignorant man, on seeing the truth, should crush us - $ordB if I were to reveal one pearl of my gnosis1They would say to me: are you then a worshipper of idols%1#nd there would be ?uslims who would see >ustice in the shedding of my bloodB1They find abominable the most beautiful thing they are offered."4 - ,;: *. Dowever, !hiite prophetology certainly does not derive from mere positive sociology. /hat is at issue is man"s spiritual destiny. The !hiite view which, in opposition to the Jarramians and the #sh"arites, denies the possibility of seeing 9od in this world and the world beyond, is of a piece with the Imams" elaboration of a science of the heart, of 3nowledge through the heart (alma'rifah al-qalbi"ah) which encom- passes all the rational and supra-rational faculties, and adumbrates the form of gnosiology proper to a prophetic philosophy. - in shiite texts remar3able coincidence between 3a l and ruh(. - ,): super-existence of the Imams - 47ust as the exoteric "dimension" had a final terrestrial manifestation in the person of the @rophet ?uhammad, the esoteric "dimension" li3ewise needed to have a terrestrial epiphany. It achieved it in the person of him who above all other men was closest to the @rophet: "#li ibn #bi Talib, the first Imam. De was thus able to say, echoing the sentence uoted above, "I was already a wali when #dam &the earthly #dam+ was still between water and clay."4 - ,* important stuff on esoteric wilaya -