Download PDF | (Islamic History and Civilization volume 75) Firoozeh Papan-MatinUniversity of Washington - Beyond Death (Islamic History and Civilization)-BRILL (2010).
257 Pages
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are several people and institutions whose support has made this work possible. In Iran, I had the privilege of presenting my research to ‘Alinagqi Munzavi and his brother Anmad Munzavi whose scholarship on Islamic mysticism and ‘Ayn al-Qudat al-Hamadhani has been a major resource in writing this book. In Seattle, Farhat Ziadeh and Nicholas Heer were always available to give me feedback on my work. I have had the good fortune of being able to still rely on Hossein Ziai and Michael Fishbein for advice as when I was their graduate student.
The graduate seminars that I took with Samuel Weber had a formative influence on my intellectual orientation toward the philosophical treatment of death. I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to these mentors and to Carl Ernst with whom I held important discussions on ‘Ayn al-Qudat and especially his significance for the early Chishti scholars. Ellis Goldberg, Priti Ramamurthy, Michael Shapiro, Jennifer Dubrow, Jameel Ahmed, Michael Cooperson, Jere Bacharach, Terri De Young, and Anand Yang have been generous with their support.
I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to Elahe Mir-Djalali and the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute for making it possible for me to organize an international conference on Indo-Persian Studies in January 2008 where I presented certain themes from this work. I am grateful to Felicia Hecker for her excellent editorial comments on the book manuscript. Trudy Kamperveen, Sebastian Giinther, Wadad Kadi, Kathy van Vliet, Renee Otto, Gera van Bedaf, and Joed Elich at Brill gave me important feedback on making this a better book. I am especially grateful to Trudy for her invaluable support.
My research in India was sponsored by a fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Institute and to especially thank Elise Auerbach, Purnima Mehta, and Mini Rajikumar for their help. My friends in India, Rasna, Rahul, and Roopa Bhushan, Mazhar Mehdi, Scott Kugle, Amit and Lakshmi Bararia, the Vidia Sager family, Bahawna Dharamcee, and the teaching staff at the Lumbini School, made me feel at home in their beautiful city of Hyderabad. I am grateful to Mehdi Khajeh Piri, Abd al-Hamid Ziai, and the distinguished staff at the Sayyid Noorullah Shushtari Center in Delhi. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Nargis Ahmadi Mugqaddam and Zahra Tahiri at Iran National Library, Rare Texts and Manuscripts Section. My gratitude goes to the librarians and the library staff who helped me at different locations in India. I would like especially to thank Rafath Rizwana, Tanveer Fatima, and Tirumala Rao who made it possible for me to make efficient use of my time at the Andhra Pradesh Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Institute. I am grateful to Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini and his family for their hospitality during my stay in Gulbarga. Sahib Hussaini generously shared with me the resources that I needed in order to complete my work on his forefather, the great Chishti religious leader Khawaja Banda Nawaz Gisidaraz.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family especially my brothers Mohammad Ali and Hossein, and my friends Zahra Afrokhteh, Monty Clouse, Takla Gardey, Karen Hansen, Fereshteh Diba, Cecile Kummerer, Frieda Afary, Farideh Godarzi, Craig BrookeWeiss, Latifeh Hagigi, Farideh Zarifi-Badi, Haideh Herbert, Jeff Erickson, and Douglas Jefferson. I am forever indebted to my dear William Weller. Writing this book has been a journey through time, languages, countries, and emotions. These destinations and dislocations have brought me closer to the city in my heart where I am always at home with Cole.
INTRODUCTION
The present work is an analysis of the teachings of the twelfth-century Iranian mystic Abt al-Ma‘ali ‘Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali al-Miyanji, known as ‘Ayn al-Qudat al-Hamadhani. This famous Persian mystic was born in Hamadhan in A.H. 490 or 492 (A.D. 1096/1098) and was executed in the same town in 525/1131 on the charge of heresy.’ Hamadhan in northwest Iran, on the route connecting Khurasan and Baghdad, was a major cultural center in medieval Persia and the home of many scholars. It took pride in having been the home of the philosopher Avicenna (A.D. 980-1037) whom ‘Ayn al-Qudat held in high regard. Although no biographical records from the time of ‘Ayn al-Qudat survive, ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s extant works, as well as references to him by later authors, provide some information on his life and thought.” During his short life he composed books and treatises on a number of subjects ranging from mysticism to mathematics, natural sciences, grammar and semantics, Arabic literature, commentary on the Quran, and the nature of prophecy. Most of these works were written in Arabic, the scholarly language of Islam. Only his works on mysticism survived the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century. Our knowledge of ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s learning and influence is limited to what we can deduce from his treatises and personal letters. The letters follow the question and answer (masa il wa ajwiba) literary tradition of medieval times; they present the questions posed to ‘Ayn al-Qudat by his associates and disciples. The letters provide insight into ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s immediate intellectual milieu and the nature of the issues and debates that concerned its members.
‘Ayn al-Qudat came from a family of renowned shdfi7 jurists, and like his father and grandfather before him, he held lectures for his disciples and had a wide following in Hamadhan and among some of the Saljtiq court nobles.’ Nevertheless, he did not define himself in terms of any specific creed, nor did his views on faith adhere to the orthodox interpretations of Islam and the Qur'an. He wrote about all religions as different paths that led one to God.* Enjoying a solid scholarly background in Islamic religious sciences, he took issue with the perspective that interpreted faith through the teachings of the sharia. He explained that sharia promoted “habitude” (‘adat) and abiding by preconceived notions of the “unseen” (‘alam al-ghayb).° The complexity of thought and expression encountered in his writing poses a great challenge to the reader and requires careful analysis.
Scholarship on ‘Ayn al-Qudat is limited. The most famous medieval commentary on his Tamhidat (Introductions), written by Muhammad al-Husayni Abt al-Fath Sadr al-Din Wali Akbar Sadiq (720-825/13211422) known as Khawajah Banda Nawaz Gistidaraz, is an elaboration on selected passages of the original text—a common practice among medieval commentators. Gistidaraz was a venerated Chishti shaykh and an exceptional scholar whose views on ‘Ayn al-Qudat provide insight on how he was received among Indian Muslim mystics. Contemporary scholarship on ‘Ayn al-Qudat is limited but interesting. Most of these works were written after the 1930s, when Mohammed ben Abd el-Jalil published ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s defense treatise, Shakwa al-Gharib ‘an al-Awtan ila ‘Ulam@al-Buldan (The Complaint of a Stranger Exiled from Home to the Scholars of the Lands).° In 1960s, ‘Afif “Usayran and ‘Alinaqi Munzavi edited ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s corpus. These contributions have encouraged scholarship on ‘Ayn al-Qudat.
In the following chapters I shall elaborate themes mainly taken from the Tamhidat—generally considered ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s magnum opus—and I shall also utilize his other works. The Tamhidat describes an esoteric kind of “knowing,” which reflects “Ayn al-Qudat’s intimations on the unseen. The unseen (ghayb) is the mystery of God and His hidden realm. This realm is inaccessible to human reason and is thus unknowable. Moreover, attributes concealed within the ghayb are normally hidden from men. God reveals these attributes to men only as He wishes. The Quran is one such instance. In “Ayn al-Qudat the unseen consists of innumerable “worlds” that are experienced intermittently by the wayfarer. These realms become accessible to the wayfarer after he has experienced “mystical death” (mawt-i ma‘nawi). Mystical death is not synonymous with annihilation (fand)); it is the preliminary stage before fand’. It is the stage when the consciousness of the wayfarer is transcended but not annihilated and is in the consciousness that he perceives to be the consciousness of God. My research demonstrates how, in the work of ‘Ayn al-Qudat, knowledge of the unseen and death are interconnected. My methodology in approaching this theme is based on ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s treatment of death in his own writing with a focus on the Tamhidat. I consider death and gnosis through an intertextual reading of ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s texts. I use secondary references in order to create a context for his views on these subjects.
My discussion is organized in six chapters, as follows. In the first chapter, I provide an overview of ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s life and discuss works by him and works about him. Most of ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s early writings are lost. The authorship of some of the texts that are attributed to him is open to dispute, but scholars agree that ‘Ayn al-Qudat is the undisputed author of the Tamhidat (Introductions), Zubdat al-Haq@ iq (The Essence of Reality), Maktubat (Letters), and Shakwa al-Gharib ‘an al-Awtan ila ‘Ulama@ al-Buldadn (The Complaint of a Stranger Exiled from Home to the Scholars of the Lands). These are the main texts that I have used.
In the first chapter I also refer to “Ayn al-Qudat’s own death and discuss the primary sources that describe his imprisonment and execution. Very little is known about ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s personal life, and information on his death is limited. His defense treatise, Shakwa al-Gharib, which he composed during his imprisonment in Baghdad, is a valuable resource. This document is an apologia that contains information on the author’s life and works, some of which have been lost to us. It also tells us about the charge of heresy that was brought against him.
The second chapter concerns the discussions that ensued after ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s release from prison. His apologia aroused strong reactions among some of his students and associates who were not able to justify his appeals for freedom. They saw a contradiction between ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s earlier resolve on death and his later plea for freedom and return to his homeland Hamadhan. ‘Ayn al-Qudat responded to these objections by explaining that the exile and the captivity that the Shakwé al-Gharib refers to are a metaphoric intimation of the forlorn state of the soul. ‘Ayn al-Qudat turns to the familiar topoi of homeland and exile that appear in mystical literature in order to explain his physical imprisonment at the hands of his adversaries. His plight is reminiscent of the incarceration of other significant thinkers who used prison as an occasion to contemplate the existential predicament of man. Accordingly, this chapter provides a comparison between ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s defense, Plato’s Apology for Socrates, and the visionary recitals of Avicenna. These works were produced while their authors, who were incarcerated by state authorities, reflected on the imprisonment of the soul in the realm of matter.
The third chapter provides an analysis of death as a state of consciousness, as discussed by “Ayn al-Qudat. In the Tamhidat, ‘Ayn al-Qudat explains that he has experienced death while alive and refers to this condition as “mystical death.” In this context, ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s understanding of death is not in accord with Islam’s classical interpretation of death. The Tamhidat is an essential text in my research because it focuses on ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s treatment of mystical death and provides an epistemology of the lights that appear to the wayfarer after he has experienced this kind of death. As I will explain in chapter three, the lights that he sees after death represent God’s attributes and are the manifestation of the non-comparable light of God. Although ‘Ayn al-Qudat does not explain how he prepares for mystical death, he elaborates on the consciousness that he attains in this state and further describes this consciousness in relation to his visionary experiences.
‘Ayn al-Qudat’s discussions are significant because they depict death as both a personal as well as a cosmological event that is continuous. To invoke death and to rush forth greeting it, as is the case with ‘Ayn al-Qudat, is an entanglement with one’s own self. Death is an individual experience because it involves no one else but the person who is undergoing the experience. Moreover, death delimits one’s response to the inescapability of the single most inevitable occurrence in life. Death finds cosmological dimensions for those who, like ‘Ayn al-Qudat, believe in the existence of the ghayb and see death as the threshold to it. ‘Ayn al-Qudat considers death to be a path that takes a person to his or her humanity. In the Tamhidat he refers to an out-ofbody experience of death, which has brought him in contact with infinite realms of knowledge. ‘Ayn al-Qudat claims to have based his insights on personal experience of the realms past death. Accordingly, his writing is filled with discussions about this form of death and this kind of gnosis. In the Tamhidat, ‘Ayn al-Qudat sets forth a detailed analysis of the relationship between death, knowledge, and identity. Just as the soul experiences special worldly realms that are called “being in this world” (hudar), it experiences other special realms that are called “realms of the tomb” (ahwéal-i gir), and “realms of doomsday” (ahwal-i qiyamat). It is through death, in the latter sense, that the soul journeys on into these realms. Mystics who have experienced death while still living in the world of matter come to see realms of the tomb and of doomsday and go beyond these into unforeseen territories.
‘Ayn al-Qudat discusses death, the unseen, and consciousness by means of an eschatology that has its genesis in a structured dualism. The fourth chapter will develop this subject. It will examine “Ayn al-Qudat’s discussion of the spectrum of lights he saw while in the special realm of experience. These lights become discernible as the wayfarer enters the realm of death. They convey God’s attributes of “mercy” and “might” through the lights of Muhammad and Satan. These lights and their juxtaposition are among the mysteries that are unveiled to the wayfarer. ‘Ayn al-Qudat establishes this dualism by means of color metaphors and visions of good and evil. He explains that in the realm of God’s attributes there are two lights: sunlight and moonlight. Sunlight comes from the Prophet Muhammad and moonlight from Satan. Sunlight is the “shadow” of God, and moonlight reflects the light of the sun.’ The world of natural elements is a reflection of this dualistic “shadow play.” Placed against this background, man holds a distinct place: he contains both “light” and “shadow.” He is light since he is the depository of the light of God; and he is shadow because, as a human, he is enclosed in the frame of body and flesh. This discussion provides the key to ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s perspectives on good and evil; creation, generation, corruption, and death; humanity; and the nature of prophecy.
Chapter five evaluates the reception of ‘Ayn al-Qudat among his contemporaries and successors. ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s discussions on the attributes of God and the wayfarer’s position in relation to the lights convey his understanding of death as a process of self-identification. His views on eschatology and the unseen are referred to by mystics after him. Razbihan Baqli (a.p. 1128-1209) and Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi (a.p. 1154-1191), who lived close to ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s time, aspired to his views on this subject. Najm al-Din Razi (a.p. 1177-1256) also referred to ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s mystical doctrines. However, in general, mystics of the Arab and the Iranian worlds who came after ‘Ayn al-Qudat were wary of discussing him openly and extensively since the Saljiiq state had called him a heretic and ordered his death. Chapter five will evaluate the legacy of ‘Ayn al-Qudat with special attention to his reception among the early Indian Chishti scholars. Khawaja Banda Nawaz Gistdaraz and his contemporary mystic Mas ‘tid Bakk are particularly important in this discussion. Gistidaraz utilized “Ayn al-Qudat’s teachings in training his own disciples. In fact, he considered ‘Ayn al-Qudat to be so profound and complex that he deemed the novices among his students incapable of approaching his texts or his ideas. Therefore, Gistdaraz forbade his beginning students access to the Tamhidat and used this text only in teaching his advanced disciples. Gistidaraz’s detailed and elaborate commentary, Sharh-i Tamhidat, is intended for such readers among the Chishtis.
Chapter six concerns itself with sama’, listening to music in order to connect with the spiritual realms. As a spiritual practice, sama’ was the subject of controversial debates during the medieval-period. Those who vouched for samd' considered it an opportunity to approach God. Its opponents, however, emphasized the role of Satan in inciting fancies during samd that led the faithful astray. ‘Ayn al-Qudat and his teacher Ahmad Ghazzali were famous for both their adherence to sama and the literature that they produced on this subject. Ahmad Ghazzali’s treatise Bawdriq al-Ilmd’ fi al-Radd ‘Ala Man Yuharrimu al-Sama’ (The Lightning-Flashes of Indication Concerning the Refutation of Those Who Declare Audition Forbidden in General) was received as a classical manifesto in defense of sama.’ The early Chishtis followed the discussions of these mystics in giving shape to their understanding of sama’.
In conclusion, ‘Ayn al-Qudat argues that the visionary apperception of the unseen calls into question the categorical confidence we place in the rational processes of cognition, reason, and the individual’s articulation of the self in relation to faith. The incommensurability of the realities that the mystic observes through death call attention to the individuality of the mystic/wayfarer: namely, the “position” of the wayfarer as he travels the mystical path and his manner of “walking” the path. This subject can be approached in different relationships and in the context of the wayfarer’s response to the mysteries that are unveiled to him. These include his perception of the lights that he sees, as well as his understanding and response to the manifestation of God’s attributes.
The present volume sets forth ‘Ayn al-Qudat’s discussion on these subjects through his understanding of mystical death and _ its accompanying mode of perception. Death takes the wayfarer away from his position of certitude in regard to ontological truths to a realm of consciousness where he experiences mysteries of the unseen as new and ever-extending processes. The confluence of his consciousness and these spectacles of protean truths signifies the mutability of the position of the wayfarer apropos himself in the capacity of a “knowing,” “self-sufficient” subject. ‘Ayn al-Qudat explains his mystical insights in terms of lights whose function, as he declares in the beginning of the Tamhidat, is to assert the existence of a hidden truth. He explains that the wayfarer understands the “reality” past “appearance” as he ventures through the gate of mysteries and goes beyond what lies therein: “If you set out, you arrive, and you see.” But the extensions of this reality are beyond comprehension because they are the reflection of the light of God, which constitutes all of creation and is infinitely unfolding. And yet, to set one’s self in motion, to go, to arrive, and to see, is indeed a mystery contingent upon a “going” that is a relentless “seeing” and “arriving.” He defines these realities as manifestations of the light of God and describes “seeing” as a mode of understanding the unseen (ghayb). The wayfarer who experiences these realities, like the prophets, is among God’s select human beings.
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