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Twelvers theology Main article: Theology of Twelvers Twelvers theology is based on the Hadith which have been narrated from the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the first, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Imams and compiled by Shia scholars such as Al-Shaykh al-Saduq in al-Tawhid.[36] According to Shia theologians, the attributes and names of God have no independent and hypostatic existence apart from the being and essence of God. Any suggestion of these attributes and names being convinced of as separate is thought to entail polytheism. It would be even incorrect to say God knows by his knowledge which is in his essence but God knows by his knowledge which is his essence. Also God has no physical form and he is insensible.[37] http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/bhmanif.htm Baha'is believe that a Manifestation is a manifestation of God's attributes and not essence, but the above summary of Shia Islam says that God's essence and attributes are one and the same and that any view otherwise is shirk or polytheism. While Bah�'u'll�h uses such titles as Word, prophet. messenger, and prophet endowed with constancy, to describe the intermediary between God and humankind, the central concept in his writings remains the manifestation of God, the theophany (mazhar-i ilahi48). A related concept is tajalli, or effulgence. While the term mazhar does not appear to be early or quranic, the related term tajalli, does appear in the Qur'an (7: 143: cf. Exodus 33:17-23). The Qur'an tells the story that Moses ascended Mount Sinai and pleaded with God to reveal Himself to him: "God said, 'By no means canst thou see Me (directly), but look upon the mount, if it abide in its place, then shalt thou see Me.' When his Lord manifested [tajalla] his glory on the mount, He made it as dust, and Moses fell down in a swoon." Both the Qur'an and Exodus deny that it was possible for Moses to see God directly, but allow that he could see God indirectly. Later Muslim commentators suggested that it was God's attributes that were manifested in this story, and the Muslim mystic lbn 'Arabi, saw the prophets themselves as manifestations or effulgences of God. While the idea that God can manifest Himself in a powerful way thus has quranic roots, the elaboration of this idea into an element of prophetology was the work of later Islamic thinkers. In particular, there was a Neoplatonic use of the concept of manifestation. In the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, by a group of anonymous Shi'i scholars who probably wrote in the late ninth century, manifestation is used almost as a synonym for emanation. The Universal Soul is said to be manifest (zahir) by virtue of the Universal Intellect, which was the first emanation front God. The Universal Soul then manifests its virtues upon primal matter, giving it form and bringing the universe into being.[54] The Brethren of Purity held that, while no being could share with God in the divine attributes, God did emanate such divine attributes as were fitting upon the Universal Intellect.[55] Since many Muslim thinkers believed that the prophet was himself humanity's link with the Universal Intellect, it was then natural for them to think of the prophet as a manifestation of the divine attributes that God emanated upon the Intellect. The Druze movement in Egypt, which centered on the Fatimid ruler al-Hakim (r. 996-1021), was very much influenced by Neoplatonism and used the term "manifestation of God" as a technical term in its prophetology.[56] The concept of manifestation was also used by the Persian Isma'ilis of Alamut in the twelfth century.[57] It was not only Isma'ilis who employed the concept of divine manifestation in talking of the prophets. Yahya as-Suhrawardi (I 152/3-1191 AD), the famed mystic, wrote in his book, Temples of Light, of the Mahdi, or promised one of the Muslims, in these terms: Revelation was entrusted to the prophets, and its interpretation and elucidation have been delegated to the most great, illumined and bounteous Manifestation, the Counselor. This is as Christ warned, saying ... "But the Counselor... whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things."[58] >Suhrawardi was apparently expecting another major manifestation of God, for he was executed by the Ayyubid government for believing that God could create a prophet after Muhammad, contrary to the Muslim doctrine that Muhammad was the last prophet. Other Sufi thinkers like the Andalusian Muhyi'd-Din Ibn 'Arabi (d. 1240 AD) and the Egyptian Ibn Ata'u'll�h (d. 1309 AD) used the concept of divine manifestation (tajalli', zuhur). Both thinkers tended to talk in terms of the manifestation of the divine essence, rather than simply of the attributes of God, and they tended to see all created things as manifestations of that essence.[59] As we shall demonstrate below, in the Bah�' Faith it is only God's attributes that are manifested, and these are fully manifest only in the prophet endowed with constancy; not just any mystic can become a perfect manifestation of God according to the Bah�'� scriptures. The evidence for the use of the idea of the divine manifestation in Twelver Shi'ism seems to be rather late. It was from Sufi sources like Ibn 'Arabi that the mystical Imami Shi'i theologian Sayyid Haydar Amuli (b. 1320) derived his own doctrine of the manifestation of God. In his view, as well, not only the divine names but also the divine essence is manifested. While Amuli was an important Imami thinker, his theophanology is more Sufi than Imami.[60] Another heterodox Imami figure, Fadlu'll�h Astarabadi al-Hurufi (1340-1394 AD) wrote in one of his poems. "The countenance of Adam is the manifestation of the essence of God / This true statement is the religion of the prophets."[61] However, like the Druze and the Isma'ilis of Alamut, al-Hurufi speaks in an unqualified fashion of the manifestation of the very essence of the Deity, an approach to theophany which implies that God could become immanent. Most Muslims, and even most Shi'is, rejected this approach as heretical. __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-648795-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
