Alone with the Alone, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn

218 Pages·2011·4.31 MB·English

HENRY CORBIN
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BOLLINGEN SERIES XCI
I'IIINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
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The Image of the Ka'aba
MinidturJer om Bibliothiqten ationaleP,a ris,M S su??l6me?ntrts an1 38s,
CopynghtO 1969 by PrinceronU nivenity Press,u nder the tirle
Creatie Imaginaion in the Safrsmo f lbn 'Anhi CONTENTS
New prefacet o the MJtios edition @ 1997b y Harold Bloom
List of Plates vii
Publishedb y PrincetonU niversityP ress4, l Wlliam Streer"
Prefaceb, y HaroldB loom ix
Princeton,N ewJ ersey0 8540
INTRODUCTION
ln the UnitedK ingdom:P rincetonU niversitPy ress,
Chicherter,W est Sussex l. BetweenA ndalusiaa nd Iran: A Brief Spiritual
Publishedi n Frenchz s L'Imaginationc ftatice dansl e Soufrsme Topography
d'Ibn 'Anhi by Flammarionin lg58; PartsO ne and Two were 9. The Curvea nd Symbolso f Ibn 'Arabi's Life 98
originallyp ublishedin French( in a slighdyd illerentf orm)i n
At Averroes'F uneral 38
Ennex-JahrbucherXXI(V19 55)a ndI iXV (1956)b y
The Pilgrim to the Orient 46
Rhein-VerlaZg.u rich
The Discipleo f Khi{r
Thie is the ninety-firsrin a serieso f worls sponsoredb y
BollingenF oundation His Maturity andt he Completiono f HisW ork 68
g. The Situationo f Esoterism
AII RighrsR cserved
ISBN 0-691-05834-2
PARTO NE
PrincetonU niversityP resst rools are printed on acid-freep aper
SYMPATHYA ND THEOPATHY
and meett he guidelineslo r permanencaen d durability
of theC ommitteeo n ProductionG uidelineos[ theC ouncil Ch. I. DivineP assiona ndC ompassion r05
on Library Resources r. The Prayero fthe HeliotroPe 105
Fint Princetory'Bollingepna perbackp rinring, l98l; sixth paperlnck 9. The "PatheticG od" tt9
printing, and fint Myrhose dition printing, with a new prefaceb y 9. Of Unio Mitstica as Unio Slmpathctica 120
Harofd Bloom ar'd entitledA lone with the Alone, 1998
Ch. II. Sophiologya ndD motioS lmpathetica r96
http://pup.princeton.edu
t. The SophianicP oemo fa Fcdeled 'amote 196
Prinredi n rhe United Srateso fAmerica g. The Dialectico f Love 146
3579108642 9. The CreativeF eminine 167
PART TWO
CREATIVE IMACINATION AND CREATIVE PRAYER
Prologue 179
Ch. III. The Creationa s TheoPhany r8'l
t. The Creative Imagination as TheoPhany, or the
"Ood from Whom All Being Is Created" l8'1
g, Thc Ood Manifested by the TheophanicI magina-
tion , l9o
v
CONTENTS
s. The "God Createdi n the Faiths" r95
4, The Recurrencoef Creation 200
6. The Twofold Dimensiono f Beings 207
Ch. IV. TheophaniIcm aginationa ndC reativityo f LIST OF PLATES
the Heart 2t6
FnoNflspruce The Image of the Ka'aba,M iniature
t . The Field of the Imagination 9r6
from Bibliothbquen ationaleP, aris,M S suppldment
e. The Heart as a SubtileO rgan 291
persan1 989,f ol. 19,s ixteenthc entury.p : Courtesy
9. The Scienceo f the Heart 957
J*irg
Ch. V. Man's Prayera nd God's Prayer 946 ofthe Bibliothbquen ationale.( SeeP . 91 andn. . s+.) Pag.
t. The Method of TheophanicP rayer 946 t Elijah andK hi{r at the Fountaino fl-ife. Persian, 56
9. Homologations 267 Schoool fHeret, late fifteenthc entury.r : Courtesy
9. The Secreto f the Divine Responses 962 of the SmithsonianI nstitution, Freer Gallery of
Ch. VI. The "Form ofGod" Art, Washington,D . C. (Sccl !. 65f. for tlc rc-
t. The \Iadtth of the Vision lationshiPb etwcn Elijah and Khi/r.)
2. Aroundt he Mystic Ka,aba 977
e Joseph and His Brothers in Egypt. Persian 252
Epilogue 982 miniaturef rom Fariduddin' A.t.terM, anliq al-Tay.
StaatsbibliothekM, arburg, MS or. oct. 268, fol.
Notes and Appendices 985 114,f,i fteenthc entury.n : Courtesyo fthe Staatsbib-
List of Works Cited 991 liothek, Marburg. (Su pp. zssJ.)
Index 999
I The Philoxenyo f AbrahamD. etail from a mosaic, r96
Cathedraol f St. Mark, Venice,t hirteenthc entury.
p: Alinari. (SecP . Iso ond Ch. I, nn. 7,, and 75.)
* Three Angels Offering Three Cups to the 2&
Prophet.B ibliothEquen ationaleP, aris,M S suppld-
ment turc l9o, fol. 94 verso. p: Courtesyo f the
Biblioth\ue nationale.( 9eep . z*e.)
vt
vll
PREFACE
by Harold Bloom
As Men's Prayersa re a Diseaseo f the Will, so are their
Creedsa Diseaseo f the Intellect.
-Ralph WaldoE merson
l.
Emersont ells us neither to pray nor to believe,i f we would free
the self. One part of the authentics elf wandersl ight yearso ut in
the interstellar spaces,in exile from us. The otler part is buried,
so deep within us tlat to resurrect it would be another return
from exile. We find the God without lessa ccessibleth an the God
wit}in, but that is illusive. Descendingt o 'the deepests elf is so
diffrcult that I havea rrived tlere two or tlree times only in two-
thirds of a century. In that Fullness, we know and are known, in
solitude, a peopled solitude. So knowing, and being known, our
diseaseso f the will and of the intellect ceaset o trouble us: Why
pray to tlre StrangerG od? He is so alienatedf rom our cosmologi-
cal emptinesst hat he could never hear us. We might want to pray
..y6hr im, but to whom? As for believingt hat he erisrs:w e haven o
term for his wandering on t}te outer spaces,s o existencdeo es not
apply. What matters most is necessarilye ither too far outside us
or too far within us to be available,e veni f our readinessw ere all
What is the use of gnosis,i f it is so forbiddingly elitist? Since
the alternativesa re diseaseso f tle will and of the intellect, why
invoke the criterion of usefulnessP? rayersa re a more interesting
literary form than creeds, but eyen the most impressive of
prayersw ill not changeu s, let alone changeG od. And nearly all
prayersa re directed anywayt o t}re archons,t he angelsw ho made
and mlrred this world, and whom we worship, William Blake
warncd, or Jcsusa nrl JehovahD, ivinc Namesm isappliedto our
ixl
Preface Pnfou
prison warders. The Accusersw ho are the gods of dris world and scholar of kabbalah,y et Scholemr arely amrmed his gnostic
have won all of the victories, and they will go on triumphing affinitiest o MosesC ordovero. Corbin was a passionatep artisano l
over us. History is always on tleir side, for they are history. lbn 'Arabi of Andalusia, and of Suhrawardi and Shaikh Ahrnad
-performs
Everyone who would return us to history always tle Ahsa'i oflran: lor Corbin, Shi'ite Sufismw asa gatewayt o all ofthe
work of the Accusers.M ost scholarsw orship history, the Com_ gnostic traditions. Prayer,i n theset raditions, hasn othing in com-
posite God who rewards their labors by granting them their illu- mon with the "diseaseo f the will" that Emerson rejects, just as
sion of value. Emersonr emarked that there was no history, only creedo r belief, "a diseaseo f the intellect," hasn othing in common
biography,w hich is another Gnostic recognition. with the "knowing" of Corbin and his traditions.T his prefaces eeks
Do not pray; do not believe; only know and be known. Many to examineo nly one aspecto f Corbint work: what doesh e mean
among us know without knowing tlrat we krow; Bentley Layton by "creativei magination"i n lbn 'Arabi, andb y 'the imaginalr ealm"
catchest his when he suggeststh at gnosiss hould be translateda s in his SpiritualE odvo od CelestiaEl arth and other books?
'acquaintance"r ather than as "knowing." Acquaintancew it} your
own deepests elf will not come often or easily,b ut it is unmis
takablew hen (and if it comes.N either the will nor the intellect
spurs such acquaintance,b ut botl come into play once it is
achieved.T o be acquaintedw ith what is best and oldest in your-
Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was an Iranologist by profession,
self, is to know yourself as you were, before the ,,rorlj *",
whose teaching and research, in Paris and Teheran, centered
made, before you emergedi nto time.
upon Islamic mysticism and philosophy, particularly in Shi'ite
At sixty-seven,I look back, and for a while I see nothing but
Sufism. I came late to the study of Corbin, my interest in him
time. Yet I can recall tlree timelessm oments,t lre first when iwas
aroused by conversations with Hans Jonas and Gershom
eleven or twelve, and had only just reread all of Blake and Hart
Scholem,a nd I regret havingh ad no opportunity to meet Corbin
Crane. The streetso f the East Bronx fell away,a nd I was in the
before he died. Since 1979, I haver eread many times all I could
imaginal world that Henry Corbin describesi n his eloquent com-
discover of Corbin's writings, and regard myself as being much
mentaries upon the Sufi masterso f Shi'ite Iran of centuries aqo.
under his influence, as my recent book, Omenso J Millenniun
That world, by readingC orbin, I havel earnedt o call Hurqalya,f ,ur
(1995) reflects throughout. Expounding Suhrawardi,C orbin lo-
it takesv ariousn amesi n other traditions, and sometimesn o name
catest le imaginal realm in "the mystical Earth of Hurqalya":
except poetry itself, in many visionary poets. By "visionary" I do
mean tnostic" in a precises ense;I do not mean overtly orthodox Between the world of pure spiritual Ughts (luces victo oles,
Christian poets (Hopkins, Eliot, Auden among them) who found the world of t}e "Mothers" in the terminology of /sirog) and
themselvesu pon the canonicalN ew Testamenta nd tJre Church thc sensoryu niverse, at the boundary of the ninth Sphere( the
Fathers. Corbin's works are among the best guides to visionary Sphereo f Spher6s)d iere opens a mundusi moginalitw hich is a
tradition. Corbin was the peer, in his generation, of Gershom concretc spiritual world of archetyPe-Figures,a pparitionaL
Scholema nd of Hans Jonas,b ut he differs from their oyert stance Forms, Angeleso f speciesa nd of individuals; by philosophical
of historical and philosophicals cholarshipin regard to gnosisa nd (lialccticsl ts necessityi s deduceda nd its plane situated;v ision
gnosticism.S cholem,l ike Moshel del after him, wasb oth kabbalist ol'it ln ectualityi r vouchsafctcol the visionarya PPercePtioonl
xi
Preftce
Pr{oce
the Active Imagination.T he essentiacl onnectioni n Sohravardi seed. And it was in this remainder that God laid out an im-
which leadsf rom philosophicals peculationt o a metaphysicso f mense Earth. Sinceh e arrangedi n it the Throne and what it
ecstasya lso establishestl re connectionb etween tlre contains, t}te Firmament, the Heavensa nd the Earths, the
of this neo-Zoroastrianp latonism and the idea of t"hrrJg .rtnoutongdy-u, worlds underground, all the paradisesa nd hells, this means
imaginalisT. his, Sohravarddi eclares,i s the world to which the that the whole of our universe is to be found there in that
ancient Sagesa lluded when they affirmed that beyond the sen- Earth in its entirety, and yet the whole of it together is like a
sory world tlere exists another universe with a contour and ring lost in one of our desertsi n comparisonw ith the immen-
dimensionsa nd extension in a space,a lthough these are not sity of that Earth. And that same Earth has hidden in it so
comparablew ith the shapea nd spatialitya s we perceive tlem many marvels and stranget hings that their number cannot be
in the world of physicalb odies. It is the ,,eighth"l esilar, t}re counted and our intelligencer emainsd azedb y them. (Spirituol
mystical Earth of Hurqalya with emerald cities; it is situated Bodya rul CelestiaEl arth, pp. 135-37)
on the summit of tle cosmic mountain, which the traditions
handed down in Islam call the mountain of eaf. (The Man oJ It is one of the most extraordinary creation myths tlat I have
Light in lrcnian Sufsn ll97tl, pp. +2-43) ever encountered: God, fashioningA dam out of the adamah,o r
ln Alonew ith theA lone( p.20), Corbin remarks tlat Suhrawardr moist red clay, had a remnant, and from it he made the palm
and lbn 'Arabi share "the same spiritual family." The imaginal tree, "Adam's sister." And even from the palm tree's formation
realm of Hurqalyaa ppearsin lbn 'Arabi as the "Creative Imaiina, there was a remainder, the size of a sesames eed. In this tiny
tion" of part two of Alonew ith theA lone,b ut the link (reallv the fragment, Cod "laid out an immense Earth," called tle Celestial
fusion) between Suhrawardi'sc ognitive image and lbn ,Arabi's is Earth of Hurqalya by Suhrawardi. This alternate Earth, Ibn
marked out most clearly by Corbin in Sp.iriruaBl odya nd Celatial 'Arabi affirms, is the world "where theophaniesa nd theophanic
Eath, pp. I 35-43. There Corbin translatesfr om chapter g of lbn visions take place.' Suhrawardit ells us that Hurqalya, the alter-
'Arabi's masterwork, The Booho J theS piritual ConquesotsJ Mecca: nate Earth, is an Imaginativeu niverse that standsb etween two
worlds, our sensory Earth and the intelligible universe of the
Know that when God had created Adam who was the first Angels. AnotJrer great lranian Sufi, Shaikh Ahmad Ahsa'i, calls
human organism to be constituted, and when he had estab- Hurqalya the Interworld, and a later sage says that "it is the
lished hirn as the origin and archetype of all human bodies, world through which spirits are embodied, and bodies spiritu.
tlere remained a surplus of the leaveno f the clay. From this alized." Of Hurqalya, as "Earth of Visions," Corbin remarks that
surplus God created the palm tree, so r}at Gis piant (nalilo, this is where Hermes dwells, Hermes being t}re tutelary spirit of
palm tree, being feminine) is Adamt si.srerf;o r us, therefore, all gnosis, from the Hermetic Corpus through Christian Gnosti-
it is like an aunt on our father's side. ln tlreology it is so cism, the Sufis, and the Jewish Kabbalah.B ecauseH ermes is at
described and is compared to the faithful believerl No other home there, Hurqalyai s the "Eartho f Resurrection."
plant bears within it such extraordinary secretsa s are hidden I rcturn to Alone with the Alone, where Corbin laments our
in this one. Now, after the creation of the palm tree, there dcgradationo f the Imaginationin to fantasy( seeD uke Theseusin
remained hidden a portion of the clay from which the plant A Mllsummcr Ntghti Drean) ancl somberly notes that "there has
had been made; what was left was the equivalent of ,es"-" ccarerlt o bc an intcrmcdiatcl cvcl betweene mpiricallyv erifrable
"
xii
riii
Preface Preface
reality and unreality pure and simple" (p. l8l). Very suggestivelS FrancisB acont hat the Imaginationw as only a messengers ent out
Corbin blames for t}is debaclea ll the normative theologicala c- by the mind, a messengewr ith a tendencyt o usurp the authority
counts of d qeatio ex nililo, accountsa gainstw hich all gnostics that the reasona ttemptedt o assert.S hakespeareb,e ing not of an
forever rebel. Later in ,{/oncw ith the Alone, Corbin again distin- age but for all time, invented or reinvented both the Imagination
guishes "the field of the Imagination" from the creation out of and human personality, both pretty much as we have known
nothingness, and urges that "we must think rather of a process of them since. lncredibly more diverse in temperamenta nd cogni-
increasingi llumination." Corbin's gr€at strength is that he writes tion than Milton and tle Romantics, Shakespearper ovided the
from Hurqalya, asi t were; I will suggesat translationi nto someo f materiap oeticoth at helpedl ead visionariesli ke William Blake, P B.
our more mundanec oncerns.I n doing so, I will still follow Cor- Shelley,a nd the later Goethe to their conviction that empirical
bin, with particular reference to the new prelude tlat Corbin sensei tself can be a metaphor for spiritual emptiness.C orbin's
added to the second edition of Spititual Body and Celestial Earth. Imaginal Realm is portrayed more fully and vividly by Shake-
There, Corbin begins by noting "that between the sensep €rcep- speare than by the Sufi sages, and not only in overtly visionary
tions and the intuitions or categorieso f the intellect there has dramas like A MidsummerN ight\ Drcan, Periclesa, nd The Tbmpest.
remained a void." This spaceb etween, of the Active Imagination, The cosmos of the high tragedies-Harnlet, Kng Leo\ l,las$ash-
hasb een left to tle poets, but Corbin wishest o reclaim it for the intermixes the empirical world with a transcendenet lement, one
spiritual life as a cognitive power in its own right. I myself, that cannot be identified with normative Chrjstian ideaso f order
without disagreeing with Corbin, nevertheless would say that for or of the supernatural. One of Corbin's Sufic names for the
our culture, at this time, it may be more pragmaticf or seekerst o Imaginal Realm is "the Angelic World,' which is perfectly appli-
discern the reality of the Active Imagination in Shakespearer,a ther cable to Shakespeare'sc osmos provided that you conceive of t}te
than in lbn 'Arabi or Suhrawardi,t hough under Corbin's guidance Angelic order as being rnore Hermetic than Christian. Hermetic
Ibn 'Arabi and the other Sufi sages will help us to define the angelolog;1, studied by Corbin in his Avicennaa nd the Visionaty
imaginal realm in ShakespeareM. y motivation is double: without Recito,lp, osits a middle reality between sensoryp erceptionsa nd
de-esotericizingC orbin, I hope to make him more available,a nd divine revelations. Elsewhere, Corbin translates Shaikh Ahmad
while Shakespearnee edsn o rescue, lzeb adly need to be rescued Ahsa'i as declaring: "The world of Hurqalya is a material world
from the cultural materialists who are alienating students from (the world of matter in the subde state), which is otAer."B eing
Shakespearbey reducing him to the supposed" social energies"o f material but otAeris a splendidm etaphorf or what we tend to call
what tlrey call "Early Modern England."I don't wish either to turn the alter ego, who in Sufism,a s in allied traditions, is the guard-
Shakespearein to a Sufi, or Henry Corbin into Shakespeareb,u t ian angel who strangely is our own self. Hurqalya, like Shake-
instead to link the two in a "processo f increasingi llumination." rpeare'sc reation, is not just a representationo f material or his-
torical reality. Shakespearesh ows us aspectso f experience tlat
doubtlesse xisted belore him, but he illuminates what we could
not sec witlout him. That preciselyi s what Corbin meansb y the
lnoglnol world, the place of the soul or souls. Corbin, it is true,
The Imagination was viewed as a lesserf aculty in Shakespeare's lr cxpounding theophany,a nd Shakespearrea rely does, not be-
age, though there were visionariesw ho did not agree witl Sir In8 rn ei(rterirt, but a poet-playwright. Hegel praised Shake-
xiv xv
Prefaee Prrfuu
speare above all other dramatistss ince Euripides by sayingt hat berr, he is as much in contemplation of Hurqalya as when he
only the Shakespeareapnr otagonistsw ere "free artists of them- interprets lbn 'Arabi, and Shakespearies a much larger form of
selves."T he Sufis,i nterpreting the Koran, like the Kabbalistsa nd Balzac,a midst much else.
Gnostics interpreting the Bible, also were "free artists of them- Corbin's work has a particular emphasist lat distinguishesi t
selves," from the comparabler esearcheso f Jonas, Scholem, and ldel: it
I myself am in dangero f violating a warning made by Corbin sweepso ut, with marvelousu niversalism,t o make incessants ur-
as he concluded the prelude to t}re second edition of Spiriruo,l veys of what Corbin calls "the situation of esoterism." Sufism is
Bodya nd CelestiaEl arth: an esoteric interpretation of Islam, even as Christian Gnosticism
In this connection, we wish to give a caution. We have come was of early Christianity, or Kabbalah of Judaism, or Jacob
Boehmea nd Blake were of Protestantism,o r Emersonw as of the
to see for ourself, with pleasure though not unmixed witl.L
post-Protestantismo f New England Unitarianism. One of the
some anxiety, that the word "imaginal'as used specificallyi n
crucial paragraphs of Alone with the Alone centers upon lbn
our researchesh as been spreadinga nd even gaining ground.
'Arabi's precise parallel to Emerson'sS e{-Rehance:
We wish to make the following statement.I f this term is used
to apply to anything other than the mundusin aginalis and the
This is the very relationshipw e outlined above in the idea of
imaginal Forms as tley are located in the schema of the
the Angel compounded with the idea tllat every theophany
worlds which necessitatetl .rema nd legitimise them, there is a
necessarilyh as the form of an angelophanyT. his should avoid
great danger that the term will be degradeda nd is meaning
any misunderstandingw hen we come to speak of the "Self"
be lost. By t}re same token we would remind the reader that
and the knowledge of "self.' The "Self" is a characteristict erm
the schemai n which the imaginal world is by its essencet he
by which a mystic spirituality underlines its dissociationf rom
intermediate world, and the articulation between the intellec-
all the aims and implications of denominationald ogmatisms.
tual and the sensible,i n which the Active Imaginationa s imag-
But it enablest hese dogmatismst o argue in return that this
inatio verai s an organ of understandingm ediating between
Self, experienceda s the pure act of existing, is only a natural
intellect and sensea nd as legitimate as these latter and that
phenomenona nd consequentlyh as nothing in common witl a
world itself. If one transfers its usageo utside this precisely
supernaturale ncounter with the revealedG od, attainableo nly
de6ned schemao ne setso ut on a falset rail and straysf ar flrom
within the reality of the Church. The term "Self," as we shall
the intention which our lranian philosophersh ave induced us
employ it here, implies neither the one nor the other accep-
to restore in our use of this word. It is superfluoust o add-
tancc. It refers neither to the impersonal Self, to the pure act
t}re reader will alreadyh aveu nderstoodt -his-that the mundus
of existing attainablet hrough efforts comparablet o the tech-
imdginalish as nothing to do with what the fashiono f our time
nigues of yoga, nor to tlre Self of the psychologistsT. he word
calls "the civilisation of tlre image." (Pp. xviii-xix)
will bc employed here solely in the sense given it by lbn
As an admirer of Corbin, I am a touch uneasyw ith this, partly 'Arabi and numerous other SuF theosophistsw hen they re-
becauseh e seemsi n tlis moment of 6ne caution to forget how pclted thc famouss entence:H e who knows himself knows fiis
eclectic in their spirituality his Su6s are, and he himsllt was. l"ord, Knowlng onc'r relf, to know onci God; knowing one's
When Corbin quotes from Balzac'sH ermetic novel, LouisL am- l.nr<|,t o know onei rclf. Thir.Lord is not,thc impcrsonasl elf,
xti xvtI
Prefuce Prrfoo
nor is it the God of dogmatic definitions, sef subsisting with- form, mozhar)i s the worshiper's being in the measureo f its
I
out relation to me,w ithout being experiencedb y nre.H e is the capacity. God prays for us (.,yuso,llia las,na), which means tJrat
he who knows himself through myself, that is, in the knowl- He epiphanizesh imself insofar as He is the God wfioma nd"/ir
edge that I have of him, becausqi t is the knowledge he has of whomw e pray (that is, the God who epiphanizes Himself for
me; it is alone with him alone, in this syzygic unity, tlat it is us and by us). We do not pray to the Divine Essencei n its
possible to say thou. And such is the reciprocity in which hiddenness;e ach faithful ('obd) prays to his Lord (Rolb), the
flowers the creative Prayer which Ibn 'Arabi teaches us to Lord who is in the form of his faith. (lbid., p. 248)
experience simultaneously as the Prayer of God and the Prayer
of man. (,llone with theA loae,p p. 9+-95) I know of no description of gnostic prayer-Sufic, Kabbalist,
or Christian Gnostic-as lucid and moving as this, and again I
This eloquent exposition is a classical account of gnosis, as
will risk the aesthetic analogue, by citing our relationships to
relevant to Valentinus as it is to Emerson. Gnostic prayer is pri-
certain characters of Shakespeare.'T he Form of God" here is as
marily gnosis: you know even al you are known. Corbin names
much a dramatic image as a spiritual one, and manifests itself
this Creative Prayer, and much of,{long with the Alone is devoted
when something in us identifies with Hamlet or Falstaff, in a
to describingi t:
similar sharing. Recendy, lecturing upon Hamlet and Falstaff at
For prayer is not a requestf or something:i t is the expression Princeton, I was bemused to hear the leading cultural materialist
of a mode of being, a means of existing and,o f causingto exist, of Shakespeares tudies denounce me for manifesting "the Politics
that is, a means of causing the God who reveals Himself to of ldentity." Politics are about as relevant to our sharing with
appear,o f "seeing"H im, not to be sure in His essenceb, ut in Hamlet or Falstaff as they are to Corbin's Sufic sharing with God.
the form which precisely He reveals by revealing Himself by Sufic prayer, as Corbin describesi t, is what can be experienced
and to that form. This view of Prayer takes the ground from at very rare moments when we read Shakespeare,a nd even rarer
under the feet of those who, utterly ignorant of the nature of ones (these bad days) when we see him performed. This is not to
the theophanic Imagination as Creation, argue that a God who suggest that Shakespearew as God (not an idea that would alarm
is the "creation" of our Imagination can only be "unreal" and me!) but rather to sayt hat the Sufic" Forms of God" have( to me,
that there can be no purpose in praying to such a God, For it not to Corbin) the samei maginal statusa s Shakespeareg'sr eatest
is precisely becauseH e ir a creation of the imagination that we characters. The imaginal realm is a concept generous enough to
pray to him, and that He edsts. Prayer is the highest form, embrace both the spiritual and the aesthetic. Who anyway can
tle supreme act of the Creative lmagination. By virtue of the define the borderline between gnosisa nd poetic knowledge?T he
shoriogo f roles, the divine Compassion,a s theophanya nd ex- two modes are not identical, and yet they interpenetrate one
futentiation of tlle universe of beings, is the Prayeto J God aspir- anotler. Are we to call the gnosiso f Novalis, Blake,a nd Shelleya
ing to issue forth Fom His unknownness and to be known, knorvledge tlat is not poetic? In domesticatingt he SuGsi n our
whereas the Proyero J mon accomplishest his theophany because lmagination, Corbin renders Ibn 'Arabi and Suhrawardi as a
in it and through it the "Form of God" (suraro l,Hogg)b ecomes Blake and a Shelleyw hose precursor is not Milton but the Koran.
visible to the heart, to the Active Imagination which projects Thc frcedom to interpret the Koran cost Suhrawardih is life at
before it, in its QjDla,t he image, whose receptacle,( epiphanic thc not vcry enlightenedh andso f Saladin.T he situationo f eso-
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