Some
notes on the Arabic term
مشية
Mashiyya
(“The Divine Will”) and associated cosmogonical-theological hypostases
in Islamic,
Shī`ī-Shaykhī and Bābī-Bahā’ī literatures.
Stephen Lambden
This
Note was originally posted on the list serve Talisman in the mid
1990s and is now being revised and extended (2006).
REVISION IN PROGRESS AUGUST
2005
اَللّـهُمَّ
اِنّي اَسْاَلُكَ مِنْ مَشِيَّتِكَ بِاَمْضاها وَ كُلُّ مَشِيَّتِكَ
ماضِيَةٌ
اَللّـهُمَّ
اِنّي اَسْاَلُكَ بِمَشِيَّتِكَ كُلِّها
O my God!
I beseech thee by Thy
mashiyyat (Will) at its most conclusive (amḍā) for all of thy Will (mashiyyat) is truly conclusive (māḍiyat).
I, verily, O my God!
beseech Thee by the totality of Thy Will (mashiyyat).
The various cosmogonic, cosmological and theological senses of
مشية
mashiyya (= Per. mashiyyat) in Arabic and Persian literatures are
centrally important to any consideration of the Shī`ī-Shaykhī,
Islamic background of the Babi and Baha'i religions. Babi-Baha’i
doctrines pertaining to creation, prophetology-theophanology and the
maẓhar-i ilāhī (Divine Manifestation) seen as the Locus of the
primordial, divine Will, are closely related to the Islamic nexus
of ideas associated with or related to
مشية
mashiyya understood as indicating the "Will" of the supreme and
transcendent Godhead. Babi-Baha’i doctrines are set forth in a
voluminous and still little studied 19th century Arabic and Persian
sacred scripture. It was set forth in early Qajar Iran by the Bab
(d. Tabriz 1850 CE) and throughout the Ottoman dominions --
spanning (modern) Iraq, Turkey and Palestine-Israel -- by Mirza Husayn
`Ali Nuri Baha-Allah (d. Acre, 1892 CE) who claimed to be the Bab's
successor and the widely expected universal eschatological messiah
figure.
Firstly,
there are important Arabic traditions about al-mashyiyya in the
important early Shi`i compendium of traditions (aḥadīth) of Muhammad al-Kulaynī
(d.c. 329/920) known as al-Kāfī fī `ilm al-dīn (The Sufficient for the
understanding of Religion). In its Kitāb al-tawḥīd (Book of the Divine
Unity) the centrality of mashiyya as a theological-cosmological concept
is evident. References to al-mashiyya in Bābī-Bahā'ī scripture are most
centrally rooted in a number of key Shī'ī traditions deriving from
various of the the (twelver) Imams. Among them the following tradition
related from Abī `Abd-Allāh [= Imam Ja`far al-Sadiq] (d. c. 148/765)
which is frequently cited and commented upon by the Bāb:
"There is not a
single thing in the heavens or on the earth but came to be through these
seven factors (khiṣāl) :
[1] mashiyya
("the [Divine] Will"); [2] irāda ("the [Divine] Intention"); [3]
qadar ("the [Divine] Foreordainment"); [4] qiḍā' ("the Divine
Accomplishment"); [5] idhn ("the Divine] Authorization") [6] kitāb
("the [Cosmic] Book"); [7] ajal ("the [Divinely] alotted Time"). And
whoso claims to be able to violate this unitative schemata is assuredly an
infidel." (Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, 1:149).
An almost
identical hadīth to the above, narrated through Abū'l-Ḥasan Mūsā ibn Ja`far,
reads:
"There is not a
single thing in the heavens or on the earth but came to be through these
seven [factors]:
[1] qiḍā'
("the Divine Accomplishment");
[2] qadar
("the [Divine] Foreordainment");
[3] irāda
("the [Divine] Intention");
[4] mashiyya
("the [Divine] Will");
[5] kitāb
("the [archetypal-cosmogonic] Book");
[6] ajal
("the [Divinely] alotted Time");
[7] idhn
("the Divine] Authorization").
And whoso supposes
[the centrality] other than this [schema] assuredly attributes a lie unto
God or disputes with God who is to be exalted and glorified (ibid
1:149-150).
Following
these two traditions (cited above) there is a section in al-Kāfī
entitled, bab al-mashiyya wa'l-irāda ("Section on the Divine Will and
the Divine Intention") which contains six traditions (see ibid
1:150-152). In the first of them Abī `Abd Allāh [=Imām Ja`far al-Ṣādiq]
is cited as having said,
"There is naught
that hath come into being save that which God hath willed (sha`a Allāh) and
intended (cf. irāda) , foreordained (cf. qadar ) and accomplished (cf. qiḍā').
I enquired, `What is meant by `He [God] hath willed?' He [the Imam] replied,
`It is the commencement of action'. I then enquired, `What is meant by His
foreordaining'. He [the Imam] replied, `It is the determining of something
in terms of its length (tūl) and its width (`arḍ).' I further enquired,
`What is meant by the [Divine] accomplishment?' He [the Imam] replied, `When
something is ordained such is [assuredly] carried out. This then is what
cannot be annulled.' (ibid).
The next tradition
set down in al-Kāfī is unusual in that it records Imam Ja`far reporting that
God had no particular liking when He was involved in willing, intending,
foreordaining and accomplishing (cf. 1->4 in the first tradition cited).
This enigmatic ḥadīth is probably intended to indicate God's remoteness, his
abstraction from these processes in the light of His transcendence and
incomprehensibility.
Mashiyya (The
divine Will) in the writings of the Bāb (d. Tabriz 1850)
The occurrence of
mashiyya ("the [Divine] Will") as the first (or fourth) of the seven
realities giving rise to existing things lies behind many of the Bb's
references to the Divine Will (al-mashiyya) as the primordial creative
reality. The transcendent, unknowable God, Who is abstracted from creation
and direct involvement in the creative process, did not Himself call
existence into being but accomplished this through the Logos-Reality of the
Manifestation of God who is the locus of al-mashyiyya ("the [Divine] Will").
There are a very large number of references to the al-mashiyya or
al-mashiyya al-awwaliyya (The Primal Will) in the Bāb's writings. Only a
few such passages can be noted and commented upon here.
Dating to early
1844, the Bab's (pre-declaration) Tafsīr sūrat al-baqara ("Commentary on the
qur'anic sura of the Cow = Q. 2) contains an interpretation of the first
couple in which Adam is related to al-mashiyya ("the Divine Will") and Eve
to al-irādah ("the Divine Intention"). The scriptural reference to Eve's
being created from Adam's rib is interpreted in terms of the of the
secondary or derivative nature of al-irāda ("the Divine Intention"), a
secondary reality dependent upon the primary reality which is al-mashiyya
("the Divine Will"). These two primordial hypostatic realities are also
symbolic of the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632 CE) (= al-mashiyya) and his
son-in-law and successor `Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/664) (= al-irādah).
In his Risāla
fī’l-nubuwwa al-khaṣṣa (Trestise on the Specific Prophethood [of Muhammad]"
1847) the Bāb at one point extols the uniqueness of the name Muhammad since,
like the Arabic word Mashiyya ("Divine Will"), it begins with the letter "M"
(mim):
"there is
nothing in the created realms comparable to the name Muhammad since the
letter "M" (mīm) is the first of the letters of the divine Will
(al-mashiyya). So when that letter appeared is his [Muhammad's] name it
was a proof that he is in the Pillar of the element Fire (rukn `unṣār
al-nār)..." (INBAMC 14:338).
For the Bab in
this work, “the appearance of the body of the Prophet Muhammad in the world
zamān (“time” in this world) is "the appearance of the Divine Will
(al-mashiyya) in the Primal Creation (al-khalq al-awwal)." (Ibid, 344).
There are quite a
large number of the Bāb's works in which the theological role of al-mashiyya
("the divine Will") is celebrated as the locus the divine theophany, the
primordial foundation or basis of the Reality and “Person” of the Divine
Manifestation. In his Fī al-jasad al-nabī (On the Body of the Prophet
[Muhammad]) the Bāb begins,
In the Name of
God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Praise be to God
Who hath manifested Himself (tajallī) within and through existing realities
by virtue of the theophany of His Divine Will (bi-zuhūr al-mashiyyatihi).
This to the end that He might inform all existing things (mumkināt) that God
made the realities of the essences of their beings (ḥaqā'iq dhātiyyāt
kaynūniyatihum) through the modes of the Divine Activity (maqamāt al-fi`l)
and the manifestations of passive receptivity (ẓuhūrāt al-infi`al)."
Towards the
beginning of the Persian Dalā'il-i sab`ah ("Seven Proofs") the Bāb clearly
states that all created things originated through the mashiyyat
If thou art sailing upon the sea
of God's Names, which are reflected in all things, know thou
that He is exalted and sanctified from being known through His
creatures, or being described by His servants. Everything
thou beholdest hath been called into being through the operation
of His Will. How can such a created thing, therefore, be
indicative of His essential oneness? God's existence in itself
testifieth to His Own oneness, while every created thing, by its
very nature, beareth evidence that it hath been fashioned by
God. Such is the proof of consummate wisdom in the estimation of
those who sail the ocean of divine Truth.
The following paragraph make a clear identification of the
Dhikr-i awwal ("First Remembrance"), the locus of the divine
manifestation, with the mashiyyat, the Primal Will
of God:
If, however, thou art sailing
upon the sea of creation, [126] know thou that the
First Remembrance, which is the Primal Will of God, may be
likened unto the sun. God hath created Him through the
potency of His might, and He hath, from the beginning that
hath no beginning, caused Him to be manifested in every
Dispensation through the compelling power of His behest, and
God will, to the end that knoweth no end, continue to
manifest Him according to the good-pleasure of His
invincible Purpose.
And know thou that He indeed resembleth the sun. Were the
risings of the sun to continue till the end that hath no
end, yet there hath not been nor ever will be more than one
sun; and were its settings to endure for evermore, still
there hath not been nor ever will be more than one sun. It
is this Primal Will which appeareth resplendent in every
Prophet and speaketh forth in every revealed Book. It
knoweth no beginning, inasmuch as the First deriveth its
firstness from It; and knoweth no end, for the Last oweth
its lastness unto It.
In the time of the First Manifestation the Primal Will
appeared in Adam; in the day of Noah It became known in
Noah; in the day of Abraham in Him; and so in the day of
Moses; the day of Jesus; the day of Muhammad, the Apostle of
God; the day of the 'Point of the Bayan'; the day of Him
Whom God shall make manifest; and the day of the One Who
will appear after Him Whom God shall make manifest. Hence
the inner meaning of the words uttered by the Apostle of
God, 'I am all the Prophets', inasmuch as what shineth
resplendent in each one of Them hath been and will ever
remain the one and the same sun. 127
(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 125)
