Stephen N. Lambden (UC-Merced)
The
خطبةliterary
form is important in both Shi`ism and the Bābī religion often indicating an
Arabic `oration' which is more than just a sermonic, homiletic type
discourse, in being a weighty composition of theological magnitude.
Among the important Shi`i
Khuṭbas known to the Bab and influential upon his early claims is the
doctrinally weighty Khuṭbat al-ṭutunjiyya (Sermon of the Gulf). This quasi-ghuluww
("extremist") sermon is believed to have been delivered between Kufa and
Medina by the first Imam `Alī b. Abi Ṭālib (d. 40/66)(Rajab al-Bursī,
Mashāriq , 166). It commences as follows:
الحمد
لله
الذى فتق
الاجواء وخرق
الهواء وعلق الارجاء
واضاء الضياء
واحيى الموتى وامات
الاحياء
Praise be to
God! Who hath cleft the firmaments asunder (cf. Q 21:30), split up the
atmosphere, suspended the margins of the heavens (Q. 69:17), caused the
solar luminary [sun] (ḍiyā') to shine forth, quickened the dead
and made the living to die....
