Some Aspects of the Khuṭba al-ṭutunjiyya (Sermon of the Gulf) ascribed to Imam `Alī (d. 40/661) and its Shaykhī, Bābī and Bahā'ī Interpretations.

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Stephen Lambden

The literary form of the Khuṭba, an  Arabic word meaning `Sermon', `Oration', `Homily'  or `Discourse', is important within Shī`ī Islam. A number of important discourses with titles commencing this word are ascribed to the son-in-law and successor of the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632 CE) named Imam `Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661). Among them the complex and highly theological Khuṭba al-ṭutunjiyya (Sermon of the Gulf) which contains many fascinating statements allegedly uttered by first Shī`ī Imam between Kufa (in Iraq) and Medina (Saudi Arabia). They  include an adaption of the Gospel "I am logion" previously uttered by Jesus, "I am the Truth". The roughly ten page `Sermon of the Gulf' opens with the following cosmological statement closely related to various verses of the Qur'ān: 

Praised 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....

 It is be demonstrated in this paper that the early Qajar era architects of Shaykhism (al-Shaykhiyya), Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Dīn al-Aḥsā'ī (d. 1826) and Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī (d. 1843) had a very high opinion of this Sermon. The Bab likewise was  much influenced from the earliest period by the Sermon of the Gulf. This is clear from his early Qayyūm al-asmā' (mid. 1844) where certain of his foundational claims are expressed in line with its high imamology.  Baha'u'llah also regarded this Khuṭba  as divinely revealed and gave tremendous weight to its almost biblical, prophetic line,

 

فتوقعوا ظهور مكلم موسى من الشجرة على الطور   

 

`Anticipte ye the manifestation of he who conversed with Moses (mukallim musa) from the [Sinaitic] Tree on the Mount (Sinai) (shajarat al-ṭūr)".

In this paper, these and other prophetological and less known aspects of this weighty discourse will be discussed and commented upon.