Biblical echoes in the Du`a al-simāt (Prayer of the Signs) with some notes on the Commentary of Sayyid Kāẓim al-Ḥusaynī al-Rashtī (d.1259/1843) and Babi-Baha'i intertextualities.

Stephen Lambden

 ABSTRACT 2006

        Imami Shī`ī sources have it that the  Du`a al-simāt (Prayer of the Signs) was transmitted through or relayed from the persons of both the fifth Imam Muhammad al-Bāqir (d.126/743) and his son the sixth Imam Ja`far al-Ṣādiq (d. c. 148/765).  The Shī`ī  transmision of the Du`a al-simāt is registered with various isnads (chains of transmission). They are sometimes associated with Abu Ja`far Muhammad Ibn Uthmān al-`Amirī (d. 304 AH/916 CE), the second of the four deputies or "gates" to the hidden, eschatological twelfth Imam Muhammad al-Mahdī. The Arabic text the  Du`a al-simāt can be found, for example,  in the مصباح المتهجد  Misbāḥ al-Mutahijjad [al-kabir] (The [Greater] Lamp of the Nightly Vigil) of Shaykh Abu Ja`far Muhammad  ibn Ḥasan  al-Tūsī (d. 460/1067), the جمال الأسبوع   Jamāl al-usbū` ("The  Beauty of the [Islamic] Week") of the Shī`ī theologian  Raḍī al-Dīn Ibn Tāwūs al-Ḥasani aI-`Alawī al-Hilli (d.  673/1274-5) and in the various devotional and related works of  Taqī al-Dīn al-Kaf`āmī (d.900/1494-5).  The Du`a al-simāt  is traditionally recited in Shī`ī devotional circles  around the time of sunset especially during the last hour of Friday, the Islamic sacred day of the week. Fāṭimah, the daughter of the prophet Muhammad and wife of Imam `Alī (d. 40/661), is said to have recited it at the time of sunset.

The fifth Imam allegedly said of the  Du`a al-simāt :

  هذا من مكنون عميق العلم ومخزونه لمن يسأل الحاجة عند الله فادعوا به ولا تبدوه إلا لأهله 

"This [Du`a al-simāt] is of what is hidden in the depths of knowledge, something treasured up for whoever requests intercession from God. So supplicate with it and do not disclose it except unto his [Shī`ī] people."

He is also reckoned to have stated:

   لو حلفت أن في هذا الدعاء الاسم الأعظم لبررت 

"If you should  swear an oath to the effect that the Greatest Name (al-ism al-a`zam) [of God] is found in this prayer you would assuredly be vindicated".

This statement makes sense in the light of the opening words following the basmala of the Du`a al-simāt which

read:

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ بِإِسْمِكَ العَظِيمِ الاَعْظَمِ الاَعَزِّ الاَجَلِّ الاَكْرَمِ الَّذِي إِذا دُعِيتَ بِهِ عَلى مَغالِقِ أَبْوابِ السَّمأِ لِلْفَتْحِ بِالرَّحْمَةِ انْفَتَحَتْ ، وَإِذا دُعِيتَ بِهِ عَلى مَضائِقِ أَبْوابِ الاَرْضِ لِلْفَرَجِ انْفَرَجَتْ

I, verily, O my God! beseech Thee by Thy Mighty, Greatest, Mightiest Most Powerful, Most Glorious, Most Noble Name which, when I supplicate thereby, an opening is effected of the bolts of the gates of heaven (maghāliq abwāb al-samā') through the Divine Mercy (al-raḥmat)...

A beautiful passage a few paragraphs further on reflects rewritten verses of Deut. 33:2  as well as other biblically rooted passages and concepts :

اللهم بمجدك الذي كلمت به عبدك ورسولك موسى بن عمران في المقدسين فوق إحساس الكروبين، فوق عمائم النور فوق تابوت الشهادة في عمود النور وفي طور سيناء وفي جبل حوريث في الواد المقدس في البقعة المباركة من جانب الطور الأيمن من الشجرةك وفي أرض مصر بتسع آيات بينات،

I beseech Thee, O my God! by Thy Glory (majd)  through which Thou did converse with Thy servant and Thy messenger Moses son of `Imrān in the sanctified [Sinaitic] regions (al-muqaddisīn) beyond the ken of the cherubim (al-karūbiyyin), above the clouds of Light beyond the Ark of the Testament (al-tābūt al-shahāda) within the Pillars of Light.  And in Mount Sinai (tur sina') and Mount Horeb (jabal al-hurib) in the sanctified Vale (al-wad al-muqaddas), in the Blessed Spot (al-buq'at al-mubaraka) in  the direction of the Mount [Sinai] (al-ṭūr)  situated at the right-hand side of the Bush [Tree]. And likewise [he conversed] in the land of Egypt through nine Luminous Verses (āyāt  bayyināt)...

أسأل ويوم فرقت لبني إسرائيل البحر وفي المنبجسات التي صنعت بها العجائب في بحر سوف وعقدت ماء البحر في قلب الغمر كالحجارة وجاوزت ببني إسرائيل البحر وتمت كلمتك الحسنى عليهم بما صبروا وأورثتهم مشارق الأرض ومغاربها التي باركت فيها للعالمين وأغرقت فرعون وجنوده ومراكبه في اليم،

The Commentary of Sayyid Kāẓim al-Ḥusaynī al-Rashtī (d.1259/1843)

 

شرح دعاى السمات وحديث القدر    

 (Commentary upon the Prayer of the Signs and the Ḥadīth regarding Destiny)        

Sayyid Kāẓim al-Ḥusaynī al-Rashtī (d.1259/1843) wrote the recently (re-) printed (see image above) medium length (1350 verse and over 300 page) commentary on the Du`a al-simāt (Prayer of the Signs) in Ottoman Kufa (now Iraq) on the 15th Sha`ban 1238 (27th April 1823). This for a certain Mullā `Alī Asghar Nīshāpūrī  in response to his enquiry about a portion of this then well-known suppication, the Du`a al-simāt -- the recent reprint includes a commentary of Sayyid Kazim upon a Shi`i hadith about al-qadr (destiny, fate).  The  Shaykhi leader Āqā Ḥajjī `Abu'l-Qāsim Khān al-Ibrahīmī -Kirmānī (d.1969),  the well-known as the author of the  Fīhrist kutub mashāyikh `izam (Catalogue of the books of the mighty Shaykhs) a Shaykhī  `Bibliographical Index', had it that the Arabic  Commentary on the Du`a al-simāt of Sayyid Kāẓim was replete with "weighty mysteries and philosophical wisdom" (Fihrist, No. 144 p. 292).

        A  full translation of the  Du`a al-simāt (Prayer of the Signs) will be offered in this presentation along with some comments upon its sometimes Biblical-Isrā'īliyyāt  associations and Islamic theological underpinning.  It will also be the purpose of this paper to examine the Sharḥ du`a al-simāt of Sayyid Kāẓim the second major leader of the emergent mid-19th century Shaykhī Community. He was one of the Shī`ī Muslims with whom the Bāb  had intimate association for many months before he announced his mission in May 1844 CE.  Occasional traces of the influence of the Du`a al-simāt can be found in the writings or scriptural Tablets of both the Bāb and Bahā'u'llāh as well as their later Bahā'ī successors.