The Divine Guide in Early Shi'ism The Sources of Esotericism in Islam
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Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi - Author David Streight - Translator
N/A Hardcover - 279 pages
Release Date: October 1994
ISBN10: 0-7914-2121-X ISBN13: 978-0-7914-2121-5
Price: $32.95 Paperback - 279 pages
Release Date: September 1994
ISBN10: 0-7914-2122-8 ISBN13: 978-0-7914-2122-2
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Summary
The Imam, the Divine Guide, is the central point around which the Shi'ite religion turns. The power of Shi'ism comes from the actions of the Imam. This title is reserved exclusively for the sucessors of the prophets in their mission. The author shows that from the beginning of Shi'ite Islam until the tenth century, the Imam was primarily a master of knowledge with supernatural powers, not a jurist theologian. The Imam is the threshold through which God and the creatures communicate. He is thus a cosmic necessity, the key and the center of the universal economy of the sacred.
The author presents Shi'ism as a religion founded on double dimensions where the role of the leader remains constantly central: perpetual initiation into divine secrets and continued confrontation with anti-initiation forces. Without esotericism, exotericism loses its meaning. Early Imamism is an esoteric doctrine. Historically, then, at the beginning of esotericism in Islam, we find an initiatory, mystical, and occultist doctrine. This is the first book to systematically explore the immense literature attributed to the Imams themselves in order to recover the authentic original vision. It restores an essential source of esotericism in the world of Islam.
At the Sorbonne, Professor Amir-Moezzi is professeur d'islamologie a la section de sciences religieuse de l'Ecole Pratique des Haute Etudes.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Preface
Chapter I. Introduction: Return to the Earliest Sources
Hiero-Intelligence and Reason
Esotericism and Rationalization
The Sources
The Nature and Authority of Imamite Traditions
Chapter II. The Pre-Existence of the Imam
The Worlds before the World. The Guide-Light
Adamic Humanity. The "Voyage" of the Light
Excursus: "Vision with the Heart"
Conception and Birth
Chapter III. The Existence of the Imam
Comments on the "Political" Life of the Imams
The Sacred Science
Notes on the "Integral Qur'an* "
The Sacred Power
Chapter IV. The Super-Existence of the Imam
Imamite Points of View on the Ancientness of the Information
The Imam and His Occultation: Esoteric Aspects
The Return and the Rising: Esoteric Aspects
Conclusions
Appendix:
Some Implications of the Occultation: Individual Religion and Collective Religion
