ISMAILI TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS SERIES, NO. 4
ON THE RECOGNITION OF THE IMAM
Fasl dar Bayan-I Shinakht-I Imam
Syedna Pir Shah Nasir e Khusrow
Translated from Persian by W. IVANOW
(1. The Manifestation of the Imam and his Hujjat).
Firstly I begin to discuss the recognition of the Imam, which is as follows, so that thou mayest to know. (By the name of) Imam is called a man whi at one time may be (directly) know in his own person, and at another time through (the guidance of) his Hujjat. It is possible to recognise him (directly) only on the day of the "Sabbath of the faith." and it has to be known that every "day of the faith" is equal to one thousand years of this world (so that) a week of the Religion lasts seven thousand years. In these seven days the "day of the faith" is only one, not more, and the other six are the "night of the faith." This "day of the Religion" is called Saturday and on this day the Sun of the Faith, the Imam, becomes manifested. This is the reason why it is said: "All the (Divine) commandments will pass, but that about Saturday will remain." [Fol.2]. The other six days are called the "night of the faith," and the reason for this is that at that time the law (shari'at) of the prophets is a veil (hijab) of the Imam just as the night is the veil of the sun in this world. But as there is the moon which takes the place of the sun when it is hidden, so there is Hujjat, who takes the place of the Imam when he is not manifest, in order that his slaves, i.e., the "people of order", could recognise him with (the help of) the light of his "Proof's" teaching.
It is also to be understood that in the six thousand years of the "night of the faith" the Imam also becomes manifest occasionally. But these his manifestations are not ma'nawi, i.e., those in which he appears in his full glory, and the knowledge of him, in his real essence, cannot be attained. Just as on the contrary in the millennium of Saturday he can be recognised with his real nature because on that day his manifestation is complete.[1]
Therefore in these six thousand years he cannot be recognised. So the [Fol. 2v] great Ra'is says (in his poetry):
Do not associate it with any (ordinary) person,
Because for the believer who is passing through the Resurrection (qiyamat) it
is immaterial whether he is absent or present.[2]
[1] The terms shakli, idafi and ma'nawi, in application to the idea of the zuhur are here the same as in the Rawdatu't-taslim. These ideas substantially differ from those of the Fatimid time where the zuhur of the Imam is his appearance to the world in the capacity of the ideal theocratic ruler. It is interesting to note that here the term satr, opposite to zuhur,does not appear at all.
[2] The poetical quotations which appear in this opuscule have, as a rule, suffered so much in transcription by ignorant scribes that the meaning of some passages remains quite obscure. In some of these the prosody is not only badly violated, but ocasionally simply disregarded. Mard-I Qiyamat may also be a poetical expression for the Qa'im (the term which does not appear here). I must confess that the meaning of this bayt is not clear to me.
But it would be absurd (to think) that he will leave the "chosen of the order" (khassan-I tarattub) without the possibility of recogtnising him; for the purpose of their acquiring this knowledge the world was created. If he should leave them so, -which God forbid ! - he would be ungenerous. Therefore inevitably a moon must exist in this night (of faith) which would remain perpetually manifest in its real nature. Any one who will not attain the knowledge during the time when the moon appears in its real essence, how should he acquire (this knowledge) at the time when the sun is manifest in a form which gives no light?
Just as a poet says:-
Of what use will be to-morrow a bodily manifestation (of the Imam)?
In another place the poet says:-
Will not be greater or smaller than what it actually should
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