عفاطمة

(16TH of Muhar·ram, 1321 – 5TH of Dhī'l-Qaʿdah, 1398 H \ Tuesday, April 14TH, 1903 – Saturday, October 7TH, 1978 CE)

EXTRACTED—WITH MINOR EDITING—FROM:Corps Spirituelle et Terre Céleste: De l’Îrân Mazdéan à l’Îrân Shîʿite (Paris: 1961, REV. ED. 1979),

“The Mystical Earth of Hûrqalyâ”

“ az-Zahrā‘ ”: her solar-name... the totality of the universes consists of this light of Fātimah ,(ع)the splendor of each sun illuminating every conceivable universe... She is the manifested Form,the very Soul (Nafs, Anima) of the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah she is the Portal ;(ع) (al-Bāb) throughwhich the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah (ع) effuse the gift of their Light, just as the light of the sun iseffused by the form of the sun—which is its “brilliant splendour” (“ az-Zahrā‘ ”)... She is allthinkable reality, the Pleroma of Loci (Maʿānī) of all the universes, because nothing of what iscan be without qualification and locus (maʿnā). Qualification and locus are on the same level ofbeing (kaynūnah) as form (sūrah), and form is precisely on the level of being of the Soul, for it isthe Soul that confers qualification and locus. This is why the whole universe of the soul and thesecret of the meanings given by the Soul is the very universe and secret of Fātimah She is ...(ع)“Hikmah”, which is to say “DIVINE-Wisdom and Power”, embracing all the universes. That...iswhy her eternal Person which is the secret of the ,(ع) universe of the Soul, is also its Clarifaction(al-Bayān), without which the creative Principle of the universe would remain unknown andunknowable, forever hidden... The ontological rank of the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah (ع) in their eternalentity transcends all representation and perception, all means of expression and designation bycreated beings, whereas the rank of Fātimah (ع) is the plane of their epiphany, because the rank ofher being is the very rank of the Soul for each degree of being. Thus, the degree of being ofFātimah (ع) recapitulates the whole degrees of knowledge (ʿilm), of gnosis (ʿirfān), so verycompletely that the rank of the respective prominence of the Prophets (ع) in regard to theirknowledge of GOD is measured by their knowledge of Fātimah .(ع) Even those who were themost eminent from amongst the 123,999 Prophets those who, prior to the Apostol ,(ع) were ,(ص)entrusted with the mission of revealing a Heavenly Book [id est, Nūh ع (Noah), ‘Idrīs ع (Enoch),‘Ibrāhīm ع (Abraham), Mūsā ع (Moses), Dāwūd ع (David), ʿĪsā ع (Joshua\“Jesus”)], even they are

still below the rank of Fātimah ,because it is she who is the source of all their knowledge ,(ع)revelations, and thaumaturgical [charismatic] powers, for Fātimah (ع) is the Tabula Secreta(al-Lawh al-Mahfūz)... Fātimah (ع) is in fact the Soul: the Soul of creation, the Soul of eachcreature, that is, the constitutive part of the human being that appears essentially to theimaginative consciousness in the form of a feminine being, Anima. She is the eternally femininein man, and that is why she is the archetype of the Heavenly-Earth; she is both Paradise [theGarden] and Initiation into it, for it is she who manifests the DIVINE Names and Epithetsrevealed in the Theophanic persons of the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah that is, in the Heavens of the ,(ع)Pleroma of the Lāhūt (DIVINE Realm)... “Queen of Women of the Realms” (“as-Say·yidatu Nisā‘al-ʿĀlam-īn”): we look for its meaning far beyond and above the gender differentiation which isthe condition of earthly humanity, a meaning that we have to translate by something like“Sovereign of Feminine-humanity” or “Sovereign of humanity in the feminine.” Indeed, we haveto take feminine as meaning, in the first place: the totality of the beings of the universes of theAll-Possible! All creatures have been created out of the Soul itself, out of the Anima of the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah ...(ع) All creatures being formed from their soul, the ontological status of the universeof creatures in relation to the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah (ع) as cosmogonic powers is a feminine status.In this sense, the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah (ع) are the “Men of GOD” alluded to in certain ãy-āt of theQur‘ãn; but at the same time the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah who inaugurate on ,(ع) Earth the Cycleof Initiation (al-Walāyah) into the hidden meaning of Revelation, were created from the soul ofthe Apostol ,(ص) or rather they are the Soul of the Apostol .(ص) This is indicated several times inthe Qur‘ãn, as, for example, in the following ãyah: “HE has made wives for you out of your ownsouls” (XVI, 72 and XXX, 21). In this sense, the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah (ع) are the “brides” of theApostol and furthermore, since Initiation is nothing but the ;(ص) spiritual birth of the adepts, inspeaking of the “mother of the believers” in the true sense, we should understand that the realand esoteric meaning of this word “mother” refers to the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah .(ع) Indeed, thisspiritual birth is effected through them, and the following saying of the Apostol (ص) refers to this:“I and ʿAlī are the father and the mother of this nation.” And so, the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah as the ,(ع)instruments and effective causes (‘asbāb, singular sabab) of Creation, are, on the one hand, the“Men of GOD,” and masculine; but, on the other hand, and at the same time, they are the soul ofthe Apostol that is the ,(ص) Anima, the Feminine aspect of the Apostol (ص) through whomInitiation, that is, spiritual creation, takes place... The Twelve-‘A‘im·mah (ع) are masculine asagents of cosmogony, since creation is their soul; as authors of spiritual creation they arefeminine, since they are the Soul and since the Soul is Fātimah .(ع) This, therefor, is why we readthat Fātimah (ع) is the Theophany of the Supreme Pleroma, and that is why the Theophanic andInitiatic function of the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah (ع) is precisely their “Fātimic” degree of being—their“Fātimīy·yah”—and this is how Fātimah (ع) comes to be called “Fātimah-Fātir”, Fātimah theCreatrix... Her functions symbolize with each other, from one universe to the other: in thePleroma of the Lāhūt (DIVINE Realm), as the super-celestial Earth which is its foundation; on theterrestrial Earth, as the daughter and Soul of the Apostol ,(ص) and as the one from whom issuethose who in their turn are the Soul of the Apostol the ,(ص) Twelve-‘A‘im·mah .(ع) She is theTheophany (at-Tajal·lī) and she is the Initiation (al-Walāyah); she is “Majmaʿ an-Nūr-ayn”,“the Confluence [Syzygos] of the Two-Lights” [Qur‘ãn: LV, 18–20]: the Light of Prophecy(an-Nubūw·wah) and the Light of Initiation (al-Walāyah). Through her, creation, from thebeginning, is Fātimic in nature, and through her the Twelve-‘A‘im·mah (ع) are invested with the“Fātimīy·yah” that they transmit to their adepts [the “true” Shīʿah], because she is its Soul.”