Firemorphic
Activist Membrane
Now I did make a thread in the Shia DIR a while ago but I think it's necessary to make one here too. It's a complex subject to tackle and has rarely been explored in mention of The Bab. I will try my best to sum it up:
Preceded by the Shaykhi movement, the Bayani Gnostic Sect of Twelver Shia Islam was founded on revelation from a man named Siyyid (Ali Muhammad) Shirazi, in Iran. He is usually referred to as "The Bab" (The Gate), according to the revelation of the Gate of the Hidden Imam (of Islamic Eschatology).
The position of The Bab's work and legacy of Bayani Gnosticism, rests within the esoteric limits of Twelver Shia Esotericism- or the Batin. His revelation claimed a new cycle (or aeon) of theophany (manifestations of the divine) with the philosophy of The Primal Point* (Allah, Islamically), or Logos. In his revelation/teaching there are endless manifestations or theophany's of the divine Will, he proclaimed that there would be another "whom god would make manifest" unspecified but prophesied within 1511-2001 years of his death.
His thought encompassed Shi'ite Pythagorean, neo-Platonic, Gnostic, Alchemical, Hermetic and Kabbalistic genius. In his prolific span of writings, referred to as "the Bayan", the Bab wrote Qur'anic Tafsir, Mantras, prayers, ordinances. His successor Sudh-i-Azal was also a magnificent poet too.
His writings (in Arabic and Persian) display an incredibly complex use of gematria and letter magic, thought to rival the Qur'an.
The immediately significant texts are the "Arabic Bayan", the "Persian Bayan", the "Book of the Five Grades" (Kitab-i-panj sha'n), "Tafsir on the Surah of Yusuf" (Qayyumu'l-asma).
The essence of the aim of Bayání Gnosticism is that of The Great Work of Alchemy, the elixir of life and gnosis.
Because of it's esoteric nature, it is easy to see that his life was only met with hostility by the orthodox Sunni and Shia's in Iran. He was misunderstood, proclaimed to be a heretic and a disbeliever and his life ended with execution. (this is a history in itself but this thread is more about his theosophy, theophany, revelation and doctrine)
Like notable Sufi's such as Ibn Arabi, his doctrines function within the esoteric framework of Orthodox Islam (for Arabi it was Sunni, for the Bab it was Twelver Shi'ism). His work gets at the essence of Shahada, the essence of the Twelve Imams and Islamic Eschatology. In part, offering up a viable answer to the endless problems with the Exoteric dimension of religion, inevitably the thing that killed him.
(*The primal point is the part of God/Godhead that proclaims "Verily, I am God; there is none other but Me; All beside me is my Creation" )
Preceded by the Shaykhi movement, the Bayani Gnostic Sect of Twelver Shia Islam was founded on revelation from a man named Siyyid (Ali Muhammad) Shirazi, in Iran. He is usually referred to as "The Bab" (The Gate), according to the revelation of the Gate of the Hidden Imam (of Islamic Eschatology).
The position of The Bab's work and legacy of Bayani Gnosticism, rests within the esoteric limits of Twelver Shia Esotericism- or the Batin. His revelation claimed a new cycle (or aeon) of theophany (manifestations of the divine) with the philosophy of The Primal Point* (Allah, Islamically), or Logos. In his revelation/teaching there are endless manifestations or theophany's of the divine Will, he proclaimed that there would be another "whom god would make manifest" unspecified but prophesied within 1511-2001 years of his death.
His thought encompassed Shi'ite Pythagorean, neo-Platonic, Gnostic, Alchemical, Hermetic and Kabbalistic genius. In his prolific span of writings, referred to as "the Bayan", the Bab wrote Qur'anic Tafsir, Mantras, prayers, ordinances. His successor Sudh-i-Azal was also a magnificent poet too.
His writings (in Arabic and Persian) display an incredibly complex use of gematria and letter magic, thought to rival the Qur'an.
The immediately significant texts are the "Arabic Bayan", the "Persian Bayan", the "Book of the Five Grades" (Kitab-i-panj sha'n), "Tafsir on the Surah of Yusuf" (Qayyumu'l-asma).
The essence of the aim of Bayání Gnosticism is that of The Great Work of Alchemy, the elixir of life and gnosis.
Because of it's esoteric nature, it is easy to see that his life was only met with hostility by the orthodox Sunni and Shia's in Iran. He was misunderstood, proclaimed to be a heretic and a disbeliever and his life ended with execution. (this is a history in itself but this thread is more about his theosophy, theophany, revelation and doctrine)
Like notable Sufi's such as Ibn Arabi, his doctrines function within the esoteric framework of Orthodox Islam (for Arabi it was Sunni, for the Bab it was Twelver Shi'ism). His work gets at the essence of Shahada, the essence of the Twelve Imams and Islamic Eschatology. In part, offering up a viable answer to the endless problems with the Exoteric dimension of religion, inevitably the thing that killed him.
(*The primal point is the part of God/Godhead that proclaims "Verily, I am God; there is none other but Me; All beside me is my Creation" )