Welcome to F.I.E.L.D.- the First Ismaili Electronic Library and Database.

2. II PHILOSOPHY

The First Poem ; MM.I

Line 74: Harut; and Marut, two evil demons who taught sorcery to the Babylonians.

Line 122: the elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water can be considered as [airs of opposites, yet all exists together in harmony on the material plane.

Speech ; MM.II

Line 18: Darius; the name of several Persian kings, especially Darius the Great, the Achaemenian (d. 486 B.C.)

Line 45: Sanaa (San a ); the capital of Yemen, used as a figure of a far-away place.

Line 57: Jesus; his most famous miracle from the Islamic point of view is his rising the dead to life which he was able to accomplish with a word or a breath because he was the Spirit or Word of God.

Line 85: The Night of Power; the night on which the Qur an was revealed; believed to fall in the latter part of the month of Ramadan.

Line 106: the martyrs of God; could refer both to the Muslims of the time of the Prophet who fell in the cause of Islam, and the Ismailis who had suffered for their religion.

Line 107: the daughter of Muhammad; Fatimah, wife of Ali, mother of the Imams and particularly revered by the Ismailis of the period who called themselves (and by extension their rule in Egypt) Fatimid .

The Angelic Presence ; MM.CXIII

Line 15: Gabriel; as in Christianity an Archangel; in Islam he is the angel of Revelation, who dictated the Qur an to Muhammad

Line 22: treasure of Qarun; the Korah of OT, son of Moses paternal uncle, proverbial for his wealth and avarice. According to Islamic tradition, Divine Wrath overtook him and the earth swallowed him and his treasures.

Line 33: the Active Intellect; The Tenth Intellect, guardian of the sublunary world; Demiurge; interpreted by some as the angel Gabriel of Holy Spirit.

Line 50: When God had created Adam, He called on all angels to bow before him and worship him. Only Satan (Iblis) refused, saying that he refused to bow before anyone but God Himself; for his rebellion he was banished from heaven and became the Adversary.

Line 59: For the Qur anic version of the story of Khizr, see Chapter 18, the Cave. In some version of this story, Khizr is integrated into the Alexander legend and is said to be Alexander s cook, or general. Alexander sets out with Khizr on a search for a Fountain of Life. Khizr finds it, and becomes immortal, but Alexander fails Khizr, the Hidden of Green Prophet , representing the ever-living presence of esoterism, is a figure of much importance in esoteric Islam.

Freewill and Predestination ; MM.X

Line 112: The Proof; hujjat, the title given to NK as a leader of missionaries, and used by him as his pen-name. It is considered good form (though not obligatory) for a Persian poet to work his pen-name somewhere into the last few lines of a poem, often with a pun.

Being and Becoming , Etc. ; MM.XXII

Line 124: Ali, the first Imam, son-in-law of the Prophet, recognised by the Sunnis (the majority of Muslims) as the fourth Caliph, the transmitter of esoteric sciences and knowledge of the spiritual Path.

Line 125: Khaybar; a fortress near Madinah, stronghold of Jews hostile to the Prophet. Ali conquered it, opening its gates with his bare hands during the famous battle of Khaybar.

Line 126: Qayrawan; an important city now in Tunisia; used a figure for the far western reaches of the Islamic world, which stretched in the East to China

Line 133: Kawthar; a river of Paradise said to be in the control of Ali, hence his nickname.

Line 135: Imam al-Mutansir; the Ismaili Imam of NK s period; lived in Cairo (see introduction).

Line 137: Kaaba (Ka bah); the cube -shaped structure in Mecca towards which all Muslims mast face when saying their daily prayers.

Line 147: Khorasan; the vast eastern province of Iran, including what are now parts of Afghanistan and the USSR. NK had been appointed Proof, or leader of missionaries, for this whole region, one of the most important in the world of Islam at that time.

God and the World ; MM.XLV

Line 105: Divine Law; the Shari ah, or revealed Laws as contained in the Qur an and interpreted by the Prophet and - in the case of Ismailism - the Imams. Esoteric Muslims divide the tradition into three diemsions; the Shari ah, the Tariqah (the Path proper, the Spiritual Way), and the Haqiqah or Truth, the Goal of the Path.

Hermeneautics (The Garden) ; MM.CCXXXII

Line 8: Solomon s Throne; carried by demons wherever he commanded them.

Line 101: Iraq and Badakhshan; in other words; at opposite ends of the world ; Badakhshan is the region of present-day Afghanistan where NK himself (the remedy ) lived

The Two Jewels ; MM.CXII

Line 14: the Two Worlds; i.e. heaven and earth.

Line 15: the seven climes; traditional geography divided the world into seven regions or climes .

Line 16: The Holy Spirit; Gabriel, angel of revelation.

Line 20: Hot, Cold, Wet, Dry. Each of the four elements is characterised by a pair of these natures: Earth is cold and dry; Air is hot and wet; Fire is hot and dry; Water is cold and wet. These terms were considered not in their material sense alone, but as principles or archetypal qualities. Their importance in traditional medicine (the theory of the four humours) is but one of their applications.

Line 32: four natures; the four humours or temperaments; see note to line 20 above.

Line 33: nine spheres and seven planets; each of the seven traditional planets had its own sphere; besides these, there were the sphere of the Fixed Stars, and the Empyrean itself.


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