The astrological chart o f the corrected date in plate 35 gives the position of the Sun at exactly 19 degrees Aries, which is the point of its exaltation according to Al-Biruni, in the month of Farvadin.426 This would suggest that the Uch monuments were started at exactly the point of exaltation o f the Sun in Aries, and would also explain why the Cross symbols are so pronounced and numerous in the iconography. Obviously due to both the disposition o f the Sun and the place Jesus enjoys as the Soul o f God in Islam,427 this would give him a very special place in the Satpanth. This also explains the depressed Cross niches created for holding ceremonial candles, probably used for the fulfilment of desires.
We are explaining these events in the context of the Satpanth, with clear astrological determinants used to allegorically relate divine events in human history to earthly ones.
The chart for this corrected date also shows Venus and Jupiter, known as Sa'dain (blessed) planets by Al-Biruni for their noble traits, to be in exaltation (Venus is in Taurus, the sign o f its rulership).
4~7 This again is a matter o f Ismaili tafsir or interpretation, as the idea o f Jesus being the actual ‘Soul’ o f
As such, in terms o f Islamic esoteric sciences there should be clear antecedents and planetary exaltations ascribed to every event and Prophet without fail. The proponents of the True Path would envisage this to be the plan of God himself, testifying to the Sacrifice o f his Prophet (Jesus) in this case, and that the planetary exaltations were at no event accidental. Since Jesus is associated with the Sun, and the wilayat o f Ali is at Nauroz with the Sun entering the sign of its exaltation, the Shia-Ismaili ‘True Path5 allegory for the exaltation o f Jesus is the natural exaltation o f the Sun in Aries at its prescribed point, i.e. 19 degrees.
Hence, in the Satpanth the Islamic belief of Christ being raised to Heaven should automatically correspond with this day o f the exact exaltation o f the Sun, in the larger Nauroz period in the Persian month o f Farvadin. It does not matter if the date used in plate 35, carefully deduced from various reports on the Crucifixion after various combinations, is rejected by scholars o f Christianity. The date correctly represents Christ’s Ascension to Heaven in the doctrinal methodology o f Shia-Ismaili metaphysics that we are dealing with, which we have examined to be coherent without fail. In medieval Ismaili metaphysics, which subsequently developed into the Satpanth under Pir Shams, the ‘Cross o f Light’ is a multi-faceted ethereal event which encompasses many divine secrets in is being.428 It echoed Jesus’s earthly Crucifixion in the Heavens.
It must be remembered that the multilayered astrological and religious symbolism o f the Satpanth is envisaged like a tapestry, where things fall into a coherent design at many levels. One icon may represent many different interrelated concepts, which in turn complements others. Thus the exaltation o f Jesus at 19 degrees Aries is also associated with the number of letters in the Bismillah (which are 19 in Arabic), which in turn is associated with Ali.429 In addition the Panjatan, or Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and
428 For details o f the Cross o f Light see Corbin 1983 pp. 62 & 149. The clear presence o f the Cross o f Light in Ismaili meta-physics shows that, in opposition to orthodox interpretation, some connection to a crucifixion is indeed envisaged for Jesus in Shia Islam. This also sheds farther light on the inference to the
matter by Omar Khayyam in his Nauroz Namah, see plate 34, p. 161.
429 * ■ • * • •
For details o f Bismillah and its relation to Ali see Chapter Six, ‘The Jahangasht and Sayyid Raju Khanqahs.’
Husain have 19 letters between them in the Arabic, equal to Bismillah. In the context of the thesis methodology, Easter in 34 A.D., the year accepted by Newton for the Crucifixion, when enjoined with the Sunday on 9 April as derived from the other two sources, gives the exact Suhrawardi interpretation o f the place o f Jesus in the religion of the order, i.e. the exaltation o f the Sun at 19 degrees Aries. This explains the symbolism o f the Latin Crosses present at Uch and the lesser monuments in D.I. Khan, which are in turn inseparable from the wilayat o f Ali at Ghadir-Khumm and Nauroz due to their Shia nature.
Conclusion
The wilayat o f Ali and its four levels as explained in the beginning o f this chapter are common and indispensable to Ja’fari Shiism, Sufism and the Satpanth. In addition to being the foundation of the Shia-Ismaili concept imamate, they also form the metaphysical basis for the derivation of spiritual authority in the latter two doctrines. Some extant Twelver Shia literature, although it has been edited over the centuries, mentions the reality o f Ali’s wilayat as disseminated by him to his two closet disciples, Abu Dharr Ghaffari and Salman the Persian. In this private sermon o f Ali called
M a ’arifat al-Nurraniyat or the ‘Recognition of Light,’ he relates his reality and that of
his wilayat to his two disciples as being primordial over all creation and his equality to Muhammad, through being his esoteric other half. In addition Ali also touches on the different levels o f his own wilayat in this text,430 which has been explored further in the recent book Shiism: Imamate and Wilayat by Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi. Abu Dharr and Salman (especially the latter) in turn figure in many Sufi spiritual chains which derive spiritual legitimacy from Ali. In addition, in Ja’fari Shiism i.e. the Twelver and Ismaili branches, both personalities are considered near infallible, as the only Muslims who did not lose their faith in real Islam, i.e. the wilayat o f Ali after Muhammad. In fact certain Shia hadith mention Salman the Persian as a part o f the Ahl al-Bayt in addition to the
430 For the complete sermon. see
http://www.hubeali.com/klmtbat/The%20Sermon%20ofyo20Recognition%20of%20Noor.pdf . Most such sermons are contained in the Nahaj al-Baldgha.
Prophet’s own household.431 In Ismailism this is in turn also connected to the concept of resurrection built around Nauroz which is indelibly linked to the wilayat o f Ali 432 With the clarification on the commonality o f the concept o f wilayat between Ja’fari Shiism and Sufism, it would be reasonable to argue that all Sufi orders which derived their spiritual authority from Ali, i.e. from his wilayat, are inherently Shia in nature, and most may have turned another way after extended periods o f dissimulation or under Sunni patronage; this would of course exclude the Naqshbandi Order and its spiritual descent from Abu Bakr. The use o f this Ja’fari concept o f the primordial wilayat o f Ali as the basis for formulation of the Satpanth is the first thing that is visible from the evidence uncovered in the thesis, which is then applied through its Nauroz based astrological framework to accommodate other religions into its fold. In this, the Satpanth is not envisaged as the divine religion which stops being Shia-Ismaili in its transcendentalism; it is in fact the Divine Religion which is indelibly Shia-Ismaili in nature, and has primordiality over all the other religions which fit into it.
Prior to this thesis the Satpanth had not been academically understood for any practicality o f belief and is generally envisaged as a hotchpotch religion concocted by Ismaili da’is from Khurasan for religious practicality in India. Previously the most comprehensive work describing Satpanth religiosity has been done by the Russian scholar on Ismailism Wladimir Ivanow in his often quoted monograph titled ‘Satpanth,’ In it he describes it as ‘The True Path (to Salvation), the name of a sect o f Islam, forming a kind o f transition from ordinary Islamic doctrine o f the Shi’ite type, to Hinduism.’ According to him its Shia component is represented by the Nizari Khoja followers o f the Aga Khan and its Hindu element by the Satpanthis, i.e. the remnants o f the original belief system in present day Gujrat, who adhere more to its Hindu elements.433 His Satpanth study in a near
431 These hadith are common to both Twelver Shiism and Ismailism, and Salman’s infallibility is also the theme o f metaphysics o f the Ikhwan al-Safa, some o f which became the Satpanth under Shams. For Salman’s place in this hierarchy, and the relative hadith see Corbin 1986, p. 176. The hadith states (Prophet) ‘Salman proceeds from me and I from Salman,’
432 For the Nauroz connection to Salman and hence the wilayat o f Ali, as mentioned in the Ikwan al-Safa epistles see Ibid. pp. 165 & 176-180.
433 httn://www.ismaili.net/Source/0723/07231a.htmi. For these differences in the Satpanth from what we
have discovered in the thesis see ‘Satpanth,’ by Ivanow in Collectanea, Vol. 1, (Leiden 1948), p .3 1 ^ The
contemporary setting shows the polarity between the two segments o f the Indian Ismaili population, part o f which became attached to the Aga Khan line on its migration to India in the 19th century. This subsequently became more Muslim, while those who remained steadfast to the old traditions strayed deeper into its Indian components. From our discoveries we can clearly see that the original Satpanth set up by Shams was envisaged to be far more than Ivanow recorded in his work. Of course as the Ismaili da’wa fell apart so did the Satpanth framework and the remainder which reached the first Aga Khan on his migration to India would have seemed incoherently Hindu to him at that point, and later to Ivanow as well.
This multi«faith representation within the wilayat o f Ali and Nauroz nexus seems to be a very conscious application o f the metaphysical concepts o f early Ismailism and especially the Ikhwan al-Safa, to religious identities in the Indo-Iranian world, so as to propound the Satpanth. Although the Ikhwan al-Safa has yet to be proved in a complete Ismaili light in academia, some metaphysical connection to Ismailism can be seen in the likeness o f the Suhrawardi Order.434 The only person with the spiritual kudos to have achieved this is Shams. Nauroz symbolism is also present in the feasts of the Ikhwan, who used to ritually arrange their meetings, like Shams’s ceremonies or the ritual construction of the Uch buildings, specifically when the Sun entered the sign of Ram (Aries), amongst others 435
An Ikhwan al-Safa manual quote reads, ‘To shun no science, scorn no book, nor cling fanatically to one single creed. For its own creed encompasses all the others and comprehends all the sciences generally. This creed is the consideration o f all existing things, both sensible and intelligible, from beginning to end, whether hidden or overt, manifest or obscure. In so far as they all derive from a single principle, a single cause, a single world, and a single Soul.’436
A conscious effort was made in the early Fatimid era to regard other monotheistic religions within the fold of Islam on a conceptual basis. The Fatimids, in line with heir
434 For the Ismaili connections to Ikwan al-Safa see Netton (1980) pp.95 f f
435 Nasr 1964, p.34.
cyclical view o f the sacred history o f mankind, made intentional attempts to accommodate major religions like Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism in their Gnostic system o f thought.437 In light o f our exegesis this Fatimid signification must have been inside the wilayat o f Ali, yet this is something that has not been identified in modern academia. The same is the appears to be the case with the Ikhwan al-Safa, who nevertheless may have been more inclined to actual multi-faith ceremonial, as commented by Nasr. The Indus valley, through Shams’s spiritual genius in the post Mongol era, sees a coherent multi-religious doctrine and ceremonial for the first time, which is aimed at rediscovering the lost primordial Divine Religion based on the wilayat o f Ali. This was subsequently disseminated into the Suhrawardi Order, who in turn adapted it even further by applying it to both monument construction and burial practices. A burial archetype common to the shrines o f Ismaili missionaries and the Suhrawardi Order has been discovered, which in the case o f the latter takes the amalgamative wilayat based religious trends o f the Satpanth to a new level.
Chapter Five: The Multan Monuments
Entrance, axiality and the Qibla direction in Islamic burial
The common shrine archetype discovered for the Suhrawardi shrines in Pakistan and those related to Shams and his Ismaili missionary descendants is distinguished by a characteristic departure from traditional Islamic monuments for the same era. This is in terms o f the axial arrangement o f the plan and the various connected entrances which are highly unorthodox. But to clarify this difference from the conventional model, which in our case seems to be a conscious effort to accommodate multi-faith ceremonial which is necessarily based on the ideals o f the Satpanth, a brief conjecture into established theses on orthodox Islamic burial must be made* Axiality in Islamic burial traditions is the subject of research by Delbert Highlands, who was this author’s professor when he was studying architecture* Highlands’s research explores and highlights the symbolic incorporation o f the orthodox Sunni burial axis, which is based on the Mecca direction, into mosque design* and subsequently into the orthodox expansionist mindset* He has observed this phenomenon in buildings as, a) always facing Mecca upon entrance to a burial chamber or mosque, which represents the centrality o f the Mecca direction in Islam; and b) facing in exactly the opposite direction, or away from Mecca, upon leaving the monument* which signifies the expansion o f (Sunni) Islam as emanating from Mecca and the mosque itself, to eventually take over the whole world. In Salafist Saudi Arabia, and other orthodox Muslim countries, this emphasis is achieved by the Muslims entering the mosque from an entrance located on the right hand side of the Mecca direction facade, while leaving from an adjacent exit on the left in the same facade, Even if there are secondary entrances, as happens in modern mosques which accommodate tens of thousands or more people in congregation, the central emphasis is always on the Mecca direction.
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36. The grave o f Habil with its medieval Islamic era shrine in Damascus. The photograph is taken from the