A Post Didar Reflection: Using Avicenna’s Realm of Active Imagination for Keeping Evergreen the Consciousness of the Holy Encounter with Mawlana Hazar Imam

29 November 2017

Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, waves goodbye at Montreal airport at the end of his recent visit to Canada. Photo: The Ismaili/Moez Visram.

By SHIRAZ PRADHAN

It is natural that as we reflect and interiorize the joys of sights and sensations of mulaqats with Mawlana Hazar Imam including the most recent ones in Toronto and Montreal, the post-mulaqat vacuum may create a sense of post-padhramni sadness or what we call blues. The chores and demands of daily life which are put in abeyance during the anticipatory period of the mulaqat, once again begins to claim our attention and the bliss of mulaqat may begin to fade from the minds of some. The “presence” that had given joy to the heart begins to fade. These are the precursors to the onset of a sense of sadness. Lose not hope. There is a remedy. Glittering gems are scattered around to light our path, away from the blues. Let me explain.

In his commentary on the Visionary Recitals of Avicenna [1, 2], the renowned Orientalist Henry Corbin has recognized an essential bridge that gives rise to religious or mystical/spiritual consciousness. Corbin call this the faculty of Active Imagination. What does this term “Active Imagination” mean? In ordinary language, Active Imagination is the sum total of our mental faculties with imagination as its chief driver that allows us to configure the existence of a spiritual universe as a concrete reality. Without it the existence of such universes becomes doubtful. Visionary Recitals of Avicenna are renowned for promoting the realm of this Active Imagination which allow the flowering of spiritual symbolism in the heart that prepares it for an adventure into the unknown.

Sufism recognizes two different conditions of consciousness on the mystical path: the first of these known as al-Hal is a state of consciousness which is transient or passing. It could be a state of sadness, ecstasy, happiness or any other state dictated by the mind. Pir Sadardin’s epic granth Buj Niranjan (Chapter 20, Verse 4) describes such a state when a soul, intoxicated in divine love, vacillates between state of happiness and sadness:

Kabuek hanse aur kabuek rove
Kabuek lag piya gal sove……(4)

Translation:

Sometimes she cries, at others she laughs
Sometimes she is as if in embrace of the beloved……(4)

The other condition known as al-Maqam is a permanent station achieved by the desire and effort of the seeker and grace from above. These stations (pl. maqaamat) are necessary stages of progress along the path to spiritual enlightenment. At a deeper level, Active Imagination is at work in the attainment of the various states and stations of the path. The aim of those who are on the esoteric path is not to get bogged down in the transient, passing states but to steadfastly continue on the path to the encounter with the Higher Reality.

With this background we turn our attention to the post padhramni sadness we referred to earlier and to its cure(s). One Ginan that help us in this regard is Aji Hete Sun Milore Mara Munivero. [3] The beauty of this Ginan is that it does not require a complex philosophical project or spiritual mumbo-jumbo to deliver a simple elixir for the heart. The messages it conveys are profound truths of spiritual search and the practical engagement of the Active Imagination. The verses of our interest are 4, 5 and 8.

The key points of verse 4 are that Lord’s name is pure and divine; that one needs to invoke Him by this “Name” with regularity; that His “presence” is mingled intimately with the heart just as fragrance is an intimate essence of the flower.

Aji Paak saajeb ji nun naam chee
Tene jampi-e saas ussas
Dur ma dekho dil maahe vase
Jem chaampa phool mahe vaas……(4)

Translation:

Divine is the “Name” of the Lord
Invoke this “Name” with regularity,
Do not see Him far, He is intimately mingled in your heart
Just as fragrance is intimate with the Flower……(4)

Verse 5 reinforces what has been stated in Verse 4 and exemplifies and demands the engagement of the Active Imagination in the practice of the invocation of the “Name.” It states that every atom of the body is imbued with the divine presence.

So, in essence the “presence” never left! It is always there. The last line of the verse capitulates one of the remedies to counter the sadness: Perform devotion with the understanding that He, the Lord is always seated in the heart.

Aji rome rome maaro Shaah vase,
Ane antar nahi ek til
Evun jaanni bhgaataai kij-e
Shaah partake bethaa dil……(5)

Translation:

The Lord is mingled with every atom of your body.
Do not harbor delusion that you are separate from him
Perform your devotion with the knowledge that
He is forever seated in your heart……(5)

Faith is the ultimate essence of Active Imagination. In verse 8 of Hetesun Milore Mara Munivero we see this at play:

Aji raini ajvari chaand sun,
ane divas ajvaro sur
Tem Ghat ajvaro Iman sun……(8)

This verse provides an added, joyful ingredient to the uplifting elixir provided by verses 4 and 5. It states that just as night is lighted by the moon and sun lights the day, so faith lights the heart. And such a heart is in continual bliss of rain of Nur (light).

What these verses of the Ginan indicate is that the “presence” of the Imam never left the heart. It is always there. A combination of faith and Active Imagination provides a continual reinforcement of the “presence.” But this requires the necessary action of continual remembrance with the understanding that He is ever present in the heart.

Date posted: November 29, 2017.

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Notes:

[1]. Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, translated from the French by Willard R. Trask, Bollingen Series, LXVI, 1960.
[2]. All the World an Icon: Henry Corbin and the Angelic Function of Beings by Tom Cheetham, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 2012. Available also as a Kindle book.
[3]. http://ginans.usask.ca/.

Shiraz Pradhan

Shiraz Pradhan, in parallel with his work as an international engineering consultant, has contributed for several years to furthering religious education among the Ismaili community in the UK, Canada, USA and Japan. He is the author of several articles published on this website and was a regular contributor to UK’s flagship Ismaili magazine, Ilm. Currently he is concluding the script of a full-length play of the 10th Century trial of the Sufi Saint Mansur al-Hallaj in Baghdad based on historical facts.

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Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, to Bless Ismailis in Eastern Canada with Didar in November 2017

27 October 2017

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2017 Aga Khan Tanzania Darbar zr1_web_4823

His Highness the Aga Khan, Mawlana Hazar Imam, at the Dar es Salaam Darbar in October 2017. He will grace the Eastern Canadian Ismailis with his didar in November 2017.

Ismailis gasp in delight and shed tears of joy at announcement of Mawlana Hazar Imam’s visit to Canada in November 2017

By Malik Merchant, Editor

(Note: We will have regular updates leading upto the visit; here are the latest updates for this blog):

Ismailis in Eastern Canada will, inshallah, be graced with the holy visit of their beloved 49th Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, during the month of November 2017. The announcement of the visit by the Ismaili Leadership International Forum (LIF) came as a big surprise, and thousands who were present in Jamatkhanas across Canada on Friday, October 27, gasped with delight when the news of the visit was read out. At the Ismaili Centre in Toronto, the Jamat was informed about the visit by the Chairman of the LIF, Mahmoud Eboo, who is also the representative of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Canada.

The exact dates and details of the visit were not announced on Friday. However, an update on Saturday October 28th, stated that Mawlana Hazar Imam’s mulaqats with the Eastern Canada Jamat, which will include religious work, will take place in Toronto for the Ontario region and in Montreal for the Quebec and Maritime Provinces. Although located in Ontario, the Jamat in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, will join hands with the Jamats of the Quebec and Maritime Provinces in Montreal.

This will be the third visit by the Aga Khan to his followers during his Diamond Jubilee year that commenced on July 11, 2017, when he completed 60 years of his reign. Earlier in October, he made official visits to Uganda and Tanzania at the invitation of the two governments. During the five day tour that began on October 8th, Mawlana Hazar Imam graced the Ismailis with momentous Darbars (lit. a court or audience chamber where kings had formal or informal meetings) in Kampala and Dar es Salaam.

On this most auspicious and joyous news of Mawlana Hazar Imam’s forthcoming visit to Canada, we convey our heartiest felicitations to Ismailis in Canada and around the world and offer a humble supplication with the following words taken from a Ginan by Pir Hasan Kabirdin (14th century).

Transliteration

Eji, Aash Karine Ya Ali* hun tere dar ubhi,
Kar jodine em mangu Ya Shah;
Dejo didar tusi mahavar datar Shah,
Hama tere charane lagu.

Translation

With hope O Ali I stand at Thy door,
With palms joined I sincerely beg of Thee;
Bless me with Thy Holy Didar, O Great Lord and Benefactor!
At Thy Feet I fall to prostrate.

*Ismaili doctrine emphasizes the principle of the Unity of Imamat under the superficial diversity exhibited by each Imam of the Time. It is in this sense that the Ismailis believe that Imam is the same irrespective of his own age or the time he lives in. Thus, the name of the first Imam, Hazrat Ali, is commonly invoked for each Imam of the Time.

The proverbial valour and exemplary statesmanship of Imam Mawla Murtaza Ali, the encyclopaedic erudition of Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq, the extraordinary intellectual brilliance of Imam al-Hakim bi Amrillah, the administrative ability of Imam Mustansir Billah (during the first half of his Khilafat), the political acumen of Imam Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III (he defied geography and created history), the organizing genius of the present Imam, Mawlana Shah Karim al-Husayni, are only some of the more spectacular characteristics exhibited by the Imam of the Time in accordance with the exigencies of the situations facing him.

Date posted: October 27, 2017.
Last updated: October 29, 2017.

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We invite our readers to download Simerg’s special PDF publication Imamat and Didar Series.

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The Imamat and Didar of Hazar Imam

28 September 2017

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“With hope I stand at thy door, O Ali! And sincerely beg of thee, bless me with thy holy didar, O great lord and benefactor! At thy feet I fall to prostrate”….MORE

PLEASE CLICK: Simerg’s Imamat and Didar Series (pdf)

The Jamat of Hunza accept the gracious didar (glimpse) of Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, as he visits the Princely State in the Northern Areas of Pakistan in 1960. Photo: Abdul M. Ismaily (papa jaan). Copyright.

“I was taken near the place where from I saw the bright Light of the Prophethood. My eyes were dazzled by the Light. I shed tears of joy and felt as if I was looking at the face of the Prophet of Allah and of the Commander of the Faithful, Hazrat Ali. I prostrated myself before the one who is the fittest person to bow to. I wanted to say something, but I was awe-struck.”….MORE

The Jamat of Hunza accept the gracious didar (glimpse) of Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, as he visits the the Northern Areas of Pakistan in 1960. Photo: Abdul M. Ismaily (Papa Jaan). Copyright.

Date posted: September 28, 2017.

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Visions of Badakhshan on Simerg

12 June 2015

1 Comment

Letter from Publisher

Muslim Harji's portrait of an Ismaili girl in the Wakhan Corridor of Badakhshan. She is seen Little Suranoor having breakfast before getting ready for school in the Village of Namadgut.

Muslim Harji’s portrait of an Ismaili girl in the Wakhan Corridor of Badakhshan. Little Suranoor is seen having her breakfast before getting ready for school in the Village of Namadgut.

By Abdulmalik Merchant

When my parents visited me in Voorhees, New Jersey, during the spring of 1995, we would together walk to the main library twice a week. The short walk passed by scenic ponds and streams. There was a scary component to it though — encounters with scattered groups of unfriendly geese.

Once in the library, our focus was to read the Sunday newspapers from nearby cities that made their way into the magazine and newspaper section by Monday.

During one such visit, my dad found himself staring at the Baltimore Sun’s wonderful two page spread of Mawlana Hazar Imam’s first historic visit to Tajikistan, that had taken place a few days earlier. The June 4, 1995, story gave a moving account of the visit by the paper’s correspondent Kathy Lally. It was obvious that she was well acquainted with the Ismailis, and also understood the emotions of the Ismaili people, who had greeted their Imam for the first time in centuries. To my delight, an on-line version of the report did become available, and I reproduced it on Simerg, with the Sun’s permission, some 5 years ago under the title A Western Correspondent’s Account of the Aga Khan’s Historic First Visit to His Followers in Gorno-Badakhshan.

The photo was taken during Didar (Invitation) – a celebration that takes place on 28th of May every year to commemorate the anniversary of the Aga Khan’s visit to the village in the 1990s. During the celebrations the villagers dress up, dance outdoors to the accordion and drums and sing ginane (religious songs), which tell of him being their Noor (light). The photograph was taken as these girls, dressed in bright atlas silk fabric with crowns on their heads, were going out to dance. Photo: Matthieu Paley. Copyright.

Two decades are not long in the life of a community, and for each of these past twenty years, since Mawlana Hazar Imam’s first visit in May 1995, the Ismaili community of Gorno-Badakhshan has commemorated the historic visit with a celebration known as “Didar” (a Glimpse, of the Imam) or “Noor” (the Light, that the Imam represents). The happiness of this annual event was captured by world-renowned photographer Matthieu Paley in the picture above where Ismaili girls are proudly displaying a framed decorated photo of their beloved Imam.

Subsequently, in addition to many other Badakhshan pieces, we published Ismaili Portraits From Tajikistan, by Khorog’s most distinguished and beloved ‘foreign’ permanent resident, Dr. Ali Rajput of Birmingham, England who in his personal capacity has served the jamat in Badakhshan in numerous ways.

Another piece that we were fortunate to publish was a personal account from Gulnor Saratbekova entitled “Shukr Mawlo, Shukr Mawlo” – When Hope is All You Have Left, describing the dangerous and nervous state of affairs during the prolonged period of civil strife and unrest in Tajikistan in the early 1990’s. Her gratitude, shukr, in this piece is of course to Mawlana Hazar Imam who through the work of his Imamat institutions averted a serious famine that the jamat and other countrymen faced during the Civil War. I would strongly recommend that readers visit the links mentioned for some historical memories.

…..AND NOW MUSLIM HARJI’S SUPERB BADAKHSHAN SERIES

Scenic Badakhshan. Please click on photo for an incredible collection of photos of Badakhshan. Photo: Muslim Harji.

Now, Simerg is happy to present a photographic series dedicated to Badakhshan and Central Asia by none other than Canadian photographer Muslim Harji of Montreal. While he admires and cherishes the memories of the beautiful landscapes of Badakhshan that he captured with his lens, what he has come away most from this visit is the hospitality and warmth of the Ismaili people of Badakhshan. Harji’s incredible photo essays about his journeys to Jerusalem, Dubai, Iran, Turkey, South and South East Asia, have been seen by thousands on this blog, and we are delighted to add this new one to Simerg’s superb photo collection. Please click The Ismailis of Badakhshan Through My Lens by Muslim Harji.

With Tajikistan and Badakhshan now more accessible than ever before, and with so many exciting Imamat projects underway in that part of the world, we hope that Harji’s story will inspire the professional and youth of the jamat to visit this remote and beautiful region. By the way, there is an incredible array of well-organized professional tours to the region that are led by highly experienced non-Jamati operators in North America and Europe.