Brief commentary on the ayat'ul-Bayān (The Versical-Sign of the Bayān)
.jpg)
Originally, here.
556
In the Name of God the Most Impregnable, the Most Holy! God verily testifies that there is no other god but It! To It belongs the creation and the command! It makes to live and It makes to die then It makes to die and It makes to live! Verily It is the One Alive Who dieth not! In Its grasp is the dominion of all things! It creates what It wills by Its command! Verily It is powerful over all things! (my trans.)
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الْأَمْنَعِ الْأَقْدَسِ شَهِدَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ لَهُ الْخَلْقُ وَالْأَمْرُ يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُ وَيُحْيِي وَأَنَّهُ هُوَ حَيٌّ لَا يَمُوتُ فِي قَبْضَتِهِ مَلَكُوتُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ بِأَمْرِهِ إِنَّهُ كَانَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرًا
Commentary: This is the ayat'ul-Bayān (The Versical-Sign of the Bayān). In the Persian Bayān (3:8) the Primal Point asserts that the entire Bayān returns to this prayer which itself returns to its bismillāh. Now, while many MSS of the Persian Bayān make of kullu-shayʾ (All-Things) (كلّشيء) a single word because as a single world it specifically refers to the People of the Bayān; and there is much evidence to support such usage in countless MSS; many earlier MSS do not, especially in this particular section of the gate.
Within the lettrist economy and arrangement of this pivotal Bayānī prayer –- and one considered to be equivalent to the quranic al-fātiḥa in its importance for the Bayān -- there are precisely forty-three (43) words to the numerical value of ilā hūwa (except Him/It) (إلّا هو). In the Persian Bayān (4:2), the five letters of ilā hūwa (إلّا هو) are held to be the instantiations of the letters of celestiality (حروف عليين) whose Theophany of Persons are (in order) Muḥammad, ʿAlī, Fāṭima, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn (ع), i.e. the five Companions of the Cloak (ahl al-kisāʾ), or panj-tan, Who symbolize the five outer aspects of the pentagram (haykal) and the letter ه. The zubarbayna of ilā hūwa (إلّا هو) (i.e. a lettrist operation in jafr where each letter is spelled out and then calculated according to its Arabic spelling), i.e. ألف لام ألف هأ واو, yields fourteen letters in total (the precise number of all the Infallibles together from Muḥammad to the Twelfth Imām (ع)) with an abjad numerical value of 312. 312 is equivalent to the divine names qarīb (the Proximate, Near) (قريب), raqīb (the Watchful, Competitor) (رقيب), bātish (the Valorous Force) (باطش), which is the 39th divine name of the Book of the Names of All-Things, and shāʾī (the Allotter, Particularizer) (شائي), i.e. the 228th divine name of the Book of the Names of All-Things. 312 is also equivalent to ‘the Mirror of God’ (مرآة الله). When the three hamzas in the construction of the prayer are accounted as letters (namely, the letter alif أ), as the Bāb usually accounted hamzas, we have precisely 137 letters to the numerical value of qibla (point of adoration) (قبلة) and the divine name wāsiʿ (the All-Embracing, Boundless or Omnipresent) (واسع). Otherwise, sans the three hamzas, there are 134 letters to the numerical value of the divine name ṣamad (everlasting) (صمد). The abjad numerical value of the entire prayer with the three hamzas is 8239 (22/4). Otherwise it is 8795 (29/11/1). We believe that this may be one explanation as to why Ṣubḥ-i-Azal’s work The Mirror of the Bayān (مرآة البيان) -- a work similar to the Bāb’s Book of the Names of All-Things -- details precisely 137 divine names because of the significance of this number and its connection to the number of letters in this central Bayānī prayer, see The Mirror of the Bayān http://bayanic.com/lib/fwd/mirat/Mirat-FWD.html (accessed 5 December 2020).
The prayer itself can be divided, first, into four verses as such (i.e. 30-40 letters in Arabic constituting a verse per the Bayānic doctrine) with each of the verses corresponding to each of the four phrases of the Theophanic Praise of Fāṭima as well as the fourfold level of the subtle body and its correspondences and those colors associated with it,
1: In the Name of God the Most Impregnable, the Most Holy! God verily testifies that there is no other god but It!
i.Tasbīḥ (i.e. subhān allāh, Glory be to God), ii. Blaze-flux (fuʾād), iii. Creation and iv. white.
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الْأَمْنَعِ الْأَقْدَسِ شَهِدَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ١ <= تسبيح & فؤاد & خلق & ابيض>
2: To It belongs the creation and the command! It makes to live and It makes to die then It makes to die and It makes to live!
i.Taḥmīd (i.e. al-ḥamdu’lilāh, Praise be to God), ii. Spirit, iii. Provision and iv. yellow.
لَهُ الْخَلْقُ وَالْأَمْرُ يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُ وَيُحْيِي٢ <= تحميد & روح & رزق & اصفر>
3: Verily It is the One Alive Who dieth not ! In Its grasp is the dominion of all things !
i.Taḥlīl (i.e. lā ilāha illa allāh, there is no god but God), ii. soul, iii. death and iv. green.
وَأَنَّهُ هُوَ حَيٌّ لَا يَمُوتُ فِي قَبْضَتِهِ مَلَكُوتُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ٣ <= تهليل & نفس & موت & اخضر>
4: In Its grasp is the dominion of all things ! It creates what It wills by Its command! Verily It is powerful over all things!
i.Takbīr (i.e. allāhu akbar, God is the Most Great), ii. essential body, iii. life and iv. red.
يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ بِأَمْرِهِ إِنَّهُ كَانَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرًا ٤ <= تكبير & جسد & حيوة & احمر>
Next, it can be divided into two main parts, viz. its i. bismillāh formula and then ii. the main body of the prayer proper. After this, and most importantly, it can be divided into eight independent sections, each holding symbolic significance corresponding and adumbrating other elements of the Bayānī doctrine from the Persian Bayān. To wit,
1. بِسم الله الأمنع الأقدس
In the Name of God the Most Impregnable, the Most Holy!
2. شهد الله انّه لا إله إلّا هو
God verily testifies that there is no other god but It !
3. له الخلق والأمر
To It belongs the creation and the command !
4. يحيي ويميت ثُمّ يميت ويحيي
It makes to live and It makes to die then It makes to die and It makes to live!
5. وإنّه هو حيّ لا يموت
Verily It is the One Alive Who dieth not !
6. في قبضته ملكوت كلّ شيء
In Its grasp is the dominion of all things !
7. يخلق ما يشاء بِأمره
It creates what It wills by Its command !
8. إنّه كان على كل شيء قديرًا
Verily It is powerful over all things!
First, each of these sections refers then to each of the sigils of the ogdoadic (eightfold) form of the calligram of the Greatest Name (الإسم الأعظم). Following this, they refer to each of the seven creative attributive imprints (خصال السبعة) of Imāmī ḥadīth (see esp. al-Kāfī H 376, Ch. 25, h1.), but as reformulated by the Primal Point into eight in the eighth gate of the 2nd Unity of the Persian Bayān in the subsection dealing with the ‘reality of (initiatic) death in the presence of the Tree of Reality’, viz.
1. Will(مشيئة) (بِسم الله الأمنع الأقدس) (In the Name of God the Most Impregnable, the Most Holy), and the intiating Seal or Pentagram of ogdoadic form of the Greatest Name;
2. Volition(إراده) (شهد الله انّه لا إله إلّا هو) (God verily testifies that there is no other god but It), and the “three sticks in a row above them the semblance of a straightened lance” symbol of the Greatest Name;
3. Determination (له الخلق والأمر) (قدر) (To It belongs the creation and the command), and the “blind mīm” symbol of the Greatest Name;
4. Authorization (يحيي و يميت ثُمّ يميت و يحيي) (قضاء) (It makes to live and It makes to die then He makes to die and It makes to live), and the “ladder unto all that which is hoped for but which is not a ladder” symbol of the Greatest Name;
5. Realization (وانّه هو حيّ لا يموت) (إمضاء) (and verily It is the One Alive Who dieth not), and the “four things like fingers pointing to good deeds” symbol of the Greatest Name;
6. Permission (إذن) (في قبضته ملكوت كلّ شيء) (in Its grasp is the dominion of all things), and the “the split hāʾ” symbol of the Greatest Name;
7. Allotted Time (يخلق ما يشاء بِامره) (أجلّ) (It creates what Its wills by Its command), and the “inverted wāw” symbol of the Greatest Name;
and 8. Book(كتاب) (انّه كان على كل شيء قديرًا) (Verily It is powerful over all things), and the final pentagrammic seal of the ogdoadic form of the Greatest Name.
That stated, when we put the phrase ayat'ul-Bayān (The Versical-Sign of the Bayān) (آية البيان) itself to the science of letters and numbers, the abjad numerical value given is 110 which is the numerical value of ꜤAlī (علي) that instances the reality of wilāya (providential guidance) that is the animating reality of maẓharīya/theophanicity. This phrase in the original Arabic consists of two words composed of nine letters and eight nuqṭas/dots. 2+9+8=19. This now demonstrates how, symbolically speaking, All-Things in the Bayān return to this prayer and its Point.
In turn, each of these 8 sections then refer to the totality of the Nature of the Manifestation, such that: 1. refers to the Exclusive Oneness (أحدية) of the Ipseity; 2. refers to the Inclusive Unity (واحدية) of the Ipseity; 3. refers to the world of Divinity (لاهوت) and the substances or Immutable-Archetypal forms of all-things (عيان الثابة او جواهر) in the mind of God; 4. refers to the world of the Empyrean (جبروت) and the archangelic active intellects (عقول المجردّة الفعّالة); 5. refers to the angelic world (ملكوت); 6. refers to the mighteous sub-realm within the angelic world wherein the celestial paradise and celestial hell are located (عظموت) as well as the Imaginal World (عالم المثال) “where bodies are spiritualized and spirits corporealized”; 7. refers to the material world (ناسوت), and 8. refers to the Reality of the Manifestation (مظهرالله) or Perfect Human (الإنسان الكامل) Who reflects all of the worlds above within Him/Herself as the Mirror of God (مرآة الله).
فأفهم ذلك
