Wahid wroteon August 10, 2009 at 12:45am

Wahid wroteon August 10, 2009 at 12:45amDear Pacome,

Some of you here know that for the past several years I have been attempting to obtain manuscripts of Suhrawardi's BOOK OF HOURS (Corbin's designation). This is *al-Waridat wa'l-Taqdisat* (The Descents and Sanctifications) which Corbin rendered into French in his *L'archange empourpre* (The Crimson Archangel). According to Brockleman's GAL there are manuscripts in Istanbul (the ones Corbin used) and Zurich. There are rumored to be better manuscripts in Iran and India as well.

For those who don't know what I am talking about, this is Suhrawardi's prayer book - or one of the main compilations of the Master of Illumination's strictly devotional works since SH Nasr also lists a compilation of *munajat* (prayers) separate from the *Waridat* in the prologue to the edition of the Persian works (i.e. Opera mystica et metaphysica III).

The French translation you refer to is the same one I indicated above being in Corbin's *L'archange empourpre*. I started translating the first two sections of this a few years ago but abandoned it. Here is the first section:

Spiritual Influxes of Vigilant Observance (awrd al-istibsr)

1. Que Dieu entende l'appel de l'ardent dsir ! Que soit ouverte la voie de l'illumination intrieure (kashf) ! Que se rapproche le Malakt sacrosaint ! Que prennent la parole les Personnes de Lumire. Alors qu'elles rcitent: Trans:1. [O! To] that God who hears the call of the burning desire! How [It] discloses (kashf) the way to the interior illumination! By the approaching of the Malakt (angelic world) of sanctity whereby the word is upraised to the Persons of Light (ashkhs al-daw'), inasmuch as They proclaim:

2. O Dieu de chaque Dieu ! Fais monter la litanie de la Lumire. Viens en aide au peuple de la Lumire (ahl al-nur). Guide la Lumire vers la Lumire.Trans.O God of all gods (y ilha kulli ilhn), upriase/assemble the litany of the Light! Come to the aid of the people of Light (ahl al-Nr)! Guide the light unto the Light!

3. Au Premier tre s'origent les principes des mouvements. Au Premier tre aboutit le terme final des repos. Proche est l'instant. Les Signes sont apparus. Voici qu'est rassemble la famille du Mont Sinai. ___Qu'alors les Rcitantes rcitent:Trans.With the First Being the principle movement originates. To this First Being is lead the final limit of time and repose. Close is the moment. The Signs have appeared. Herein gathered are in assembly the folk of Mount Sina'i, so reciting, let them say:

4. O Dieu des Sparantes (y ilh al-friqt). Fais monter la litanie de la Lumire. Viens en aide au peuple de la Lumire. Guide la Lumire vers la Lumire.Trans.O God of the Separations (y ilh al-friqt), assemble/upraise the litany of the Light! Come to the aid of the people of Light! Guide the light unto the Light!

5. Le Seigneur est seul et sans gal en l'clat des clairs de la Gloire (bi-san' al-majd). Seul et unique en la magnitude de la Puissance. Exalt en sa sublime force victoriale, dominant toute Intelligence, toute Ame et tout corps matrial. Par chaque chose il s'piphanise chaque tre vivant. Au voisinage de sa Majest, sont galit la plus haute des hauteurs et la plus abysalle des profondeurs. Que les Pures (al-zakyt) proclament alors:Trans.The Lord is alone and without equal by the glare of Its splendorous flashes of Glory (bi-san' al-majd). One and single in magnitude of Power. Exalted in the sublimity of Its Victorious force, dominating every Intelligence, every heart and every material body. Within each living being It epiphanises [Itself]. In the proximity of Its Majesty are the highest altitudes of the heights and utmost abysses of depth, so let the Pure Ones (al-zakkyt) proclaim :

6. O toi qui appartient le symbole suprme (shib al-mathal al-a'l). Fais monter la litanie de la Lumire. Viens en aide au peuple de la Lumire. Guide la Lumire vers la Lumire. Trans.O You to whom belongs the supreme symbol (shib al-mathal al-a'l). Assemble the litany of the Light. Come to the aid of the People of Light. Guide the light unto the Light.

7. Que Dieu purife ceux que voici debout, et qu'il les approche. Qu'il agre la liturgie de la Lumire se levant sons orient (qudds al-ishrq). Que sa bndiction soit sur le cne de flamme de la Lumire. Qu'il missionne l'influx cleste sur la lampe du sanctuaire (qandl al-mosall). Qu'il consacre l'offrande et l'acte digne de louange. Il a fait du hraut de la Lumire levante le cavalier de l'Orient (rakb al-mashriq). Le confident des Sacrosaints, celui qui fait descendre le secours, lance l'ordre, en proclamant du haut des crneaux du monde de la Gloire:Trans.[O] God who purifes the upright while approaching them, approving of the liturgy of the Light arising to sounds of the Sanctified Easts (qudds al-ishrq), for Its blessings are upon the cone of the flame of Light. It directs the celestial impulse upon the lamp of the sanctuary (qandl al-mosall). It consecrates the offering and praiseworthy acts. It made of the herald of the Levantine Light the rider of the Orient (rakb al-mashriq), for the nearness of the Holy Ones, ameliorating [the request for] aid, launch the [divine] Order by proclaiming atop the crenels of the world of Glory:

8. O Principe de l'Univers, terme final des mouvements des soleils qui se lvent leur Orient quand ils dclinent l'Occident (al-shriqt al-ghribt). Fais monter la litanie de la Lumire. Viens en aide au peuple de la Lumire. Guide la Lumire vers la Lumire.Trans. O Principle of the Universe, terminal time limit of the movements of the suns which rise to their Orients when they decline from their Occidents (al-shriqt al-ghribt), assemble/upraise the litany of the Light. Come to the aid of the People of Light. Guide the light unto the Light!

9. Car Dieu a fait du Luminaire majeur un mdiatur et un souverain. Il a projet sur lui sa Lumire. Il lui a donn la royaut sur l'avante-garde des corps. Il a fait de lui un seigneur rgnant sur les nuques des tres matrialists dans un corps. Il a confirm par lui le mdiateur de l'ordre cosmique, le perfecteur de la vie, la cause des saisons, des nuits et des jours. Que les mes sacrosaintes (les >) ( muqadasst al-nufs) l'invoquent avec ferveur, en s'adressant ainsi lui:Trans.God made the primal Light mediator and sovereign. It projected upon him Its Light. It gave him the sovereignty over the direction of bodies. It made of him a lord reigning upon the napes of the necks of the beings in material bodies. It confirmed by him the mediation of the cosmic order, the perfector of life, the cause of the seasons, the nights and days, and to whom the sanctified (hieratic) souls ( muqadasst al-nufs) invoke with fervor, whilst addressing themselves to Him:

10. O Personne toute de lumire ( y ayyuh al-shakhs al-anwr)! Toi qui tournes ternellement ta face vers ton ! Invoque le Donateur de l'Intelligence (whib al-'aql) et de la Vie. Rcite: Fais monter la litanie de la Lumire. Viens en aide au peuple de la Lumire. Guide la Lumire vers Lumire.Trans.O You, the Singular Person ( y ayyuh al-shakhs al-anwr) [in authority] of the Lights. You who eternally turn your face towards your Father. Call upon the Giver of Intellect (whib al-'aql) and Life. Say: Assemble/upraise the litany of the Light! Come to the aid of the People of Light! Guide the light unto the Light!

11. Que les Bons (les lus) implorent les plus hautes des Personnes, les plus levs des tres de Lumire. Que toutes ensemble humaines implorent les Ames clestes. Que toutes ensemble implorent les Intelligences agentes archangliques ( al-'uql al-fa''la), tandis que notre Principe tous encercle leur totalit. Et que la prire de tous les rangs de la hirarchie des tres, pour l'Appel exauc, soit celle-ci:Trans. The Good (the Elect) beseech the highest of Persons, the most elevated of the beings of Light. The human assembly beseech the celestial Souls, while all together beseech the [archangelic] agent Intellects (al-'uql al-fa''la) (i.e. the Cherubim) whilst our Principle encircles their totality. And this is the prayer of all the levels of the hierarchy of beings, the answer to the Call:

12. O Dispensateur de la Lumire et des influx bienfaisants! Fais monter la litanie de la Lumire. Viens en aide au peuple de la Lumire. Guide la Lumire vers Lumire. Amen.Trans.O Dispenser of the Light and the beneficial influx! Assemble/upraise the litany of the Light! Come to the aid of the People of Light. Guide the light unto the Light.

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2. Strophes du Grand Testament (wrid al-wasya al-kabra)Spiritual Influx of the Grand Testament

1. J'ai emprunt leur flamme aux mtores, et j'en ai embras la contre. J'ai mis en fuite les cohortes des dmons et ja'i aveugl leurs regards, afin qu'ils ne me voient pas montant vers le Plrme toute-lumire. J'ai invoqu mon pre en distant:Trans. I took the flame from the meteors and I set ablaze a region of it. I put to flight the demonic legions and hid from their glances, so that they did not behold me ascending up towards the Pleroma of All-Light. I invoked my Father from the distance, [and said]:

2. O Ange de la thurgie prcellente ! Toi, le proche du Dieu gnreux, attire-moi vers toi, afin que mon tre se dilate en clat de la clart divine. Trans.O Angel of the sublime theurgy, You who are the closest in relation to the benevolent God, attract me towards yourself, so that my being dilates in the glare of the divine clarity.

3. Je me suis dpouill de la peau qui m'enveloppait de tnbres, et je l'ai jete au loin. Me voici, de par la force du Nom divin, suspendu au tabernacle de l'Exaltation et de la Gloire. Car aprs la sortie au grand jour, j'ai t dracin. Lorsque l'ternel se manifeste un tre, il de dracine.Trans.I stripped myself of the skin which wrapped me in darkness and threw it afar. By the force of the divine Name, here I was suspended upon the tabernacle of Exaltation and Glory, since after the exitus of the great day, I was uprooted, because whenever the Eternal appears to any being it uproots.

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I leave you now with a translation of Suhrawardi's GREAT HYMN TO THE SUN from this piece.

The Great Invocation to Hrakhsh

(Hrakhsh al-kabr)

Hrakhsh = Sol Splendidus , Resplendent Sun, i.e. the Sun in its active Archangelic Theophanic modality, which the Zoroastrian holy book, the Avesta, hails "as the most beautiful manifestation of Ohrmazd," the Godhead. Suhraward designates Hrakhsh as the theurgy of the Archangel Shahrvar (in the Avesta one of the Amahraspands known as Xshathra Vairya, "Desirable Reign,"precisely identified as "having the appearance of the Sun")

Blessed be the Most Luminous of beings endowed with life and thought, the Most Manifest of Persons, the Brightest of Stars. Hail to Thee! May the salutations and benedictions of the Godhead be upon Thee, Sublime Luminary, Most August of the moving stars; You who obey the One from Whom You originate; You Who are moved by the ardor of love for the Inaccessible Majesty of Your Creator. You are Hrakhsh, the Most Powerful, Vanquisher of darkness, Prince of Heaven, Author of the Day, through the order of the Most High Godhead. You are the King of the Stars, Prince of Persons on High. You reign through the power and the obeyed divine force over the Lights incarnated into bodies. You are the Body that dispenses Light, the Vanquisher, the Brilliant One, the Sage, the One surpassing in Excellence. You are the Most Magnificent of the offspring from the spiritual world through your incandescent splendors. You are the Caliph of the Light of Lights in the world of bodies, Who encircles You with a Light that culminates in Its victory. You are an Image of Its Grandeur, an exemplification of Its beauty, Its proof for the eyes of the faithful. Glory to the One who gives You Your Form and Your Light, Who has made You a Mover through ardent desire for It's Inaccessible Majesty and Who has enshrined You in the Fourth Heaven.

Oh Holy Father! I pray to You that You may pray to the One who displays the Splendor of Your thinking Soul to His Orient, who is Your Father, Your Cause, the object of Your Love and the Principle of Your movement, Whose Shadow and Theurgy (of the Archangel Shahrvar) You are. Pray with Him to all Archangelic Lights, the immaterial Intelligences, that they may pray in their turn, in that form of prayer that belongs to the eternal world bereft of change and alteration, to the One who is their Father, their cause and the object of their Love; the Most August of Beings, of Primordial Birth, the Light closest to the Principle, Intelligence of the Universe (the Archangel Bahman). May He pray this same way to His God, the God of Gods, eternally subsisting Light of Lights, God of every Intelligence, of every Soul, of every ethereal and elementary body, simple or composed, the Necessary Being. May He pray Him to illuminate my soul with the brightness of the spiritual world, with theosophic knowledge and superior powers. May He pray Him to count me among those who have that nostalgia for Its Light and make me immune to all infirmities of soul and body, to make the faithful of the Light and the mystical Orient triumph. May He bless them and make them holy and us also, for ever and ever. Amen.