The Rasâ' it Al-Ikhwân Al-Safâ' (Epistles of the brothers of the purity) are composed of fifty two epistles on various subjects, including a treaty ( Al-Risâla Al-jâmi `has ) which makes a synthesis of the whole of the work. The authors lived with Al Basra in Iraq and were connected to the da `wa shî `ite ismaélienne.

History

One of the principal obstacles preventing a good comprehension of the movement ismaélien is the lack of sources histories ismaéliennes, consequently the historians must rest on sources sunnites to rebuild the history ismaélienne. The proto-ismaelism comprises two important phases. It is during this time complexes pre fâtimide that Jâbir ibn Hayyân (Mr. towards 815) wrote many treaties on the Alchimie and mystical science. Ikhwân Al-Safâ' was composed by authors who had a vast knowledge of Hellenic philosophy and various sciences of the time.

The ismaelism developed a Théosophie complex and rich, borrowed from the Néoplatonisme. At the 9th century, the translations of the Greek to the Arab proliferated, initially via the Syriaque then directly of the Greek. The version of the Ennéades of Plotin transmitted to the Muslim world was in the form of paraphrases; it was incorrectly allotted to Aristote and was called Théologie of Aristote , since Plotin was unknown Moslems of the time. This giant encyclopedia written in the form of a epistolary Roman played a determining role in the esoteric diffusion of teaching of the ismaéliens.

Ikhwân Al-Safâ' remained an anonymous group, but when one asked Abû Hayyân Al-Tawhîdî to identify them, it enumerated some of them:

  • Abû Sulaymân Al-Bustî (known also Al-Muqaddasî)
  • `Ali B. Hârûn Al-Zanjânî
  • Muhammad Al-Nahrajûrî (or Al-Mihrjânî)
  • Al `Awfî
  • Zayd ibn Rifâ `I.
The majority of the researchers agree that Ikhwân and them Rasâ' it belongs to the movement ismaélien.

Short description of work

The encyclopedia is made up of 52 epistles ( rasâ' it ) having variable lengths, divided into four volumes. Each volume develops various matters:
  • Volume 1: the mathematical sciences (14 epistles) include the theory of the number, the geometry, astronomy, the geography, the music, arts theoretical and practical, ethics and logic.
  • Volume 2: sciences of nature (17 epistles) include/understand the matter, the form, the movement, time, space, the sky and the universe, the generation and corruption, meteorology, minerals, the plants, the animals, the human body, perception, the embryology, the man as a microcosm, the development of the hearts in the body, the limit of knowledge, death, the pleasure and the language.
  • Volume 3: psychological and rational sciences (10 epistles) include/understand the intellectual principles (those of Pythagore and those developed by Ikhwân), the universe as a macrocosm, the intelligence and the understandable one, the periods and the times, passion, resurrection, the various kinds of movement, the cause and the effect, the definitions and descriptions.
  • Volume 4: the theological sciences (11 epistles) include the doctrines and the religions, the driving way with God, the doctrines of Ikhwân, the gasoline of the faith, the religious law and the revelation, the call to God, the hierarchy, the beings spiritual, the policy, the magic and the talisman.

Philosophical sciences

See also: Islamic Philosophy

Their presentations of philosophy and theology formulated in a particular syntax have a teleological objective. They were also influenced by the arithmetic theories Neo-Pythagoreans, the authors worked out their theosophy according to this principle pythagorician: “the beings are according to the nature of the number”. They took as a starting point Pythagore: “In the knowledge of the properties of the numbers and in the way in which they are classified and arranged in hierarchy the knowledge of the beings of God lies”. Here Ikhwân explain the material cause by the raw material (e.g.: bronze or money); for the formal cause, they give the example of a pip which will produce possibly an apple; the efficient cause indicates the origin, for example a father is the efficient cause of a child whereas the final cause shows the goal of something.

Two types of creations: spiritual and physical

Creation is spread in two phases: initially, God creates ex nihilo Intellect; after the emanation ( fayd ) of this last, it proceeds gradually, giving the form to the current universe. The order and the character of the emanation are described below.
  1. Al-Bârî' (Creative) is the Prime Minister and the only Being eternal, no attribute anthropomorphic must be to Him allotted. Only the Will which is at the origin of the world concerns It. For Ikhwân, God is unknowable (cf Deus Absconditus ) above the hierarchy, paradoxically It appears in God ( Deus Revelatus ) guiding the believers on the right way.
  2. Al “Aql ( Intellect or gr. Us ) is the first being which comes from God. He is one number just like God Himself is single. God created in Intellect all shapes of the subsequent beings, from him emanated the Universal Heart and the Raw material. He is clear, according to the opinion of Ikhwân, that Intellect is the best representing of God.
  3. Al-Nafs Al-Kulliyya (the Universal Heart) is the Heart of the whole universe, a simple gasoline which emanates from Intellect. It receives its energy of Intellect. It appears in the Sun through which the material world is animated. What we call creation, in our physical world, relates to the Universal Heart.
  4. Al-Hayûlâ Al-Ûlâ (the Raw material, forms arabized of the Greek hyle ), is a spiritual substance which cannot emanate by itself. It is caused by Intellect so that the Universal Heart emanates the Raw material which receives the various forms.
  5. Al-Tabî' At (natural) is diffuse energy in all the organic compounds and inorganic. It is the cause of the movement, the life and the change. The influence of Intellect ceases on the level of nature because thereafter all the other emanations tend to being increasingly material and imperfect.
  6. Al-Jism Al-Mutlaq (the absolute body). The Raw material acquires the physical properties and becomes the absolute body or the physical substance whose our world is made.
  7. the world of the spheres (of fixed stars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the the Moon) appears in the seventh stage of the emanation. All the celestial bodies are composed of a fifth element, the ether and they are not prone to the generation and corruption.
  8. the Four elements (fire, air, water, and ground) are found under the sphere of the Moon where they are subjected to the generation and corruption. Ikhwân adopt the theory of Thalès (545 av. J. - C.) and of Ionian by affirming that these four “elements” are in perpetual change, water becomes air and fire; fire becomes air, water, ground, so on…
  9. the Three kingdoms are the last stage of the emanation. The three kingdoms (mineral, plant and animal) are made of a mixture proportional of the four elements.
Ikhwân Al-Safâ' took again the theory of Démocrite d' Abdère (circa 370 av. J. - C.) regarding the universe as the macrocosm and the human being like a world in miniature (microcosm). The various hearts ( Al-nafs Al-juz' iyya ), representing the infinite powers of the Universal Heart, started to be formed. During very a long time, these hearts filled the world of the spheres and constituted the angels which animated the celestial bodies. At the beginning, the angels contemplated Intellect and returned the worship to God. After a certain time, some of these hearts started to forget their origin and their position. Their carelessness because the fall of the hearts on ground. This explains the origin Métaphysique of the life on ground.

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