Читать книгу A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate онлайн

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Seventh Grade. Some of the missionaries were not themselves instructed in the doctrines of the highest grades, and only a select number were able to initiate converts into this seventh stage. This serves as the probable explanation of some events in the history of the sect which appear strange at first sight such, for example, as the estrangement of the most faithful and successful missionary Abu ʿAbdullah who, no doubt, revolted when he found the difference between the actual beliefs of the Mahdi ʿUbayd allah, and the doctrine which he himself had learned and taught. In initiating a disciple into this highest grade the daʿi first pointed out that there are in this world always correlatives, of which one is the cause, the other the result, as giver and recipient, teacher and taught, etc. Thus the Qurʾan tells us of God that “when he decreeth a thing he only saith ‘be’ and it ‘is’” (Qur., 3, 42), in which God, the First Cause, is the greater, the thing created only derives its being from him: and again, “all things have we created after a fixed decree” (Qur., 54, 49), and again, “he who is God in the heavens is God in earth also” (Qur., 43, 84). Hence, following a teaching of the philosophers, it is clear that from a Being who is only One, only one thing can proceed: but the world contains many things, so it cannot be the work of the One, but needs at least two Beings. Moreover, creation is not the bringing into being that which did not previously exist, but only the arrangement and disposing of things. At bottom this was intended to be a statement of the Aristotelian doctrine of the eternity of matter, and shows striking resemblances with the speculations of the Muʿtazilites. Thus Abu Hudhayl (d. circ. 226) held that before the creation the world existed, but in a state of perfect quiescence; creation was the introduction of change and movement, and this theory, in one modification or another, recurs in all the speculations of the later Muʿtazilites. Very similar is the teaching of al-Farabi (d. 339), who was himself a member of the Ismaʿilian sect, and held that the world proceeded from God in an instant of the immeasurable eternity which preceded time, but remained at rest until at creation God introduced movement and so produced time and change.