The Divine Guide in Early Shi'ism: The Sources of Esotericism in Islam

About this book

The Imam the Divine Guide is the central point around which the Shiite religion turns. The power of Shiism comes from the actions of the Imam. This title is reserved exclusively for the sucessors of the prophets in their mission. The author shows that from the beginning of Shiite Islam until the tenth century the Imam was primarily a master of knowledge with supernatural powers not a jurist theologian. The Imam is the threshold through which God and the creatures communicate. He is thus a cosmic necessity the key and the center of the universal economy of the sacred. The author presents Shiism as a religion founded on double dimensions where the role of the leader remains constantly central: perpetual initiation into divine secrets and continued confrontation with anti-initiation forces. Without esotericism exotericism loses its meaning. Early Imamism is an esoteric doctrine. Historically then at the beginning of esotericism in Islam we find an initiatory mystical and occultist doctrine. This is the first book to systematically explore the immense literature attributed to the Imams themselves in order to recover the authentic original vision. It restores an essential source of esotericism in the world of Islam.