
A Sufi Ode to the Divine Mother
On the face of the earth
There is no one more beautiful than You
Wherever I go I wear your image in my heart
Whenever I fall in a despondent mood I remember your image
And my spirit rises a thousand fold
Your advent is the blossom time of the Universe
O Mother you have showered your choicest blessings upon me
Also remember me on the Day of Judgment
I don’t know if I will go to heaven or hell.
Siddiqah: The Honest, The Righteous;
Al-Batool: Pure Virgin;
Al-Mubarakah: The Blessed One;
Al-Tahirah: The Virtuous, The Pure,
Al-Zakiyah: The Chaste, The Unblemished;
Al-Radhiatul Mardhiah: She who is gratified and who shall be satisfied;
Al-Muhaddathah: A person other than a Prophet, that the angels speak to;
Al-Zahra: The Splendid;
Al-Zahirah: The Luminous.
The poem is romantic, idolatrous, and reflects doctrines of an ‘in-dwelling’ alien spirit common to many forms of Monism including the Christian imagination. [1] The names listed below the poem are those given by Mohammad to his daughter Fatimah, and it is no accident of history that the Madonna (Catholic ‘Queen of Heaven’) made a lauded appearance in the Portuguese village of Fatima some 100 odd years ago; a place that remains a venerated shrine of worship and pilgrimage to her as God’s Consort and mankind’s Mediatrix as modeled on several ancient sun-god spouses and sundry demoness look-a-likes! It is not difficult therefore, to draw certain conclusions in favor of colluding shirk (idolatry) rather than ‘deviancy’ when contemplating the Catholic, as well as certain of the Sufi [2] and Shia persuasions as the following passage demonstrates.

Icon of the Fatimya Sufi Order
Fatima as the Celestial Earth
On this earth, Fātima, the daughter of the Prophet, was the wife of ‘Alī ibn Abī-Tālib, himself the Prophet’s cousin. Their exemplary union is the manifestation of an eternal syzygy originating in the eternity of the pleroma of the lāhūt [the divine realm]. The First Imām and Fātima are related to each other in the same reciprocal way as the first two hypostases, ‘Aql and Nafs, Intelligence and Soul, or in terms more familiar to us Logos and Sophia [i.e.,because they originate with Philo] .
The couple ‘Alī-Fātima is the exemplification, the epiphany on earth, of the eternal couple Logos-Sophia. Hence, we can foresee the implications of their respective persons. The Logos (‘aql)…is the hidden substance of every being and of every thing; it is the super=sensory calling for visible Form in order to be manifested. It is like the wood in which the form of the statue will appear. Better still, it is like the archetypal body, the inner astral mass of the sun, invisible to human perception, in relation to the visible Form, which is its aura, brilliance and splendor. The maqām (this word signifying state, rank, degree, plane, also pitch of a note in music) – the maqām of Fātima corresponds exactly to this visible form of the sun, without which there would be neither radiance nor heat. And this is why Fātima has been called by a solar name: Fātima al-Zahrā’, the brilliant, resplendent Fātima. The totality of the universes consists of this light of Fātima, the splendor of each sun illuminating every conceivable universe.
So one could also speak here of a cosmic Spirituality, having its source in the eternal person of Fātima-Sophia. As such, she assumes a threefold rank, a threefold dignity and function. For she is the manifested Form, that is, the very soul (nafs, Anima) of the Imāms; she is the Threshold (bāb) through which the Imāms effuse the gift of their light, just as the light of the sun is effused by the form of the sun – which is its brilliant splendor – not by the invisible substance of its “archetype-body.” Thus, in the second place, she is all thinkable reality, the pleroma of meanings (ma’ānī) of all the universes, because nothing of what is can be without qualification and meaning. Qualification and meaning are on the same level of being as form, and form is precisely on the level of being of the Soul, for it is the Soul-Sophia that confers qualification and meaning. This is why the whole universe of the soul and the secret of the meanings given by the Soul is the very universe and secret of Hazrat Fātima. She is Sophia, which is to say divine wisdom and power, embracing all the universes. That, lastly, is why her eternal Person, which is the secret of the world of the Soul, is also its manifestation (bayān), without which the creative Principle of the world would remain unknown and unknowable, forever hidden.
Henry Corbin’s SPIRITUAL BODY AND CELESTIAL EARTH: From Mazdean Iran to Shī’ite Iran (Trans.)
Nancy Pearson, Princeton University Press, 1977, pp. 64-68.
Here is offered a more scholarly assessment:
In all genuine, that is to say Shī’ite, Islamic circles, Fatima stands at the centre of a collective Islamic legitimization problem. This is due not only to the fact that through her husband she is the mother of the ‘Alids — hence, all the descendants of the prophet who are entitled to wear the green turban, who in Africa are called the “Shofra” (plural of Sharif) — but also because she forms the point of contact between the two male lineages: that of her father Mohammed and that of her husband ‘Ali.
… But all these arguments are clearly makeshift, and Shī’ite reverence—forced to bridge the lacuna—ultimately made a virtue out of necessity and thereby introduced the cultus of Fatima.
… Through her, the “five” of the mobahala now form a [syzygic] unity. In essence she is the initiation, the “shimmering color of predestination,” not the initiatrix or the embodiment of inspiration, as one finds in other cults (the nymph of Numa; Ennoia). In a very remarkable manifestation that arises in the meditation of these sects, she appears as a veiled light-form sitting with a crown on her head, wearing two ear ornaments and holding a sword in her hand: the crown is her father, the two earrings her sons, the sword her husband.
What follows is one of the essential texts. Surfacing in the fourteenth century, it probably stems from the Shī’ite sect of Nusayris, although it originally derives from an entire spectrum of far older compositions [those which are similar in mode and context and lead to all ancient mother-goddess cults – oz]. Effectively, it functions as a long litany enumerating all the symbols in the Koran that represent Fatima.
A QASIDA OF IBRAHIM TUSI († c. 750/1350) (extracts only)
IV. Her houses are true temples which speak of the Name which is recognized beneath the essential veils. From her arises the confounding of the Name with the Bab, a secret and sacred phenomena.
V. From her arose shadows, the spiritual forms of future mankind, and the day of Mithaq where spirits nestled together to hear the divine lector proclaim to the elect the revelation of our luminous masters.
VI. Through her we have experienced the phenomenon of life, through her Adam was venerated (by the Angels): and through her there was the pact—the divine bond—along with the sublime and magnanimous witnesses who proclaimed the uniqueness of the Godhead when they saw him (‘Ali), those big-bellied and the bald.
VII. She is the image before which one prostrates oneself; she is the highest proof and touchstone for the unbeliever who revolts, who denies God by saying I (“I am more worthy!”)— before being cast down by his cowardice into the ranks of the damned.
VIII. This sublime appearance would not be recognized by the ignorant, who remain shut off. But those who obey her shall be redeemed and honored in the paradise of delights among the lords of all creation.
… In reference to this qasida, it should be noted that Fatir [creatrix], the mysterious name of Fatima, was probably chosen because the numerical value of the letters which form the name produce the same total as the numerical value of the name of Mary (Maryam). For these gnostic circles there is a form of reappearance (the reincarnation of one identical, unchanging archetype from one cycle to the next). Thus, Fatima is simply the reoccurrence of Maryam. The numerical value of both names is 290. From this identification it follows that certain reciprocal reactions in Islamic intellectual circles—in which a traditional Fatima-type is opposed to a traditional Maria-type—should be determined with more precision. So too the proclamation scene (which is described by Jalal-addin Rumi in his Mathnawi in such an idiosyncratic manner) and the theories surrounding the conception and birth of the Imāms.
… Therefore, if we want to compare the role of this female intercessory power in Islam with that of Christianity and Judaism, we will notice that in Islam we are in no way dealing with the personification of the Torah as in Israel (which deals with a marriage of the community to the power of God); nor are we dealing with the Christian Panagia to distinguish a chosen one through the intercession of the Holy Spirit. The Shī’ite traditions are very clear on this: Fatima, who is holding a sword in her hand and is also named El Zahrā, “the brilliant/effulgent,” has an essential eschatological role to play—she will restore justice through irreconcilable vengeance.
Louis Massignon(1938) « Der gnostische Kult der Fatima in shiitischen Islam » (1938); Opera Minora (Beirut: Dar Al-Maaref Liban, 1963), I, 514-22. (Trans.) Mitra Hazini and Aaron Cheak. (Ed.) Wahid Azal (2007).






2 responses to “The Batini Menace”
hello, love from finland. your post looks great. Mind if i quote it in my blog?
Sure … go right ahead. Regards, Dr. O.