Critical Correction / Risalat al-Bahira Introduction and review

Machine summary:

1 One of the most fundamental issues raised in the examination of al-Sejestani's works is the relationship that exists between successive laws (sharia) and the Day of Resurrection (Qiyamah), and particularly the role attributed to the souls of individuals and a specific soul as the "pure soul" (nafs al-zakiyyah) in this regard. A. Landolt) also, in an article titled "The Ismaili View and-" Nasir Khusraw in Zad al-Musafirin1 mentions al-Risala al-Bahira alongside Sus al-Baqa and Kashf al-Mahjub as works in which al-Sejestani, in discussing the concept of the worldly nature of reward and punishment, has instilled a belief in reincarnation. In this treatise, Sijistani rejects the views of those Muslims and non-Muslims such as Jews and Magians, who believe that the Resurrection is a phenomenon of natural transformation that leads to corruption and destruction. Regarding this, it can be said that: 1) Sijistani explicitly believes that the actual material world is, at all times, full of souls that have united with bodies which are themselves the "Barzakh" for subsequent generations; and 2) that the continuation or persistence of time's distance and its dependence on material forms is one of the necessities of the Resurrection, retribution, and divine justice. Thus,2 when souls, in a state where natural signs have become established in them, perceive the form of the firmament with all3 its bodies, it results from its influences misfortunes, calamities, and terrifying occurrences that4 are the cause of ruin and destruction. And when souls, in a state where intellectual emanations5 are established in them, perceive the form of the firmament with all its bodies and luminaries, it results from its influences6 assistance, gifts, and beneficial noble occurrences.