Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Din al-Ahsa'i (c.1241/1826) and his use of Hurqalya
Extract from the Lambden 1980s/2002 Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) PhD thesis, 206-7.
Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Zayn al-Din al-Ahsa'i (c.1241/1826) made considerable use of the obscure Ishrāqī rooted term Hūrqalyā [Hawaqalyā] (loosely, "interworld"), the origin and etymology of which remains uncertain. Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Mandaean, Syriac and Arabic-Persian etymologies have all been proposed (Dehkhoda Lughat-nāmih,
212 Ḥurqalyā; Muhammad Mo’in,1955). Recently Macuch has suggested that Hūrqalyā may be a garbled form of the Mandaic *anhūr qalyā (= "the burning light",1982:19f).
Alternatively, as argued below and despite the absent Arabic ( "l", lām ) and the Hebrew could be a slightly garbled transliteration of the biblical Hebrew (hā- rāqíya’ , with the definite article), traditionally translated "the firmament" (AV).
Echoing Mīr Dāmād Shaykh Aḥmad has explained the significance and linguistic derivation of hūrqalyā in the following manner: [207]
As for the expression (hūrqalyā) and its meaning. It is another dominion since what is indicated thereby is the world of the isthmus (`ālam al-barzakh ) and this mundane world ((alām al-dunyā). It is indicative of the world of bodies (`ālam al-ajsam), that is to say, the mundane world (`ālam al-dunyā) and the world of souls (`ālam al-nufūs); the world of the kingdom (`ālam al-malakūt) and the world of the isthmus (`ālam al-barzakh) which is the intermediary [sphere] between the mundane world (`ālam al-dunyā) and the world of the kingdom (`ālam al-malakūt) which is another dominion... it is in the eighth clime (al-iqlīm al-thāmin)..
As for what language this term is in. It [ ] is derived from the Syriac language (al-lughat al-suryāniyya) and is a Sabean term (lughat al-ṣābi ’a) and they [the Sabeans = Mandaeans] are now living in Baṣra... Know also that the world of the isthmus (alām al-barzakh) is intermediary between this mundane world and the world of the
hereafter (al-dunyā wa’l-ākhira). It is the imaginal world [world of similitudes] (`ālam al-mithāl) [existing] between the world of the kingdom (`ālam al-malakūt) and this mundane world (al-dunyā) .. (al-Aḥsā’ī, Majmū`a, 30:308-9; cf. Corbin, 1990:103).p. 213
As far as I am aware Bābī and Bahā’ī primary sources do not make use the term They do, however, mention multi-worlds and take eschatological events like individual bodily resurrection non-literally relative to a spiritualistic cosmology rooted in Shaykhī- Bābī writings. Bahā’ī texts express belief in subtle bodies and a spiritual understanding of individual and collective resurrection as well as of the mi`raj (Night Journey) of Muhammad. Baha'u'llah affirmed the reality of the concept of `ālam al-mithāl explaining like Shaykh Aḥmad that the (Per.) `ālam-i mithāl exists between the exalted world of jabarūt (the "empyrean") and this mortal realm of nāsūt (Ma’idih 1:18-19).
The Bāb, Baha'u'llah and his son `Abd al-Baha' (d. Acre, 1921) all in various ways commented upon the significance of the qur’ānic cosmological term barzakh (isthmus, Q. 23:100; 25:53; 55:20; AB* Tablet to Mī rzā Qabil of Abadih in StarW 5/7: 7ff ; BSB 6:2-3 (Feb. 1992). 6.2 The Bible and Isrā’īliyyāt in works of Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī (d.1260 / 1844).With the passing of Shaykh Ahmad in 1241/1826, his charismatic disciple and appointed successor Sayyid Kāẓim Rasht ī defended his master against charges of heresy and wrote over 100 works in continuation and development of Shaykh Aḥmad’s perspectives. Preference for the deep, sometimes arcane dimensions of gnostic Shi`ism are evident in his Arabic and Persian writings the bulk of which remain unpublished (Fihrist, Pt.2: 288-359; Nicholas, 1914 [Pt.II] 32-36; MacEoin, Rashtī, EI2).
