The Great Invocation to Hrakhsh of Shihabuddin Yahya Suhrawardi

Translation from Henry Corbins French

The Splendor of the Godhead be upon Thee, O Sun, in every moment, before every moment and
after every moment! the Essence of the Seven Letters, the Bab.
Introductory Note
The original Arabic text of this hymn by Shihabuddin Yahya Suhrawardi (d. 1191) appears in
his The Descents and the Sanctifications or the Book of Hours (al-waridat wa al-taqdisat), a
version which was published by Henry Corbin in LArchange Empourpr (The Crimson
Archangel) (Paris: Fayard, 1976), pp.483-498. Neither the original or a critical text of this Book of
Hours has as yet been published, although manuscripts are known in Istanbul and Zurich.
According to Corbin, in the Book of Hours two invocations to Hrakhsh can be found: 1.
Hrakhsh al-kabr (the great invocation to Hurakhsh) and 2. Hrakhsh al-saghr (the lessor
invocation to Hurakhsh). The lessor one has been published by Muhammad Mo'in in the journal
Yaghm I, 2 (1327 h.s.), pp. 88-89. The text here in En islam iranien, vol. II (Galimard: 1974), is
from Mull Sadr's monumental gloss on Suhrawardis Hikmat al-Ishrq (Theosophia of
Illumination), which Corbin says is the better text, viz. Gloss 430 on the Hikmat al-Ishrq,
159, Teheran lithograph, p. 357 (in the margin). A full, critical text of Mulla Sadras text of this
prayer by Suhrawardi is forthcoming from the Mulla Sadra Institute in Tehran pending the
publication of the first ever critical text of this abovementioned super-commentary on the Master of
Illuminations opus magnum by the great Safavid theosopher sage.

Hrakhsh = Sol Splendidus, the Resplendent Sun, i.e. the Sun in its active Archangelic
theophanic modality, which the Avesta hails as the most beautiful manifestation of Ohrmazd, the
Godhead, the Light of Lights (nur al-anwar). Suhraward designates Hrakhsh as the theurgy of
the Archangel Shahrvar (in the Avesta one of the Holy Immortals or Amahraspands known as
Xshathra Vairya, Desirable Reign,precisely identified as having the appearance of the Sun).
What is especially interesting about this piece, as well as the others in Suhrawardis prayer book, is
that, while in Arabic, it invokes both ancient Mazdaean motifs, imagery and symbolism together
with Biblio-Quranic ones, but as re-conceptualized through his own Islamic and NeoplatonicHermetic, or Illuminationist (ishraqi), lense. Through the angelicity (fereshtegani) of the Sun
as the primary celestial mediator, or gateway, here the entire vertical hierarchy of the AngelicIntelligences i.e. the luminous emanations of the Necessary Being (wajib al-wujud) - are
ecstatically invoked as Eternal Persons proceeding up the ladder of being all the way up to the
Godhead Itself, the Light of Lights (nur al-anwar). In sixteenth century Moghul India this hymn,
together with those others in his collection of the Book of Hours, constituted the daily liturgy of
the syncretic Zoroastrian Sufi order, or Sepasi sect, founded by the prophet-dastur from Istakhr,
Azar Kayvan (see entry Adhar Kaywan by H. Corbin in Encyclopedia Iranica). It is held that this
sect of Sepasian Sufis attached especial importance to this hymn. As it is specifically addressing
the Sun, this hymn/prayer needs be be used either at noon, on Sundays (i.e this days traditional
planetery designation) or whenever a given astrological sign enters its highest solar aspect.

Finally, on this Easter Monday it should be noted that Christian Hermeticists hold as one the
symbolism of the Risen Christ and that of the Rising Sun, noting the two as amphibolous yet
interpenetrating symbologies of the virility and fecundity of the triumphant Light of the
Pure Spirit forever rising! In fact certain Gnostic sects in antiquity are known to have worshiped
the Sun as the symbol of Christ Risen. Likewise it is the case in the Kabbalah where the Sun is
simultaneously the symbol of the Shekhinah (the feminine presence of G-d) as well as the Messiah
whom She will embody in a male human vehicle. In esoteric Shi'ite Islam, once again, we meet the
Sun as both a symbol for Muhammad as well as 'Ali. Here below now is Suhrawardis Great Hymn
to the Sun.

In the Name of the Godhead the Light of lights! *

Blessed be the Most Luminous of beings endowed with life and thought, the Most
Manifest of Persons, the Brightest of Stars! Hail to Thee! May the salutations and
benedictions of the Godhead be upon Thee, Sublime Luminary, Most August of the
moving stars; You who obey the One from Whom You originate; You Who are moved by
the ardor of love for the Inaccessible Majesty of Your Creator! You are Hrakhsh, the
Most Powerful Vanquisher of darkness, Prince of Heaven, Author of the Day, through the
order of the Most High Godhead! You are the King of the Stars, Prince of Persons on
High! You reign through the power and the obeyed divine force over the Lights
incarnated into bodies! You are the Body that dispenses Light, the Vanquisher, the
Brilliant One, the Sage, the One surpassing in Excellence! You are the Most Magnificent
of the offspring from the spiritual world through your incandescent splendors! You are
the Caliph of the Light of Lights in the world of bodies, Who encircles You with a Light
that culminates in Its victory! You are an Image of Its Grandeur, an exemplification of
Its beauty, Its proof for the eyes of the faithful! Glory to the One who gives You Your
Form and Your Light, Who has made You a Mover through ardent desire for Its
Inaccessible Majesty and Who has enshrined You in the Fourth Heaven!
Oh Holy Father! I pray to You that You may pray to the One who displays the Splendor of
Your thinking Soul to His Orient, who is Your Father, Your Cause, the object of Your Love
and the Principle of Your movement, Whose Shadow and Theurgy (of the Archangel
Shahrvar) You are! Pray with Him to all Archangelic Lights, the immaterial Intelligences,
that they may pray in their turn, in that form of prayer that belongs to the eternal world
bereft of change and alteration, to the One who is their Father, their cause and the
object of their Love; the Most August of Beings, of Primordial Birth, the Light closest to
the Principle Intelligence of the Universe (the Archangel Bahman)! May He pray this
same way to His God, the God of Gods, eternally subsisting Light of Lights, God of every
Intelligence, of every Soul, of every ethereal and elementary body, simple or composed,
the Necessary Being! May He pray It to illuminate my soul with the brightness of the
spiritual world, with theosophic knowledge and superior powers! May He pray It to
account me as amongst those who have that nostalgia for Its Light and make me
immune to all infirmities of soul and body, to make the faithful of the Light and the
mystic Orient triumph! May It bless them and make Them holy and us also, for ever and
ever. Amen!