The Banquet of the Brethren: An Ismaili Guide to Spiritual Hermeneutics

Rahim Gholami is a Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK. He received his PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies from the University of Exeter, UK, in 2021. He has translated over 100 articles for Encyclopaedia Islamica (2008- ), an abridged and edited translation of the Persian Da'irat al- Ma'arif-i Buzurg-i Islami, which is a comprehensive reference work on the Muslim world, with a focus on Shi'i Islam. His research interests include Shi'i esoterism and poetics, Ismaili intellectual traditions, and esoteric hermeneutics and literature.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction to the edition
Persian edition of Khwan al-Ikhwan

In the Name of God
Whose Remembrance Brings Blessings
Exordium
The List of the One-Hundred Courses that Are Laid out in this Book

Course 1
Discourse On the Method of Receiving Knowledge .
Course 2
Discourse On the Signifier and the Signified
Course 3
Discourse On the Name and the Named Thing
Course 4
Discourse On the Proof of Reality
Course 5
Discourse On Truth and Falsehood and Reasons for
an Excess of Falsehood in People’s Speech
Course 6
Discourse On the [Nature of People’s] Return
Course 7
Discourse On the Degrees of Reward
Course 8
Discourse On the Proof of the Immateriality of the Soul: Hence the Necessity of Incorporeal Nature of the Soul’s Reward and Punishment
Course 9
Discourse On the Proofs, Discerned by the Intellect,
Why the Wrong-Doer Is the Enemy of God?
Course 10
Discourse On the Universal Intellect, That It only
Contemplates Its Essence
Course 11
Discourse On Reward and Punishment
Course 12
Discourse On the Finiteness of all Beings and Their Ultimate Limit
Course 13
On the Manner in Which Humankind Began
Course 14
On Explaining the World of Intellect and of Soul
Course 15
On Why the Universal Soul Shares Its Benefit of Knowledge Only with People, But Not with the Rest of the Animals
Course 16
On Why the Prophets Require Their People to Bear Witness to the Oneness of [the Lord]
Course 17
That Anything the Prophet, Peace Be upon Him, Allowed and Did It Himself Is Reasonable, Whereas Anything That He Forbade and Did Not Do It Himself Is Unreasonable
Course 18
Why Do the People of Paradise Enjoy Lasting Bliss, While the People of Hell Suffer Enduring Pain?
Course 19
That People’s Deeds are Eternal, And God Will Not Be Indifferent to Their Deeds Sinful and Virtuous Course 20
Discourse On the Soul: Having Been Purified, It Finds Subtle Realities and Beings Within Itself
Course 21
On the Origination of the World and the Parts of which Are Subtle and Dense
Course 22
That It Is Necessary to Follow the Religious Law and
Proof That It Is Not Right to Abandon It
Course 23
On the Pure Ipseity of the True Originator
Course 24
Discourse On Allah That Is the Greatest Name of God
Course 25
Discourse On the Characteristics that Qualify People for Prophethood
Course 26
Discourse Concerning the Lord of the Resurrection and Why He Has Brought a New Religious Law?
Course 27
Why Are the Intellect and the Soul Not of the Same Rank If Both of Them Have Their Source in the Command [of God], While There Is No Differentiation in That World?
Course 28
That the Intellect Is the First Originated Thing
Course 29
Discourse That It Is Impossible to Imagine Anything Prior to the Intellect
Course 30
That the Soul Is a Compound [Substance] by Essence
Course 31
Discourse on the Rational Soul’s Mastery of the Sensuous Soul
Course 32
Discourse on the Proof of the Universal Soul
Course 33
That the Movements of the Celestial Sphere (Falak) Are Not in Discord with the Intention of the Universal Soul
Course 34
That God Is Beyond Accruing Benefit or Suffering Loss
Course 35
Discourse On the Psychical Powers of the Individual Souls
Course 36
Discourse On Cleansing the Soul of Sin
Course 37
That the Universal Soul Is the Creator of the Natures
Course 38
Discourse on the Proof of the Reward and Punishment
Course 39
Discourse Concerning God’s Omnipresence
Course 40
That the Corporeal World Is on the Horizon of the Universal Soul ???
Course 41
Discourse On the Cold and Heat of the Resurrection
Course 42
Discourse on [the Nature] of the Barzakh
Course 43
Discourse On the Difference Between the Soul and the Spirit
Course 44
Discourse On the Necessity to Establish the Religious Law
Course 45
On the Proof of the Annihilation of the Corporeal Body and the Eternity of the Soul
Course 46
That the Forms of the Corporeal Bodies which Appear in Nature Are Determined by the Universal Soul
Course 47
That the [Universal] Soul Receives the Benefit of the Universal Intellect Intemporally
Course 48
That Man’s Soul Is a Part of the Universal Soul, Not Its Effect
Course 49
That Angels Are Without Number
Course 50
That the Intellect Does Not Perish
Course 51
That the Intellect is Complete in Actuality and Potentiality
Course 52
Discourse On the Cause of Time
Course 53
Discourse On the Quiddity of the Simple World
Course 54
Discourse On the Manner (Quality) of the Universal Intellect’s Worship
Course 55
That the Reward and Punishment Are Rational Not Sensory
Course 56
Discourse On Description of Paradise and Hell
Course 57
That the Form of the World Was Not with God Before the Origination
Discourse On Things Natural and Things Made
Course 59
That the Soul which is [Divinely] Assisted Is Empowered to Communicate Its Nobility to Its Subordinate Soul
Course 60
That the [Powers in] Being Were Originated with the Origination of the Intellect
Course 61
Discourse On the Six Sides of the World
Course 62
That Evil Has No Source Within the Origination
Course 63
Discourse On the Distinctions of the People of Reward
Course 64
That the Soul Will Not Attain the Rank of the Intellect
Course 65
Discourse on the Plurality of the World and the Unity of the Command
Course 66
Discourse On the Significance of the Word, Kalimah, of the True Originator, the Most Holy
Course 67
Discourse On the Proof of the Three Spiritual Branches: ‘Good Fortune’ (Jadd), ‘Triumph’ (Fat?), and ‘Imagination’ (Khayal)
Course 68
Discourse On That Which Cannot Be Imagined
Course 69
Discourse On the Interpretation Of ‘Be’ (Kun), As the Command of God
Course 70
Discourse On the Cause of the Continued Existence of the World
Course 71
That the Intellect Is at Rest
Course 72
Discourse On the Proof of the Life of the Rational Soul
Course 73
Discourse On the Proof of the Immateriality of the Intellect
Course 74
That the World Is Incognizant
Course 75
On the Discourse of the Intellect with the Soul
Course 76
On the Manner in Which the Intellect’s Benefit Is
Communicated To the Soul
Course 77
Discourse On the Delight and Pain of the Pure Soul
Course 78
Discourse On the Distinction Between
Cognition (Ma'rifa) and Knowledge ('Ilm)
Course 79
That Being Does Not Become Non-Being
Course 80
Why Do All Living Souls Not Desire the Blessings of the Higher World?
Course 81
Discourse On the Quality of the Transmission of the
Effect of the Universal Soul to Its Recipients
Course 82
Discourse On the Impossibility of Knowing
the Raison D’Être of the World
Course 83
That the Form of the World Was with the Universal Soul Prior to Its Creation
Course 84
Discourse On the Sovereignty of Spiritual Power Over Natural Powers
Course 85
That the Originated Is Not Like the Originator
Course 86
Discourse On the Cause of Spiritual Inspiration Reaching the Spiritually Inspired Souls
Course 87
That the Profession of Faith, That Is
La Ilaha Illa Allah, Is the Key to Paradise
Course 88
Discourse On the Reward of Good and the Punishment of Evil .
Course 89
Discourse On the Difference Between Eternity, Eternality, and Eternal
Course 90
Discourse on the Proof of the Resurrection
Course 91
Discourse On the [Manner of] the Transmission of Spiritual Inspiration to the Inspired Person
Course 92
Discourse On the Difference Between the Qur'an and the Prophet’s Reported Statements
Course 93
Discourse On How Things Become Known
Course 94
Discourse On the Difference Between the Miracle of the Prophets and Magic
Course 95
Discourse Regarding God’s Choice of a Servant for Prophethood
Course 96
Discourse Concerning the Wrongness of Two Messengers Coming Simultaneously
Course 97
Discourse Regarding the Empowering of the Soul Upon Its Departure from the Body
Course 98
That Following Repentance, Sins Fade Away
Course 99
Discourse Regarding the Revocation of the Religious Law at the Time of the Lord of the Resurrection
Course 100
Discourse Regarding the Universal Intellect That It Is the [First] Originated, Not the Originator

Index of Qur'anic Citations
Index of Hadith Citations
Index of Biblical Citations
Select Bibliography
General Index