Translated from Shahrastânî, Kitâb al-milal wa al-nihal (2 vols.; ed. M. b. Fatah Allah Badrân; [Cairo]: Matba`at al-Azhar, [1951-55]) 1.619-30.
The Manichaeans: (They are) followers of Mānī b. Fātak, the sage who appeared in the time of Sābūr b. Ardašīr, and whom Bahrām b. Hurmuz b. Sābūr put to death. This was after (the time of) Jesus b. Maryam, peace be upon him! He innovated a religion (which drew) some (elements) from Zoroastrianism and some from Christianity: he used to advocate the prophetic status of the Christ, peace be upon him, but did not propound the prophetic status of Moses, peace be upon him!
Muhammad ibn Hārūn, who is known as Abū ‘Īsā al-Warrāq and who was originally a Zoroastrian acquainted with the doctrine of the sect, reported that the sage Mānī maintained that the world is made of a mixture of two pre-existent sources, one of them being Light, and the other Darkness, and that they both are eternal, neither one ceasing to be, and he denied the existence of any thing not from a pre-existent source. He maintained that both of them were incessantly powerful, in possession of sensory perceptions, discernment, (and the faculties of) hearing (and) seeing. Nevertheless, as to essence and form, and as to activity and organization, they are opposed to one another. As to realm, they parallel one another (like) a person and (their) shadow. Their substances and effects will be clarified by this chart:
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the Light |
the Darkness |
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a) substance Its substance is beautiful, excellent, noble, pure, unmixed, pleasant of odor, beautiful in appearance. |
a) substance Its substance is ugly, imperfect, ignoble, turbid, evil, rotten in odor, ugly in appearance. |
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b) essence Its essence is good, noble, wise, producing benefits, knowledgeable. |
b) essence Its essence is wicked, base, stupid, producing harm, ignorant. |
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c) effect Its effect is (what is) good and pious and beneficial and joyous and orderly and congruous and superior. |
c) effect Its effect is (what is) wicked and corrupt and harmful and sorrowful and confused and broken and controversial. |
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d) realm Its direction is the area above. Most of them regard it as elevated toward the north, but some of them maintain that it lies next to the Darkness. |
d) realm Its direction is the area below. Most of them regard it as sunken toward the south, but some of them maintain that it lies next to the Light. |
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e) its parts Its parts are five: four of them are corporeal and the fifth is spiritual. The corporeal entities are fire, light, wind, and water; and the spiritual (is) air, and it is in motion within this body. |
e) its parts Its parts are five: four of them are corporeal and the fifth is spiritual. The corporeal entities are fire, darkness, hot wind, and mist; and the spiritual (is) smoke, and this is called Hummama, and it is in motion within this body. |
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f) qualities Vital, beneficent, pure, and flawless. Some of them maintain (that) the World of Light is comparable in every respect to this world: it has a land and an atmosphere. The land of Light is of unceasing fineness, (constructed) not according to the form of this world, but rather according to the form of the body of the sun. Its rays are like the rays of the sun, and its aroma is the most excellent of aromas, and its colors are the colors of the rainbow. Some of them say there is nothing (there) that is not corporeal and (that) the substances are of three types: (those of) the land of Light, which are five (in number); another substance finer than this, which is the atmosphere and which is the ‘soul’ of the Light; and another substance finer than this (one), the air, which is the spirit of the Light. They say that [the Light] continually engenders angels, gods, and holy entities, not as married couples do, but rather as wisdom is produced from a sage, or elegant speech from an articulate speaker. [They say] that the Ruler of this world is its spirit, and his world unites what is good, praiseworthy, and light. |
f) qualities Lifeless, wicked, impure, and polluted. Some of them maintain (that) the World of Darkness is comparable in every respect to this world: it has a land and an atmosphere. The land of Darkness is of unceasing coarseness, (constructed) not according to the form of this world, but rather according to the form of that which is most dense and rigid. Its smell is disgusting, the most putrid of smells, and its colors are shades of black. Some of them say there is nothing (there) that is not corporeal and (that) the substances are of three types: (those of) the land of Darkness; another substance darker than this one, which is the atmosphere; and another substance darker than this one, which is the hot wind. They say that the Darkness continually engenders satans, archons, and demons, not as married couples do, but rather as vermin are produced from decay and filth. They say that the Ruler of this world is its spirit, and his world unites what is evil, blameworthy, and dark. |
Moreover, the Manichaeans differ over the mixture and its cause, as well as over the ‘refining’ and its means. Some of them say that the Light and the Darkness became mixed haphazardly and by accident, not by design or by choice. The majority say that the cause of the mixture was that the bodies of Darkness distracted their spirit; once distracted, the spirit then beheld and saw the Light. It thereupon dispatched the bodies to mix with the Light, and they hurriedly obeyed him due to (their) evil (nature). When the Ruler of Light saw this, he sent against it one of his angels with five parts from his five parts, and the five light-elements became mixed with the five darkness-elements. The smoke mingled with the air, and truly that which is alive or spiritual in this world derives from the air, but destruction and failure (derives) from the smoke. Fire and fire, light and darkness, hot wind and wind, and mist and water mingled together. Whatever is in the world that is beneficial, good, and blessed stems from the parts of Light, and whatever is in it that is harmful, evil, and corrupt stems from the parts of Darkness.
When the Ruler of Light saw this mixture, he commanded one of his angels to create this world according to this form (so as) to rescue the parts of Light from the parts of Darkness. The sun, the moon, and the other celestial bodies and stars were set in motion in order to filter out the parts of Light from the parts of Darkness. The sun filters out that Light which was mixed with the satans of heat, and the moon filters out that Light which was mixed with the satans of cold. The air which is in the land does not cease rising, for it is its nature to rise toward its world. Similarly all the particles of Light will continually rise and ascend and the particles of Darkness will continually descend and sink until every particle will have been separated from the other. Then the mixture will be neutralized, the composition will unravel, and everything will regain its integrity and its world. This is the resurrection and the life to come.
They say that what aids the purification and the separation and the ascension of the particles of Light are (the chanting of hymns of) glorification, (invocations of) sanctification, proper speech, and pious deeds, and that by this (behavior) the particles of Light are lifted up in a Column of Radiance to the orbit of the moon. The moon constantly receives this (i.e., the flow of particles) from the first of the month to the middle (of the month); then it is full and becomes the full moon. Then (the moon) conveys (it) to the sun until the end of the month, and the sun propels it onward to the Light that is above it, and it circulates in this world until it rejoins the uppermost, pure Light. It will not cease (from) doing this until there is not left any portion of the particles of Light in this world (i.e., the created world) except for (what remains in) a small amount of congealed matter that the sun and moon are unable to purify. At that time, the angel who bears the earth will lift up, and the angel who spreads out the heavens will stop doing so, and that which is uppermost will collapse upon that which is lowest. Then a fire will burn until the uppermost and the lowest are set ablaze, and it will remain burning until that which is in it (the congealed matter) from the Light is set free. The duration of the burning will be 1,468 years.
The sage Mānī in the first chapter of his Jibilla and in the beginning of the Šāburaqān says that the Ruler of the World of Light is in all of his land: nothing is devoid of him, and that he is both visible and concealed, and that he has no end apart from where his land ends at the land of his foe. He says also that the Ruler of the World of Light (is situated) in the center of his land. He mentions that the ancient mixing was a mixing of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness; but the recent mixing is one of Good and Evil.
Mānī imposed upon his followers a tithe upon all their property, four prayers (to be recited) daily and nightly, supplication(s) to God, abstention from deceit, killing, stealing, fornication, greed, sorcery, and worship of idols, and (the precept) not to do to a living being that which he would hate were it done to his own self. His doctrine regarding the Law and the Prophets was that the first whom God Most Exalted commissioned with knowledge and wisdom was Adam, the ancestor of humanity; then [He commissioned] Seth after him; then Noah after him; then Abraham after him, upon them be blessings and peace! Then he sent the Buddha to India, Zoroaster to Persia, the (Christian) Messiah—the Word of God and his Spirit—to Rome and the West, and Paul after the Messiah to those (same regions). Finally the Seal of the Prophets came to the land of the Arabs.
Abū Sa‘īd the Manichaean, one of their leaders, maintained that (the time) which had elapsed from the period of mixture up to his own lifetime—which was year 271 A.H. (884 CE)—was 11,700 years, and that (the time) which remained until the period of purification was 300 years. According to his teaching, the period of mixture would last 12,000 years. There continues to remain of this period in our own time—which is 521 A.H. (1127 CE)—50 years. Hence we (should perceive) the end of the mixture and the beginning of the (final) purification, for in fifty years the complete liberation and the dissolution of the components (of the universe takes place). [But God knows best!]