veneration of luminaries in the wisdom of illumination

Suhrawardī never makes a complete distinction between the metaphysical light and the physical one: the latter, according to him, enjoys the same qualities as the former, except the awareness of itself. due to the homogeneity of the physical and metaphysical lights, we can use the former as a means to approach and know the latter. (this, claims suhrawardī, was the exact method of the ancient sages of persia.) in my paper, i’ll show how the illuminationists implemented this method in their practices.suhrawardī’s philosophical hymns and prayers, gathered in the al-wāridāt wa al-taqdīsāt, indicate that he and his closest disciples practiced certain philosophical rites. veneration of seven planets and invocation of their respective angels is likely to have formed an important part of them. i’ll examine the account of these rites, provided by suhrawardī in his al-mashāri‘ wal-muṭārahāt, in the section fī kayfiyyati ẓuhūr al-mughayyabāt. the account allows us to single out three rites, or three parts of the rite, namely: 1) reciting a written text (of a liturgical character); 2) listening to the voice of hidden speaker, in order to provoke either delight or awe; 3) listening to the voice of a speaker who manifests himself in a form of one of the celestial lords (luminaries). prayers and invocations appear to be said at certain times, which were related to the times of the manifestation of these luminaries in a particular place of manifestation.in turn, in the al-alwāḥ al-‘imadiyya, suhrawardī praises the sun (hvarokhsh) as “the highest image” (al-mathal al-a‘lā) of god and the greatest of his signs in the external world. the philosopher’s invocation, according to the treatise, consists of five hierarchic stages, which correspond to the degrees of the cosmic hierarchy of theurgies: illuminate sage →hvarokhsh (the sun) →shahriyār (the angel of the sun) →bahman (=first intellect or closest light) →light of lights.