Jabulqa and Jabulsa

Jabulqa and Jabulsa (Arabic: جابلقا وجابلسا‎) are two mythological cities mentioned in Shi'i hadith. In the early Basa'ir al-darajat, these cities were inhabited by archetypal believers who are waiting for the appearance of the Qa'im.[1] In the Kitab al-haft wa-l-azilla (8th–11th century CE), transmitted by Nasayri Shi'a, the sixth Imam al-Sadiq states that the Qa'im will live in these cities. Each city has 12,000 gates, each of which is guarded by 12,000 men until the Day of Resurrection, when the Qa'im will appear.[1]

Later Shi'i scholars, including Muhammad Taqi al-Majlisi (d. 1659) and Muhammad Baqir al-Bahai al-Hamadani (d. 1915), have used these two cities to support the story of the Green Island.[1] The cities also appear in the works of Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi and Shaykh Ahmad. Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Bahá'í Faith, in his Javáhiru’l-Asrár (Gems of Divine Mysteries) and other works, interprets Jabulqa and Jabulsa symbolically.[2]

Notes

1. Mir-Kasimov & Ghaemmaghami 2014, pp. 140–141.
2. Mir-Kasimov & Ghaemmaghami 2014, pp. 163–164.

References

• Mir-Kasimov, Orkhan (editor); Ghaemmaghami, Omid (2014). "To the Abode of the Hidden One: The Green Isle in Shi'i, Early Shaykhi, and Babi-Baha'i Sacred Topography". Unity in Diversity: Mysticism, Messianism and the Construction of Religious Authority in Islam. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-26280-5.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link) CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)