Ismailism

Professor Azim Nanji

Chaper in Islamic Spirituality: Foundations, Ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, London: Routledge & Keegan Paul Ltd, 1987, pp. 179-198.

Abstract
This overview article on Ismailism focuses on some of the key concepts, underlying the Ismaili interpretation of Islam governing Ismaili beliefs. The article starts off with a brief historical background. It touches upon the da’wa activities and some of the challenging circumstances under which it operated.

The early literature of the Ismailis is preserved in Arabic and then Persian languages. Some of the major works of the more prominent dai’s such as Abu Ya’qub al-Sijistani, al-Mu’ayyad fi’l-din Shirazi and Nasir Khusraw are discussed in the article.

Ismailism is a part of the Shi’ite branch of Islam whose adherents constitute at present a small minority within the wider Muslim ummah. They live in over twenty-five different countries, including Afghanistan, East Africa, India, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, the United Kingdom, North America, and also parts of China and the Soviet Union.

Historical Background

(continues from Part I , Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI & Part VII)

Ritual Action, Cosmic Meaning

The Da’a’im al-islam of al-Qadi al-Nu’man preserves a definition of faith (iman) given by Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq in response to a question regarding an issue of some significance among early Muslim theologians: “Tell me about faith,” he is asked, “is it profession with action or profession without action?” The Imam answers:

Faith consists entirely in action, and profession is part of action. Action is made obligatory by God, and is clear from His Book … Faith possesses circumstances, stages, grades and stations. In faith, there can be total perfection; or else it may be imperfect …”¹³

This notion of faith, which establishes action as an integral part of spiritual development and perfection, is the basis for the hermeneutics of ritual in Ismailism and for the interplay of the ideas of zahir and batin, which in this context can refer to ritual action and its inner universal meaning. These perfect the human capacity to act and to develop awareness of the meaning of that action on a cosmic scale. The Da’a’im is a work defining the sphere of ritual action, the Shari’ah, and al-Qadi al-Nu’man also went on to write Ta’il al-da ‘a’im, which defines the sphere of inner meaning related to ritual action. The discourse between the two spheres is best illustrated in the hermeneutics of the daily prayer (salat) in Islam.¹⁴

Ta’wil of Salat

In defining the ta’wil of salat, al-Nu’man states that it symbolises da’wa, not in the limited sense of the institution under the Fatimids, which carried on the tasks of studying and preaching Ismaili doctrine, but in the wider sense of a call or summoning to the Prophet’s message and its continuing affirmation by the Imam of the time. Salat then stands for Islam, to which the Prophet and the Imams after him call humankind.

Specifically, he begins with the ta’wil of the times for ritual prayer, based on references to the Quran (II, 238; XVII, 78-79; etc.). The established prayers during each day signify the great epochs of the Shari’ah initiated by the five great prophets who came after Adam – Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad.

Nasir-i Khusraw also attempts to elaborate the ta’wil of the three stages of time he identifies within the ritual of prayer itself – the beginning, the middle, and the end. The beginning stage symbolises the natiq, the Ismaili term for the Prophet as the promulgator of Revelation; the middle stage stands for asas, the interpreter of the inner meaning of Revelation; and the final stage stands for the qa’im al-qiydmah, in which both the outer and the inner are fused and transcended. Such a cyclical view of history is an important aspect of Ismaili thought and illustrates the dual dimension of time that Ismaili writers saw reflected in the Quran. The first dimension provided a body of rituals and doctrines for a historical community; the second transposed these rituals and doctrines to a level of meaning beyond the historical constraints of time, where this tanzil was metamorphosed by ta’wil to provide the individual Muslim an opportunity to grasp the root cosmic meaning of the revealed Law.

Before discussing specifically the performance of the ritual prayer itself, al-Nu’man makes an interesting reference to the qiblah, the point of orientation for prayer, taking as his reference the verse “so set thy face to al-din (the religion) hanifan (as a primordial monotheist)” (XXX, 30). He points out that at one level this is the point of orientation to which hunafa’ (primordial monotheists) like Ibrahim and Adam set themselves – the Ka’bah (or even perhaps Jerusalem). In its esoteric sense, the verse refers to the wasi, the Prophet’s successor, through whom the Prophet turns his face to the community and through whom the batin of religion is affirmed during the Prophet’s own lifetime and the zahir established to serve as a point of continuity after his death.

The discussion then proceeds to the steps incorporated within prayer itself. These according to Nasir-i Khusraw are seven: (1) takbir, which symbolises the taking of the covenant from a mu’min. During takbir, the believers are required to be silent and to concentrate their attention fully on the performance of prayer – in the same way that a mu’min from whom the covenant has been taken should not manifest his quest for the batin openly lest his intentions be misconstrued and his words misunderstood. (2) Qiyam, standing, which symbolises the firm affirmation of the mu’min to stand by his covenant and not be swayed from it. (3) Recitation of the Fatihah and an additional sura, which symbolises communication with the rest of the community, conveying to them the meaning of faith and elaborating it for them. (4) Ruku’, bowing, which symbolises the recognition of the asas and during his absence the hujjah, who is the evidence for his existence. (5) Sujud, prostration, which symbolises the recognition of the natiq as the heralder of a “great cycle” and the Imam of that cycle. (6) Tashabhhud, which symbolises the recognition of the da’i. (7) The offering of salam marks the giving of permission to manifest in conversation and action one’s faith, just as after the offering of salam in ritual prayer one is permitted to converse.

When the worshiper completes the performance of salat in zabir, he has correspondingly sought to fulfil his inner quest, which involves a recognition of the inner meaning of the steps. In essence, then, the ta’wil of the steps within salat is that they are stages in the journey of the individual soul in its quest for the inner realities of the Faith.

The essence of such an interpretation of prayer is summed up thus by Nasir-i Khusraw:

The exoteric (zahir) of Prayer consists in adoring God with postures of the body, in directing the body towards the qibla of the body, which is the Ka’bah, the Temple of the Most High God, situated at Mekka. To understand the esoteric of Prayer (ta’wil-e-batin) means adoring God with the thinking soul and turning towards the quest of the gnosis of the Book and the gnosis of positive religion, towards the qibla of the spirit which is the Temple of God, that Temple in which the divine gnosis is enclosed, I mean the Imam in Truth, salutations to him.¹⁵

One result of studying these examples of ta’wil is a recognition of the dialectic that underlies the hermeneutics. As the ta’wil unfolds, it moves always from the level of the specific and temporal to that of the cosmic and eternal. Ta’wil is historically rooted in the community and in tradition; it builds and shapes itself until the individual experiences it as part of his intellectual and spiritual growth. In Islam, according to these writings, the performance of prayer ought to involve each Muslim in a constant dialogue with the meaning of life and the cosmos, an idea that is at the heart of Ismaili doctrine. Another result of this study is the recognition that the batin of salat, what Nasir-i Khusraw calls the “adoration with the thinking soul,” complements the zuhir, so that in the outward performance of the act of prayer one is simultaneously involving the intellectual and spiritual faculties.

From the Institute of Ismaili Studies

Part IX