By: Sadruddin Noorani, Chicago, USA
Having been born and raised as an Ismaili Muslim, our granddaughter Iyla started learning about the diversity in our Jamat from an early age. From ta’lim books to waez/khutba (sermons) in Jamatkhana, she heard about the diverse traditions from which our Ismaili rituals and practices emerged. Amongst them the South Asian tradition, the Central Asian tradition, and the Syrian tradition. She knew that there were Ismailis spread across continents, peppered across Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and the Americas.
But it wasn’t until Iyla attended Navroz celebration 2024 that she saw this extraordinary diversity come together under one roof at the Majlis. Iyla’s heart swelled with pride at the range of colors and cultures the Ismaili world holds within it. Strains of music from Central Asia and Syria mingled pleasantly with those from South Asia and the American born youth. Speakers of English, Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Tajiki, Urdu, among other languages, clothed in shalwars, kamiz and sherwanis, traditional dresses and business suits and jeans… Here we are, she thought, gathered together. One community, One Jamat.
Diversity exists not only within the Jamat, but also within the Muslim Ummah and within the larger societies in which we live. But this is no accident. This is how we were designed to be, as Allah (swt) tells us in the Qur’an:
“We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes so that you may know one another.” (Surah 49 Ayat 13)
God created us different by design and our diversity is a definite strength. This diversity is so pervasive that even the understanding of the term ‘what it means to be an Ismaili Muslim’ varies according to the countries that they live in, languages they speak, and places of origin. Our understanding of being Ismaili emerges from our experiences, our outlooks, and the way we, as people, engage with the world around us.
The experience of being an Ismaili in the town of Salamiyah (Syria) where almost everyone, every friend and neighbor, is an Ismaili, is very different from being an Ismaili in Karachi where Ismailis are a small minority, or being Ismaili in Chicago where not only all the Muslims in general are a minority, but people of any religion, other than Christianity, are/have become minorities.
The Ismaili Jamat is an increasingly mobile Jamat, migrating to different parts of the world, either by choice looking for better opportunities for themselves and their families—or forced by circumstances of political strife. With this increase in movement comes an increasing diversity in our own immediate spheres – our own Jamatkhanas are becoming microcosms of the linguistic and cultural diversity that could not be imagined before.
Clearly, being Ismaili is not defined by what you wear, or what language you speak. It is not about which neighborhood you live or the color of your skin or the language in which we recite prayers (tasbih). Whether it is a difference of age or language, ethnicity or gender, ability or origin, we are, though each one of us are different but where the essence is the same, because it is a strength of the Jamat to have this pluralism.
What then, does it mean to be an Ismaili Muslim?
Being Ismaili, we realize, is about one thing above all—it is about our allegiance, obedience and devotion to the ‘Imam-of-the-Time’. During major religious occasions, we reflect upon the blessings we have received of being a diverse global Jamat coming together to form one large community, to explore each other’s cultures, and build relationships with our Ismaili brothers and sisters around the world, united by our allegiance to our Imam-of-The-Time.
“The world of spiritual enlightenment is fundamentally different from the world of material intellectualism and it is the pride of the Ismailis that we firmly believe that the world of spiritual enlightenment has come as a truth from the inception of Islam to this day with the Imamat and carries with it as one of its necessary consequences love, tenderness, kindliness and gentleness towards first, our brother and sister Muslims of all sects and, secondly, to those who live in righteousness, conscience and justice towards their fellow men. These religious principles of Ismailism are well known…” Sir Sultan Muhamad Shah Aga Khan (lll) 20th February, 1955 Cairo, Egypt
In common with all major Shia Muslim groups, the Ismailis believe that the Imamat is a divinely sanctioned and guided institution, through whose agency Muslims are enabled to contextualize the practice of their faith and to understand fully the exoteric and esoteric dimensions of the Holy Qur’an. The Imamat exists to complement prophethood and to ensure that the divine purpose of Islam is fulfilled on earth at all times and in all places.
We, Ismailis, believe in the oneness of God, as well as the closing of divine revelation with Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his progeny), whom we accept as “the final Prophet and Messenger of God to all humanity.”
Qadi al-Nu’man (d. 974 CE/363 AH) writes in Ikhtilaf Usul al-Madhahib (p. 21) that, “There are only three foundations of the law: Quran, Sunnah and the word of the Imam” (al’ amalu bi-zahiran kitab wa sunnah wa qawl al-i ’imah)
Recommended reading:
The Ismaili Imams – A biographical History
By: Farhad Daftary
ISBN 978-1-78831-317-9
Ismailimail 