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Imamah (Nizari Ismaili doctrine)

This is a sub-article to Imamah (Shi'a doctrine).

The Nizari Ismaili belief in the Imamah differs from the Twelver Shi'a belief because the Imam in Ismailism has the Noor (Being, Presence, Light, Immanence, Spirit) of God (Allah) within him. Since there is only the zāhirī (exoteric) bodily difference between each living Imam from the next living Imam, therefore the first Imam after the death of Prophet Mohammad, that is Imam Ali, and every Imam in the succession after him, has been one and the same in the Spirit because they all possessed the Light of God within them.

Like the other Shi'ites the Nizari Ismailis reserve the position and title of Imam for Ali and the descendants of Ali but they do not reserve a special status for Ali himself above that of the other Imams who followed him in his direct and hereditary line, as do the other Shia.

Nizari Ismailis consider Walayah (love and devotion) for God, the Prophets, the Imams, and the Imam of the Time’s babs or pirs (gates), hujjats (proofs), and da‘is (callers) among their Seven Pillars of the faith.

The Ismaili Imams have physical bodies subject to ageing and death the same as for all human beings but within them their spirit (soul) is the very Light (Noor) of God Himself, the Light flowing easily from one living Imam to the next. There can only be one designated living Imam at any given time although there can be a designated successor to the living Imam living side by side with him.

The Orthodox Sunni Islam considers Nizari Ismailism heresy at best and shirk at worst - shirk because they supposedly make their living Imam a partner with God. The Ismailis contend that their belief in the legitimate Imam of the Time is the Avatar or Incarnation of God alluded to in the Quran as per the Ayat (verse) of the Quran: "And We have vested everything in the manifest Imam." But, the English translations of the Quran vary so extremely from one translation to the other that it is almost impossible to come to an agreement as to what the original in the Quran actually means. To add further to the complexity of arriving at any acceptable meaning for all parties concerned, even the authenticity of the Quran is now questioned after the finding of the very first 1400 year old Quran manuscripts in Sanaa, Yemen in 1972.

In his book What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text and Commentary, Professor Gerd R. Puin, an expert on the Quran's historical orthography (the study and scholarly interpretation of ancient manuscripts), states unequivocally:

"The Quran claims for itself that it is ‘mubeen’, or clear. But if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply does not make sense. . . . (T)he fact is that a fifth of the Quranic text is just incomprehensible. If the Quran is not comprehensible, if it can’t even be understood in Arabic, then it’s not translatable into any language. . . . Since the Quran claims repeatedly to be clear but is not (therefore) there is an obvious and serious contradiction. Something else must be going on."

With the latest technology and expert analyses into the origin and authenticity of the Quran performed in the same manner as has been done with the Bible, it is now finally accepted that the Quran has been altered through the centuries by Islamic rulers (Caliphs) with vested interests. In time the different traditions in Islam have come to follow their own versions of the Quran and so too the Ismailis possess and follow their own version of the Quran.

To the Ismailis, although God remains the ineffable God of the Universe and the helper of and provider for all living creatures, He also takes on additional "roles" in the drama that is continuously unfolding in this world of His own creation. He takes birth as a human Avatar in the guise of a Messiah, Mahdi, Prophet, Imam, etc. as and when He chooses to. Thus, God is and has been always physically and materially present (hazir) and alive (maujood) in the world since the Beginning of Time aside from His spiritual transcendence over His creation. And so God lives simultaneously in the here and now in the human form subjecting Himself to the constraints of the Natural Laws of the Universe created by Him in His transcendent form.

To continue with Ismaili beliefs, it follows logically from the above that Adam was therefore the first unrevealed (i.e. "un-manifested" or "hidden" in the Quranic sense) Imam in Time (as "in the beginning of time").

The Ismaili Imam’s role in the human world is to be the perfect human being (al insaan al kamil) in spite of facing tremendous physical odds. By demonstrating his exemplariness in the face of hardship, the true Imam guides humankind in general and in particular he guides his own flock of steadfast believers who believe in him as a divine being and the repository of the original and authentic Quran. Thus, the Ismaili Imam is the Speaking Quran of the Ismailis and has the authority and the knowledge to interpret it according to changing times. According to Shams Tabrizi, The meaning of the Book of God is not the text (of the Quran), it is the man who guides. He is the Book of God. He is its verses. He is scripture. Shams Tabrizi was the beloved mentor of the great Sufi poet Rumi and his work was collected by Rumi as the Diwani Shamsi Tabrīz (Poems of Shams of Tabriz). A large number of his hymns-poems comprise the devotional literature of the Ismailis of Badakhshan.

The changing interpretations of the Quran by the Ismaili Imams according to changing times creates the tension between the forward looking, modern Ismaili Imams and the backward looking Orthodox Ulema (Islamic scholars). The two most recent Ismaili Imams titled Aga Khan III and Aga Khan IV have replaced the obligation to perform the daily prayers from five to three times a day by following the Quranic injunction rather than following the Prophet's custom (hadith and sunnah) to ease the religious pressures on the Muslim in the busy modern world of today. Similarly, they have replaced the month long fast with fasting during a few certain days of the year. They have dispensed with the veil for women and replaced it with dressing according to common decency in the country of one's residence. They have dispensed with the obligation to keep a long beard meant to demonstrate one's identity as a Muslim. Specifically, the Aga Khan IV has emphasized the ethics of pluralism, the cosmopolitan ethic of frontierless brotherhood and sisterhood, the forbearance from killing to settle disputes, governance by constitution and law, and the importance of keeping to the Islamic ethics practiced by the Prophet of Islam.

The Imam of the Ismailis is the touchstone that guides those who believe in him by his exemplariness in all matters in a complex world full of quicksands wherein it is so very easy to go astray from the true path based on perfect ethical conduct.

A crude translation of just one short Ismaili hymn out of more than a thousand hymns long and short in many different languages of the East is given here below to inform on the Ismaili belief in the Avatari form of Ali:

Haq tu(n) paak tu(n) baadshah maherbaan bhi ya Ali tu(n)hi tu(n) . . . 1

[You the truth, you the holy, the gracious king too O Ali is you and only you]

Rab tu(n) rahemaan tu(n) ya Ali aval aakhar kaazi tu(n)hi tu(n) . . . 2

[You the sustainer, you the merciful O Ali the first and last judge is you and only you]

Te upaaya te nipaaya sirjanhaar ya Ali tu(n)hi tu(n) . . . 3

[You birthed, you raised, the creator O Ali is you and only you]

Jal thal mull mandalhaar naa ya Ali hukam teraa bhi tu(n)hi tu(n) . . . 4

[Water and earth from their depths to the heavens created O Ali at your command too - you and only you]

Teri dostee me boliya Pir Shams me bandaa teraa bhi tu(n)hi tu(n) . . . 5

[In your friendship says Peer Shams I am in your fold too - you and only you]

_by Pir Shams Qalander (dervish)

Henry Corbin, the great French researcher in esoteric Islam, quotes Ali as having said during his own lifetime asserting his Avatari form:

"I am the sign of the Most High, I am the gnosis of the Mysteries, I am the Door of the doors, I am the First and the Last, I am the Manifest and the Hidden, I am the Creator, I give birth to the world and I destroy it as I wish. I am the Face of God, I am the Supreme Kalam (knowledge-theologian)."

It is important to note that Ismaili doctrine has not remained stagnant in time. The Ismaili doctrine underwent a complete reversal from the time of the Ismaili Imams living incognito in Syria to the time when the Ismaili Imams became the Fatimid Caliphs of Egypt. The beliefs changed again during the time when the Ismaili Imams lived incognito in the Elburz Mountains of Iran to the time when they once again declared themselves as the present and living Ismailis Imams in the same region - until the appearance of the Mongols who destroyed the Ismaili habitations and forts in Eastern and Northern Iran. The concept of the cosmos of the Fatimid Ismailis of Egypt and the Levant in the 1100’s CE is completely different from that of the Ismailis of the Indian Subcontinent during their conversion from Hinduism to Shia Ismailism in or around the 16th Century. With changing times and the constant increase in the material knowledge of the universe, the doctrine (theology, cosmology, eschatology, etc.) of the Ismailis keeps changing in keeping with the logic of the natural world.

Succession

The Ismailis and the Twelvers split over the succession to Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq. Ismailis contend that Jafar had designated his son Isma'il ibn Jafar as his heir and the next Imam in the hereditary line and thus the Isma'ilis follow the Imamat of Isma'il and his progeny. Although Imam Ismail predeceased his father, he (i.e. Isma'il ibn Jafar) had in his own right designated his son Muhammad ibn Ismail as the next hereditary Imam who was to follow after him. In direct opposition to this belief the Twelvers believe that Imam Ismail's younger brother Musa al Kadhim was from the beginning the rightful successor to Imam Jafar and that his brother Ismail was never a contender.

The Nizari Ismailis (as separate from the Mustaali Ismailis who are today known as the Shia Bohra) have always maintained that the Imamah (also known as 'Imamat') can only be inherited from the current Imam to a direct descendant in a father-to-son (or grandson) hereditary lineage starting with Imam Ali and then to Imam Hussain and so on until their present Imam Prince Karim al Hussaini. Hassan bin (son of) Ali is regarded as a Trustee Imam (imam al-mustawda) as opposed to a Hereditary Imam (imam al-mustaqarr). This fact is clearly demonstrated in the recitation of their daily prayers three times a day in which although Hassan bin Ali is revered as part of the Prophet's personal family (Ahl al-Bayt), his name is not included in the hereditary lineage from Imam Ali to their 49th Imam Prince Karim al Hussaini. If Hassan bin Ali's name were to be included as one of the Ismaili Imams in their prayer recitation then the present Imam Prince Karim of the Nizari Ismailis would have to be the 50th Imam and not the 49th Imam, the way he has identified himself and is known to the world.

Main Reference: For a list of Ismaili Imams: Daftary, Farhad (1990). The Ismailis: Their history and doctrines. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 551–553. ISBN 0-521-42974-9.