God Nizari Ismaili theology is the pre-eminent negative or
apophatic theology of Islam because it affirms the absolute Oneness of God (
tawhid) through negating all names, descriptions, conceptions, and limitations from God. The Ismaili theology of tawhid goes back to the teachings of the early Shi‘a Imams, especially Imam
Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661), Imam
Muhammad al-Baqir (d. 743), and Imam
Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. 765). Additionally, a number of eminent Ismaili Muslim philosophers –
Abu Ya‘qub al-Sjistani (d. 971),
Ja‘far ibn Mansur al-Yaman (d. 960),
Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani (d. 1021),
al-Mu’ayyad al-Din Shirazi (d. 1077),
Nasir-i Khusraw (d. 1088),
Abd al-Karim al-Shahrastani (d. 1153),
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1273) – consolidated and refined the Ismaili theology of tawhid using the strongest philosophical arguments of their time. Even in the present age, Imam Shah Karim al-Husayni Aga Khan IV, the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shi‘a Ismaili Muslims, continued to stress the absolute and utter transcendence of God. At the 1975 All-Ismailia Paris Conference, the Ismaili Imam endorsed and approved the following resolution concerning the contemporary Ismaili position on the concept of God: The absolute transcendence of God to be emphasized, and the Ismaili belief in God to be expounded in association with the general stress on the transcendence of God in the Qur’an, as exemplified particularly in the Surat al-Ikhlas. The Ismaili Concept of tawhid can be summarized as follows: • God is beyond all names and attributes (including every name and attribute mentioned in the Qur’an, such as the Powerful, the Living, the First, the Last, etc.); • God is beyond matter, energy, space, time and change; • God is beyond all human conceptions of the imagination and intellect; • God is beyond both positive and negative qualities – He is not knowing and not not knowing and He is not powerful and not not powerful; • God is beyond all philosophical and metaphysical categories – spiritual/material, cause/effect, eternal/temporal, substance/accident, essence/attributes, and existence/essence – God is above existence and non-existence; • When God is associated with a name or attribute in scripture, ritual or everyday speech, e.g. "God is knowing", the real meaning of this statement is that God is the source and originator of that power or quality, i.e. God is the originator of all knowledge but He Himself is beyond actually possessing knowledge as an attribute; • God's Creative Act is called His Word or Command – this Command is a single, eternal, and continuous act which continually gives existence to and sustains all created or conditioned realities in every moment of their existence. The full recognition of tawhid, in a mode beyond human rational discourse, is a spiritual and mystical realization in the human soul and intellect called ''ma'rifah
. In the Ismaili tariqah
of Islam, the ma‘rifah
of the tawhid
of God is attained through the Imam of the Time. The perfect soul of the Imam of the Time always experiences the fullness of the ma‘rifah
of God and his murids'' reach that recognition through the recognition of the Imam.
Quran Nizaris, like all Muslims, consider the
Quran, the central
religious text of
Islam, to be the word of God. Nizaris employ
tafsir (the science of Quranic commentary) for
zahir, or exoteric understanding, and
taʾwīl (the Quranic poetic metre), for
batin, or esoteric understanding.
Rationalism For Nizaris, there exists a dialectic between revelation and human reasoning, based on a synergy of Islamic scripture and classical Greek philosophy, in particular
Aristotelian reasoning and
neoplatonic metaphysics. It seeks to extend an understanding of religion and revelation to identify the outwardly apparent (
zahir), and also to penetrate to the roots, to retrieve and disclose that which is the inner underlying (
batin). This process of discovery engages both the intellect (''
'aql) and the spirit (ruh), generating an integral synergy to illuminate and disclose truths (haqi'qat) culminating in gnosis (ma'rifat). Parallels have also been noted between the Nizari version of Imamah'' and the Platonic idea of a
philosopher king.
Eschatology Over the many phases of Nizārī Ismāʿīlī history – pre-Fāṭimid, Fāṭimid, Alamūt, Post-Alamūt, Anjudan, etc., there has never been a single unified view of eschatology. While there are certainly eschatological ideas from the Pre-Fāṭimid period that have been carried unto the present day, particularly those of Abū Ya’qūb al-Sijistānī and his intellectual disciples, each phase has brought in original ideas and renewed those of the past. The academic field of Ismāʿīlī eschatology is one that has been rarely studied in western secondary literature, and the little work that has been done on Ismāʿīlī eschatology primarily surrounds the event of the proclamation of a qiyāmah during the Alamūt period. Otherwise, no study has been published on the eschatologies of pre-Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī thinkers and post-Alamūt Ismaili thinkers. Furthermore, no work done has been done on the eschatology of the South Asian traditions of Nizārī Ismāʿīlism. The Ismāʿīlīs, like the
falāsifa (Islamic Neoplatonic-Aristotelian philosophers), have understood resurrection, paradise, and hell through
taʾwīl (esoteric interpretation) and, thus, have all argued that these are spiritual realities and not physical, material realities. On the rewards of Paradise, al-Sijistānī writes in the
Kitāb al-Yanābīʿ: لما كان قصارى الثواب انما هي اللذة ، وكانت اللذة الحسية منقطعة زائلة ، وجب ان تكون التي ينالها المثاب ازلية غير فانية ، باقية غير منقطعة . وليست لذة بسيطة باقية على حالاتها غير لذة العلم . كان من هذا القول وجوب لذه العلم للمثاب في دار البقاء ، كما قال الله عز وجل : اكلها دائم وظلها تلك عقبى الذين اتقوا Because the limit of reward is pleasure, and sensual pleasure is ephemeral, and it is necessary that the reward which is obtained be eternal and not ephemeral, everlasting and not discontinuous. And there is no simple, everlasting pleasure except the pleasure of knowledge. From this statement, it necessarily follows that the pleasure of knowledge is the reward in the hereafter, as God, glorified and sublime, said:
Its fruit is everlasting and its shade, that is the destination of those who are righteous (Qurʾān 13:35)" According to al-Sijistānī, the most important piece of knowledge to acquire is the recognition of the one who initiates the resurrection, whom he calls
Ṣāḥib al-Qiyāmah (Lord of Resurrection). Al-Sijistānī writes in the
Kitāb al-Yanābīʿ: فترى الناس على طبقتين : طبقة ممن آمنوا به وصدقوه وانتظروا ظهور، فهم بذلك النور مقتبسون، متنعمون ، مستبشرون . وطبقة ممن كذبوا به وغفلوا عن حده ۲ ، فهم بذلك النور ايضاً متحرقون ، معاقبون So you will see people divided into two classes: One class consists of those who believe in the Lord of Resurrection, pronounce his Truth, and await his appearance. They are in that Light, acquiring knowledge, blessed, and rejoicing. The other class consists of those who deny him and ignore his rank. They are in the Light also, but are burned and punished Paradise and Hellfire in the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī tradition, are thus, not characterised by material forms, sensual pleasures, and physical burning, rather Paradise is understood to be the presence of knowledge of real truths while Hellfire is understood to be ignorance. The Nizārī Ismāʿīlī philosopher-theologians, as can be seen in the passage quoted above, did not believe that Paradise and Hellfire were "places" that souls inhabit, rather – because the rewards and punishments are spiritual – they are something the soul directly experiences in itself. Al-Sijistānī explicitly says in the passage above that both classes of people are exposed to same the Light (فهم بذلك النور ايضاً), however one class experiences this Light as blessings whilst the other experiences it as burning. These states correspond not to location, but to the level of knowledge in the soul. Additionally, the most famous intellectual disciple of al- Sijistānī –
Nāṣir-i Khusraw – writes in the
Shish Fasl: [I]t is inevitable that the human soul should return to the Universal Soul. The question only concerns the manner in which it will return...If, however, the return of the individual soul to its source is not in harmony, it will meet with suffering hardships whose painfulness is described by being placed in the midst of fire, the position which will never come to an end Thus, for Nāṣir-i Khusraw, all souls return to the same spiritual abode but those souls which are ignorant will experience pain, as if "
being placed in the midst of fire". While Nāṣir-i Khusraw suggests here the suffering is eternal, he has in another text – specifically the
Wajh-i Dīn – indicated that the pains of Hell are temporary and that the Prophet will come on the Day of Resurrection to blow out the fires of Hell and rescue its inhabitants. While both infernalist and universalist positions have existed as legitimate views in the community, annihilationist views have existed as well, specifically being introduced by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī. Like both al-Sijistānī and Nāṣir-i Khusraw, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī believed that paradise and hell were spiritual and mental states that the soul experiences and not physical places or sensual pains and desires. While Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī believed that the punishment of ignorant, damned souls was eternal, he believed this eternal punishment took the form of annihilation, i.e. permanent non-existence. He writes: There is also only one real Hell, and that is eternal punishment, everlasting disappointment and eternal non-existence; the meaning of all this is being outcast from God in every sense of the word The position of Āgā Khān III can be said to be generally in line with classical Ismāʿīlī views, as well as the views of the
falāsifa and Sunnī-Sufīs like Ibn ʿArabi (such as in his
Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya) and those of the Shīʿī ʿIrfān tradition, like Mullā Ṣadra (such as in his
Tafsīr Sūrat al-Fātiḥa). ==Practices==