Editing Ismailism (section)

==Beliefs==
{{Further|Seven pillars of Ismailism}}
{{quotebox |align=right |salign=left |width=33%
|quote=[Do] not abhor any science or shun any book, and [do] not be unduly biased against any creed; for our philosophy and creed [[Perennial philosophy|encompasses all creeds and all knowledge]]; [for] our creed consists of studying all existing things in their entirety, the physical and the intellectual, from their beginning to their end, [[Immanence|their apparent]] and [[Transcendence (philosophy)|their hidden]], their [[Zahir (Islam)|manifest]] and their [[Batin (Islam)|concealed]], with the aim to grasp their ''[[Haqiqa|Truth]]'', with the understanding that they [[Tenth intellect|emanate]] from [[Sufi metaphysics#Waḥdat al-Wujūd (unity of existence)|one source]], [[Hypostasis (philosophy and religion)|one cause]], [[Monism|one world]], [and] [[The Universal Soul|one soul]], which encompasses their different essences, their diverse species, their various types, and their changing forms. |author={{mdash}}Excerpt from the [[Epistles of Ikhwan al-Safa]],<ref name="ency-vol4">{{Cite book |title=Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa' |location=[[Beirut]] |publisher=Dar Sadir |year=1957 |language=ar |volume=4 |page=52}}</ref> an encyclopedic work on religion, sciences, and philosophy that permeates the Isma'ili school of thought.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Ikhwan al-Safa' |url=https://iep.utm.edu/ikhwan-al-safa/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210630135123/https://iep.utm.edu/ikhwan-al-safa/ |archive-date=30 June 2021 |encyclopedia=[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |last=Steigerwald |first=Diana |access-date=15 August 2020 |via=iep.utm.edu}}</ref>}}

===View on the Quran===
{{See also|Esoteric interpretation of the Quran}}
[[File:IslamicGalleryBritishMuseum3.jpg|thumb|262px|Ismāʿīlīs believe the Quran has two layers of meaning, the ''[[Zahir (Islam)|zāhir]]'' meaning apparent, and the ''[[Batin (Islam)|bātin]]'', meaning hidden.]]

In the Isma'ili belief, God's Speech (''kalam Allah'') is the everlasting creative command that perpetuates all things and simultaneously embodies the essences of every existent being. This eternal commandment "flows" or "emanates" to [[Prophets and messengers in Islam|prophets]] through a spiritual hierarchy that consists of the Universal Intellect, Universal Soul, and the angelic intermediaries of ''Jadd'', ''Fath'', and ''Khayal'' who are identified with the archangels [[Seraphiel]], [[Michael (archangel)]], and [[Gibril|Gabriel]] (''Jibra'il'' in Arabic), respectively.<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/51376060 |title=Shi'i Ismaili Approaches to the Qur'an: From Revelation to Exegesis |journal=The Routledge Companion to the Qur'An |date=January 2021 |last1=Andani |first1=Khalil |doi=10.4324/9781315885360-31 |s2cid=238691055}}</ref><ref name="auto">Khalil Andani, "Reconciling Religion and Philosophy: Nāṣir-i Khusraw's Jāmiʿ al-ḥikmatayn". El-Rouayheb, Khaled, and Sabine Schmidtke. The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy. Oxford, United Kingdom, Oxford UP, 2017.</ref> As a result, the prophets receive revelations as divine, spiritual, and nonverbal "inspiration" (''wahy'') and "support" (''taʾyīd''), through the means of the Holy Spirit, Gabriel, which is a heavenly power that illuminates the souls of the prophets, just as the radiance of light reflects in a mirror.<ref name="auto1" /> Accordingly, God illuminated [[Muhammad]] with a divine light ([[Nūr (Islam)|''nur'']]) that constituted the divine nonverbal revelation (through the medium of archangel Gabriel), and Muhammad, then, expressed the divine truths contained within this transmission in the Arabic terms that constitute the [[Quran]]. Consequently, the Isma'ilis believe that the Arabic Quran is God's Speech in a secondary and subordinate sense, as it only verbally expresses the "signs" (''āyāt'') of God's actual cosmic commandments.<ref name="auto1" />

According to the 14th Isma'ili Imam and fourth Fatimid Caliph [[Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah]], "[The Prophet] only conveyed the meanings of the inspiration [''wahy''] and the light – its obligations, rulings and allusions – by means of utterances composed with arranged, combined, intelligible, and audible letters".<ref name="auto1" />

The Isma'ili view on God's Speech is therefore in contrast with the [[Hanbali]] view that it is eternal sounds and letters, the [[Mu'tazila]] view that it is a temporally created provision of sounds, and also the [[Ash'ari]] and [[Maturidi]] views that it is an everlasting nonverbal attribute contained in God's essence. Even so, the Isma'ilis agree with most other Islamic schools of thought that the Quran is a miracle that is beyond imitation and without equal (''mu'jiz''), for its external linguistic form and presentiment of spiritual meanings transcends the limits of eminence of Arabic poetry, prose, and rhyming speech.

The Isma'ilis believe that Muhammad is the living embodiment of the Quran. For instance, the Isma'ili [[Da'i]] and poet Nasir-i Khusraw ([[Nasir Khusraw]]) believed that Muhammad's soul expressed God's nonverbal divine inspiration in the form of two symbolic oral discourses – the Quran and Prophetic guidance ([[Hadith]]). Therefore, on one hand, Muhammad constructed the verbal form of the Quran, and, on the other hand, through his existence, he embodied the living and speaking Quran: "The cause of all existents [''ʿillat al-aysiyyāt''] is only the Word of God, ... [T]he Speaker Prophet is found to be a receptacle [''mahāll''] for the Word of God in the corporeal world and is designated by its names".<ref name="auto1" /> As such, [[Muhammad]] is the "locus of manifestation" (''mazhar'') of God's words, just as a reflective mirror to the radiance of light, and the Quran and Prophetic guidance (Hadith) are verbal manifestations of God's words, which are reflections from this mirror.<ref name="auto1" />

The Isma'ili view of revelation also influences their perception of the meaning of the Quran. In this view, the Quran and prophetic guidance (Hadith) are encoded in symbols in parables that preserve a superior level of meaning. As such, the literal interpretation of the Quran is only the "outward dimension" (''zāhir'') of the divine revelations that Muhammad received, and beyond it lies the "esoteric dimension" (''batin'') of the religion that contains the divine truths (''haqāʾiq'').<ref name="auto1" /> The Ismailis maintain that divine guidance is required to access the divine truths and superior meanings contained within the revelations.

The method of spiritual [[hermeneutics]] that is used to reveal this "esoteric dimension" or ''batin'' of the divine revelation is known as ''taʾwīl''.<ref name="auto" /> According to [[Nasir Khusraw]], ''taʾwīl'' is the process of "returning" something to its metaphysical source.<ref name="auto" /> In the context of ontology, ''taʾwīl'' is to discern an object in its original ontological domain as a symbol and parable that represents a reality in a higher ontological domain <ref name="auto" /> The opposite of ''taʾwīl'' is ''tanzīl'', which is to encode divine realities in the form of symbols and parables that are interpretable to human beings in the material world.

The Isma'ilis believe that besides prophets, God's Speech also illuminates the souls of the Legatees and Imams, through the medium of the Holy Spirit, which allows them to perform many of the spiritual functions of [[Muhammad]]. For example, in the Isma'ili hierarchical ranks (''da'wa''), Muhammad is the Messenger, Imam ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib ([[Ali]]) is his Legatee, and his successors from Imam [[Husayn ibn Ali]] to the Fatimid Caliphs ([[Fatimid Caliphate]]) are the Imams. As a result of being divinely inspired (''muʾayyad''), the Prophets, Legatees, and Imams can perform ''taʾwīl'' and disclose it as instruction (''taʿlīm'') to the lower ranks of the Ismaili ''da'wa'', including regular people.

Unlike prophets, the Imams cannot compose a new ''tanzīl'', instead they interpret the ''tanzīl'' (Quran) and prophetic guidance (Hadith) by reanalyzing them in the context of new circumstances, while retaining the underlying principled spirit, and help guide "spiritual adepts" to the divine truths by disclosing their inner meanings through the spiritual [[hermeneutics]] of ''taʾwīl''.<ref name="auto" /> Every Imam provides this authoritative instruction (''taʿlīm'') to the community during their own time. As a consequence, the Isma'ili Imam acts as the "speaking Quran", while the Arabic Quran, in its written or recitative form, is consigned the position of the "silent Quran".<ref name="auto1" />

===The Ginans and Qasidas===
{{Main|Ginans}}
The Ginans are [[Nizari]] religious texts. They are written in the form of poetry by [[Pir (Sufism)|Pir]]s to interpret the meanings of Quranic [[ayah|ayat]]. In comparison to Ginans, Ismāʿīlīs of other origins, such as Persians, Arabs, and Central Asians, have [[qasida]]s ({{langx|ar|قصيدة}}) written in Persian by missionaries such as [[Nasir Khusraw]] and [[Hasan bin Sabah]]. As van-Skyhawk notes, an important link was established between the ginānic and qaṣā'id traditions when, in 1961, the 49th Ismāʿīlī Imām termed [[Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai|ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Hunzai's]] [[Burushaski|Burushaskī]] qaṣā'id a "ginān book in [the] Hunza language".<ref>Van-Skyhawk, H. (2005). ''The Devotional Poems of ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Hunzai as Inter-Cultural Translations'' (p. 6). In ''Mitteilungen fuer Anthropologie und Religionsgeschichte 17''(1), 305–316. Münster, Germany: Ugarit-Verlag.</ref>

===Numerology===
{{Main|Numerology (Ismailism)}}
Ismāʿīlīs believe numbers have religious meanings. The number seven plays a general role in the theology of the Ismā'īliyya, including mystical speculations that there are seven heavens, seven continents, seven orifices in the skull, seven days in a week, and so forth.{{cn|date=May 2022}}

===Imamate===
{{Main|Imamah (Ismaili doctrine)|List of Ismaili imams}}
For this sect, the Imām is the manifestation of truth, and hence he is their path of salvation to God.<ref name="Ismaʻilism">{{cite web |url=http://lexicorient.com/e.o/ismailis.htm |title=Ismaʻilism |access-date=2007-04-24 |archive-date=4 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004105617/http://lexicorient.com/e.o/ismailis.htm }}</ref>

Classical Ismāʿīlī doctrine holds that divine revelation had been given in six periods (daur) entrusted to six prophets, who they also call ''Natiq'' (Speaker), who were commissioned to preach a religion of law to their respective communities.{{cn|date=May 2022}}

Whereas the Natiq was concerned with the rites and outward shape of religion, the inner meaning is entrusted to a ''Wasi'' (Representative). The Wasi would know the secret meaning of all rites and rules and would reveal them to small circles of initiates.{{cn|date=May 2022}}

The Natiq and the Wasi are in turn succeeded by a line of seven Imāms, who guard what they received. The seventh and last Imām in any period becomes the Natiq of the next period. The last Imām of the sixth period, however, would not bring about a new religion of law but rather supersede all previous religions, abrogate the law and introduce ''din Adama al-awwal'' ("the original religion of Adam") practised by [[Adam]] and the [[angel]]s in [[paradise]] before the fall, which would be without ritual or law but consist merely in all creatures praising the creator and recognizing his unity. This final stage was called [[Islamic eschatology|the Qiyamah]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Heinz |last=Halm |title=Die Schia |location=Darmstadt, Germany |publisher=Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft |year=1988 |isbn=3-534-03136-9 |pages=202–204}}</ref>

===Pir and Dawah===
{{Main|Da'i al-Mutlaq}}
Just as the Imām is seen by Ismailis as the manifestation of the first-created Light, during the period between the Imāmates of Muhammad ibn Ismail and al-Madhi Billah, the relationship between the teacher and the student became a sacred one, and Dai became a position much beyond a normal missionary. Dai passed on the sacred and hidden knowledge of the Imām to the student, who could then use that information to ascend to higher levels. First, the student loved Dai, and from the Dai, he learned to love the Imām, who was but an interceder on behalf of God. In [[Nizari]] [[Ismailism]], the head Dai is called the [[Pir (Sufism)|Pir]]. The Imam is the Pir in Nizari Ismailism.<ref name="DaftaryIsmailis1990p104" />

===Zāhir===
{{Main|Zahir (Islam)}}
In Ismailism, things have an exterior meaning, what is apparent. This is called ''zāhir.''{{cn|date=May 2022}}

A fundamental aspect of Ismailism is the co-existence of the physical and the spiritual, the ''[[Zahir (Islam)|zahir]]'' (exoteric) form and the ''[[Batin (Islam)|batin]]'' (esoteric) essence. The esoteric is the source of the exoteric, and the exoteric is the manifestation of the esoteric. This concept is highlighted in the "Epistle of the Right Path", a [[Persian language|Persian]]-Ismaili prose text from the post-Mongol period of Ismaili history, by an anonymous author.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Virani|first=Shafique N.|date=2010|title=The Right Path: A Post-Mongol Persian Ismaili Treatise|journal=Iranian Studies|volume=43|issue=2|pages=197–221|doi=10.1080/00210860903541988|s2cid=170748666|issn=0021-0862}}</ref>

===Bātin===
{{Main|Batin (Islam)}}
In Ismailism, things have an interior meaning that is reserved for a special few who are in tune with the Imām or are the Imām himself. This is called ''bātin.''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ismailignosis.com/2015/12/28/esoteric-interpretations-of-the-quran-the-foundations-of-shia-ismaili-tawil/|title=Esoteric Interpretations of the Qur'an: The Foundations of Shia Ismaili Ta'wil|first=Ismaili|last=Gnosis|date=28 December 2015}}</ref>

==='Aql===
{{Main|'Aql}}
As with other Shia, Ismāʿīlīs believe that the understanding of God is derived from the first light in the universe, the light of 'Aql, which in Arabic roughly translates as '[[Nous|Intellect]]' or to 'bind' (Latin: Intellectus). It is through this Universal Intellect ('aql al-kull) that all living and non-living entities know God, and all of humanity is dependent and united in this light.<ref name="Alamut" /><ref name="alkafi">{{cite book |title=Kitab al-Kafi}}</ref> Contrastingly, in Twelver thought this includes the Prophets as well, especially Muhammad, who is the greatest of all the manifestations of 'Aql.

God, in Ismaʻili metaphysics, is seen as above and beyond all conceptions, names, and descriptions. He transcends all positive and negative qualities, and knowledge of God as such is above all human comprehension.{{cn|date=May 2022}}

For the Shia, the Light (''nur'') of the Imamate is the Universal Intellect, and consequently, the Imam on earth is the focus of manifestation (''mazhar'') of the Intellect.{{cn|date=May 2022}}