Ismaili Gnosis

What are your most pressing questions about Ismailism? Including Ismaili history, belief and ritual practice? Share your questions by replying to this thread!

Congrats to our co-founder and lead scholar Dr. @KhalilAndani for achieving tenure and promotion.

@al_mualim1 @TahaNaqvi114 Ismaili Imams and Dais wholesale reject any notion of Bada where God’s knowledge or pre eternal will changes. That’s the very Bada that your 12er Hadiths about Ismail and Musa and later Imams allege - where God comes to know of a matter(Ismail’s death) He didn’t know before.

@TahaNaqvi114 You clown idiot, you take Bada help to prove your imam's Imamate not we, cause we don't believe that Bada can be applied in the matter of an imam.

Oh really? Than why does Ja'far bin Mansur himself affirm that Imam al-Ṣādiq affirmed Bada as a concept? .....وقد روينا نحن وأنتم عن الصادق أنه قال إن البداء والمشيئة لله في كل شيء إلا في الإمامة And WE and you have both narrated from al-Ṣādiq that he said: “Badā’ and the Will belong to God in all things except in the Imamate.”

@BalaamAndDonkey @TahaNaqvi114 @kokowawa676 Numerous scholars both Sunni and Twelver Shii affirm the poetry as authentic and it’s in his Diwan as well.

@TahaNaqvi114 @kokowawa676 Haha sure. Cite it bitch.

I don’t understand why you said “just some” as if you’re on his level in any way shape or form.

@TahaNaqvi114 You omitting this fact about Ibn Sufi just shows how duplicitous and disingenuous you are in these matters. When Ibn Sufi narrated about your Mahdi he’s reliable but when he validates Fatimid lineage you omit that entirely.

@TahaNaqvi114 Only post-Fatimid historians and genealogists got word of names of the concealed imams and incorporated that into their work. As for Ibn Sufi he matter of factly says the Imams in Egypt are descended from Muhammad Ibn Ismail on authority of his father without giving details.

Another contradiction in Fatimid genealogy: In the pre-Fatimid history, the man who revealed the hidden imām to the Ismāʿīlī community was Abū Shalaghlagh. According to these reports, he declared that their imām was his nephew—something entirely unknown to the community until his disclosure. On this basis, his lineage would be given as: Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl. Yet when we turn to the Ibn al-Ṣūfī (d. 460 AH) he records: “Among those who were in the Maghrib, and who perhaps had descendants—such that we should not reject those who claim descent from them, but rather require proof of their claim—were three men: Aḥmad Abū Shalaghlagh, Jaʿfar, and Ismāʿīl, the sons of Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl b. Jaʿfar [al-Ṣādiq].” Thus, in Ibn al-Ṣūfī’s account, Abū Shalaghlagh is not the son of Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh but rather one of the sons of Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl b. Jaʿfar. This discrepancy underscores a broader issue: the genealogical identity of the very figure who first revealed the hidden imām—casting doubt not only on his own lineage but, by extension, on the authenticity and continuity of the Ismāʿīlī imāms themselves.

@TahaNaqvi114 Yes because the imams after Muhammad ibn Ismail are concealed and used pseudonyms. And yet despite that Ibn Sufi and others, based on their own sources and data still attested the Fatimids are genuine descendants of Muhammad Ibn Ismail.

@IsmailiGnosis The thing is Ibn al-Sufi only seems to talk about two children from Muhammad Ibn Isma’il. He doesn’t actually mention the lineage of the Fatimid imams.

@TahaNaqvi114 What you quoted was not Ibn Sufi himself but the opinion of Bukhari who himself accepted Fatimids as descendants of Ismail. If you continue reading you’ll see Ibn Sufi accepting the “imams ruling in Egypt” as descendants of Muhammad Ibn Ismail. Ibn Sufi also says this earlier

@IsmailiGnosis Do you refer to a specifc page?

The Ismaili Imam in Bishkek meets his murids and gives them his blessings.

“This knowledgeable, compassionate doctor for the souls is the Imam, peace be upon him, in all ages and times.” - Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim Al-Naysaburi, Degrees of Excellence, trans. Arzina Lalani

Dr. Khalil Andani will be doing an open Q&A on Ismaili history and thought on Aug 17. Register here: ismailignosis.com/p/qna

@zaidchakir Sure what a coincidence…..then whoever you got these from; they lifted the quotes from us. Even your ellipses are the exact same as our quotes. And we went to the actual cited sources directly for all these quotes.

@IsmailiGnosis I’ve never seen your website or article before.

It appears you @zaidchakir lifted almost all of these expert quotes from our article here. Next time plz acknowledge your secondary sources from which you obtained such quotes: ismailignosis.com/p/the-quranic-…

@zaidchakir It seems you @zaidchakir lifted almost all of these expert quotes from our article here. Next time plz acknowledge your secondary sources from which you obtained such quotes: ismailignosis.com/p/the-quranic-…

It’s remarkable how all major scholarship on the historical Jesus, early Christianity, and the Bible shows his life, the disciples’ understanding, and earliest Christian orthodoxy align far more with Islam than modern Christianity. A few expert quotes (thread🧵):

Muslim and Christian concepts of God are not monolithic. Christians hold to different models of the Trinity including Monarchic, Thomist and Social; Muslims have at least 10 different models of God qua Tawhid ranging from Ash’ari to Sufi to Athari. I’ve documented the latter in this article: saet.ac.uk/Islam/DivineUn… Statements like this are simplistic sound-bytes, nothing more.

I’m very happy to share my newly published article in the Journal of Islamic Philosophy - featuring a 7 stage argument for the Existence of God as the Unconditioned Reality, absolute divine simplicity, necessary eternal creation, and the Neoplatonic procession of the first conditioned reality known as the Muhammadan Reality and First Intellect. In many ways this is a defense of divine simplicity which, contrary to most accounts, rides its opponents’ objections towards a full blown #Islamic #Neoplatonic worldview. This article engages with heavyweights in Phil of Rel: first I critique the Kalam argument of WLCraig @RFupdates and the contingency argument of Pruss and Rasmussen @worldviewdesign as falling short in establishing the existence of God. Next I survey Islamic thought - Ismaili, Avicennian and Sufi Akbari views of God to show that the Muslim concept of God qua Unconditioned Reality (wujud la bi shart) is a far more robust notion of God than the Kalam demiurge or a modally necessary being. Then I present a seven stage deductive argument for the following claims: 1. There is at least one Unconditioned Reality 2. The Unconditioned Reality is absolutely simple while engaging objections of @majestyofreason and those whom he cites; 3. There is only one Unconditioned Reality 4. The Unconditioned Reality is non-corporeal and timeless - contrary to @theRTMullins and @MMetaphysician beliefs 5. The Unconditioned Reality is unrestricted and boundless 6. The Unconditioned Reality is the Eternal Originator of All Conditioned Realities 7. The Unconditioned Reality Necessarily and Directly Originates a Single, Eternal, and Maximally Excellent (Perfect) Conditioned Reality Finally I address popular objections such as divine simplicity contradicting scripture, modal collapse and divine freedom. academia.edu/129691625/Alla…

This article will explain the esoteric meaning of the Qur’anic Surahs and prayer gestures in the new Ismaili ‘Id Namaz based on the teachings of the Ismaili Da‘is, especially Sayyidna Nasir-i Khusraw. ismailignosis.com/p/ismailinamaz

Our new Imam Mawlana Shah Rahim Al-Husayni Aga Khan V gives his first public address at #Syria conference & pledges 100 million Euros in support of Syria. In doing so our 50th Imam continues to Mahdi-ist mandate of his father the 49th Imam Shah Karim. #ismaili #imamat #agakhan

Today marks the Chehlum or 40th day since the passing of Imam Shah Karim. In this article we explain the esoteric meaning of the number 40 according to the Ismaili teachings of Nasir-i Khusraw. #ismaili #imamat #agakhan ismailignosis.com/p/chehlum-spir…