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 The last in the line of
the Abrahamic family of revealed traditions, Islam emerged in the early
decades of the seventh century. Its message, addressed in perpetuity, calls upon
a people that are wise, a people of reason, to seek in their daily life, in
the rhythm of nature, in the ordering of the universe, in their own selves,
in the very diversity of humankind, signs that point to the Creator and
Sustainer of all creation, Who alone is worthy of their submission. Revealed to Prophet Muhammad (s.a.s.) in
Arabia, its influence spread rapidly and strongly, bringing within its fold,
in just over a century after its birth, inhabitants of the lands stretching
from the central regions of Asia to the Iberian peninsula in Europe. A major
world religion, Islam today counts a quarter of the globe's population among
its adherents. Contrary to popular misperceptions, Muslims are not a
monolithic mass of people, all marching to the same drum. Within its fundamental unity, Islam has, over the
ages, elicited varying responses to its primal message calling upon man to
surrender himself to God. These
responses, emerging from the unfolding of the timeless message of Islam over
time and geography, encompass a vibrant breadth of interpretations, spiritual
temperaments, juridical preferences, social and psychological dispositions
and political entities, as well as the rich multiplicity of ethnic, cultural,
linguistic plurality that human beings are heir to. Shia Ismailism is one such response.
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 Like all Muslims, the
Ismailis affirm the unity of God as the first and foremost article of the
faith, followed by that of Divine guidance through God's chosen messengers, of
whom Prophet Muhammad was the last. The verbal attestation of the absolute
unity and transcendence of God and of His choice of Muhammad as His Messenger
constitutes the profession of faith, and the basic creed of all Muslims. Beyond this, the Ismailis maintain, as do
all Shia, that while the Revelation ceased at the Prophet's death, the need
for spiritual and moral guidance of the community, through an ongoing
interpretation of the Islamic message, continued. They assert that the Prophet invested his authority through
designation onto Ali, his cousin, the husband of his daughter and only
surviving child, Fatima, and his first supporter who had devoutly championed
the cause of Islam and had earned the Prophet's trust and admiration. This concept of qualified and rightly
guided leadership is rooted, first and foremost, in the Quran and further
reinforced by Prophetic traditions, the most prominent of which is the
Prophet’s sermon, following his farewell pilgrimage, designating Ali as his
successor, and his testament that he was leaving behind him "the two
weighty things", namely the Quran and his progeny, for the future
guidance of the community.
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 Throughout their history,
the Ismailis have been led by a living Imam, tracing the line of Imamat in
hereditary succession from Ali to His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan, who is
the 49th Imam in direct lineal descent from Prophet Muhammad through Ali and
Fatima. The Ismailis comprehend Islam
through the guidance of the Imam of the time, who is the inheritor of the
Prophet's authority, and the trustee of his legacy. The principal function of the Imam is to enable the believers
to go beyond the apparent or outward form of the Revelation in search of its
spirituality and wisdom. According to
the Ismailis, Islam – or submission – in its pristine sense refers to the
inner struggle of an individual to engage fully in the journey of this
earthly life and yet, with the guidance of the Alid Imam, to rise above its
trappings in search of the Divine. The succession of the line of prophecy by
that of the Imamat ensures this balance between the exoteric aspect of the
faith and its esoteric, spiritual essence. Neither the exoteric nor the
esoteric obliterates the other. While the Imam is the path to a believer's inward,
spiritual elevation, he is also the authority who makes the outward form of
the religion relevant according to the needs of time. The inner, spiritual life in harmony with
the exoteric, is a dimension of the faith that finds acceptance among many
groups within Islam.
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 For an Ismaili, the quest
for harmony requires the engagement of not only the spirit but also the
intellect. Indeed, the human
intellect is viewed as a precious Divine gift and a fundamental facet of
religion. Its role has never been seen in terms of a
confrontation between Revelation and reason. Rooted in the teachings of Imams Ali and Jaffer as-Sadiq, the
Ismailis have historically emphasized the complementarity between Revelation
and intellectual reflection – including the study of the Physical Universe –
each substantiating the other and both providing different perspectives into
the mystery of God’s creation.
Indeed, over the course of their 1400-year-old history, the Ismailis and
the Ismaili Imams have encouraged natural and philosophical inquiry, and
promoted the culture of unhindered scientific thought through generous
patronage of luminaries such as the jurist al-Nu'man, the physicist Ibn
Haytham, astronomers Ali bin Yunus and al-Tusi, and philosophers Nasir-i-Khusraw
and Ibn Sina, to name but a few. Many
of these were Ismailis themselves. In
keeping with this tradition, exploring the frontiers of knowledge through
scientific and other endeavours, and facing up to the challenges of ethics
posed by an evolving world is, thus, seen as a requirement of the faith.
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 Consonant with the role of
the intellect is the responsibility of individual conscience, both of which
inform the Ismaili tradition of tolerance and celebration of plurality. In fact, the Ismaili belief in the Divine
endorsement, as revealed in the Holy Quran, of religiously and culturally
plural human societies and of the salvific value of other monotheistic
religions, is in stark contrast to, for example, the beliefs of the Wahhabi
movement, a contemporary Islamic revivalist school whose exclusivist
discourse preaches a monolithic puritanical interpretation of Islam and the
establishment of its hegemony over all other interpretations and faiths. Such views not only violate the Quranic
injunction “There is no compulsion in religion” but are also tragically
incongruent with the needs of the emerging global village in which relations
between different peoples are best fostered on the basis of equality and
mutual respect.
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The
Ismailis hold that Muslims are commanded to be a community of the middle path
and of balance, a community that avoids extremes and that enjoins good and
forbids evil using the best of arguments, a community that eschews compulsion
and leaves each to their own faith while encouraging all to vie for
goodness. And this imperative of
“balance” that forms the web which
binds the community to the individual, and the individual to the
community. Indeed, an individual’s
spiritual and intellectual quest is only meaningful in tandem with an effort
to act – here and now – on the moral imperative to do good by offering a
helping hand to the vulnerable and those less fortunate, and to promote
justice, tolerance and social equity.
In the final analysis, it is the nobility of being – of spirit, of
mind and of conduct – that endears one in the sight of God.
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