mazhar wrote:Dear Friends,
Thanks who participated in discussions and enlightened readers with their knowledge. In my very first post dated Dec 30, 2014 I mentioned first article of preamble and discussed Tawheed. I related Tawheed with our holy Du'a and pointed out that the wordings of holy Du'a are not at par with the wordings of du'aguzari after tasbihat. I gave references of part 4rth and particularily part 6th. I requested to understand the meaning of Du'a as per Famaan of MHI and think about the word BI HAQQI USED 5 TIMES IN OUR DU'A..Also I wrote ," MHI never claimed to be God as per wordings of our holy Du'a."
Dear mazhar, thank you for sharing your research with us. As I mentioned to you before Dua has both zaheri and batini interpretations as it is considered as an external document. From the zaheri perspective the Imam is considered as the wasila but from the batini perspective, the Imam is considered as God. This will become apparent in this post later. Therefore if you keep in mind this zaheri/batini duality there is no conflict in the wording of the tasbi. Since Dua is also an external document, MHI can never directly state that he is God in Dua. It is only through the batini manner using one's intellect that one can arrive at that conclusion.
mazhar wrote:
Hazar Imam said," It is He who interprets the faith, it is He who guides the Jamaits in the interpretation of its faith at any time during His life time." That's why I insist obey the Farmaan of MHI.
In the same Farman MHI tells us to use our intellects:
"And let Me today remind you also of some of the principles of interpretation which Hazrat Ali Brought to our interpretation of Islam. One of the essential principle that He brought, was that
Islam is not a faith only of rote, it is a faith of the intellect, it is a faith of individual search, it is a faith of commitment to others in society. In this intellectual search, Hazrat Ali did not divide faith and intellect."
So it is very important to use your intellect in interpreting the faith.
mazhar wrote:
1. IN 1964, Hazar Imam made a Farmaan at Ismailia Association Karachi Pakistan. He was explaining the meaning of ALIYULLAH in our holy Du'a. Hazar Imam mentioned that IT IS NOT ALI ALLAH BUT IT IS ALIYULLAH which means ALI IS FROM ALLAH.( When we recite our Du'a, we start with Bismillah ir Rahman ir Rahim, and not with Bism i Ali------------)
If Aliyullah is interpreted as 'Ali is from Allah', what is the need of making that statement at all? Aren't we all from Allah. Weren't Hitler and Yazid from Allah as well. So what is so significant or special about saying that 'Ali is from Allah. We might as well remove it!
When MSMS changed Ali Sahi Allah to Aliyullah, does it also imply that he changed himself from Allah? Of course not. The reason for making that change was to change it from an emphatic and exact statement into something ambiguous so that each person can interprete it according to his understanding. Hence if an outsider reads the statement he may consider it as 'Ali is from Allah' and a murid may consider it as 'Ali is Allah'.
In a conversation with a murid which can be referenced at:
http://www.ismaili.net/html/modules.php ... opic&t=335
MSMS it is stated:
"The first thing he had told me on his own was, when he was in my surgery in Nairobi, why he had recently modified the original Ismaili Kalma where the Kalma ended with words, “Amirulmominin Ali Sahi Allah” to “Amirulmominin Aliullah”. He told me that some leaders of the sister community had told him unofficially that if he modified the Kalma to “Aliyun Vali Allah”, they would all come into Ismailism. “Aliullah” was the most that he could accept."
Hence from the above statement we can infer that Ali is at least higher than the Wali.
mazhar wrote:
2. At the time of Imam Hakim bi Amar Allah a group of Ismailis believed Imam Hakim is God. Imam Hakim refuted their claim and distanced away from them. When they did not listen to Farmaan of Imam, He excommunicated them. These people in history are named as DRUZIYAH, and they are still waiting for Imam Hakim to come back & rule.
They are mostly found in Lebonan, Shaam, and Israel..
Actually Imam al-Hakim initially accepted the doctrine of him being Divine proposed by the Dais Darazi and Hamza. It is only when they became public about it, that the Imam and the official Dawa distanced themselves from the claim. So the doctrine itself was not wrong, it is only the manner in which it was made public that was inappropriate. MSMS considered the Druze as being Ismailis 1000 years after they had formed as a community. In his Memoirs he writes:
"In the mountainous regions of Syria, for example, are to be found the Druzes, in their fastness in the Jebel Druze. They are
really Ismailis who did not originally follow my family in their migration out of Egypt but remained with the memory of my ancestor, AI Hakem, the Fatimite Khalif of Egypt, but they established their doctrines on lines very similar to those of the Syrian Ismailis, who, in present times, are my followers."
So we may deduce from the above that they were not wrong about their doctrine of Hakim as divine.
mazhar wrote:
3. In Dec, 1983 issue of Life magazine an article about Hazar Imam was published at the time of Silver Jublee. The reporter mentioned Hazar Imam as Living God and spokesman of ALLAH. Immediatley there was a clearification from Aiglemont refuting that claim saying," Both of these assertions are not fundamentally erroneous, but of immeasurable offense to muslims everywhere." That complete clearification can be read in the Feb, 1984 issue of Life magazine letters section...
This was a staement made to the whole world including non-Ismailis. The Imam speaks differently to non-Ismailis. As I mentioned before, the Imam speaks according to the capacity of the audience. His murids generally have a fairly good background about the Imam. They say their Dua which contains the main principles, they read Ismaili literature etc. Non Ismailis do not have that background generally hence the Imam cannot make esoteric statements to them.
mazhar wrote:
4. Is MHI God of only our community or all humanbeings? Non Ismailis even do not consider Him as Imam..
If he is God, than he is God for everyone. The difference is whether one recognises him as such or not. Our community recognises him whereas others do not recognise him generally.
mazhar wrote:
5. At the time of Fatimid caliphate, did Ismailis prayed / du'a guzari as we do today,"Ya Caliphatul muslimeen or Ya Imam e zamaan ighfer lana---------?" Please read
The Fatimid period was a Zaheri period where the majority were the Sunnis. That kind pf prayer would not have been appropriate.
mazhar wrote:
6. Please think about meaning of SALAWAT," ALLAHUMA SAL E ALA MUHAMMAD, WA AAL E MUHAMMAD." meaning," YA ALLAH SHOWER THY BLESSINGS ON MUHAMMAD PBUH AND HIS PROGENY( aal e Muhammad)." Is MHI aal e Muhammad or nor? In last paragraph of first part of Du'a, we say," Allahuma sal e alla Muhammadinil Mustafa wa alla Aliyinil Murtadha, wa allal a'imatil -----------" YA ALLAH shower your blessings on Muhammad Mustafa and shower your blessings on Ali Murtaza and on pure Imams--------".
This is in keeping in line with the Salwaats of other Muslim communities. Salwaat is generally considered by non-Ismailis as well.
mazhar wrote:
7. On many occasions and even at time of DEEDAR, MHI has said INSHA ALLAH in front of His followers.
Insha Allah is just a common phrase. In his Farmans he makes reference to Allah. So what? Remember he is both the Pir and the Imam. So he makes these statements as a Pir.