Seven Pillars of Islam (Ismaili)
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Part of a series on the Islamic creed:  |
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| Five Pillars of Islam | |
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Shahādah - Profession of faith |
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| Sunni Six articles of belief | |
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Tawhīd - Oneness |
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| Shi'a Twelver Principles of the Religion (Usul al-Din) |
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Tawhīd - Oneness |
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| Shi'a Twelver Practices of the Religion (Furu al-Din) |
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Salah - Prayer |
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| Shi'a Ismaili 7 pillars | |
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Walayah - Guardianship |
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| Others | |
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Kharijite Sixth Pillar of Islam. |
Shi'a Ismaili Seven Pillars of Islam, including the Nizari, Druze, and Mustaali have three doctrines that are not included in the Sunni Five Pillars of Islam: Walayah, Taharah and Jihad. This would raise the total to eight, but the Bohra Ismailis do not include Shahadah, lowering it to seven. The Shahadah is a prominent part of other Ismaili traditions, with the added inclusion of " Alīyun Ameerul Mo'min wali Allah (علي ولي الله("Ali, the Master of Believers, is the friend of God")", at the end of the standard shahadah as recited by the rest of the Muslim Ummah. [1].
The pillars as understood by Ismaili is as follows:
- Walayah- A pillar which translates from Arabic as “guardianship.” It denotes, “Love and devotion for God, the Prophets, the Imam, and the Dai.” In Ismaili doctrine, Allah is the true desire of every soul, and he manifests himself in the forms of Prophets and Imams, and to be guided to his path, one requires a messenger or a guide: a Dai.
- Taharah - A pillar which translates from Arabic as “purity.” The Druze do not believe in this pillar and instead substitute shahada in its place.
- Shahada - In place of Taharah, the Druze have the Shahada, or affirmation of faith.
- Salah - A pillar which translates from Arabic as “prayer.” Unlike Sunni and Twelver Muslims, Nizari Ismai'lis do not necessarily follow the mainstream Ummah in regards to the number of daily prayers. Nizari Ismai'lis reason that it is up to the Imam of the time to designate the style and form of prayer, and for this reason current Nizari prayer resembles a dua (translated word of Salah from the Quran) and is done three times a day. These three times have been related with the three times that have been mentioned in the Holy Quran, i-e, Sunrise, before Sunset, and After Sunset. In this regard, Imam of the time has the right to amend the prayers according to the needs of the time. The Druze choose not to follow Islamic sharia hence have attributed a solely metaphorical meaning to salah. In contrast, the Mustaali (Bohra) branch of Ismailism has kept five prayers and their style is generally closely related to Twelver groups.
- Zakah - A pillar which translates as “charity.” With the exception of the Druze branch, all Ismailis form of zakat resembles mainstream Muslims, only with the addition of khumms, which is 1/8 of one's unspent money at the end of the year. This resembles Twelvers who after the believed occultation of Muhammad ibn Hassan al-Askari pay khumms to their Ayatollahs under whom they do taqleed, meaning religious emulation. In addition to khums, Ismailies pay 12.5% of their monthly gross income to the Hazir Imam, which goes to the central accounts and then spent on welfare of the humankind like education and health projects. One of the major examples of these projects is the Aga Khan Development Network, that is one of the biggest welfare networks of the world. Thus, Ismailies believe that as Prophet Muhammad was designated to take Zakah from the muslims in the past, it is now the duty of muslims to pay their Zakah to the Imam of the time.
- Sawm - A pillar which translates as “fasting.” The Nizari and Mustaali believe in both a metaphorical and literal meaning of fasting. The literal meaning is that one must fast as an obligation, such as during the Holy Month of Ramadan, and the metaphorical meaning being that one is in attainment of the Divine Truth and must strive to avoid worldy activities which may detract from this goal. In particular, Ismailiese believe that the real and esoteric meaning of the fasting is the fasting of soul by avoiding devilish acts, and doing the good deeds everytime. The fasting by not eating during the month of Ramadan has been considered as a metaphorical implementation of fasting, and has been appreciated, but has not been considered compulsory for the Ismailies, as the real challenge of a Muslim is the fasting of his emotions and fantasies, rather than his hunger. I
- Hajj - A pillar which translates from Arabic as “pilgrimage.” In Ismaili sects this has come to metaphorically mean visiting the Imam himself, and that this is the greatest and most spiritual of all pilgrimages. However, as the Druze do not follow shariah, they do not believe in a literal pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Mecca like other Muslims do, while the Mustaali still hold on to the literal meaning as well. [2]
- Jihad - A pillar which translates from Arabic as “struggle.” The definition of jihad is generally controversial within certain sects of the Muslim ummah (community), with it having two meanings and dispute concerning which is the correct or 'literal' one. One meaning is that of personal struggle, otherwise known as Jihad-e-Akbar, "the Greater Struggle," while the other, Jihad-e-Asghar, "The Lower Struggle" is that of struggle against the 'adversaries' of the faith.' In general, in contrast to other Muslim groups, the Nizari group is primarily pacifist hence interpreting 'adversaries' of the faith as both personal and social vices (i.e. wrath, intolerance, etc.) and those individuals who harm the peace of the faith. Thus Nizari Ismailism does not encourage the stereotypically misconstrued 'warfare' or 'crusade-like' interpretation of the Jihad-e-Asghar. Rather, Ismailis are told to avoid provocation and use force only as a final resort only in self-defense. The Druze have been engaged in conflict with other religious and ethnic groups even into the 20th and 21st centuries. It is unclear what the Mustaali believe.
[edit] See also
- Sunni Five Pillars of Islam and Six articles of belief and Sixth pillar of Islam.
- Shi'a twelvers Roots of Religion and Branches of Religion
- Shi'a Druze Seven Pillars
[edit] References
- ^ Article on 'Bohras' in OUP Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, John Esposito (ed), 1995, retrieved from [1]
- ^ Isma'ilism. Retrieved on 2007-04-24.
