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Golden Jubilee Imamat Day Tribute By Khalil Andani

Dedicated to the OF THE AGE

God‘s Peace and Blessings be upon your immaculate ancestors and your glorious descendants

Imam ibn Abi Talib Hazrat Ha san ibn Ali Imam Husayn ibn Ali

God‘s Peace and Blessings be upon your immaculate ancestors and your glorious descendants

Imam Aga Hasan Ali Shah Imam Ag a Ali Shah Imam Sultan Shah

God‘s Peace and Blessings be upon your immaculate ancestors and your glorious descendants

Mawlana Shah Karim al-Husayni Imam -i Zaman God‘s Peace and Blessings be upon your immaculate ancestors and your glorious descendants

Glory be to you on this Day of Days Our salutations upon your Jubilee Year. Your beloved grandfather in gold we did weigh, He has appointed you as our Imam and Piri

Your forefather Muhammad œ our Prophet and Guide, Your ancestor Ali œ God‘s Friend.ii Since these two foundations your Cause has never died: A blessed lineageiii - never to end.

At a tender age when you ascended the Throneiv, We pledged our souls to your holy Handv. Since that day you have never left us alone, We promised to abide by your holy Commandvi.

You are our Mawla - Crown of the Ahl al-Bayt,vii You are the Generous One œ Shah Karim,viii You guide humanity to a better state. You are of the religion of your father Ibrahim.ix

For the Day of Judgment, a promise you have made: That we will appear beside you œ the Divine Sagex With your guidance we can never go astray For you are God‘s Proofxi œ the Imam of the Age!

Explanatory Notes: i Mawlana Hazar Imam was declared as the successor of his grandfather, Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah, the 48th Imam. The last Will of Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah reads: —Ever since the time of my ancestor Ali, the first Imam, that is to say over a period of thirteen hundred years, it has always been the tradition of our family that each Imam chooses his successor at his absolute and unfettered discretion from amongst any of his descendants, whether they be sons or remote male issue and in these circumstances and in view of the fundamentally altered conditions in the world in very recent years due to the great changes which have taken place including the discoveries of atomic science, I am convinced that it is in the best interest of the Shia Muslim Ismailia Community that I should be succeeded by a young man who has been brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age and who brings a new outlook on life to his office as Imam. For these reasons, I appoint my grandson Karim, the son of my own son, Aly Salomone Khan to succeed to the title of Aga Khan and to the Imam and of all Shia Ismailian followers.“ ii God’s Friend ( Allah) is one of the titles of Imam Ali. The word wali has many different connotations and meanings such as ‘friend’, ‘master’, ‘lord’, ‘confident’, etc. In the specifically Shia sense, every Imam is the wali Allah (Friend of Allah) as well as the wali (master, lord) of the believers. The (divine proximity and authority) of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib is based upon, among other things, verse 5:55 of the Holy and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad – such as: —Truly, Ali is from me and I am from him (inna Ali minni wa ana minhu), and he is the wali of every believer after me.“ - Prophet Muhammad, (quoted in Ahmad al-Nasai, Sunan, pp. 106) —For whomsoever I am the mawla, Ali is his mawla.“ – Prophet Muhammad at Ghadeer Khum iii Since the time of Prophet Muhammad and the first Imam, Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib there has been a continuous line of from among the male descendants of Hazrat Ali through his marriage to Bibi Fatima – the daughter of the Prophet. The Ismailis trace the line of Imams through Hazrat Ismail ibn Jafar as-Sadiq. To this day, there have been 49 Ismaili Imams and this Imamat will continue until the Day of Judgment. The notion of a continuous lineage of Divine Guides from the family of the Prophets finds support in the following verse of the Holy Quran: —Allah did choose (istafa) Adam and Noah, the progeny (aal) of Abraham, and the progeny (aal) of Imran above all the worlds (alamin), descendants (dhurriyyah), one from the other: And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.“ - Holy Quran 3:33-34 The Imran mentioned in the above verse can be identified with Hazrat Abu Talib – the father of Hazrat Ali; Imran was his proper name and Abu Talib (“father of Talib”) was his title or kuniya. iv The Throne is a reference to the Quranic verse: —Lo! Your Lord is God Who created the heavens and the earth in six days. Then He ascended the Throne...“ - Holy Quran 7:54 According to Ismaili tawil (esoteric interpretation), the six days are a reference to the six great Prophets of our cycle – Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. The Throne is a reference to the institution of Imamat which is introduced during the “sixth day” (the mission and cycle of Prophet Muhammad) and brings the “week of religion” to a close upon the dawn of the “seventh day”. On July 11, 1957 Mawlana Hazar Imam “ascended upon the Throne of Imamat” at the age of 20 upon the death of his grandfather, Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah. v When a new Imam assumes the Throne of Imamat, it is customary for members of the Ismaili community to give their bayah or pledge allegiance to him. This was done when Mawlana Hazar Imam ascended the Throne in 1957. The practice goes back to the time of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib when the Muslims took his bayah after the Prophet Muhammad declared Ali as their mawla at Ghadeer Khum. The Muslim community also performed a bayah at the hand of Prophet Muhammad which the Quran refers to in Quranic verse 48:10 – where the Prophet is referred to as the “Hand of Allah” (yad’ullah):

—Lo! those who give their bayah unto you [Muhammad], give their bayah only unto Allah. The Hand of Allah is above their hands. So whosoever breaks his oath, breaks it only to his soul's hurt; while whosoever keeps covenant with Allah, on him will He bestow immense reward.“ – Holy Quran 48:10 vi The teaching and instruction which the Imam imparts to his murids is called farman – which literally means “command” or “order”. Upon making a bayah to the Imam, the murid promises to obey the farmans of the Imam. In return, the Imam promises to guide the murid in this world and the hereafter. This implies the existence of the spiritual bond between the murid and the Imam which transcends the bounds of time and space. Metaphysically, according to Ismaili esoteric literature and theosophy, the Imam of the Time is the mazhar (locus of manifestation) of God’s primordial and eternal Word (kalima) or Command (amr) – from which all spiritual and material things are created, and thus the Imam’s farman is a reflection or locus of manifestation of God’s Command or Will. vii Ahl al-Bayt means “People of the House”. In the Islamic context, the Ahl al-Bayt of the Prophet includes Imam Ali, Bibi Fatima, Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn along with the Prophet himself. Along with these individuals Shia Muslims include all the holy Imams in the Ahl al-Bayt as they are the descendants of Prophet Muhammad and Imam Ali through Bibi Fatima. The Holy Quran speaks of the Ahl al-Bayt as being purified by God from all impurity and defilement: —Allah only wishes to remove from you all impurity, O Ahl al-Bayt, and to purify you (kum) with a complete purification.“ - Holy Quran 33:33 viii Karim is the personal name of the Imam of the Time and means “Generous” – Karim also being one of the ninety-nine names of Allah in the Islamic tradition. It is interesting to note that Imam Shah Karim, even from his material activities, clearly manifests the realities and meanings associated with the divine name al-Karim. ix The Ismaili Imams, through their descent from the Prophet and Hazrat Ali, are also direct descendants of Prophet Abraham – the biblical patriarch and “father” of the three great monotheistic traditions – Judaism, Christianity, and . The reference to “your father” is more meaningful in light of the following verse of the Holy Quran which says: —The faith (millat) of your father Abraham (is yours). He hath named you muslims of old time and in this, that the Messenger may be a witness against you, and that ye may be witnesses against mankind. So establish prayers (salata), pay the zakah, and hold fast to Allah. He is your Protecting Friend (mawla). A blessed Patron (mawla) and a blessed Helper (nasir).“ - Holy Quran 22:78 According to the commentary on this verse by Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, this verse is specifically addressed to the Imams of the progeny of the Muhammad and Ali. These Imams are the muslims named by Abraham in his prayers (see Quranic verse 2:127-128). —The word ”your father‘ refers to us particularly; we were called muslims in the heavenly books that were sent before as well as this Book. The Messenger of Allah bears witness over us by means by teaching us the guidance of Allah and bearing witness over the people.“ - Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, (quoted in al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, # 478, Chapter 9) x In early Shiism, the Imam was called the Divine Sage (alim). The Prophet Muhammad, according to the Sunni and Shia traditions, is reported to have said: —The Divine Sages () are the inheritors of the Prophets.“ - Prophet Muhammad, (Sahih Bukhari, Kitab al-ilm, 10; Sahih Abu Dawud, Kitab al-ilm) According to Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, the Imam-Sage (alim) and his disciples will appear together on the Day of Judgment: —The initiated Sage (alim) and the disciple who can be initiated will be similarly rewarded; on the Day of the Resurrection they will step forward together, shoulder to shoulder like two race horses.“ - Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, (quoted in Mohammad Amir al-Moezzi, The Divine Guide in Early Shiism, pp. 78)

The appearance of the Imam of the Time with his followers on the Day of Judgment is also supported in the following Quranic verse cited frequently by Shia Muslims: —One day We shall call together all human beings (unas) with/through/by their Imam (bi- imamihim): those who are given their record (kitab) in their right hand will read it (with pleasure), and they will not be dealt with unjustly in the least. But those who were blind in this world, will be blind in the hereafter, and most astray from the Path.“ - Holy Quran 17:71 xi In early Shia doctrine, the Imam was known as the Proof (hujjah) of God on earth. According to Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, the world has never been without a Hujjah of God: —The earth is never devoid of someone who stands as the Proof (hujjah) of God, either manifest and well known or wary and hidden.“ - Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, (quoted in Nahj al-Balagha, ed. Al- Salih, Beirut, 1967, pp. 497)