Ismaili

Time to add your favourite fiqh moments. I'll start:

Nizari Missionary Dr Abualy A. Aziz ("Missionary" is a traditional title: da'i) writes in his elucidation on the Nizari Ismaili Imami Shi'i tariqah that when one enters the prayer hall for services and greets the door-person with "Hai zindah!" (i.e. "he is alive", the Gujarati translation of "Allahu l-Hayyu", one of the 99 Beautiful Names), this is equivalent to having donated an elephant to charity.

I just love that someone somewhere once said, "Oh, but that is just like donating AN ELEPHANT to charity!"

I've been meaning to post something on this topic because there is such little awareness of the diversity of the Ummah's beliefs.

As progressives, we cannot move forward without understanding our own faith's basics. Yet there is still a nearly universal sense of Sunnism being somehow basic or natural Islam.

I'm not trying to knock Sunnism, as the majority of Muslims are Sunni, including most of my IRL Muslim friends (O HAI FASHION MUJAHID + BÉBÉ!). However, when people explain the basics of Islam, they always say

"the Five Pillars"

On this essay…

Over the last couple of weeks or so, I’ve seen a ton of comments hit the site about Ismailism - far more than on just about any topic I’ve ever seen. I’ve watched with some amusement and some bemusement as snark, agitprop, polemic and vitriol seemed to mingle in equal parts with reasoned debate, common sense, rational inquiry and honest questions.

There are more than a hundred comments on the initial blog posting about Ismailism by the user named ‘Haris’ and I’ll honestly admit I’ve not read each one in detail. So, in all honesty, this particular blog entry of mine may not be a full and complete summation of every argument made in that comment chain. It’s not intended to, either. It is, however, intended to make a few points about my faith that are as much about self-examination as they are about my thoughts on the legitimacy of any sect within Islam and the legitimacy of the followers of that sect as Muslims.

More food for thought. And the tummy.

Ismaili Cookbook: Secret Family Recipes of the Assassins describes the secret family culinary recipes of the Ismailis, an ancient group of Shiite Muslims otherwise known as the Assassins. These mouth-watering mysteries have been passed down generation after generation over the millennia. The cookbook documents their delicious secret culinary mysteries with over fifty recipes covering breakfast, vegetarian, poultry, beef, seafood, desserts and beverages.