Affirming the Imamate: Early Fatimid Teachings in the Islamic West

An Arabic critical edition and English translation of works attributed to Abu Abd Allah al-Shi'i and his brother Abu'l-'Abbas

Wilferd Madelung, Paul E. Walker, Wilferd Madelung, Paul E. Walker

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780755637348
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Études islamiques

I.B. Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies The two sermons edited and translated here for the first time are primary material from the years before the establishment of the Fatimid caliphate in 297/909. The authors have been identified as Abu ' Abd Allah al-Shi ' i and Abu'l- ' Abbas Muhammad, two brothers who were central to the success of the Ismaili da' wa in North Africa. Da'wa, a term used to describe how Muslims teach others about the beliefs and practices of their Islamic faith, therefore provide a unique view of the nature and development of Islam throughout history. In this case, the primary texts shed light on the development of Islam among the Berbers of the Maghreb. The first text by Abu ' Abd Allah al-Shi ' i shows how the arguments for belief in the 'imamate' of the family of the Prophet, that is, the Shi'a belief that all imams should be spiritual descendants of the Prophet Muhammad and his household, were developed and presented to bring new adherents to the cause. The Book of the Keys to Grace by his elder brother Abu'l- ' Abbas, too, concerns not only the centrality of the imam in the faith but also sheds light on the hierarchy of the da ' wa in this early period and its organisational sophistication. Both texts also reveal the contemporary theology propagated by the Ismaili da ' wa, including for instance, the powerful analogy of Moses/Aaron and Muhammad/ ' Ali, the awareness of a variety of religious traditions and the use of detailed Qur'anic quotations and a wide range of hadith. As such they constitute primary source material of interest not only for Ismaili history but for this early period of Islam in general.

BL OR 8419

An Untitled Work
attributed to Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Shīʿī

… ‘(O People of the Book there has now come to you Our Apostle making matters clear to you after the interval among the messengers, lest you claim that there has neither come to us) a bearer of glad tidings nor a warner. In fact there has come to you a bearer of glad tidings and a warner; and God has power over all things’ [Q 5: 19]. Thus they became blind after [having been given] the explanation and denied after [having been given] certainty. They differed after clear evidence and guidance, in revolt on their part and out of envy in their very souls. It is as God, glory to Him, has said about past nations and bygone centuries: ‘they did not differ except after the explanation had come to them, in revolt between them’ [Q 45: 17]. And He has said: ‘God wishes to explain to you and to guide you with the right practice of those who came before you’ [Q 4: 26]. He also said: ‘Do not be like those who divided and differed after the explanations had come to them’ [Q 3: 105]. And He said: ‘God does not lead a group astray after having guided them unless He has made clear to them what they should guard against’ [Q 9: 115]. Thus the Apostle of God, may the blessings of God be upon him, and give him and his family peace, warned his community against disunity and mutual difference and he informed them that they will perpetrate what the nations that came before them perpetrated. And so he, on him and on his family be the most excellent of peace, said, ‘Surely you will follow the practice of the Israelites in a completely identical manner, exactly alike.’ ʿAmr b. ʿAuf b. Ṭalḥa al-Muzanī¹ reported, ‘We were sitting in his mosque with the Apostle of God. Gabriel brought him the revelation. He covered himself with his cloak and remained so a long time. Then Gabriel went away and he took off his cloak. He was sweating profusely and obviously he was holding on to something. At that he said, “Do any of you know what comes forth from the date palm?” The Anṣār said to him, “O Apostle of God, may our father and mother be your ransom, nothing of the date palm is unknown to us and we are masters of date cultivation.” Then he opened his hand in which there was a date stone and said, “What is this?” So they replied, “O Apostle of God that is a date stone.” He said, “A stone of what thing?” They replied, “Sanh.”² He said, “You are right. Gabriel came to you to contract with you concerning your faith that you shall keep to the path of those who came before you in a completely identical manner and to take after them exactly, whether inch by inch, cubit by cubit or yard by yard, to the point that, were they to enter the burrow of a lizard, you would enter it as well.” ’

ʿUbāda b. al-Ṣāmit³ narrated saying, ‘ “How is it that your Qurʾan readers and your scholars fled to the tops of the mountains out of fear of being killed with you?” They answered, “Yes.” He said, “Was not the Torah with the Jews and they lost it, the Gospels with the Christians and they lost them? One evil only follows another evil.” ’ Al-Mustawrid b. Shaddād⁴ said, ‘The Apostle of God said, “This community will not abandon the practice of previous generations just as this thumb leads the one that follows it.” ’ Ḥudhayfa b. al-Yamān⁵ said, ‘There was nothing with the Israelites but that its like will be with you.’ A man said, ‘Will we be monkeys and pigs?’ He answered, ‘What causes you to doubt about that, may your mother perish?’⁶ And, in another ḣadīth reported of him, he said, ‘What excellent brothers of yours are the Israelites, all sweetness is yours and all bitterness is theirs.’ ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar⁷ said, ‘The Apostle of God said, “You will surely follow the path of those who came before you inch by inch, cubit by cubit, exactly alike, to the point that, should they enter the burrow of a lizard, you would follow them into it.” They said, “O Apostle of God, of the Jews and the Christians?” He replied, “The Jews and the Christians.” ’⁸ God, may He be exalted and thanks be to Him, has said: ‘Alif lam min; do the people reckon they can escape by saying “We believe” and thus not be tried; truly We tried those before them and thus did God come to know those who speak the truth and those who are liars’ [Q 29: 1–3] in regard to their true faith. Then God said: ‘The custom of God is that which was in effect from before and you will find no alteration in the custom of God’ [Q 48: 23] and ‘you will not find that the law of God changes’ [Q 35: 43]. He has said: ‘So you find enjoyment in your lot just as those who came before you found enjoyment in theirs and you are so engrossed as were they’ [Q 9: 69]. He has said: ‘They will be humbled just like those who came before were humbled’ [Q 58: 5] and He said: ‘Likewise those who came before them said the same thing, being like them in their hearts’ [Q 2: 118].

Jacob and Esau were twins and then Esau disobeyed God in regard to Israel and wronged him. So God blessed the progeny of Israel and made among them prophets and pure souls (al-aṣfiyāʾ). Similarly Hāshim⁹ and ʿAbd Shams were twins; but Umayya opposed Hāshim Muḍar. So God blessed the descendants of Hāshim and placed among them the lord of prophets and the seal of the executors (al-awṣiyāʾ).¹⁰ The [original] name of Israel was Jacob and so when he travelled in the night he was called Israel.¹¹ Subsequently, his name became dominant to the point that when ‘the family of Jacob’ was said no one understood it unless it was called ‘the family of Israel’. Similarly, the name of Hāshim was ʿAmr. When he broke up the bread for the soup of his people, he was called Hāshim (‘the crusher’).¹² That name became so prevalent that when someone said ‘the family of ʿAmr’ it was not understood unless ‘family of Hāshim’ was said, in exactly the same fashion.

Truly did the Apostle of God encounter the same suffering at the hands of the unbelievers of his people as the messengers experienced at the hands of their people, in being called liars, accused of sorcery and being slandered. Indeed Pharaoh and his notables said to Moses: ‘Whatever sign you bring before us with which to bewitch us we will not believe in you’ [Q 7: 132] and he said: ‘If you have come with a sign, then bring it forth if you are one of those who speak the truth; so he threw out his staff and it became a live serpent and he drew out his hand which then became white to those who observed’ [Q 7: 106–108]. At that the notables said: ‘Truly he is a skilled sorcerer’ [Q 7: 109] and they said: ‘This is clearly sorcery’ [Q 27: 13]. In a similar way the unbelievers among the Quraysh said to the prophet, ‘Split this moon for us.’ So he called upon his Lord and the moon was split into two halves. When they saw it, they said, ‘Muhammad has bewitched the moon.’¹³ God then said: ‘The hour drew near and the moon has become split, and when they see a sign they turn away and say, “This is the same sorcery as before” ’ [Q 54: 1–2]. And He said by way of explanation to His prophet: ‘Messengers before you were accused of lying; so they bore patiently the falsehood said of them and the malice until Our help reached them’ [Q 6: 34]. ‘But they said: “What is this prophet who eats food and walks about in the marketplace?” ’ [Q 25: 7]. And God said: ‘We did not send before you messengers who did not eat food and walk about in the marketplace’ [Q 25: 20]. Then next He said: ‘Nothing is said to you that was not said to the messengers before you’ [Q 41: 43]. And He said: ‘What is there to prevent people believing when guidance comes to them or from seeking forgiveness of their Lord except should the custom of the ancients come upon them or the punishment appear immediately before them?’ [Q 18: 55]. And the Exalted One said: ‘Even if We had sent to you a document written on parchment so they could touch it with their hands, those who disbelieve would say, “This is nothing but plain sorcery” ’ [Q 6: 7].

God said: ‘When Jesus, son of Mary, said: “O Israelites, I am the messenger of God to you confirming what I have of the Torah and bringing glad tidings of a messenger who will come after me whose name is Aḥmad”; but, when he came to them with the evidence, they said: “This is clearly sorcery” ’ [Q 61: 6]. The Apostle of God said to the family of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib¹⁴ on the day on which was revealed ‘And warn your close family relations’ [Q 26: 214], ‘O family of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, verily I bring to you explanatory signs; I come to you with the glory of the religion and the nobility of the afterlife. So be in this affair the leaders; do not be the followers.’ So when he brought signs consisting of feeding of forty men with the leg of a lamb, a ṣaʾ measure of barley¹⁵ and a bowl of milk, and [any one] man of them could have eaten a [whole] lamb (jidhʿ) and drunk a farq¹⁶ [of milk], they [the Quraysh] said, ‘Your master has bewitched you’ and then they laughed together and said to Abū Ṭālib, ‘He ordered you to listen to and obey this youth’,¹⁷ just like Pharaoh and his notables. God said: ‘And when he brought to them Our clear signs, they laughed’ [Q 43: 47] and He, glory be to Him, He has no partners, said: ‘Ridiculing of prophets occurred before you but those among them who mock are entrapped by what they have ridiculed’ [Q 21: 41]. The Israelites said to Jesus, the son of Mary: ‘Ask Your Lord to bring down for us a table from heaven’ [Q 5: 112].¹⁸ Similarly, the unbelievers among the Quraysh said to the Apostle of God, ‘Ask your Lord, O Muhammad, to make for us out of this rock gold.’ Truly the unbelieving Quraysh ridiculed the Apostle of God as the unbelievers who came before him had done. God said: ‘When they see you, they accept you only in mockery saying, “Is this the one God sent as a messenger?; he might have turned us away from our gods were we not steadfastly with them” ’ [Q 25: 41–42]. God said to the unbelieving Quraysh: ‘We have destroyed followers of yours before; does anyone remember?’ [Q 54: 51]. Then he recounted about those of earlier centuries who asserted that the messengers were lying and so he brought down on them His punishment, vengeance and violence until He reached mention of the people of Pharaoh and said: ‘Truly the warning came to the people of Pharaoh; they rejected all of Our signs; so We seized them with the grip of power and might’ [Q 54: 41–42] Then He said: ‘Are your unbelievers any better than they were, or are you absolved of that in the Psalms?’ [Q 54: 43]. The Apostle of God appealed to God against the inhabitants of Mecca. He said: ‘O God, bring years like the years of Joseph’;¹⁹ so they came to eat bones and corpses.

Verily God, when He afflicted the Israelites in the wilderness because of their having disobeyed, the Israelites prayed for rain and Moses used to carry with him a stone. God said: ‘We said: “Strike the stone with your staff”, and then there sprang from it twelve springs’ [Q 2: 60], for the twelve tribes, a gift from God, a great blessing, an honour and an enhancement of the proof of his prophecy. In a similar way the companions of God’s Apostle during one of their raids became thirsty, their water supply having been exhausted, so they asked the Apostle of God to pray for rain, whereupon he found a small amount of water in the hide belonging to a man. So he filled his mouth with water and chewed on it. Thereafter he watered from it a great army, as a gift from God, a blessing, an honour and an enhancement of the proof of his prophecy.²⁰ Thus he made them realize the blessedness of his saliva and spittle in exactly this manner.

God gave His spirit and His word to Jesus so that he could raise the dead and provide them with what they ate and what they stored up in their houses. In a similar way, God gave His prophet Muhammad knowledge. So a lamb roasting on spit(?) cried out in front of him.²¹ It said, ‘Do not eat me, O Muhammad, for I have been poisoned.’²² And the prisoners ransomed ...