Do Ismailis Have to Fast in Ramadan? Zahiri & Batini Fasting in Ismaili History

Esoteric Haqiqi Fasting is obligatory all-year; the Ramadan Zahiri Fasting is optional

In contemporary Ismaili Muslim practice, the obligatory religious duties (wajibat) for all Ismaili Muslims are Du‘a (daily prayer), Dasond (zakat), and obeying the farmans of the Imam of the Time. All mandatory and optional ritual practices for Ismaili Muslims are based on the guidance of the Imam:

“Who are [our] spiritual children? For this, there are two points: the first is submitting the Mal-i Wajibat (Dasond), the second is performing worship, that is, reciting the Du‘a. These two matters are obligatory in our Din. If one does not keep these two things then one is not our murid.”

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III,
(Mumbai, January 25, 1926; translated by Khudabux Talib)¹

“He whose Du‘a and Mal-i Wajibat (Dasond) are proper can go to his Original Abode (asal makan).”

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III,
(Karachi, February 9, 1950; translated by Khudabux Talib)²

According to the guidance of Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah decreed in farmans delivered in the early 1900s, the exoteric (zahiri) fasting from food and drink in the month of Ramadan is not an obligatory religious practice (wajib, fard) for Ismaili Muslims today. Rather, the zahiri fasting of Ramadan is an optional or discretionary practice that Ismaili murids may or may not choose to practice based on their own discretion and spiritual disposition.

Contrary to modern popular notions, the historical and normative definition of a “Muslim” is not a person who practices the so-called “five pillars” of Islam (Shahada, Prayer, Zakat, Fasting, Pilgrimage). This notion that Muslim = performer of five pillars is a later Sunni Muslim construct created by Sunni jurists. In reality, the Sunni hadith literature is full of examples where a person need only affirm the Shahada to be counted as a Muslim. Throughout Muslim history, Sunni and Shi‘i scholars have vehemently disagreed on what exactly are the “necessities of religion” (al-daruri min al-din) whose acceptance make one a Muslim and whose rejection take a person outside of Islam.

Most modern Twelver Shi‘i scholars, including Ayatullah Khomeini and Ayatullah Khamenei, hold that the minimum requirement for being a Muslim is to believe in the Unity of God (tawhid), the Prophethood of Muhammad (nabuwwah), and the Day of Judgment (qiyamah). Not believing in or not practicing a particular religious practice (such as five prayers or Ramadan fasting) is not sufficient to declare someone non-Muslim.

Mawlana Hazar Imam has likewise stated that affirming the Shahada (la ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadun Rasul Allah) is sufficient for a person to be Muslim and that such a person’s Islam cannot be questioned. Believing in one God and the Prophethood of Muhammad and earlier Prophets are among the essential "Roots of Religion (usul al-din) common to all Muslims; whereas particular Muslim practices such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, etc. are subsidiary Branches of Religion (furu‘ al-din) whose format and interpretation vastly differ across Muslim communities.

Islamic Rituals Have Changed Over Time

The Month of Ramaḍān in which was revealed the Qur’ān – a guidance for mankind, and manifest proofs of the guidance and the criterion (between truth and falsehood). So whomever among you witnesses the Month, let him fast for it.

Holy Qur’an 2:185

The word for fasting in Arabic, sawm, literally means “to abstain.” The historical record shows that various divinely-mandated practices including the forms of prayer and fasting were changing and evolving during the lifetime of the Prophet.

Before the Qur’anic command to fast in the month of Ramadan was revealed, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) had guided his followers to fast on the tenth day of the month of Muharram as the Jews did, as well as on some other days. These early fasting practices were commanded in the Qur’an before Ramadan fasting was even ordered:

O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint, (fasting) for a fixed number of days; but if any of you is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed number (should be made up) from days later. For those who can do it (with hardship), is a ransom, the feeding of one that is indigent. But he that will give more, of his own free will—it is better for him. And it is better for you that ye fast, if ye only knew.

Holy Qur’an 2:183-184

These early fasting practices were later replaced by the Ramadan fasting mentioned in Qur’an 2:185. However, the specific rules of the Ramadan fast were changed by the Prophet and the Qur’an in response to the community’s needs and circumstances. Initially, the Qur’an and the Prophet did not permit Muslims to fall asleep during a day of fasting and later wake up after sunset to break their fast; if they slept through the sunset, they were required to remain fasting for the night and the entire next day. Furthermore, sexual relations between spouses were initially not permitted in the nights of Ramadan. However, many in the early Muslim community were unable to follow these rules and kept breaking their fast prematurely. Therefore, subsequent Qur’anic verses were revealed to abrogate the original fasting rules and modify them: Muslims who had slept in the daytime until it was time to eat were now allowed to break their fast at night; sexual relations, previously prohibited during the month of Ramadan, were then permitted after breaking the fast at night. This is evidenced in Qur’an 2:187, which says: “Allah knows that you used to deceive yourselves, so He accepted your repentance and forgave you” (see Francis E. Peters, Muhammad and the Origins of Islam, 215-216).

Similarly, the specifics of other rituals in the Prophet’s lifetime evolved under the Prophet’s guidance during specific situations and were reinforced with specific Qur’anic verses. These changes include two changes of the Direction of Prayer (qiblah): first, the qiblah was changed from Makkah to Jerusalem after the Prophet’s emigration; second, the qiblah was changed back to Makkah from Jerusalem (see Qur’an 2:143).

Sunni Muslim sources agree that the Muslim religious practices of prayer and fasting evolved and were modified several times by the Prophet Muhammad during his mission:

Ibn Kathir relates a well-known account of the institutions of prayer and fasting attributed to the famous learned companion of the Prophet, Mu‘adh ibn Jabal who said, “The prayers were changed three times and the fast three times. As for the changes in fasting, it was that the Apostle of God came from Medina and began to fast three days of every month as well as the day of ‘Ashura. Then God ordained fasting for him by sending down, ‘O you have faith, fasting is ordained for you.’ Thus it was that whoever wished to fast did so and whoever wished to feed a poor person instead was absolved from the fast. Then God sent down, ‘It is the month of Ramadan in which the Qur’an was sent down,’ by which God made its fast obligatory for the person not on a journey and in sound health, thus exempting from it the sick and the traveler. God further affirmed in this [verse] the feeding of a poor person by the aged who are incapable of fasting. These were two changes. People then used to eat, drink, and come into their wives so as long as they had not gone to sleep, but after they retired to sleep [and again awoke in the night] they desisted.” Mu‘adh then related the anecdotes of Abu Qays and ‘Umar as occasion for the third change: “It is lawful for you on the night of the fast to go into your wives” (Ibn Kathir, I, p. 377; see also Shawkani, I, p. 181). This view is accepted by most commentators and jurists, with minor differences.

Mahmoud M. Ayoub, (The Qur’an and its Interpreters, 2012, 190)

When the Prophet was alive, the Qur’an was not a fixed text (it was not a scripture) nor was it used as a source of legal interpretations as it is today. The Prophet, as the divinely-inspired leader and vicegerent of God, guided the believers on every matter (read about his role here)—whether it was rooted in a Qur’anic revelation or not. Even then, the Qur’an’s commands are very much “goal-oriented” and rooted in ethics as opposed to a fixed body of law.

Sunni and Shi’a Views of Religious Authority after the Prophet

Following the death of Prophet Muhammad, Shia and Sunni Muslims came to differ about the nature of religious authority and its legitimate possessors. The Prophet had announced that his cousin and son-in-law ‘Ali b. Abi Talib was the Master (mawla) of all the believers after him. The Prophet also said:

“Verily, I am leaving behind for you two weighty matters (al-thaqalayn): the Book of God (kitāb Allāh) is a rope extending from heaven to earth, and my descendants (ʿitratī), my Ahl al-Bayt. Verily, the Gracious (al-laṭīf), the Aware (al-khabīr) informed me that the two of them will never separate until they return to me at the Paradisal Pool.”

Prophet Muhammad, Hadith al-Thaqalayn,
(Narrated in over 60 reported chains in Sunni Muslim texts compiled in the first 300 years after the Prophet).

Imam ‘Ali claimed to be the rightful temporal and religious leader after the Prophet despite the fact that political authority was assumed by Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, and later Uthman. Even some of Imam ‘Ali’s early followers regarded him as “an absolute and divinely guided leader who could demand of them the same kind of loyalty that would have been expected for the Prophet” (Maria Masse Dakake, The Charismatic Community, 57). The early followers of Imam ‘Ali regarded his commands as “right guidance” deriving from Divine support. In other words, Imam ‘Ali’s guidance is the foremost expression of God’s will, the Qur’anic message, and the Sunna of the Prophet. This spiritual and absolute authority of ‘Ali was known as walayah and it was inherited by his successors, the Imams.

In the first century after the Prophet, the term sunnah was not specifically defined as “Sunnah of the Prophet” but was also used in connection to Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, Uthman, and some Umayyad Caliphs. The first three Sunni Caliphs made numerous changes to the laws and ritual practices originally commanded by the Qur’an and the Prophet. For example:

• Abu Bakr changed the practice of zakat and claimed that it must be paid to the Sunni Caliphs; but the Qur’an (9:103) mandates that zakat is paid to the Prophet who accepts it, purifies the giver, gives blessings (see Sunni hadith), and determines how the zakat is spent;

• Abu Bakr spent a portion of the zakat on himself and his family (see Sunni hadith);

• Abu Bakr and ‘Umar compiled the Qur’an into a physical book—something that the Prophet Muhammad never did himself (see Sunni hadith);

• ‘Umar changed the call to prayer (adhan) by adding the words “prayer is better than sleep” (Muwatta Malik);

• ‘Umar made numerous changes to the Prophet’s religious law: he established new sunan for the community, he prohibited Muslims from performing ‘umrah and hajj at the same time, despite the Qur’an allowing that, and prohibited Muslims from engaging in fixed-term marriages, even though the Qur’an and Prophet allowed them;

• ‘Umar administered eighty lashes as a penalty for drinking in public while the Qur’an and Prophet mandated forty lashes (Sunni hadith).

• ‘Umar established tarawih prayers in congregations within the masjids in Ramadan (Sunni hadith); the Prophet himself forbade the people from praying tarawih in congregation (Sunni hadith);

• ‘Umar abrogated an entire class of zakat recipients—non-Muslims who might convert to Islam—on the grounds that this verse did not apply to the post-prophetic situation.

• ‘Umar suspended the Qur’anic hudud punishments such as amputation of hands of thieves due to a famine.

• ‘Umar allowed a man to divorce his wife permanently by uttering the divorce word three times in one meeting; whereas the Prophet required three different meetings with three divorce declarations for there to be an irrevocable divorce between a man and his wife.

• ‘Uthman changed the number of rak‘ats in the Mina prayer during Hajj from two to four; the Prophet only prayed two rak‘ats for this prayer (Sunni hadith)

Before the consolidation of Sunni Islam in the eleventh century (1000s), there were various “proto-Sunni” groups such as the Murji’a, ‘Uthmanis, Umayyads, Jama‘is, Mu‘tazilis, Hanafis, Malikis, and Ahl al-Hadith. Each of these groups held to a different concept of the Sunna. For Malikis, the Sunna of the Prophet includes only mass-transmitted hadith and the established practice (‘amal) of the people of Medina. For Hanafis, the Sunna of the Prophet is secondary to the Qur’an and only consists of mass-transmitted hadith and the practices that are well-known to the scholars called “the well-known Sunna” (sunna ma‘rufa). For Shafi‘is, the Sunna is limited to the hadith of the Prophet including both mass-transmitted and solitary reports. For Hanbalis, the Sunna includes hadith of the Prophet that are mass-reported, solitary, and even weak; it also includes the practices of all of the Prophet’s companions. (Read an academic study on the concept of Sunnah here). Furthermore, many of the Sunni schools of law resort to various man-made interpretative techniques called ijtihad. These include: communal consensus (ijma‘) that is regarded as infallible; companion consensus; analogical reasoning (qiyas); custom (‘urf); juristic preference (istihsan); and many others.

Meanwhile, the Imami Shi‘i Muslims hold that the correct interpretation of the Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunna is the exclusive heritage of the hereditary Imams from the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt. Accordingly, the Ismaili Shi‘a with a living Imam do not rely on fallible ijtihad techniques of interpretation.

The various descendants of the Prophet who received Shi‘i devotion (the Imams) were asked questions about right conduct and proper compliance with the Shari‘a. They gave answers with which their followers were ordered to comply. However, when an Imam was present there was no need for an overarching jurisprudence. Since the Imam could answer all legal enquiries, there was no need to create a framework into which the Imams’ rulings collectively might fit. The doctrine of the Imamate, then, reduced the need for legal theory… This lack of interest in legal theory eventually resulted in a lack of interest in the law generally, and the Ismaili Shi’i tradition after Qadi Numan produced few significant legal works.

Robert Gleave, (Scripturalist Islam, Preface)

Through the first 200 years after the Prophet’s death, both Sunni and Shi‘i Muslim communities came to regard Ramadan fasting as one of the foundational practices of Islam. For Sunni Muslims, fasting consists of one of the Five Pillars. For the Ismaili Muslims of the Fatimid era and later periods, fasting was among the Seven Pillars of Islam—the other Pillars being walayah (faith, allegiance and love for the Imam), salat (prayer), taharrah (purification), zakat (purification dues), hajj (pilgrimage), and jihad (struggle). Even in the Fatimid era, when Ismaili Muslims practiced fasting in Ramadan as an obligatory religious practice, they differed from the Sunnis in how to recognize the first day of Ramadan. Sunni tradition relied on physically sighting the new moon to mark the commencement of Ramadan while Ismailis used mathematical calculations. This often caused significant disagreement between Ismaili and Sunni scholars on when to begin the fast and when to break the fast on the day of ‘Id al-Fitr. The Ismaili Fatimid hujjat, Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, wrote an entire treatise defending the Ismaili mathematical method of marking the start of Ramadan.

The Imam Updates Religious Law & Practice According to Changing Circumstances

According to Ismaili legal principles, the Imam of the Time determines the proper balance between the exoteric and the esoteric dimensions of religious practice. During his own lifetime, the Prophet Muhammad prescribed and interpreted the exact forms of prayer and fasting; the Prophet also had the authority to update and abrogate Qur’anic practices through his own Sunnah. The Imams have inherited the Prophet’s divine authority. Accordingly, just as the Prophet evolved and abrogated both Qur’anic and Sunnatic laws during his own lifetime (as explained above), the Imams succeeding the Prophet can update, adjust, and abrogate Qur’anic and Prophetic laws. In doing so, the Imams preserve the wise purposes or inner wisdoms (hikma, hikam) of the original Qur’anic/Prophetic rulings (hukm, ahkam) while changing their outward forms. This is because every time-period requires fresh and renewed manifestations of God’s wisdoms (hikam) in the form of updated rules (ahkam). Mawlana Hazar Imam has spoken of these principles in a public interview (starts at 8:05):

“I am not entirely convinced that the faith itself has decreed any particular form rather than that people have interpreted it. And if my role is to interpret the faith in regard to modern society, I have to look at the basic issue, which is whether anything that we are doing is in conflict with the ethic of Islam; if it is not in conflict with the ethic of Islam then I must interpret it as being possible…

Well from the moment that I am not willing to say that the faith of Islam is of a particular time, then I have to search within Islam: what are the elements which allow me to interpret within the modern world; and my interpretation is that Allah’s message and His power is not limited, and in fact that modern science simply allows us to discover more and more of the miracles that He has performed, perhaps continues to perform, and we are blessed with the faculty of intelligence. And I cannot understand why we would be blessed with that faculty unless we were mandated to use it.”

Imam Shah Karim al-Husayni Aga Khan IV,
(In Conversation with Rajiv Mehrotra, February 1989)

One cannot validly maintain that all Islamic laws and rituals must remain absolutely unchanged after the death of Prophet Muhammad while also accepting that many Qur’anic and Prophetic laws underwent evolution through abrogation during the life of the Prophet (as all Sunni Muslims hold). One modern scholar has argued that if some Islamic laws changed while the Prophet was alive, it logically follows that some Islamic laws in the Qur’an and Sunna may change after the Prophet:

The standard definition of abrogation not only states that Jewish laws were replaced by Qur’anic rulings, but it also stresses that divine laws given to Prophet Muhammad were changed by later divine laws he received… It is untrue, then, to suggest that specific laws are immutable; at least some of these laws can change. Of course, the same is true of the Sunna… Those changes, as identified by Muslim jurists, included various ritual, family, civil, and criminal laws. They varied from changes to how one should fast, to the introduction of capital punishment for adultery, to changing the entitlements and duties of the widow. How, then, can the same jurists who believe in these changes claim that specific laws could not change after the Prophet, i.e. that such laws remain the same forever? How can rulings change within a few years but stay the same for over fourteen centuries? There is an intrinsic contradiction between the concept of abrogation as understood by Muslim jurists and their belief in the immutability of specific laws.

Louay Fatoohi, Abrogation in the Qur’an and Islamic Law, 2012, 223-224

Accordingly, Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah has explicitly declared that the Imams have the authority to “adjust” the forms of religious practices like prayer and fasting:

If, rightly, the Muslims have kept till now to the forms of prayer and fasting at the time of the Prophet, it should not be forgotten that it is not the forms of prayer and fasting that have been commanded, but the facts, and we are entitled to adjust the forms to the facts of life as circumstances changed. It is the same Prophet who advises his followers ever to remain Ibnu’l-Waqt (i.e. children of the time and period in which they were on earth), and it must be the natural ambition of every Muslim to practice and represent his Faith according to the standard of the Waqt or space-time.”

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III,
(Foreword, Al-Hajji Qassim Jairazbhoy, Muhammad: A Mercy to All the Nations, 14)

The Esoteric Dimension of Fasting

According to the Holy Qur’an, fasting was prescribed for the believers so that they may learn taqwah (2:183)—a word which can mean piety, mindfulness, or God-consciousness. The great Islamic philosopher and scientist of Alamut, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, writes that fasting from food and drink “restrains the soul from its base inclinations.” He explains that this form of fasting is practiced for thirty days in a year so that a new form or behavioural pattern will become imprinted on the human soul—to the point that all of one’s faculties and desires “become restrained from the pursuit of improper things” (Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, The Paradise of Submission, tr. Badakhchani, 149).

Accordingly, the concept of fasting has a deeper meaning and significance than not eating or drinking. The Holy Qur’an in 19:26 uses the same Arabic word for fasting, sawm, to refer to the vow of silence taken by Mary, the mother of Jesus. In this spirit, the Ismaili Muslims, under the guidance of the Imams, have also emphasized the inner or batini form of fasting. All Ismaili Muslim hujjats, da‘is, and thinkers, under the guidance of the Imams, maintained that the Seven Pillars of Islam have esoteric and spiritual meanings and that sometime in the future, the exoteric or zahiri forms of the Seven Pillars would no longer be mandatory whereas their batini or esoteric dimensions would instead be practiced openly. This came to fruition in certain periods of Ismaili history. In 1164, the 23rd Ismaili Imam, Hasan ‘ala-dhikrihi al-salam, declared the period of qiyamah. As maintained by several Fatimid Ismaili hujjats like Sijistani (d. after 971), Ja‘far b. Mansur al-Yaman (d. ca. 960), Nasir-i Khusraw (d. 1088), al-Mu’ayyad al-Shirazi (d. 1078), in the period of qiyamah, the exoteric or zahiri practices of the shari‘ah including namaz, Hajj, and fasting are abolished and no longer mandatory while their batini and spiritual dimensions are practiced.

For example, during the qiyamah period, the Ismaili Imam’s guidance on fasting was as follows:

“As for fasting of this jama‘at, whereas in the realm of the shari‘ah, out of twelve months which make up the year, for one month, from dawn to dusk, one closes his mouth against eating and drinking, the rule of this jama‘at requires that during the whole of one’s life one is not permitted to abandon the true fast even for the twinkling of an eye. They keep not just one organ of the body closed, but rather all seven external and internal organs against that which God has prohibited, so that they may always preserve a state of fasting.”

Imam ‘Ala al-Din Muhammad of Alamut,
(Nasir al-Din Tusi, Representation No. 28 in The Paradise of Submission)

Subsequently, in later periods, Ismailis went back to observing the exoteric shari‘ah as a form of taqiyyah to avoid harsh persecution. This period of taqiyyah—which lasted for the next several hundred years after the fall of Alamut—included the general observance of shari‘ah rituals to ensure the survival of the Ismaili Jamats, although there may have been minor intervals of qiyamah occasionally during this period. In either case, those believers who reached the spiritual rank of hujjat were permitted to dispense with observing the shari‘ah (see The Epistle on the Recognition of the Imam, ca. 16th century, tr. Ivanow; Haft Bab Abu Ishaq).

However, the Khoja Ismailis of the Satpanth tradition in South Asia never performed exoteric fasting for the month of Ramadan; they only fasted on Beej and on the 21st and 23rd days of Ramadan. During this period, the Ismaili Imams continued to dispense guidance to their murids concerning the esoteric dimensions and practices of faith.

Just as zahiri fasting consists in refraining from food and drink during the month of Ramadan, the spiritual haqiqi fasting consists in abstaining from all impure thoughts, words, and deeds for every single day of one’s life. The thirty-fourth Ismaili Imam, Hazrat Mawlana Shah Gharib Mirza, as recorded in his “Counsels of Chivalry” (Pandiyat-i Jawanmardi), has said:

The whole year you must fast, just as the Exoterists (ẓāhiriyān) fast one month. The meaning of this fast is austerity. Control yourselves; keep yourselves away from bad qualities, evil and indecent actions and devilish acts, so that the mirror of your hearts may be gradually polished.

Here (we specify) the parts of the fast of the inner self:
The fasting of the head means to treat one's own head with the same humility as the feet of other people, casting out from one's head the lust for superiority, greatness and pride, because greatness and superiority are only suitable to the all-great substance of the Truth (Haqq), who is eternal, and the King of the Authority.
The fasting of the eye means that one must keep away coveting looks from the women who are not lawful to one.
The fasting of the ear means that one should abstain from listening to slander. The fasting of the tongue means that one should keep one's tongue from uttering abuse or slander.
The fasting of the heart means to keep the heart free from doubt. The fasting of the foot is to hold one's foot back from a wrong step.
The fasting of the hand is to keep all one's limbs away from treachery so that they may not do evil. This especially applies to one's tongue which must be kept from uttering lies. And there is no greater lie than the denial of (the existence of) the Imam, saying that he has disappeared. God has cursed liars, who talk about such a disappearance (of the Imam), and make the ignorant people follow them in order to enjoy their short lived respect.

Imam al-Mustansir bi-llah III (Shah Gharib Mirza),
(Pandiyat-i Jawanmardi, tr. Ivanow, 37-38)

Modern Ismaili Practice: The Imam Abrogates Shari‘ah Rituals including Ramadan Fasting

In the modern period of Ismaili history, the 48th Ismaili Imam, Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah, has re-emphasized the spiritual or haqiqi fasting as a spiritual discipline, which consists of always being mindful and keeping away from sins and negative or impure thoughts.

At the same time, Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah formally abolished the requirement for Ismailis to practice the shari‘ah worship rituals—namely the traditional namaz, hajj to Mecca, zahiri fasting in Ramadan, ritual ablutions (wudu‘), etc. These reforms of Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah have been documented in modern scholarship by both Ismaili and non-Ismaili historians and the oral histories of the Syrian and Iranian Jamats.

In the case of the Khoja Ismailis, the Imam delivered oral farmans explaining that practices such as the Ramadan fasting are not obligatory in the Ismaili Tariqah whereas the fasting of a believer (mu’min) is of a higher spiritual nature :

“In my Ismaili Path (dharam) keeping the fast is not obligatory (wajib). Again, some people fast seven days and others throughout forty days—this is not obligatory… The manner of fasting for a mu’min is the fast of the eye, of the hand, of the mouth, of the foot, and then learning the essence… Observe a fast wherein besides me, besides Hazar Imam, you do not have faith in anyone else and you keep a clean heart and do not tell lies.”

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah,
(Mumbai, March 16, 1902; translated by Khudabux Talib)³

In the early 1900s, Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah appointed Hajji Akhund known as Fida‘i Khurasani as his representative to deliver and implement his farmans to the Iranian Jamats. In his Harvard Ph.D. Dissertation, Ismaili historian Rafique Keshavjee reports that the Imam’s farman to the Iranian Ismailis abrogated the practice of fasting in Ramadan along with other the shari‘ah worship rituals categorized as furu‘ al-din (Branches of Religion): five times namaz, hajj to Mecca, facing Mecca in prayer, and ritual ablutions (wudu‘). The Imam’s guidance also stressed the essential nature of the usul al-din—which do not change.

Below are selected quotes from Keshavjee’s doctoral dissertation that summarize Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah’s farmans to the Persian Ismailis in the early 1900s:

“Aga Khan III told his followers to give up aspects of the shari‘ah considered crucially important by the orthodox.” (Ch. I: p. 36)

“It is very clear that Aga Khan III in 1910 abolished the furu‘-i din of the shari‘ah—the so-called five pillars of orthodox Islam, in order to reinvigorate his legitimacy, close the ranks, and set in motion the dynamic elements in the doctrine of the batin.” (I:42-3)

“It was no longer meritorious for Ismailis to go to Mecca because God rather than his house was to be worshipped; they ceased praying in the orthodox manner and followed the prayers ordered by the Imam; they stopped performing the ritual ablution before prayers because true ablution was cleansing of the heart; they were not to observe the fast of Ramadan because the true fast was abstention, all year, from evil; the holy war was no longer to be fought literally because the greater war was within, against the nafs (lower self); and finally, all the recommendations, prescriptions and proscriptions to be followed were to be those issuing directly from the Imam. This is how they interpreted the furūʿ-i dīn—the auxiliaries of the faith. The usul-i din, the essentials of the faith, were unchanged—belief in the oneness of God, in the Prophet, in the Resurrection, in the Imamate, and in the justice of God.” (III:13)

“All those who followed the Aga Khan were to give up the furūʿ-i dīn, and all those who gave up the furūʿ-i dīn were thus followers of the Aga Khan. This firman from the Imam established the very criterion of identity for the Ismaili, and what is sociologically interesting is that the doctrine underpinning the abandonment of the furūʿ-i dīn was one which belonged to a theory of historical progression and of spiritual transformation.” (III:17)

“The Ismailis of Iran today still think in the light of their last great challenge to literalism, which took place in 1914, when they replaced the furūʿ-i dīn with an interiorized ethic and introduced major changes in ritual and social structure. They therefore view the Imam as one who, as Commander, maintains the truth by transforming the command to suit the age.” (III:71)

“It was also possible for missionaries, two young Iranian Ismailis and an Ismaili from India, to go around the villages saying that observing these orthodox rites was not the firman of the Imam… if the rights of the furūʿ-i dīn were not being observed, it was abundantly clear that it was only by virtue of the Imam’s firman. (IV:12-13)

Rafique Keshavjee, “The Quest for Gnosis and the Call of History: Modernization and the Ismailis of Iran,” Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University, May 1981)

Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah enacted the same changes in ritual practice for the Ismailis of Syria. These changes are documented by Dick Douwes in two articles titled “The Trials of the Syrian Ismailis” and “Modern History of the Nizari Ismailis in Syria.”

In 1890, the Syrian Ismailis were practicing the “five pillars” of Islam in their shari‘ah format (shahadah, salat, zakat, hajj, fasting). However, in 1895, Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah appointed a new Mukhi and sent him with a new farman to change the Syrian Ismaili rituals from shari‘ah to tariqah and thereby abrogate the requirement to fast in Ramadan.

Malise Ruthven summarized Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah’s farmans to the Syrian and Iranian Jamats as follows:

Changes were introduced in the areas of ritual. In Syria a new mukhi appointed by Aga Khan III in 1895 was instructed in Khoja doctrines and rituals and told to introduce them into Syria. Similar changes were introduced in Iran. Hajj and fasting were abandoned along with ritual ablutions before prayers: God, rather than his house, was to be worshipped; the true fast was year-round abstention from evil; true ablution was cleansing of the heart. Duties (‘ibadat) regarded as essential by other Muslims, such as Hajj and fasting, were defined as furu‘-i-din, auxiliaries of the faith. The usul-i din, the essentials of the faith were unchanged – belief in the oneness of God, in the Prophet, in the Resurrection, in the Imamate and in the justice of God.

Malise Ruthven, “Aga Khan III and Ismaili Renaissance”,
(Peter B. Clarke, ed., New Trends and Developments in the World of Islam. London: Luzac Oriental, 1998, 371–95: 382)

What kind of fasting is obligatory for Ismaili Muslims?

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah has explained in a well-known farman that the fasting of the haqiqati mu’min does not take place only in Ramadan but is performed on every day of the year:

“Life (duniya) is for two days; be mindful of becoming pure through performing ‘ibadat. A haqiqati mu’min does not fast only in the month of Ramadan, he fasts continuously for 360 days [i.e. year-round]. To not commit any bad deeds for three hundred and sixty days—this is the fast; to not hurt anyone—this is the fast. The fast is not to seal one’s mouth and not eat, while committing other sins and misdeeds. This is a fast of thought (khayal). Always be mindful of your thoughts. Be mindful so that no bad intention arises in your heart, so that no thought of envying someone enters your heart.”

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III,
(Mombasa, November 2, 1905; translated by Khudabux Talib)⁴

One imporant significance of the Imam’s farman that haqiqati mu’mins must fast and abstain from impure thoughts (khayal) lies in the fact that according to shari‘ah and fiqh-based interpretations of Islam, Muslims are not held accountable by God and not subject to divine punishment for having evil thoughts, but only evil actions. However, Ismaili Muslims must practice the far more difficult discipline of keeping the heart away from evil and impure thoughts for which they are held accountable. Therefore, if one is striving to perform the haqiqi fasting from impure thoughts all-year round, then one has already fulfilled the purpose of fasting in Ramadan. While the zahiri fasting of Ramadan restrains the animal soul from impure desires, the haqiqi fasting restrains the imaginal soul (nafs-i khayali) and the rational soul from impure thoughts and turns the human soul towards matters of the intellect.

The imaginal soul (nafs-i khayali) has an intermediary position between the animal soul and the human soul. It has one face [turned] towards sense perception and perceptibles (mahsusat), and another towards the intellect and intelligibles (ma‘qulat). If it unites with the animal soul, it will imagine through a bodily organ, become dependent on that organ, and deteriorate with the deterioration of [that organ]. But if it unites with the human soul, it can retain ideas without a bodily organ and be independent and detached from that bodily organ, becoming coeternal with the eternity of soul, and sharing in both felicity and misery of the soul.

Nasir al-Din Tusi, (The Paradise of Submission, 34)

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah further explained that the Prophet had ordered the zahiri fasting to discipline the body, but the spiritual or haqiqi fasting of the human soul is obligatory upon all Ismailis at all times:

The Noble Messenger gave the order (hukm) to keep the fast. The fast is meant to work the body. It is obligatory (wajib) to exercise taqiyyah so that others don’t speak ill behind your backs. For you haqiqatis it is necessary (lazim) to fast the whole year of three hundred and sixty days. This fast is:

1. To not speak lies

2. To not cheat anyone

3. To not speak ill behind anyone’s back

In this manner the haqiqi fast of three hundred and sixty days is obligatory (fard) for Ismailis.

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III,
(Mombasa, November 2, 1905; translated by Khudabux Talib. cf. Malise Ruthven, “Aga Khan III and the Isma‘ili Renaissance,” 390)⁵

The guidance of Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah that Ramadan fasting is no longer obligatory (along with other shari‘ah rituals) was understood throughout the Ismaili world. Writing in the 1950s, John Hollister reported that the Ismailis of Persia did not fast in Ramadan (The Shi‘a of India, 1953, 390). Brian H. Jones (Around Rakaposhi, 2010) describes living among Ismailis in Northern Pakistan and reports that most Ismailis in the region do not perform the fast in the month of Ramadan although they are careful to consume food and drink in secluded areas so as not to antagonize those who do observe this fast. Frank Bliss (Social and Economic Change in the Pamirs, 2006, 231) notes in his study of the Pamirs that the Pamiri Ismailis only physically fast for 3 days during the month of Ramadan and consider such fasting to serve no useful purpose while Sunnis fast exoterically for the entire month. Even in Syria, the Ismailis of Salamiyyah do not keep the exoteric fast of Ramadan.

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah was once asked by his own dentist, Dr. Hasan Nathoo, as to why his murids did not pray five times per day and why they did not keep zahiri fasts in the month of Ramadan. The Imam’s reply was conveyed by Dr. Hasan Nathoo in his memoirs:

In the matter of the Ismā‘īlīs praying only three times daily instead of five times and not keeping fasts (roza) generally in the month of Ramaḍān, [the Imam] told me two things: that in the Qur’an there was no specific mention of the number of daily namaz. It was only a tradition (sunnah); the other was that there was a hadith where the Holy Prophet had said that if during his lifetime the people of Arabia observed 90% of his injunctions, 10% would be forgiven. But after his death, if the followers observed even 10%, 90% would be forgiven. These hadiths are confirmed in a book on the life of the Prophet by Martin Lings which I read only recently. This hadith makes Islam the most liberal religion.”

Dr. Hasan E. Nathoo, (My Glorious Fortnight with Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, London, 1988)

Nizari Ismailis are far from the only Muslim group today that does not observe the Ramadan fasting as obligatory. The following Muslim groups, which include both Sunni and Shi‘i esoteric communities, do not view Ramadan fasting as a mandatory practice, but rather as optional, and many among them do not observe it:

• The Shi‘i Bektashi Alevis (Twelver Shi‘i): “Unlike the Orthodox Muslims, the Bektashis, Kizilbash, and Shabak do not fast during the month of Ramadan… If a Bektashi desires to fast throughout the month of Ramadan, he may do so; such fasting is considered a commendable human practice rather than a religious duty, however.” (Matti Mossa, Extremist Shiites, 121-22)

• The Nusayri-Alawis (Twelver Shi‘i): “The Nusayri Alawis take pride in celebrating the religious holidays of both Muslims and Christians. They do not fast during the month of Ramadan but they celebrate the feast at the end of the Ramadan.” (Jorgen Christensen-Ernst, Antioch on the Orontes, 147)

• The Ni‘matullahis (Twelver Shi‘i): “Not much else in the way of external observance of the shari‘a is required for Ni‘matullahi dervishes to practice; each dervish may or may not fast during Ramadan, depending on his or her own personal preference. This overriding tariqa emphasis is reflected by the fact that the term ‘Canon Law’ (shari‘a) does not actually occur in Dr Nurbakhsh’s published discourses. His conception of prayers and fasting exclusively stresses the significance of the inward requirements of these Islamic practices.” (Leonard Lewisohn, “Persian Sufism in the Contemporary West: Reflections on the Ni‘matullahi diaspora,” 53)

• The Ahl-i Haqq (Twelver Shi‘i): “The Ahl-i Ḥaqq neither observe Muslim religion such as daily prayers and fasting during the month of Ramadan, nor share Islamic theology and sacred space, such as belief in the day of resurrection and sanctity of the mosque. Instead they have their own sacred universe and their own rituals, which center on the jam‘ (lit., assembly).” (Ziba Mir-Hosseini, “Inner Truth and Outer History: The Two Worlds of the Ahl-i Haqq of Kurdistan,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May, 1994): 267-8)

• The Zikris (Sunni): “Zikris have their own daily prayers and do not fast during Ramadan. By the Zikris’ own self-estimation they are devout Muslims.” (Peter R. Blood, Pakistan: A Country Study, 115)

• The Baye Fall subgroup of the Muridiyya Tariqah (Sunni): “Since the Baye Fall see their main task as unconditional work for their Sheikh, especially during religious festivals and Ramadan, they observe neither the fast during Ramadan nor the five daily prayers.” (Gabriel Rosenthal et al, “Migrants from Senegal: Integrated in Religious, National and Multinational networks,” 32)

• Multiple Sunni Sufi groups in Southeast Asia documented by ‘Abd al-Samad al-Palimbani in the eighteenth century.

In conclusion: the ritual practices of Islam including prayer and fasting evolved according to the divine guidance of the Prophet. The Ismaili Imams, as the successors of Muhammad, have continued to update Islamic law and practice in accordance with changing times and the preservation of divine wisdom. Accordingly, the Imams have distinguished between the exoteric (zahiri) fasting of the body and the spiritual or haqiqi fasting of the human soul. In the present era, the contemporary Imams require all Ismaili Muslims to practice the haqiqi fasting of the heart consisting of abstention from impure thoughts and deeds for the entire year. Meanwhile, the exoteric fasting from food and drink in Ramadan is not obligatory (wajib) for Ismailis but a purely discretionary practice that murids may choose to practice based on their spiritual dispositions.

As for the month of Ramadan, Ismailis commemorate the month as a time of heightened spiritual awareness in common with other Muslim communities. Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah has urged all Ismaili Muslims to pray more and strive hard to remember God at every moment during this special month:

Now, we will give you a Farman about ‘ibadat. Always be worshipping God. This is Ramadan, so do lots of ‘ibadat. You should remember God every second, every hour—you should not forget Him. If you have forgotten and become negligent, then we are reminding you of the way to do ‘ibadat.

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III,
(Mumbai, April 27, 1891; translated by Khudabux Talib)⁶

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1. Farman No. 257 in Kalam-e Imam-e Mubin, Vol. 2, Mumbai: Ismailia Association for India, 1951, 84;

Ruhāni farajando koṇ chhe, tenī be bābato chhe; ek Mālevājabāt āpe, bījī bandagī kare yāne Duā paḍe. Majkur be bābato amārā dīn-maṃ vājab chhe agar e be bābato je pāḷto nathī te amāro murīd nathī.

2. Farman No. 581 in Kalam-e Imam-e Mubin, Vol. 2, Mumbai: Ismailia Association for India, 1951, 461;

Duā ane Mālevājabāt jenī barābar chhe te asal makāne joi shake chhe.

3. Farman delivered at Wadi Jamatkhana, Mumbai, March 16, 1902 in Manuscript HS0036 of Fatmabai binti Somji Kanji of Bagamoyo dated May 21, 1913 (Jeth 1, 1970 VS), The Heritage Society, 19-20;

Māra Ismāilī Dharam mā rojā rākhvā vājab nathī, vaḷī keṭlak sāt dīn rojā kare chhe tathā chālismuṃ pāḷe chhe, te vājab nathi… Momin rojā kevā rākhe ke āṅkh-nu roju, hāth-nu, modhā-nu, pag-nu, ane pachhī samjaṇ sikhe… Eva rojā rākhvā ke mārā sīvāy, Hāzar Imām sīvāy, bījā koine paṇ mānvu nahī, ne dīl sāf rākhvu, khoṭu bholvu nahī

મારા ઇસમાઇલી ધરમ મા રોજા રાખવા વાજબ નથી, વળી કેટલાક સાત દીન રોજા કરે છે તથા ચાલિસમું પાળે છે, તે વાજબ નથી…મોમિન રોજા કેવા રાખે કે આંખનુ રોજુ, હાથનુ, મોઢાનુ, પગનુ અને પછી સમજણ સિખે… એવા રોજા રાખવા કે મારા સીવાય, હાઝર ઈમામ સીવાય, બીજા કોઇને પણ માનવુ નહી, ને દીલ સાફ રાખવુ, ખોટુ બોલવુ નહી

4. Farman No. 65 in Kalam-e Imam-e Mubin, Vol. 1, Mumbai: Ismailia Association for India, 1950, 168;

Duniyā be divas-nī chhe, temāṃ ībādat karī-ne pāk banvāno khyāl rākho. Hakīkatī moman fakat Ramzān mahīnā-māṃ-j rojā rākhta nathī, teone to 360 divas hameshā rojā hoy chhe. Traṇso sāṭh divas-māṃ ek paṇ badkām na thāy e rozā chhe, koine ijā na karvī e roza chhe. E rozā nathī ke, moḍhuṃ bandh karīne nahiṃ khāvuṃ ane bījā gunhā-nā badkām karvā. Ā khyāl-nā rojā chhe. Hameṣhā khyāl rākhī vichār karvo. Evo khyāl rākhvo ke, tamārā dil-maṃ koī bad vichār utpatr thāy nahi, tem koi-no hasad karvāno khyāl dil-māṃ āve nahi.

5. Farman No. 128 in Kalam-e Imam-e Mubin, Vol. 1, Mumbai: Ismailia Association for India, 1950, 292;

Rozā rākhvā māṭe paygambar sāhebe hukam farmāvyo chhe. Rozā badan-ne mahenat āpvā māṭe chhe. Takīo rākhvo vājab chhe. jethī bījāo gībat na kare. Ākhī sāl-nā traṇso-ne sāṭh rojā tamo hakīkatīo upar lājam chhe. Ē rojā e chhe ke:

1. Juṭhuṃ na bolvuṃ

2. Dagābājī na karvī

3. Koīnī gībat na karvī

Āvī rītna 360 traṇso ne sāṭh hakīkī rojā-nī Īsmāilīo māthe faraj chhe.

6. Farman No. 7 in Kalam-e Imam-e Mubin, Vol. 1, Mumbai: Ismailia Association for India, 1950, 23;

Have ame tamane ībādat-nuṃ Farmān karīe chhīe. Hameshā Khudā-nī ībādat karjo. Ā Ramzān-māṃ paṇ ghaṇī ībādat karjo. Har-paḷ, har sāyat Khudā-ne yād karvā joie, bhulī javā joie nahi. Agar tame bhulī gayā ho, ane gāfal thai gaya ho, to ame tamane yād āpīe chhīe ke kevī rīte ībādat karvi.