Imam Shah Karim's Funeral: Ta'wil of Quranic Verse on Returning to Allah
Ismaili Esoteric Interpretations on the Spiritual Meaning of Belonging and Returning to God
Our beloved 49th hereditary Imam has passed away physically from this world. This weekend, the global Ismaili Jamat will witness the funeral of Mawlana Shah Karim al-Husayni⁽ᶜ⁾. The funeral ceremonies include the recitation of the following Qur’anic verses:
We shall surely test you with some measure of fear and hunger, and with a loss of your possessions, lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the patient ones.
To those who, when a calamity strikes, Say: ‘Indeed, To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.’
It is they who receive the blessings and mercy from their Lord and it is they who are the [rightly] guided.
Holy Qur’an 2:155-157
In what follows, we present the Ismaili esoteric understanding or ta’wil of the above verses and specifically the verse: Innā li’llāhi wa-innā ilayhi rāji‘ūn (We belong to Allah and unto Him we are Returning).
It must be appreciated by the Ismaili Jamat worldwide, that the funeral ceremonies including Qur’anic recitation are not conducted for the spiritual benefit of the Imam’s departed soul. Our twenty-third Imam, Mawlana Hasan ‘ala dhikrihi al-salaam has taught: “An Imam is always an Imam and always perfect” (Nasir al-Din Tusi, Rawda-yi Taslim transl. S.J. Badakhchani, Paradise of Submission, p. 125). The Imam being perfect means that he is sinless, his soul possesses the perfect virtues, and his knowledge of God’s guidance and spiritual mysteries is always complete.
The soul of Mawlana Shah Karim al-Husayni⁽ᶜ⁾ is and remains the bearer of the eternal Nur of Imamat, even after his physical departure from this world. The Imam’s soul is always pure, always perfect, and always at peace, no matter the worldly circumstances and physical difficulties the Imam has endured.
Rather, every murid must recognize that we only recite funeral prayers and Qur’anic verses such as Innā li’llāhi wa-innā ilayhi rāji‘ūn (We belong to Allah and unto Him we are Returning) for the sake of our own spiritual upliftment and in order to allow our souls to receive Allah’s blessings in the form of divine support (ta’yid) and knowledge from the Imam of the Time.
According to Ismaili philosophical principles, the final “return to God” of all human souls actually refers to the return of all souls to the Universal Intellect, which is called the “Nur of Imamat”. The Nur of Imamat is the first and most perfect creation of God.
“The return of humankind is to the [Universal] Intellect and the judgment (reckoning) of the human being has become necessary because of the Intellect. Do you not realize that there is no reckoning (judgment) promised for other animals who lack a share of the intellect? The [Universal] Soul is the effect of the [Universal] Intellect and the subsistence of every effect is due to its own cause. The subsistence of the particular souls is through the Universal Soul. Thus, the particular souls must return to their Universal [Soul] and that Universal [Soul] must return to the [Universal] Intellect because of whom it [i.e., the Universal Soul] exists. As God said: ‘Verily, to Us is their return and upon Us is their reckoning’ (Qur’an 88:25-26).”
Nasir-i Khusraw, (Zad al-Musafir, Tehran: Miras-i Maktub 2015, 177-178)
The pure souls of the Holy Imams, including the souls of our beloved 49th Imam Mawlana Shah Karim al-Husayni⁽ᶜ⁾ and his successor, our 50th Imam Mawlana Shah Rahim al-Husayni⁽ᶜ⁾, are always spiritually united with the Nur of Imamat at all times and in every state. The Imams’ perfect souls are like many polished mirrors constantly illuminated by the same light and reflecting it within the world. This principle must be kept in mind as the global Jamat observes the funeral ceremonies.
Ta’wil of 2:156: Reciting Innā li’llāhi wa-Innā ilayhi Rāji‘ūn
According to Hakim Nasir-i Khusraw’s explanation below, a believer can and should recite these words, Innā li’llāhi wa-innā ilayhi rāji‘ūn (We belong to Allah and unto Him we are Returning), as a prayer, when faced with physical or spiritual difficulties as a means of seeking guidance from the Imam of the Time. By reciting and believing in these Qur’anic words, one may be blessed with a sense of understanding and inner knowing of what to do when faced with various difficulties. In other words, one can use these words in the form of a prayer, or zikr (remembrance) with the belief that today, the true way of “returning to God” is by turning towards the Imam of the time who Allah has established, and by seeking spiritual (ruhani) and intellectual (‘aqlani) help or support (ta’yid) from him. In this way, and by remaining patient, one may find the answer or solution to difficult questions, issues, or uncertainties from within oneself, or else, the Imam may send, with God’s permission and grace, someone to help the person in their time of difficulty or darkness.
Hakim Nasir-i Khusraw on the Ta’wīl of Innā li’llāhi wa-Innā ilayhi Rāji‘ūn
We say, by the grace of God, may He be exalted, that it is incumbent upon people to say these words when a physical calamities befall them and when they are confronted with difficult tasks. As God, may He be exalted, says: “Who say, when a misfortune strikes them: Lo! We belong to Allah and unto Him we are returning” (2:156). The Arabs describe the difficult tasks as the darkness of night, because no task is more difficult than one from which people cannot see a way of escape. That difficult situation is darkness.
Darkness is of two kinds, physical and spiritual. Physical darkness is due to the night and physical calamities (kārhā-yi bī-sāmān). Spiritual darkness however, is ignorance and the intractable questions concerning the intelligibles. Dispelling these two darknesses, we have described, comes from God through the mediation of two lights. One is the sun that dispels the physical darkness and the other is the Imam of the time who, as the sun of insight for spiritual darknesses, unravels difficult knots. When people are overcome by physical darkness and difficulty, they must submit to the decree of God, be pleased with whatever has been decreed and say: ‘We belong to Allah and unto Him we are returning.’ That is, we belong to Allah, accept what He has decreed and return to Him if any physical calamity befalls us whereby we perish physically.
In ta’wīl, when the believers face a difficult question regarding the intelligibles that they cannot solve, they must recite these same words in the sense: ‘Our souls belong to the lord of the time [the Imam], as we have received spiritual life from him and our return during difficulties is unto him’, and know that ‘we cannot solve this question and the knowledge of this is with the lord of the time [the Imam]’, so that the door of blessings may open for them. Either they themselves may be able to understand it, or a ḥadd [“hierarch”; a knower who possess a rank of knowledge] from the ḥadds of religion [ḥudūd-i dīn] may open the door of spiritual blessings for them.
If those difficulties befall a ḥadd [hierarch] from among the ḥadds of religion, he should seek the source (māddat) of ta’yīd [spiritual support] from the lord of the time [the Imam], peace be upon him. By uttering these words he may himself strive so that the hidden [knowledge] may become manifest to him. If it does not manifest, he should know that this is due to his own weakness and affirm that the one who knows such spiritual difficulties is worthy of the people returning to him. This is a satisfactory explanation for a sincere believer. Peace!
Ḥakīm Nāṣir-i Khusraw, Wajh-i Dīn, Discourse 49, trans. by Faquir M. Hunzai in An Anthology of Ismaili Literature: A Shi‘i Vision of Islam, edited by Hermann Landolt, Samira Sheikh & Kutub Kassam, 207.
‘Allamah Hunzai’s Ta’wili Writings on 2:155-157:
“And We will most certainly try you with something of fear and hunger and loss of property and lives and fruits; and give glad tidings to the patient, who, when a misfortune befalls them, say: Surely we belong to God and we have to return to Him. These are they on whom are blessings and mercy from their Lord, and these are the rightly guided” (2:155-157).
God, the most Just of judges, tries Muslims by five kinds of tests, which can happen to every mu’min individually. Among these, first is mentioned the test of fear. Fear has four places: Wakefulness, i.e., external world, imagination, dream and spirituality, and at every place there are many kinds of fear. Thus God can test any of His servants with whatever kind of fear He wants. The bliss for mu’mins lies in that they should remain patient and grateful to God in any of the above-mentioned calamities, and say in the light of knowledge and wisdom: “We belong to God, therefore, we return to Him not only after death, but also in every trial of this life with heart and soul”, so that the Prophet⁽ˢ⁾ may give glad tidings to them, as God commands him in this Qur’ānic teaching: “And give glad tidings!”
‘Allāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai, Kitāb-i Ilāj, trans. by Faquir Muhammad Hunzai, Rashida Noormohamed-Hunzai as Book of Healing, 240-241.
Study verses (2:155-157), which are as follows: “And surely We will try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the steadfast who say, when a misfortune strikes them: Indeed, we belong to God and indeed unto Him we are returning. Such are they on whom are blessings from their Sustainer, and mercy. Such are the rightly guided.” This is the description of spiritual pain. It is known that the animal soul, which used to be like an intractable horse, has now become silent and abandoned its intractability due to pain, i.e., affliction. In such a state, a wise mu’min remembers God abundantly and successfully so that, in word and deed, he may prove himself to be the servant of God and he has to have recourse to Him both in this life and in the Hereafter.
Qur’ānic meanings first concern the stages of spirituality and then they comprise the physical condition too. Thus, since the physical aspect of the above-mentioned trials are known to all, I would like to explain briefly their spiritual aspect. That is, sometimes in dreams and spirituality, fear is imposed upon darwīshes, which is an excellent means of mortification. Hunger means to have an acute feeling of the scarcity of spiritual foods; loss of wealth means that a fortunate mu’min severely feels the shortage of his knowledge; the loss of lives means that a wise mu’min laments the difference between the real status and the present status of his soul and the loss of fruits means that the rain of Divine help sometimes continues to pour and sometimes stops. Here, by patience is meant to be steadfast in spiritual calamities and trials and progress further. The glad tidings are personal and practical, and are heard in different forms of dreams and spirituality.
As death is the physical loss of life, in the same way, the spiritual loss of life is the death which occurs to a fortunate sālik [spiritual wayfarer] before physical death. However, in reality, there is loss in neither of them, rather, it is a wisdom-filled description according to the ẓāhir or exoteric aspect (of the Qur’ān). Thus, the order of the description is extremely wisdom-filled in that first is fear, then spiritual hunger, then loss of wealth, then spiritual death, then the rain of spiritual fruits and then its cessation, then blessing, then mercy and finally guidance, namely, to reach the final destination or to merge in the origin.
‘Allāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai, Kitāb-i Ilāj, trans. by Faquir Muhammad Hunzai, Rashida Noormohamed-Hunzai as Book of Healing, 411-413.
Ḥazrat Mawlānā Imām Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh has emphatically drawn attention to the blessed verse of “istirjā‘” (i.e. to say innā li’llāhi wa-innā ilayhi rāji‘ūn). In this connection the three verses are: “We shall surely try you with something of fear, and hunger, and loss of wealth, and lives and fruits: and give glad tidings to the patient ones, who when misfortune befalls them say: ‘Verily, we are Allāh’s and to Him we return’. Those are they on whom are blessings and mercy from their Lord, and they are those who are rightly guided” (2:155-157).
Wisdom 1. For every mu’min with high ambition, every trial is beneficial for the soul, for there is no ascension or elevation without trial.
Wisdom 2. According to God, the important trials which were necessary for extremely fruitful results were only these ones.
Wisdom 3. Fear is a state of the heart in which the soul abandons all worldly thoughts and adopts a humble and pitiable form. In such a condition man pays complete attention towards God.
Wisdom 4. The animal soul is reformed by hunger.
Wisdom 5. By loss of wealth and lives, a state of brokenness and annihilation pervades the heart.
Wisdom 6. By loss of fruits is meant the loss of spirituality.
In short, all these states help one to return to God both temporarily and permanently provided there is religious awareness.
Wisdom 7. Istirjā‘ means to say “Verily, we belong to Allāh and to Him is our return.” But it is necessary to know that by this is meant that the original abode of man is the Divine Presence. He has come here by descending the ladder of God and is to return to the ocean of His light by ascending it.
‘Allāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai, Mīwah-yi Bihisht, trans. by Faquir Muhammad Hunzai, Rashida Noormohamed-Hunzai as Fruit of Paradise, 54-55.
A true mu’min should also know that in addition to fixed special and general times there are sometimes special occasions in which it is important to increase the zikr more and more. Thus when God wants to try mu’min servants by afflicting them with a calamity, the wise mu’mins are availed a special opportunity which they should not lose. For, according to Qur’ānic guidance there are three things hidden in every calamity, which are: blessing, mercy and guidance from God and which are available to those patient ones who say: “Verily! We belong to God and to Him we are returning” (2:155-7) and then continue His remembrance.
It is known to everyone that the most powerful and cunning enemy of religion is our own carnal soul, which continues to create numerous obstacles in every good deed, particularly in Divine remembrance and worship, and which never tires from hostility, enmity and evil attempts at which it mostly succeeds. However, there are certain special occasions, during which mu’mins may easily subdue their carnal soul. These occasions are the times of calamities and afflictions, in which the carnal soul is left despondent and helpless in the state of affliction. Thus on such occasions, Divine remembrance and worship can subjugate and trample the carnal soul and can reach a further stage.
Another golden occasion to subdue the carnal soul is to listen to conversation of true knowledge and Divine love, in which the mu’min’s spirit of faith and intellect becomes happy, delighted, and powerful. At such a time, the carnal soul’s control loosens and becomes weak. On such an occasion success is achieved by continuing zikr for some time.
‘Allāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai, Zikr-i Ilālī, trans. by Faquir Muhammad Hunzai, Rashida Noormohamed-Hunzai as Divine Remembrance, 49.
Human Soul and the Crucible of Tribulations
In Paradise of Submission, Ismaili da‘is Nasir al-Din Tusi and Hasan-i Mahmud write:
All these calamities, misfortunes, disasters and mishaps, if seen from the angle of reality, are but forms of God’s all-embracing mercy, so that people in this world will not be overtaken with hubris, nor become afflicted with pride by the ridiculous vanities and garish ornaments of the deceitful devil in this perishable abode. It is by such [calamities] that arrogance, the spirit of rebellion, pride, sin and self-forgetfulness do not gain mastery over them, and it is through the descent [of such misfortunes] that they do not turn away from God Almighty thus falling into the infernal abyss of satanic passions and desires.
If people in this world were not seized by poverty and destitution, they would never conceive the idea of adopting a profession or a craft in order to obtain their livelihood; they would not subject bodies and souls to pains, and no worldly intelligence (‘aql-i ma‘īshatī) would ever be perfected. And if life’s vicissitudes were not there to polish the soul – according to the saying, ‘God be praised who has made misfortune to be the polisher of the free-born’ – no intelligence of the Resurrection and the Hereafter (‘aql-i qiyamātī-yi ākhiratī) would ever evolve from potentiality to actuality.
God Almighty bestows good health upon his creatures so that, by possessing physical well being, they may apprehend and contemplate His bounties and blessings and take their daily bread and allotted sustenance from the good provision that He has granted them, and so that they can occupy themselves with His works, performing their duty in the path of God Almighty, rendering praise and giving thanks unto Him – may His Name be magnified!
He sends illness upon them so that their sins may be expiated, and that through the entreaties and supplications that they make to His august sublime presence (janāb-i ‘izzat-i ṣamadiyyat), the burden of their errors and iniquities might be made lighter, and so that the inclination of their souls towards repentance and contrition, and their offering of thanks and praise to Him – Exalted be His Name – might increase, and also that the extent of their reliance upon God and certitude in God might be amplified. . . .
As for the enduring of misfortunes, calamities, hardships and adversity, there is a great difference between someone who has no choice in the face of these troubles and someone who does. For it is not so surprising that when someone who has no choice whatsoever between two activities, one of which is extremely easy and the other extremely difficult, he demonstrates endurance in the face of hardship. It is otherwise for someone who is able to exercise his free will (ikhtiyār) regarding these two conditions [by choosing the difficult task].
One of the extraordinary aspects of man’s patience before adversity and his endurance of misfortune is that the greater his misfortune and the more hurtful the calamity which afflicts him, the stronger becomes his faith in God Almighty and his certainty that therein lies his salvation in both worlds. The substance of his soul melts in the crucible of tribulation, so that all impurities and deficiencies disappear, all his dross is consumed away in the fire, and he is left like refined and purified gold.
Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī (with Ḥasan-i Mahmūd), Rawḍa-yi Taslīm, trans by S.J. Badakhchani as Paradise of Submission: A Medieval Treatise on Ismaili Thought, 167-168.
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I enjoyed how this article beautifully explores the significance of funeral rites in the Ismaili tradition, balancing history, spirituality, and community. The discussion on tradition and modernity is particularly insightful, making complex concepts accessible. The emphasis on communal mourning highlights the deep connections within the faith. It’s a thoughtful piece that not only informs but also encourages reflection on the deeper meaning of rituals. A valuable article during this time. Thank you.
@Karim Suleman - Imam Ali (A.S), chose to lie in the bed of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to protect him from those seeking to harm him. When the enemies came to kill the Prophet (SAW), and they asked where is Muhammad (SAW). At this time, Mowla Ali (AS) responded, "You did not entrust Muhammad to me," rather than saying that the Prophet (SAW) had migrated to Mecca. The Imam of the Time is responsible to protect his progeny - the world only knows when Imam-e-Zaman wishes. Ya Ali Madad.