Qiyama (Nizari Isma'ilism)

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In Nizārī Ismāʿīlism, the qiyāma (Arabic: قيامة, “resurrection”) was ceremoniously proclaimed at the mountain fortress of Alamūt in 1164 CE by the Nizārī imām Ḥasan ʿAlā Dhikrihi al-Salām (Ḥasan II). According to standard narratives of Islamic eschatology, the Yawm al-Qiyāmah (“the Day of Resurrection”) is to take place at the end of time, at which point people will be called to account for their actions, and then be rewarded or punished accordingly. The Nizārī proclamation of qiyāma, however, is distinct in that it takes place within history, and, as such, assumes a special significance.

Proclamation[]

On 8 August 1164, Ḥasan II assembled a public gathering at the fortress of Alamūt in order to deliver a message from the imām, who was believed to be in hiding at the time. At this ceremony, Ḥasan II announced that the community had arrived at the time of qiyāma, and that he himself had been designated as the imām’s khalīfa.^[1] Similar ceremonies were held at the and the Masyaf Castle to promulgate the abrigation in Quhistan and Syria, respectively.

In October 1164, Ḥasan II once again assembled a public gathering at Alamūt and to proclaim the qiyāma, however this time Ḥasan II identified himself as God's khalīfa, in effect designating himself as the imām and qāʾim ("resurrector").^[2] As such, Ḥasan II became the first openly manifest imām in the Nizārī period.

Meaning in Nizārī Ismāʿīlism[]

According to Farhad Daftary:

Relying heavily on Ismaili taʾwīl or esoteric exegesis, and drawing on earlier Ismaili teachings and traditions, however, the qiyāma was interpreted symbolically and spiritually for the living Nizārīs. It, in fact, meant nothing more than the manifestation of unveiled truth (ḥaqīqa) in the person of the Nizārī Ismaili imam. And as such, it was a spiritual resurrection reserved exclusively for Nizārīs wherever they existed. In other words, those who acknowledged the Nizārī imam were now capable of understanding the truth, or the esoteric essence of religion, and, therefore, Paradise was actualised for them in this very corporeal world.^[3]

The "symbolic" and "spiritual" interpretation of qiyāma relates to the dialectic of the ẓāhir ("outward" or "exoteric") and the bāṭin ("inward" or "esoteric"), concepts that are fundamental to Ismāʿīlī doctrinal thought. In terms of religious belief and practice, this meant that the sharīʿa ("religious law"), and the associated practices of taqiyya ("religious dissimulation"), had been abrograted to accommodate the ḥaqīqa ("divine truth"). As Marshall Hodgson explains:

The end of the rule of taqiyya followed naturally from the coming of the Qâʾim, whose manifest and universal power would make taqiyya unnecessary for the protection of the faithful. But its meaning here was no longer simply the guarding of the inner religious truth of the mission of ʿAlî from prying Sunnî eyes. All those outer forms which the Shîʿa shared more or less with the Sunnîs had come to be lumped together in popular Ismâʿîlî consciousness as being enforced by taqiyya. In the Qiyâma now the learned Ismâʿîlî tradition, in the person of Ḥasan II, was indirectly admitting the validity of their notion. The lifting of taqiyya was made to involve the rejection of all the outer ritual law. The imâm was now of his mercy granting permission to live without cult, in the spirit alone, which he had formerly forbidden. The end of the sharîʿa could conceivably have been presented as itself a natural consequence of the Resurrection—and no doubt it was so taken in part: there will be no laws in Paradise.^[4]

References[]