The Doctrine of Taʾwīl in Fatimid Ismaili Texts
Book Chapter in "Reason, Esotericism, and Authority in Shiʿi Islam"
“Aside from the advocacy of the particular line of imams and the sacred line-age at the base of this dynasty, the area of doctrine most characteristic of the Fatimid Ismailis concerns various notions of esoteric interpretation of scripture and religious law, all of which might be subsumed under the single Arabic term ta ʾwīl. Although often translated appropriately as “allegorical interpretation,” the range of what this word could mean, especially in the Ismaili context is far wider. Normally ta ʾwīl deals with two classes of verses in the Qurʾan, those that are admittedly ambiguous and those of fixed meaning. In Ismailism that distinction is only a beginning leading much further afield. The appeal (daʿwa) spread on their behalf insisted on the all-important distinction between the outward, literal, plain wording (the ẓāhir) of revelation and its inner, less-than-obvious meaning (the bāṭin). The latter component could and often was conceived of as an esoteric dimension, hardly accessible to ordinary worshippers because it was either difficult to find and understand or was beyond the intellectual reach of those who have failed to accept and join the system that conveys it. Commencing with the issue of Qurʾanic verses, the authorities writing for the daʿwa could and did explore ways of uncovering the esoteric dimensions of, not only scriptures, but of the very structures of the natural world, with seemingly the whole of scientific investigation brought into play. A ta ʾwīl might operate on the most mundane of objects as well as the most sacred of texts” (Paul Walker)
Author: Dr. Paul E. Walker
Link to Chapter: Reason, Esotericism, and Authority in Shiʿi Islam