The Living Words of God: Al-Mu'ayyad al-Shirazi's Shi'i Ismaili Theory of Revelation
Journal Article: Global Intellectual History
Abstract: This is a study of the Qurʾanic revelation theology of al-Muʾayyad fī l-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 470/1078), the highest-ranking Fatimid dāʿī and Ismaili philosophical theologian of his era. Al-Muʾayyad's theory of Qurʾanic revelation features the following distinctive elements: (1) he distinguishes three levels of God's speech to challenge the views of Sunnī kalām; (2) he reinterprets the popular belief of the Qurʾān's pre-existence in the Guarded Tablet through Ismaili Neoplatonic thought to posit the Universal Intellect and Universal Soul as Revelatory Principles; (3) he argues for the nonverbal and spiritual nature of divine inspiration (waḥy) granted to the Prophets and situates the Prophet Muhammad as the actual composer of the words of the Qurʾān; (4) he defends the literary inimitability of the Arabic Qurʾān while denying the existence of miracles in the physical world; (5) he posits two earthly manifestations of Qurʾanic revelation – the Silent Scripture (the Qurʾān as a recited text) and the Speaking Scripture (the Imam of the time); (6) he situates Ismaili Qurʾanic hermeneutics known as taʾwīl as a revelatory exegesis that decodes the symbolic meaning behind the Qurʾān and facilitates the spiritual reintegration of the believer's soul to the celestial words of God in the spiritual world.
Author: Dr. Khalil Andani
Link to Paper: Global Intellectual History